As Mr. Holcombe said, they had provocation, but not motive,
which is different. They had opportunity, and they had a lot of
straggling links of clues, which in the total made a fair chain of
circumstantial evidence. But that was all.
That is the way the case stood on Tuesday night, March the thirteenth.
Mr. Ladley was taken away at nine o'clock. He was perfectly cool,
asked me to help him pack a suit case, and whistled while it was
being done. He requested to be allowed to walk to the jail, and went
quietly, with a detective on one side and I think a sheriff's officer
on the other.
Just before he left, he asked for a word or two with me, and when he
paid his bill up to date, and gave me an extra dollar for taking care
of Peter, I was almost overcome. He took the manuscript of his play
with him, and I remember his asking if he could have any typing done
in the jail. I had never seen a man arrested for murder before, but I
think he was probably the coolest suspect the officers had ever seen.
They hardly knew what to make of it.
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