“Inspector,” began Dr. Jarvis, “what do you know of this Craighead inquest?”
“Well, Doc,” replied the inspector, settling his huge frame back in a capacious chair, as he wrinkled his thick brows and blew the smoke from a vile smelling pipe through his walrus moustache, “inquests are not much in our line unless there is some crime involved. This is such a clear case of a man dying from the shock of an operation that the police have no more interest in it than the public. Of course Craighead was a big man. I knew him well myself. He used to stop here to pick me up sometimes, so I got to know what an impatient chap he was. He told me that he’d sprint for a car, whenever he had to ride on a street car, like any kid of seventeen. The insurance company would grab at anything suspicious but nothing has come up. We all know the story. Craighead got too cocky in his sprinting ability, and was run over. It was mucky and rainy, so what followed was almost inevitable. Tough on the insurance companies, though. Doc Lawson seems positive that it was the shock of the operation.”
“That is just why I don’t feel satisfied,” said Dr. Jarvis. “Lawson is an old practitioner, a good surgeon, but very apt to make up his mind what killed his patient. The more you might show him the probability of some other cause, the more stubbornly he would believe in his own theory.”
“There are quite a few of us like that, Doc,” smiled the inspector. “But, you knew the whole family. Is there anyone who could profit by Craighead’s death?”
“Well, there is Ross, Jim’s adopted son and his nephew. But he had all the money he needed—he was in the business with Jim. Then, too, Jim made no secret of the fact that his fortune was to go to Ross. So I think that Ross is out of the question, for they were devoted to each other. Ross is the idealistic type—he would be more apt to give money away than try to get it by murder.”
“Who else is there?” queried the inspector, indifferently, for he could see no mystery in Craighead’s death.
“Then,” continued the doctor, “there is the girl to whom Ross is engaged, a perfectly innocent creature who simply adored Jim—he treated her as if she were already his daughter-in-law. She is an orphan, Tessie Prettyman.”
“Tessie Prettyman!” exploded Inspector Craven, “Good Lord, Doctor Jarvis, do you know who Tessie Prettyman is?”
“No, she has no family that we know of, but she seems to be a very refined and charming little lady.”