Collected Short Fiction of Ngaio Marsh

by Ngaio Marsh

  (The accused is in the witness box. The Ecclestones and Dr. Swale now sit apart from each other, separated by Tidwell and the local chemist. They are shaken and anxious. They look straight in front of them. The Major keeps darting glances at them. He withdraws a small plastic case from his pocket. He extracts a capsule and swallows it)

  Judge: Mr. Golding, you may now wish to continue your cross-examination.

  Golding: I have no further questions, my lord.

  Judge: Very well. Mr. O’Connor, do you wish to re-examine the defendant, and may I say, Mr. O’Connor, that I trust there will be no repetition of yesterday’s irregularities.

  O’Connor (rising): My lord, I sincerely hope not. I have no further questions to put to the defendant.

  Judge: You may go back to the dock, Miss Freebody.

  (The Wardress puts an arm on Miss Freebody who glares at her. Miss Freebody returns to the dock. Prosecution Counsel rises.)

  Golding: My lord, I must inform your Lordship that Major Ecclestone has waited upon me and has expressed a desire to amend some of his former evidence, and has asked me to put his request before your Lordship.

  Judge: Did you anticipate anything of this sort, Mr. Golding?

  Golding: Not I, my lord.

  Judge (after a long pause): Very well.

  Golding: I recall Major Basil Ecclestone.

  (There is a general stir as the Major goes back to the box. His manner is greatly changed. His animosity is now directed against Dr. Swale.)

  Golding: May I remind you that you are still on oath. (Major grunts.) Major Ecclestone, is it true that because of certain developments you now wish to amend some of the former evidence that you gave earlier in these proceedings?

  Major: I do.

  Golding: And that evidence concerns the identity of the person you believe to have been responsible for poisoning the meat?

  Major: It does, sir.

  Golding: And will you tell the court who—

  (A cry from the Major. The Clerk stands sharply. The Major is in a sudden agony of convulsion. He struggles, jerks violently, falls, suffers a final galvanic spasm and is still. The Usher goes to the box. The body slides half down the steps. Dr. Swale hurries across and stoops over it)

  Usher: Quiet. Quiet! Silence in court. Silence.

  (The Judge has risen. Dr. Swale looks up at him and with a slight gesture of bewilderment shakes his head.)

  Judge: Clear the court!

  Usher. Clear the court.

  (The accused is standing triumphant in the dock and pointing at the body.)

  Miss Freebody: Justice. Justice. (Reporters scramble for the door.)

  PART THREE

  O’Connor: … and I would submit, my lord, with respect that the evidence is admissable. My lord, may I very briefly review the somewhat macabre sequence of events?

  Judge (smiling): Briefly, Mr. O’Connor? Very briefly?

  O’Connor: My lord, I really am very much obliged. Very briefly then, my client is accused of putting cyanide-of-potassium into Major Ecclestone’s meat. Major Ecclestone who laid the case against her has died and cyanide has been found in his body. There is a strong presumption—indeed an overwhelming probability—that cyanide was introduced into one of the capsules Major Ecclestone was in the habit of taking at stated intervals for a digestive disorder. He was seen to take one of these capsules immediately before his death. My lord, I shall, if permitted, call expert evidence to show that a capsule containing cyanide would only remain intact for an hour. After that, the poison would begin to seep through the container. Miss Freebody has not been left alone since the commencement of this trial. It is obvious, therefore, she cannot be held responsible for causing his death. Whoever murdered Major Ecclestone, it was certainly not Miss Freebody. So that if, as of course we most strenuously deny, she caused the death of the dog, we have to accept a grotesque coincidence of two persons independently attempting to kill Major Ecclestone. Thus, my lord, I submit that the circumstances leading to Major Ecclestone’s death are admissable evidence.

  (Defense Counsel sits down. A pause. The Judge has taken an occasional note during this submission. He now looks up and waits for a moment)

  Judge: Yes. Thank you. (He turns to Prosecution Counsel.) Well, Mr. Golding?

  Golding (rising): My lord, I shall oppose the introduction of any reference whatever to the death of Major Ecclestone. I submit that it would be grossly improper to confuse in the minds of the jury two entirely separate issues. The inquiry into Major Ecclestone’s death is in the hands of the police. And if they make an arrest there will be a trial in another court under another jury. What will transpire on what accusations may be made is utterly irrelevant to these proceedings. I submit that it will be irregular in the highest degree to anticipate them. As far as this court is concerned, my lord, may I venture to remind my learned friend that “the dog it was that died” and not its master?

  Judge: And what do you say to that, Mr. O’Connor?

  O’Connor (good-humoredly): Touché, I suppose, my lord.

  Judge: This is in more ways than one a most unusual case. The death in the witness box of the principal witness for the prosecution, the man who laid the accusation against the defendant, and the finding of cyanide in his body is an extraordinary circumstance. I may order the jury to dismiss all this from their minds, but gentlemen, I may do so until my wig turns black and falls off my head but they won’t be able to do so. But to return to the argument. It would be remarkable if two people had independently desired to bring about the Major’s death. Thus if the second, successful, attempt could not have been made by the accused, it seems to me to be relevant to the allegation that she made the first attempt. I therefore rule that evidence regarding the nature and characteristics of the poisoned capsule is admissable.

  O’Connor: I am greatly obliged to your Lordship.

  Judge: Very well. Here we go again, gentlemen. (To the Usher) The jury may come back.

  (The court reassembles. The jury enters. Miss Freebody returns to the dock. Dr. Swale now sits by himself in the witnesses’ seats. Mrs. Ecclestone, in mourning, hesitates and takes a seat removed from his. A pause and then he rises and goes to her. He bends over her for a moment and then offers his hand. After hesitating, she takes it. He then takes a seat behind hers.)

  Judge: Members of the jury. Your attendance in this case was interrupted by an extraordinary and most distressing event which in the interval has received a great deal of publicity and has acquired a considerable amount of notoriety. You are of course not here to try anyone for Major Ecclestone’s death. You are here to decide whether Mary Emmaline Freebody is guilty or not guilty of attempted murder and that is your sole duty. Having said this I add one important qualification. If, during the continuation of the hearing, evidence is tendered that arises out of the circumstances attending upon Major Ecclestone’s death and that evidence has a bearing upon the question of the defendant’s guilt or innocence, then I will admit it for your consideration. Very well, Mr. O’Connor.

  O’Connor (rising): You are Dr. Ernest Smithson, of 24 Central Square, Fulchester.

  Dr. Smithson: Yes.

  O’Connor: You, Dr. Smithson, are consultant pathologist for the Fulchester Constabulary?

  Dr. Smithson: I am.

  O’Connor: Did you carry out a post mortem on Major Ecclestone?

  Dr. Smithson: Yes. I found he had died of cyanide poisoning.

  O’Connor: May he be shown Exhibit Six? Is that the bottle taken from the Major’s body?

  Dr. Smithson: Yes. I found it myself in his pocket. It was a bottle of Duogastacone which contained capsules of potassium cyanide.

  O’Connor: Which suggests that cyanide had been introduced into a bottle containing capsules of Duogastacone?

  Dr. Smithson: Yes.

  O’Connor: Now will you please tell the court whether it would be possible to fill capsules of the sort commonly used in pharmaceutical dispensaries with cyanide-of-potassium?


  Dr. Smithson: It would be possible, yes.

  O’Connor: In what form would the cyanide be?

  Dr. Smithson: In the form of powder.

  O’Connor: And would the capsules be indistinguishable from those filled with a doctor’s prescription?

  Dr. Smithson: If the prescribed powder was the same color, which it probably would be, yes. To begin with, that is.

  Judge: To begin with, Dr. Smithson? Can you explain a little farther?

  Dr. Smithson: After about an hour, my lord, the cyanide would begin to seep through the capsule and this would become increasingly noticeable.

  O’Connor: Let me get this quite clear. To escape detection the whole operation, filling the capsules with the lethal powder and conveying them to the intended victim, would have to be executed within an hour before one of the capsules was taken?

  Dr. Smithson: Before they had begun to disintegrate, I would prefer to say.

  O’Connor: Dr. Smithson, are you aware that from the day before the death of Major Ecclestone, my client has been under constant supervision?

  Dr. Smithson: I have been so informed, yes.

  O’Connor: And therefore could not, for instance, possibly have concocted lethal capsules of the sort we have been talking about and conveyed them to some person or place outside her own premises?

  Dr. Smithson: Obviously not if she was under constant supervision.

  O’Connor: Thank you. (O’Connor sits. Golding rises.)

  Golding: My lord.

  Judge (with a slight smile and an air of knowing what’s coming): Yes, Mr. Golding?

  Golding: Well — yes, indeed, my lord. I merely beg to remind the jury of what your Lordship has already laid down. The defendant is not on trial for concocting lethal capsules and I submit that the evidence we have just heard is irrelevant. I have no questions to put to Dr. Smithson.

  Judge (to Smithson): Thank you, Dr. Smithson. You may go if you wish.

  Dr. Smithson: Thank you, my lord. (He leaves the witness box.)

  O’Connor: My lord, in view of the development of this trial since Dr. Swale gave evidence and particularly in view of subsequent evidence, I ask for leave to re-open my cross-examination of him. I ask for him to be recalled.

  Judge: What do you say to this, Mr. Golding? Do you object?

  Golding: My lord, I can find no conceivable reason for this procedure, but—I do not object.

  Judge (after a moment’s pause): Very well, Mr. Defense Counsel. Go back to the witness box, please, Dr. Swale.

  (Dr. Swale takes the stand.)

  O’Connor: Dr. Swale, you realize that you are still on oath, do you not?

  Dr. Swale: I do.

  O’Connor: You heard the evidence given by the previous witness?

  Dr. Swale: Yes.

  O’Connor: Do you agree with it?

  Dr. Swale: I am not a pathologist, but I would expect it to be correct.

  O’Connor: With respect to the deterioration within an hour of a capsule containing cyanide?

  Dr. Swale: I have had no experience of potassium cyanide, but yes, I would, of course, expect Dr. Smithson to be right.

  O’Connor: Yes. Dr. Swale, I’m going to take you back if you please to April 4th, the evening when you were called in to the Ecclestones’ and saw the dead Alsatian. You will remember that you removed what was left of the liver that had been fed to the dog and subsequently had it analyzed and that cyanide-of-potassium was found in massive quantities.

  Dr. Swale: Yes.

  O’Connor: There was also, in the same safe, the material for a mixed grill which was intended for the Major’s dinner that night.

  Dr. Swale: So I understand.

  O’Connor: Did you do anything about this meat?

  Dr. Swale: I have already deposed that I said it should be destroyed.

  O’Connor: And was it destroyed?

  Dr. Swale: It was. I have already said so.

  O’Connor: By whom?

  Dr. Swale: By Mrs. Ecclestone and myself. In their incinerator.

  O’Connor: As she subsequently deposed. After you had given your evidence.

  Dr. Swale: Quite.

  O’Connor: Dr. Swale, did it not occur to you that this meat which was destined for the Major’s dinner should also be analyzed?

  Dr. Swale: No. I was simply concerned to get rid of it.

  O’Connor: Upon further consideration would you now say it would have been better to have sent it, or a portion of it, for analysis?

  Dr. Swale: Perhaps it might have been better. But the circumstances of the dog’s death—their description of its symptoms and its appearance so strongly suggested a convulsive poison such as cyanide—I really didn’t think.

  O’Connor: I’m sorry, doctor, but you told us just now, you’ve had no experience of cyanide.

  Dr. Swale: No experience in practice but naturally during the course of training I did my poisons.

  O’Connor: Is Mrs. Ecclestone a vegetarian?

  Dr. Swale (a slight pause): I believe so.

  O’Connor: You believe so, Dr. Swale? But as Mrs. Ecclestone has told us, you are a member of their intimate circle. You are her doctor, are you not?

  Dr. Swale (less cool): Yes, of course I am.

  O’Connor: Surely, then, you know definitely whether or not she’s a vegetarian?

  Dr. Swale: Yes. All right. I simply said “I believe so” as one does in voicing an ordinary agreement. I know so, if you prefer it. She is a vegetarian.

  O’Connor: Are you in the habit of visiting her on Friday afternoons?

  Dr. Swale: Not “in the habit” of doing so. I sometimes used to drop in on Fridays to swop crosswords with the Major.

  O’Connor: But Major Ecclestone was always at his club on Fridays.

  Dr. Swale: He used to leave his crossword out for me. I visit The Hermitage private hospital on Fridays and it’s close by. I did sometimes — quite often — drop in at The Elms.

  O’Connor (blandly): For a cup of tea, perhaps?

  Dr. Swale: Certainly. For a cup of tea.

  O’Connor: You heard the evidence of Thomas Tidwell, didn’t you?

  Dr. Swale (contemptuously): If you can call it that.

  O’Connor: What would you call it?

  Dr. Swale: An example of small-town lying gossip dished out by a small-town oaf.

  O’Connor: To what part of his evidence do you refer?

  Dr. Swale: Clearly, since it concerns me, to the suggestion that I went to the house for any other purpose than the one I have given.

  O’Connor: What do you say to Miss Freebody’s views on the subject?

  Dr. Swale: I would have thought it was obvious that they are those of a mentally disturbed spinster of uncertain age.

  Miss Freebody (sharply): Libel! Cad! Murderer!

  (The Judge turns and stares at her. The Wardress admonishes her. She subsides.)

  O’Connor: You are not Miss Freebody’s doctor, are you?

  Dr. Swale: No, thank God.

  (Laughter)

  Usher: Silence in court.

  O’Connor: When you paid your earlier visit to The Elms on the afternoon in question, did you carry your professional bag with you?

  Dr. Swale (after a pause): I expect so.

  O’Connor: Why? It was not a professional call.

  Dr. Swale: I’m not in the habit of leaving it in the car.

  O’Connor: What was in it?

  Dr. Swale: You don’t want an inventory, do you? The bag contains the normal impedimenta of a doctor in general practice.

  O’Connor: And nothing else?

  Dr. Swale: I’m not in the habit of using my case as a shopping bag.

  O’Connor: Not for butcher’s meat, for instance?

  Golding: My lord, I do most strenuously object.

  Dr. Swale: This is intolerable. Have I no protection against this sort of treatment?

  Judge: No. Answer.

  Dr. Swale: No. I do not and never have carried butcher’s meat in my bag.
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  (Defense Counsel sits.)

  Judge (to Golding): Mr. Golding, do you wish to re-examine?

  Golding: No, my lord.

  Judge (to Swale): Thank you, doctor.

  Dr. Swale: My lord, may I speak to you?

  Judge: No, Dr. Swale.

  Dr. Swale: I demand to be heard.

  Judge: You may do no such thing, you may—

  Dr. Swale (shouting him down): My lord, it is perfectly obvious that counsel for the defense is trying to protect his client by throwing up a series of infamous suggestions intended to implicate a lady and myself in this miserable business.

  Judge (through this): Be quiet, sir. Leave the witness box.

  Dr. Swale: I refuse. I insist. We are not legally represented. I am a professional man who must be very gravely damaged by these baseless innuendoes.

  Judge: For the last time I warn you—

  Dr. Swale (shouting him down): I had nothing, I repeat, nothing whatever to do with the death of the Ecclestones’ dog (Judge gestures to Usher), nor did I tamper with any of the meat in the safe. I protest, my lord. I protest.

  (The Usher and a police constable close in on him and the scene ends in confusion.)

  (Gwendoline Miggs is sworn in on the stand. She is a large, determined-looking woman of about sixty.)

  O’Connor: Your name is Sarah Gwendoline Miggs?

  Miggs: Yes.

  O’Connor: And where do you live, Miss Miggs?

  Miggs: Flat 3, Flask Walk, Fulchester.

  O’Connor: You are a qualified medical nurse, now retired?

  Miggs: I am.

  O’Connor: Will you give us briefly an account of your professional experience?

  Miggs: Fifteen years in general hospital and twenty years in ten hospitals for the mentally disturbed.

  O’Connor: The last one being at Fulchester Grange Hospital where you nursed for some two years before retiring?

  Miggs: Correct.

  O’Connor: And have you, since the sitting of this court, been looking after the defendant, Miss Mary Emmaline Freebody?