Messengers of Evil Read online

  IX

  FINGER PRINTS

  After having interrogated all the witnesses of last night's tragedy hecould get into touch with, Jerome Fandor returned to the Palais deJustice.

  "All the same," he confessed to himself, "I must admit that, up to thepresent, I do not know anything very definite about it. This PrincessSonia Danidoff has managed to get robbed in a most extraordinary way. Atone o'clock in the morning, Havard declares that the thief can be noneother than one of the guests, and thereupon every person present has tosubmit to being searched--an exhaustive search! Nothing comes of it.Then Bertillon arrives on the scene, and it seems he has obtained verydistinct imprints of finger marks. If they are as distinct as all that,the task of the police will be simplified; but, on the other hand, is itlikely the guilty person will be so simple as to respond to the summonsissued by the Public Prosecutor, a general summons issued to allThomery's guests to parade in Bertillon's office for the finger-marktest?... Not he! Why the moment he heard of it he would make for thetrain and pass the frontier!"

  When his cab arrived at the Palais, Fandor uttered a big sigh ofsatisfaction:

  "There are a good many things I am not clear about: let us hopeBertillon will give me some information."

  The entrance to the anthropometric department was under the discreetobservation of two detectives:

  "Oh," thought Fandor. "They think it probable there will be an immediatearrest, do they? We are going to have some complications, I foresee, inconnection with the finger-mark ceremony!"

  He sent in his card and a few minutes after he found himself in thepresence of Monsieur Bertillon.

  "Well, what is it you want me to tell you?" asked this famous man ofscience.

  "Why, dear master, everything that took place last night! Is it truethat you have summoned here all Thomery's guests?... Have you obtainedsuch perfect reprints that, in your hasty examination, you can becertain of identifying them with those of the persons who will passthrough your office to undergo the test?"

  Bertillon smiled:

  "Oh, my dear fellow, you are of those who do not put much faith in theresults of my tests for police purposes! That, let me tell you, isbecause you are not acquainted with our procedure. The impressions Iobtained are distinct--precise as can be; if an arrest is made beforelong it will be made on sure grounds."

  Fandor bowed:

  "I accept your statement, dear master!... But, do be kind enough to tellme what happened after my departure?"

  "Oh, nothing very extraordinary.... Of course you know about theaffair--how the Princess Sonia Danidoff was discovered?..."

  "What I know is that Thomery found one of his guests, Princess SoniaDanidoff, in a dead faint in a small drawing-room; that Dr. Du Marvierdeclared she had been rendered unconscious; that the theft of a pearlnecklace worn by the victim had been the motive of this criminalattempt; that Monsieur Havard, called in at once, first made sure thatno one had left the house, and then had everyone on the premisessearched ... and that is really all I know about it!"

  "Well, Havard did not find anything!"

  "No one was caught with compromising jewels in their possession. Thelast guest gone, the house searched from top to bottom, not a singlepearl had been found.... I arrived just when the investigations hadterminated: at the moment when they were about to take the Princesshome. She had regained consciousness by this time and declared she knewnothing except that she had fallen asleep after using a perfume sprayer.This has been seized and chloroform has been found in it; but no oneseems to know who filled the sprayer with this stupefying perfume."

  "Did Monsieur Havard send for you?"

  "Yes, he telephoned. You know, of course, that I am always asked tointervene now in any ticklish affair!... Well Dr. Du Marvier, an expertin his way, noticed that the Princess had been half strangled by thethief in his haste to secure the pearl collar, and he wished me tosearch for finger prints on the nape of the victim's neck--to discoverthe assassin's signature in fact."

  "And there were some?"

  "A quantity. The Princess had been slightly wounded in the nape of theneck ... blood had been pressed on to the skin of her neck, and it waseasy to take a cast of one of the fingers."

  "Was that sufficient?"

  "Yes, and no; such an impression is something; but there is better thanthat! The thief must have given the neck a violent squeeze with hishands, consequently there is a complete impression of the hand ... thatI had to get...."

  Fandor instinctively put his hand to his neck as if he were squeezingit. He said:

  "Are such impressions imperceptible?"

  "Yes; to the eye, but not to the photographing apparatus. It isthoroughly established that the pattern formed by the innumerable lineswhich furrow the fleshy part of our fingers is as peculiarlycharacteristic of each individual as the form of his nose, of his ears,or the colour of his eyes. The curves or rings, the various forms takenby these lines already exist in the newly born and never change to theday of his death. Even in case of a burn, if the skin grows again, theridges reappear exactly as they were before the accident. Look you, onecan obtain by this method--this test--such results as you would neverdream of. For example, by taking these imprints I obtained in the earlyhours of to-day, as a basis, I can tell you, with almost absoluteaccuracy, the height of the individual...."

  "This is marvellous!" cried Fandor. "The service your department rendersthen is to abolish legal blunders?"

  "That is so. Every individual identified, is identified plainly,irrefutably. Unfortunately, we cannot always obtain perfect imprints onthe spot where the crime is committed."

  "But this night?"

  "Ah, as I told you, the impressions were most satisfactory. I have thethief's hand--the whole of it! I will even go so far as to declare thatthe fellow who committed the crime has already been through my hands. Irecognise that hand! You shall see, whether or no I have made amistake!"...

  Bertillon pressed a bell, and asked the official who answered it:

  "Have you identified the imprints I sent you just now?"

  "Yes, sir. This man has already been measured here. It is register9200."

  Bertillon turned to Fandor:

  "You see, I was not mistaken! All I have to do is to turn up myalphabetical index, and for this very month, for the number is a recentone, and I shall know the name of the old offender--he must be one, ashe is catalogued here--who has committed this assault."

  Whilst speaking, Monsieur Bertillon was turning over the leaves of anenormous register:

  "Ah! Here is the 9200 series!..."

  Suddenly the book slipped from his hands, and he exclaimed: "The guiltyman is ..."

  "Is who?" questioned Fandor.

  "Is Jacques Dollon!... The hand that has robbed Princess Sonia Danidoffis the hand of Jacques Dollon!"

  "But it is impossible!"

  Bertillon shrugged his shoulders.

  "Impossible?... Why, since the proof of it is there?"

  "But Jacques Dollon is dead!"

  "He was the thief of yesterday's crime."

  "You are making a mistake!..."

  "I am not making a mistake!... Jacques Dollon is the thief I tell you!"

  This was too much for Jerome Fandor: he could not contain himself.

  "And I tell you, Monsieur Bertillon, that I know that I amcertain--positively certain, that Jacques Dollon is dead!... Now,then!..."

  The man of science shook his head.

  "I, in my turn, say, you are making a mistake! Look at the two imprintsI have here! That of Jacques Dollon taken a few days ago, and this madefrom the impressions obtained this very night, or, to be exact, in theearly morning hours of to-day! They are identical--one can be exactlysuperposed on the other!..."

  "Coincidence!"

  "There is no such coincidence possible--besides"--Monsieur Bertillontook up a powerful magnifying glass--"look at these characteristicdetails!... Just look at the lines of the thumb, all out of shape!...The presentment of the thumb itsel
f is not normal either; it denoteshabitual movement in a certain direction: it is the thumb of a painter,of a potter!... Oh, it is all as clear as daylight--believe me--there isno doubt about it! Jacques Dollon is the guilty person!"

  "But," repeated Fandor obstinately: "Jacques Dollon is dead! I swear toyou he is dead!..."

  This assertion made no impression on the man of science.

  "As to whether Jacques Dollon is alive or dead--that is for the policeto decide!... For my part, I can declare that the man who committed thetheft yesterday evening is the identical man who passed through my handssome days ago--and that man is certainly Jacques Dollon!"

  * * * * *

  Jerome Fandor left Monsieur Bertillon. The young journalist wasperplexed.... If the finger-prints on the neck of Princess SoniaDanidoff were, beyond dispute, those of Jacques Dollon--then the mysterysurrounding this affair, and not this affair only, but a series ofincidents, so far from being cleared up, was more impenetrable thanever!

  But Fandor was obsessed by the idea of Fantomas, of Fantomas in thedepths of mystery, presiding over this series of dramatic occurrences.

  "Yes, Fantomas is certainly in this!" he cried.... But Dollon has lefttraces of himself here--has, as it were, put his signature, hisidentification mark to this crime!... But Dollon is not Fantomas ...besides Dollon is dead!... I have proofs of it--yes, he is dead!... Wellthen?...

  What to make of it?

  Fandor could not make anything of it!