Charles Todd - An Impartial Witness

"I hadn't thought of that. I'll see what I can do."

"Will you let me see Lieutenant Hart?" I asked. "I'm going back to France in a few days. I'd like to hear what he has to say about his arrest."

"I don't think that's useful," Inspector Herbert told me. "He's allowed no visitors. Only his lawyers."

"May I write to him and expect an answer?"

"I wouldn't advise writing him."

I took a deep breath. "What if all this evidence is just circumstantial? Will you hang the lieutenant and let the real murderer go free?"

"Hardly circumstantial, I should think," he answered, a little annoyed with me. "You've been a great help with this inquiry, Miss Crawford. But as I've said to you before, you must now leave the rest to us."

He started to walk through the hospital doors, but I stopped him.

"Have you found Captain Melton?"

"There's no hurry there. He's at the Front, and we've time before the trial to interview him. I think even you will agree that he's not our murderer."

"He can speak to Marjorie Evanson's state of mind-" I wanted to add that men died at the Front. Waiting was a calculated risk.

"And you have already done that. Quite admirably." He touched his hat, and went through the main doors, holding them open for a pair of sisters just coming off duty.

There was nothing I could do.

Simon was waiting for me, but I said, "I need a little time…"

He nodded, and I began to walk to clear my head, but I'd not gone twenty paces when I heard Inspector Herbert call to me.

I stopped and he caught me up.

"I wanted to ask-it's not my business to ask, but are you in love with Lieutenant Hart?"

I must have looked as exasperated as I felt. "If anyone else asks me that question, I will gladly box his ears. Or barring that, kick him in the shins."

He smiled. "I'm sorry. As a policeman I must know how to judge your evidence. It has been impartial to a certain point. It's necessary to understand if that has in any way changed."

"If I'm asked to testify in court, you may be sure I shall tell the truth, as I will have sworn to do," I answered stiffly.

"It won't come to that. Your statement will be sufficient. Good night, Miss Crawford. I wish you a safe journey back to France. And hope that you will return to England safely when your tour of duty is finished."

He touched his hat again and went back the way he'd come. I stood there looking after him as he passed through the hospital doors without looking back, thinking to myself that he was a fair man, but like many fair men, once he'd made up his mind, he wasn't likely to find any reason to change it.

I must have walked another hundred yards or more. And then someone spoke just behind me, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

It was Simon Brandon. He'd been following me at a distance.

"It's late, Bess, and that direction isn't wise."

I realized that I'd left the hospital well behind me, and ahead was a short, cluttered street with rather rundown shops and a pub or two, their doors shuttered. The street itself was dark, empty, dustbins casting long shadows. At the far end, two men stood in the shelter of a doorway, the lighted tips of their cigarettes glowing red. They seemed to be intent on their conversation-I could just hear the murmur of voices-but I turned and together Simon and I started back toward the motorcar.

"How is she?" he asked. "I saw Inspector Herbert come out again to speak to you."

The clanging of an ambulance speeding toward the hospital drowned out my voice. After it passed, I told Simon what Helen Calder had said.

"It's very likely she'll never remember, Bess. And that leaves Lieutenant Hart in a limbo of sorts. She could have cleared his name-or she could have condemned him. It might work in his favor that she doesn't recall the attack. On the other hand, there may be assumptions that aren't true entered into evidence."

We had reached his motorcar, and he held my door before continuing. "There are witnesses who heard her call out to Michael Hart. And the police will act on that evidence instead." He turned the crank and then got in next to me. "Why did she call his name, do you think? She was in great pain, bleeding heavily. Why not call for her husband. Or a sister. Someone connected with her family."

"I don't know," I told him truthfully. "And when I asked her, she told me Michael wasn't at the dinner party. Then she added, 'Afterward.' Did she mean that she'd seen him after the dinner party? Or was she going to tell me something else?"

"There's no way to know. You must prepare yourself, Bess. This case is going to trial, and there's nothing to be done about it."

I turned to him. "Simon, attend the trial for me, if I'm in France. I want to know everything, what witnesses are called on either side, what they testify. What the rebuttal is. And the verdict-you must be there to tell me what the verdict is. I don't think they'll give me leave. Inspector Herbert told me that my statement was sufficient. Please? I need to know all of it."

"Shall I sketch their faces as well?"

"That's not amusing, Simon."

He nodded, threading his way through light traffic. "Sorry. I was trying to lighten your mood."

I hadn't realized that I had been so intense. "Please?"

He turned to me, his face in shadows cast by the canvas roof. "I promise, Bess. If it will give you any comfort. But there's nothing more you can do. Don't let it haunt you. Your patients will suffer if you do."

"He wouldn't let me see Michael. Or write to him. Inspector Herbert, I mean. He doesn't want me to contact him in any way. Will you try to see him? I want to know how he's planning to fight these charges."

"I'll do my best."

I settled back into my seat as we left the busy city streets behind us and found the road leading to Somerset. "Thank you, Simon. And, Simon-don't tell Mother or the Colonel Sahib that you're doing this for me. It will only worry them."

I saw Simon's mouth tighten into a straight line. "And I'm not to worry?"

I didn't know how to answer. And so I said nothing.

My mother closed my valise, sighed, and said, "When your father went off on a dangerous mission, I was so grateful to have a daughter. She would never walk in harm's way, I told myself. I won't lose a night's sleep over her out in hostile territory. My only worry will be whether or not she chooses wisely when it comes to marriage. And look at what this war has brought me."

It was the closest she'd ever come to admitting to worrying. And I thought perhaps it had been the sinking of Britannic last year while I was aboard that had brought her fears out into the open. With a broken arm, I couldn't have fended for myself in the water, if we hadn't had time to launch the boats, and I could well have drowned.

I smiled, glad I hadn't told her about the German aircraft strafing us at La Fleurette. "I shan't be in any danger. It's my patients you must say a prayer for, every day."

My father came just then, to carry the valise down to the motorcar. After he'd gone, my mother said, "He would prefer that I didn't tell you, Bess, but I think you ought to know this. Your father has been in touch with Lieutenant Hart's aunt and uncle, suggesting a good barrister if they haven't already found one to their liking. They were in such a state of shock and were grateful for his advice."

I felt a mixture of shame that I hadn't thought of calling on them again and a surge of hope that my father believed Michael was innocent.

I said, "Then the Colonel Sahib agrees with me."

But she dashed my hopes almost at once. "I think it's more a case of the Army looking after its own, whatever one's regiment. The lieutenant's own commanding officer hadn't called on them yet. He's still in France."