Summary

In Chapter 19, Virgil goes through the evidence from Nevvie’s death again. He’s looking for proof that Nevvie’s death was a murder. His landlord, Abigail, walks in on him. She asks if he’s been drinking. Even he is surprised when he tells her that he hasn’t. Abigail then tells Virgil he’s incorrect. She’d overheard him muttering that dead people didn’t talk. She said her husband talked to her even though he’d been gone for 22 years. She tells him, in fact, she would have evicted Virgil years ago if her husband hadn’t convinced her to let Virgil stay. After she leaves his office, Virgil goes over the clothes worn by Nevvie the night of her death. It is not until his third pass over the shirt that he finds a fingernail stuck...