Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Vol. 34, No. 5, April 1974

Verner stepped back from the door, very slightly stooped, his motions relaxed and somehow suggesting the movement of a big cat.

There was a brief tense hesitation.

At the door, the porcine figure stepped back, fists balled.

Verner’s hand shot out, to slam home the bolt.

Verner said, “He took the hinge pins out and replaced them. He just threw them outside. You might as well arrest him for the murder of his cousin.”

In the beams of the parked sheriff’s cars, the deputy handed back a piece of shining metal, similar to a large nail, but less pointed on the end. The deputy shook his head.

“He must have rolled that one in his hand when he threw it. There was oil on it, and about half his right thumb print.” The deputy frowned as he looked at the hinge-pin. He cleared his throat, but the sheriff spoke first, to Verner, his tone crisp and confident.

“All right, we’ll go back inside, and see if this checks out.”

They entered Grove’s side of the cabin, and the sheriff shut the door firmly. With an odd expression on his face, he looked at the hinge-pins. He glanced at the door, then at Verner.

“This may be clear to you. But what good did it do him to change the hinge-pins?”

“You remember the little dent in the wood under the U-shaped receiver?”

“Yes. I don’t see how it got there. The bolt slid past it without touching, and that U would protect it from being bumped.”

“Suppose the bolt did make that mark? What would that mean about the position of the door?”

The sheriff touched his chin. Suddenly his eyes widened.

“The hinge side of the door would have been away from the door frame, and lock side against the frame... The door would have been partly turned on that bolt as if the bolt were the hinge!”

“And what,” said Verner, “would that say about the hinges?”

The sheriff glanced at the door, which had the standard type of butt hinges. Each hinge was made in three parts — a vertical pin which served as a pivot, and two separate metal plates, one attached to the door, and the other to the doorway. Each plate bore curving pieces of metal which clasped the pin. With the pin removed, the plates would come apart.

The sheriff shook his head. “I’ve been looking at the wrong edge of this door.”

He unlocked the door, took out a big pocket knife, and, using the screwdriver blade of his knife, worked loose the pins, which were somewhat thicker than the others, and less shiny, with blunt ends. He called a deputy, and dropped out the pins in a box.

“Check these for prints, just in case.”

He set the lock side of the dismounted door near the lock side of the frame, and steadying the door with one hand, connected the safety chain, pushed the bolt all the way out, and turned the key in its lock so that the lock bolt slid out. He lifted the door by the wooden crosspieces, eased it into the doorframe, the bolt sliding into its U-shaped rod, the lock-bolt sliding into its hole, and the chain, already fastened, clinking against the door. The hinge-halves bumped together, the sheriff worked the door slightly up and down, and first the lower and then the upper hinge slid together.

“Now,” said the sheriff, “we need to have the hinge-pins in. Since they fit in straight up-and-down, they’ll drop of their own weight, if they’re held upright just in the top of the hinge, and if they’re ground down a little and oiled, like the pins that were in this door. But, how could he hold them upright on the inside while he was outside working the door back into place?... Let’s see... Yes, a little thread would do it, looped around the hinge-pin and tacked outside the door.”

The sheriff took the hinge-pins, held each in turn at the top of its hinge, and released it. Each dropped partly into place, then stopped. He worked the door back and forth, then lightly rapped it with his fist. The hinge-pins dropped into place. He unlocked and opened the door, took the bedside lamp on its long extension cord, and carefully examined the hinge side of the doorframe.

“Look.”

Verner saw a tiny hole, above and outside of each hinge, made apparently by a pin or tack.

They examined the screen door, to find a little vertical groove in the wood at the top of the door, directly above the lock lever, and a corresponding groove at the bottom of the door directly below the lock-lever.