"And, of course," he finished, "these clues must also provide precisely
the correct amount of information so that the motive of the criminal is
not only fulfilled, but exposed--if not to one of the characters in the
book, at least to the reader."
* * * * *
Mr. Wood relaxed and sipped his own drink. From somewhere aloft,
a number of individually insignificant traces added up to fairly
reliable evidence that Florence and Mrs. Wood were about to return. I
gathered that the cross-questioning had allayed any parental suspicion.
I said, "One thing you haven't mentioned," and paused for effect. "To
the Hindu, 'perfection' means the inclusion of an almost imperceptible
flaw so that its maker cannot be accused of presuming to be as good as
God. Is your 'perfect crime' to be perfect in the eyes of the criminal,
or in the eyes of the police?"
He said, "Ah, Captain Schnell, that is indeed one of my bothersome
problems."
Mrs. Wood came into the room, followed by Florence. The girl had lost
the soaked-gamin look. She was transformed by modern alchemy into
a poised young woman who forced me to revise my estimated eighteen
several years upward. She nodded affably at her father, smiled at me
and then came over because she noticed that my highball glass was empty.
I thanked her, and she smiled wide and bright as she asked, "Has Daddy
been giving you the details of his impossible bandit?"
"Well, in a way."
Mr. Wood said, "I'm sort of like the standard television
father--incapable of adding two and two without the close supervision
of the female members of my family."
"I--that is, we--keep telling Daddy he should hire Superman for a hero."
"You've changed," chuckled Mr. Wood.
"Changed?"
"Yesterday you advocated that I hire a detective with telepathy and a
sense of perception."
"We discussed it on the way home," said Florence.
"Superman?" I asked.
"No, this extra-sensory business," said Florence.
Mr. Wood inquired, "Are you interested in parapsychology, Captain
Schnell?"
"I've been interested in the subject for a good many years," I answered.
"Would the public accept it, I wonder," he mused.