He was paralysed, at
least his throat was. But I did manage to make out finally what
sounded to me like, 'Tell her I don't believe the scandal, I
don't believe it.' But before he could say whom to tell he had
again become unconscious, and by the time the doctor arrived he
was dead. I guess you know everything else as well as I do."
"You didn't hear the shot fired from any particular direction?"
asked Kennedy.
"No, sir."
"Well, where do you think it came from?"
"That's what puzzles me, sir. The only thing I can figure out is
that it was fired from the outside office--perhaps by some
customer who had lost money and sought revenge. But no one out
there heard it either, any more than they did in the directors'
room or the ladies' department."
"About that message," asked Kennedy, ignoring what to me seemed
to be the most important feature of the case, the mystery of the
silent bullet. "Didn't you see it after all was over?"
"No, sir; in fact I had forgotten about it till this moment when
you asked me to reconstruct the circumstances exactly. No, sir, I
don't know a thing about it. I can't say it impressed itself on
my mind at the time, either."
"What did Mrs. Parker do when she came to?"
"Oh, she cried as I have never seen a woman cry before. He was
dead by that time, of course.
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