Tom Brown's Body

12. The Case is Clearer

*

Come, Filch, you shall go with me into my own Room, and tell me the whole Story.

IBID. (Act 1, Scene 6)

If you can forgive me, Sir, I will make a fair Confession, for to be sure he hath been a most barbarous Villain to me.

IBID. (Act 3, Scene 1)

ISSACHER, whose parents were orthodox Jews, did not attend Chapel. Mrs Bradley arranged, therefore, with his Housemaster, to interview him whilst the rest of the School was out of the way.

Issacher had been apprised of this arrangement and approved of it. He shared a study with two other boys, and invited Mrs Bradley in as he would have invited her into his home. He removed a pair of football boots, a sawn-off shotgun, two books, and a box-file from the seat of the most comfortable chair in the room and asked her to sit down. Then he faced her, smiling hospitably.

'It is about your connexion with the two boys who broke out of the House during the week before Mr Conway's death,' she said.

'Ah, that,' said Issacher. 'We must talk fast. The others will soon be out of chapel. I had no connexion with those boys whatsoever, and therefore, as a matter of fact, my knowledge is second-hand; but it is reliable. All my information is reliable.'

Mrs Bradley pursed her beaky little mouth and nodded slowly. So reliable did she know Issacher's information to be ('Issy knows everything' was an article of faith in his House) that she was prepared to believe that what he said required the minimum of corroborative evidence.

'So?' she prompted him.

'So when Merrys and Skene broke out and then told Eaves and Meyrick (in their dorm, you know) that a murder might be committed, and then the next thing was that a mur – that Mr Conway was found like that, I investigated and found that their story was funny. Peculiar, I mean. It jumped to the eye that they could get Spiv – Mr Kay – arrested or not, as they liked, but it would mean landing themselves with the sack if they were not pretty careful.'

'How did Mr Kay come to be known by his soubriquet?' asked Mrs Bradley, flying off at a tangent.

'Oh, that!' said Issacher, his dark eyes just a little wary. 'I lampooned him.'

'And the name caught on?'

'Louis the Spiv? Yes. I got it from Conway, of course.'

'Did you dislike Mr Kay?'

'Oh, no. But the fellows had begun to call me Spivvy, so I thought it time to pass the buck.'

'Then you know nothing about the time of the murder?'

'Nothing at all, and I can't guess. I suppose the police know?'

'Oh, yes, the medical evidence ...'

'Within the usual limits, I expect? My father's a doctor. But, you know,' he went on, waving his pianist's hands, 'if you'll pardon me, and if I were you –' He lowered his voice and dropped his eyes. 'If I were you,' he repeated quietly, 'I'd give up the whole thing. It will only make a stink, and, honestly, it isn't worth it for a beast like Mr Conway.'

'You disliked him?'

'Can't you imagine? – "our not altogether unimaginative opponent, Herr Hitler" – and then a lot of filthy stuff about the Jews. And then he'd pretend to forget my name and call me "Friend Barabbas – I beg his pardon, Issacher." And then he'd talk a lot of tripe about the Wandering Jew when he caught me not attending to his lesson. Oh, I don't know who killed the swine, but I pray they get away with it!' His voice rose high. Mrs Bradley went away, very thoughtful. Her next interview was with the intellectual Micklethwaite, whom she sent for out of a Divinity lesson.

Micklethwaite attempted to impress her.

'I still say that St Paul had no conception of the Athenian mentality,' said he. 'Judging from the account given in the Acts, he underrated the intelligence of the Greeks of the first century, over-estimated the appeal of the Gospels, and obviously had never heard of the Mysteries.'

'Have you been to Eleusis?' Mrs Bradley politely enquired.

'No, and I don't want to go. I intend to keep the places I revere safely within my Garden of the Hesperides,' replied the annoying and unorthodox child, adroitly blocking the question.

'It is interesting that you should have come straight out of a Divinity lesson,' said Mrs Bradley, restraining herself from hitting him over the head and, instead, leading the way to the School library, where, at that hour of the day, no one was likely to disturb them. 'It was about the Divinity Prize that I wanted to speak to you.'

'Oh, that!' said Micklethwaite. He was a well-made, sandy-haired, very tidy youth, with a fine brow and a short, plump, sensual mouth. 'That was to do with Mr Conway. What can you expect of a man who prefers Canaletto to Turner?'

'Less, obviously, than you can expect of a youth who knows one from the other,' replied Mrs Bradley. 'But recount to me, Mr Micklethwaite, the full history of the award of the Divinity Prize of last year.'

'Nothing to tell,' said Micklethwaite, shrugging his curiously wide, slim shoulders. 'I suppose Conway thought I cribbed. I didn't, and I didn't want the prize. I shall say no more about it.' Neither did he.

'A Judo expert? Hm!' thought Mrs Bradley. She returned to consult Miss Loveday.

'I know nothing much of Micklethwaite, save that he once made a rather interesting statement to me,' said Miss Love-day solemnly. 'He once told me that the Prophet Samuel was responsible for all the misdeeds of King Saul. Could that be possible?'

'Psychologically quite possible,' Mrs Bradley briskly replied. 'Is that the statement to which you refer?'

'Oh, no,' Miss Loveday responded. 'It was not that at all. I am not at all biased, and all my religious convictions are open to be disputed by clever boys. There is nothing more instructive than argument which is conceived in a scholarly spirit and carried on in a gentlemanly manner. No. He once told me that he hated cruelty; this after I had seen him throw a little non-swimming boy over his head into deep, deep water.'

'A Judo expert. Hm!' thought Mrs Bradley again. She went to her room in Mr Loveday's House and re-read her notes. Then she went in search of Mrs Poundbury, whom she found in the kitchen garden behind her husband's House – it was the pride of Mrs Poundbury that she rarely had to buy fruit, herbs, or vegetables for her husband's boys – helping the maid to gather Brussels sprouts.

She straightened up at Mrs Bradley's approach and smiled like an angel. She was, as Mrs Bradley again appreciated, an exceptionally beautiful young woman. Moreover, her anxieties seemed to have been resolved.

'Good morning,' she said. 'You're not going to be any luckier than last time if you've come to pump me about Gilbert. Won't you come into the house?'

'No. I'll pick Brussels sprouts,' said Mrs Bradley. 'They seem to be very fine ones.' She set to work.

'That will be enough, I think,' said Mrs Poundbury, at the end of twenty minutes. 'The boys like them, but they take a long time to prepare. I usually help with them during the afternoon. We give them to the boys at six o'clock.'

'Your husband does notice, I suppose, whether the boys have anything to eat or not?' Mrs Bradley enquired, as her hostess led the way to the House.

'I hardly think so,' Mrs Poundbury replied. 'Gilbert lives in the fourth dimension. By the way, I do hope you didn't carry away any – well – strange ideas last time? I like Gilbert, and –'

'You mean you are in love with him?'

'Oh, yes.' Mrs Poundbury smiled. 'There are some things that he doesn't muddle, you know.'

'Ah,' said Mrs Bradley, who had known from the moment they met that Mrs Poundbury was no longer associating in her own mind the eccentric Mr Poundbury and the fact of murder. 'Quite so. But you've made him very angry once or twice.'

'Twice,' Mrs Poundbury agreed. 'Once when Gerald Conway suggested that he and I should run away together, and once when I told him that I thought Socrates was a silly old man.'

'And did you take Mr Conway seriously?' Mrs Bradley enquired. Mrs Poundbury laughed outright, and Mrs Bradley liked her the better for it.

'Oh, yes, in a way,' she said. 'But really it was all ridiculous. When I told Gilbert, he punched Gerald in the stomach, and made him feel very ill; and then he punched him in the stomach again, and, when he fell down, Gilbert kicked him. When I remonstrated, Gilbert said, "Oh, did I kick him? Well, once is no good!" And he kicked him several times more. So I didn't want to run away with Gerald after that. And, of course, Gerald had his real girl and definitely wanted to get married.'

Mrs Bradley was delighted with this account of the relationship between Mr Conway and the Poundburys, and said so.

'It's so nice of you,' said Mrs Poundbury, wide-eyed with innocence. 'Gilbert is interested in violence. He says that without violence the world would have ceased to turn on its axis. His view is that effort is a moral, not a physical, attribute. He wrote a little treatise about it in connexion with football.'

'Did you read the treatise?'

'Oh, yes. I understood some of it, but not all. I don't really believe in violence because it seems to me to be uncontrollable. Everything worth while must be subject to some sort of law, I feel. Do you agree?'

She looked even more innocent than before, and Mrs Bradley knew quite well why she had been told about the fight and about the treatise. 'You see,' Mrs Poundbury was saying, in effect, 'Gilbert didn't need to murder Gerald Conway. He had already revenged himself on him, and had rationalized his emotions about him.' She respected Mrs Poundbury for this attitude, and changed the conversation.

'What kind of boy is Micklethwaite?' she suddenly enquired.

'He is an unbearable boy,' Mrs Poundbury replied, betraying no surprise at the sudden change of subject. 'Of course, he is not in our House.'

'I wondered whether he was likely to commit murder.'

'Oh, I should think he might. Do you suspect him of it?' Mrs Poundbury enquired.

'He is at the back of my mind,' Mrs Bradley answered. 'But, then, so are several other people.'

'Do tell me.'

'I should prefer you to tell me.'

'Oh, well, there's Gilbert, of course, as you keep on hinting,' said Mrs Poundbury, disingenuously, 'and Mr Loveday, Miss Loveday, Mr and Mrs Kay, John Semple, and poor old Mr Pearson, I suppose, since Marion became engaged to Gerald Conway. Daddy Pearson couldn't stand him, you know. Then, of course, there are always the boys! Issacher would have a grievance, no doubt, and Takhobali perhaps . ..'

'Takhobali? Ah, yes, what do you know of him?' Mrs Bradley enquired.

'Well, he is rather an interesting boy. He is West African, and rather uninhibited from a European point of view, although I expect he observes all sorts of tabu of his own.'

'I will continue to make his acquaintance,' Mrs Bradley promised. 'Is there anyone else you can think of?'

Mrs Poundbury considered the question carefully, and then replied, with an irritating affectation of honesty: 'Well, of course, there's always me. Poor Gerald was quite a nuisance at times, you know. I'm not at all sorry to be rid of him. Blackmail of a sort, too. Not money, of course, or anything like that, but just that little bit of extra pressure on me to go his way because, if I didn't, Mr Wyck would be informed of a few little things which wouldn't prejudice him in my favour and which might have cost Gilbert his House.'

'Oho!' said Mrs Bradley. 'So the land lay that way? I wonder whether you would care to drive through the village with me? There are some things over which I think you might be able to help me. What do you say?'

'I'd love to come. I've nothing more to do now we've picked the Brussels sprouts, and I never bother much about lunch because Gilbert lunches in Big School with the boys. I won't be more than five minutes.'

To Mrs Bradley's great astonishment she was quite as good as her word, and reappeared in four minutes' time ready for the drive. Together she and Mrs Bradley walked over to where Mrs Bradley's car was garaged, and soon they were heading for the School gate and the road to the village.

'Are we going shopping?' Mrs Poundbury presently enquired.

'No. We are going to the cottage which Mr Kay may have visited on the night of Mr Conway's death,' Mrs Bradley replied. 'I think the sight of the cottage may inspire you to make some valuable observations.'

'What makes you think I should know the cottage?' Mrs Poundbury enquired.

'Oh, it is a theory of mine that you may know it,' said Mrs Bradley vaguely. 'Anyway, here we are.'

'But this isn't the . . .'

'Ah,' said Mrs Bradley, 'you are right. This is not the cottage. It shows me that you know the right one when we come to it.'

'I may as well admit that I do,' said Mrs Poundbury, 'but I know nothing of the old woman who lives in it. Gerald always went in by himself.'

'What for?'

'Oh, herbs and things. He was rather interested in the old woman's remedies, I believe.'

'But not in her love potions, charms, and black magic?'

'Goodness, I shouldn't think so. Why?'

'Did he ever get you to try any of her concoctions?'

'No,' said Mrs Poundbury, with decision, 'he did not! And I never met the old woman.'

Mrs Bradley was so certain that this was a lie that she did not attempt to press the question or to get Mrs Poundbury to enlarge upon her answer. She drove on to Mrs Harries's cottage, and stopped the car.

'Are we getting out?' Mrs Poundbury enquired. She sounded nervous.

'I am,' Mrs Bradley replied. 'You, of course, will please yourself what you do.'

Mrs Poundbury got out, and followed Mrs Bradley up the path to the door. Mrs Bradley turned the handle and walked in, announcing her presence, as usual, on a loud and tuneful note. There was no reply, so she walked across the small front room to the kitchen. There was still no sign of Mrs Harries, so she went out through the kitchen to the long and narrow back garden.

The elderly witch was sweeping together the dead leaves which had fallen from the hazels.

'Bonfires?' enquired Mrs Bradley. The crone looked towards the direction from which the voice came.

'Ah, it's you,' she said. 'You're standing on Tom Tiddler's Ground. Did you know?'

'Yes,' Mrs Bradley replied. 'I did know, and I am trusting to you to get me out of it. How often did Gerald Conway come here?'

'Conway?' said the witch. 'A deep and resounding delivery, a conceited presence, a bull of a man, a bully of a man, a woman's man, a despicable fool of a man, a drowned man, his own worst enemy?'

'I feel that you have summed him up well. How often did he come?'

'Hereabouts and thereabouts, five times in a month, seven times in a year. Now he lies dead, and none so poor to do him reverence.'

'He didn't come five times in a month,' said Mrs Pound-bury from behind Mrs Bradley's shoulder. The blind woman started.

'Strange,' she muttered. 'I did mot know that anybody else was there. Who are you?'

'Never mind,' said Mrs Poundbury. 'I am nobody you would know.'

'You were born in the dark,' said the sibyl. It was Mrs Poundbury's turn to look startled and anxious. She did not leave it at that, but turned and fled from the presence of the witch.

'Born in the dark and now lives in the dark,' said Mrs Harries. 'I suppose my potions were for her? Did she come here with him?''

'It is possible,' said Mrs Bradley guardedly, feeling that it was not yet clear whether Mrs Poundbury and Mrs Harries had met before. She went a little nearer to Mrs Harries and said in low tones, 'I wonder whether it is of any use to ask how many times you let a room in this cottage of yours?'

'I shall answer you, although it is none of your business,' replied the witch. 'You have heard the answer once, and I will repeat it. I let the cottage five times in a week. That was during the summer. In August. Yes, back in August. I was paid well.'

'Ah, yes, I see. But you were gone each time before your tenants came in? You never spoke to the woman who came here with Mr Conway?'

'Never. It was in the contract.'

'And have you retained the contract?'

The old crone looked suddenly crafty. She shook her head.

'I know better than to keep evidence for which I might pay heavily,' she said. Mrs Bradley had a sudden idea which she did not disclose to her hostess. The latter lived up to this title by fishing in the pocket of the coarse apron she was wearing and producing an onion. 'Take it,' she said. 'I have said the runes over it. It will smell like a pomander from the moment you take it from my hand.'

Mrs Bradley was the least suggestible of women. She took the onion and sniffed at it delicately. An aroma, very faint but undoubtedly characteristic, of clove pinks, came from it. The crone chuckled and mumbled. Mrs Bradley took another sniff at the onion, and there was no doubt about the scent. She closed her eyes, concentrated mentally on the smell of onion, and achieved the result she intended. The onion, unlike Ben Jonson's rosy wreath, again smelt only of itself. She put it back gently into the old woman's hand. The witch grimaced and then nodded.

'We be of one blood, thou and I,' said Mrs Bradley. She went out to the country road, very thoughtful, and joined Mrs Poundbury, who was now seated in the car.

'Well?' demanded Mrs Poundbury.

'No, it wasn't you,' said Mrs Bradley. 'At least, I hardly think so. You knew the cottage but I don't think you've ever been inside it before. And if it wasn't you ...' She did not finish the sentence. There was no need.

'Ah!' said Mrs Poundbury, enlightened. 'She's an uncanny old thing,' she went on. 'I was born in the dark, you know. The electric light failed as I decided to embark upon a separate existence. But how could she possibly have known?'

Mrs Bradley did not attempt to answer this rhetorical question.