"The next morning, when there was still no news of my persecutor, I
began to breathe more freely. I was told that there had been an accident
in the building, but that Allan Brown was the victim never occurred to
me. Imagine my horror and consternation when, on being shown the corpse,
I recognised my first husband. A thousand wild conjectures as to the
cause of his death flashed through my mind, and when I heard that he had
been murdered I feared for one awful moment that you might have met him
and killed him either in anger or self-defence. When I learned that the
crime had been committed on Tuesday I was inexpressibly relieved. For on
that day you had not even been in New York. My next anxiety was lest the
fact that the dead man had come to the building to see me should become
known. When asked if I recognised the corpse I lied instinctively,
unthinkingly. It was a crazy thing for me to have done, for I should
have been instantly detected if it had not been for the surprising
coincidence that Greywood (that's his name, isn't it), who had also been
in the building that evening, so closely resembled my visitor. But I
knew nothing of this, and had no intention of casting suspicion on any
one else when I so stoutly denied all knowledge of the man. The
Coroner's cross-questioning terrified me, for I was sure he suspected me
of knowing more than I cared to say. But when that ordeal was over, and
I was again within my own four walls, I could feel nothing but extreme
thankfulness that the evil genius of my life was removed from my path
at last. My only remaining fear was lest I should be suspected of his
death. I imagined that I was being shadowed, and fancied that a man was
stationed in the flat above the Doctor's, who watched this house night
and day. Was that so, Mr. Merritt?"
"Yes'm."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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