She seemed a little taken aback. "Why — yes, I suppose so, subconsciously. I remembered it, anyhow. But first I turned on the big light over the desk, and made sure Mr. Hogenauer was dead."
"And how long should you say he'd been dead when you got here?"
"It's hard to say. But only a few minutes, I should think. I got here about a quarter-past nine. -The strychnine wouldn't have taken a long time to kill him: a long time for strychnine, that is. It's usually pretty lengthy and unpleasant. He couldn't have lasted more than half an hour after he'd drunk it; probably only twenty minutes. His health was bad, and he was going on for sixty. Say he drank it about quarter to nine."
"Go on, ma'am. What did you do after you found he was dead?"
"First," she said grimly, "I looked round for the bottle labelled bromide. It was standing over there on the mantel. That was how I happened to hit that little flashlight with my elbow, and knock it off the mantel and smash it. No, and I don't mind telling you what I was going to do, either! I was going to wash that bottle and take it away with me-"
Bowers made a noise in this throat.
"And why not?" she asked defiantly. "I'd have done it, too, if the next awful business hadn't happened. I'd shut the door when I came in. So I picked up the bottle, and started out for the scullery to wash it. But the knob was loose, and wouldn't turn to unlatch the door. I suppose I must have been upset or frightened; anyhow, I began to yank and fiddle with it. Then the knob came off in my hand, and the rest of it, with that iron thingummyjig, fell out into the hall. If you can imagine anything more horrible happening to you, I'd like to have you tell me what it is."
"And the best thing that could have happened to you, too," cried Bowers accusingly. "Accessory after the fact. If you'd pinched that bottle and run away, you'd 'a' been accessory after the fact, that's what."
She looked at him coldly.
"That's about all, officer. I was shut up in here with that thing. Of course, I thought of getting out through one of the windows. But just look at them! Apparently poor old Hogenauer always kept the sashes up but the shutters closed. The bolts of the shutters have rusted in the sockets, and I couldn't budge them. If I got panicky, you can't blame me. I even thought of picking up a chair and trying to break the shutters open. It's all very well to be bold, bloody, and resolute; but I'm not strong enough for that sort of work, and, besides, I should have roused the whole neighbourhood. Still, I was just on the point of wanting to try it when I heard a horrible commotion out at the back somewhere, and dogs barking or men running or something. I was so jumpy that I simply reached up and unscrewed the light out of the socket, hot as it was. In a minute you came in at the back; and talked to some woman in the next house about a murderer being loose hereabouts." She made a grimace. "I think you know everything else, although I don't think you know how I felt being shut up in the dark with it."