The Mousetrap

INSPECTOR. Not unless they’re interrupted, sir.

MYERS. But in this case it does not seem as if the burglar was interrupted.

INSPECTOR. No, sir.

MYERS. Do you produce a jacket, Inspector?

INSPECTOR. Yes, sir.

(The USHER rises, crosses to the table, picks up the jacket and hands it to the INSPECTOR.)

MYERS. Is that it?

INSPECTOR. Yes, sir. (He returns the jacket to theUSHER.)

(The USHER replaces the jacket on the table.)

MYERS. From where did you get it?

INSPECTOR. I found it at the prisoner’s flat some time after he was arrested, and later handed it to Mr. Clegg at the lab to test for possible bloodstains.

MYERS. Lastly, Inspector, do you produce the will of Miss French?

(The USHER picks up the will from the table and hands it to the INSPECTOR.)

INSPECTOR. I do, sir.

MYERS. Dated October the eighth?

INSPECTOR. Yes, sir. (He returns the will to theUSHER.)

(The USHER replaces the will on the table, crosses and resumes his seat.)

MYERS. After certain bequests, the residue is left to the prisoner?

INSPECTOR. That’s right, sir.

MYERS. And what is the net value of that estate?

INSPECTOR. It will be, as far as can be ascertained at the moment, about eighty-five thousand pounds.

(MYERS resumes his seat. SIR WILFRID rises.)

SIRWILFRID. You say that the only fingerprints you found in the room were those of Miss French herself, the prisoner Leonard Vole and Janet MacKenzie. In your experience, when a burglar breaks in does he usually leave fingerprints or does he wear gloves?

INSPECTOR. He wears gloves.

SIRWILFRID. Invariably?

INSPECTOR. Almost invariably.

SIRWILFRID. So the absence of fingerprints in a case of robbery would hardly surprise you?

INSPECTOR. No, sir.

SIRWILFRID. Now, these chisel marks on the window. Were they on the inside or the outside of the casement?

INSPECTOR. On the outside, sir.

SIRWILFRID. Isn’t that consistent—and only consistent—with a breaking in from the outside?

INSPECTOR. He could have gone out of the house afterwards to have done that, sir, or he could have made those marks from the inside.

SIRWILFRID. From the inside, Inspector? Now how could he have possibly done that?

INSPECTOR. There are two windows together there. Both are casements, and with their catches adjacent. It would have been easy for anyone in the room to open one window, lean out, and force the catch of the other.

SIRWILFRID. Tell me, did you find any chisel near the premises, or at the prisoner’s flat?

INSPECTOR. Yes, sir. At the prisoner’s flat.

SIRWILFRID. Oh?

INSPECTOR. But it didn’t fit the marks on the window.

SIRWILFRID. It was a windy night, was it not, on October fourteenth?

INSPECTOR. I really can’t remember, sir. (He refers to his notes.)

SIRWILFRID. According to my learned friend, Janet MacKenzie said that the curtains were blowing. Perhaps you noticed that fact yourself?

INSPECTOR. Well, yes, sir, they did blow about.

SIRWILFRID. Indicating that it was a windy night. I suggest that if a burglar had forced the window from the outside and then swung it back, some of the loose glass might easily have fallen down outside the window, the window having been blown back violently by the wind. That is possible, is it not?

INSPECTOR. Yes, sir.

SIRWILFRID. Crimes of violence, as we all have been unhappily aware, have been much on the increase lately. You would agree to that, would you not?

INSPECTOR. It’s been a little above normal, sir.

SIRWILFRID. Let us take the case that some young thugs had broken in, who meant to attack Miss French and steal; it is possible that if one of them coshed her and found that she was dead, they might give way to panic and leave without taking anything? Or they might even have been looking for money and would be afraid to touch anything in the nature of jewellery?

MYERS. (Rising) I submit that it is impossible for Inspector Hearne to guess at what went on in the minds of some entirely hypothetical young criminals who may not even exist. (He sits.)

SIRWILFRID. The prisoner came forward of his own accord and gave his statement quite willingly?

INSPECTOR. That is so.

SIRWILFRID. Is it the case that at all times the prisoner has protested his innocence?

INSPECTOR. Yes, sir.