Only in New England : the story of a gaslight crime by Roscoe Theodore

Author:Roscoe, Theodore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crime
Publisher: New York : Scribner
Published: 1959-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

Q. Then you left?

A. I did. When my aunt asked you to excuse her, it was time for you to go.

Q. What time was that?

A. Minute of nine o'clock, according to the clock on the parlor mantel.

That was Cornelia Ord's story, and she stuck to it. She could not have picked a worse evening to spend an hour in unwitnessed privacy with her aunt. The only person who could have verified her story was Abby Bridewell. And at the Coroner's inquest Old Abby was not talking.

Statement of Lizzie Robinson, spinster, age twenty-one plus, to County Coroner and Jury; Special Inquest Session, Town Hall, Quahog Point, April 1911:

My name is Lizzie Zenobia Robinson. I am a dressmaker as well as a seamstress. What the French call a modest. I ain't—aren't— paid half enough for my work. Wasn't by Mrs. Bridewell or any of them. This village don't appreciate style.

No, I did not have a quarrel with Old Abby—Mrs. Abby Bridewell—on the evening of April 11. Yes, was there fitting a dress from six-thirty to close on eight. It was a taffeta with a lace collar and bead work on the bodice. We did not exchange sharp words then, or any time. She was exacting and particular, but no more so than most.

What I said to Mrs. Ord when I met her as I was leaving was generalities. I'd lost a thimble and pricked my finger, and I was tired out. With dressmaking in general. I didn't mean it personal about Mrs. Abby Bridewell. I liked her well enough.

No, I did not notice any bruises on Mrs. Bridewell. She did not mention bruises to me. Did not seem upset to me. She said she wanted the dress quick as she could get it . . . they all do.

Should think I would have noticed bruises when she tried on the dress, yes. Well, mostly I was pinning up the hem. She did not say anything to me about leaving Quahog Point. She seemed all right when I left the house.

That was when Mrs. Ord went in.

Statement of Walter Jones, age thirteen:

My name is Walter Jones. I am an orphan. I was bound out to Senator Bridewell by the Milk Street Orphans' Home, Boston, October 1910. He placed me in his mother's home to help with the chores. I worked in the stables, fetched wood, tended the yard, shoveled snow, and helped in the kitchen.

They sent me to the Quahog School. I was put back a year . . . the sixth grade. I did not like the school. Senator Bridewell promised me a new corduroy suit, but I did not get it. I had the back room behind the washroom . . . me and Cudworth had it. He's the hired man. He was good to me. He would take me with him to the motion picture show when the old lady let us go.

She promised us we could go Monday night, but we had to stay in on account of Senator Bridewell was there and we had to help in the kitchen at suppertime and after.

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