The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-01-28
lctant statement almost word for

word:
 About that $10,000 which Nita deposited with our bank, Dundee '. When she made the first de- posit of $5,000 on April 28, she ex- plained 1t with an embarrassed laugh as back alimony.' an install- | ment of which she had succeeded | in collecting from her former hus- band. And. naturally. when she made the second deposit on May :. I presumed the same explana- confess I was puzzled by the fact that both big deposits had been | made in cash"
 In cash.
 Had Nita, by any chance, been telling q near-truth? Had she been blackmailinS her own husband--a husband who had dared marry again. believing his deserted wife to be dead-and justifying herself by calling it back alimony"?
 But - wasn't it. in reality, no matter what coercion Nita had used in getting the money, exactly that? Back alimony! And the price of her silence before the world and the wife who was not really a wife :?
 In a new light, Bonnie Dundee studied the character of the woman who had been murdered-possibly to make her silence eternal.
 Lois Dunlap had liked, even loved her. The other women and girls of that exclusive, self-centered clique Of Hamilton's most socially promin- ent women must have liked her fair ly well and found her congenial. in spite of their jealousy of her popu- larity with the men of the crowd. or they would not have tolerated her, regardless of Lois Dunlap's cham pionship of her protege
 Gladys Earle had found her "the sweetest. kindest, most generous person l ever met"--Gladys Earle, who envied and hated all the girls who were more fortunate than she.
 Serena Hart, former member of New York's Junior League and still listed in the Social Register. had found Nita the only congenial num- Der of the chorus she had invaded as the first step toward stardom. And Serena Hart had the reputa- ton of being q woman of character and Judgment, kind and wise and great woman. |.
 Finally. Ralph Hammond had loved Nita and wanted to marry her.
 Was it possible that Nita Selim's only crime. into which she had been led by her infatuation for Dexter Sprague. had been to demand, se- cretly. financial compensation from husband who had married and de- serted her. a husband who, believ- ing her dead, had married again?
 But who was the man whose pie furp-tn fhan,y had recognized as that of her hus- band among the male members of the cast of "rhe Beggar's Opera" when Lois Dunlap had proudly ex- hibited the pictures of that amateur performance?
 With excitement hammering at his pulses, Dundee took the bunch Of photographs which Lois Dunlap had willingly given him. and stud led the picture that contained the entlre cast-the picture which had first attracted Nita's attenion. And again despair overwhelmed him, '"f every one of his possible male suspects was ln that group
 B@T he could not keen his Thoughts from racing on Mem who stepped out of their class and @en: on parties with chorus gurus frequently did so under as- stunned names. he reflected Serena Hart was authority for the informa- iion that Nita's had been a sudden marriage. Was if not entirely pos sible that the man who marired Nita in 1918 had done so haIf- drunk. both on liquor and infatua- tion. and that he had not troubled to explain to Nita his motives for having used an assumed name or to write in his real name on the application for q marriage license? Had Nita's private detective jou. neTed out to Hamilton in a fruitlesa attempt to locate Matthew Selim"?
 Bonnie Dundee lay awake for hours Friday night turning these