Mason said, “Because the evidence would be materially strengthened by having Waid become panic-stricken, and make a sudden disappearance. Flight, in itself, is an evidence of guilt. You can see that Waid was panic-stricken. As soon as he realized he had murdered the wrong parrot, he knew how deadly the evidence of the parrot would be, because it would prove conclusively that the parrot didn’t learn his speech by hearing the excited last words of Fremont C. Sabin, but had been carefully coached to repeat those words by someone who had access to it; and Waid was the only one, outside of Fremont Sabin, and the son Charles, who had access to the parrot. You will note that Steve Watkins didn’t live in the house, and Mrs. Sabin had been away for six weeks.
“Of all the persons who had a complete alibi, the parrot was the one who had the best. The parrot was not at the scene of the shooting. That was attested to by Mrs. Winters. Therefore, the parrot couldn’t have learned his speech from hearing Sabin say those words. I felt it was quite possible that Sabin’s murderer might be in the room last night when I disclosed the switch in parrots. Charles Sabin had known of it for some time. The information came as news to Mrs. Sabin, Steve and Waid — I saw to that... So Waid decided the only thing for him to do was to kill the parrot. He didn’t know that other persons had heard the parrot’s comments. You see, that’s the trouble with teaching a parrot something to say: you never can tell how often he’ll say it, or when he’ll say it.
“But Waid had all the breaks in one way. He hadn’t intended to pin the crime on Helen Monteith. It’s probable that he knew nothing of Helen Monteith. He had intended to pin the crime on Helen Watkins Sabin. Imagine his consternation when he found that Helen Watkins Sabin had an alibi; that she had been in court in Reno when the murder was supposed to have been committed. Then, he suddenly realized there was an excellent opportunity to pin the crime on Helen Monteith, but he had to get that parrot out of the way. And then his confidence suddenly returned when he learned that the decree of divorce had been forged, and that Mrs. Sabin didn’t have an alibi after all.
“Once having placed the time of the murder accurately, and disregarding the evidence of the string of fish to which Sergeant Holcomb attached such great importance, it became obvious that Sabin was not alive at ten o’clock on the evening of Monday, the fifth. Therefore, Waid’s statement that he had talked with Sabin over the telephone must have been false.”
Helen Monteith said, “Well, I hope they hang him! He killed one of the best men who ever lived. You’ve no idea how unselfish and considerate Mr. Sabin was. He thought of everything, no detail was too small to escape him. Nothing which would go for my comfort was overlooked.”
“I can readily appreciate that,” Mason said soberly. “Everything that he did... Wait a minute...”
He stopped abruptly.
“What’s the matter?” the sheriff asked.
Mason said excitedly, “That will! He really executed that after he’d married you. Yet he didn’t make any provision in it for you. He provided for everyone else.”
“Yes,” she said.