Part 22 (2/2)
”None in the least, Colonel.”
”Then you feel sure the stab wound killed her?”
”Reasonably so. Of course, as I said, either blow could have caused death, but blows on the head, even when the skull is badly fractured, as in this case, do not invariably cause death instantly. In fact the victim usually lingers for several hours in an unconscious state. Not so, however, in the case of a stab wound in or near the heart. That is almost always fatal within a short s.p.a.ce of time--a minute or two. So, while it is possible that Mrs. Darcy was first stunned by a blow on the head, which eventually would have killed her, I think death almost at once followed the stab wound.”
”Could both have been delivered by the same person?”
”Of course. First the blow on the head, followed by the stab wound.”
”And there were no other injuries on the body?”
”None, except minor bruises caused by the fall to the floor. But they were superficial.”
”Nothing else?”
”No--um let me see--no, I think not.”
”Are you _sure_, Dr. Warren?”
The colonel's voice had a strange ring in it.
”Why, yes, I am sure. I was about to say that there was a slight abrasion in the palm of the left hand, a sort of scratch or puncture, as though from a pin, but as she was in the jewelry business and, as I understand it, often made slight repairs herself to brooches and pins brought in, this could easily be accounted for.”
”A slight abrasion in the left hand you say?”
”Yes. But I don't attach any importance to that. It was so slight that I and my a.s.sistant only gave it a pa.s.sing glance. It hardly penetrated the skin.”
”I see. In the left hand. This is the hand in which the ticking watch was found, was it not?”
”I believe so. The watch belonging to an Indian named Singa Phut. By the way what became of him?” the doctor asked of Detective Carroll, who had strolled out of the detectives' private room and was listening to the conversation.
”Oh, that gink? He made a big howl about getting back his watch, and as he had a perfectly good _alibi_, and we could fasten nothing on him, we give it back to him and told him to beat it. He did, I guess.”
”No, he is still in town,” said Colonel Ashley. ”I pa.s.sed his place a while ago. He has a pair of beautiful Benares candlesticks, in the form of hooded cobra snakes, that I want to get. Singa Phut is still in town.”
”Does that answer all your questions, Colonel?” inquired Dr. Warren.
”I'll tell you all I can, in reason, but if--”
”Thank you! You've told me all I cared to know. I have some theories I want to work on, and I'm not sure how they'll turn out.”
”I s'pose you think Darcy didn't do this job,” cut in Carroll, rather sneeringly.
”I'm positive he didn't, sir!” and the colonel drew himself up and looked uncompromisingly at the headquarters detective. ”If I thought he had done it, I would not be a.s.sociated with his case.”
”You're going to have a sweet job proving he didn't do it,” laughed the officer.
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