Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-09-17

evening preceding the DAY Oh which
Miss Sonde's corpse was discovered.
In the first place, Miss Sonde had on
a morning dress. Then, as the lift
man said, Miss Sonde was the soul of
punctuality. Had she been alive and
we'll she would certainly have been
down to dinner with the other board
ers at half-past six. For twelve years
she had never missed this meal.
And the last argument was by no
means the least. From half-past five
until seven o'clock on that eventful
afternoon a terrible thunderstorm had
been raging over London. 1t was rain
ing furiously, and during one of those
long deafening claps a revolver might
have been shot off without being heard
across the passage.
Miss Anna Maria Sonde's heir was
Philip Passeron. 1t fell to his share
to make all arrangements for the fu-
neral, and his friends clapped him on
the back and called him a lucky man,
while his enemies frowned on him and
limited that he had had a hand in the
murder of his aunt
There was no denying the fact that
he was interested in the old lady's
death. Then the Iift-man suddenly re-
membered that Mr. Passeron had
called upon his aunt at about four
o'clock on the afternoon of the day of
the murder, and had not gone down
again by the lift, which was very I'M
usual for him.
All this gave the police something to
think about.
They instituted inquiries, and dis
covered from Messrs. Pinks, Rawlings
and Nephew, solicitors of Old Jewry
Chambers, that the deceased lady had
intended to make a fresh will on the
day of her death, cutting off her
nephew with shilling, and leaving
her fortune to hospitals and charitable
institutions, if he would not in the
meantime renounce his intention of
marrying Miss Belle Borati, of the
FrivoIity Theatre.
Miss Anna Maria Sonde was of the
severe and proper kind. Every line of
her face expressed propriety, every
word of her mouth her hatred of any
thing shocking.
At the very mention of a theatre she
would raise her eyes in pious indigna-
ton, and when they talked about a bal
let a faint blush would tinge her with
cred yellow cheeks.
The fact that her nephew was noto-
riously in love with Frivolity star
entirely upset the old lady.
mot a penny of my money shall
ever be touched by a chit of a girl
who makes living by showing her
self in public" she had said to her
solicitor and when she so far over
came her mOdesty as to mention a
subject Of this kind in the presence
of a man it was clear-perfectIy clear
that she was terribly in earnest.
Not that there was any reason for
her or anyone else to be ashamed of
Miss Borati. She was a simple mod
est girl, who had to make her own liv-
ing, and made it in way for which
nature had eminently fitted her.
When these facts were brought to
light, Mr.. Philip Passeron was arrest
ed on the charge of murder. The old
lady's death was worth 100000 to
him, and his visit to her on that after
noon, as it were, signed the warrant
Mr.. Arthur Darlington, as he looked
through the various newspaper reports
of case, shook his head.
"The mans as guilty as any muir
derer ever was" he said 70 himself
slipping the cup of tea which the Of
flee boy had solemnly placed on his
desk. However, I must see if I can't
Go something for that pretty little girl.
We taken quite a fatherly interest in
her, and it's quite romantic her paying
for my services, romantic-and- er-
business-like."
He got up, took his hat from it's peg,
and an umbrella from the stand.
Then he went out and took a cab to
EarIs Court.
He thought over all the facts of the
case with great care, and once more
he came to the conclusion that Philip
PasserOn was the murderer.
There was only one thing in his ia
vOr, and it was this Mr.. Darlington
was about to investigate.
No theory of any kind had been sug-
gested to explain the remarkable pO-
sition in which the body was found.
If Miss Sonde had jumped onto the
bed to escape her nephew, how had he
TO /,
wall, so as to shoot her through the
forehead!
1t certainly was a most eXtraOrdi-
nary case, and even Mr.. Darlington
was sorely puzzled.
He had no difficulty in obtaining
permission to enter the room where
the murder had taken place. It had
not been touched since that eventful
day, by order of the police
He searched high and low in the
hopes of finding a revolver, which
Miss Sonde might have thrown away
before she fell, if it had been suicide.
He found nothing nothing like
revolver, but he found something else
which made even the cold and phIeg-
matte detective clutch the foot of the
bedstead for support.
1t was only an imitation cherry
which had rolled under the bed, only
round, red cherry.
But on Miss Borati's hat that morn
ing he had noticed a bunch of cher
ries, and one stalk particularly from
which the fruit was missing.