Chapter 4 Chapter 4 A Clue

Denmark is a country that hides family ugliness. The house cook was summoned now, and a plump, rosy-cheeked woman stepped briskly out.Because of her pleasing face, combined with the impatient and anxious expression, many people at the scene couldn't help but smile.She observed it, gladly took it as a compliment, and immediately bowed to the crowd as both woman and cook.When she was about to speak, the coroner rose impatiently, before she could speak, and said solemnly: "Your name is—" "Katherine Malone, sir." "Well, Catherine, how long have you been working for Mr. Leavenworth?"

"It's been twelve months, sir, since Mrs. Wilson introduced her to the gate..." "Never mind the gate, tell us why you left Mrs. Wilson?" "Yes, yes, she asked me to leave, because she was going back to her hometown by boat that day, so she introduced someone to come to this gate..." "Well, well, never mind that. You've been at Mr. Leavenworth's for a year, haven't you?" "Yes, sir." "Do you still like it? Do you think his master is good?" "Sir, I have never met such a nice man. How could someone kill him so cruelly? He is cheerful and generous. I often tell Hannah..."

She paused, gasping for comical effect with a sudden, frightened gasp, looking at her colleague as if she had slipped her tongue.The coroner sensed this and was quick to ask, "Hannah? Who is Hannah?" The cook straightened his chubby figure, and tried to appear as nonchalant as possible, and said aloud, "She? Oh, just one of Missy's maids, sir." "But I don't see him here. You didn't mention there was a Hannah here?" he said, turning to Thomas. "No, sir," Thomas replied, squinting at the rosy-cheeked girl next to him, "You're asking about the people in the house when the murder was discovered, and I'm just answering truthfully."

"Oh," exclaimed the coroner, sarcastically, "you're used to the courts, I just know." Then he turned to the cook.At this time, the chef rolled his eyes around nervously.He asked, "Where is Hannah now?" "Oh, sir, she's gone." "How long have you been walking?" The chef's breathing became a little hysterical. "I left last night." "What time was it last night?" "I really don't know, sir. I don't know anything." "Was she fired?" "Not as far as I know, her clothes are still there."

"Oh, the clothes are still there. When did you start missing her?" "I didn't look for her. She was still there last night and disappeared this morning, so I said she was gone." "Huh!" The coroner was very dissatisfied. He slowly glanced at the entire room, and the expressions of the people present were as if a door had suddenly opened after a closed wall. "Where does Hannah sleep?" The cook, who had been fiddling with his apron uneasily, looked up. "Yes, sir, we all sleep on the top floor." "Same room?" She said slowly, "Yes, sir."

"Did she go upstairs and into her room last night?" "Yes, sir." "What time is it?" "It was ten o'clock when we all went upstairs. I heard the bell ring." "Did you notice that she looks different?" "She has a toothache, sir." "Oh, toothache, what's next? Tell me what she did." However, the cook burst into tears at this moment and began to sob. "She didn't do anything, sir. It wasn't her, sir, don't you believe? Hannah was a good girl, honest, sir, always. I'd lay my hands on the Bible, she Never touched his lock. What did she touch his door for? Just went downstairs and asked Miss Eleanor for some painkillers, who had a terrible toothache, sir. . . ”

"Well, well," interrupted the coroner, "I didn't accuse Hannah of anything. I just asked you what she did when she came into the room. You said she went downstairs, went how long?" "Really, sir, I don't know. But Molly said--" "Never mind what Molly said. Didn't you see her come downstairs?" "No, sir." "Didn't you see her come back?" "No, sir." "Didn't you see it this morning?" "She is gone, how can I see her?" "But you did see her toothache last night?" "Yes, sir."

"Very well. Now tell me, how and when did you know of Mr. Leavenworth's death?" But her answers were too onerous to help the case and the coroner wanted to end the questioning there.Then the little juror remembered something.She confessed to seeing Miss Eleanor coming out of the study a few minutes after Mr. Leavenworth's body had been carried into the next room.The jury therefore asked her if the young lady had anything in her hand at that time. "I don't know, sir, really!" she said in alarm. "I'm sure she took a piece of paper, I remember now, and she put it in her pocket."

The next witness was Molly, the girl upstairs. Her name was Molly Overlanegan, she was a ruddy, dark-haired, lively girl of about eighteen years of age.When she answers any questions on ordinary occasions, she will show her ice-snow and smart side, but no matter how strong her heart is, sometimes she will be subdued by fear.At this moment Molly stood in front of the coroner, without any unruly youthful look, and his naturally rosy cheeks turned pale when the coroner spoke the first word.She hung her head on her chest, showing a dazed look, and there was no way to hide it, and everyone knew it.

Most of her testimony is related to Hannah, such as the Hannah she knew, and Hannah's mysterious disappearance. The following is a brief account of her words. As far as Morley knew, Hannah was an uneducated Irish girl of simple background who had come from the country to work as a maid and sewing for the two Miss Leavenworths.She's been working here for a while, longer than Molly.Hannah is dull by nature and unwilling to tell others about her past and private affairs, but she still becomes the most popular servant.She is melancholic by nature and likes to meditate. She often gets up in the middle of the night to sit and meditate in the dark.

"Like she was a lady!" sighed Molly. Because of Hannah's unique behavior among the maids, the coroner wanted witnesses to go further and provide details about her.But Molly shook his head, saying the same thing over and over again.She often gets up in the middle of the night and sits by the window.That's all Molly knows. She stopped describing this aspect, because no matter how she said it, she always said the same sentence.She proceeded to describe the events related to last night.Hannah's cheeks had been swollen for two or three days, and had worsened when they went upstairs at night, and she had to get out of bed and dress.Molly answered many detailed questions on this point, but she insisted that Hannah was well dressed, even carefully arranging the cuffs and ribbons.Then she lit a candle and told the others that she was going downstairs to Miss Eleanor for help. "Why Miss Eleanor?" asked one of the jurors. "Oh, it's Miss Eleanor's job to give the servants medicine, etc." While jurors asked her to continue, she said that was all she knew.Hannah did not come back, nor was she in the room at breakfast. "You said she had the candle," said the coroner, "and the candlestick?" "No, only candles." "Why did she bring a candle? Didn't Mr. Leavenworth have a gas lamp?" "Yes, sir. But we turn off the lights before we go upstairs, and Hannah is afraid of the dark." "If she was carrying a candle, that candle must be somewhere in the house. Has anyone seen a single candle?" "Not so far as I know, sir." "Is this it?" The voice came from behind my shoulder. It was Herr Gritz, holding aloft a half-burnt paraffin candle. "Yes, sir. My God, how did you find it?" "Found it on the grass in the carriage yard. Between the kitchen door and the road," he answered calmly. This is an amazing discovery.Finally a clue!The discovery of this evidence made it seem that the mysterious murder had an outside connection.The back door therefore immediately became the focus of everyone's interest.The candle was found in the carriage yard, which seemed to prove that Hannah not only went out shortly after going downstairs, but also left by the back door.A few steps from the back door is the big iron gate, and there is an alley outside.Thomas insisted, however, that not only the back door, but all the windows downstairs were still locked and cross-barted securely at six in the morning.The corollary is that someone locked the doors and windows after Hannah left.Who is this person?Ah, now this is an extremely important question.