“Why would anyone take his shoes?”
“I don’t know, but I have an idea.”
“What’s the idea?”
Mason said, “Let’s look at it this way, Paul. The autopsy surgeon says he’s been dead some time. He figures ten o’clock Tuesday morning as the very latest. I have an idea he’d like to put it quite a bit before that, but in view of the other evidence, he’s stretching things to the limit.”
“That gas being on and the room being closed up didn’t help things any,” Drake pointed out.
“I know, but that’s a significant thing in itself.”
“How do you mean, Perry?”
Mason said, “Let’s look at it this way, Paul. Tidings might have gone into the house under his own power. It might have been during the daytime… But there are quite a few things which make me think otherwise. One of them is the gas.
“I don’t think that the gas was turned on simply to create conditions which would cause a more rapid decomposition of the body and make it more difficult to fix the time of death with any degree of accuracy.”
“Why was it turned on then?” Drake asked.