Chapters (43)
Mrs. Perry had now advanced to a point halfway up the rear stairway of Dr. Justman’s townhouse. She called Dr. Justman’s name but received no response. Mrs. Perry heard a “terrible sound” and, straining to see into the kitchen of the townhouse [the rearmost room], thought she saw a body, which she assumed to be Dr. Justman’s, “flung through the air as if it had been kicked by a mule” and crash into the wall, against which were a Wolf stove and a double-door Sub-Zero refrigerator. Mrs. Perry could hear the body “collide violently” with these objects.
Suddenly, Mrs. Perry stated, the ridgeback dog bolted past her up Dr. Justman’s steps. The animal burst through the rear [kitchen] door, which apparently was partially ajar, and charged into the house. Mrs. Perry took one more step but, she stated, was too frightened to advance farther. She heard a man’s cry from inside the kitchen and another “smashing sound of flesh against flesh.” The ridgeback dog was now fully inside the house, barking even more furiously than before. At this point Mrs. Perry’s husband arrived from next door, joining Mrs. Perry on the stairwell, as did Ms. Luterinaitis from the townhouse on the opposite side. In a group the three climbed the final steps and peered through the open rear door into the kitchen.
Dr. Justman’s body lay at the base of the refrigerator. No other individual was present or visible from the witnesses’ vantage point. The ridgeback dog had advanced all the way into the living room now. This room was adjacent to and visible in its entirety from the kitchen. The dog was barking and making the same furious up-and-back rushes. None of the witnesses could see what the dog was rushing at. All three stated that they had an unobstructed view of the full length and breadth of the interior of the front room as well as of the foyer, but could see nothing in any of these but the dog.
Suddenly the animal stopped barking. A sound like the closing of the house’s front door was heard. Mr. Perry crossed the kitchen from the back door to where Dr. Justman lay motionless. “Are you all right?” he said, calling Dr. Justman’s name. He repeated this several times, then knelt and attempted to find a pulse. Dr. Justman lay still. His throat was “bruised and discolored” and his neck was twisted, Mr. Perry stated, at “an unnatural angle.”
The house had become deathly quiet. The neighbors stood in a group above Dr. Justman’s body. The ridgeback dog came back from the front room into the kitchen. The hair was standing straight up on its dorsal spine. The dog took two steps into the kitchen, then sank to the floor and collapsed in death. A necropsy [veterinary autopsy] performed the following morning determined that the animal’s heart had burst.