IX.
DEVELOPMENTS.
Mr. Gryce called about nine o'clock next morning.
"Well," said he, "what about the visitor who came to see me last night?"
"Like and unlike," I answered. "Nothing could induce me to say he is theman we want, and yet I would not dare to swear he was not."
"You are in doubt, then, concerning him?"
"I am."
Mr. Gryce bowed, reminded me of the inquest, and left. Nothing was saidabout the hat.
At ten o'clock I prepared to go to the place designated by him. I hadnever attended an inquest in my life, and felt a little flurried inconsequence, but by the time I had tied the strings of my bonnet (thedespised bonnet, which, by the way, I did not return to More's), I hadconquered this weakness, and acquired a demeanor more in keeping with myvery important position as chief witness in a serious policeinvestigation.
I had sent for a carriage to take me, and I rode away from my house amidthe shouts of some half dozen boys collected on the curb-stone. But Idid not allow myself to feel dashed by this publicity. On the contrary,I held my head as erect as nature intended, and my back kept the linemy good health warrants. The path of duty has its thorny passages, butit is for strong minds like mine to ignore them.
Promptly at ten o'clock I entered the room reserved for the inquest, andwas ushered to the seat appointed me. Though never a self-consciouswoman, I could not but be aware of the many eyes that followed me, andendeavored so to demean myself that there should be no question as to myrespectable standing in the community. This I considered due to thememory of my father, who was very much in my thoughts that day.
The Coroner was already in his seat when I entered, and though I did notperceive the good face of Mr. Gryce anywhere in his vicinity, I had nodoubt he was within ear-shot. Of the other people I took small note,save of the honest scrub-woman, of whose red face and anxious eyes undera preposterous bonnet (which did _not come_ from La Mole's), I caughtvague glimpses as the crowd between us surged to and fro.
None of the Van Burnams were visible, but this did not necessarily meanthat they were absent. Indeed, I was very sure, from certainindications, that more than one member of the family could be seen inthe small room connecting with the large one in which we witnesses satwith the jury.
The policeman, Carroll, was the first man to talk. He told of mystopping him on his beat and of his entrance into Mr. Van Burnam's housewith the scrub-woman. He gave the details of his discovery of the deadwoman's body on the parlor floor, and insisted that no one--here helooked very hard at me--had been allowed to touch the body till reliefhad come to him from Headquarters.
Mrs. Boppert, the scrub-woman, followed him; and if she was watched byno one else in that room, she was watched by me. Her manner before theCoroner was no more satisfactory, according to my notion, than it hadbeen in Mr. Van Burnam's parlor. She gave a very perceptible start whenthey spoke her name, and looked quite scared when the Bible was held outtowards her. But she took the oath notwithstanding, and with hertestimony the inquiry began in earnest.
"What is your name?" asked the Coroner.
As this was something she could not help knowing, she uttered thenecessary words glibly, though in a way that showed she resented hisimpertinence in asking her what he already knew.
"Where do you live? And what do you do for a living?" rapidly followed.
She replied that she was a scrub-woman and cleaned people's houses, andhaving said this, she assumed a very dogged air, which I thought strangeenough to raise a question in the minds of those who watched her. But noone else seemed to regard it as anything but the embarrassment ofignorance.
"How long have you known the Van Burnam family?" the Coroner went on.
"Two years, sir, come next Christmas."
"Have you often done work for them?"
"I clean the house twice a year, fall and spring."
"Why were you at this house two days ago?"
"To scrub the kitchen floors, sir, and put the pantries in order."
"Had you received notice to do so?"
"Yes, sir, through Mr. Franklin Van Burnam."
"And was that the first day of your work there?"
"No, sir; I had been there all the day before."
"You don't speak loud enough," objected the Coroner; "remember thatevery one in this room wants to hear you."
She looked up, and with a frightened air surveyed the crowd about her.Publicity evidently made her most uncomfortable, and her voice sankrather than rose.
"Where did you get the key of the house, and by what door did youenter?"
"I went in at the basement, sir, and I got the key at Mr. Van Burnam'sagent in Dey Street. I had to go for it; sometimes they send it to me;but not this time."
"And now relate your meeting with the policeman on Wednesday morning, infront of Mr. Van Burnam's house."
She tried to tell her story, but she made awkward work of it, and theyhad to ply her with questions to get at the smallest fact. But finallyshe managed to repeat what we already knew, how she went with thepoliceman into the house, and how they stumbled upon the dead woman inthe parlor.
Further than this they did not question her, and I, Amelia Butterworth,had to sit in silence and see her go back to her seat, redder thanbefore, but with a strangely satisfied air that told me she had escapedmore easily than she had expected. And yet Mr. Gryce had been warnedthat she knew more than appeared, and by one in whom he seemed to haveplaced some confidence!
The doctor was called next. His testimony was most important, andcontained a surprise for me and more than one surprise for the others.After a short preliminary examination, he was requested to state howlong the woman had been dead when he was called in to examine her.
"More than twelve and less than eighteen hours," was his quiet reply.
"Had the rigor mortis set in?"
"No; but it began very soon after."
"Did you examine the wounds made by the falling shelves and the vasesthat tumbled with them?"
"I did."
"Will you describe them?"
He did so.
"And now"--there was a pause in the Coroner's question which roused usall to its importance, "which of these many serious wounds was in youropinion the cause of her death?"
The witness was accustomed to such scenes, and was perfectly at home inthem. Surveying the Coroner with a respectful air, he turned slowlytowards the jury and answered in a slow and impressive manner:
"I feel ready to declare, sirs, that none of them did. She was notkilled by the falling of the cabinet upon her."
"Not killed by the falling shelves! Why not? Were they not sufficientlyheavy, or did they not strike her in a vital place?"
"They were heavy enough, and they struck her in a way to kill her if shehad not been already dead when they fell upon her. As it was, theysimply bruised a body from which life had already departed."
As this was putting it very plainly, many of the crowd who had not beenacquainted with these facts previously, showed their interest in a veryunmistakable manner; but the Coroner, ignoring these symptoms of growingexcitement, hastened to say:
"This is a very serious statement you are making, doctor. If she did notdie from the wounds inflicted by the objects which fell upon her, fromwhat cause did she die? Can you say that her death was a natural one,and that the falling of the shelves was merely an unhappy accidentfollowing it?"
"No, sir; her death was not natural. She was killed, but not by thefalling cabinet."
"Killed, and not by the cabinet? How then? Was there any other woundupon her which you regard as mortal?"
"Yes, sir. Suspecting that she had perished from other means thanappeared, I made a most rigid examination of her body, when I discoveredunder the hair in the nape of the neck, a minute spot, which, uponprobing, I found to be the end of a small, thin point of steel. It hadbeen thrust by a careful hand into the most vulnerable part of the body,and death must have ensued at once."
This was too much for certain excitable persons present, and a momentarydisturbance arose, which, however, was nothing to that in my own breast.
So! so! it was her neck that had been pierced, and not her heart. Mr.Gryce had allowed us to think it was the latter, but it was not thisfact which stupefied me, but the skill and diabolical coolness of theman who had inflicted this death-thrust.
After order had been restored, which I will say was very soon, theCoroner, with an added gravity of tone, went on with his questions:
"Did you recognize this bit of steel as belonging to any instrument inthe medical profession?"
"No; it was of too untempered steel to have been manufactured for anythrusting or cutting purposes. It was of the commonest kind, and hadbroken short off in the wound. It was the end only that I found."
"Have you this end with you,--the point, I mean, which you foundimbedded at the base of the dead woman's brain?"
"I have, sir"; and he handed it over to the jury. As they passed italong, the Coroner remarked:
"Later we will show you the remaining portion of this instrument ofdeath," which did not tend to allay the general excitement. Seeing this,the Coroner humored the growing interest by pushing on his inquiries.
"Doctor," he asked, "are you prepared to say how long a time elapsedbetween the infliction of this fatal wound and those which disfiguredher?"
"No, sir, not exactly; but some little time."
Some little time, when the murderer was in the house only ten minutes!All looked their surprise, and, as if the Coroner had divined thisfeeling of general curiosity, he leaned forward and emphaticallyrepeated:
"More than ten minutes?"
The doctor, who had every appearance of realizing the importance of hisreply, did not hesitate. Evidently his mind was quite made up.
"_Yes; more than ten minutes_."
This was the shock _I_ received from his testimony.
I remembered what the clock had revealed to me, but I did not move amuscle of my face. I was learning self-control under these repeatedsurprises.
"This is an unexpected statement," remarked the Coroner. "What reasonshave you to urge in explanation of it?"
"Very simple and very well known ones; at least, among the profession.There was too little blood seen, for the wounds to have been inflictedbefore death or within a few minutes after it. Had the woman been livingwhen they were made, or even had she been but a short time dead, thefloor would have been deluged with the blood gushing from so many andsuch serious injuries. But the effusion was slight, so slight that Inoticed it at once, and came to the conclusions mentioned before I foundthe mark of the stab that occasioned death."
"I see, I see! And was that the reason you called in two neighboringphysicians to view the body before it was removed from the house?"
"Yes, sir; in so important a matter, I wished to have my judgmentconfirmed."
"And these physicians were----"
"Dr. Campbell, of 110 East ---- Street, and Dr. Jacobs, of ----Lexington Avenue."
"Are these gentlemen here?" inquired the Coroner of an officer who stoodnear.
"They are, sir."
"Very good; we will now proceed to ask one or two more questions of thiswitness. You told us that even had the woman been but a few minutes deadwhen she received these contusions, the floor would have been more orless deluged by her blood. What reason have you for this statement?"
"This; that in a few minutes, let us say ten, since that number has beenused, the body has not had time to cool, nor have the blood-vessels hadsufficient opportunity to stiffen so as to prevent the free effusion ofblood."
"Is a body still warm at ten minutes after death?"
"It is."
"So that your conclusions are logical deductions from well-known facts?"
"Certainly, sir."
A pause of some duration followed.
When the Coroner again proceeded, it was to remark:
"The case is complicated by these discoveries; but we must not allowourselves to be daunted by them. Let me ask you, if you found any marksupon this body which might aid in its identification?"
"One; a slight scar on the left ankle."
"What kind of a scar? Describe it."
"It was such as a burn might leave. In shape it was long and narrow, andit ran up the limb from the ankle-bone."
"Was it on the right foot?"
"No; on the left."
"Did you call the attention of any one to this mark during or after yourexamination?"
"Yes; I showed it to Mr. Gryce the detective, and to my two coadjutors;and I spoke of it to Mr. Howard Van Burnam, son of the gentleman inwhose house the body was found."
It was the first time this young gentleman's name had been mentioned,and it made my blood run cold to see how many side-long looks andexpressive shrugs it caused in the motley assemblage. But I had no timefor sentiment; the inquiry was growing too interesting.
"And why," asked the Coroner, "did you mention it to this young man inpreference to others?"
"Because Mr. Gryce requested me to. Because the family as well as theyoung man himself had evinced some apprehension lest the deceased mightprove to be his missing wife, and this seemed a likely way to settle thequestion."
"And did it? Did he acknowledge it to be a mark he remembered to haveseen on his wife?"
"He said she had such a scar, but he would not acknowledge the deceasedto be his wife."
"Did he see the scar?"
"No; he would not look at it."
"Did you invite him to?"
"I did; but he showed no curiosity."
Doubtless thinking that silence would best emphasize this fact, whichcertainly was an astonishing one, the Coroner waited a minute. But therewas no silence. An indescribable murmur from a great many lips filled upthe gap. I felt a movement of pity for the proud family whose good namewas thus threatened in the person of this young gentleman.
"Doctor," continued the Coroner, as soon as the murmur had subsided,"did you notice the color of the woman's hair?"
"It was a light brown."
"Did you sever a lock? Have you a sample of this hair here to show us?"
"I have, sir. At Mr. Gryce's suggestion I cut off two small locks. One Igave him and the other I brought here."
"Let me see it."
The doctor passed it up, and in sight of every one present the Coronertied a string around it and attached a ticket to it.
"That is to prevent all mistake," explained this very methodicalfunctionary, laying the lock aside on the table in front of him. Then heturned again to the witness.
"Doctor, we are indebted to you for your valuable testimony, and as youare a busy man, we will now excuse you. Let Dr. Jacobs be called."
As this gentleman, as well as the witness who followed him, merelycorroborated the statements of the other, and made it an accepted factthat the shelves had fallen upon the body of the girl some time afterthe first wound had been inflicted, I will not attempt to repeat theirtestimony. The question now agitating me was whether they would endeavorto fix the time at which the shelves fell by the evidence furnished bythe clock.
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