“Had his bed been disturbed?”
“Apparently not.”
“You can swear, then, that he was not in the house at—two o’clock?”
“If that was when Miss Day telephoned, yes. I did not look at my watch.”
There were a few more, rather unimportant, questions, then Corole was dismissed.
After that the inquest rather dragged for awhile, although Huldah telling very succinctly of Jim Gainsay taking out the Doctor’s sedan a short time before the storm broke was one of the points of interest. Several policemen had to tell just what they found; during the description of finding Dr. Letheny’s body, I saw Corole wince for the first time and raise her laced handkerchief to her face.
Then Dr. Balman was summoned to tell of his movements following the dinner party. He had gone directly to his room, it appeared, and was asleep when the telephone rang.
“Asleep?” said the coroner astutely. “Not in your dinner jacket, Doctor.”
“I was very tired that night, having worked hard all day. I sat down in an armchair to rest and went to sleep. The first thing I knew the telephone was ringing.”
“And what did you do then?”