CHAPTER V
Calvin received, at noon, a transcript of the remarkable disquisition which Dads during the morning offered to the police in defense of Joan; and, after he read it, Calvin banished most of the small residuum of doubt of Ketlar's guilt and of the implication of Joan Daisy.
In one important respect only did Dads' testimony agree with Joan Daisy's—that is, with her second statement given personally to Calvin and which he believed to contain the larger element of truth. Dads swore that he was present and operating the radio when he heard "Home, Sweet Home" sung in Los Angeles; he swore also that Joan Daisy was present; and, further and most definitely, that Fred Ketlar was present, not only during the hearing of the entire song, but for some half-hour before and for some time afterward, when Ketlar and he discussed several subjects—to wit, radio, naturally; the results of the world series baseball games; also, horse-racing.
Of course, Dads had discoursed under extraordinary handicap, having been obliged to improvise details of his own without any sort of information as to what Ketlar and Joan Daisy might have done and said. His aim had been to establish an alibi for them; and, in going about this business, he had begun with an actual incident—the same incident to which Joan Daisy had so emphatically sworn, which was the presence of Ketlar and herself in the flat, which she called her "home," when the song was heard from Los Angeles.
The discrepancies between Dads' improvisation and
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