“How would he dial a number?”
“That’s easy. You don’t realize how sensitive those people are with their fingers. They could manipulate a dial phone just about as quickly as you could, once they knew the number. Otherwise, all they’d have to do is dial Operator, explain the situation, and have Operator get them the number.”
Sergeant Seller’s eyes caught Bertha’s and held them in a cold, steely grip. “There are two theories to work on. One of them is that Jerry Bollman wanted to call on this blind man, or else wanted to get something out of the place. He went out, found the door open on account of this pet bat, and started exploring.”
“What’s the other theory?” Bertha asked non-committally.
“The other theory is that Kosling went out with Bollman; that Bollman took him to dinner. When Bollman had finished with him, he took him home, led the way up the walk, holding the blind man’s arm, probably lighting his own way with a flashlight. Bollman flung open the door, stepped inside, and — BANG!”
Bertha gave a quick, nervous start.
“Just acting things out for you,” Sergeant Sellers said, and smiled.
“Sounds like very fair reasoning,” Bertha said, “taking everything into consideration.”
“The last theory,” Sergeant Sellers said, “sounds a lot better to me — provided there was something Bollman wanted from this blind man, some information or something. Any idea what it could have been?”
Bertha hesitated over that.