"I told you, Barron," he whispered, "that there was more to this
case than you imagined. Unwittingly you brought me a very
important contribution to a case of which the papers are full this
morning, the case of the murdered actress, Blanche Blaisdell."




IV

THE BEAUTY SHOP


It was only after a few hours that Kennedy thought it wise to try
to question the poor girl at the hospital. Her story was simple
enough in itself, but it certainly complicated matters
considerably without throwing much light on the case. She had been
busy because her day was full, and she had yet to dress the hair
of Miss Blaisdell for her play that night. Several times she had
been interrupted by impatient messages from the actress in her
little dressing-booth, and one of the girls had already demolished
the previous hair-dressing in order to save time. Once Agnes had
run down for a few seconds to reassure her that she would be
through in time.

She had found the actress reading a newspaper, and when Kennedy
questioned her she remembered seeing a note lying on the dresser.
"Agnes," Miss Blaisdell had said, "will you go into the writing-
room and bring me some paper, a pen, and ink? I don't want to go
in there this way. There's a dear good girl." Agnes had gone,