This may well have been so that if any suspicions of foul play should
arise, the recipients, realizing that they could not reach New York in
time to arrest matters there, might hasten to Milwaukee to intercept the
body, where they could be met by Jones with the cremation letter in his
pocket and his urn of ashes under his arm.
But the telegram did arouse suspicion, and Baker and Rice immedately
wired Jones as follows:
Please make no disposition of Rice's remains until we arrive. We
leave to-night, arrive New York Thursday morning.
Baker also instructed N. A. Meldrum, a Texan then in New York, to
co-operate with Jones in preserving everything intact.
In the meantime, however, Swenson had notified his attorneys, who in
turn had informed the police and the District Attorney's office, and
that evening at about eleven o'clock James W. Gerard, accompanied by a
detective, who posed as the lawyer's clerk, interviewed Patrick at his
home. Patrick informed Gerard that he had an assignment of all Rice's
property and also a will of Rice's of which he was executor. This was
the first reference to the will of 1900.
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