Philo Vance Series / The Canary Murder Case / S. S. Van Dine

In the offices of the Homicide Division of the Detective Division of the New York Police Department, on the third floor of the police headquarters on Center Street, there is a large steel cabinet containing, among thousands of others of its kind, a small green index card on which is written: ODell, Margaret. 184 West 71st Street. Sept. 10. Murdered: asphyxiated about 11 o’clock. Flat ransacked. Jewellery stolen. The body was found by Amy Gibson, the maid.