We told Inspector Green the Blodgett story. It was obvious to us that somehow Miss Crump had been poisoned by them in mistake for Poppy. Since no one had entered the house that day except the three callers, one of them, we said, must have been a Blodgett. All the Inspector had to do, we said, was to locate those three people and find out which was a Blodgett.

Inspector Green watched us poker-faced and made no comment. After he’d left, we took the companionless Poppy back to our part of the house. She climbed on the bed and stretched out between us, her tail thumping, her head flopped on the pillows. We didn’t have the heart to evict her. It was not one of our better nights.

Early next morning, a policeman took us to Miss Crump’s apartment. Inspector Green was waiting in the living room. I didn’t like his stare.

“We’ve analyzed the hamburger she was eating last night,” he said. “There was enough strychnine in it to kill an elephant.”

“Hamburger!” exclaimed Iris. “Then that proves she was poisoned by the Blodgetts!”

“Why?” asked Inspector Green.

“They didn’t know how conscientious Miss Crump was. They didn’t know she always bought steak for Poppy and hamburger for herself. They saw the steak and the hamburger and they naturally assumed the hamburger was for Poppy, so they poisoned that.”

“That’s right,” I cut in. “The steak and the hamburger were lying right on the kitchen table when all three of those people came in yesterday.”

“I see,” said the Inspector.

He nodded to a policeman who left the room and returned with three people—the balding young man from the electric light company, the redheaded vixen, and the young policeman. None of them looked happy.

“You’re willing to swear,” the Inspector asked us, “that these were the only three people who entered this house yesterday.”

“Yes,” said Iris.

“And you think one of them is either Blodgett or his wife?”

“They’ve got to be.”

Inspector Green smiled faintly. “Mr. Burns here has been with the electric light company for five years except for a year when he was in the army. The electric light company is willing to vouch for that. Miss Curtis has been identified as the sister of the lady who owns this house and the niece of Rear Admiral Moss. She has no connection with any Blodgetts and has never been in Utah.” He paused. “As for Officer Patterson, he has been a member of the police force here for eight years. I personally sent him around yesterday to follow up Miss Crump’s complaint.”

The Inspector produced an envelope from his pocket and tossed it to me. “I’ve had these photographs of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Blodgett flown from the files of the Ogden Bluffs Tribune.”