Country homes -- Fiction; Middle-aged women -- Fiction; Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction; Mystery fiction
“There are more things than that, Miss Innes, that are puzzling. Bailey
gives the impression that he knew nothing of the crash at the bank
until he read it in the paper Monday night, and that he went back and
surrendered himself immediately. I do not believe it. Jonas, the
watchman at the Traders’ Bank, tells a different story. He says that on
the Thursday night before, about eight-thirty, Bailey went back to the
bank. Jonas admitted him, and he says the cashier was in a state almost
of collapse. Bailey worked until midnight, then he closed the vault and
went away. The occurrence was so unusual that the watchman pondered
over it all the rest of the night. What did Bailey do when he went back
to the Knickerbocker apartments that night? He packed a suit-case ready
for instant departure. But he held off too long; he waited for
something. My personal opinion is that he waited to see Miss Gertrude
before flying from the country. Then, when he had shot down Arnold
Armstrong that night, he had to choose between two evils. He did the
thing that would immediately turn public opinion in his favor, and
surrendered himself, as an innocent man. The strongest thing against
him is his preparation for flight, and his deciding to come back after
the murder of Arnold Armstrong. He was shrewd enough to disarm
suspicion as to the graver charge.”
The evening dragged along slowly. Mrs. Watson came to my bedroom before
I went to bed and asked if I had any arnica. She showed me a badly
swollen hand, with reddish streaks running toward the elbow; she said
it was the hand she had hurt the night of the murder a week before, and
that she had not slept well since. It looked to me as if it might be
serious, and I told her to let Doctor Stewart see it.
The next morning Mrs. Watson went up to town on the eleven train, and
was admitted to the Charity Hospital. She was suffering from
blood-poisoning. I fully meant to go up and see her there, but other
things drove her entirely from my mind. I telephoned to the hospital
that day, however, and ordered a private room for her, and whatever
comforts she might be allowed.
Mrs. Armstrong arrived Monday evening with her husband’s body, and the
services were set for the next day. The house on Chestnut Street, in
town, had been opened, and Tuesday morning Louise left us to go home.
She sent for me before she went, and I saw she had been crying.
“How can I thank you, Miss Innes?” she said. “You have taken me on
faith, and—you have not asked me any questions. Some time, perhaps, I
can tell you; and when that time comes, you will all despise
me,—Halsey, too.”
I tried to tell her how glad I was to have had her but there was
something else she wanted to say. She said it finally, when she had
bade a constrained good-by to Halsey and the car was waiting at the
door.
“Miss Innes,” she said in a low tone, “if they—if there is any attempt
made to—to have you give up the house, do it, if you possibly can. I am
afraid—to have you stay.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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