He marched in like a man with a purpose, and I saw that whatever that purpose might be he had dressed for it.
He was always neat enough, but that night he was resplendent.
“This is a social call,” he said.
“I’m not a policeman now; I’ll ask you to remember that.”
And he added, not without embarrassment, that he felt very friendly toward all of us; that he had enjoyed his talks with me, and that he liked Judy.
Then he sat still and stared at his well-polished boots.
“In that case,” I suggested, “out of office hours, so to speak, and the whisky being some my father put away years ago, would you like a highball?”
Which he would, and did.
Perhaps it warmed him; perhaps he had come for the purpose.
The upshot of it was that he said he did not want any miscarriage of justice the next few days, and that things were looking pretty black.
“The prosecution’s going to get a conviction.
It’s out for one, and it’ll get it.
Mind you, the District Attorney thinks he’s right.
I’ve talked it over with him, and he had God with him, as he sees it.
But there are one or two little points they’re not likely to bring up, and I thought I’d talk them over with you.”
And then and there, categorically, he outlined the defense for us.
As I wrote it down for Godfrey Lowell at the time, I have it before me now.
(a) Jim was being tried for Sarah’s murder, but the story of Florence Gunther’s would inevitably enter the case.
Why was it that there was no oil in Jim’s car the morning after Florence’s death, although I found it later?
“Tell Lowell to bring that out. The prosecution won’t.”
(b) Find Amos, and get him on the stand.
“He buried that sword-stick.
His prints were thick on it.”
(c) Ask the microscopist who examined Sarah Gittings’ clothing if he found anything wrapped around a button.
“I may lose my job over this, but he did.
He found a longish white hair.”
(d) Ask him—the microscopist—if that hair was living or dead?
If it came from a head or a wig.
“I think it came from a wig, myself.
Make them produce that hair in court.
They’ve got it.”
(e) Ask the microscopist what he found on that piece of wood from the Larimer lot.
“He found something besides blood and that dead woman’s hair.
He found some fibers from cloth on the end of it.
Black cloth, or grayish black.
They’ve got those, too.”
(f) Put a lot of emphasis on that three hours from seven to ten.
Where was she?
“I’m not so sure myself that the whole solution doesn’t lie there.”
And
(g) Why were both those stab wounds the same depth?
He leaned back, like a man well satisfied with himself.
“Now here’s the situation, to my mind,” he explained.
“And Lowell’s welcome to use it if he likes.
Here’s a man who has worked himself into a mood to kill.
He’s out to kill.
And he’s got a sword in his hand; a rapier, rather.
It’s got a blade a foot and a half long, and it’s as sharp as a dagger.
What does he do?
He drives it home with all his strength, and this man who did this had strength, plenty of it.