Arthur Upfield - Murder Must Wait

“At a quarter past eleven Delph came back in Nonning’s car, and right on his tail was another car. Delph drove past the entrance to allow the second car to stop at the front door.

“Beside the driver of this car was a woman, and she was on my side… The driver switched off his lights and got out, and was met by Nonning, who said: ‘Good trip?’ The driver said it had been okay, and Nonning then said: ‘You gave your wife the tablets?’ The driver said he had stopped at ten o’clock to give them. Nonning then came round to my side of the car and opened the door. The hall light was good enough for me to see the woman. She was wearing a light duster coat over, a brown dress, and she had a filmy silk scarf about her head. She didn’t speak, and from the way she was sitting and never moving I thought she must be doped.

“Anyway, Nonning said: ‘Well, Mrs Marsh, and how are you?’ The woman just mumbled. That was all it was, a mumble like she was very sleepy. I saw Nonning take her pulse. Then he turned back to Dr Delph: ‘She’s all right. I’ll give her a shot later on.’ Delph nodded, and they went back round the car to the driver and Nonning said: ‘The wife’s all right, Mr Marsh. Care for a bite and a drink?’ Marsh said he would, and that the long drive from town had knocked him. Then Nonning said: ‘You can relax from now on. Go in Delph’s car, and I’ll drive yours.’

“They all went inside, leaving the woman sitting upright and me under the garden tree. I went over to her, and I said: ‘Are you all right, Mrs Marsh?’ and she only mumbled again as though not wanting to wake up. I opened the door and found she’d been propped with cushions on each side, and try as I did I couldn’t see her face clearly enough to recognise her if I had to. And, to clinch everything, she was just my size and height, and I was wearing a brown dress, too.

“You telling me in your letter that you thought this Nonning business had to do with the baby, and that I had to tail these visitors, backed up the feeling I got that this Mrs Marsh was to be given the baby you’d found. I thought I’d hide in the back of the car, you know, down behind the front seat, and then I thought it was just likely they might change their plans and Dr Delph and the Marsh couple go off in Marsh’s car. That led to deciding to take the woman’s place.

“I heaved her out on to the lawn and under the tree, and I was taking off her coat when suddenly Essen was behind me and asking what went. I told him to lend a hand, and explained what I was doing while he helped me with the coat and scarf, and fixed the cushions. He wanted to dump the woman in the shrubbery, but I didn’t like that because she was so wonky, and so he carried her out to where he had his car parked, and took her to the hospital. I told him if he was quick enough he could get back in time to tail the cars.

“It seemed a long time I waited before the men came out again. Marsh and Delph went down the drive to Delph’s car in the street. Nonning came to my side of Marsh’s car, opened the door and said: ‘Can you hear me, Mrs Marsh?’ Like she’d done, I mumbled. He said: ‘Now we’re off to see Altjerra the Giver. As I’ve so often told you, Altjerra the Giver can make dreams come true, so you are going to sleep in a tree and wake up with your own baby in your arms. And you will be happy then, very happy.’

“With that, he closed the door and got behind the wheel and backed the car out. The other car was waiting and we followed it. We left made roads and followed an ordinary track, and after a little of that we came to a junction. We still followed Delph’s car, and soon after that the lights of the first car went out, excepting the tail light, and Dr Nonning switched off our headlights and drove slowly only by a parking light. How he managed, I don’t know.

“A long time after, I saw the glow of a fire ahead, and when we got opposite this fire Dr Nonning drove off the track to it, and another fire lit up and showed the big tree, and I remembered you and I had been there before.

“When we stopped beside Dr Delph’s car and another one, Dr Nonning got something from the back, pushed up my sleeve and gave me a shot. He didn’t say anything until he’d put the needle back inthe whatever it was on the rear seat, and then began to say soothingly over and over: ‘Mrs Marsh! Mrs Marsh! You are going to see Altjerra the Giver. You are going to see his spirit babies run to that big tree… and wait. Wait, Mrs Marsh, for women like you. Other women have come here, hoping, made happy ever after. Now you have come hoping… Mrs Marsh. You are going to fall asleep inside that tree, and when you wake you will have your very own baby in your arms. You will remember all you see, Mrs Marsh, but you will not remember my voice or what I’ve said. Remember, always remember that the truth is what you see before you fall asleep.’

“And so on over and over again, and the dope working in me so that I felt like I was floating along on air, and wanting withall my mind to stay awake. I still knew I was Alice McGorr and not this Mrs Marsh. I wanted to shout questions at the Voice going on and on about Altjerra the Giver. But I couldn’t move, and really I didn’t want to. I wanted you there to find out what it was all about, and somehow I knew that this auto-suggestion job, or whatever Nonning was doing to me, wouldn’t work because I hadn’t been given those tablets Marsh had doped his wife with before they arrived at Mitford.

“Nonning told me to forget his voice, but I didn’t and haven’t. I just waited and a fire grew bright to light up the tree, and then I saw the half-bird man thing carrying the huge sack and going to the tree and dropping things. I saw them run and hide inside the tree, little things no bigger than butterflies. I watched the aboriginal woman go there and lie down, and I wanted to tell Nonning she mustn’t do that, that this was my night to sleep in the tree, and all the while knowing I was Alice McGorr, your offsider… I was lifted and carried from the car. I was walking to the tree but I couldn’t feel the ground under me. Inside the tree it was dark, soft, warm, sleepy darkness, and somewhere I heard Nonning saying: ‘Sleep, Mrs Marsh, sleep.’ ”

Alice fell silent, and Bony made no attempt to disturb the stream of memories. They were passing through the green belt to the town when she said:

“I expected to find, I don’t know what, but it was heaven, Bony. Please tell me what it all means.”

Account Rendered

NOTSINCEthe Fruit Pickers’ Riot had the Mitford Police Station been so busy.

Showered, dressed and breakfasted, Bony sat at the Sergeant’s desk with Policewoman Alice McGorr on his right and a shorthand writer over in the corner. Yoti wandered in and out like the office boy fearful of the sack, and First Constable Essen acted as Master of Ceremonies.

Mr Robert Marsh, night-club proprietor and sportsman, was brought in and invited to be seated. He was now less agitated, having received a favourable medical report on his wife and, moreover, had had the opportunity to review his position. Bony said:

“Now, Mr Marsh, be advised and tell me all about it… from the beginning to the moment you expected to find a stolen baby with your wife in the heart of an ancient tree. From information already in my possession, I incline to the belief that you have been actuated less by criminal intent than by your wife’s state of mind. Whatd’youthink about that?”

Mr Marsh agreed with the analysis, and he had already decided to get out from under. His story was clear and to the point, and when the stenographer had typed the statement and it was read to him, he signed almost eagerly.

Marsh having been returned to the lock-up, Dr Nonning was presented by Essen and invited to be seated. Nonning was much more difficult. He continued to be stubborn even after the gist of the statement signed by Marsh was given. It was the reminder that a murder had been committed when the child intended for Mrs Marsh was stolen which loosened his tongue.