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A black Gladstone bag ties Dignam to a murder. He was a short man, with a short wife, but had a preference for tall women. The bag, and its bloody contents date back to 1924. The dapper, persuasive talker finds himself in Scotland Yard, after Mrs Digman suspected him of cheating on her. Are the contents, and the bag his own? They seem to be, but Dignam doesn’t have an explanation for the blood. Uncomfortable, long silence does wonders to get Dignam to make his statement.
He describes the perfect little get away cottage, but was awakened by a tramp. After grappling with the larger man, who was killed, he panicked. Is he telling the tale truthfully? Evidence of another woman enters the picture. The owner of the rental cottage adds more pieces to the mystery, claiming Dignam was with his tall, blonde wife. No sign of any other men.
Inspecting the crime scene, on the dismal little beach, the disheveled room is just as the statement described. But will the scene tell the exact same story? Is it possible to tell the difference between a male and female body if destroyed by fire? The technology of the day says, no. Matilda Manning enters the story, distraught that her daughter has been killed by Dignam. What makes her think that? More charges pile up against the little man for legal gambling. Forensics evidence still provides enough proof of a woman’s presence, and holes knocked into his story are more than enough to link him to murder.
