A Case of Spirits

CHAPTER 3

Miss Crush was more observant of rank than Dr Probert. ‘Sergeant,’ she said, as Cribb was announced by the maid. ‘Such excitement! Do come in, Sergeant, and let me look at you.’

He took two short steps into the room-short not from shyness, but because a rosewood table, circular in shape, barred his way. At the centre was a tall Copeland vase containing pink chrysanthemums a little past their prime. From where he stood, Miss Crush’s face regarded him through a space between the blooms. It was delicate, compact and fringed with fair, slightly dishevelled hair.

‘You have the look of a sensitive,’ said Miss Crush.

‘A detective actually, ma’am,’ Cribb gently explained.

‘Yes, but there is definitely something about you. I felt it as soon as the door opened and I feel it more strongly now. You must be a sensitive. It doesn’t prevent you from being a detective as well, you know. I should think it would be a positive advantage. What did my maid say your surname was?’

‘Cribb, ma’am.’

‘Superb! Sensitive Sergeant Cribb-how do you like that?’

‘If I’m honest, ma’am, I prefer my official rank. I’m here about your vase.’

‘Never mind that,’ said Miss Crush. ‘Do you ever notice atmospheres-when you first enter a room, for instance?’

It seemed she was not referring to the faintly stale scent of the chrysanthemums.

‘Or do you feel invisible presences?’ Miss Crush continued.

Cribb shook his head. ‘I’m strictly interested in facts, ma’am. Feelings don’t enter into it much in my job. The vase was taken last Friday evening, I believe.’

‘Yes, but it’s of no consequence now. It was not one of my better pieces. I gave a description to the young constable who called on Saturday. He was perfectly civil, but he was not a sensitive. Do you ever have visionary experiences?’

‘Not in the course of duty, ma’am. Was the vase taken from this room?’

Miss Crush got to her feet and came round the table to place a hand on Cribb’s sleeve. She was small and fortyish. She either used rouge, or the excitement of discovering a sensitive had gone to her cheeks. ‘If you will persist with your questions I shall try to answer them, but I really do not mind about the vase. It was taken a week ago last Saturday from the sideboard over there while I was at Dr Probert’s for a seance. The thief got in through the mews at the back of the house and opened a door by removing one of the panes, putting his arm through and unfastening the latch. The servants were in the kitchen and didn’t hear a thing- playing cards, I shouldn’t wonder. I got home shortly after midnight and heard about the broken pane when Annie, my parlour-maid, was locking up half an hour later. It wasn’t until morning that we found the vase had gone.’

‘Didn’t you check to see if anything was stolen after you found the window broken?’ asked Cribb, incredulously.

‘You know how it is, Sergeant. One is always wiser after the event. I was already in bed when Annie came to tell me what she had found, and I must confess that I was in a state of some perturbation about the manifestations the medium had produced at Dr Probert’s. To be frank, I was disinclined to venture downstairs by candlelight. I directed Annie to look into each of the rooms, thinking that if a burglar had visited us the fact would be only too apparent. I never suspected he would be content with a single vase, and a common piece of Worcester at that.’

‘It was still worth thirty pounds, I understand, ma’am. That’s as much as your Annie would earn in a year, I dare say.’

‘Quite true, but I’m sure she didn’t take it. I allowed the constable to search her box, just in case. Besides, why should she want to break a window?’

‘I wasn’t venturing to accuse your servant, ma’am,’ Cribb primly said. ‘I was simply trying to make the point that thirty pounds is a tidy sum by ordinary people’s standards. You had quite a lively seance at Dr Probert’s then, if lively is the word to use in the circumstances.’

Miss Crush started to giggle and stifled it with a lace handkerchief. ‘My word, yes. The dear departed were coming through very clearly. Mr Brand is set to become the most successful medium in London. The evening began with table-tapping, which is quite usual, but by the end of the evening the spirits were speaking through his voice, a man and a woman coming through very distinctly.’

‘Remarkable,’ said Cribb.

‘Indeed, yes. They conveyed a message to me.’

‘Nothing to do with your house being burgled?’

Miss Crush frowned. ‘No. They are not concerned with worldly matters once they have gone over to the Other Side. It was to tell me that my late Uncle Walter is well content where he is. He made an unfortunate marriage, poor man, and my aunt frequently drove him to distraction. There was no mention of her in the message, although she followed him only two months after his going.’

‘It’s an extensive place, I understand,’ said Cribb. ‘If your uncle kept moving. .’

‘Quite so.’

Cribb skirted the table to examine the sideboard where the stolen vase had stood. At least a dozen others were on parade there in two ranks.

‘It isn’t missed,’ said Miss Crush, following him. ‘I simply changed the positions of the others and now you wouldn’t know that the Worcester had ever been there.’

For a collector, her unconcern was baffling.

‘I believe it was Japanese in style,’ said Cribb.

‘Yes. One of Hadley’s pieces. I gave a description to the constable.’

‘Thank you, ma’am. I’ve got a note of it.’

‘There are lots of them about, you know. I can find a replacement if I want one, and I’m not sure whether I do.’

‘Was it on display here on the evening when you had the seance with Sir Hartley Bratt and his family and Dr Probert?’

‘Oh, yes. I asked Mr Brand whether it was safe to keep the vases out during the seance. One frequently hears of articles being moved by the spirits-poltergeists do such things, you know. But Mr Brand assured me that the collection would be safe. I could see that he had a proper respect for my bits of crockery, because he couldn’t resist handling some of them as we were talking. That is the way they affect a man of taste. You need not hesitate to do the same.’

‘My thanks, ma’am,’ said Cribb, retaining a firm grip on the edge of the table behind him. ‘If I may, I’d like to put a question to you that you might consider impertinent.’

‘I don’t expect I shall,’ said Miss Crush, with an encouraging smile.

‘Very well. How much did you pay Mr Brand for his services as a medium?’

‘His fee was ten guineas. I gave him a little extra because it was such a productive seance. Lady Bratt saw a spirit hand, you know.’

‘And were you satisfied that all the phenomena were genuine?’

‘Absolutely, Sergeant. Well, I will admit that Lady Bratt is an excitable person and might have been mistaken about the hand, but we all felt the table move and heard the tapping.’

‘It feels a pretty solid piece of furniture to me,’ said Cribb, turning to examine the understructure. He stopped, peered underneath and was so unprepared for what he saw that he rapped his head on the underside of the table. ‘God help us, ma’am, there’s a man under here!’

‘I know,’ said Miss Crush, matter-of-factly. ‘You may come out now, Mr Strathmore.’

Strathmore! The man from the Life After Death Society.

He emerged slowly on all fours like an exhibit at the zoological gardens coming out to sun itself. The brown worsted of his suit encompassed his bulk, but not without definite indications of strain from the exceptional posture. Upright, he was revealed as a short man, burly, not obese. He jammed a monocle over his right eye and said, ‘There is absolutely no need to go for your truncheon, Sergeant. One had a very good reason for being where one was. I am not your burglar, I promise you. Search me if you like. All you will find are my watch, a notebook, two pencils, a magnifying glass and a tape measure.’

‘I’m sure it isn’t necessary, sir,’ said Cribb. ‘I was just a little unprepared to find-’

‘A man under my table?’ said Miss Crush. ‘I thought of telling you when you first came in, but it is not the sort of thing a lady cares to mention the moment after a policeman is shown into her room. What constructions you might have put upon it! How was I to explain that Mr Strathmore is a distinguished investigator of spiritual phenomena who had come by appointment to inspect my table? He had just got underneath when you arrived.’

‘Honorary Secretary of the Life After Death Society,’ said Strathmore, pushing a visiting-card into Cribb’s hand. ‘Object: to investigate the claims of mediums and test them scientifically, with the ultimate intention of establishing conclusively the existence of the hereafter.’

Cribb looked up from the card. No doubt of it: the man was speaking in earnest. ‘Is that what you were doing under the table?’

‘But of course. One has to test for so many things-loose floorboards, hidden springs, hollow legs. Let us face the facts, Sergeant. I have carried out my duties as a member of the Society for twelve years, no less, and I have yet to find a medium who is not a fraud or a charlatan. My job is to expose such people, eliminate them, you see. I am quite ruthless in uncovering their hocus-pocus, but as a seeker after truth, I must be. It is the only certain way of discovering someone who genuinely has the power.’

‘You’re still looking for such a person after twelve years?’

‘I am.’ Strathmore held up his right forefinger in the manner of one of the prophets of old. ‘Fifteen years ago, before the Society was formed, there was a man who may just conceivably have had that gift for which we search. His name was Daniel Home. In seance after seance he produced phenomena that astonished and convinced his sitters. He repeated the effects in laboratory conditions for no less a scientist that Mr William Crookes. Oh, unbelievable things! Imagine the scene in the laboratory when Crookes presented Home with a new accordion, bought that morning in Conduit Street. The medium held one end of it at arm’s length, while an unseen power played a plaintive tune on the other.’

‘There was a famous levitation incident, too,’ contributed Miss Crush, ‘when Home floated horizontally out of one window at Ashley House and in through another in the presence of two peers of the realm and an army officer.’

‘I’ve heard that story, ma’am,’ said Cribb. ‘I also seem to remember an action at law a few years ago concerning thirty thousand pounds’ worth of mortgage securities that Mr Home and his spirits had managed to persuade a rich widow to transfer to him. His seances weren’t so popular with the well-to-do after that.’

‘You are well-informed,’ said Miss Crush, more in the tone of a rebuff than a compliment.

‘It hasn’t changed the opinion of William Crookes,’ said Strathmore, icily.

‘I’m glad to hear it, sir. It’d be a dull world if all of us were sceptics. Personally I’m looking forward to meeting young Brand.’

‘You’re going to meet him?’ said Miss Crush, in horror. ‘Sergeant, I don’t think that is wise.’

‘Why not, ma’am? He doesn’t frighten me.’

‘No, but you will frighten him. He is such a delicate young man. So impressionable. And his heart is not strong, you know. I should hate him to think he is under suspicion of removing that wretched vase from my house. The shock might be enough to put out the spiritual fire in the boy.’

‘Good gracious, yes,’ said Strathmore. ‘We can’t let a piece of porcelain spoil a chance of unravelling the mystery of the Universe.’

‘Ah, but there’s the matter of another mystery as well, sir. A missing Nymph and Satyrs. Property of your friend, Dr Probert. I’m bound to ask Mr Brand if he can help me over that. I’ll treat him gentle, ma’am. Rest assured of that. I’ve heard so much about him that I’d rather like to sit in on one of his seances myself.’

‘That could be arranged, I’m sure,’ said Miss Crush. ‘One simply wishes to spare him the embarrassment of questions from the police.’

‘He’s subject to the law, like any one of us, ma’am,’ said Cribb solemnly.

‘Oh dear, this is very upsetting,’ said Miss Crush. ‘It might discourage him from ever coming here again, or going to Dr Probert’s. I think I must insist that you forget about the missing vase, Sergeant.’

‘Drop the investigation, d’you mean?’ said Cribb in disbelief.

‘Call the hounds off, so to speak,’ Strathmore explained, putting a hand on Cribb’s shoulder.

‘Can’t do that, sir.’

‘Why ever not?’

‘It’s a criminal matter. The thief who took the vase might take something else from another member of the public. Someone made off with Dr Probert’s nymph, after all. No, I shall need to talk to Mr Brand, same as I’ve talked to you. I haven’t been uncivil, have I?’

‘Quite the reverse, Sergeant,’ answered Miss Crush, pulling open the sideboard door. ‘I was about to offer you a sherry.’

‘Never touch it, thank you, ma’am.’

‘Something stronger, perhaps?’

‘No, ma’am. I don’t get on with spirits.’ He paused. ‘Of the alcoholic sort, that is.’

Strathmore’s mouth formed stiffly into the shape of a smile. ‘Spirits. Ah ha! You’re a sharp one, Sergeant, very sharp.’

Cribb smiled back. It was the confident smile of a man in control. These people would laugh at any quip he made, however excruciating, because they wanted his co-operation over the matter of Brand. It would be dereliction of duty not to press his advantage. ‘Not sharp enough, I’m afraid, sir.’

Strathmore pricked up the eyebrow that was not holding his monocle in place. ‘What do you mean by that, Sergeant?’

‘Well, sir, a detective should know what’s going on. When I walked in here just now I had not the slightest suspicion that you were under the table. Dr Probert’s table I could understand, but not Miss Crush’s.’

‘Ah. You mean that I was present at the seance which took place at Richmond, but you had not connected me with this good lady’s house?’

‘Exactly.’

‘The explanation is quite simple,’ said Strathmore. ‘Dr Probert’s party was the first opportunity one had of seeing young Brand at the table and one was sufficiently impressed by the phenomena he produced to make further investigations. Miss Crush most kindly proposed a visit to her house to examine the scene of the previous seance, where the spirit hand was alleged to have materialised. Only when we have eliminated every possibility of trickery and deception can we begin to take a medium seriously, you see.’

‘And have you discovered anything suspicious?’

‘Nothing at all. The table is perfectly in order, as was Dr Probert’s. One hesitates to say it, but I think we may have found-’

‘A second Home, sir?’

‘It would be premature to say as much as that, Sergeant. It is sufficient for the moment to state that one has found nothing to suggest that Mr Brand is fraudulent. And that, I may say, is remarkable. You would be surprised how blatant the deceptions are that the majority of so-called mediums practise on the public. I have myself seen an apparition materialise in a drawing-room two streets away from here which when one unexpectedly turned up the gas was all too tangibly revealed as a young woman dressed in a cheesecloth shift with-pardon my explicit language, Miss Crush-the unmistakable outlines of a corset underneath.’

‘The hussy!’ whispered Miss Crush.

‘So you see that my Society has to be unceasingly vigilant,’ said Strathmore, folding his arms.

‘I expect you made a full inspection of Dr Probert’s house,’ said Cribb.

‘Not the whole of the house, Sergeant. Merely the room where the seance took place.’

‘I see. Dr Probert didn’t show you his picture-gallery, then?’

‘He most certainly did not.’ It was difficult to tell from Strathmore’s emphasis whether he was scandalised at the suggestion that he might be interested in looking at Dr Probert’s naked ladies, or whether he thought the question sought to implicate him in the theft of the Etty.

‘But I expect you stayed behind after Mr Brand had left?’

insisted Cribb.

‘Of course. It was my duty as an investigator to look under the table.’

‘I stayed afterwards, too,’ said Miss Crush. ‘I was far too excited by what I had seen to go home immediately. Miss Alice Probert arranged for some cocoa to be served, as a nightcap, she said. It had a very calming effect on the nerves.’

‘I drink it myself, ma’am. So Mr Brand left the house at what time, would you say?’

‘Half past ten,’ said Strathmore. ‘I keep a meticulous record of every seance I attend. He had a hansom waiting for him.’

‘At what time did you leave, sir?’

‘It was twenty minutes to twelve. I left a few minutes after Miss Crush. Mr Nye, Miss Probert’s fiance, had very decently gone out to call carriages for us.’

Cribb turned to Miss Crush. ‘So Mr Brand left at least an hour before you did, ma’am, and when you got home you discovered that your vase was missing. Now do you understand why I must put some questions to him?’