“Yes, sir.”
“Of what do they consist?”
“One parlor, one small room under the stairs, and one hall, sir.”
I almost squealed out loud. Mrs. Halloran and I had forgotten that Mrs. Garr occupied the hall. She did, of course. But it seemed so public. Bookcase. Black leather chair and davenport. Phone. Rug. Once searched by the police, could they still conceal anything? I doubted it, but I imagined Mrs. Halloran would soon know for certain! My mind went back to the coroner.
“Where were the deposit-box keys found?”
“In the handbag.”
“You considered your search of the rooms thorough?”
“Yes, sir,” said Officer Foster fervently. “It sure was a surprise to me when those dames dug up some more dough!”
There was laughter at this, and a general craning of necks in my direction, as if I hadn’t had the search taken out of my hands; Lieutenant Strom favored me with an extremely peevish look. It was nice for him, I could see that, having his thoroughness shown up.
“Well, we can’t all be women,” the coroner said, and there was another wave of laughter. “Now, Foster, it has been suggested that Mrs. Garr believed her house had been infested by a prowler, or prowlers, searching either for money or something else of value. When you searched Mrs. Garr’s possessions after the discovery of her death, which we know was almost a week after she had come by her death, did you see any signs that those possessions had been previously searched?”
Officer Foster made a dramatic pause before answering.
“That’s a hard question to answer, sir, me not knowing the old lady, whether she was neat or not. But it was my impression at the time, sir, and it’s my impression now, that someone had.”
15
THERE WAS A SENSATION in the room at this. Mrs. Halloran leaped to her feet, yelling:
“I knew somebody was a-robbin’ me! You just tell me who it was and I’ll get the G-men on ’em!”
Mr. Halloran, also on his feet, joined in.
“We’ll get the G-men anyhow,” he screamed. “You ain’t a-goin’ to get away with stealin’ from us. The G-men’ll show you!”
Two policemen were called to silence them and get them back in their chairs. The coroner called coldly for order and went back to Jerry.
“Now, Foster, why did you think Mrs. Garr’s possessions had been searched by someone before you?”
“Well, for instance, there was a lot of pictures on the walls, and they were almost all crooked, as if someone had jerked them around to look behind them. One of the cushions on the davenport had a tear sewed up on one side; that tear had been slit open with a knife, and the slit side turned down.”
I’d thought the police themselves guilty of that, Saturday.
“Then the drawers in the bureau in that room under the stairs were messed around a good deal. That was where we found the biggest wad; we took the bottom drawer clear out.”
Was someone, right there in that room, being moved to fury because he, or she, had missed that wad? I looked along the line: the Wallers, Miss Sands, Mr. Buffingham, Mr. Grant; every face showed intent interest, nothing more. The Hallorans showed only thwarted greed, the Tewmans wistfulness. Mr. Kistler’s funny face just looked eager and thoughtful.
I was thoughtful myself. This prowling was another thing I should have suspected. Of course the murderer, knowing Mrs. Garr dead, had had from that Friday until the next Thursday to go on his quiet hunt.
The rest of the testimony gave me nothing new. One after the other, all that interminable afternoon, we were called and recalled, until we felt dulled and apathetic. Alibis were gone over, Mrs. Halloran maintaining a straight face through the account of her husband’s Friday night. No, none of us thought Mr. Waller or Mr. Kistler could have thrown the key into that kitchen on Thursday evening when the door was broken in. No, we had not seen or heard anything of Mrs. Garr after eight thirty of that Friday. Yes, the attack on Mrs. Dacres was discovered shortly after midnight. On and on, over and over. I could see the jurors’ faces stiffen in an agony of weariness.
It was like a breath of fresh air in the room when the coroner closed the testimony and turned to address the jury. He picked up several sheets of typed paper from the desk.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the purpose of this inquest is to determine whether Mrs. Garr died a natural death or whether she was murdered.
“In order to lift the facts of the case for you from out the welter of testimony you have just heard, I shall summarize the known activities of Mrs. Garr during the time under question, drawing only those deductions which seem inevitable.
“We know, then, that Mrs. Garr purchased, on Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon of the week preceding Memorial Day, one ticket to Chicago on a train leaving at 8:05 p.m. on Friday, May twenty-eighth. She presented one such ticket to Mrs. Halloran. Mrs. Halloran and Mrs. Garr left 593 Trent Street to start on this trip to Chicago at approximately seven twenty p.m. of that Friday. At the train gate, Mrs. Garr made an apparent search for her ticket, did not find it, sent Mrs. Halloran on, saying she would follow. Instead of following, however, she left the group at the train gate.
“Now, the deduction which has been drawn from these facts is that Mrs. Garr did not intend to go to Chicago; that the projected trip was only a ruse on her part, either to get Mrs. Halloran out of the way or to induce in someone the belief that she, Mrs. Garr, was to be absent from her house over the weekend.
“Strength is given this deduction by the testimony of Mrs. Dacres, who tells us of Mrs.
