After Stewart knocked several times, Boda came to the door in his shirtsleeves. Stewart said he and Brouillard were from the Immigration Service and that they wanted a photograph of Coacci. Boda said Coacci had already sent in two photographs. Stewart explained that one of them had been lost. Boda let the men in. When Stewart asked about Coacci’s friends, Boda said that they sometimes came to the house but he did not know who they were. They were, he told the chief, “bad peoples.” More than that he could or would not say. When Stewart asked if Coacci had owned a gun, Boda said he had kept one in the kitchen drawer. Stewart opened the drawer. Though he found no gun, the drawer contained the manufacturer’s diagram of a Savage automatic.
Still ostensibly looking for photographs, Stewart and Brouillard searched the house while Boda tagged after them. When they asked if he himself had a gun, Boda produced a Spanish-type automatic from his bureau. He said he had no license, but that he never carried the gun outside. Brouillard removed the clip and examined the three cartridges. Each was of a different make; all were American.
When the three men went out on the porch, Stewart asked about the padlocked shed. Boda said he kept his car there, but just now it was at the Johnson’s garage. Stewart asked if he could look inside the shed. Boda unsnapped the padlock and slid the door back.
On the right of the dirt-floored shed stood two planks on which the Overland had rested. To the left of the planks the floor had recently been raked. Stewart and Brouillard inspected the shed carefully. Afterward Stewart chimed that a small unraked patch near one of the planks showed the clear imprint of a U. S. Royal tire, much too large for an Overland but the right size for a Buick.[1]
Boda locked the shed again and Stewart thanked him for his cooperation, saying he might have a chat with him later.
The more Stewart thought about Boda afterward the more dubious the Italian began to appear. Later, he felt he should have arrested him on the spot, but at the time there had seemed nothing tangible except the pistol. Early the next morning he drove over to Puffer’s Place alone. Boda was eating breakfast at the kitchen table when he glimpsed the chief’s car coming down South Elm Street. By the time Stewart knocked on the door, he had slipped out of sight. Stewart knocked several times, peered through the window at the breakfast table, and then drove off.
For Boda that second visit was conclusive. The police would be coming back. Whatever they might want, he preferred not to be there. An Italian friend came down from Brockton and helped him get his belongings together. He left on the Boston train that afternoon, and for the next few weeks stayed under cover with an Italian family in East Boston.
Just as Boda had suspected, Stewart returned the following evening. But this time, when he flashed his light through the kitchen window, there was nothing to see. Except for a few tin cans in the corner the place was empty.
Stewart drove to the Elm Square Garage. Boda’s Overland was still there. Stewart told Simon Johnson ominously that there was some pretty serious business afoot and that if Boda or anyone else should come for the Overland, Johnson was to string him along until he could call the police.