The morning papers had the story.
They’d had to throw it in at the last minute. It was a routine double-suicide death pact, the way the papers sized it up, but it had ‘angles’. If these developed, it could be a whale of a sex scandal. The papers wanted to be free to play it up or drop it, whichever way the cat jumped.
Headlines said, ‘SAN ROBLES BROKER IN DEATH-PACT KILLS FORMER SECRETARY, THEN TURNS GUN ON SELF... LOVE TRYST IN MOTOR COURT TERMINATES IN TRAGEDY.’
The story followed the usual line, but emphasised that there were certain ‘peculiar circumstances’ which police were investigating.
The dead woman was Mrs. Stanwick Carlton, who had been Dover Fulton’s secretary for a period of years. She had left his employ about three years ago to marry Stanwick Carlton, a mining man, and had been living in Colorado.
Two weeks ago she had told her husband she wanted to “visit relatives in California.” She had driven her own car on the trip, arriving ten days ago. During those ten days she had apparently been in company with Dover Fulton on several occasions. The proprietor of the KOZY DELL SLUMBER COURT remembered that the same couple had rented a cabin there the week before under the name of Mr. and Mrs. Stanwick Carlton.
The thing which puzzled the police, however, was that while the proprietor of the KOZY DELL had insisted the parties to the tragedy had arrived in the Colorado car, Dover Fulton’s own automobile was found parked in the driveway of the auto court. The car was locked both inside and out, but the car keys were not found on Dover’s body. A woman’s coin purse was on the floor of the car. It contained about ten dollars in small change and a ‘business card’.
To further complicate matters, police had received a call just a few minutes before the time of the shooting, advising them that Dover Fulton’s car had been stolen.
The time of the shooting was fixed as being between ten and ten-thirty in the evening. Several occupants of adjoining cabins had heard the sound of the shots but had thought they were caused by a car back-firing. The bodies were discovered when occupants of an adjoining cabin complained of the blaring radio next door.
One point which police were trying to clear up was why three shots had been fired. Apparently Fulton had killed his mistress with one shot through the back of the head. He had then turned the gun on himself, but two witnesses insisted there had been three shots, and after some considerable search, police found where the third bullet had entered a suitcase identified as belonging to Mrs. Carlton.