Lynn Shepherd - Murder at Mansfield Park

"Really, Mr Maddox," she said angrily, "it can have no possible relevance here."

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. Humour me a little, Miss Crawford."

She saw at once that opposition to a man of Maddox’s stamp would be of little use, and might indeed prove perilous; she did not want this man as her enemy.

"As you wish," she said, taking a deep breath. "My brother owns a small house in Enfield. After our parents died we lived for some years with our uncle near Bedford-square, while a housekeeper took care of the Enfield house. However, when our uncle died we were obliged in due course to leave London, and made arrangements to return to Enfield, as a temporary expedient until we might find some where more commodious. The housekeeper wrote to say she would expect us, and my brother came to fetch me and convey me to the house. It was — quite dreadful. Thieves had broken into the property, and taken everything of any value. The doors were broken open, and some of the windows shattered. We found the young woman lying dead in the parlour, covered in blood. She had been beaten to death, and her skull crushed. Henry believes that she must have surprised the villains in their heinous crime."

"Henry?"

"My brother. He is at present at Sir Robert Ferrars’s estate in Hertford-shire. He left here some days before Miss Price’s disappearance."

"You hear from him regularly?"

Mary frowned. "Of course."

"Quite so. Pray continue, Miss Crawford."

"There is little left to tell. The culprits were never apprehended, and I have never set foot in the house from that day to this. It brings back memories I have striven to forget. Until now."

Maddox nodded slowly. "I can quite see that all this must be a painful reminder of what happened to poor Mrs Tranter."

Mary started. "But how — I did not tell you her name — how could you possibly know such a thing?"

Maddox gave her a knowing look, and tapped the side of his nose. "Someone in my profession comes to know many things, Miss Crawford. Some good, some bad. And some that other people believe to be secrets that they alone possess.You would — all of you — do well to remember that."

"The steward was summoned after you left. It appears this Maddox fellow insisted upon seeing that accursed trench with his own eyes." Dr Grant nodded to the servant to refill his glass, and sat back in his chair.

"Would to God your brother had never conceived of such a foolish plan, Mary. No good can come from such unwarrantable and vainglorious interference in the works of God. We should be content with what He has seen fit to bestow, and not attempt what we call “improvements”, which are nought but monuments to our own arrogance and folly. Sir Thomas will rue the day he set out upon such an injudicious enterprise. Indeed, I remarked as much at the time."

"How did you come to hear of this, my dear?" enquired Mrs Grant, who was accustomed to such pronouncements at the dinner-table, and was rather more preoccupied with how little her sister had eaten of the excellent turkey the cook had dressed specially that day.

"I met with McGregor myself, as I was coming back from Mansfield-common. He informed me that Maddox spent above an hour on his hands and knees, examining the dirt. Let us hope he is equipped with such boots and breeches as may withstand such barbarous treatment. But it was of no avail; he did not find whatever it was he was seeking. I believe the word he employed" — this with something of a sneer — "was clues ."

"You do not surprise me, Dr Grant," said his wife. "As if there could be anything still lying there, after all this time. I do not see why such a man as this Mr Maddox is needed, at all. To my mind, the whole dreadful business is easily enough explained — it will be those gipsies I told you of, Mary. They were seen at Stoke-hill two days ago, and accosted a party of ladies in a lane not three miles from here. There were half a dozen children, at least, as well as several stout women, and a gang of great rough boys. The ladies were frightened quite out of their wits."

Mary had said little during dinner, and her spirits remained agitated and distracted after her encounter with Maddox, but her sister’s words drew her attention; she had been imagining all kinds of dreadful possibilities, anyone of which would make grievous inroads on the tranquillity of all, but might the answer be far more simple and common-place than that? Might the blame lie with a group of common gipsies? Mary could well see such a throng demanding money, and Fanny refusing in all the disdain of angry superiority, which would only have served to enrage them all the more.

"It is an interesting little theory, my dear, but, I fear, rather wide of the mark," said Dr Grant, his sonorous tones breaking through Mary’s thoughts. "Not least because Mr Maddox seems to have discovered the ghastly implement."

Both the ladies looked at him in shock and dismay."What can you mean, Dr Grant?" said his wife.

"He may not have found very much in the mud, but I gather that a search of the nearby workmen’s cart was rather more productive. One of the mattocks was found to bear distinct traces of — "

Mrs Grant gave a loud cough, and cast a look of meaning at her husband. Dr Grant was a sedentary man, but his intellectual tastes and pursuits were exceedingly various, and he devoted many of his lengthy leisure hours to the study of scientific matters; he had, therefore, felt all the curiosity of a interested party in the steward’s description of the fragments of human brain and flesh discovered on the blade of the mattock, and would have proceeded to give them a detailed account thereof, but a glance at Mary shewing her to have turned as pale as she had been on first returning from the Park, he contented himself with remarking, "Well, well, I shall merely say that it was quite clear that this was the instrument with which the deed was done. Moreover, there had clearly been a rather clumsy attempt to disguise the fact. It had been wiped, but some traces still remained."

"And what did the family have to say to that?" said Mrs Grant, who had poured a glass of wine for Mary, and was obliging her to drink the greater part.

"I believe he has asked to question the servants, and to carry out a search of the house, but the latter has been absolutely refused. Miss Bertram has declared that her mother is in no fit state to accede to such a request, and Mrs Norris was, as one might have expected, particularly loud in her outrage at such an idea; all the more so since — in her opinion — it is now palpably obvious that one of the labourers must be responsible. She is all for having the whole lot of them carted off to Northampton assizes, but I suppose we should not have expected anything like reason or logic from that lady."

"How so, Dr Grant? I am hardly an admirer of Mrs Norris, in general , but surely there is something to be said for such a view of the matter?"

Dr Grant shook his head."It is no more plausible, my dear," he said patiently, "than your picture of a gang of murderous gipsies marauding unchecked and unnoticed across the Mansfield lawns. A mere five minutes’ mature deliberation should be sufficient to remind you that the workmen are always under supervision of one kind or another when they are in the park, and share sleeping quarters in the stable block. I doubt anyone of them could have slipped away and committed such a crime without one or other of his fellows noticing, especially as there would have been a great effusion of blood, which could not possibly have been concealed. And what could be the motive for such a deed? I believe Maddox has agreed to question the men concerned, if only to appease Mrs Norris, but I suspect that he knows as well as I do, that he will have to look elsewhere for his assassin."