The detective searched the room and found many small items that had been no doubt stolen from any number of places. Turning to the woman, he asked, “What do you know about this man, Jerome Walsh?”
“I don’t know anything about him,” she answered meekly. “He has been boarding with me for almost a year. Once a month a man comes, I think it is his brother, and pays for his room and board. Tell me, Mister detective, did Mr. Walsh do anything wrong?”
“Plenty,” was the answer. “Is there supposed to be something wrong with him mentally?”
“I don’t know,” the woman replied. “Every once in a while he acts strangely, but as far as I know, he is harmless.”
“What sort of strange things would he do?” asked Paul.
“Well, he would sometimes talk to himself, sometimes he would go out walking all night long—little things like that.”
The detective said, “The next time this man, his brother or whoever he is, comes to pay his room and board, I want you to call me. In the meanwhile, Mr. Walsh is not coming back here any more.”
“But what did he do?” the woman asked frantically.
“He tried to set a house on fire and he stole an automobile this morning,” the detective told her.