Tom Brown's Body

7. Dead Men Speak Dutch

*

But, hark you, my Lad. Don't tell me a Lye; for you know I hate a Liar.

IBID. (Act 1, Scene 6)

THE inquest on Mr Conway was held on the Saturday morning in the village schoolroom. The police had asked for an adjournment following the identification of the body and when the medical evidence was concluded. The latter turned out to be interesting and curious.

The coroner sat in the head-teacher's chair on a small platform or dais. The schoolroom was acrid with the smell of a coke stove and draughty from the open panes in the otherwise ecclesiastically air-proof windows.

The public included Scrupe, who had argued successfully with his Housemaster on the desirability of his being present at the inquest.

'But, as a pupil of Mr Conway, sir, I must see justice done. Just suppose, sir –'

'Nonsense, Scrupe. Justice has nothing to do with a coroner's court. Have you no general knowledge at all?'

'But, sir, out of respect –'

'Nonsense, Scrupe.'

'Sir, you are being cruel, sir. Just because I don't choose to show my feelings, that's no reason –'

'Nonsense, Scrupe.'

'No, but really, sir,' said Scrupe, in what masters believed to be his natural voice, 'I should be awfully glad of the chance. I shall be spending the rest of my life in the Argentine, sir, on my father's ranch, and I do think I ought to take out with me the tradition of English liberty. After all, sir –'

'Go, go, go!' said Mr Mayhew, out-talked as usual, and, as usual, annoyed by this fact. So Scrupe was among those present at the inquest, and listened with grave attention, a virtuous air, and great detachment, to the evidence.

Also present (apart from those such as the witnesses who were compelled to attend and did so most unhappily), were Mr Pearson, wearing a black tie, his daughter Marion (a pretty but shrewd-looking girl of about twenty-three) wearing a black hat, Mr Mayhew (not from choice but with a dim idea of keeping an eye on Scrupe), Mr and Miss Love-day, the latter wearing her usual garments but flourishing a black-edged handkerchief and nursing a pair of unworn black kid gloves, the Second Master, whose name was Regison, Mr Reeder, the School bursar, the School secretary, Mr Sugg, and a Housemaster named Mr Poundbury who had his own reasons for being an interested party.

Mr Semple and Mr Kay were called as witnesses, and Mrs Kay had turned up to support her husband. The other witnesses were the Headmaster (who, in the absence of any relatives, had perforce accepted the responsibility of identifying the body), the police, and the local doctor.

The doctor's wife had also come along, and had brought with her a black-eyed, beaky-mouthed, yellow-skinned, reptilian old lady whom Merrys and Skene might have recognized and whom Mr Kay obviously knew. He went very pale when he saw her come in, but to his relief she did not appear to notice him, and by the time he had to give his evidence he was so anxious to make a good impression that he had forgotten all about her.

The proceedings began in formal style with the assembled company standing up at the instigation of the Coroner's officer. This ceremony was followed by the official call-over of the jury. There were eleven of these and they were sworn in rapidly and efficiently. After this they sat down, very uncomfortably for the most part, in the schoolchildren's desks facing the Coroner's dais.

The Coroner then addressed them. He informed them that only a few witnesses would be called, and these in order that the body of Gerald Aloysius Hugo Conway might be buried.

He outlined, after this, such facts as the police did not object to having made public. The body of Gerald Aloysius Hugo Conway had been discovered outside a cottage just within the boundaries of Spey School. It was obvious that death was unlikely to have been from natural causes. Mr Wyck, the Headmaster of Spey, would be the first witness.

'Your name is Esmé Christopher Wyck? You live at Spey School? You are the Headmaster of that School?'

Mr Wyck gravely and quietly replied in the affirmative to these three questions.

'You have seen the body? You identify it as the body of Gerald Conway? Will you tell the Court when you last saw him alive?'

'I cannot answer that with any exactness,' said Mr Wyck, 'but I think it would have been in the School chapel at about half-past nine on the previous morning, that is, on the twenty-third of October.'

'When did you see him next?'

'At about a quarter to eight on the morning of October the twenty-fourth. He was then, I thought, dead.'

'Did you have subsequent reason to revise that opinion?'

'Unfortunately, no.'

'Any questions?' said the Coroner to the jury. There were no questions. Mr Wyck sat down, and Mr Kay was called. He described the finding of the body. He was not questioned; this seemed to surprise him, for he retired reluctantly. Mr Semple followed, and corrobated Kay's evidence.

Then came Dr Neilson. His evidence was interesting if only because it disposed of rumour, although all the rumours added together approximated to the truth.

The doctor agreed that his name and address were as the Coroner stated, and he agreed, too, that in addition to being in what was still called private practice he was the police doctor, the School doctor, and honorary physician and surgeon to the local football club. He then gave his evidence. The body of Gerald Conway had been dead for about four hours when he examined it. Pressed closely, he amended this to between three and five hours. Death had been brought about by drowning. The marks on the neck were undoubtedly caused by a rope, and there was a superficial head wound, but both these injuries together had been insufficient to have caused death.

The police evidence was short and simple. It was obvious that the body had been removed from the water and had been taken to the spot where it was found. The rope had been removed from the neck. There was no sign of the rope in the vicinity of the body. There was no sign, either, of any instrument which could have caused the scalp wound.

The Coroner's jury had no hesitation in coming to the conclusion that Conway had been murdered by a person or persons unknown.

*

'Queer business,' said Doctor Neilson to his wife and their guest, when they were home again after the inquest. 'What did you make of it, Mrs Bradley?'

'Nothing much,' replied the saurian visitor amiably. 'What did you?'

'I can't make head or tail of it. I can't see, for one thing, why the body was moved. Why not have left it in the water? Surely it was a very risky thing to have pulled it out and taken it into the School grounds? I can't see any sense in that.'

'It depends where the water was, doesn't it? Perhaps if we knew where the drowning occurred we should know why the body had to be moved.'

'You say "had to be moved". You think it was essential to the murderer's safety? Yes, that seems the explanation. But I know of no water near here deep enough to drown a man except the river, although that's not far from the School, of course.'

'There is poor old Mr Loveday's Roman Bath,' said his wife.

'Oh, but –' The doctor laughed and shook his head. 'You're not going to tell me that that diffident old ass killed a man of Conway's youth and strength!'

'No, of course not. I only meant that the Bath has water in it deep enough to drown in.'

'That is very interesting,' remarked Mrs Bradley. 'I should like to see this Bath. I am acquainted with Mr Wyck. I wonder whether I could persuade him to show me over the School? The trouble is that he probably doesn't want visitors until this matter is cleared up. I shall await my opportunity.'

That afternoon she went off to Mrs Harries's cottage. The blind crone was seated in her kitchen counting onions. Mrs Bradley opened the front door and announced herself.

'Come through,' called Mrs Harries. 'I was passing the time until you came.'

'You expected me, then?'

'Yes, indeed I did. You went to an inquest this morning.'

'Who told you?'

'Milking Meg.'

'Indeed? And did she tell you what was said there?'

'She told me of drowning and dragging, of cock-fighting, bear-baiting, and rabbit-coursing.'

'Talking of cocks,' said Mrs Bradley quickly, 'who is Mr Kay's enemy? Whom does he propose to kill?'

'That's my dark gentleman. He has named no names. He had the sheep's heart of me, and I told him where to buy the loaf of wax. My own black-headed pins he had, and that's all I know. Their quarrels are none of my business. It's only their silver I ask.'

She refused to say more, but went on mumblingly counting her onions until Mrs Bradley left the house. At the gate Mrs Bradley looked back. The witch was standing in the front doorway mopping and mowing like an idiot. Then she straightened up and ran her thin talons through her grey hair until it stood up all over her head.

'I wonder what she does know?' thought Mrs Bradley; and she repeated the observation that evening in describing the scene to the doctor and his wife. But, neither of them could enlighten her.

'She's a queer old party,' said the doctor unnecessarily. 'And she's cured some of my patients who did not respond to the recognized methods of treatment. There's something uncanny about her. She's an educated woman, for one thing, although occasionally she chooses to talk like the villagers, or else in some gibberish of her own.'

'She's been on the stage,' said Mrs Bradley.

'I loathe and detest her,' said the doctor's wife. 'She foments mischief in the village. The vicar's wife has told me more than once of quarrels which she's blown into flame so that she can sell her magical rubbish. Some years ago the vicar had to deal with an outbreak of devil-worship, and it was all traced back to her. And do you know how it began? – all because they wouldn't put her vegetable marrow in the most prominent place at the Harvest Festival!'

'I wish I knew why Mr Kay goes to her cottage. I think I must ask him,' said Mrs Bradley. This she did that same evening. She walked the two miles from the doctor's house to Kay's cottage and tapped at the door. She knew that someone was in, for she could see the light in the window, but some moments passed before the door was opened.

Mr Kay himself stood there.

'Who is it?' he asked nervously. Mrs Bradley cackled, and he shrank back. 'You?' he said.

'If you mean Mrs Harries, no,' Mrs Bradley replied; and at the sound of her voice he came forward again, and peered at her hesitantly.

'What do you want?' he enquired.

'I am making a regional survey of village superstitions,' said Mrs Bradley, poking a large black notebook almost into his eye. 'And as I have seen you at Mrs Harries's cottage, I thought you might be able to help me.'

Mr Kay gave a short laugh.

'Come in,' he said. 'We seem to be fellow workers. I'm writing a book on village magic. Perhaps we can help one another.'

The cottage was beautifully kept. He led her into a room lined with books, many of them in Spanish and Portuguese. There was only one picture, but that, Mrs Bradley thought, was a Murillo. The furniture was simple, modern, and almost new. She took an armchair by the fire and looked expectantly at her host, although she could not help wondering where his wife was.

'Mrs Harries is, of course, a survival,' he said.

'On the contrary, she is a charlatan,' said Mrs Bradley firmly.

'A convincing one, then.'

'Yes, probably. How did you get on with the loaf of wax?'

'Oh, she told you about that, did she? It's rather odd, really. I tried it for Conway. Well, he's dead, of course, but he died the wrong way. He was murdered. That doesn't come into it, does it?'

'Isn't it murder, then, to achieve one's end by magical means?'

'Yes. If he'd pined away and drooped into death, I might have believed that I'd killed him. But he didn't. He was attacked and then drowned. It doesn't fit.'

'But you did wish him dead.'

'Of course.' He looked rather surprised. 'The fellow was the bane of my life.'

'And you plotted his death?'

'Certainly not. I am doing research.'

'Into witchcraft?'

'Yes.'

'Why?'

'Oh, just that I am interested. Nothing more. I had no intention of killing Conway by witchcraft, if that is what you mean.'

'I don't mean that. There is only one way of killing a person by witchcraft. It is the way by which people are killed by it in Africa. The subject must believe that he will be killed. I don't think Mr Conway was the kind of man to believe that witchcraft could kill him.'

'No, he wasn't. That lets me out, I think.'

'And I think it might,' said Mrs Bradley, retailing this conversation later to the doctor and his wife. 'I don't believe that witchcraft can kill anybody who doesn't believe in it.'

The doctor agreed.

'On the other hand,' he said, 'it has been proved, surely, that witchcraft can be assisted. If the hated person doesn't die by witchcraft, he can be assisted to die by more ordinary and mundane methods. I don't feel inclined to suspect Kay less than I did.'

'Very true,' Mrs Bradley answered. 'But there are other, equally interesting, theories. While I was at Mrs Harries's cottage one night, two boys turned up. They were witnesses, I think, to Mr Kay's extraordinary outburst of temper during which he put his hand through Mrs Harries's sitting-room window.'

'Two boys from the School, do you mean?'

'I imagine so. They had not the voices of village boys. I was there when they arrived. I suppose that means that they were breaking School rules, for the time was well after eleven.'

'And Kay put his hand through the window? – deliberately, do you mean?'

'Well, not exactly deliberately. He was gesticulating very freely, and accidentally punched the window pane.'

'Oh, I see. And you think –?'

'I think that, one way and another, Mr Kay may have been able to sublimate his hatred. His compensation-mechanism functions well. He punched a hole in the window and he has tried to remove Mr Conway by magical means.'

'You're not serious?'

'I don't know how serious I am. I know the facts. Mr Kay has melted a wax image before his fire at home, and he has stuck a sheep's heart with black-headed pins.'

'The man must be crazy.'

'Not necessarily.'

'But you don't believe in magic?'

'Not in wax loaves and sheeps' hearts, no.'

The doctor shook his head and laughed.

'As time goes on, we shall know what you do believe, I suppose?' he said. Mrs Bradley nodded slowly and rhythmically.

'I certainly believe that Mr Kay's visits to Mrs Harries may prove to have some bearing on the death of Mr Conway,' she said, 'but what that bearing may be is entirely dark to me at present.'

'Did you hear that Conway had just become engaged to be married?' the doctor enquired. Mrs Bradley looked interested.

'To whom?' she asked.

'To the daughter of Pearson, the woodwork and metal-work master,' replied the doctor. 'He is a visiting master. He lives at the other end of the village. He is a widower with this one daughter. From what I've heard, it seems pretty certain that Pearson wasn't in favour of the match, but he turned up at the School on the night before Conway's death and gave quite a party.'

'Champagne and oysters?'

'Champagne, anyway. And the news must have come as a bit of a blow to another of the masters – young Semple. It's been obvious for some time that he's been hoping to marry Marion Pearson, and we think he must have taken an awful knock when old Pearson turned up with the champagne.'

'I like Mr Semple,' said the doctor's wife.

'And I like the sound of Mr Semple,' Mrs Bradley observed. 'I like the sound of Mr Kay, Mr Semple, and, of course, Mr Pearson. They are three of the liveliest suspects I have encountered for years.'

'Suspects? You think one of those murdered Conway? But it's incredible!'

'Yes,' Mrs Bradley agreed. 'It's incredible to you because you know them. But the incredible is not necessarily the impossible, and I, you see, am not acquainted with any of them, which makes it easier to say what I think.'

'Then one of those three, in your opinion, killed Conway V asked the doctor. 'I don't believe it!'

Mrs Bradley shrugged.

'Well, which one?' said the doctor challengingly.

'It would be immoral of me to tell you,' said Mrs Bradley, 'although I am most interested in what you've told me.'

'I don't seem to have told you very much.'

'Oh, but you have! You say that Mr Conway himself seemed surprised when his engagement to Miss Pearson was announced, and you say that it was supposed that Mr Semple might have married her and that Mr Semple was angry and upset when he heard the news, and you say –'

'Oh, heavens!' said the doctor, laughing. 'I seem to have said more than I thought I had!'

'Yes,' said Mrs Bradley cheerfully. 'By the way, I suppose you had no reason for wanting to be rid of the young man?'

'I hadn't, but I know who had,' said the doctor suddenly. 'And that's Poundbury, whom, so far, you haven't met. He was present at the inquest – a vague-looking, tall fellow about forty years old. Teaches Latin, and has a very beautiful young wife. He hated Conway like poison, and with good reason. Still, he wouldn't have murdered him, you know.'