"Jack Alden's account of the attempted strangling of Mrs. McHenry is pretty farfetched," Inspector Winters told Dr. Haledjian. "Yet he passed a lie detector test."
"Alden drives a delivery truck for Best Cleaners," explained Inspector Winters. "At five minutes before noon Tuesday he drove to the McHenry house and stopped the truck in the driveway.
"He spent about two minutes filling out his delivery reports for the morning. Then he got out with a dress and two suits.
"As he closed the cab door, he noticed his front wheels were parked on the garden hose which ran from an outlet by the garage around to the back of the house. Alden claims he got back into the truck and drove forward a few feet so that the engine was in the McHenry's empty garage.
"Here he noticed the door between the kitchen and the garage was open. He saw Mrs. McHenry lying on the floor by the stove.
"He rushed to her, he says, and was trying to revive her when Mr. McHenry came through the open door of the garage.
"Mr. McHenry had taken the day off to water his backyard garden. He had been hosing down his flowerbeds and hedges for half an hour when he noticed the truck in the garage. He walked over to investigate.
"We can't get McHenry," concluded the Inspector, "to state definitely when he thinks Alden is trying to throttle his wife or revive her."
"No wonder that lie detector test didn't trap Alden!" Said Haledjian.
Why not? |