Death on the Air

by Ngaio Marsh

  MRS ECCLESTONE: I suppose they could have.

  O’CONNOR: Your husband has a lot of enemies in the neighbourhood apart from Miss Freebody, hasn’t he?

  MRS ECCLESTONE: (deprecatingly) Oh – enemies!

  O’CONNOR: Let me put it another way. There had been a number of complaints about the dog from other neighbours, hadn’t there?

  MRS ECCLESTONE: None of them threatened to kill my husband. Hers did.

  O’CONNOR: Did other persons, apart from Miss Freebody, write letters and complain to the police?

  MRS ECCLESTONE: There were some, I think.

  O’CONNOR: How many?

  MRS ECCLESTONE: I don’t know.

  O’CONNOR Two? Three? Four? Half a dozen? More?

  MRS ECCLESTONE: No. No, I don’t know. I don’t remember.

  O’CONNOR: How very odd. Had the dog ever attacked any of your friends? (She is silent.) Dr Swale, for instance?

  MRS ECCLESTONE: Bang was rather jealous. Alsations can be.

  O’CONNOR: Jealous, Mrs Ecclestone? Do you mean jealous of you? Did the dog resent anyone paying you particular attention, for example?

  MRS ECCLESTONE: He was rather a one – I mean a two-person – dog.

  (MRS ECCLESTONE and DR SWALE exchange a brief look.)

  O’CONNOR: Had Bang, in fact, ever attacked Dr Swale?

  MRS ECCLESTONE: I think – once. Before he got to know him.

  O’CONNOR: Because Dr Swale was paying you ‘particular attention’, Mrs Ecclestone?

  MRS ECCLESTONE: No. I don’t remember about it. It was nothing.

  O’CONNOR: The dog did get to know Dr Swale, didn’t it?

  MRS ECCLESTONE: Well, yes, naturally.

  O’CONNOR: Naturally, Mrs Ecclestone?

  MRS ECCLESTONE: Dr Swale is in our circle of friends.

  O’CONNOR: Apart from being your doctor?

  MRS ECCLESTONE: Yes.

  (She has become increasingly uneasy. MAJOR ECCLESTONE has been eyeing DR SWALE with mounting distaste.)

  O’CONNOR: On that Friday afternoon, Mrs Ecclestone – earlier in the afternoon, when you were lying on your bed in your darkened room, did Dr Swale come and see you?

  MRS ECCLESTONE: I – don’t know who you – I – I – (She looks at DR SWALE. We see him very briefly close his eyes in assent) Why yes, as a matter of fact – I’d forgotten all about it, he did.

  O’CONNOR: Thank you, Mrs Ecclestone.

  (DEFENCE COUNSEL sits. PROSECUTION COUNSEL rises.)

  GOLDING: As this earlier visit of Dr Swale’s has been introduced, Mrs Ecclestone, I think that perhaps, don’t you, that we’d better dispose of it? Dr Swale, you’ve told the court, is an old friend and a member of your social circle. Is that right?

  MRS ECCLESTONE: (she has pulled herself together) Yes.

  GOLDING: Was there anything at all out of the way about his dropping in?

  MRS ECCLESTONE: No, of course not. He often looks in. He and my husband do crosswords and swop them over. I’d quite forgotten but I think that was what he’d come for – to collect the Times crossword and leave the Telegraph one. (She catches her breath, realizing a possible implication.)

  GOLDING: Did you see him?

  MRS ECCLESTONE: (fractional hesitation) I – think – yes, I remember I heard someone come in and I thought it was my husband, home early. So I called out. And Dr Swale came upstairs – and knocked and said who it was.

  GOLDING: Exactly. Thank you so much, Mrs Ecclestone. (He sits.)

  JUDGE: You may go and sit down, Mrs Ecclestone.

  MRS ECCLESTONE: Thank you, my lord.

  (She does so. As she goes to the witness seats, she and the accused look at each other. MRS ECCLESTONE gets past the other witnesses, who leave room for her. She sits between DR SWALE and her husband, looking at neither of them.)

  GOLDING: That concludes the case for the prosecution, my lord.

  (DEFENCE COUNSEL rises.)

  O’CONNOR: I now call Mary Emmaline Freebody.

  (The accused is escorted to the witness box and takes the oath. The CLERK asks her to remove her glove.)

  O’CONNOR: You are Mary Emmaline Freebody of No 2 Sherwood Grove, Peascale near Fulchester?

  MISS FREEBODY: I am.

  O’CONNOR: Miss Freebody, did you attempt to poison Major Ecclestone?

  MISS FREEBODY: I did not.

  O’CONNOR: You are a practising Christian, are you not?

  MISS FREEBODY: Certainly.

  O’CONNOR: And you swear that you had no such intention?

  MISS FREEBODY: I do.

  O’CONNOR: Miss Freebody, I’m sorry to recall an extremely painful memory to you, but will you tell his Lordship and the jury how you first learnt of the death of your cat?

  MISS FREEBODY: (breaking out) Learnt of it! Learnt of it! I heard the screams. The screams. I still hear them. (To JUDGE) Still. All the time. Asleep and awake. I am haunted by them.

  (MAJOR snorts.)

  O’CONNOR: Where were you at the time of the cat’s death?

  MISS FREEBODY: Indoors. In my house.

  O’CONNOR: What did you do when you heard the screams?

  MISS FREEBODY: I rushed out. Of course. I thought he was in my garden. I hunted everywhere. The screams stopped but I hunted. And then I heard that man – that monster – that fiend—

  O’CONNOR: Major Ecclestone?

  MISS FREEBODY: (she gives a contemptuous assent) Laughing. He was laughing. Devil! He was talking to it. To that brute. And do you know what he said?

  GOLDING: (rising) My lord! Really –

  MISS FREEBODY: (shouting) He said ‘Good dog’. That’s what he said: ‘Good dog’. (She bursts out crying.)

  JUDGE: If you would like to sit down, you may.

  (The WARDRESS moves to lower the flap-seat in the box.)

  MISS FREEBODY: I don’t want to sit down. Go away. (She blows her nose.)

  O’CONNOR: Miss Freebody, what happened after that? Please remember that you may tell the court if you heard people talking and you may say who they were and what you did but not what they said, unless they are going to give evidence or have done so.

  MISS FREEBODY: Idiocy! Legal humbug! Balderdash!

  JUDGE: That will do.

  MISS FREEBODY: No, it won’t. I won’t be talked down. I won’t be told what will do or won’t do. I’ll say what I’ve got to say and –

  JUDGE: Be silent! Mr O’Connor, I’m afraid that I am bound to agree with Miss Freebody that your exposition of the hearsay rules was so inaccurate as to amount to legal humbug.

  If you must tell witnesses what the law is, do at least try to get it right.

  O’CONNOR: I’m sorry, my lord.

  JUDGE: Miss Freebody, you will answer counsel’s question: what happened after that?

  (She stares at him and he at her.)

  MISS FREEBODY: (suddenly and very rapidly) ‘What happened after that?’ He asks me, ‘What happened after that?’ I’ll tell you what happened after that. She talked and he talked and she talked and he talked and then – then – then – no, I can’t. I can’t.

  O’CONNOR: Miss Freebody – however painful it is – please go on. Try to speak calmly.

  MISS FREEBODY: Out of the air. At my feet. Wet. Bleeding. Torn to pieces. Dead.

  O’CONNOR: You are telling the court, aren’t you, that Major Ecclestone had thrown the body of the cat into your garden?

  MISS FREEBODY: Cruel. Cruel! Horrible and wicked and cruel.

  O’CONNOR: Please try to be calm. After that? Immediately after that and subsequently, what did you do?

  MISS FREEBODY: I – I couldn’t at first but then I did – I buried him. And then I – I went indoors and I felt desperately ill. I was ill and afterwards I lay on my bed.

  O’CONNOR: Yes. You went to bed?

  MISS FREEBODY: No. I lay there. As I was. All night. Sometimes 1 dozed off and then I had nightmares. I thought that brute was attacking me as it had my – my little cat. I thought it was coming at
me. Here. (She clasps her throat) And for night after night it was the same.

  O’CONNOR: And during the daytime?

  MISS FREEBODY: I kept thinking it was loose and outside my doors, snuffling at them. Scratching at them, trying to get at me. I telephoned the police. I was terrified.

  O’CONNOR: Did you go out?

  MISS FREEBODY: I was afraid to go out. I stayed indoors. Day after day.

  O’CONNOR: But you sent letters, didn’t you? To Major Ecclestone?

  MISS FREEBODY: I gave them to my daily help to post. I was afraid to go out.

  O’CONNOR: It has been suggested that you were spying upon Dr Swale and his visits to The Elms.

  MISS FREEBODY: Those two! I didn’t care about them. I used to think they were wicked but they were against him, weren’t they? They were making a fool of him. They wanted to be rid of him.

  JUDGE: Miss Freebody, you must confine yourself to facts. You must not put forward your notions as to anybody’s wishes or intentions.

  (Pause. She sniffs.)

  JUDGE: Very well.

  O’CONNOR: On the morning of the dog’s death, Mrs Ecclestone called to give you your paper, didn’t she?

  MISS FREEBODY: I stood inside the door. I thought it was him with the dog. And then I heard her clear her throat. So I made myself open the door. And there she was! The adultress. Oh yes! She came.

  O’CONNOR: Later in the day, did you see Dr Swale go into The Elms?

  MISS FREEBODY: Oh yes. I saw him. In at the side door as usual. He always does that. And upstairs in her bedroom she had the curtains drawn. All ready for him. As she always does on Fridays. And of course he (She indicates the MAJOR) was out playing bridge at his club, poor fool.

  O’CONNOR: Did you see Dr Swale enter the house?

  MISS FREEBODY: (indifferent) I can’t see their side door. There’s a tree and bushes.

  O’CONNOR: And the outside safe? Can you see that?

  MISS FREEBODY: Not that, either.

  O’CONNOR: So you wouldn’t know if Dr Swale, for whatever purpose, paused by the safe before entering the house.

  MISS FREEBODY: (her fingers at her lips, staring at him with growing excitement) Paused? By the safe? For whatever purpose? But you’re right. You’re perfectly right. Fool that I am. Fool! Of course! That’s how it was. He – the doctor –

  (She points to DR SWALE, who stands.)

  DR SWALE: My lord, I protest. This is outrageous.

  JUDGE: You cannot address the court, sir. You must sit down.

  DR SWALE: My lord, this amounts to slander.

  JUDGE: Be quiet, Dr Swale. You must know very well that any such interruption is impermissible. Sit down, sir. (DR SWALE sits.) Very well, Mr O’Connor.

  O’CONNOR: Miss Freebody, please answer the questions simply and without comment. I bring you to the death of the dog. Did you see anything or hear anything of that event?

  MISS FREEBODY: I was upstairs. I heard a commotion – a howl and his voice shouting. So I went into the bathroom and looked. I saw the dog thrashing about and then I saw it was dead. And I was glad. Glad. I didn’t know why it was dead. I thought at first that he – its owner – might have destroyed it at last but it was dead and I exulted and gave thanks and was joyful.

  (She looks at the witnesses. Her gaze becomes riveted upon DR SWALE and MRS ECCLESTONE. She leans forward, apparently in the grip of some kind of revelation. We see them. They exchange a quick look. He briefly closes his hand over MRS ECCLESTONE’S. MISS FREEBODY licks her lips.)

  O’CONNOR: Did you see the arrival of Dr Swale? Miss Freebody!

  (MISS FREEBODY is Stilt gazing at DR SWALE and MRS ECCLESTONE.)

  O’CONNOR: Miss Freebody, may I have your attention, please? (She turns her head slowly and looks at him.) Did you see the arrival of Dr Swale?

  MISS FREEBODY: Oh yes! Yes, I watched that. I watched him – the doctor. I saw how surprised and put out he was when they showed him the dog. Just like he is now. I saw them look at each other.

  O’CONNOR: What happened next?

  MISS FREEBODY: She went indoors and he followed. And he came back after a time and they carried away the carcass.

  O’CONNOR: The two men did? (She nods.) Afterwards, when you heard about the poisoned meat, what then?

  MISS FREEBODY: Ah! Then I didn’t realize. But now! (With an extraordinary sly look towards the witnesses’ seats) It could have been an accident, couldn’t it? The dog, I mean.

  O’CONNOR: (taken aback) An accident, Miss Freebody?

  MISS FREEBODY: He always has liver on Fridays. She is a vegetarian. They did it between them. They meant it for him. For him!

  GOLDING: This is outrageous.

  (GOLDING is on his feet and so are MAJOR ECCLESTONE and DR SWALE. They speak together.)

  MAJOR: My God, what’s the woman saying? By God, she means me. She means – (He turns on SWALE.) By God, she means you –

  SWALE: This must stop. I demand that she’s stopped. Major, for God’s sake, you can’t think –

  USHER: Silence in court.

  JUDGE: (rapping) Silence! (ECCLESTONE and SWALE subside.) This is insupportable. If there is any more of it, I shall clear the court. (Pause) Yes, Mr Golding.

  GOLDING: Indeed, my lord. How much more of this are we to have? I protest most strongly, my lord.

  JUDGE: Yes, Mr Golding. You may well do so. Well, Mr O’Connor?

  O’CONNOR: My lord, I quite agree it is not for the witness to advance theories, but the point is not apparently without substance. I have no further questions.

  JUDGE: Very well. In that case – Mr Golding?

  (PROSECUTION COUNSEL rises.)

  GOLDING: Thank you, my lord. Now, Miss Freebody, we have heard a great deal about emotions and all the rest of it. Suppose for a change we get down to a few hard facts. You admit to writing a number of threatening letters the last of which includes the phrase ‘neither of you is fit to live, take warning’. Do you agree?

  MISS FREEBODY: Yes.

  GOLDING: You have heard the police evidence. A container half full of cyanide of potassium has been found in your shrubbery. You have heard the local chemist depose that he sold cyanide of potassium to the previous tenant of your house, who used it to exterminate wasps. The container, Exhibit One, is very clearly, even dramatically labelled. There it is. You see it there, don’t you? On the clerk’s desk?