A Classic Case of Murder
SOLUTIONInspector Cross realized that the "accident" scene had been carefully prepared - that the fine old Cord automobile was just the innocent vehicle for Derek Teasdale's greed.
The first clue was the open mailbox. If his wife had been crossing the driveway in either direction, the mailbox would have been closed. The letters lying in the driveway were clearly not being mailed, since they all had canceled stamps.
The second clue was even more compelling. The headlights of the Cord 810 were retracted. But Derek had been driving at night, with the lights on, when he presumably struck and killed his wife. Would he actually have taken the time to work the independent cranks that retracted the headlights before rushing to her aid?
The tird clue was the most dramatic of all. It proved that the body had been deliberately placed near the wheels of the car after Victoria's death. If the tire had run over her, its mark would have been on her body - not on the driveway, bisecting the chalked outline!
By the way, one other clue emerged after the autopsy, and Inspector Cross reported it to Sergeant Kingsley.
"Now we know why Teasdale murdered his wife. And what he really meant when he kept muttering 'that all he needed was a Cord'. He wasn't talking about the car. He was talking about the cord he used to strangled her...."
