The room-search finds no gun — but does find the Oriental-knife collection

pivotal · ~12-15 Nov YDAU (reported)

• When: within Gately's first hospital days, ~12-15 Nov YDAU (relayed by Calvin Thrust at the bedside); the book's last word on her.
• What: In the legal scramble over the missing .44, Thrust reports that Pat's "limped around and appealed to every single resident personally," and everybody submitted "more or less voluntarily" to a room- and property-search: "still no large-caliber Item has turned up, though Nell Gunther's hidden Oriental-knife collection sure made an impression." No consequences are recorded — just the fact of the cache, and its impression. The line retroactively re-frames the whole file: the fork, the Crane stance, the twirling kick — she was armed the whole time, with edged weapons, hidden, collected.