This piece of evidence quite put the jury off the scent, as if Francis had placed the body in the pool, he would not have told the inspector where to find it. The critical point was thus glided gently over, and the coroner called Rose Gernon. Once the jury knew how the crime had been committed, they would forget all about the hiding of the body in the pool, so that the folly of Francis would not be made public.
I must say that Rose Gernon gave her evidence very clearly. She said she was an intimate friend of Felix Briarfield's, a statement which rather shocked the moral tradesmen of Marshminster. Felix asked her to go down to the inn, as he had prepared it for his brother, and wished to see him there about a family matter.
"But the inn was a ruin," interrupted a juryman.
Miss Gernon said that was very true. Still it was habitable, and Mr. Felix Briarfield had sent on fuel and provisions. As the former proprietor had left all the furniture, the rooms were fairly comfortable. She could not say why Felix did all this, unless it was that he wanted to see his brother privately.
Such talk was very weak, and the jurymen looked significantly at one another. They knew the Fen Inn, and could not conceive that anyone could be so mad as to dwell in it even for a night. It was said to be haunted, and though such a superstition might be scoffed at, yet not one of those present would have passed twelve hours of darkness in that ill-omened place.
"Were you not afraid when you saw the Lone Inn?" asked a juryman.
Rose shrugged her shoulders and laughed contemptuously.
"I am afraid of nothing," she said coolly; "there are no such things as ghosts. Besides, I had my brother with me."
"Your brother!"
"Yes, Edward Strent."