The "parcel" supposedly carried by the killer

[YomRippur]

I believe both windows would have had curtains, but the police removed them to let some light into the room. According to the Star 10 Nov interview;

"Mrs. Prater took advantage of a journey for some water to peep through the window for which, when the door was broken open, the curtains were torn down."

Some eyewitnesses said they could see light coming from Mary's windows. At that time, Mary was serving a client and her curtains were probably closed. That means even when the curtains were closed, light was still visible from the outside. So the killer might have wanted to use additional clothing or whatever to block the light.

Another question is that could the room still be lit, albeit in low light, and no light would be visible from the outside? George Hutchinson said he left Miller's Court at 2:45am and Mary and her client were still in the room. Then Mary Ann Cox said at 3am the room was dark. Could the potential killer still be inside the room at 3am? If he was, what would they be doing in total darkness? Or could there still be a little light in the room, so little that Cox couldn't see it? Or maybe the killer left Mary's room after she had gone to sleep and turned out the light, then come back later and do the deed? Some ear-witnesses did hear footsteps leaving and entering the court. If that was the case, then the killer once again had a narrow time window to work with: leaving the court in the mere 15-minute window between Hutchinson leaving and Cox arriving. So I'm inclined to believe that the killer was in Mary's room *the whole time*. If that was the case, then he would have to either spend some time in the room in total darkness, or have some very low light source (which Cox couldn't detect from the outside). He found the light insufficient, so he started a fire. Another pertinent question is that could he have left the room before the fire finished burning? Staying in the room while a bright fire was burning would have been risky.