AFFAIR OF THE LEFT-HANDED VICTIM

Professor Fordney removed three shreds of tobacco from the revolver barrel, inserted into it a helixometer and murmured to himself. Swiftly he took the gun apart.

The cylinder contained four .38 caliber cartridges and two empty shells. He observed that it had been fired recently. The gas rings around the chambers holding the empty shells held his interest. Otherwise the revolver was clean…extremely clean.

“I wonder now,” he mused.

Tom Gilmore, bit actor in Westerns, had been killed at 9 p.m. in the beach cabin of motion picture star Warren Warwick. The only witness other than Warwick was picture starlet Anita Duval who had been secretly married to Gilmore for a year, though they lived apart. Anita said she had gone to Warwick’s to discuss her role in a forthcoming production. An hour later, Gilmore, who was drunk, forced his way in, whipped a revolver from his pocket (the one Fordney was examining) and without a word fired twice at Warwick, the bullets entering the wall behind the actor’s head. As Gilmore was about to fire the third time Warwick shot in self-defense, immediately notified the police.

This completely corroborated Warwick’s version of the tragedy. Nothing, he said, had been touched before arrival of the police.

Bullets from the wall and both guns had been carefully handled and wrapped by the police and dispatched to Fordney with a note advising that Gilmore was left-handed and minus the left little finger.

Examination revealing that bullets taken from Warwick’s wall had been fired from Gilmore’s gun, the criminologist recommended detention of Warwick and Anita. Both were lying.

How did Fordney know? Turn page for solution.