by Mabel Seeley
We sat down next to Mr. Grant and whispered about how long we’d have to wait. We waited a good long time. Long enough to take in the flyspecks on the light globes, and the general hopelessness of everyone who straggled past the door. I felt, as I always feel when I’ve been in the courthouse, that I needed to be fumigated before I’d really be clean again.
The coroner came in briskly when he did come, with Lieutenant Strom and a couple of more men in tow. The coroner—he was the florid politician to the life—sat down behind the desk and went through the preliminaries quickly. Lieutenant Strom sat beside him.
“First witness,” the coroner said. “Mrs. Halloran, please take the chair.”
I shan’t give the whole inquest; you’d find most of it repetition. But there were a few high spots.
Mrs. Halloran’s testimony dealt with the Chicago trip. After her came the ticket seller. Then a Mr. Banks was called; he was new to me, a railway employee.
“You examined the tickets for the Great Western’s Chicago excursion at eight-five on Friday, May twenty-eighth, Mr. Banks?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you recall any incident involving Mrs. Halloran, the woman who just testified, and another woman?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Describe the other woman.”
“She was older, sir. White hair. Very pretty white hair. Old-fashioned hat high on her head. Violets in front. Black dress.”
“What attracted your notice to her?”
“Well, sir, this crowd was milling around me. The gate wasn’t open yet. And these two women”—he pointed back at Mrs. Halloran—“her and the older one, kept jamming up against me. This one here, Mrs. Halloran, kept waving a ticket in my face and yelling, ‘Can’t we get through now? We want a good seat.’ I get people like that all the time. When the gates opened I began punching tickets as fast as I could and letting ’em through, but these two women got in my way all the time. The old one couldn’t find her ticket. The younger one got hers punched but stayed back holding on to the old one. They were getting pushed around. Finally the old one said, ‘You go on, get a good seat. I’ll come as soon as I find my ticket; I know I got it right here.’ And the younger one went.”
“To the best of your recollection, did the older woman find her ticket?”
“No, sir. I noticed. She didn’t even seem to look for it anymore. Just faded in the crowd. She didn’t go by me; I was sort of looking out for her.”
“You did not see her again?”
“No, sir.”
“Thank you. Stand down.”
The next witness was a conductor, who testified he had taken up Mrs. Halloran’s ticket and seen her on the train near Chicago. So she had gone, all right.
“Next witness, Mrs. Gwynne Dacres.”
My heart beat fast. I got past Mr. Kistler’s knees, up to the armchair, was sworn. Then I became so immersed in answering questions I forgot to be frightened. I was asked in detail about coming home that Friday night, the cat in the hall, the noises I’d heard, the attack on me. Then I was told to stand down.
It was obvious they were trying to get the facts as chronologically as possible.
Obvious, too, as the questioning went on, that the whole thing was merely a process of law. To the police, all the evidence elicited was known before. Of course, it would be; they’d gotten the witnesses together and questioned them all before. But I heard a few things which were as useful to me, later, as keys in the hand.
Mr. Kistler was called after me, to tell of finding me that Friday night.
Then Officer Foster was called. He turned out to be the policeman I’d known as Jerry. He told of the search that Friday night.
One after the other, Mrs. Garr’s lodgers were then called, to give their testimony up to that point. Especial emphasis was laid on Mr. Grant’s testimony that he had seen Mrs. Garr coming home around eight thirty.
The discovery of the death was then taken up, in exactly the same manner. I’ll give Foster’s evidence.
“Now, Foster, we come to the search of the basement room in which Mrs. Garr’s remains were found. You assisted that search?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You say the remains, the clothes, and the hair were scattered about the floor, but mostly near the door.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Was there any sign of a gun having been fired in that room?”
“No, sir.”
“Any other implement or thing which showed signs of having been used as a weapon?”
“No, sir. There were knives in the table drawer. But they were all clean. Pretty clean, I mean. Anyhow, they didn’t show any signs of havin’ been used to stab her.”
“No hammers or axes?”
“We found tools in a box in the furnace room. Under test, they show they’ve been used in the usual ways, nothing more.”
“To sum up, then, no weapon for murder was in your estimation present in the kitchen?”
“No, sir.”
“Was there any sign of disorder in the room? Of a struggle, for instance?”
“Well, sir, it wasn’t in very nice shape, as you can imagine. But there wasn’t any furniture overturned, nothing like that. The only sign of disturbance was that glass jar of macaroni. Dry macaroni. It was half spilled out on the table.”
“The electric light was not on?”
“No, sir.”
“The room was tested for fingerprints?”
“Yes, sir. But we didn’t get any good ones, except a couple of the old lady’s on the stove and places like that. None on the glass jar. Most of the fingerprints weren’t good, surfaces not right. Cement and weathered wood.”
“I see. Now the location of the key, Foster. Where was it found?”
I leaned forward, intent. The key! This was the first time I had heard it mentioned.
“The key was lying on the kitchen table, just a little way from the jar of spilled macaroni.”
“You are sure the key was there when you broke the lock?”
“Well, sir, we didn’t let anyone in that room from the time we broke the lock until the time we searched it. Mr. Waller and Mr. Kistler went to the door and looked in, but they looked over Officer Harlan’s shoulder. I don’t think they could have thrown a key all the way across that room to the table from the door. Certainly not without Red—without Officer Harlan knowing it.”
“You are certain the key found on that table was the key to that room?”
“Yes, sir. We tried it.”
“Is it possible that another key could be used in that lock?”
“I don’t believe so, sir. We’d splintered out the door to get in, but we hadn’t hurt the lock much. We tried a bunch of other keys, skeletons, everything. We gave it the works. None of them even budged the lock. It was a funny old lock, handmade, I wouldn’t be surprised. Besides, it didn’t show any signs of having been tampered with. It did when we was through.”
“You also aided in the search of the rest of the basement?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Any yield there?”
“Well, sir, in the storage room. On the rocking chair in there was a black coat, not a heavy coat, just sort of dropped there. And a pocketbook, a black pocketbook, under it. There was a hat dropped down behind a box alongside.”
“A moment, please.”
Lieutenant Strom here spoke to one of his men, who hurried out, to return with a bundle. It was opened on the desk; the errand runner held up the contents.
“These the clothes found in that storage room, Foster?”
“Yes, sir.”
He was told to stand down, while Mrs. Halloran and Mr. Banks identified the clothing as having been worn by Mrs. Garr at the station. Officer Foster was then recalled.
“Did you also assist Lieutenant Strom in his se
arch of the other rooms occupied by Mrs. Garr?”
“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. Garr’s suspicion of prowlers. Mrs. Halloran also admits Mrs. Garr accused Mr. Halloran of prowling in her basement on a certain specified occasion.
“You, ladies and gentlemen, will have to test the strength of this deduction in your minds. Against it you must place the probability that Mrs. Garr did intend to go to Chicago, that she bought a second ticket, mislaid or had it stolen from her, and missed the train. A second ticket, indeed, turned up in the house, although good proof has been given that that ticket had never belonged to Mrs. Garr. It has not actually been proved that the trip was a ruse on Mrs. Garr’s part.
“At any rate, we are certain Mrs. Garr did not go to Chicago. She may have been seen near the 593 Trent Street house around eight thirty by Mr. Grant. This is a likely time for her return. What happened to her from then on, we can only conjecture.
“We do know that at some time before ten o’clock the door of Mrs. Garr’s basement kitchen was opened, and one or all of the animals shut in there escaped. If they all escaped, the dog and two of the cats may have been returned to the kitchen or held captive in some other room before Mrs. Dacres returned at ten o’clock, but we have the evidence of two people that one animal, the female cat, was loose in the house at ten o’clock. We are also sure that no animals at all were loose in the house when Officer Foster searched the house shortly after midnight.
“We know, too, that at some time Mrs. Garr’s hat, coat, and handbag were left in the storage room, either by herself or some other person. Whether this was before or after the search on Friday night, we cannot be certain. The room was looked over that time, but Officer Foster was looking for a person, not a few clothes on a chair.
“I will now enter more closely into whether Mrs. Garr was or was not murdered. Nothing, you remember, is known of her activities from eighty thirty p.m. of that Friday. I will first consider the possibility of murder.
“Here a variety of occurrences is possible.
“We know, from the police surgeon’s testimony, that the body was probably placed in the room in which it was found not later than Saturday. Sometime, then, during Friday night, since such a thing would be extremely difficult to do during the day.
“Could Mrs. Garr have been murdered outside the house?
“This would entail bringing her to the house,
carrying her either through the one front-entrance door and the front hall, or through the rear door and Mrs. Dacres’ apartment.” (You can imagine yourself how that one tensed me!) “There is a door with stairs to the basement in Mrs. Dacres’ kitchen, but that door has a rusted bolt on Mrs. Dacres’ side and is nailed shut on the other. Heavy dust on those stairs was undisturbed. The body, therefore, would have to have been brought in through the front. Extremely risky, but it may have been done. Why? We are not here entering into motives, though I may just as well interpolate here as later that motives may have been plentiful. Mrs. Garr was a woman with whose infamous past you have been tersely acquainted. And she was given to secreting small sums of money around the house. Such money was found.
“To return to our outside murder. If Mrs. Garr was thus returned to the house, dead or alive, by her murderer, it may have been between eight-five and ten, between ten and midnight, between the finish of the search and daylight. Which time we do not know. We only know, from the cat, that the kitchen door had been opened before ten o’clock and was opened again to receive the cat between ten and midnight. It is very unlikely that these activities could have been carried on by anyone not well acquainted with the house.
“We shall now consider the likelier possibility of Mrs. Garr’s having been murdered inside the house.
“In that case, she may have returned to the house by herself anytime between eight-five and ten, anytime between ten and midnight, anytime after the search. At any rate, she meets or is met by the murderer within the house and is killed and locked in the kitchen with her pets. One witness in particular has shown a strong belief that Mrs. Garr surprised a prowler at work and was killed by them willfully or in self-defense. It is also suggested that this same prowler, since there could scarcely be two, is the one who attacked Mrs. Dacres later. We know this prowler did not break into the house through Mrs. Dacres’ apartment, because her chairs were still hooked under the doorknobs of her front doors when she recovered.