CHAPTER XXXIII
THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
The man in the corner blinked across at Polly with his funny mild blueeyes.
"No wonder you are puzzled," he continued, "so was everybody in thecourt that day, every one save myself. I alone could see in my mind'seye that gruesome murder such as it had been committed, with all itsdetails, and, above all, its motive, and such as you will see itpresently, when I place it all clearly before you.
"But before you see daylight in this strange case, I must plunge youinto further darkness, in the same manner as the coroner and jury wereplunged on the following day, the second day of that remarkable inquest.It had to be adjourned, since the appearance of Mr. Timothy Beddingfieldhad now become of vital importance. The public had come to regard hisabsence from Birmingham at this critical moment as decidedly remarkable,to say the least of it, and all those who did not know the lawyer bysight wished to see him in his Inverness cape and Glengarry cap such ashe had appeared before the several witnesses on the night of the awfulmurder.
"When the coroner and jury were seated, the first piece of informationwhich the police placed before them was the astounding statement thatMr. Timothy Beddingfield's whereabouts had not been ascertained, thoughit was confidently expected that he had not gone far and could easily betraced. There was a witness present who, the police thought, might throwsome light as to the lawyer's probable destination, for obviously he hadleft Birmingham directly after his interview with the deceased.
"This witness was Mrs. Higgins, who was Mr. Beddingfield's housekeeper.She stated that her master was in the constant habit--especiallylatterly--of going up to London on business. He usually left by a lateevening train on those occasions, and mostly was only absent thirty-sixhours. He kept a portmanteau always ready packed for the purpose, for heoften left at a few moments' notice. Mrs. Higgins added that her masterstayed at the Great Western Hotel in London, for it was there that shewas instructed to wire if anything urgent required his presence back inBirmingham.
"'On the night of the 14th,' she continued, 'at nine o'clock orthereabouts, a messenger came to the door with the master's card, andsaid that he was instructed to fetch Mr. Beddingfield's portmanteau, andthen to meet him at the station in time to catch the 9.35 p.m. up train.I gave him the portmanteau, of course, as he had brought the card, andI had no idea there could be anything wrong; but since then I have heardnothing of my master, and I don't know when he will return.'
"Questioned by the coroner, she added that Mr. Beddingfield had neverstayed away quite so long without having his letters forwarded to him.There was a large pile waiting for him now; she had written to the GreatWestern Hotel, London, asking what she should do about the letters, buthad received no reply. She did not know the messenger by sight who hadcalled for the portmanteau. Once or twice before Mr. Beddingfield hadsent for his things in that manner when he had been dining out.
"Mr. Beddingfield certainly wore his Inverness cape over his dressclothes when he went out at about six o'clock in the afternoon. He alsowore a Glengarry cap.
"The messenger had so far not yet been found, and from thispoint--namely, the sending for the portmanteau--all traces of Mr.Timothy Beddingfield seem to have been lost. Whether he went up toLondon by that 9.35 train or not could not be definitely ascertained.The police had questioned at least a dozen porters at the railway, aswell as ticket collectors; but no one had any special recollection of agentleman in an Inverness cape and Glengarry cap, a costume worn bymore than one first-class passenger on a cold night in September.
"There was the hitch, you see; it all lay in this. Mr. TimothyBeddingfield, the lawyer, had undoubtedly made himself scarce. He waslast seen in company with the deceased, and wearing an Inverness capeand Glengarry cap; two or three witnesses saw him leaving the hotel atabout 9.15. Then the messenger calls at the lawyer's house for theportmanteau, after which Mr. Timothy Beddingfield seems to vanish intothin air; but--and that is a great 'but'--the night porter at the'Castle' seems to have seen some one wearing the momentous Inverness andGlengarry half an hour or so later on, and going up to deceased's room,where he stayed about a quarter of an hour.
"Undoubtedly you will say, as every one said to themselves that dayafter the night porter and Mrs. Higgins had been heard, that there was avery ugly and very black finger which pointed unpleasantly at Mr.Timothy Beddingfield, especially as that gentleman, for some reasonwhich still required an explanation, was not there to put matters rightfor himself. But there was just one little thing--a mere trifle,perhaps--which neither the coroner nor the jury dared to overlook,though, strictly speaking, it was not evidence.
"You will remember that when the night porter was asked if he could,among the persons present in court, recognize the Hon. Robert deGenneville's belated visitor, every one had noticed his hesitation, andmarked that the man's eyes had rested doubtingly upon the face andfigure of the young Earl of Brockelsby.
"Now, if that belated visitor had been Mr. Timothy Beddingfield--tall,lean, dry as dust, with a bird-like beak and clean-shaven chin--no onecould for a moment have mistaken his face--even if they only saw it verycasually and recollected it but very dimly--with that of young LordBrockelsby, who was florid and rather short--the only point in commonbetween them was their Saxon hair.
"You see that it was a curious point, don't you?" added the man in thecorner, who now had become so excited that his fingers worked like longthin tentacles round and round his bit of string. "It weighed veryheavily in favour of Timothy Beddingfield. Added to which you must alsoremember that, as far as he was concerned, the Hon. Robert de Gennevillewas to him the goose with the golden eggs.
"The 'De Genneville peerage case' had brought Beddingfield's name ingreat prominence. With the death of the claimant all hopes of prolongingthe litigation came to an end. There was a total lack of motive as faras Beddingfield was concerned."
"Not so with the Earl of Brockelsby," said Polly, "and I've oftenmaintained--"
"What?" he interrupted. "That the Earl of Brockelsby changed clotheswith Beddingfield in order more conveniently to murder his own brother?Where and when could the exchange of costume have been effected,considering that the Inverness cape and Glengarry cap were in the hallof the Castle Hotel at 9.15, and at that hour and until ten o'clock LordBrockelsby was at the Grand Hotel finishing dinner with some friends?That was subsequently proved, remember, and also that he was back atBrockelsby Castle, which is seven miles from Birmingham, at eleveno'clock sharp. Now, the visit of the individual in the Glengarryoccurred some time after 10 p.m."
"Then there was the disappearance of Beddingfield," said the girlmusingly. "That certainly points very strongly to him. He was a man ingood practice, I believe, and fairly well known."
"And has never been heard of from that day to this," concluded the oldscarecrow with a chuckle. "No wonder you are puzzled. The police werequite baffled, and still are, for a matter of that. And yet see howsimple it is! Only the police would not look further than these twomen--Lord Brockelsby with a strong motive and the night porter'shesitation against him, and Beddingfield without a motive, but withstrong circumstantial evidence and his own disappearance as condemnatorysigns.
"If only they would look at the case as I did, and think a little aboutthe dead as well as about the living. If they had remembered thatpeerage case, the Hon. Robert's debts, his last straw which proved afutile claim.
"Only that very day the Earl of Brockelsby had, by quietly showing theoriginal ancient document to his brother, persuaded him how futile wereall his hopes. Who knows how many were the debts contracted, thepromises made, the money borrowed and obtained on the strength of thatclaim which was mere romance? Ahead nothing but ruin, enmity with hisbrother, his marriage probably broken off, a wasted life, in fact.
"Is it small wonder that, though ill-feeling against the Earl ofBrockelsby may have been deep, there was hatred, bitter, deadly hatredagainst the man who with false promises had led him into so hopeless aquagmire? Probably th
e Hon. Robert owed a great deal of money toBeddingfield, which the latter hoped to recoup at usurious interest,with threats of scandal and what not.
"Think of all that," he added, "and then tell me if you believe that astronger motive for the murder of such an enemy could well be found."
"But what you suggest is impossible," said Polly, aghast.
"Allow me," he said, "it is more than possible--it is very easy andsimple. The two men were alone together in the Hon. Robert deGenneville's room after dinner. You, as representing the public, and thepolice say that Beddingfield went away and returned half an hour laterin order to kill his client. I say that it was the lawyer who wasmurdered at nine o'clock that evening, and that Robert de Genneville,the ruined man, the hopeless bankrupt, was the assassin."
"Then--"
"Yes, of course, now you remember, for I have put you on the track. Theface and the body were so battered and bruised that they were pastrecognition. Both men were of equal height. The hair, which alone couldnot be disfigured or obliterated, was in both men similar in colour.
"Then the murderer proceeds to dress his victim in his own clothes. Withthe utmost care he places his own rings on the fingers of the dead man,his own watch in the pocket; a gruesome task, but an important one, andit is thoroughly well done. Then he himself puts on the clothes of hisvictim, with finally the Inverness cape and Glengarry, and when the hallis full of visitors he slips out unperceived. He sends the messenger forBeddingfield's portmanteau and starts off by the night express."
"But then his visit at the Castle Hotel at ten o'clock--" she urged."How dangerous!"
"Dangerous? Yes! but oh, how clever. You see, he was the Earl ofBrockelsby's twin brother, and twin brothers are always somewhat alike.He wished to appear dead, murdered by some one, he cared not whom, butwhat he did care about was to throw clouds of dust in the eyes of thepolice, and he succeeded with a vengeance. Perhaps--who knows?--hewished to assure himself that he had forgotten nothing in the _mise enscene_, that the body, battered and bruised past all semblance of anyhuman shape save for its clothes, really would appear to every one asthat of the Hon. Robert de Genneville, while the latter disappeared forever from the old world and started life again in the new.
"Then you must always reckon with the practically invariable rule that amurderer always revisits, if only once, the scene of his crime.
"Two years have elapsed since the crime; no trace of TimothyBeddingfield, the lawyer, has ever been found, and I can assure you thatit will never be, for his plebeian body lies buried in the aristocraticfamily vault of the Earl of Brockelsby."
He was gone before Polly could say another word. The faces of TimothyBeddingfield, of the Earl of Brockelsby, of the Hon. Robert deGenneville seemed to dance before her eyes and to mock her for thehopeless bewilderment in which she found herself plunged because ofthem; then all the faces vanished, or, rather, were merged in one long,thin, bird-like one, with bone-rimmed spectacles on the top of itsbeak, and a wide, rude grin beneath it, and, still puzzled, stilldoubtful, the young girl too paid for her scanty luncheon and went herway.