“I want it all.  I’m afraid this is going to resolve itself into a contest of elimination.  The city is buzzing about the case to-day, and it ought to be pretty easy to get hold of a world of gossip concerning Warren’s love-affairs—­provided he had any.  Everybody’s concerned over the identity of that woman, and every woman Warren has ever been mixed up with, even in the most innocuous way, is going to be dragged into the case.”

Carroll made his way from headquarters direct to the consolidated railroad ticket office.  He introduced himself to the chief clerk and stated his business.  The other showed keen interest.

“The tickets were sold to him in this office, Mr. Carroll.  This young man here sold them.”

Carroll smiled genially at the skinny young chap who bustled forward importantly, proud of his temporary spotlight position.

“You sold some tickets to Roland Warren?”

“Yes, sir.”

“When?”

“Day before yesterday.”

“You are sure it was Mr. Warren?”

“Yes, sir.  I have known him by sight for a longtime.”

“About the tickets—­what did he buy?”

“Two tickets and a drawing-room on No. 29 for New York—­due to leave at 11.55 last night.”

“You’re sure he bought two tickets and a drawing-room?  Or was it one ticket?”

“It had to be two.  We can’t sell a drawing-room unless the purchaser has double transportation.”

“You delivered both tickets to him personally?”

“Yes, sir—­gave them both to him.”

From the ticket office Carroll went back to headquarters, and from there to the coroner’s office, and, accompanied by that dignitary, to the undertaking establishment where the body was being kept under police guard.  Nothing had yet been touched.  The inquest had resulted in a verdict of “death by violence, inflicted by a revolver in the hands of a person unknown.”

Carroll again ran through the man’s pockets.  In a vest pocket he discovered what he sought.  He took the trunk check to the Union Station, and through his police badge secured access to the baggage-room.  The trunk was not there.  He compared checks with the baggage-master, and learned that the trunk had duly gone to New York.  He left orders for it to be returned to the city.

From there he went to the office of the division superintendent, and left a half-hour later, after an exchange of telegrams between the superintendent and the conductor of the train for New York, which informed him that the drawing-room engaged by Warren had been unoccupied, nor had there been an attempt on the part of any one to secure possession of it.  Also that the only berth purchased on the train had been at a small-town stop about four o’clock in the morning.

Obviously, then, the person who was to share the drawing-room with Warren, and for whom the second ticket had been bought, had never boarded the train.  The trail had doubled back again to the woman in the taxicab.