The Heart of a MysterySpeight, T. W. (Thomas Wilkinson)
General
The Heart of a Mystery
Speight, T. W. (Thomas Wilkinson)
English fiction -- 19th century; Mystery and detective stories
One important piece of evidence bearing on the murder of Mr.
Hazeldine, and one only, had been ferreted out by the police in the
course of the week which preceded the adjourned inquest. They had
discovered the man who sold the weapon with which the crime had
presumably been perpetrated. The point that still remained to be
cleared up was the identification of the purchaser of the knife.
As before, the jury assembled in a room of the "White Lion Hotel."
For the sake of appearances, Edward Hazeldine had been obliged to
retain the services of Mr. Prestwich, who was supposed to be there
with the view of looking after the interests of the family of the
deceased. Mr. Avison occupied a seat in the reserved space, and all
the witnesses who had been called and sworn on the previous occasion
were again in attendance.
The depositions having been read over, Dr. Barton was called, and
deposed that, in conjunction with his colleague, Dr. Stone, he had
made a post-mortem examination of the body of deceased, and that they
found the cause of death to be puncture of the tissues of the heart
with the point of some sharp instrument.
The weapon produced exactly fitted the cavity of the wound, and
bearing in mind the fact that it was found close by the body, there
was little room for doubt that it was the instrument with which the
fatal blow had been inflicted.
The evidence of Dr. Stone was to the same effect as that of the
previous witness.
Patience Strong, wife of William Strong, deposed that, to the best of
her belief, her husband never left home on the night of the supposed
murder. He had been ill for two or three days previously, and on the
evening in question she left him about nine o'clock, sitting in his
slippers by the fire, when she went out to see a neighbor who had a
sick child, and she found him still sitting in his slippers by the
fire when she got home at five minutes before twelve.
After speaking in a low voice to Chief Constable Mace for a few
moments, the Coroner called upon Walter Brill to come forward. In
response to the summons a dark, quick-eyed, nervous little man,
evidently dressed in his Sunday best, pressed his way through the
crowd, and was sworn in the usual way. He deposed that he resided at
No. 29 Winton Street, London, and that a few days ago he received,
through the police, the photograph of a knife, produced, with a
printed request that if he remembered having sold such a weapon he
would at once communicate with the authorities. As he at once
recognized the photograph's being very like that of a knife sold by
him about two months before, he did as he was requested, and was
waited upon by Mr. Mace and another gentleman, with the result that he
was before the Coroner to-day to give evidence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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