CHAPTER IX
"Have you formed any theory of the murder yet?"
It was the evening of the same day, and Superintendent Merrington andCaptain Stanhill were once more in the moat-house library. It wasCaptain Stanhill who asked the question, as he stood warming his littlelegs in front of a crackling fire of oak logs which had just beenlighted in the gloomy depths of the big fireplace. Although it was earlyin autumn, the evening air was chill.
Superintendent Merrington was walking up and down the room with rapidstrides, occasionally glancing with some impatience at the clock whichticked with cheerful indifference on the mantelpiece. He was about toreturn to London, but was waiting for the return of Detective Caldew andSergeant Lumbe. Caldew had cycled to Chidelham to see the Weynes, andLumbe had been sent to investigate a telephoned report of a suspiciousstranger seen at a hamlet called Tibblestone, some miles away.
Merrington's face wore a gloomy and dissatisfied expression. He hadspent the afternoon in a whirlwind of energy in which he had done manythings. He had explored the moat-house from top to bottom, squeezing hisvast bulk into every obscure corner of the rambling old place. He hadrowed round the moat in a small boat, scrutinizing the outside wall forfootmarks. He had mustered the male servants, and superintended anorganized beat of the grounds, the woods, and the neighbouring heights.He had interviewed the village station-master to ascertain if anystranger had arrived at Heredith the previous day, and had made similarinquiries by telephone at the adjoining stations. He had inspected thehorses and vehicles at the village inn to see if they showed marks ofrecent usage, and he had peremptorily interrogated everybody he cameacross to find out whether any one unknown in the district had been seenskulking about the neighbourhood.
Merrington lacked the subtle and penetrative brain of a really greatdetective, but he possessed energy, initiative, and observation. Thesequalities had stood him in good stead before, but in this case they hadbrought nothing to light. The mystery and meaning of the terrible murderof the previous night were no nearer solution than when he had arrivedto take up the case, ten hours before.
The most baffling aspect of the crime to him was the apparent lack ofmotive and the absence of any clue. In most murders there are generallysome presumptive clues to guide those called upon to investigate thecrime--such things as finger-prints or footprints, a previous threat oradmission, an overheard conversation, a chance word, or a compromisingletter. Such clues may not prove much in themselves, but they serve asfinger-posts. Even the time, which in some cases of murder offers avaluable help to solution, in this case tended to shield the murderer.It seemed as though the murderer had chosen an unusual time and unusualconditions to shield his identity more thoroughly and make discoveryimpossible.
The case was full of sinister possibilities and perplexities. It borethe stamp of deep premeditation and calculated skill. As the crime wasapparently motiveless, it was certain that the motive was deep andcarefully hidden. The only definite conclusion that Merrington hadreached was that the murderer would have to be sought further afield,probably in London, where the dead girl had lived all her life. Thereseemed not the slightest reason to suspect anybody in the neighbourhood,as she was a stranger to the district, and knew nobody in it except Mrs.Weyne, who lived some miles away. It was unfortunate that her husband,who was the only person able to give any information about her earlierlife, was too ill to be questioned.
On hearing Captain Stanhill's question, Merrington paused abruptly inhis impatient pacing of the carpet, and glanced at him covertly from hisdeep-set little eyes. If he had consulted his own feelings he would havetold the Chief Constable that it was not the time to air theories aboutthe crime. But in his present position it behoved him to walk warily andnot make an enemy of his colleague. If there was to be an outburst ofpublic indignation because the murderer in this case had not beenimmediately discovered and brought to justice, it would be just as wellif the county police shared the burden of responsibility. Merringtonrealized that he could best make Captain Stanhill feel hisresponsibility by taking him fully into his confidence. He was awarethat he had practically ignored the Chief Constable in the course of theday's investigations, and it was desirable to remove any feeling thattreatment may have caused. Superintendent Merrington had the greatestcontempt for the county police, but there were times when it wasjudicious to dissemble that feeling. The present moment was one of them.
Captain Stanhill, on his part, cherished no animosity against hiscompanion for his cavalier treatment of him. He realized his owninexperience in crime detection, and had been quite willing thatSuperintendent Merrington should take the lead in the investigations,which he had assisted to the best of his ability. He thought Merringtonrather an unpleasant type, but he was overawed by his great reputationas a detective, and impressed by his energy and massive self-confidence.The Chief Constable had not asserted his own official position, becausehe was aware that he was unable to give competent help in such abaffling case. He was, above all things, anxious that the murderer ofViolet Heredith should be captured and brought to justice as speedily aspossible, and he had no thought of his personal dignity so long as thatend was achieved.
The abstract ideal of human justice is supposed to be based on thethreefold aims of punishment, prevention, and reformation, but the heartof the average man, when confronted by grevious wrong, is swayed by nohigher impulse than immediate retribution on the wrongdoer. CaptainStanhill was an average man, and his feelings, harrowed by the spectacleof the bleeding corpse of the young wife, and the pitiful condition towhich her murder had reduced her young husband, clamoured forretribution, swift, complete, and implacable, on the being who hadcommitted this horrible crime. And he hoped that the famous detectivewould be able to assure him that his desire was likely to have a speedyattainment. That was why he asked Merrington whether he had formed anytheory about the crime.
"It would be too much to say that I have formed a theory," repliedMerrington, in response to Captain Stanhill's question. "It is necessaryto have clues for the formation of a theory, and in this case we arefaced with a complete absence of clues."
"Do you not think that the trinket found by Detective Caldew in Mrs.Heredith's bedroom has some bearing on the murder?" said CaptainStanhill.
"I attach no importance to it. There were a number of persons in thebedroom after the murder was committed, and any of them might havedropped the ornament. Or it may have been lost there days before by aservant, and escaped notice."
"But it was picked up again during Caldew's absence from the room. Doyou not regard that as suspicious? Detective Caldew, when he wasrelating the incident to us this morning, seemed to think that thetrinket belonged to the murderer, who took the risk of returning to theroom to recover it for fear it might form a clue leading to discovery."
"Caldew reads too much into his discovery," replied Merrington, with anindulgent smile. "Like all young detectives, he is inclined to attachundue importance to small points. As I told him, I cannot imagine amurderer taking such a desperate risk as to return to the spot where hehad killed his victim, in order to search for a trinket he had dropped.Caldew may have concealed the brooch so effectually in the thick foldsof the velvet carpet that he could not find it again when he looked forit on his return to the room. That explanation strikes me as probable ashis own theory of a mysterious midnight intruder returning to search forit while he was out of the room. The trinket may have some connectionwith the crime, or it may not, but as I have not seen it I prefer toleave it out of my calculation altogether. This case is going to bedifficult enough to solve without chasing chimeras. But to return toyour question. Although I have not actually formed a theory, mypreliminary investigations of the circumstances have led me to arrive atcertain conclusions and to exclude possibilities I was at first inclinedto adopt. I will go over the case in detail, and then you will see foryourself the conclusions I have formed, and understand how I havearrived at them.
"In the first place, the greatest problem of
this murder is the apparentlack of motive. There seems to be no reason why this young lady shouldhave been killed. She had only recently been married, and, apparently,married happily, to a wealthy young man of good family, who was verymuch in love with her. It is obvious that money difficulties havenothing to do with the crime. Her husband is the only son of a wealthyfather, and he is able to give his wife everything that a woman needsfor her happiness and comfort. She is cherished, petted, and loved, andhas a beautiful home. Who, therefore, had an object in putting an end tothis young woman's life in her own home, in circumstances and conditionsattended with the utmost possibility of discovery and capture? Theperpetrator of the deed must have acted from some very strong motive orimpulse to venture into a country-house full of people, at a time wheneverybody was indoors, in order to kill his victim.
"In a seemingly purposeless murder like this, a certain amount ofsuspicion gathers round the other members of the household. Human naturebeing what it is, one should never take anything for granted, but shouldalways be on the watch for hidden motives. But in this case the membersof the household, with the exception of Miss Heredith, were downstairsin the dining-room at the time the murder was committed. Miss Heredithleft the room a few minutes before the shot was heard. You will recallthat she volunteered that statement to us this morning. It occurred tome at the time that that may have been bluff to put us off the scent.Clever criminals often do that kind of thing. My suspicions against herwere strengthened by the additional fact that Miss Heredith did not likeher nephew's wife. She masked the fact beneath a well-bred semblance ofgrief and horror, but it was plain as a pikestaff to me. But, afterthinking over all the circumstances, I came to the conclusion that shehad nothing whatever to do with it."
"Such a possibility is inconceivable," exclaimed Captain Stanhill. "Alady like Miss Heredith would never commit murder."
"It was not for that reason that I excluded her from suspicion," repliedMerrington drily. "The points against her were really very damaging. Shewas out of the dining-room when the scream was heard, and when theothers rushed out of the dining-room on hearing the shot, the firstthing they saw was Miss Heredith descending the staircase of the wing inwhich her nephew's wife had been murdered. Fortunately for MissHeredith, she was almost at the bottom of the staircase when she wasseen. The guests streamed out of the dining-room directly the shot washeard, therefore it is impossible that Miss Heredith could have shotViolet Heredith and then reached the bottom of the stairs so quickly.She is able to establish an alibi of time, by, perhaps, half a minute.
"As all the members of the house party were in the dining-room at thetime, it is clear that they had nothing to do with the actual commissionof the crime. The next thing is the servants, and they also can beexcluded from suspicion. When we examined them this morning they wereall able to prove, more or less conclusively, that they were engaged intheir various duties at the time the murder was committed. The point isthat not one of them was upstairs in the left wing of the house whenMrs. Heredith was shot.
"My original impression that the murder was not committed by a native ofthe district has been deepened by our afternoon's investigations. Where,then, are we to look for the murderer? To answer that question, in part,let us first consider _how_ the murder was committed, and try andreconstruct the circumstances in which the murderer must have enteredand left the house.
"Caldew thinks that the murderer entered the house by scaling thebedroom window, and made his exit by the same means. He bases that viewon Miss Heredith's belief that the window was closed when she was in thebedroom before dinner. After the murder was committed the window wasfound open. But Miss Heredith's statement about the closed window doesnot amount to very much. She does not actually know whether the windowwas open or shut, because the window curtains were completely drawn atthe time she was in the room. Those curtains are so thick and heavy thatthey would keep out the air whether the window was open or shut, andaccount for the stuffy atmosphere in a room which had been occupied allday.
"I do not regard the open window as a clue one way or the other. The onething we must not lose sight of is that nobody can say definitely whenit was opened. It may have been opened by Mrs. Heredith herself beforeMiss Heredith came into the room, or the murderer may have flung it openand escaped from the room that way after committing the murder.Personally, I do not think that he did, but I am not prepared altogetherto exclude the possibility of his having done so. But I am convincedthat he did not enter the bedroom by scaling the outside wall andgetting in through the window. In the first place, there are no marks ofany kind on the window sill or the window catch. There is not very muchone way or another in the absence of marks on the sill or even on thecatch, supposing the window was locked. The murderer might have openedthe catch from outside without leaving a mark--I have known the trick tobe done--and he might have got into the room without leaving any markson the sill, particularly if he wore rubber boots. But, what is far moreimportant, there are no marks on the wall outside, or any disturbance ordisplacement of the Virginia creeper which covers a portion of the wall,to suggest that the murderer climbed up to the room that way. I think itis certain that if he had done so he would have left his marks on theone or the other. The wall is of a soft old brickwork which wouldscratch and show marks plainly, and the Virginia creeper would breakaway. In any case, as I said this morning, it would barely sustain theweight of a boy, or a very slight girl. Finally, there are no marks offootsteps approaching the wall in the garden outside.
"The question of entry is naturally of great importance, and that waswhy I questioned the butler this morning whether the blinds were drawnin the dining-room last night. At that time, before I had had anopportunity of making my subsequent investigations, I deemed it possiblethat the murderer might have entered from outside by the window. In thatcase he would have had to pass the dining-room windows to reach thebedroom window, and might have been seen by one of the guests in thedining-room. It would be dark at the time, but last night was a veryclear one, and his form might have been discerned flitting past thedining-room windows. But the absence of footprints in the gravel, andmore particularly, in the soft yielding earth beneath the bedroomwindow, is conclusive proof to me that he did not get into the room thatway.
"Did he escape by the window? That question is more difficult to answer.It is quite possible that it might have been done without injury, but itis a desperate feat to leap from an upstairs window in the dark. Themurderer was in desperate straits, and for that reason we must not ruleout the possibility that he did so. But if the leap was made through thewindow, my argument about the absence of footprints in the soft gardensoil underneath the window comes in with additional force. A personleaping from such a height, even in stocking feet or rubber boots, wouldbe certain to leave the impress of the drop, in footmarks or heelmarks,in the soil where he landed.
"Caldew's principal reason for believing that the murderer escaped bythe window was based on the point that there was no other avenue ofescape possible. We can only speculate as to what happened in thebedroom immediately before the murder was committed, but Caldew's theoryis that Mrs. Heredith saw the murderer approaching her, and screamed forhelp. That scream hurried the murderer's movements. The scream was sureto arouse the household, and it left the murderer with the smallestpossible margin of time in which to shoot Mrs. Heredith and make escapeby the window. An attempt to escape down the front staircase meantrunning into the arms of the inmates of the dining-room rushingupstairs. The only other exit from that wing of the house was thedisused back staircase, and that was found locked when it was searchedafter the murder. Therefore, according to Caldew, the murderer escapedby the window because there was no other way out.
"That theory is plausible enough on the surface, but only on thesurface. For the same reason that establishes Miss Heredith's innocence,the murderer could not have escaped by running down the staircase,because there was not sufficient time to get past the people who hadbeen alarmed by the scream. But if the m
urderer was a man, it is justpossible that he might have darted out of the bedroom and dropped overthe balusters, before the dining-room door was opened, getting clearaway without being seen by anybody--not even by Miss Heredith. Anexamination of the staircase of the left wing has convinced me that thisfeat was possible. The staircase has a very sharp turn in the middle,which has the effect of hiding the top of the staircase from the bottom,and the bottom from the top. The leap is not so dangerous as the onefrom the window, because it is not so high. It is probably six feetless, allowing for the flooring beneath and the higher window openingabove. The spot by the foot of the staircase where the murderer mighthave dropped is well screened, even from the view of anybody near thebottom of the staircase, by some tall tree shrubs in tubs, and somearmour.
"But there is another and likelier way by which the murderer might haveescaped. I saw the possibility of it as soon as I examined the upstairsportion of the wing in which the murder had been committed. There areseveral places where the murderer could have hidden until chanceafforded the opportunity of escape. He would avoid seeking shelter inany of the adjoining bedrooms, because he would realize that they wouldbe searched immediately the murder was discovered, but there areexcellent temporary places of concealment behind the tapestry hangings,or in the thick folds of the heavy velvet curtains at the entrance tothe corridor, or in the small press or wardrobe which is built rightover the head of the stairs. Suppose that the murderer, after firing theshot, dashed out into the corridor with the idea of escaping down thestairs. He hears the guests coming upstairs, and realizes that he is toolate. He instinctively looks round for some place to hide, sees thecurtains, and slips behind them. From their folds he watches the gueststroop along the corridor to the murdered woman's bedroom. He could touchthem as they passed, but they cannot see him. Then, while they are allcongregated round the doorway of Mrs. Heredith's bedroom, he emerges onthe other side of the curtains, slips down the staircase, and gets outof the house without meeting anybody."
"But all the guests did not go upstairs," observed Captain Stanhill, whowas following his companion's remarks with close attention. "Some stayedin the dining-room. Tufnell, the butler, made that quite clear when youwere examining him this morning."
"Yes--a few hysterical females cowering and whimpering with fear as faraway from the door as possible," retorted Merrington contemptuously."The butler made that clear also."
"But the servants would also have heard the scream and the shot,"pursued Captain Stanhill earnestly. "Is it not likely that some of themwould have been clustered near the foot of the staircase, wondering whathad happened?"
"No," replied Merrington. "Servants are even more cowardly than they arecurious. They would be too frightened to congregate at the foot of thestaircase, for fear the murderer might come leaping downstairs anddischarge another shot in their midst. It is possible, however, that themurderer remained hidden upstairs for some time longer--perhaps untilthe butler left the house to go to the village for the police, andMusard took all the male guests downstairs to make another search of thehouse. He would then have an exceedingly favourable opportunity ofslipping away unobserved. It is true that the upstairs portion of thewing was searched before that time arrived, but the search was conductedby amateurs who knew nothing about such a task, and would probablyoverlook such hiding-places as I have indicated."
It appeared to Captain Stanhill that Superintendent Merrington, insteadof always adopting his theory of fitting the crime to the circumstances,was sometimes in danger of reversing the process.
"From what you say it seems to me that it is very difficult to tell howthe murderer escaped," he remarked.
"It is even more difficult to say how the murderer, after entering themoat-house, found his way to Mrs. Heredith's bedroom in order to murderher. The house is a big rambling place, consisting of a main buildingand two wings. It would be impossible for you or me or any otherstranger to find our way about it without previous knowledge of theplace, unless we had a plan. How, then, did the murderer accomplish it?How did he know that Mrs. Heredith slept in the left wing? How did heknow that he would find her alone in that wing while everybody else wasdownstairs at the dinner-table?"
Again, it seemed to Captain Stanhill that Merrington's detective methodshad a tendency to multiply difficulties rather than clear them up.
"Perhaps he was provided with a plan of the house," he suggested.
"That answers only one of my points. In my consideration of this aspectof the case, two possible solutions occurred to me. It is impossible forany of the guests to have committed the crime, because they were alldownstairs at the time, but it is just possible one of them may haveinstigated it."
"It is incredible to me that a guest staying in a gentleman's housecould plot such a crime," said Captain Stanhill.
"Nothing is incredible in crime," replied Merrington. "I've no illusionsabout human nature. It is capable of much worse things than that.Strange things can happen in a big country-house like this, filled witha large party of young people of both sexes--flirtations, intrigues, andworse still."
"But not murder, as a general rule," commented Captain Stanhill, with atrace of sarcasm in his mild tones.
"You cannot lay down general rules about murder. An unbalanced humanbeing, under the influence of hatred, jealousy, or revenge, is no moreamenable to the rules of society than a tiger. But I do not think thatthis crime was instigated by one of the guests, because in that case itwould probably have been arranged to be committed later in the evening,when the members of the house-party were at the house of the Weynes, andthe moat-house was occupied only by the servants. Still, I do not intendto lose sight of the hypothesis. Another possibility is that one of theservants was in league with the murderer. A third possibility is thatMrs. Heredith may have brought in the murderer herself."
"What do you mean?"
"She may have had a lover, and the lover may have murdered her."
"Oh, impossible!" Captain Stanhill repelled the idea with an instinctivegesture of disgust. "It is too monstrous to suppose that a happilymarried young wife would be carrying on an intrigue three months afterher marriage."
"More monstrous things happen every day--human nature being what it is,"retorted Merrington coolly. "You must remember that we know practicallynothing about her. The people who knew her in London left the housebefore they could be questioned; Miss Heredith and her brother have noknowledge of her past; and her husband is too ill to tell us anything.Her marriage was apparently a hasty love match--a love match so far asyoung Heredith was concerned. So far, we have only two slender facts toguide us in our estimate of her, which are contained in the two lettersin which young Heredith announced his marriage to his people. Accordingto those statements, she was an orphan who was earning her living as awar clerk in the Government department in which young Heredith held hisappointment. That does not carry us very far. During her brief life atthe moat-house she seems to have been reticent about her earlier life.Miss Heredith is not the type of woman to have questioned her, and,apparently, she vouchsafed no information. An examination of her boxesand her writing-table has brought to light nothing in the way of writingor correspondence to help us. Such a girl--a bachelor girl in London inwar-time--may have had passages in her past life of which her husbandknew nothing--passages which may have an important bearing on hermurder. Not until we have a thorough knowledge of her antecedents andher past life can we hope to pierce the hidden motives which have led tothis murder. It is there, in my opinion, that we must seek for the clueto this strange murder, and it is to that effort I shall devote myenergies as soon as I return to London. Until those facts are brought tolight we are merely groping in the dark."