Danger Point

Chapter 29

MARY, released, ducked her head and scuttled back to her mother’s side. Once there, she directed a long unwinking stare at Pell. His turn had come – Alfred Sidney Pell. But it was not till the young constable put his hand on his shoulder that he lifted first an unkempt head, and then a stiff, unwilling body.

There was a chair for the witness, but he did not sit in it. Having got to his feet he kept them, slouching behind the chair, his hands gripping the rail as he had gripped the bench. He took the oath in a deep muttering voice. The words blurred and ran one into the other. They might have been in some foreign language, mechanically repeated without any knowledge of their meaning.

The Coroner put his preliminary questions. The answers came each with its own long pause.

He was Alfred Sidney Pell. He was twenty-nine years of age. He was a married man. He had kept company with Cissie Cole. She didn’t know he was married. Not until a fortnight ago. She was a good girl and nobody need say anything different. He had been in Mr. Jerningham’s employment as a mechanic. Mr. Jerningham had dismissed him on account of his being married.

The Coroner leaned forward with his air of courteous attention.

“Do you mean that literally, or do you mean that Mr. Jerningham dismissed you because you had been passing yourself off as a single man in order to court Cissie Cole?”

A rough mumble of something that sounded like “That’s right.”

“Now, Pell – about Wednesday evening. Had you an appointment to meet Cissie Cole? I believe you admit meeting her.”

“Yes – I met her. We’d fixed it up.”

“You picked her up on your motor-bicycle as she came away from Tanfield Court.”

“That’s right.”

“But she went there quite unexpectedly, did she not?”

“We’d fixed to meet round about nine o’clock. She was there all right. I didn’t know where she’d been.”

“You see this coat? Was she wearing it when she met you?”

A pause. Then he said,

“She put it on.”

“Did she tell you that it had just been given to her by Mrs. Jerningham?”

“Yes.”

“Did she express pleasure at the gift?”

Another pause, and a longer one.

“I didn’t take that much notice.”

“Did she seem in good spirits?”

He repeated what he had just said, doggedly.

“I didn’t take that much notice.”

Miss Silver thought, “He’s uncouth, but he’s got a brain. He knows he’s in danger. He avoided that cleverly.” She missed the Coroner’s next question, but not Pell’s answer.

“I tell you I’d something else to think about than coats and such.”

“Do you mean that you were going to have an important interview with Cissie Cole?”

“I don’t know about that.”

Yes, he was clever. She looked at the sallow, unshaven cheek and saw how tense was the line of the jaw.

“Will you tell us what happened after you picked Cissie up.”

“We went up on Tane Head like that kid said.”

“Why did you choose Tane Head?”

The man was waking up. His speech had cleared. He lifted his head.

“I wanted a place where we could talk.”

“You had something special to say to her?”

A pause.

“It had got so we had to talk. She was willing.”

“Will you tell us what passed between you.”

He put up a hand and pushed the hair out of his eyes, then back to gripping the chair again.

“We talked. I asked her would she come away with me and I’d get a job somewhere where nobody ’ud know we weren’t man and wife. And she said no.”

“Did you quarrel about it?”

“Not to say quarrel.”

“You have heard Mr. Jerningham’s evidence. He says you came rushing down the track alone at about twenty minutes to ten. Is that correct?”

“Something like that.”

“You were in an agitated state?”

He swallowed.

“I was upset.”

“Will you tell us why?”

“She’d said no – that’s why. Wasn’t it enough?”

“According to the evidence given by Mary Crisp and Mr. Jerningham you had been up on the headland with Cissie Cole for about twenty minutes when you took your motor-bicycle and rode away.”

“Something like that.”

“And you spent that time trying to persuade her to go away with you?”

“That’s right.”

“And she continued to say no?”

“Yes.”

“What made you break off in the end and leave her there if it wasn’t a quarrel? Do you say that there was no quarrel?”

Pell said in a choked voice,

“She wouldn’t listen. I’d said all I could.”

Miss Silver’s eye travelled from him to the Jerninghams. Mr. Dale Jerningham was sitting forward watching his ex-mechanic with a full, deep look of concern. Mr. Rafe Jerningham was looking out of the open window which framed only a rectangle of empty, cloudless blue. His lifted face seemed to have sharpened. The features had it their own way. There was no expression there. Mrs. Dale Jerningham looked down at the hands which were folded in her lap. Lady Steyne looked at the jury. Miss Silver looked at them too – farmers; a retired coastguard; a couple of small tradesmen; the landlord of the Green Man. They sat there with their country faces blank and tanned, and their minds in all probability made up. No one could have told what they were thinking about. There was not a face there but could keep its own counsel.

“If it lay with them to hang him, he’d be dead.” The thought presented itself to Miss Silver’s mind without any credentials whatever, and was immediately accepted.

She went back to Pell. The Coroner was asking,

“Where was Cissie Cole when you left her?”

“Up on the cliff.” The chair back groaned with the strain he put upon it.

“You are on oath. Do you say that she was alive when you left her?”

“Acourse she was!” said Pell in a sudden big voice that filled the hall.

“You did not throw her over the cliff?”

“Why should I?”

“No one knows that but yourself. Did you?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Or see her throw herself over?”

“She hadn’t any call to throw herself over. I never touched her.”

“What was she doing when you left?”

Pell’s voice dropped again.

“She was sitting on the grass. She’d her handkerchief out, crying into it. I spoke angry to her and made her cry. But I never touched her.”

“How near to the edge of the cliff was she?”

“Twenty to twenty-five foot.”

“Do you think she could have fallen by accident?”

“I don’t know – seems she must ha’d done. How do I know what she did after I come away?”

“Did she say anything to you about taking her own life?”

“No.”

“And you swear that she was alive when you came away?”

“She was alive,” Pell said.

He went back to his seat, walking heavily with creaking boots. When he had slumped down again his left hand went back to its old position gripping the bench.

The Coroner recalled Dale Jerningham.

“Just a moment, Mr. Jerningham. How long had you been on the headland before you saw Pell running down the track?”

“Only a very few minutes.”

“Did you hear any cry?”

“No, sir.”

“How far were you from that part of the cliff beneath which the body was found?”

“I should think a quarter of a mile.”

“Would you expect to hear a scream at that distance?”

He hesitated, and then said, “We could hear the sea-gulls.”

“Do you think it is possible that you heard a scream and thought it was the cry of a gull?”

“I don’t think so. A gull’s cry is different.”

“Thank you, Mr. Jerningham… Lady Steyne-”

He asked her the same questions and received the same answers.

That was all the evidence. Mr. Rafe Jerningham was not called.

Miss Silver settled herself in her chair and listened attentively to the Coroner’s summing up. Very clear, very fair, very simple. The medical evidence established the fact that the deceased had met with her death by falling from one of the cliffs of Tane Head. The question before them was how the fall had come about, whether by accident, suicide, or murder. There was no evidence as to any intention to commit suicide. There was evidence of unhappiness. Unhappy people did sometimes give way to an impulse to do away with themselves. This possibility could not be excluded. There was no evidence on the score of accident, but this possibility also could not be excluded.

“You have heard Alfred Pell’s evidence. If you think he is speaking the truth and that he left Cissie Cole on the headland alive, you should, I think, bring in a verdict of death by misadventure – there being no evidence to enable you to decide as between suicide and accident.”

He dealt with Pell’s evidence carefully. Warned them against bias. Directed them as to the law.

The jury retired, remained absent for no more than ten minutes, and returned with a verdict of wilful murder against Alfred Pell.