Chapter 20
AT SIX thirty that evening Egbert Van Dorn was arraigned before a magistrate and formally charged with the murder of his mother. A cop in the property room, more enterprising than his fellows, found in one of the ruffled satin pockets of Egbert’s suitcase a pair of men’s hand-stitched suede gloves which, under the microscope, turned out to have infinitesimal traces of oil and skin on their fingertips. Not on the inside. On the outside. The skin matched that on Gretchen Van Dorn’s throat.
At six thirty-two the prosecuting attorney professed himself willing to release Faith Martin on her own recognizance, and presently according to due process of law and order she found herself a free woman.
There was quite an emotional scene between Faith and Charity, the two sisters Martin pr
