Superintendent Merrington.
If a link in a chain snaps, the captive springs free, but if he is bound
by a rope it is necessary for all the strands to be severed before
liberty can be regained.

Merrington remained at Heredith to weave additional strands for the rope
of circumstantial evidence by which Hazel Rath was held for the murder
of Violet Heredith. It was a good strong case as it stood, but
Merrington had seen too many strong ropes nibbled through by sharp legal
teeth to leave anything to chance. If the circumstances against Hazel
Rath remained open to an alternative explanation--if, for example, the
defence suggested that the mother was implicated in the crime and the
daughter was silent in order to shield her, it might be difficult to
obtain a conviction. Merrington knew by wide experience how alternative
theories weakened the case of circumstantial evidence, no matter how
strong the presumption from the known facts appeared to be.

A useful strand in circumstantial evidence is motive, and it was motive
that Merrington sought to prove against Hazel Rath. His own inference
about the crime, swiftly and boldly reached shortly before he arrested
her, was that the girl was in love with Phil Heredith, and had murdered
his young wife through jealousy. Hazel's silence in the face of
accusation supported that theory, in his opinion. She was ashamed to
confess, not the crime, but the hopeless love which had inspired it.
Women were like that, Merrington reflected. A woman who dared to commit
murder would blush to admit, even to herself, that she had given her
love to a man who was out of her reach. But it is one thing to hold a
theory, and another thing to prove it in the eyes of the law. As Hazel
Rath was not likely to help the Crown establish motive by confessing her
love for Philip Heredith, it was left to Superintendent Merrington to
establish his theory, by all the independent facts and inferences he was
able to bring to light.

This proved more difficult than he anticipated. He had visualized the
situation with excellent insight up to a certain point, and he had
imagined that it would not be a difficult matter to obtain proofs of the
existence of an early flirtation or intrigue between Phil Heredith and
the pretty girl who had occupied an anomalous position in the
moat-house. But a further examination of the inmates of the household
failed to furnish any proofs in support of that supposition. Merrington
could read