[Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] warm my hands [Music] this feels good ah come up to the fire ladies i'm not cold i'm all right now uh mr hale before we start uh moving things about why don't you tell mr henderson just what you saw when you got here yesterday morning by the way has anything been moved are things just as you left them yesterday morning just the same uh when the temperature dropped below zero last night i had frank come out here build us a fire no point in getting pneumonia with a big case on and uh i told him not to touch anything but the stove and you know friends somebody should have been left here yesterday morning oh yesterday when i had to send frank out to mason city for that man who went crazy i want to tell you i had my hands full yesterday and i knew you could get back from omaha by today and as long as i saw to everything myself i said to the sheriff well mr hale tell just what happened when you came here yesterday morning well harry and i had started a town with a load of potatoes uh we came along the road from my place and when we got here i said i'm going to go in and see if i can't get john wright to go in with me on a party telephone i talked to john about it once before and he put me off he's saying folks talk too much anyway and all he asks is peace and quiet i guess you know about how much john talked himself are you saying that he wasn't friendly i didn't say that but i thought that if i went into the house and spoke about it before his wife although i said to harry i didn't know is what john's wife wanted meant that much i think i'd like to talk about that later but go on now with the rest of your story well now that is important well yes it is well i didn't hear or see anything i just uh knocked on the door and was all quiet inside well i knew they must be up it was past eight o'clock so i knocked again and i thought i heard somebody say come in i wasn't sure i'm not sure yet but i opened the door and i walked in and there in that rocker sat mrs wright what was she doing she was just rocking back and forth she had her apron in her hand was kind of pleading it and how did she look well she looked queer how do you mean queer well as if she didn't know what she was going to do next and kind of done up and how did she seem to feel about you coming i don't think she minded one way or other she didn't pay much attention i said how doom is right it's cold isn't it is it she said and just went on pleading at her apron pleading at a raper you know what pleading is don't you i mean that seems clear enough you know you go ahead mr kim pleading you know like folding only queer anyway i was surprised she didn't ask me to come up to the stove or to sit down she just sat there not even looking at me so i said well i'd like to see john and she laughed left well i i guess you'd call it a laugh you know what a laugh is don't you mr anderson so i thought of harry and the team outside and i said kind of sharp well can't i see john no she said kinda doll-like well why can't i see him because he's dead says she she told you he was dead just nodded ahead not getting excited just rocking back and forth well where is he says hi not knowing what to say and she just pointed upstairs like that and so i got up thinking to go upstairs and i walked from there to here and then i said well what did he die of he died of a rope around his neck she says and just went on pleading that hurray my god where you going well i went outside and i got harry i i thought i might need help so we both went upstairs and there he was just lying i think i'd rather you go into that upstairs where you can point it all out just go on now with the rest of the story well my first thought was to get that rope off but harry he just walked right up to him and he said no he's dead all right we better not touch anything so we both came back downstairs and there she was said in the same way anybody been notified i asked no she says unconcerned mrs wright who did this says harry he said it kind of business-like and she stopped pleading her apron i don't know she says you don't know says harry no he says you were asleep in the bed with him yes but i was on the inside somebody slipped a rope around his neck and strangled him and she didn't wake up that's what she said i didn't wake up well we must have looked as if we didn't see how that could be because a minute later she said i sleep sound well harry wanted to ask him more questions but i said maybe we ought to let her tell her story to the coroner first or the sheriff so harry went as fast as he could to rivers place where there was a telephone yeah you did good mr hill and uh what did mrs wright do when she knew you had gone for the coroner she moved from that chair to that one over there from that chair to there yep and just sat there with her hands together and looking down i got the feeling i should make some kind of conversation so i said well i stopped in to see if john wanted to go in with a telephone and she began to laugh and then she stopped and looked at me scared scared well i don't know maybe it wasn't scared i wouldn't like to say it was anyway soon harry came back and then dr lloyd and then you mr peters and i guess that's all i know that you don't well i guess we'll be moving on upstairs now just a minute sheriff you're convinced there's nothing important here nothing that would point to any motive nothing here but kitchen things ladies does it seem just like kitchen things to you here's a nice mess aw her fruit it did freeze she worried about that when it turned so cold she said the fire would go out and her jars would break can you beat the women being health and murder and worrying about your preserves i guess before we're through she may have something more serious than preserves to worry about well women are used to worrying about rifles and yet for all their troubles what would we do without the ladies dirty towels not much of a housekeeper would you say ladies there's a great deal of work to be done on a farm to be sure i know there's some county farm houses that do not have such roller towels that's true those towels get dirty awful quick men's hands aren't always as clean as they might be loyal to your sex i see but you and mrs wright were neighbors i suppose you were friends too i've not seen much of her of late years i've not been in this house for more than a year and why is that you didn't like her i liked her all well enough farmers wives have their hands full mr henderson and then yes it never seemed a very cheerful place no that isn't cheerful i shouldn't say she had the homemaking instinct well i don't know as right had either you mean they didn't get on very well no i don't mean anything but i don't think a place would be any cheerfuller for john wright's being in it i'd like to talk more on that a little later i want to get the lay of things upstairs now i suppose anything mrs peters does he'll be all right she's going to take some clothes out to her you know a few little things we left in such a hurry yesterday morning yes but i would like to see what you take mrs peters and keep an eye out for anything that might be of use to us yes mr henderson all right gentlemen this way i'd hate to have men coming into my kitchen snooping around and criticizing of course it's no more than their duty duties all right but i guess that deputy sheriff that came out to make the fire might have got a little of this on wish i'd thought of that sooner it seems mean to talk about her for not having things slicked up when she had to come away in such a hurry yes she had bread set she was going to put this bread in the bread box oh leave it be mrs hale it's a shame about her fruit i wonder if it's all gone no i think there's one here that's all right mrs peters yes it's cherries too i declare i think that's the only one she'll feel awful bad after all her hard work in the hot weather i remember the afternoon i put up my cherries last summer well i must get those things from the front room closet uh my it's cold in there did you find everything i think so oh my right was close i think maybe that's why she kept so much to herself she didn't even belong to the ladies aide i suppose she couldn't she felt she couldn't do her part and then you don't enjoy things when you feel shabby she used to wear pretty clothes and be lively when she was minnie foster one of the town girls singing in the choir but that that was 30 years ago was that all you was to take in she said she wanted an apron anything to want there isn't much to get you dirty in jail goodness knows but i suppose just to make her feel more natural she said they was in this top drawer of this cupboard here ah yes here it is and then her little shawl is in another yes here [Music] mrs peters yes mrs hale do you think she did it oh i don't know well i don't think she did asking for an apron and her little shawn worrying about her fruit mr peter says it looks bad for her mr henderson's awful sarcastic in a speech and he'll make fun of her saying that she didn't wake up well i guess john wright didn't wake when they were slipping that rope under his neck no it's strange must have been done awful crafty and still they say it was such a funny way to kill a man rigging it up like that that's just what mr hale said there was a gun in the house he says that's what he can't understand well mr henderson said coming out that what was needed for the case was a motive something to show anger or sudden feeling oh wow well i don't see any signs of anger around here it was wiped to here i wonder how they're finding things upstairs i hope she had it a little more red up up there you know it seems kind of sneaking locking her up and then coming out here and trying to get her own house to turn against her but mrs hale the law is the law i suppose his better loosen up your things mrs peters you won't feel them when you go out yes mrs hale she was piecing a quilt look it's log cabin pattern pretty isn't it now watch your sip here i wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it she wonders if they were going to quilt it or just knot it [Laughter] well let's go on out to the barn and get that cleared up i don't think it's so strange us taking up our time with little things while we're waiting for them to get the evidence i don't know is it's anything to laugh about of course they've got awful important things on their minds oh this is pretty oh look at that mrs peters look at this here this is the one she was working on and look at the sewing all the rest of it has been so nice and even and look at that it's all over the place why it looks as if she didn't know what she was about [Music] mrs hale what are you doing just pulling out a stitch or two that's not sewed very good bad sewing always made me fidgety i don't think we should touch anything i'll just finish up this end mrs peters yes mrs hale what do you suppose she was so nervous about i don't know that she was nervous i sometimes so awful queer when i'm just tired well i must get these things packed up they may be through sooner than you think i wonder i can find a sack under the sink maybe well here's a bird cage did she have a bird mrs hale why i don't know whether she did or not i've not been here for so long there was a man around last year selling canaries cheap but i don't know whether she took one maybe she did she used to sing real pretty herself seems strange to think of a bird here but she must have had one or why would she have a cage i wonder what happened to it i suppose maybe the cat got it oh no she didn't have a cat she's got that feeling some people have about cats being afraid of them my cat got in her room and she got real upset and asked me to take it out my sister bessie was like that queer ate it hi look at this door this hinge is pulled apart it looks as if someone has been rough with it why yes [Music] i wish they was going to find the evidence they'd be about it i don't like this place i'm awful glad you came with me mrs hale it would have been lonesome for me sitting here alone it would be wouldn't it but i tell you what i do wish mrs peters i wish i had come here when she was here i wish i had but of course you were awful busy with your house and your family i could have come i stayed away because it worked cheerful and that's why i ought to have come i've never liked this place maybe because it's down in a hollow and you don't see the road i don't know what it is but it's a lonesome place it always was i wish i had come to see many foster sometimes i can see that now you mustn't reproach yourself mrs hale somehow we just don't see how it is with other folks until something comes up not having children makes less work but it makes a quiet house and right out to work all day and no company when he did come in did you know john wright mrs peters not to know him i'd seen him in town they said he was a good man yes good he didn't drink kept his word as well as most i guess and paid his debts but he was a hard man mrs peters just to pass the time of day with him like a wrong wind gets to the bone i should think she would have wanted a bird what do you suppose wet with it i don't know unless it got sick and died you weren't raised around here were you no you didn't know her not to that they brought her yesterday she she come to think of it was like a bird herself real sweet and pretty but kind of timid and fluttery tell you what mrs peters why don't you take the quilt in with you it may take up her mind why i think that's a real nice idea mrs hale there couldn't possibly be any objection to it could there now what just what would i take uh what would she need from her kit what a pretty box here's some black thread and some scissors why don't i just take the whole kit it's like something somebody would give you i wonder what's inside there's something wrapped up in this handkerchief oh mrs peters it's the bird look mrs peters look at it it's neck look at its neck it's all other side too somebody wrung its neck well he sure kept his barn in right order well ladies have you uh decided if she was going to quilt it or to knot it we think she was going to knot it well that's that's interesting i'm sure huh has the bird flown we think the cat got it is there a cat well not now they're superstitious you know they leave there's no sign at all of anyone having come from the outside their own rope let's go up again and go over piece by piece it had to have been someone who knew the layout of the house and what time they went to sleep she likes the bird she was going to bury it in that pretty box when i was a girl my kitten there was a boy who took a hatchet and before i could get there before my eyes if they hadn't held me back i would have hurt that boy i wonder how it would seem never to have had children around no wright wouldn't like the bird a thing that sang she used to sing he killed that too we don't we don't know who killed the bird i knew john wright there was an awful thing that was done in this house that night mrs hale killing a man while he slept slipping a rope around his neck that choked the life out of him his neck choked the life out of him we don't know who killed him we don't know if there had been years and years of silence then a bird to sing to you it would be awful still once the bird was still i know what stillness is when we homesteaded in dakota my first baby died after he was two years old and me with no other then oh my dear when do you think they'll be through looking for the evidence i know what stillness is but mrs hale the law has got to punish crime i wish you would have seen minnie foster when she wore a white dress with blue ribbons and stood up in the choir and sang oh i wish i had come over here once in a while that was a crime that was a crime who's going to punish that we mustn't take on i might have known she needed help i know how it can be with women i tell you it's queer mrs peters we live close together and we live far apart we all go through the same things it's just a different kind same thing if i was you i wouldn't tell her her fruit was gone tell her it ain't tell her it's all right take this in to prove it to her she she might never know whether it was broke or not hi it's a good thing the men couldn't hear us wouldn't they laugh getting all stirred up about a dead canary as if that could have anything to do with with when they laugh maybe they would maybe they wouldn't well you ought to have about what you need now i think no peter's it's perfectly clear except for a reason for doing it you know juries when it comes to women if only there was uh some definite thing something to uh make a story about something to show some way to connect up with this strange way of doing it well i brought the team around it sure is cold out there i'm gonna stay here for a while by myself you can send frank out for me can't you i want to go over everything again i'm not satisfied we can't do better you uh you want to see what mrs peters is going to take in oh i suppose they ladies haven't chosen too many dangerous things nah mrs peters doesn't need supervising for that matter a sheriff's wife is married to the law ever think of it that way mrs peters not just that way married to the law well uh george i'd like you to just hang back here for just a minute okay i i think we ought to take another look at these windows windows we'll be right out mr right [Music] so okay well henry at least we found out she was not going to quilt it she was going to what is it you call it ladies we call it knotted mr henderson [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you