“But how can she? She heard me tell Coroner Penfield that some one rang the library bell about five or six minutes before I found the body, and according to Coroner Penfield the man had been dead about twelve hours. Yet the body was not in the library when I was in it earlier in the afternoon; some one beside myself was in this house,” declared Evelyn and she came to a breathless and bewildered pause.
“Mrs. Ward heard you make these statements?” asked Mitchell, pencil in hand, and his memorandum pad balanced on one knee.
“Why, I take it for granted that she did,” Evelyn looked puzzled. “She fainted just about then and we found her lying inside the library door, didn’t we, doctor?” Hayden nodded. “Mrs. Ward must have been standing behind the portières and couldn’t help overhearing our conversation.”
“Then you conclude that your remark about the ringing of the library bell caused her to faint,” asked Maynard reflectively.
Evelyn wrinkled her brows and rubbed her forehead vigorously. “I don’t know just what to think,” she acknowledged. “What was there in that statement to shock her?”
Hayden leaned forward. “Could it be——” He began, then broke off abruptly, hesitated, and finally addressed Mitchell. “Did you think to ask Mrs. Ward if she saw any one leave this house as she came up the street?”
“No, doctor. The fact is,” Mitchell completed the entry he was making in his note book, “the fact is the nurse would only let me stay a second in the sick room; she said Mrs. Ward was too ill to be interviewed now.”
“Then I see nothing for it but to wait until Mrs. Ward is better,” commented Maynard. “Will there be an inquest, Mitchell?”
“Oh, yes; but not just now.” Mitchell turned his head so as to face Maynard. “However, our investigation cannot wait; we must sift evidence to present at the inquest and secure expert testimony.”
Maynard thrust his hands in his pockets and leaned back. “Go slow, Mitchell,” he cautioned. “Remember the legal warning: ‘All evidence is made up of testimony, but all testimony is not evidence.’”