All Bedlam Courses Past (part two hundred thirty-eight)

 

 

 

 

 

All Bedlam Courses Past

 

 

Chapter Eight

Things Relative

 

(part two hundred thirty-eight)

 

 

 

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“No. It isn’t testimony at all. I began my summation…” Wink at Phelan. “…with Miss Zucker, and the difficulty. You, sir, no doubt, having servants in the house, never trouble over keys. But perhaps, Miss…? And certainly, you, Mr. Thacker, living in rooms, are in the habit of pocketing yours when you go about your errands. No, keep still.”

Weem hovered a hand that had aimed for his summer suitcoat.

“Have you got it, or have you not?”

“Bound to,” Weem said. “But I see what you’re getting at.”

“If I were to have you swear under penalty of perjury.”

“Have to say I’m pretty sure.”

“And if I were a lawyer with a client, and determined to break your testimony.”

Weem looked at Élucide. “You would hammer on pretty sure, until you’d got the jury believing Thacker’s lying.”

“Get that key.”

After its production, Monaghan said: “Miss Zucker did not forget to fix the bolt. But she is intelligent, and knows where such questions lead. The matter is of the essence. It cannot be diminished, crafted upon until it becomes another thing altogether, or befogged into obscurity. One person could have undone the bolt. We have touched on her motives. We have touched on her character, her history, and her movements leading to the last night of her mother’s life. But when we speak of the bolt, and the bolt alone, no person other than Miss Buckley could have put fingers on it.”

“But for some other reason?”

“What would that be, Mr. Ebrach?”

“A noise heard in the passage.”

“Miss Buckley had a door of her own, leading to the passage.”

“A sleepwalking episode…?”

“And Mrs. Demrose, also? The both of them?”

“A… Ah. I do feel, however, that life can produce its odd coincidences.”

“Of course it can. Commendable in you to stand for the ladies. And if it comforts your mind, sir, while you’ll excuse me thinking that a woman who murders should hang for it, like a man… Miss Buckley is in no danger. She will not be charged. She will say, as she has said already, that her state of mind had not permitted her to notice details, and that Miss Zucker would have bolted the door, and that we must ask Miss Zucker.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

250

 

 

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Bedlam

All Bedlam Courses Past (part two hundred thirty-nine)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(2025, Stephanie Foster)