I asked the question she trembled to ask.
“I suppose Mr. Waller will be home soon, now.”
“Oh, sure. Sure.” He paused, thought. “God, that was a dirty deal, but I don’t see what I can do about it after all these years. Mrs. Garr dead, too. As far as I can see the whole thing’s washed up.”
“If you make a Roman holiday for the newspapers out of this, I’ll be mad at you forever. Poor Mr. Grant,” I said.
His manner took on more reserve after that.
He went out into the hall where five or six men were still buzzing around. They turned out to be reporters; some of them, at least. Strom talked to them a long time. Mrs. Waller escaped through them with her apron over her head. I had men knocking on my door to ask me questions, too, but I was careful what I said. The lieutenant’s sins against Mr. Grant could all be on his own head.
All day, I never knew when a reporter would knock on my door. Mrs. Halloran arrived in midmorning; she took it on herself to answer questions, which was lovely, because she didn’t know of a thing that had happened since Wednesday.
One of the few half hours the hall was empty I called Hodge at the Buyers’ Guide to tell him. He was stunned, too. Not at the suicide—we both thought that natural enough under the circumstances. But that Mr. Grant should be a murderer.
“I can’t get it,” Hodge repeated, “but I guess you never can tell.”
“He had reason enough to hate her. I suppose it has to be true. I can imagine murdering Mrs. Garr with very little compunction if it had been my daughter.”
“So can I.”
“Now I’m furious at Lieutenant Strom. He’s a publicity grabber, that’s what he is. Wouldn’t you think the poor old man had had enough trouble in his life, without being branded for this when he died?”
Hodge agreed with me then, but he came bounding into the house at noon with a Comet extra he’d picked up downtown.
“Read that and eat your words about Strom.”
I did. Lieutenant Strom had been awfully, awfully decent. That was when I was glad I’d been careful about what I’d said to the reporters.
OLD MYSTERY CLEARS AS JOHN LIBERRY DIES
Long-Lost Suicide Note of Famous Rose Liberry Tragedy Found by Police
Two decades ago the Rose Liberry tragedy stirred Gilling City and the world; today, its last echo sounded in a small room of a house at 593 Trent Street, where lay John Grant Liberry, dead by his own hand, happy.
On the day before, police, while following the lucky clue of a $2,000 note which had turned up in the estate of the late Harriet Luella Garr, forced confession from the holder that the money was due him in payment for concealing the discovery of Rose Liberry’s suicide note.
Tragedy Recalled
Long-time residents of the city will recall the Rose Liberry tragedy clearly. The unfortunate girl, then only sixteen, left the home of her aunt, Miss Rachel Staines, then residing at 1128 Cleveland Avenue, on the afternoon of May 23, 1919. She was never again seen alive by relatives or friends.
The girl’s parents, Mr. & Mrs. John Grant Liberry, of Cincinnati, pushed the search to the utmost but were hampered by the notorious Hartigan political regime, then in power. The tragedy burst forth as world news when the body of a suicide in an infamous house on St. Simon Street, run by Harriet Luella Garr, was identified as the missing Rose Liberry.
Every effort was made to prove the unhappy girl had been led to and kept in the house by force, but no proof could be brought against the claim of Mrs. Garr that the girl had stayed at the house willingly. No suicide note was found, nor could evidence of one be obtained, although the Liberry attorneys expended every effort at this point. The case resulted in the political cleanup, pushed by David L. Lamson, then governor of the state, which resulted in our present clean political setup.
Strom Engineers Coup
The discovery of the missing suicide note is entirely due to the excellent work of Lieutenant Peter Strom, in charge of the homicide squad, Gilling City police.
In investigating the death of Mrs. Garr on May 28 of this year, a death found to be due to natural causes by a coroner’s jury on Monday, Lieutenant Strom found that a lodger in Mrs. Garr’s house had paid no rent for years. Under pressure, the lodger produced a note signed by Mrs. Garr and dated July 8, 1919, the day the dead body of Rose Liberry was found. Struck by the date, Lieutenant Strom began investigating old court records and the Comet files.
Comet Picture Is Clue
One investigator noted a resemblance between a picture of the young patrolman, who was the first one called to the scene of Rose Liberry’s suicide, and the lodger in question. Lieutenant Strom confirmed the likeness. Armed with the information, Lieutenant Strom faced the lodger with the inescapable deduction that the only thing for which Mrs. Garr would have paid $2,000 to the policeman first called to the suicide scene was the destruction of the suicide note.
Note Destroyer Confesses
The lodger then confessed. According to his own story, the note was worded as follows:
“Father, Mother, I’ve tried and tried to get out. I can’t, the house is locked. The things they make me do are horrible, horrible. Oh, Father and Mother, forgive me. I love you, and I know you would so much rather your Rose were dead.”
Note Clears Girl’s Character
The overwhelming importance of the note is obvious at a glance. It proves beyond question that the girl was a victim, and demonstrates the fearful tragedy of her position. With it, the Liberry attorneys could unquestionably have gained a much heavier penalty than the five-year sentence which was meted to Mrs. Garr.
Father Continues Search
It now appears that
