“It will make so much difference to us,” Carlotta interjected. “You just can’t imagine what a relief this is. I told Mother you could help us. I said, ‘Mother, if there’s anyone who can help us, it will be the delightful woman with the strong personality who was there in Everett’s office when I walked in.’ ”
Bertha Cool picked up a pencil and toyed with it cautiously. “Well, now,” she said, “just what did you have in mind?”
Mrs. Goldring said, “Simply that you tell what you know, fearlessly and accurately. You can go to my lawyer and make a preliminary affidavit and then when you get on the witness-stand you can testify to what you saw when you entered the office, because we know that Everett burnt up that will just before you and Sergeant Sellers entered the office.”
Bertha struggled with sheer incredulity. “You mean that you want me as a witness, and that’s all?”
Carlotta nodded brightly. “You see, Mrs. Cool, we have found ashes in Everett’s little grate there in the office. An expert is testing those ashes, reconstructing them in some way that they have, fitting them together so that he can prove absolutely that it was my sister’s will that Everett had been burning. And those ashes were on top of all the others, showing that the will was the last thing put on the fire. We feel certain that Imogene Dearborne knows a lot more about this than she’s willing to state. I’m afraid she won’t help us voluntarily. But we feel certain that you could help us, that you’d remember papers were burning in the fireplace when you first entered the office. That’s all you need to remember, Mrs. Cool: the papers were burning at that time. I came in later, you’ll remember, and I can testify that when I entered the room the fire was—”
“Wait a minute,” Bertha said, the smile definitely gone from her face, her eyes cold and hard. “What’s in all this for me?”
The women looked at each other, then Carlotta said, “Why, the usual witness fee, Mrs. Cool — and we’d pay you something for your time in going to our lawyer’s office.”
Bertha, struggling to keep her voice level, said, “Then you came here simply to arrange for my testimony as a witness, is that it?”
“That’s it exactly,” Carlotta said, once more turning on the full force of her personality. “We would, of course, be glad to pay you for your time in going up to the lawyer’s office and making a statement — whatever it’s worth. I suppose five or ten dollars. Of course, it couldn’t be anything unusual or it would look as though we were trying to buy your testimony, and we couldn’t either one of us afford that, could we, Mrs. Cool?”
The two women visitors smiled engagingly at Bertha for the space of a second.