The Case of Jennie Brice

The narrator, a widow who keeps a boarding house in a flood-prone district, recalls an earlier high water that revealed a half-buried body and launched an investigation into the disappearance of a young theatrical woman. Local police, two private investigators, and the house's residents follow fragments of evidence—a burned pillow-case, a torn slip of paper, and neighborhood gossip—while the narrator navigates fear and curiosity. The account alternates domestic observation and procedural detail as clues are pursued through interviews, inspection of the flooded rooms, and theatrical connections; themes include the uneasy intimacy of small communities, the unpredictability of chance discoveries, and the gradual assembly of motive from scattered facts.