The Day She Cradled Me

by Sacha De Bazin

  ‘They are writing to you?’

  ‘Yes.’ He pauses. ‘Well, not to me directly.’

  ‘No?’

  ‘No, they’re not. They’re writing to the Inspector. And he in turn is endorsing them and forwarding them on to me.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘It is a matter of some urgency that we find him, Mrs Dean. You see, the superintendent of the school where the boy Denham is placed is trying to claim the property for him. I am fearful that Cyril may miss out on what really should be rightfully his.’

  ‘You do talk a fine tale. However, what you claim is quite impossible.’

  ‘Who is to contradict it? The mother is daft and the man is dead.’

  ‘The Court can contradict it.’

  Rasmussen hardens his stare.

  ‘Really, if the boy had been left money by his father,’ I continue, ‘then surely it is I who would be communicated with, wouldn’t you think? You can’t expect anyone to believe that the father would leave money in trust for the child without saying where the child was. If he really had left money to Cyril, then I would have been written to, not the police.’

  Rasmussen hands me a piece of paper. ‘Here are the trustees,’ he says.

  I smile. ‘Rest assured I will write to them in the first instance to make enquiries.’

  The colour drains from his face; he nods, and backs away.

  ‘Leaving?’

  ‘Ah, Mrs Dean?’ he says.

  ‘Hmm?’

  ‘Er … perhaps it might be better if you don’t mention the police in those enquiries.’

  I wave him off. ‘If you think that would be wise, Constable. Good day.’

  ‘There’s a baby,’ I say. ‘Up in Lyttelton. They can take the ferry down. I can collect it from the Bluff and take it straight to Gore.’

  Dean lifts the last sack of pig feed down off the cart and stacks it beside the others. I have chosen my moment: we purchased the feed with money from Baby Grey.

  ‘It wouldn’t come here to the house?’ he asks.

  ‘Nowhere near it.’

  ‘Hmm.’ He stands back. ‘Good lot of feed. Should see them through to spring.’

  ‘There’s many more babies too,’ I say. I don’t add that I’ve already made arrangements to collect them.

  ‘Legal?’

  ‘Completely.’

  ‘Don’t like it.’

  ‘There’s nothing to worry about, I promise you. Nothing can happen.’

  ‘As long as we don’t have any here at the house.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘I’ll think on it,’ he says.

  I smile. I will take that train to the Bluff.

  Reverend Lindsay

  Invercargill Courthouse

  10 a.m., Tuesday 18 June 1895

  ‘You, the jury, meet here to enquire into a charge with reference to the murder of a female child.’ Mr MacDonald pauses. ‘These few words should impress upon you the importance of the occasion and remind you of the responsibility that rests upon you.

  ‘Your duty, no doubt, is a very responsible one, but at the same time it is simple and plain. You should discard from your minds everything you have heard about the case before you entered the court, your duty is to approach consideration of the evidence with minds free from bias or prejudice, or from any feeling either for or against the prisoner which might have influenced you previously. You should weigh the evidence and do your duty without fear or favour.

  ‘The charge against the accused is murder,’ he says, ‘defined for the purpose of the present case as unlawfully and intentionally taking the life of a human being. A number of facts will be brought before you connecting the prisoner with the offence. You the jury must be satisfied, after consideration of the facts as a whole, that they distinctly exclude the theory of innocence on the part of the prisoner.

  ‘I will hereby proceed to relate the facts upon which the Crown relies to establish the guilt of the prisoner.’ He picks up a piece of paper from his desk.

  ‘On May twenty-third, 1894, Maria Louisa Carter, an unmarried daughter by a former marriage of Louisa Cox, gave birth to a child, and that is the infant alleged to have been murdered by the accused.

  ‘Some months after birth Mrs Cox entered into negotiations with Mrs Izett, who keeps a registry office in Christchurch, for procuring the adoption of the child. An advertisement was inserted in the Christchurch papers which elicited an answer from a person signing herself M. Cameron, writing from The Larches, East Winton, Southland. Some correspondence took place between Mrs Izett and this M. Cameron, during which the latter stated she would send an elderly lady, Mrs Grey, to meet the baby at the Bluff. The Larches, the place where the letters signed M. Cameron were written, is the residence of the accused and her husband.’

  He looks across at Mrs Dean. ‘The accused has resided there for some years prior to her arrest, and for some time before she was arrested she has been receiving into her house a number of children. There lived in the house with Mrs Dean and her husband at the time of her arrest, Margaret Cameron, a young girl named Esther Wallis, four children whose ages vary from five to six years and an infant two weeks old. The house is not registered under the Infant Life Protection Act —’ he shakes his head — ‘and, therefore, was not under the supervision of the police.

  ‘Evidence will be given to show that the letters I have referred to were not written by Margaret Cameron —’ again he shakes his head — ‘who was living at the house up to March 3, 1895, and who left the house on that date and did not return again until the date the detectives were in the house, sometime in the beginning of May. Evidence will also be given that not only were the letters not written by Margaret Cameron but that they were in the handwriting of the accused.’ He pauses.

  ‘Mrs Cox, in consequence of the information she received from Mrs Izett, left Lyttelton by the Manapouri on April twenty-seventh last and reached the Bluff on the morning of Tuesday April thirtieth. She then proceeded to the house mentioned in the correspondence by Mrs Cameron. Mrs Izett had given Mrs Cox a letter addressed to Mrs Grey in reference to the child, and Mrs Cox met the latter at Mrs Browne’s Private Hotel at the Bluff with the baby, which was handed over to Mrs Grey with a parcel of clothes. Mrs Cox then left.

  ‘It will be shown,’ he says, ‘I think conclusively to the satisfaction of the jury, that M. Cameron, Mrs Grey and Mrs Dean are one and the same person.

  ‘After receiving the baby from Mrs Cox and after the latter had left the Bluff, the accused left the baby in charge of one of the Misses Browne and proceeded to a chemist’s shop at the Bluff, telling Miss Browne that she was going to a shop to make a purchase for the child, whom she thought had some sores. The accused went to the only chemist’s shop at the Bluff and purchased about a drachm and a half of laudanum. She then returned to the hotel.

  ‘When in Mr Froggatt’s shop she signed in what was known as the poison book “M. Grey”. Evidence will be presented to show the jury that the signature M. Grey is undoubtedly in the handwriting of the accused.

  ‘After Mrs Dean got the laudanum she left Browne’s Hotel with the child by train, leaving the Bluff at five minutes past three, and proceeded back to her own home. She arrived at the Gap Road station that evening. This station is about a mile and a half south of the Winton station.

  ‘The accused was met at Gap Road by Esther Wallis —’ he waves his arm in the direction of the witness room — ‘Margaret Cameron being then absent from The Larches. On getting out of the train Mrs Dean proceeded home on foot.

  ‘My suggestion with regard to her doing so is this. Knowing that the child she had was under two years of age, and knowing that her house was unregistered, she wished to escape publicity. It was the practice for the Constable to be at the Winton station on the arrival of the train, and I suggest that Mrs Dean got out at Gap Road station to prevent the Constable knowing that she had a child of that age.

  ‘The child remained in Mrs Dean’s charge from the eveni
ng of Tuesday, April thirtieth, till the morning of Thursday, May second. During that time Esther Wallis had a great deal to do with the child and became quite familiar with it.

  ‘On the morning of May second Mrs Dean announced her intention of going for a journey to the north and was going to take the child with her. Esther Wallis accompanied her part of the way to the nearest railway station north of The Larches, and then left her with the child, a large tin hatbox and a small black handbag.’ He looks at the table on which the items have been placed. ‘She did not tell Esther Wallis where she was going, but on a previous occasion when she left The Larches to go to the Bluff she informed Esther Wallis that she was going for a child, and when she returned with the child she told her its name was Dorothy Edith.

  ‘Evidence will be adduced to show that Mrs Dean got on board the Invercargill–Kingston train on May second and travelled with the child and packages to Dipton. She got out of the train at Dipton and went to a hotel there, taking with her the child, the handbag and tin box. So far as the evidence goes, I think the jury will be satisfied that the tin box which Mrs Dean took with her from The Larches was practically empty, the only articles in it being a pair of travelling straps.

  ‘When Mrs Dean arrived at Dipton station she was met on the platform by a man named Baker, who accompanied her to Aylin’s Hotel, carried her tin box there for her, and introduced her to Mr Aylin.’

  He looks at his papers. ‘She remained at Aylin’s until the arrival of the evening train, between seven and eight o’clock. Baker then returned with her to the station, carried her box for her, and assisted her with the baby into the train.

  ‘During the time she was at Aylin’s Hotel she had her food in her room by herself and with the child. The only person who handled the tin box was Baker, who took it from the railway station in the morning and back to the train in the evening. He will tell you, the jury, that it was light, and you will be able to judge by his evidence that it was practically empty.’

  He pauses.

  ‘When she entered the train on her way to Lumsden it was dark. There was no person in the carriage the whole way between Dipton and Lumsden besides Mrs Dean and the child. The guard shortly after leaving Dipton left his van to go through the carriages to check the tickets of the new passengers, and returned again through the carriages back to the van. The carriage, a first-class one, that Mrs Dean occupied was near the guard’s van. The guard therefore, immediately after leaving the van, went through the carriage occupied by Mrs Dean, checked her ticket and proceeded on his journey.

  ‘He will tell the jury the baby was then lying on the seat, and between the baby and Mrs Dean was a tin box.

  ‘On his return he did not observe the child, although he saw the tin box. He will not say that the child was not there. It might have been there, but it might have escaped his notice. It is, however, a somewhat significant fact that he did not notice it.’ He pauses again.

  ‘When the train arrived at Lumsden, Mrs Dean alighted, and on getting on to the platform she accosted a boy and got him to carry her tin box to Mr Crosbie’s hotel at Lumsden. This boy will tell you, the jury, that the box was heavy, and not light.

  ‘Mrs Dean was met by Mrs Crosbie at the hotel, and she had no child with her. The box was given to one of the housemaids, who carried it upstairs to a bedroom. That housemaid will say that the box was heavy, and that Mrs Dean —’ he turns towards her — ‘had no child with her.

  ‘On the following morning Mrs Dean left the hotel to go by the train which left Lumsden for Gore about eleven o’clock. On leaving the hotel another servant carried the tin box down from the bedroom, and she will tell you, the jury, that the box was heavy.’ He looks at the jury. ‘All these witnesses concur in saying that there was no child with Mrs Dean.

  ‘The box was carried from Crosbie’s Hotel by another lad, who will say that the box was heavy, and that there was no child with Mrs Dean.

  ‘On arriving at Gore Mrs Dean took the train northward.’ He lifts his eyebrows. ‘Where she went and what she had on that occasion it would not be right for me to say here. We lose sight of the box, but Mrs Dean appears again on the scene. On the following day, a Saturday, she arrived at Mataura by train, at about half past eight in the morning, had breakfast, and remained at Mrs Fielding’s hotel until the Express left shortly after two in the afternoon.

  ‘During the time she was at Mrs Fielding’s she obtained some roots and flowers of different kinds and took them away with her. Mrs Fielding will state that Mrs Dean had no parcels with her, and that Mrs Dean had told her that she had left all her parcels at the Mataura railway station.

  ‘Mrs Dean was heard of again at Winton next evening on the arrival of the train from Invercargill at about six o’clock. She had with her then no child, but she had a tin box, a brown paper parcel, a newspaper parcel containing the flowers and plants she obtained at Mataura, and a parcel wrapped in a red shawl, bound up with the straps taken with her on Thursday morning. Two of the parcels were left at Mr Moore’s butcher’s shop, and the tin box and parcel of flowers were taken home by Esther Wallis and Mrs Dean that evening.’

  He pauses again.

  ‘While carrying the box on the way home Esther Wallis remarked about its weight, and Mrs Dean told her it contained bulbs with earth round them which she had obtained from Mrs Fielding in Mataura.

  ‘When they reached home Mrs Dean told Mr Dean, who was at home, to go down to Mr Moore’s for the parcels. He went, and the same evening Esther Wallis overheard a conversation between Mr and Mrs Dean during which Dean asked his wife where the tin box was. Mrs Dean told him it was outside and that it contained bulbs with a quantity of earth round them, and Dean made some remark about bringing the box in.

  ‘On the way to the house that evening Mrs Dean directed Esther Wallis to put the box among some rushes on the opposite side of a ditch that ran alongside the track to the house. The rushes were high and manifestly served as an effectual place of concealment.

  ‘On the following morning, Sunday, Mrs Dean directed Esther Wallis to go for the box. Esther did so, and found the box in the place it had been left on Saturday night. She brought it to the gate, where Mrs Dean met her, took the box from her, carried it into the house, and placed it under her bed.

  ‘The parcels which had been left at Moore’s on the previous Saturday night were then opened in the presence of Esther Wallis —’ he looks at the table of exhibits — ‘but the box was not opened. In one of the parcels were the plants Mrs Dean obtained from Mrs Fielding at Mataura.

  ‘Mrs Fielding will say that no bulbs were given to Mrs Dean, and Esther Wallis’s evidence will show that no bulbs were ever seen on the premises.

  ‘The brown paper parcel contained some purchases Mrs Dean had made on her journey — a dress for herself, one for Esther Wallis and a new shirt for Mr Dean. The red shawl parcel contained articles of clothing worn by Dorothy Edith Carter when she left The Larches on the morning of Thursday, May second.

  ‘There were also other articles of clothing which Esther Wallis had never seen before — articles of clothing of a smaller child.’ He shakes his head. ‘The tin box was not seen again by Esther Wallis until the following Wednesday, when she saw it open outside the front door. Neither she nor anybody else, so far as it is known, had an opportunity of seeing what the box contained, but she saw it open outside the front door on the Wednesday following Mrs Dean’s return.

  ‘She also observed that the plants brought by Mrs Dean to the house had been moved to another part of the garden, and she saw Mrs Dean putting earth round them.

  ‘Mrs Dean was arrested not long after this, and on Saturday, May thirteenth, the detectives and police visited the house, and after a search found, under the place in the garden where the plants had been placed by Mrs Dean, a dead body of a child. This body was subsequently identified by Esther Wallis as that of Dorothy Edith Carter.

  ‘In the same grave was also found a body of another child, but I do not wish to
make any remarks about that just now. Esther Wallis did not know this other child.

  ‘The two bodies were removed to the station at Winton, and a post mortem examination was subsequently made on the bodies by Doctors Macleod and Young, who were unable to account for the cause of death from an examination of the organs inside. The other organs were found in a normal condition except that there was some slight accumulation of blood on the brain of one child, but there was nothing in this or the other organs to determine what the cause of death was.

  ‘It therefore became necessary to have an examination of the stomach intestines, liver and kidneys of the child in order to arrive at what was the cause of death. These organs were accordingly put into bottles by Doctor Macleod in the presence of Doctor Young, sealed up and proper precautions taken that there was nothing in the bottles that could in any way mix with the organs placed in the bottles which were sent to Professor Black.

  ‘The professor analysed the organs with a result that he was able to say that there was in them a poisonous dose of opium.

  ‘The medical evidence will show that the presence of the quantity of opium that was found implies that there must have been administered to the child a larger quantity of opium than was found, and I confidently ask the jury to accept Professor Black’s statement and the medical statement on that point as conclusive that the child died of a poisonous dose of opium administered by someone.’

  He stops now and looks at each of the jury in turn.

  ‘The question is: did the accused cause her death accidentally or wilfully?’ He looks thoughtful. ‘The law is that burial on private property is absolutely forbidden where the ground is within five miles from a cemetery; and the cemetery is only a short distance from this ground. The child was therefore obviously buried there for the purpose of concealing the death of the child. It would be an insult to the common sense of the jury to suggest any other reason.

  ‘If the child’s death had to be concealed, what object had Mrs Dean in concealing it?’ He pauses again. ‘I think you, the jury, are entitled to come to the conclusion from the whole facts that Mrs Dean killed that child.’ He strokes his beard and narrows his eyes. ‘If you are satisfied from the evidence that she was the person who caused the death of the child, and that she intentionally took the child’s life, your duty is to find the prisoner guilty of murder.