“We have, sir.” “Well, have you ever known me to make a positive statement without being fairly certain of it?” “I don’t call one to mind.” “And when I do make a positive statement, I’m not often wrong. Now am I, inspector?” “I’ve never known you wrong yet, sir.” “Oh, I don’t say as much as that, Parkyns; but I’m going to make a definite assertion now, and I think you can depend upon it.” The two detectives listened with rapt attention as the barrister continued. “That woman no more committed suicide than I’ve done. It isn’t suicide at all. She was murdered.” “Why do you think so?” [98]“Just think, Parkyns. The body is found nude.” [98] “Quite so, sir; but so was Miss Alvarez, and you’ve never said that case wasn’t suicide——” “I agree, Parkyns, I never have said so; but when the body of Miss Alvarez was found in the bedroom of her flat, her clothes were there in the room. Now, it’s never dawned on you, or on the coroner or on the jury, that Miss Stableford’s clothes were not in the bedroom or in the hotel. There was nothing whatever in the room in the way of personal belongings; there was not even a hairpin, and yet her hair was undone and loose on the pillow. Now, a decent respectable woman, as we know Miss Stableford was, doesn’t walk about the corridors of a decent respectable hotel as this is, in broad daylight, with even her hair undone. And she certainly doesn’t walk about the corridors without her[99] clothes on. I think that’s sound argument.” [99] “Then,” said Yardley, “do you think she was murdered somewhere else and taken there afterwards?” “No, not in the least. You can’t carry a dead body into a hotel without it being noticed, nor dare anyone risk carrying a nude dead body along the corridor from one room to another. No, the girl was murdered in the room
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