“Not taken your shower? Come, Storm, this won’t do! I’ve ’phoned, and the coroner’s assistant is on his way over from the county seat.” He held out a small glass, and the other took it mechanically. “Drink this and pull yourself together, for there are some trying hours ahead.”
Chapter VI.
The Verdict
“You were right, unquestionably, Storm,” Dr. Carr announced twenty minutes later as the other joined him in the library. “I don’t mind admitting that my thoughts—my sensations, rather—when first I saw the body were identical with what yours had been, but there’s only one possible conclusion. Mrs. Storm must have been seated in that big chair by the hearth when she felt suddenly faint; and in trying to rise, she must have fallen forward, striking her forehead with crushing force against that solid brass knob on the fender. Agnes tells me that she found her mistress lying face downward against it, and thinking she had merely fainted, turned the body over. It was only when she saw the wound that she screamed. Of one thing you may be sure; Mrs. Storm didn’t suffer. She never knew what struck her. Death came instantly.”
Storm sank into a chair, his twitching face turned from the light. If Carr only knew!
“I must try to think that!” he murmured. “Did you get George Holworthy on the ’phone, Doctor?”
“Yes. He is on his way out here by now. Agnes gave me some coffee, and I told her to bring a tray for you—No protests!” as Storm made a gesture of repugnance. “You are under my orders, remember, and you’ve got to keep going.”
Storm drank the coffee obediently enough when it came, conscious of a craving for its stimulus. The first and most hazardous milestone was passed; Dr. Carr had fallen for his game, had been completely hoodwinked by the circumstantial evidence he had arranged. He had won an unconscious yet powerful ally, and the way seemed clear before him, but the glow of elation was past.
While the physician droned on in a soothing monotone, seeking for words of consolation to assuage the grief of his patient and neighbor, the humming of a high-powered car reached their ears as it turned in at the gate and ploughed up the driveway, and Storm sank back.
“That is the coroner’s man now.” Dr. Carr strode to the window. “Oh, he has sent young Daly, and the chief medical examiner is with him. That will simplify matters tremendously. I know them both, and I’ll see that they don’t bother you any more than is absolutely necessary.”
Agnes ushered in a tall, lanky young man and his stouter, elderly companion who nodded in brisk, professional gravity.