One day, just before the court broke for lunch, Detective McShane rushed in with an object. He consulted with O'Hara who asked the judge if he could approach. O'Hara and Walsh approached the bench and O'Hara stated his detective had found another piece of evidence. It was another bloody knife, this one wider and longer. The bloody prints on the white ivory handle were quite clear.
That afternoon, O'Hara called Martina Soubrette back to the stand as a hostile witness.
"I will state to the court now that my intention, in having several witnesses, in court, write their names on index cards, was to find out their preferred handedness. However, simply writing is not a totally accurate way of finding out this information. Many left-handed children are encouraged by their parents to use the right hand to write, as it is more acceptable in Europe and America to write and eat with the right hand. Therefore, another test was needed; that is why the witnesses were asked to cut a card. Then the third test was which hand they took the cards and the scissors from you.
"Our results showed that the defendant is left-handed and the witnesses M. Thibaut and Mlle. Soubrette are right-handed."
O'Hara then turned to Martina and addressed her. "Mlle, Soubrette, we have, in addition to your signature from court, a previous signature from your hand. There was another reason for obtaining signatures. It was to compare them with the false signatures written on the "Charlie" and "Edmund" notes."
O'Hara then showed large photographs of Martina's signature, then the signatures from the notes. They appeared to be the same.
"Mlle. Soubrette, were these three written by your hand?"
"No, Monsieur. Only the one with my name…that is my signature. The others must be forged."
"Very well."
O'Hara faced the court momentarily.
"We also asked the witnesses what their heights are; the defendant is five foot six, too short to have dealt the dorsal blow and M. Thibaut is six foot two, too tall to have dealt the same. Mlle. Soubrette, at five foot ten is in the correct range. Also, being a woman, she may not have had the strength to deal the frontal blows, but the first one, done while embracing the decedent, could most definitely have been done by a woman.
"We also have a bloody knife with the defendant's fingerprints on it. We have just received new evidence, another knife, found in the trash chute with fingerprints on it. The information about whose prints they are is still unknown…the police are working on that. The knife is available for the jury to inspect.
"Mlle. Soubrette's prints were found on the typewriter in the theatre office, as were the office staff's prints. However, Mlle. Soubrette would not normally have a reason to use this typewriter. The defendant and M. Thibaut do not know how to type." He addressed the witness. "Can you explain why your fingerprints were on the typewriter?"
"I had to type something quickly and no secretary was around at night."
"Can you tell us why your fingerprints were on the two notes sent to the defendant and the decedent?"
"I do not know." Martina started looking a bit pale.
A police officer came in the courtroom and handed O'Hara a note. He handed it to the judge and Walsh. Then O'Hara announced, "The prints on the second knife have been identified as M. Raoul Thibaut."
At this Raoul stood up and said, pointing to Martina, "She made me do it…she was crazy, wanting to get rid of ze girl McGuire…she think McGuire sing better than she…she think if she get rid of the lover, the girl quit the company…
Martina stood up and screamed, "You! You were jealous of ze tenor, too, you do not object when I say kill him!" She screamed again and fainted. Raoul started running out of the courtroom, but was apprehended.
The judge pounded his gavel for order in the courtroom. After Raoul and Martina had been taken away, he said, "This case is dismissed. The defendant is free to go."