The Inspector set to work, industriously grovelling on the floor as he searched under the heavier articles of furniture in the room.
“Well, doctor, what do you make of it?” Sir Clinton asked, when he saw that Ringwood had completed his examination.
“It's plain enough on the surface,” the doctor answered, as he turned away from the body. “She must have been shot at quite close quarters, just above the ear. Her hair is singed with the flame of the powder. The bullet went clean through the head and then into the padded ear-piece of the chair. I expect it's stuck there. You can see for yourself that the shot didn't produce any twitch in the body; the position she's sitting in shows that well enough. I'm quite prepared to bet that she was dead before the shot was fired.”
“The P.M. will clear that up for us definitely, if the poison can be detected,” Sir Clinton answered. “But these vegetable poisons are sometimes the very devil to spot, if they're at all out-of-the-way ones.”
He turned back to the Inspector, who was now on his feet again, dusting the knees of his trousers.
“I've found three cartridge-cases sure enough, sir,” he reported. “Two of them are under that couch over there; the third's in the corner near the window. I didn't pick them up. We'll need to make a plan of this room, I expect; and it's safest to leave things as they are, so as to be sure of the exact spots.”
Sir Clinton signified his approval.
“On the face of things, judging by the way an automatic ejects its cartridge, one might say that the single case near the window came from the shot that killed the girl. The other two, which landed somewhere near each other, might represent the two shots that made the wounds in young Hassendean's lung. But that's mere speculation. Let's have a look at the pistol, Inspector.”
Flamborough put his hand into his waistcoat pocket, stooped down, picked up the pistol gingerly, and drew a rough outline of its position on the floor with a piece of chalk.
“Try it for finger-prints, sir?” he inquired. “I've got an insufflator in the car.”