‘Twenty-two days of this hot, dry spell,’ groaned Professor Fordney. ‘I can’t remember a stretch like it.’
‘Tell us about the Greer case, Professor,’ urged the rocking-chair brigade. ‘It’ll take your mind off the heat.’
‘Well, you know the salient facts. The body of Irene Greer, lying on the railroad right-of-way, was found half a mile from here by a fishing party at 6 A.M. day before yesterday. It could be seen that she was a beautiful girl despite the tousled hair matted with mud and a nasty bruise on her cheek. Her flaming red dress was torn and dirty. She had on shoes, but no stockings. Incidentally, her clothes were of the finest quality. Her body indicated that she had received a terrific beating, poor girl.
‘From appearances she had been placed on the track with the expectation that she would be struck by a train and identification made impossible. No doubt she was unconscious when this was done, but she must have revived 14temporarily and crawled to the gravel right-of-way before a train came along. There she died.
‘A peculiar circumstance is that, while her body was bruised and twisted, there were no marks on her throat to indicate strangulation, yet Dr. Bridewell says that was the cause of death.
‘She was found in a desolate spot. Oh, yes, she was probably strangled with a scarf which, employed in a certain manner, would leave no outward trace.
‘Now you folks should know how I learned Irene Greer was attacked elsewhere and then brought to the vicinity where she was found,’ smiled the Professor.
What was the clue?
HGZ HCBZ ECQ MCUUGY EBUH MPY QHG MPQU HCWG NGGK CUUCFOGY GXQGEHGZG
E-mail your solution to Michael@SnubNoir.com. All correct solution should be collected before February 20 and a winner will be randomly selected.
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