Fifteen
he went over things carefully in his mind.
Yes, it still boiled down to those four people--Thomas, Abbot, Horton and Ellsworthy.
The attitude of Miss Waynflete
seemed, to him, to prove that. Her distress
and reluctance to mention a name. Surely
that meant--that must mean--that the person
in question was someone of standing in
Wychwood, someone whom a chance insinuation
might definitely injure. It tallied, too, with Miss Fullerton's determination to take
her suspicions to headquarters. The local police
would ridicule her theory. It was not a
case of the butcher, the baker, the candlestick
maker. It was not a case of a mere
garage mechanic. The person in question was
one against whom an accusation of murder
was a fantastic and, moreover, a serious matter.
There were four possible candidates. It
was up to him to go carefully once more into
the case against each one and make up his
own mind.
First to examine the reluctance of Miss
Waynflete. She was a conscientious and scrupulous
person. She believed that she knew
the man whom Miss Fullerton had suspected, but it was, as she had pointed out, only a
belief on her part. It was possible that she
was mistaken. Who was the person in Miss
Waynflete's mind? Miss Waynflete was distressed
lest an accusation by her might injure
an innocent man. Therefore, the object of
her suspicions must be a man of high standing, generally liked and respected by the
community. Therefore, Luke argued, that
automatically barred out Ellsworthy. He was
practically a stranger to Wychwood; his local
reputation was bad, not good. Luke did not
believe that, if Ellsworthy was the person in
Miss Waynflete's mind, she would have had
any objection to mentioning him. Therefore, as far as Miss Waynflete was concerned, wash
out Ellsworthy.
Now, as to the others. Luke believed that
he could also eliminate Major Horton. Miss
Waynflete had rebutted with some warmth
the suggestion that Horton might have poisoned
his wife. If she had suspected him of
later crimes, she would hardly have been so
positive about his innocence of the death of
Mrs. Horton.
That left Doctor Thomas and Mr. Abbot.
Both of them fulfilled the necessary requirements.
They were men of high professional
standing, against whom no word of scandal
had ever been uttered. They were, on the
whole, both popular and well liked, and were
known as men of integrity and rectitude.
Luke proceeded to another aspect of the
matter. Could he, himself, eliminate Ellsworthy
and Horton? Immediately he shook
his head. It was not so simple. Miss Fullerton
had known--really known--who the man
was. That was proved, in the first case, by
her own death, and, in the second case, by
the death of Doctor Humbleby. But Miss
Fullerton had never actually mentioned a
name to Honoria Waynflete. Therefore, though Miss Waynflete thought she knew, she might quite easily be wrong. We often
know what other people are thinking but
sometimes we find out that we did not know, after all, and have, in fact, made an egregious
mistake.
Therefore, the four candidates were still in
the field. Miss Fullerton was dead and could
give no further assistance. It was up to Luke
to do what he had done before, on the day
after he came to Wychwood--weigh up the
evidence and consider the probabilities.
He began with Ellsworthy. On the face of
it, Ellsworthy was the likeliest starter.
"Let's take it this way," said Luke to
himself. "Suspect everyone in turn.
Ellsworthy, for instance. Let's say he's the
killer. For the moment, let's take it quite
definitely that I know that. Now we'll take
the possible victims in chronological order.
First, Mrs. Horton. Difficult to see what
motive Ellsworthy could have had for doing
away with Mrs. Horton. But there was a
means. Horton spoke of some quack nostrum
that she got from him and took. Some
poison like arsenic could have been given
that way. The question is: Why?
"Now the others. Amy Gibbs. Why did
Ellsworthy kill Amy Gibbs? The obvious reason--she
was being a nuisance. Threatened
an action for breach of promise, perhaps? Or
had she assisted at a midnight orgy? Did she
threaten to talk? Lord Easterfield has a good
deal of influence in Wychwood, and Lord
Easterfield, according to Bridget, is a very
moral man. He might have taken up the
matter against Ellsworthy if the latter had
been up to anything particularly objectionable.
So, exit Amy. Not, I think, a sadistic
murder. The method employed is against
that.
"Who's next? Carter? Why Carter? Unlikely
he would know about midnight
orgies--or did Amy tell him? Was the pretty
daughter mixed up in it? Did Ellsworthy
start making love to her? Must have a look
at Lucy Carter. Perhaps he was just abusive
to Ellsworthy 3 and Ellsworthy resented it. If
he'd already committed one or two murders, he would be getting sufficiently callous to
contemplate a killing for a very slight reason.
"Now Tommy Pierce. Why did Ellsworthy
kill Tommy Pierce? Easy. Tommy had assisted
at a midnight ritual of some kind.
Tommy threatened to talk about it. Perhaps
Tommy was talking about it. Shut Tommy's
mouth.
"Doctor Humbleby. Why did Ellsworthy
kill Doctor Humbleby? That's the easiest of
the lot. Humbleby was a doctor, and he'd
noticed that Ellsworthy's mental balance was
none too good. Probably was getting ready
to do something about it. So Humbleby was
doomed. There's a stumbling block there in
the method. How did Ellsworthy insure that
Humbleby should die of blood poisoning?
Or did Humbleby die of something else?
Was the poisoned finger a coincidence?
"Last of all, Miss Fullerton. Wednesday's
early closing. Ellsworthy might have gone up
to town that day. Has he a car, I wonder?
Never seen him in one, but that proves nothing.
He knew she'd suspected him, and he
was going to take no chances of Scotland
Yard believing her story. Perhaps they already
knew something about him then?
"That's the case against Ellsworthy! Now, what is there for him? Well, for one thing, he's certainly not the man Miss Waynflete
thought Miss Fullerton meant. For another, he doesn't fit--quite--with my own vague
impression. When she was talking, I got a
picture of a man--and it wasn't a man like
Ellsworthy. The impression she gave me was
of a very ordinary man--outwardly, that is--
the kind of man nobody woul
d suspect.
Ellsworthy is the kind of man you would
suspect. No, I got more the impression of a
man like--Doctor Thomas.
"Thomas, now. What about Thomas? I
wiped him clean off the list after I'd had a
chat with him. Nice, unassuming fellow. But
the whole point of this murderer--unless I've
got the whole thing wrong--is that he would
be a nice, unassuming fellow. The last person
you'd think ever would be a murderer!
Which, of course, is exactly what one feels
about Thomas.
"Now then, let's go through it again. Why
did Doctor Thomas kill Amy Gibbs? Really, it seems most unlikely that he did. But she
did go to see him that day, and he did give
her that bottle of cough mixture. Suppose
that was really oxalic acid. That would be
very simple and clever. Who was called in, I
wonder, when she was found poisoned--
Humbleby or Thomas? If it was Thomas, he
might just come along with an old bottle
of hat paint in his pocket, put it down
unobtrusively on the table, and take off both
bottles to be analyzed, as bold as brass.
Something like that. It could be done if you
were cool enough.
"Tommy Pierce? Again I can't see a likely
motive. That's the difficulty with our Doctor
Thomas--motive. There's not even a crazy
motive. Same with Carter. Why should Doctor
Thomas want to dispose of Carter? One
can only assume that Amy, Tommy and the
publican all knew something about Doctor
Thomas that it was unhealthy to know. Ah, supposing, now, that that something was the
death of Mrs. Horton. Doctor Thomas attended
her. And she died of a rather unexpected
relapse. He could have managed that
"Last of all. Miss Fullerton. Wednesday's
early closing. Ellsworthy might have gone up
to town that day. Has he a car, I wonder?
Never seen him in one, but that proves nothing.
He knew she'd suspected him, and he
was going to take no chances of Scotland
Yard believing her story. Perhaps they already
knew something about him then?
"That's the case against Ellsworthy! Now, what is there for him? Well, for one thing, he's certainly not the man Miss Waynflete
thought Miss Fullerton meant. For another, he doesn't fit--quite--with my own vague
impression. When she was talking, I got a
picture of a man--and it wasn't a man like
Ellsworthy. The impression she gave me was
of a very ordinary man--outwardly, that is--
the kind of man nobody would suspect.
Ellsworthy is the kind of man you would
suspect. No, I got more the impression of a
man like--Doctor Thomas.
"Thomas, now. What about Thomas? I
wiped him clean off the list after I'd had a
chat with him. Nice, unassuming fellow. But
the whole point of this murderer--unless I've
got the whole thing wrong--is that he would
be a nice, unassuming fellow. The last person
you'd think ever would be a murderer!
Which, of course, is exactly what one feels
about Thomas.
"Now then, lets go through it again. Why
did Doctor Thomas kill Amy Gibbs? Really, it seems most unlikely that he did. But she
did go to see him that day, and he did give
her that bottle of cough mixture. Suppose
that was really oxalic acid. That would be
very simple and clever. Who was called in, I
wonder, when she was found poisoned--
Humbleby or Thomas? If it was Thomas, he
might just come along with an old bottle
of hat paint in his pocket, put it down
unobtrusively on the table, and take off both
bottles to be analyzed, as bold as brass.
Something like that. It could be done if you
were cool enough.
"Tommy Pierce? Again I can't see a likely
motive. That's the difficulty with our Doctor
Thomas--motive. There's not even a crazy
motive. Same with Carter. Why should Doctor
Thomas want to dispose of Carter? One
can only assume that Amy, Tommy and the
publican all knew something about Doctor
Thomas that it was unhealthy to know. Ah, supposing, now, that that something was the
death of Mrs. Horton. Doctor Thomas attended
her. And she died of a rather unexpected
relapse. He could have managed that
easily enough. And Amy Gibbs, remember, was in the house at the time. She might have
seen or heard something. That would account
for her. Tommy Pierce, we have it on
good authority, was a particularly inquisitive
small boy. He may have got wise to something.
Can't fit Carter in. Unless Amy Gibbs
told him something. He may have repeated
it in his cups and Thomas may have decided
to silence him too. All this, of course, is pure
conjecture. But what else can one do?
"Now Humbleby. Ah, at last we come to
a perfectly plausible murder. Adequate motive
and ideal means. If Doctor Thomas
couldn't give his partner blood poisoning, no
one could. He could reinfect the wound every
time he dressed it. I wish the earlier
killings were a little more plausible.
"Miss Fullerton? She's more difficult, but
there is one definite fact. Doctor Thomas
was not in Wychwood for at least a good
part of the day. He gave out that he was
attending a confinement. That may be. But
the fact remains that he was away from
Wychwood in a car. Is there anything else?
when I went away from the house the other
day. Superior, condescending, the smile of a
man who'd just led me up the garden path
and knew it."
Luke sighed, shook his head and went on
with his reasoning. "Abbot? He's the right
kind of man too. Normal, well-to-do, respected, last sort of man, and so on. He's
conceited, too, and confident. Murderers
usually are. They've got overweening conceit.
Always think they'll get away with it.
Amy Gibbs paid him a visit once. Why?
What did she want to see him for? To get
legal advice? Why? Or was it a personal
matter. There's that mention of 'a letter from
a lady' that Tommy saw. Was that letter
from Amy Gibbs? Or was it a letter written
by Mrs. Horton--a letter, perhaps, that Amy
Gibbs had got hold of? What other lady
could there be writing to Mr. Abbot on a
matter so private that he loses control when
the office boy inadvertently sees it? What
else can we think of re Amy Gibbs? The hat
| paint? Yes, right kind of old-fashioned
touch--men like Abbot are usually well behind
the times where women are concerned.
The Old World style of philanderer. Tommy
Pierce? Obvious, on account of the letter--
really it must have been a very damning
letter. Carter? Well, there was trouble about
Carter's daughter. Abbo
t wasn't going to have
a scandal--a low-down ruffianly half-wit like
Carter dare to threaten him. He who had got
away with two clever killings! Away with
Mr. Carter! Dark night and a well-directed
push. Really, this killing business is almost
too easy.
"Have I got the Abbot mentality? I think
so. Nasty look in an old lady's eye. She's
thinking things about him. Then, row with
Humbleby. Old Humbleby daring to set
himself against Abbot, the clever solicitor
and murderer. 'The old fool--he little knows
what's in store for him! He's for it! Daring
to browbeat me!'
"And then--what? Turning to catch
Lavinia Fullerton's eyes. And his own eyes
falter, show a consciousness of guilt. He who
was boasting of being unsuspected had definitely
aroused suspicion. Miss Fullerton
knows his secret. She knows what he has
done. Yes, but she can't have proof. But
suppose she goes about looking for it. Suppose
she talks. Suppose--He's quite a shrewd
judge of character. He guesses what she will
finally do. If she goes, with this tale of hers,
to Scotland Yard, they may believe her; they
may start making inquiries. Something pretty
desperate has got to be done. Has Abbot got
a car or did he hire one in London? Anyway, he was away from here on Derby Day."
Again Luke paused. He was so entering
into the spirit of the thing that he found it
hard to make a transition from one suspect
to another. He had to wait a minute before
he could force himself into the mood where
he could visualize Major Horton as a successful
murderer.
"Horton murdered his wife. Let's start
with that. He had ample provocation and he
gained considerably by her death. In order to
carry it off successfully, he had to make a
good show of devotion. He'd had to keep
that up. Sometimes, shall we say, he overdoes
it a bit?
"Very good, one murder successfully accomplished.
Who's the next? Amy Gibbs.
Yes, perfectly credible. Amy was in the
house. She may have seen something--the
Major administering a soothing cup of beef
tea or gruel. She mayn't have realized the
point of what she saw till some time later.
The hat-paint trick is the sort of thing that
would occur to the Major quite naturally--a