“That’s right. Carlotta was there when the wire was delivered. The records of the telegraph company show it was delivered over the telephone, and that Mrs. Belder asked to have it repeated to be sure she got the train on which her mother was arriving. Then she told Carlotta and they arranged to meet the train. Everett Belder was entirely unconscious of the storm that was brewing. His wife asked him that night to take her car to the service station next morning, have the car filled up with gas, and the tyres checked, and have it back before eleven.”
“Wait a minute,” Bertha said. “She didn’t leave the house until eleven-twenty-two Wednesday morning. Wasn’t the train due before that?”
“It was due at eleven-fifteen, but it was late and didn’t get in until considerably after that.”
“How did it happen Carlotta and Mrs. Belder didn’t go to meet the train together?”
“Carlotta had some things she had to do uptown. Mrs. Belder liked to sleep late in the mornings. Carlotta said she’d do her shopping uptown and meet Mrs. Belder at the depot. We can assume Mrs. Belder telephoned to find out if the train was on time. Now, the point is that the train was first reported as being on time, then as being due at twelve-fifteen. If Mrs. Belder didn’t leave the house until eleven-twenty-two, she must have had the twelve-fifteen report, and she couldn’t have intended to do very much before meeting the train. Actually, the train didn’t get in until one o’clock.”
“Carlotta left the house about nine, did a few errands in town, got down to the depot a little early, right around eleven, and then got the report that the train would be in at twelve-fifteen. She then rang up the Belder house to tell her sister the train was late, and got no answer. She tried to phone twice. Now figure that out. That was around eleven. According to the way we had the case doped out, Mrs. Belder was sitting at the phone, waiting for that call from the writer of the poison-pen letter. You know she was there in the house — yet, when Carlotta rang, she didn’t answer the phone. Why?”
“Good Lord!” Bertha exclaimed, “there’s only one reason.”
“Yes? Let’s see if you figure it the same way I do.”
“At that exact moment she must have been murdering Sally Brentner.”
Sellers nodded. “Exactly.”