Now let's take a look at
The World According to Bridget.
First I washed the sitting-room windows-on the south side of the house-the Kelly side. This was away from the screen door. Before I started washing, Mrs. Kelly's girl appeared and I was talking to her at the fence.
Then I washed the parlor windows: the two front windows. Between times I went to the barn and got some water. I washed the dining-room windows and one parlor window on the side. I went to the barn for water twice while I was on the south side of the house-went round by the rear-and went three or four times more while I was working in front or on the other side of the house. Then I went past the screen door to the barn.
During all that time I did not see anybody come to the house.
Then I got a dipper from the kitchen and clean water from the barn, and commenced to wash the sitting-room windows again by throwing water up on them. When I washed these windows, I did not see anyone in the sitting room, and I did not see anyone in the dining room when I washed those windows. I went round the house rinsing the windows with dippers of water.
Then I put the brush handle away in the barn and got the hand basin and went into the sitting room to wash those windows inside. I hooked the screen door when I came in.
I began to wash the window next to the front door. Had not seen anyone since I saw Lizzie at the screen door. Then I heard like a person at the door was trying to unlock the door but could not; so I went to the front door and unlocked it. The spring lock was locked. I unbolted the door and it was locked with a key; there were three locks. I said "pshaw," and Miss Lizzie laughed, upstairs. Her father was out there on the doorstep. She was upstairs.
She must have been either in the entry or at the top of the stairs, I can't tell which. Mr. Borden and I didn't say a word as he came in. I went back to my window washing; he came into the sitting room and went into the dining room. He had a little parcel in his hand, same as a paper or a book. He sat in a chair at the head of the lounge.
Miss Lizzie came downstairs and came through the front entry into the dining room, I suppose to her father. I heard her ask her father if he had any mail, and they had some talk between them which I didn't understand, but I heard her tell her father that Mrs. Borden had a note and had gone out. The next thing I remember, Mr. Borden took a key off the mantelpiece and went up the back stairs. When he came downstairs again, I was finished in the sitting room, and I took my hand basin and stepladder into the dining room. I began to wash the dining-room windows. Then Miss Lizzie brought an ironing board from the kitchen, put it on the dining-room table and commenced to iron. She said, "Maggie, are you going out this afternoon?" I said, "I don't know; I might and I might not; I don't feel very well" She says, "If you go out be sure and lock the door, for Mrs. Borden has gone out on a sick call, and I might go out, too." Says I, "Miss Lizzie, who is sick?" "I don't know; she had a note this morning; it must be in town."
I finished my two windows; she went on ironing. Then I went in the kitchen, washed out my cloths and hung them behind the stove. Miss Lizzie came out there and said, "There is a cheap sale of dress goods at Sergeant's this afternoon, at eight cents a yard." I don't know that she said "this afternoon", but "today"
And I said, "I am going to have one." Then I went upstairs to my room. I don't remember to have heard a sound of anyone about the house, except those I named.
Then I laid down in the bed. I heard the City Hall bell ring and I looked at my clock and it was eleven o'clock. I wasn't drowsing or sleeping. In my judgment I think I was there three or four minutes. I don't think I went to sleep at all. I heard no sound; I didn't hear the opening or closing of the screen door. I can hear that from my room if anyone is careless and slams the door. The next thing was that Miss Lizzie hollered, "Maggie, come down!" I said, "What is the matter?" She says, "Come down quick; Father's dead; somebody came in and killed him." This might be ten or fifteen minutes after the clock struck eleven, as far as I can judge.
Lizzie came downstairs at 8:45 and Bridget went outside to vomit until 9. Then Bridget came back in and Abby told her to wash windows. So from at the soonest,
9AM until Mr. Andrew returns at
10:45 Bridget is washing windows.
The clock is ticking. 105 minutes, tops.
Bridget wraps up dishes, has Abby tell her to clean windows, gets her things and prepares to wash the Sitting room windows when suddenly she goes off to talk to the Lewis girl.
First, the top left corner, Bridget is talking to the Lewis girl. How long? We don't know.
Clockwise, Bridget cleans the Sitting room. She sees no one in there nor does she see anyone leave the house. If no one left the house then and she didn't see anyone leave when she was talking to the Lewis girl, then how did Mr. Borden leave unobserved? Out the side door? Then the window of opportunity for Mr. Borden to leave has to be when Bridget was doing the Sitting Room windows, after finishing her talk with the Lewis girl.
90 minutes left.
Bridget cleans both windows, going back past the cellar twice to the barn for water. This girl knows how to slack off work! Really? A bucket of water for EACH window? Come on now! Three more buckets for the remaining five windows before she's through. Now THAT'S working an alibi. So 10 minutes on water runs. But wait, why TWO times to the barn? She already HAS water for the first window? Oh well, this is her story. Say 5 minutes on each window. 20 minutes cleaning the Sitting room windows.
70 minutes left.
Parlor windows. Three windows. Two in front and one on the side. 15 minutes. Two dining windows. 10 more minutes. 3 or 4 trips to the barn because damn let's milk the clock and use up way more water than one person needs to wash a freaking window! I could wash my car with less water! Okay, 15-20 minutes fetching water. That's 40-45 minutes.
25-30 minutes left.
She goes into the kitchen to get a dipper and then goes for more water and repeats this cycle, rinsing off each window. Even if she whips out rinsing windows, dashing back to the barn at a sprint for more and more water, no way she gets done at this pace. She has no time left to actually go inside and clean those windows.
Of course, I could say, maybe she puts a little hustle in it and spends three minutes a window and four minutes hustling for all that water. That's 20-24 minutes getting water and 21 minutes washing windows. Say she rinses really fast, a minute a window. Still gotta get all that water. 33 minutes rinsing.
that's 78 minutes. Time's up. Bridget can't get er done.
Okay, so let's give her 20 more minutes because Lizzie is correct and Bridget had ALREADY fetched the stuff to start cleaning windows when Lizzie came downstairs at 8:45. And let's say Bridget doesn't spend 15 minutes puking her guts out. Maybe she already got that out of the way.
8:48 Bridget is jabbering away with the Lewis girl. If Lizzie is to be believed, she talks to Abby, goes to the cellar, gets her clothes, goes upstairs, bastes some buttons, comes down to the kitchen, sprinkles her hankies and her father leaves. She initially believes this to be 9am.
THAT makes sense.
So 8:45 Bridget goes outside, sees Lewis girl, is talking to her as Father leaves around 9.
Clock starts ticking. 105 minutes. Bridget no longer wastes the first 20 talking to Abby, getting her tools and then talking with the Lewis girl. She's starting the windows. 78 minutes as we calculated before washing, rinsing and running to the barn. leaves 27 minutes to go inside and clean the two sitting room windows and the parlor window.
We've got jiggle room in there. This timeline works, meaning Lizzie was telling it the way it happened and Bridget had it all wrong.
There's even a little time in there for Bridget to go upstairs kill Abby and she has a bucket of water to wipe herself off with. But it isn't very likely she could have changed out of her bloody clothes.
Except, she didn't have to:
I finished my two windows; she went on ironing. Then I went in the kitchen, washed out my cloths and hung them behind the stove.
She needed so much water. She was evidently very wet. Wet enough to have cleaned up her clothes in the barn while fetching water?
And here's something interesting:
Then I put the brush handle away in the barn and got the hand basin and went into the sitting room to wash those windows inside....
I began to wash the window next to the front door. Had not seen anyone since I saw Lizzie at the screen door. Then I heard like a person at the door was trying to unlock the door but could not... The next thing I remember, Mr. Borden took a key off the mantelpiece and went up the back stairs. When he came downstairs again, I was finished in the sitting room(I assume she mispoke and meant to say parlor room), and I took my hand basin and stepladder into the dining room. I began to wash the dining-room windows....I finished my two windows; she went on ironing. Then I went in the kitchen, washed out my cloths and hung them behind the stove. Miss Lizzie came out there and said, "There is a cheap sale of dress goods at Sergeant's this afternoon, at eight cents a yard." I don't know that she said "this afternoon", but "today"
And I said, "I am going to have one." Then I went upstairs to my room. I don't remember to have heard a sound of anyone about the house, except those I named.
Then I laid down in the bed. I heard the City Hall bell ring and I looked at my clock and it was eleven o'clock. I wasn't drowsing or sleeping. In my judgment I think I was there three or four minutes.
She washes all five of those windows inside the house, washes her clothes and goes upstairs IN TEN MINUTES!!!!!
If she did those last five windows, cleaned her clothes and went upstairs in TEN MINUTES, then why did it take her almost TWO FULL HOURS to do everything else? Cue the Benny Hill music as she goes into hyper mode cleaning the last five windows.
And here's a problem: If LIzzie is in the kitchen the entire time, then she would have seen Bridget come in and get the dipper. She could have been in the dining room, but then Bridget's lying that she never saw her in the dining room. If Bridget is telling the truth, then Lizzie is lying. If Lizzie is telling the truth, then Bridget is lying. So far, we've proven that up until this time Lizzie MUST be telling the story correctly and Bridge MUST be wrong. But that just means Bridge may be mistaken, not lying. Now, one of them must be lying.
If Lizzie is lying, then she killed Abby. then she had to somehow hide the bloody clothes. Maybe she brought her clothes upstairs, put on a second set of clothes, killed Abby and then went down to the kitchen to clean the bloody clothes that she later burned. But problem is that still puts her in the kitchen. It still means she was moving through the house where Bridget would have probably seen her. For Lizzie to be lying, Bridget has to never see her hide the bloody clothes. Or the axe. that means Lizzie has to sneak through the house, probably from the front into the sitting room and into the kitchen where she can clean up to some degree the clothes, much as Bridget is said to have done, then take them downstairs in a bucket to the cellar. If the axe is the one found on the roof nearby, then Lizzie has to sneak out the screen door
only when Bridget is cleaning the front parlor windows and not getting water.!!! That's diamond heist Ocean's Eleven kind of timing. And of course, then she wouldn't be upstairs when father came home.
If Bridget is lying, however, then either she already HAD the dipper when she got started and just said that to frame Lizzie or by chance she came in and got it while Lizzie was in one of the other rooms. She had ample time to kill Abby. However, Lizzie should have seen her. Bridget has to sneak past Lizzie, while Lizzie is in the house. She could have snuck in while Lizzie is in the dining room, which Bridget would have seen as she finished the dining room windows, gone into the sitting room and then into the front room and so on. But then she has to sneak back out, with an axe, in bloody clothes, hoping Lizzie isn't in the kitchen where Lizzie says she spent most of her time. It makes more sense, then, that Bridget goes out the front door. Then Bridget goes back into the barn, washes herself off and comes inside to clean the inside windows. During this time, Lizzie is in the kitchen. But somehow, Lizzie is unaware of Bridget coming or going. This would be because Bridget came back in the front door, locked it behind her and started cleaning the inside windows. Bridget, in this scenario, can easily dispose of the axe.