Detectives are always looking for little pieces of evidence when investigating a crime. After all, it is this evidence that can turn a trial around, whether be it for the good or bad. This is especially the case in Susan Glaspell's Trifles. When Mrs. Hale comes across little pieces of evidence, she passes them off as being "trifles", hiding them from the detective. She is the reason that very little evidence is collected that would convict Mrs. Wright, and can be believed to have some sort of involvement in the murder of John Wright.
Mrs. Hale, being estranged from Mrs. Wright for over a year, has something to prove when she goes into the house that day. Whether it is out of guilt from not seeing Mrs. Wright, or because she is actually an accomplice in helping Mrs. Wright get away with the act, will never be known. However, Mrs. Hale knows what she is doing when she starts to dismiss evidence before the detective's eyes have seen it. She is also very committed to showing that Mrs. Wright wasn't a bad homemaker, dismissing most of that evidence also. .
Mrs. Hale first shows signs of her guilt when she defends some bad housekeeping, blaming it on things men do. When attention is brought to a dirty towel, Mrs. Hale dismisses it because "Men's hands aren't always as clean as they might be"(1239). Her actions are then seen as loyalty to her own sex, and are never seen as loyalty to Mrs. Wright only. The group sees her as having sympathy for a fellow homemaker, which is exactly what she wants them to think.
Chronologically, the next piece of evidence introduced is a quilt. Mrs. Wright had been stitching it, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except for one square that has some awful stitching in it. Mrs. Hale then decides to ". . . finish up this end (1243)" just to keep things nice and tidy for Mrs. Wright. Confirmation that shows Mrs. Wright as not being extremely stable is just erased for "tidiness purposes".