Free The bride wore black by Cornell Woolrich

outside, but it could very easily have been left ajar to admit her. These precautions must have been her own suggestion, since she evidently came prepared to kill Mitchell.
    "Then who was it saw her that one more time you just mentioned, after the theater episode?''
    "The girl he was keeping steady company with, a waitress named Maybelle Hodges. She called at the room within a few moments after the time established for his death by the medical examination. When she knocked on the door, this woman came out. She'd been in there."
    "What did the woman say to her?"
    "She admitted she'd killed him, and advised the girl to go downstairs again, get away before she became involved herself."
    Wanger felt his chin dubiously. "Do you think that statement's trustworthy?"
    "Yes, because the girl's description of the woman, both as to appearance and the clothes she was wearing, talhes completely with that given me by the theater staff, so you see she couldn't very well have made the story up.

    And this brings up a point I mentioned before. She's not a homicidal maniac by any means; she had a beautiful opportunity to kill the Hodges girl then and there. All she had to do was admit her to the room there was a screen around his body. She had plenty of time. Instead she warned the girl off, for the girl's own sake.
    "There's the whole thing. More material than we need, in one way. But the keystone that would give it a meaning is missing; no motive."
    "No conceivable motive, and they didn't know each other, and she vanishes as completely as a streak of lightning after it's struck once," Wanger summed up, baffled. "Well, he sent me over here to see if I could make anything out of it. I'm only sure of one thing: this case strings along with the Bliss one; it's an accurate copy."
    Chambermaid, fourth floor, Helena Hotel:
    "I never seen her before, so I knew for a fact she didn't live in the hotel. I thought maybe she was visitin' somebody. She was just passin' by the hall that day. This was about, um, two weeks before it happened. Maybe mo'. She stopped and looked in the open door while I'm cleanin' his room, I said, 'Yes'm, you lookin' for Mr. Mitchell?' She said, "No, but I always think you can learn so much about a pusson's character and habits just by lookin' at their rooms.' She talk so polite and refine' it's a pleasure to hear her. She look at the girls' pictures he have all over the wall and she say, 'He likes women to be mysterious, I can tell by them. Not one is an honest everyday pitcher of how those girls really look. They all tryin' to look like somethin' else, for his sake. Bitin' roses and starin' through lace fans. If one if 'em gave him her pitcher like she really was, he most likely wouldn't put it up.' ,

    "That's all. And then before I knowed it, she gone away again, and I never seen her no mo' after that."
    Clerk at Globe Liquor Store:
    "Yes, I remember selling this. A thing as unusual as arak we don't sell more than a bottle a year. No, it was not her suggestion. I happened to come across it on the shelf and I thought it would be a good opportunity to get it off our hands, as long as she'd asked for something unusual and at the same time potent. She said she was making a present of it to a friend, and the more exotic it was the better pleased he would be. I'd already shown her vodka and aquavit. She decided on arak. She admitted she'd never sampled any of it herself. One funny thing: on her way out she gave me a peculiar smile and said, 'I find myself doing so many things these days that I've never done before.'
    "No, not at all nervous. As a matter of fact she deliberately stood aside and told me to go ahead and wait on a man who wanted a bottle of rye in a hurry, while she was making up her mind. She said she wanted to take her time making a selection."
    Wanger's SUPERIOR SAID a week later, "So you think the two cases are related in some way, do you?"
    "I do."
    "Well, in just what way?"
    "Only in this way: the same unknown