Detective and mystery stories; England -- Fiction; Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction
"Also gentlemen," continued the Inspector, "the first shot was fired
with a different weapon to that employed to fire the other three. The
bullet which passed through the heart and embedded itself in the wall,
has been extracted. Here it is. The other three shots were found in
the body and in the floor. Here they are."
The pieces of evidence thus produced were placed before the jury. The
first bullet was round--of the old-fashioned kind fired from a
muzzle-loading pistol. The remaining three were conical in shape, and
of the most modern manufacture. Plainly then two pistols had been
used. One of an antique pattern to fire the first shot--the shot which
killed the Colonel: and the other a revolver of the most modern type.
And this latter had been merely employed to make a target of the dead
body. "Finally," said Bridge after explaining all this, "the third
pistol--or rather revolver found in the hand of the deceased, was not
fired at all. The chambers are loaded--there is no smoke-stain on
the barrels. It was simply put into the left hand of the dead to
hint at suicide. The person who did so, knew that Colonel Carr was
left-handed, but in his agitation forgot that the six chambers were
loaded. In fact he defeated his own scheme."
This evidence was surprising enough. Why should the assassin use two
pistols, when one would have sufficed? "And?" asked the Coroner, "why
do you say 'he' Mr. Inspector? Do you then think that the guilty
person is a man?"
"I don't think a woman would have committed so brutal a murder," said
Bridge bluntly. "She would have been satisfied with killing the man,
and not have proceeded to mutilate the body. Also the idea of putting
a revolver into the hand of the dead would not occur to a woman."
"There I differ from you Mr. Inspector," contradicted the Coroner, "a
woman might do such a thing, and it is more likely a woman would
forget in her agitation that the revolver was loaded, than would a man
in the like circumstances."
Inspector and Coroner argued out this point. At length Bridge losing
his temper stated that he believed Frisco shot his master and called
Napper as a witness.
The landlord stated that on Tuesday night at six o'clock Frisco had
been drinking rum at the Carr Arms. He seemed to be angry with his
master whom he alleged had treated him badly. As he left the inn,
about seven o'clock, he said, "let him take care, or he won't live
long." At the time Napper thought it was merely a drunken threat; but
in the face of the death and Frisco's flight he thought that the man
was guilty. Of course the Coroner, who had lost his temper with
Bridge, told Napper that he did not want his opinion, but simply his
evidence. There was further trouble about this remark, in which the
Inspector got the worst of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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