Coroner

A tall, bearded man of sixty, coarsely clad.

"I should like to ask one question, Mr. Coroner," he said.

"What asylum did this here last witness escape from?" "Mr.

Harker," said the coroner, gravely and tranquilly, "from what asylum did you last escape?" Harker flushed crimson again, but said nothing, and the seven jurors rose and solemnly filed out of the cabin.

Clearly, here was a mysterious case.

The coroner at once took matters in his own hands.

Inspector Mason told him all that had been learned so far, and though Coroner Fenn seemed to think matters had been pretty well bungled, he made no comment and proceeded with the inquiries.

Sure there's nobody upstairs? he asked Breen.

Positive.

"And no," said I.

"I am positive Miss Van Allen did not know Mr. Somers and could not have killed an utter stranger on no provocation whatever." "You do not know what provocation she may have had," suggested Fenn.

"Now look here, Mr. Coroner," said Mrs. Reeves very decidedly.

Our report will build on the findings of this, but it is clear that these issues have been in play for a long period of time.

Police, WorkSafe and Coroners investigations are also still underway.

The government has declined a fast-track application to build 1,000 homes on Canterbury's former Pegasus golf course.

It follows strong opposition from local residents.

At the sound of his name, Mr. Parmalee stepped forward and was introduced to me.

He proved to be a local detective, a young man, who always attended Coroner Monroe on occasions like the present, but who, owing to the rarity of such occasions in West Sedgwick, had had little experience in criminal investigation.

He was a young man of a type often seen among Americans.

He was very fair, with a pink complexion, thin yellow hair, and weak eyes.

It was just as the men came in at the door that I chanced to notice a newspaper that lay on a small table.

I picked it up with an apparent air of carelessness, and watching my chance, unobserved by Parmalee, I put the paper away in a drawer, which I locked.

The six men, whom Coroner Monroe named over to me by way of a brief introduction, stepped silently as they filed past the body of their late friend and neighbor.

For the jurymen had been gathered hastily from among the citizens of West Sedgwick, who chanced to be passing, and, as it was after eleven o'clock, they were, for the most part, men of leisure and occupants of the handsome homes in the vicinity.