The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-01-21

their trail It took him weeks to
 do it. and Sprague followed Nita's advice. He got here on Sunday, | April 27, and on Monday the 28th i Nita banked the first 5000. Don't you see it. boy? Sprague brought | with him the dough they'd got for their stunt, and thought it was
 safer for Nita to bank it in her name. since it wasn't the name she
 was known by in New York any
 way. We've checked up on Sprague
 pretty thoroughly. He didn't have bank book, either on his body or in his room, and every bank in town denies he had an account with them"
 "If that theory is correct it
 makes Nita SeIim pretty low character,' Dundee unused aloud. Not only cid she kick him out as lover, but she double crossed him as her partner in crime. by willing the whole Wad to Lydia Carr Sprague must have received quite q shock when he heard Nita's will read at the inquest"
 "Yeah," Strawn agreed. Tt looks like Mrs Dunlap picked sweet specimen to make a friend out of.
 We'll. that's my theory, and l think it explains everything. Their victim in New York simply hired a gunman, or came down here him. self, when he got on their tracks Of course it was a good stunt to make it look like @ local crime figured he'd fool me just as he fooled you! So the murderer sim ply trailed Nita around, and saw the whole bunch of society people shooting at q target at Judge Mar shalIS place. with a gun equipped with a Maxim silencer Too good an opportunity to be missed, so he bides his chance to swipe the gun and silencer. TO make sure it will look like q local crime, he pops off Nita when that same bunch is at
 her house. but it takes few days longer before he has the same op-
 portunity to get Sprague. But it came last night and he took advan- tage of it."
 "A very plausible theory, and
 one which, in general, the whole city of Hamilton has been familiar with since the night Nita was mur- dered," Dundee remarked signifi- cantly
 What do you mean?" Strawn de- manded. It's waterproof, ain't it :? | Doc Price says the bullet--and a .32 caliber one at that entered | Sprague's body just below the | breastbone and travelled an upward
 course till it struck the extreme
 right side of the heart. The bullet
 entered exactly where it would have
 to. if the murderer was crouching
 under that window while Sprague was raising the screen. And we | u,t',, Sprague's finscrprints or those
 nickle-plated things you have to press together to make the screen roll up or down. Furthermore. i haven't doubt in the world that the ballistics expert in Chicago will 1 report that the bullet was fired
 from the same gun that killed Nita | Selim."
 | Neither have r." Dundee agreed | But what 1 meant was that you had oblieinglv furnished the mur- derer who fits my theory with a | theory he-or she--would not have
 upset for the world, Listen!"
 and he bent forward very earnestly:
 Pm willing to grant that Sprague was shot from the outside, through | the window. when Sprague raised l the screen. But there our theories
 part company. l believe that the
 murderer was a guest in the Selim
 home last night, that he or she had l made an appointment to meet l SpraSue there. on the promise of
 paying the hush money he had de- | manded. Naturally he or she-and
 I'll say he from now on, for the | sake of convenience--had no inten- | tion of being seen entering that
 room. The bridge game was sug-
 gested by Judge Marshall at noon. There was plenty of time for the rendezvous to be made with Sprague. As I see it, the murderer I told Sprague to excuse himself | rom the game when he became | dummy, and to go to the trophy | room and wait there until the mur-
 derer had q chance to slip away
 and appear beneath the window