Moonlight Murder on Lovers' Lane Read Online Free Page A

autopsy revealed a few more items, it was still not exhaustive, and Eleanor was reinterred with a shocking secret still preserved.
    In the meantime, Charlotte Mills gave out stories that her mother had believed that Frances had once tried to poison her. To protect herself, Charlotte retained an attorney.
    Detectives learned that Frances had sent clothes to be cleaned shortly after the murders, so they visited the cleaner. They discovered that she had asked for a coat to be dyed black. Was this to cover up stains, they wondered? Like bloodstains? The cleaner did not recall any stains. They confiscated the coat as evidence.
    Politics delayed Edward’s autopsy, but finally it was performed. Investigators had decided that he had been killed first with a single bullet. Abrasions were found on his hands, particularly on the back of the right index finger and left little finger. There was a small bruise on the tip of the left ear and a perforating wound on his right calf, five inches below the kneecap. However, no information from this examination moved the case forward.
    The investigators pondered ways to get closer to their suspects, but everyone seemed to be hiding behind an attorney. They thought it might be easy to get Willie to talk, because he was so excitable, but first they had to get through the front door of that imposing mansion.

Chapter 11: First Arrest
    Frances was entertaining several friends when police cars pulled up, so she didn’t notice they were there. Willie answered the door and was ordered to get into the car. He was not allowed to tell his sister anything. The police delivered him to the Somerset County Court House for interrogation.
    Sometime later, Frances noticed that Willie was missing. No one knew where he was. Distraught, she called police to report his disappearance. Police began to search, but then Willie came home and said he had been detained. Frances’ attorney, Timothy N. Pfeiffer, was enraged. He was adamant that such an unprofessional incident must never happen again.
    On October 8, a Sunday, one of the many avenues for investigation suddenly became fruitful. Detective Frank Kirby brought in four people for questioning: Pearl Bahmer, Raymond Schneider, and two of Raymond’s friends, Clifford Hayes and Leon Kaufman. There was more to this couple, detectives believed, than their apparently innocent discovery of the crime scene.
    A story formed from their separate accounts about Schneider meeting Kaufman and Hayes around 10:30 PM on the night of the murders, not far from De Russey’s Lane. Hayes had brought a gun. Pearl was also there, with a man he didn’t know, and they had disappeared together. Around 11 PM, Kaufman left Hayes and Schneider and went home.
    From these bare facts, detectives reconstructed a scenario. They charged Clifford Hayes with the murders.
    The press statement indicated that the Hall-Mills homicide had been the result of mistaken identity. Hayes had thought that Charlotte was Pearl and that Edward was her “other man.” Hayes thought she’d been cheating on his buddy, Schneider, so he’d killed them as punishment. Case closed. It had been an unfortunate instance of two innocent people at the wrong place and the wrong time.

    Officers pose to demonstrate where bodies lay
    However, few who read the papers bought this explanation. It failed to account for why Eleanor’s throat was cut, the lovers’ letters were torn and scattered, and the corpses were posed. It also seemed odd that, if Hayes had been close enough to pose them, he had not realized that he had shot and cut the throat of a stranger, not Pearl.
    Hayes was mystified about the accusation.
    “Why would I stick around New Brunswick,” he asked, “if I was the killer?” In addition, his brother gave him an alibi.
    Soon someone leaked the story that police had relentlessly interrogated Schneider for over 30 hours before he implicated Hayes. He’d just wanted the interrogation to stop, so he made up a