Philo Vance

Well, Billings thought Mike was going to throw the fight, either because of the threats of the champion and his manager, or because his girlfriend had pleaded with him not to win.

As a consequence, Billings bet heavily on Daggett to lose.

That's right.

Then, the afternoon of the fight, Mike told Billings he didn't care what happened.

He was going out to win.

So Billings had to find some way to stop that.

And he did.

That's true.

But just before the fight, Billings slipped a rubber mouthpiece into Mike's mouth.

All fighters used them to protect their teeth.

And the mouthpiece had been dipped in the acid.

A very natural thing to do.

Nobody suspected anything because Billings took all of Mike's equipment, which is what any manager would do.

Only this manager took with him the proof that he was a murderer.

I merely suspected what he had done.

I had to be sure.

So I made certain he thought that Billy Stanley promised to name Mike's killer after work.

Because if he were the murderer, he couldn't take a chance on letting her do that.

There was a chance that she had seen him steal the acid and was going to tell me that.

You see, that brought Billings out into the open and right into the middle of our net.