The Judas Window shm-8

by John Dickson Carr

  'So,' observed H.M. in a heavy tone. 'Let's take up the story of those pictures. When were they taken?'

  Again she moistened her lips. 'A-about a year ago.'

  'Had you broken off your relations with Captain Answell before you met the prisoner?'

  'Oh, my God, ages before.'

  'Did you ask for the photographs?'

  'Yes, but he just laughed and said they would do no harm.'

  'What'd Captain Answell do when he heard you were engaged to the prisoner?'

  'He took me aside, and congratulated me. He said it was a really excellent thing, and he approved of it.'

  'What else?'

  'He said that if I didn't pay him five thousand he would show the photographs to Jim. He said he didn't see why he should not get something out of this when everyone else seemed to have so much money.'

  'This was durin' the week of December 28th-January 4th?'

  'That's right.'

  'Now just go on, if you can, Miss Hume.'

  'I said he must be c-completely crazy, and he knew I hadn't got five thousand pennies, and never would have them. He said yes, but my father would be willing to pay through the nose. He - he said that my father's one big dream in life was to make a good and wealthy marriage for me, and -'

  'And -?'

  '- and had got to the point where my father - well, despaired of ever doing it -'

  'Steady, ma'am; stop a bit. Had you ever done anything like this before?'

  'No, no, no! I'm only telling you what Reg - what Captain Answell said to me. He said my father would not let five thousand pounds stand in the way of my getting a good catch like Jim Answell.'

  H.M. studied her. 'Your father was a pretty inflexible man, wasn't he?'

  'He was that.'

  'When he wanted something, he got it?' 'Yes, always.'

  'Did your father know anything about these photographs?'

  Her wide-spaced blue eyes opened as though she could not understand the stupidity that put such questions, even if they had to be asked for the sake of clearness in a court of law.

  'No, no, of course he didn't. Telling him was nearly as bad as -'

  'But you did tell him, didn't you?'

  'Yes, it had to be done, so I did,' replied the witness, summing herself up.

  'Explain how that happened, will you?'

  'Well, Reg - Captain Answell said he would give me a few days to rake up the money. On - yes, it was on the Wednesday, I wrote to my father and said I had to see him about something horribly urgent and important in connection with my marriage. I knew that would bring him. I couldn't leave the house-party without any explanation, especially as Jim was throwing money right and left to celebrate, and all the local charities were coming to thank us. So I asked my father if he would come down on Thursday morning and meet me in a village near Frawnend ..."

  'Yes, that's right; go on.'

  'I met him at an inn called "The Blue Boar", I think it was, on the road to Chichester. I expected him to flare up, but he didn't. He just listened to me. He walked up and down the room a couple of times, with his hands behind his back, and then he said that five thousand pounds was absolutely ridiculous. He said he might have been willing to pay something smaller, but he had had a few reverses lately; and in fact he had been looking forward a bit to Jim's money. I said maybe Captain Answell would come down in price. He said: "We won't bother with paying him money; just you leave him to me, and I'll settle his hash."'

  'Oho? "Just you leave him to me, and I'll settle his hash." What was he like when he said this? How'd he act?'

  'He was as white as a sheet, and I think if he had had Reg there he would have killed him.'

  'H'ra, yes. So,' observed H.M., jerking his thumb, 'the idea of your father settling Captain Answell's hash, and even giving him drugged whisky, don't sound so almighty foolish as it did when my learned friend was discussin' it, eh?' He hurried on before anyone could object to unscrupulous comment. 'Did he tell you how he meant to settle Captain Answell's hash?'

  'He said he was going back to London, and he wanted a few hours to think. He said to let him know if Reg made any move in the meantime.'

  'Anything else?'

  'Oh, yes; he asked me to try to find out where Reg kept the photographs.' 'Did you try?'

  'Yes, and I was horribly poor at it. I - that's what brought everything on. Reg just looked at mc and laughed, and said: "So that's the trick, is it? Now just for that, my little lady, I'm going straight to London and see your father."'

  'This was on Friday, wasn't it?'

  'Yes.'

  'What did you do?'

  'I telephoned my father early Friday evening -' 'That's the call we've heard about?' 'Yes. To warn him, and ask him what he was going to do.'

  H.M. made mesmeric passes of some intensity. 'I want you to tell us what he said then; every word, as far as you can remember.'

  'I'll try. He said to me: "Good; it's all arranged. I will get in touch with him to-morrow morning, and invite him here, and I promise you he will not bother us again."'

  She spoke with extraordinary intensity, so that H.M. allowed a space for the words to sink into the minds of the jury. Then he repeated them.

  'Did he tell you what he meant to do about settlin' Captain Answell's hash?'

  'No; I asked him, but he would not tell me. The only other thing he said was to ask where he could be certain of finding Reg, and I said at Jim's flat. He said: "Yes, I thought so; I have already been there."'

  'He said that he had already been there?' H.M. raised his voice. 'Did he say anything about pinchin' Captain Answell's automatic pistol out of the flat?'

  The effect of this was broken by the judge's interruption.

  'The witness has already told you, Sir Henry, that she heard nothing more.'

  H.M., well satisfied, patted his wig. 'And then, on top of all this,' he went on, 'your fiance' all of a sudden decided to go to London as well, and you were afraid somethin' would blow up?' 'Yes, I was half crazy.'

  'That's why you wrote to your father on Friday night, after the phone call?' 'Yes.'

  'Does this postscript here, "You will take care of that other matter, won't you?" - does that refer to the effective settling of Captain Answell's hash?'

  'Yes, of course.'

  'One more little point,' pursued H.M., with a long and rumbling sniff. 'A witness has testified here about the rather odd way your father acted when he got that letter at the breakfast table on Saturday morning. He walked to the window, and he announced in a grim kind o' tone that your fiance was comin' to town that day - and meant to see him. The witness said: "Oh, then we will not go to Sussex after all; we will invite him to dinner," or words to that effect. The deceased said that those other two would go to Sussex as arranged. He also said: "We will not invite him to dinner, or anywhere else."' H.M. slapped his hand on the table. 'What he meant was, then, that they wouldn't invite him to dinner in case the two cousins ran into each other?'

  Sir Walter Storm stirred out of his immobility.

  'My lord, for the last time I must protest against this constant attempt to question witnesses about things they did not see or words they did not hear, particularly since it is always done in the form of a leading question.'

  'Do not answer that,' said Mr Justice Rankin.

  'In your opinion,' said H.M., after the customary form of sardonic apology, 'in your opinion, from the things you have seen and the things you have heard, doesn't what you've just told us show what really did happen on the night of the murder?'

  'Yes.'

  'Would a woman have the nerve to go through with what you've just told us to-day, unless she believed absolutely that this man is innocent?'

  He pretended to listen for an answer, and then sat down with a whack that shook the bench.

  There was some whispering behind us, around, beyond, a sound in long grasses which you knew centred in only one thing. Mary Hume must have known it as well; she was drawing patterns with her fing
er on the edge of the ledge, and looking down. But from time to time she would glance up, briefly, while the Attorney-General was taking some while before beginning his cross-examination. Her pretty face was growing dull red; and, as though unconsciously, she would draw her sables closer round her. How long this mental narcotic would sustain her you could not tell. She had badly damaged many parts of the prosecution's case: you realized that much of Answell's apparent stumbling and foolish testimony must be the solid truth: and it was clear the jury thought so too. But the whispering grew like noise in a forest. Someone enquired plaintively if they were not going to show us the photograph. I noticed that the space reserved for newspapermen was now completely empty, though I could not remember having seen any of them hurry out It was a matter for headlines and speculations in every British home.

  'Hold on to your hat; here we go,' whispered Evelyn fiercely, and Sir Walter Storm got up to cross-examine.

  Nothing could have exceeded the sympathy and consideration of the Attorney-General's manner. His voice was quietly persuasive.

  'Believe me, Miss Hume, we quite appreciate your sincerity in this matter, and your courage in offering this somewhat unusual picture. At the same time, you had no hesitation in posing, I believe, for a dozen of this nature?'

  'Eleven.'

  'Very well; eleven.' Again he waited for a time, pushing some books into an even line on the desk. 'All these things to which you have testified, Miss Hume - I take it that you were aware of them at the time of the murder?'

  'I believe you have stated that, when you learned of your father's death you hurried back from Sussex and arrived at the house on that same night?'

  'Yes.'

  'Quite so,' remarked the other, meticulously pushing another book into line. 'Yet you did not mention to the police, then or at any other time, the remarkable circumstances to which you have just testified?'

  'No.'

  'Did you mention them to any other person?'

  'Only to -' Her slight gesture indicated H.M.

  'Are you aware, Miss Hume, that had you given this information to the police, and demonstrated to them that Captain Answell had attempted to blackmail you, it would not have been necessary to bring this photograph into court at all? Or to expose yourself to any such humiliating examination as this must be?'

  'Yes, I knew that.'

  'Oh, you knew that?' enquired Sir Walter, quickening with interest and looking up from the book. 'Yes, I - I read up on it.'

  'I presume this experience cannot be pleasant for you?' 'No, it is not,' replied the girl. Her eyes looked strained. 'Then why did you not mention it, and do the prisoner what good you could without bringing matters to this?' ‘I -'

  'Was it because you believed the prisoner must be guilty; and therefore that these photographs bore no relation to his actual guilt?'

  H.M. got up with painful effort. 'Appreciatin' my learned friend's consideration, we'd still like to know what line that question takes. Is it now accepted by the Crown - as we've been suggesting all along - that a mistake was made between Caplon Answell and Captain Answell, and that the deceased got one in attemptin' to settle the hash of the other?'

  Sir Walter smiled. 'Hardly. We accept the photograph as a fact; we accept the suggestion that Captain Answell took the photograph; but we shall be compelled to deny that these two points have any bearing on the matter in hand - the guilt or innocence of the prisoner.'

  At my side, Evelyn nudged me sharply.

  'But surely they don't dispute that now?' Evelyn asked. 'Why, it seems as plain as the sun to me.'

  I told her she was prejudiced. 'Storm's quite sincere: he believes Answell is a common-or-garden variety of murderer, wriggling in front of the facts. He'll show that the girl is simply inventing lies to cover him: that there were goings-on between Reginald and Mary Hume, but no attempt at blackmail by Reginald; and that they're simply making a last-minute effort to construct a defence.'

  'Well, it sounds silly to me. Do you believe that?'

  'No; but look at the two women on the jury.'

  Black looks from various directions brought us to silence while the Attorney-General proceeded.

  'Perhaps I did not make myself quite clear,' said Sir Walter. 'Let me try again. All the things you tell us here to-day, you could have told at the very time of the prisoner's arrest?'

  'Yes.'

  'Would they not have been as valuable to him then as my learned friend wishes us to believe they are now?' 'I - I don't know.' 'Yet you did not mention them?' 'No.'

  'You preferred (please excuse the term. Miss Hume, but I fear this is necessary), you preferred to make a show of yourself here rather than to explain all this before?'

  "That is a little strong, Sir Walter,' interposed the judge sharply. 'I must remind you that this is not a court of morals. We have suffered so much in the past from those who appear to have laboured under this impression that I feel constrained to mention it now.'

  The other bowed. 'As you wish, my lord, I myself was under the impression that I remained well within the rights of cross-examination ... Miss Hume: you tell us that on Friday evening, January 3rd, Captain Answell left Frawnend for London, in order to see your father on the following day?' 'Yes.'

  'For the purpose of extracting blackmail money?' 'Yes.'

  'Why is it, then, that he did not see your father?'

  The witness opened her mouth, and stopped. Fragile as she looked, she had been holding up well until now.

  'Let me make my question clearer. Several witnesses have testified here - have been pressed to do so, in fact, by my learned friend - that all day Saturday your father received no visitors, no messages, no phone calls, except those which have been indicated. Captain Answell did not come near him or attempt to communicate with him. How do you reconcile this with your statement that Captain Answell rushed off to London for the purpose you have declared?'

  'I don't know.'

  The other shot out his hand. 'I put it to you, Miss Hume, that on Saturday, the 4th, Captain Answell was not even in London at all.'

  'But that can't be, I tell you!'

  'Will you accept my suggestion, Miss Hume - which comes from the reports of police-officers who have investigated the movements of everyone connected with this affair - that on Friday evening Captain Answell left Frawnend, drove to visit friends in Rochester, and did not arrive in London until nearly midnight on Saturday?'

  ‘No!'

  'Will you further accept my suggestion that he announced to several persons in Frawnend his intention of going to Rochester: not London?'

  No reply.

  'You will agree at least that if he were in Rochester he could not be in London?' 'Perhaps he lied to me.'

  'Perhaps he did. Let us take another aspect of it. These photographs, you tell us, were taken a year ago?'

  'About that, maybe a little more.'

  'How long afterwards did you sever your relations with Captain Answell?'

  'Not long; a month or so; not long.'

  'And during the entire course of the time afterwards, has he ever attempted to extort money from you?'

  'No.’

  'Or to use these photographs as a threat in any way whatever?'

  'No. But didn't you see his face when he ran out of here?'

  'That is not a matter which can come to our attention, Miss Hume. However, I can conjecture why the subject might be embarrassing to him, for reasons quite apart from blackmail. Can't you?'

  'Do not answer that,' said the judge, putting down his pen. 'Counsel has just informed you that the matter cannot come to your attention.'

  'You have told us, then, that all this time no suggestion of blackmail was ever made by Captain Answell?'

  'Yes.'

  'Do you know the nature of an oath?' 'Certainly.'

  'I suggest to you that this entire account of Captain Answell's blackmailing activities, and your father's alleged wish to "settle his hash", is an unfortunate fabrication from end to end?'

>   'No, no, no!'

  Sir Walter contemplated her steadily and gently for a moment; then he shook his head, lifted his shoulders, and sat down.

  If anyone expected H.M. to re-examine, that person was disappointed. With an almost weary air H.M. got up. 'In order to establish this business once and for all,' H.M. said very distinctly, 'call Dr Peter Quigley.'

  I was certain that I had heard the name somewhere before, and recently, but the man who went into the witness-box was a stranger. He was a strong-featured Scotsman with a quiet manner but a voice whose every syllable was distinct. Though he could not have been more than in his early thirties, he gave the impression of being older. H.M. began in his usual off-hand manner.

  'What is your full name?'

  'Peter Macdonald Quigley.'

  'Are you a graduate in medicine of Glasgow University, and have you a degree in scientific criminology from the University of Salzburg?'

  'Yes.'

  'H'm. How were you employed durin' the month of December 10th to January 10th, last?'

  'I was employed as assistant to Dr John Tregannon in Dr Tregannon's private nursing-home at Thames Ditton, Surrey.'

  'How did you come to be there?'

  'I should explain,' answered Quigley, spacing his words, 'that I am an agent of the International Medical Council, employed in England under the Commissioners in Lunacy, for the purpose of investigating rumours or charges which cannot be substantiated - in the ordinary way - against those practising as mental specialists.'

  'Is the substance of what you are goin' to tell us contained in your report to the British Medical Council; and is it approved by that body?'

  'It is.'

  'Were you acquainted with the deceased, Avory Hume?' ‘I was.'

  'Can you tell us whether Captain Reginald Answell was attemptin' to extort blackmail money from the deceased?'

  'To the best of my knowledge, he was.'

  'Yes. Now, will you tell us just what you know about this matter?'

  'On Friday, January 3rd, last -'

  The witness's first words were drowned by the stir in the court, and by Evelyn's whisper. Here was a witness whose- credibility they could not shake. With deadly leisureliness, H.M. Was taking the Crown's case to pieces. He let them cross-examine as long as they liked; he did not re-examine; and then he went waddling on. Again there came into my head the swinging lines from the song, which H.M. had quoted, and which seemed less like a refrain than like a formula.