“Well, it’s a little difficult to generalize about that. In this particular case, there is reason to doubt whether there was any outcry after the blow was struck.”
“What reason have you to suppose that?”
“I think that Mr. Conroy has already testified that Mrs. Bellamy’s head was resting on the corner of a steel fire guard—a pierced railing about six inches high. It is my belief that, when she received the blow, she staggered, clutched at the table, and fell, striking the back of her head against the railing with sufficient force to render her totally unconscious. There was a serious abrasion at the back of the head that leads me to draw that conclusion.”
“I see. Was Mrs. Bellamy wearing any jewellery when you saw her, Doctor—a necklace, rings, brooches?”
“I saw no jewellery of any kind on the body.”
“What type of knife should you say was used to commit this murder, Doctor?”
“Well, that’s a little difficult to say. There were no marked peculiarities about the wound. It might have been caused by almost any knife with a sharp blade about three quarters of an inch wide and from three to four inches long—a sheath knife, a small kitchen knife, a large jackknife or clasp knife—various types, as I say.”
“Could it have been made with this?”
The prosecutor dropped a small dark object into the doctor’s outstretched hand and stood aside so that the jury, galvanized to goggle-eyed attention, could see it better. It was a knife—a large jackknife, with a rough, corrugated bone handle.
Mr. Lambert bore down on the scene at a subdued gallop. “Are you offering this knife in evidence?”