Have His Carcass lpw-8

by Dorothy L. Sayers

  The next witness was Harriet Vane, who gave a detailed account of the finding of the body. The coroner examined, her particularly in the matter of the exact, position of the body and the condition of the blood. Harriet was a good witness; on these points, her training as a mystery-writer having taught her to assemble details of this kind coherently.

  ‘The body was lying with the knees drawn up, as though it had crumpled together in that position as it fell. The clothes were not disarranged at all. The left arm was doubled, so as to bring the hand and wrist directly beneath the throat. The right arm and hand hung over the edge of the rock immediately beneath the head of the corpse, Both hands and both arms, as well as the front part of the body were saturated with blood. The blood had collected in a pool in a hollow of the rock just under the throat, and was still dripping down the face of the rock when I saw it. I cannot say whether there might not have been sea-water as well as blood in the hollow. There was no blood on the upper surface of the rock, or on any part of the body except the front and on the hands and arms. The appearance presented was as though the throat of the deceased had been cut while he was bending forward — as, for example, a person might do over a sink or basin. When I shifted the body the blood flowed freely and copiously from the severed vessels. I did not observe, whether any splashes of blood had been dried by the sun. I do not think so, because the pool of blood and the blood beneath the corpse were sheltered from the direct rays of the sun by the corpse itself: When I lifted the corpse, the blood, gushed out, as I said before, and ran down the rock. It was quite liquid and ran freely.

  ‘I handled the sleeves and breast of the coat and the gloves which deceased was wearing. They were soaked in blood and felt limp and wet. They were not stiff at all, They were not sticky. They were. limp and wet. I have, seen bandages which had been soaked in blood some time previously and am acquainted with the stiffness and stickiness of clotted blood. The clothes were not like that at all. They appeared to have been soaked in fresh blood.

  ‘The body felt warm to the touch. The surface of the rock was hot, as it was a hot day. I did not move the body, except when I turned it a little over and lifted the head at first. I am sorry now that I did not attempt to drag it further up the beach, but I did not think I was strong enough to make a good job of it, and supposed that I should be able to get help quickly.’

  The coroner said he did not think the jury could possibly blame Miss Vane for not having tried to remove the corpse, and complimented her on the presence of mind she had shown in taking photographs and carrying out investigations. The photographs were handed to the jury — and after Harriet had explained the various difficulties she had encountered before getting into communication with the police, she was allowed to step down.

  The next witness was the police-surgeon, Dr Fenchurch. From his examination of the photographs and of the body he had formed the opinion that the throat of the deceased had been completely severed by a single blow with a sharp bladed instrument. The lobsters and crabs had eaten away the greater part of the soft tissues, but the photographs were here of very great value, since they showed definitely that the throat had been cut at the first attempt, without any preliminary surface gashing. This was borne out by, the condition of the muscular tissue, which showed no sign of any second cut. All the great vessels and muscles of the neck, including the carotid and jugular veins and the glottis, had been clearly cut through. The wound commenced, high up under the left ear, and, proceeded, in a downward direction to the right side of the throat, extending backwards as far as the vertebral column, which had, however, not been nicked. He concluded that the cut had, been made from left to right. This was characteristic of suicidal throat-cutting by a right-handed person; the same appearance would, however, be produced by a homicidal cut, provided the murderer were standing behind his victim at the time.

  ‘Such a wound would, of course, produce a great effusion of blood?’

  ‘It would.’

  ‘In the case of a murderer, standing in the position you describe, his hands and clothes would, necessarily be Very much stained?’

  ‘His right hand and arm, probably. His clothes might; not be stained at all, since they would be protected by the body of his victim.’

  ‘Did you carry out a post-mortem on the body to ascertain there was any other possible cause of death?’

  The doctor smiling slightly, said that he had, in the ordinary course of things, opened up the head and body, but had seen nothing of a suspicious nature.

  ‘In your opinion, what was the cause of death?’

  Dr Fenchurch, still smiling slightly, said that in his opinion the cause of death was acute haemorrhage, coupled with the severance of the respiratory canal. In fact, deceased had died of having his throat cut.

  The coroner, who was a lawyer and seemed unwilling to let the medical witness have his own way entirely persisted.

  ‘I am not trying to quibble over absurdities,’ he remarked, acidly. ‘I am asking. you whether we are to understand that the death was actually caused by the wound in the throat, or whether there is any possibility that the deceased was killed in some other way, and the throat cut afterwards to produce the appearance of suicidal throat cutting?’

  ‘Oh, I see. Well, I can say this: that the throat-cutting was undoubtedly the immediate cause of death. That is, the man was undoubtedly alive when his throat was cut, The body was completely drained of blood. In fact, I have never seen a body drained so completely. There was some very slight clotting about the heart but it was remarkably little. This, however, is no more than one might expect from the great extent of the wound. If the man had. been already dead when the wound was inflicted, there would, of course, have been little or no bleeding.’

  ‘Quite so. It is as well to have that clear. You said that the throat-cutting was the immediate cause of death. What precisely did you mean by that?’

  ‘I meant, to exclude the bare possibility that the deceased might also have taken poison. It is not unusual to find suicides doubling their precautions in this way. As a matter of fact, however, the internal organs showed no signs of anything of this nature having taken place. If you wish, I can have an analysis made of the visceral contents.’

  Thank you; perhaps it would be as well. It would equally, I suppose, be possible that the man had been previously drugged by, some other party before the delivery of, the blow, or slash, that cut his throat?’

  ‘Certainly. A soporific might have been administered beforehand in order to make the attack more easy.’

  Here Inspector Umpelty rose and begged to draw the coroner’s attention to the evidence of Harriet and the photographs that the deceased had walked to the rock on his own feet and alone.

  ‘Thank you, Inspector; we shall come to that later. Permit me to finish with the medical evidence. You heard Miss Vane’s account of her finding the body, Doctor, and her statement that at ten minutes past two the blood was still liquid. What inference do you draw as regards the time of the death?’

  ‘I should say that it had occurred within a very few minutes of the finding of the body. Not earlier than two o’clock at the outside.’

  ‘And would a person die quickly from the effects of having his throat cut in the manner described?’

  ‘He would die immediately. The heart and arteries might continue to pump blood for a few seconds by spasmodic muscular contraction, but the man would be dead from.the moment that the great vessels were severed.

  ‘So that we may take it that the wound was actually inflicted certainly not earlier than two o’clock?’

  ‘That is so. Two o’clock is the extreme limit. I myself should incline to put it later.’

  ‘Thank you. There is just one more question. You have heard that a razor was, found in proximity to the body. Inspector, would you kindly hand the exhibit to the witness. In your opinion, Doctor, is the appearance of the wound consistent, with its having been inflicted by that weapon?’

  ‘Decidedly so. This, o
r a similar razor, would be an ideal instrument for the purpose.’

  ‘In your opinion, would great physical strength be required to deliver such a blow with that or a similar weapon?’

  ‘Considerable strength, yes. Exceptional strength, no. Much would depend upon the circumstances.’

  ‘Will you explain what you mean by that?’

  ‘In the case of a determined, suicide, wounds of this kind have been known to be inflicted by persons of quite ordinary or even poor physique. In the case of homicide, much would depend on whether the victim was able to offer any effective resistance to the attack.

  ‘Did you find any other marks of violence on the body?’

  ‘None whatever.’

  ‘No signs of throttling or bruising?’

  ‘None. There was nothing remarkable beyond the natural action of the water and the complete absence of post-mortem staining. I attribute the latter to the small amount of blood present in the body and also to, the circumstance that the body was not left lying in one position, but was washed from the rock shortly after death and tumbled about in the water’’

  ‘In your opinion, does the condition of the body suggest suicide or homicide? ‘In my opinion, and taking all the circumstances into consideration, suicide appears rather more probable. The only point to set against it is the absence of surface cuts. It is rather rare for a suicide to be completely successful at the first attempt, though it is not by any means unknown.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  The next witness was Miss Leila Garland, who confirmed the evidence of Mrs Lefranc with respect to the cipher letters. This naturally led to an inquiry into the relations between Miss Garland and Mr Alexis, from which it transpired that their acquaintance had been conducted on a footing of rigid, and even Victorian, propriety; that Mr Alexis had been. terribly distressed when Miss Garland had put an end to the friendship that Mr Alexis was not by any means a likely person to commit suicide; that (on the other hand) Miss Garland had ‘been terribly upset to think of his having done anything rash on her account;’ that Miss Garland; had never heard of anybody called Fedora, but did not, of course, know what follies Mr Alexis might not have committed in a despairing mood after the termination of their friendship; that Miss Garland had not so much as set eyes on Mr Alexis for ever so long and could not imagine why anybody should think this terrible business had anything to do with her. With regard to the letters, Miss Garland had thought that Mr Alexis was being blackmailed, but could produce no evidence to prove this.

  It now became obvious that nothing on earth could keep Mrs Weldon out of the witness-box. Attired in near-widow’s weeds, she indignantly protested against the suggestion. That Alexis could possibly have made away with himself on Leila’s account, or on any account whatever. She knew better than anybody that Alexis had had no genuine attachment to anyone but herself. She admitted that she could not explain the presence of the portrait signed ‘Feodora’,’ but asserted vehemently that, up to the last day of his life, Alexis had been radiant with happiness.; She had last seen him on the Wednesday night, and had expected to see him again on the Thursday morning, at the Winter Gardens. He had not arrived’ there, and she was perfectly sure that he must have been lured away to his death by some designing person. He had often said that he was afraid of Bolshevik plots, and in her opinion, the police ought to look for Bolsheviks.

  This outburst produced some effect upon the jury, one of whom rose, to inquire whether the police were taking any steps to comb out suspicious-looking foreigners residing in, or hanging about, the vicinity. He himself had observed a number of disagreeable-looking tramps on the road., He also noticed with pain that at the very hotel where Alexis had worked, a Frenchman was employed as a professional dancer, and that there were also a number of foreigners in the orchestra at the Winter Gardens. The dead man was also a foreigner. He did not see that naturalisation papers made any difference. With two million British-born workers unemployed, he thought it a scandalous thing that this foreign riff-raff was allowed to land at all. He spoke as an Empire Free-Trader and member of the Public Health Committee

  Mr Pollock was then called. He admitted having been in the neighbourhood of the Grinders reef with his boat at about two o’clock on the day of the death, but insisted that he had been out in deep water and had seen nothing, previous to Harriet’s arrival on the scene. He was not looking in that direction, he had his own business to attend to. As to the nature of that business he remained evasive, but nothing could shake his obstinate assertion of complete ignorance. His grandson Jem (having now returned from Ireland) briefly confirmed this evidence, but added that he himself had surveyed the shore with a glass at, he thought, about 1.45. He had then seen someone on the Flat-Iron rock, either sitting or lying down, but whether dead or alive he could not say.

  The last witness was William Bright, who told the story about the razor in almost exactly, the same terms that he had used to Wimsey and the police. The coroner, glancing at a note handed up to him — by Umpelty, allowed him to finish what he had to say, and then asked:

  ‘You say this happened, at midnight on Tuesday, 16 June?’

  ‘Just after midnight. I heard the clock strike shortly before this man came up to me.’

  ‘How was the tide at the time?’

  For the first time, Bright faltered. He glanced about him as though he suspected a trap, licked his lips’ nervously, and replied:

  ‘I know nothing about tides. I don’t belong to this part of the country.’

  ‘But you mentioned, in your very moving account of this interview, the noise made by the sea lapping against the wall of the Esplanade. That suggests, does it not, that the tide was then full?’

  ‘I suppose so.’

  ‘Would you be surprised to learn that at midnight on the 16th of this month the tide was actually at the lowest point of the ebb?’

  ‘I may have sat there longer than I thought! ‘Did you sit there for six hours?’

  No answer.

  ‘Would it surprise you to know that the sea never comes up to the wall of the Esplanade except at the top of the spring tides which, on that particular date, would occur at about six o’clock in the evening?’

  ‘I can only say that I must have been mistaken. You must allow for the effects of a morbid imagination.’

  ‘You still say that the interview took place at midnight?’

  ‘Yes; I am confident about that.’

  The coroner dismissed Mr Bright with a warning to be more careful with statements he made in court, and recalled Inspector Umpelty with an inquiry into Bright’s movements and character.

  He then summed up the evidence. He did not attempt to disguise his own opinion, which was that deceased had taken his own life. (Incoherent protest from Mrs Weldon.) As to why he should have done so, it was not the jury’s business to speculate. Various motives had been suggested, and the jury must bear in mind that deceased’ was Russian by birth, and therefore excitable, and liable to be overcome by feelings; of melancholy and despair. He himself had read a great deal of Russian literature and could assure the jury that suicide was of frequent occurrence among the members of that unhappy nation. We who enjoyed the blessing of being British might find that difficult to understand, but the jury could take it from him that it was so. They had before them clear evidence of how the razor came into the hands of Alexis, and he thought they need not lay too much stress on Bright’s error about the tide. Since Alexis did not shave, what could he have needed a razor for, unless to commit suicide? He (the coroner) would, however, be perfectly fair and enumerate the one or two points which, seemed to throw doubt on the hypothesis of suicide. There was the fact that Alexis had taken a return-ticket. There was the passport. There was the belt full of gold. They might

  perhaps think that deceased had contemplated fleeing the country. Even so, was it not likely that he had lost heart at the last moment and taken the shortest way out of the country and out of life itself? There was the odd circumst
ance that deceased had apparently committed suicide in gloves, but suicides were notoriously odd. And there was, of course, the evidence of Mrs Weldon (for whom they must all feel the deepest sympathy); as to deceased’s state of mind; but this was contradicted by the evidence of William Bright and Mrs Lefranc.

  In short, here was a man of Russian birth and temperament, troubled by emotional entanglements and by the receipt of mysterious letters, and obviously in an unstable condition of, mind. He had wound up his worldly affairs and procured a razor. He had been found in a lonely spot, to which he had obviously proceeded unaccompanied, and had been found dead, with the fatal weapon lying close under his hand. There were no footprints upon the sand but his own, and the person who had discovered the body had come upon it so closely after the time of the death as to preclude the possibility of any murderer having, escaped from the scene of the crime by way of the shore. The witness Pollock had sworn that he was out in deep water at the time when the death occurred, and had seen no other boat in the neighbourhood, and his evidence was supported by that of Miss Vane. Further, there was no evidence that anybody had the slightest motive for doing away with the deceased, unless the jury chose to pay attention to the vague suggestions about blackmailers and Bolsheviks, which there was not an atom of testimony to support.