VII - Enlightening Interviews
THE AVALANCHE OF DENIAL, the flood of vituperation and the general hullabaloo that was set up by the four girls at Corson’s accusation reduced the detective to a pulp of bewilderment. The girls saw this and pursued their advantage. They stormed and raged, and then, becoming less frightened they guyed and jollied the poor man until he determined that he must have help of some sort.
Moreover, he felt sure now that these youngsters never committed murder. Even the Mersereau girl, the vamp, as she had been called, was a young thing of nineteen, and her vampire effect was only put on when occasion demanded.
“S’posen I did say I’d like to kill him!” she exclaimed, “that don’t mean anything! S’posen I said I died o’ laughin’, would you think I was dead? Those thin
