“Did she state why she did not ask her father to go with them?”
“Only that he had not fully recovered from an attack of tonsillitis, which I knew to be a fact, and they did not want him to over-tax his strength.”
There was a moment's pause as the coroner, his attention diverted by a whispered word or two from the morgue master, referred to his notes before resuming his examination.
“Did you know James Turnbull?” he asked a second later.
“Yes, slightly.”
“Did you recognize him in his burglar's disguise?”
“I did not”
“Had you any suspicion that the burglar was other than he seemed?”
“No.”
Penfield picked up a memorandum handed him by Dr. Mayo and referred to it. “I understand, doctor, that you were the first to go to the burglar's aid when he became ill,” he said. “Is that true?”