How long did it take the police to find the wife?

Thein s
short story has murdered his wife and entombed her remains behind a brick wall in the cellar.
The large black cat that had mysteriously replaced the once-beloved Pluto and that has a large
white pattern depicting gallows symbolic of Plutos brutal, ugly murder has disappeared as
mysteriously as it had first appeared. As readers of Poes story discover, the protagonist,
relating his story from death row the day before his execution, had unknowingly entombed the
live cat behind the same wall that contained the remains of his wife. Before the discovery of
the cat, however, the protagonist, who narrates his story, takes the reader through the days
between the murder and its discovery by the police.

Poes narrator is nervous,
having murdered his wife with an axe. As the first few days after the event pass, however, he
becomes more relaxed, believing that he has gotten away with his crime. The answer to the
questionhow long did it take the police to find the bodyis provided following reference to
several summary investigations into the wifes whereabouts:

The guilt of my dark deed disturbed me but little. Some few inquiries had been made,
but these had been readily answered. Even a search had been institutedbut of course nothing was
to be discovered. I looked upon my future felicity as secured.

It is now when the narrator writes that, [u]pon the fourth day of the assassination,
a party of the police came, very unexpectedly, into the house, and proceeded again to make
rigorous investigation of the premises. This search, of course, leads to discovery of the murder
victims remains, but only after the now-confident narrator has facilitated his own demise by
rapping heavily with a cane ... upon that very portion of the brickwork behind which stood the
corpse of the wife of my bosom. The rapping on the wall alarms the cat sealed behind the wall,
which emits a terrifying screech heard by the investigating law enforcement officers who proceed
to tear down the wall and find the body with the cat resting uneasily upon the corpses
head.