Don Gutteridge - The Widow's Demise

“Yes. The police gave me the vial found atthe scene, and in it I found traces of hydrochloric acid.”

“What, then, was the cause and manner of herdeath?”

“I can only speculate that the acid wasthrown in her face by someone very close to her and that as shespun away and fell forward, she landed on the low, spiked fence andsevered her jugular – causing her to bleed to death.”

“Did she die right away?”

“No. She was found on her back, so she musthave turned and staggered forward again before collapsing forgood.”

“Did you examine the victim’sfingernails?”

“I was asked to do so by the police.”

“What did you find?”

“I found blood and bits of skin.”

“Belonging to the victim?”

“No, sir. There were no other marks on thebody except the ruined face and the slashed jugular.”

“Were you asked by the police to examine ascratch on the accused’s face?”

“I was.”

“And what did you find?”

“I found evidence of his left cheek havingbeen recently scratched.”

“Was it consistent with the blood and skinunder the victim’s fingernails?”

Marc was on his feet. “Milord, there is noway of Dr. Withers determining whose blood and skin was under thevictim’s fingernails.”

“Yes,” said the judge, a veteran of theQueen’s bench named Laidlaw. “That calls for an opinion the coroneris not able to substantiate. Move on, Mr. McBride.”

“But the accused had been very recentlyscratched and you found foreign blood and skin under the victim’sfingernails?”

“The blood had scarcely dried on thescratches,” Withers said.

“We may reasonably assume a cause and effectbetween the two items, may we not?” McBride said smoothly.

“Milord,” Marc said, rising, “the Crown issumming up.”

“You know better, Mr. McBride,” said thejudge, but Mc Bride had already made his point.

“I have no more questions, Milord,” saidMcBride, sitting down.

“Your witness, then,” Judge Laidlaw said toMarc.

Marc rose to his lectern. “Would the victimhave had enough strength to scratch the defendant’s face in themanner suggested by the Crown?”

”Only as a reflex action. Perhaps, if theperpetrator still had the vial in his hand, she thought she wasunder attack again and lashed out instinctively.”

“But that is highly speculative?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You said that the acid was not the primarycause of death?”

“Correct. Death was a result of the loss ofblood.”

“Then whoever threw the acid intended only toharm the victim, not to kill her?”

“She might have died eventually as a resultof the wound to her flesh.”

“But that is not certain?”

“No, sir.”

“Strictly speaking, then, Mrs.Cardiff-Jones’s death was an accident, an unforeseen result of theacid throwing?”

“Possibly. But only if the acid was thrownfirst. There could have been an initial struggle, the victim couldhave been pushed onto that spike, then acid thrown to disfigureher.”

“But that is mere speculation, and, I put itto you, it is highly improbable.”

Dr. Withers, an old pal of Marc’s, smiledwryly. “I suppose so.”

“No more questions, Milord.”

Next up was Constable Ewan Wilkie. He steppednervously onto the witness-stand, where he stood drumming hisfingers on the rail.

“There is no need to be nervous,” McBridesaid in a somewhat patronizing tone. “Just answer my questions asbest you can in plain and simple language.”

“Yes, yer Honour,” Wilkie said.

McBride winced, but carried on. “ConstableWilkie, tell the court exactly what you saw on the evening of thecrime as you were on your patrol along Front Street.”

“Well, sir, I was walkin’ east and it wasgettin’ dark, but up ahead, in front of Rosewood, I seen a manhunched over somethin’ on the ground.”

“You didn’t see right away that it was abody?”

“No. I just saw this fellow hunched over,with somethin’ in his hand.”

“You weren’t alarmed at first?”

“No, sir. Then I thought the fellow might behurt so I started to walk faster towards him.”

“Then what did you notice?”

“I seen that a woman was layin’ on the groundand the man was hunched over her. He had a glass vial in one of hishands.”

“This was the same vial that the coronerfound to have contained hydrochloric acid?”

“Yes, sir.”

“When did you know that the woman wasseriously hurt or perhaps dead?”

“When I got up to the man, I saw blood allover the lady’s chest and the ground around her. Her eyes were openbut she wasn’t seein’ anythin’.”

“And what did the man with vial do then?”

”He looked up at me and he looked realscared.”

“And you saw a fresh scratch on hisface?”

“Yes, sir. It was still bleedin’.”

“What did you assume had happened?”

Marc rose. “The question calls for asubjective opinion, Milord.”

“This is a policeman on the stand, Mr.Edwards. I’ll allow it.”

“Constable?”

“I saw the scorched face on the lady, thevial in the man’s hand, and I figured he’d tossed acid or lye orsomethin’ on her face and then stabbed her.”

“But you didn’t see a knife?”

“No, sir. But the fellow pointed to a bloodyspike on the fence and said somethin’ to me in a gibberish I didn’tunderstand but I took to mean the lady’d fallen on the fence.”

“Did you arrest the man on the spot?”

“I didn’t right away. I blew my whistle ferhelp, and when Mr. Cardiff and his servants came out of the house,I sent one of them to fetch the Chief and the coroner. I told thefellow to sit on the porch and wait.”

“Did he say anything else?”

“I said, ‘I think you killed this woman.’ Shewas certainly dead, with her eyes open and seein’ nothin’. And hekept on talkin’ gibberish, like a crazy man. ‘Speak English,’ Itold him. And he seemed to calm down then and by golly he could speak English. He started to tell me some cock andbull story about – ”

“We don’t need to hear his cock and bullstory, sir. But there is no doubt in your mind that this fellow wasguilty of throwing acid in Mrs. Cardiff-Jones’s face andconsequently causing her death?”

Wilkie blinked at the excessive length of thequestion and said, “None whatsoever. He had the vial in his hand.She’d scratched his face tryin’ to protect herself, and he wasstill hunched over the body.”

“Making sure she was dead?”

“Milord!” Marc cried, jumping to hisfeet.

“That was uncalled for, Mr. McBride,” saidthe judge.

McBride apologized, smirked over at Marc, andsat down. “I have no more questions, Milord.”

“Mr. Edwards?”

Marc looked across at Constable Wilkie, a manhe had known for five years as a plodding but honest patrolman. Herealized that he had a formidable challenge ahead of him. Hisclient had been found by a policeman bending over a recently killedwoman with one of the instruments of her demise in his righthand.

“Constable Wilkie, I am interested in myclient’s demeanour when you accosted him that evening. You said helooked scared.”

“Yes. I figured he was quite startled to seea policeman come up to him just a few moments after he’d killed thelady.”

“We don’t know that the defendant killed thelady, Constable. That is for the jury to decide,” Marc said evenly.“After his startled look, did the defendant try to flee? Did heeven get up?”

Wilkie looked puzzled. “Well, no. He justpointed at the lady and the bloody spike and spouted somegibberish.”

“Could this gibberish have been French? Mr.Gagnon, the defendant, is French-Canadian.”