nearly
noon
`` As if there was anything for them to do there . '' The gate closed , Mrs. Bernauer turned and walked slowly to the house . Muller walked on also , going first to the police station to report what he had discovered . Then he went to his own rooms and slept until nearly noon . On his return to the police station he found that notices of the occurrence had already been sent out to the papers . The autopsy proved beyond a doubt that the murdered man had been dead for many hours before the discovery of his body . The bullet which had struck him in the back had pierced the trachea and death had occurred within a few minutes .