Arthur Upfield - Batchelors of Broken Hill

“I have information for you, and a proposal to make. Stillman brought from Sydney an instruction addressed to Superintendent Pavier, who is to inform me tomorrow that my service with the New South Wales Police Department is terminated. At nine tomorrow I shall have no authority in New South Wales. Stillman will be in full charge, and I do want that Stillman find himself in charge of exactly nothing.

“You, Crome and Abbot, know that these recent murders were extremely difficult to probe. Each murder scene was instantly cluttered by the crowding feet of men and women. There could be deducted not one reasonable motive, so that it was not possible to determine whether the murders were premeditated or committed on impulse.

“With the murder of Lodding, however, we came on the Great Scarsby, and almost in spite of our efforts on the cyanide cases they have become linked with the killing of Muriel Lodding. The strength of the link, I cannot even now assess.

“I cannot find a reasonable answer as to why those three men were selected murder victims. Insane hatred of elderly bachelors could not have been the reason for their selection by the murderer, because Patrick O’Hara, who barely escaped being poisoned, had twice been married.

“Those four men yet had one thing in common. Each one of them was a careless eater. It was the one thing which united them in the mind of the poisoner. Consider the state of mind wherein is born the fury to murder a man for a habit which creates in the sane mind merely a feeling of disgust. Then consider Tuttaway.

“Sixteen years ago, Muriel Lodding did secretarial work for Tuttaway, and after Tuttaway went on tour to the United States, Muriel Lodding and her sister, Mrs Dalton, came to Australia. They were living here in Broken Hill when Tuttaway was indicted and put away during the Governor’s pleasure. Then Tuttaway escaped and came to Broken Hill, the obvious reason being to murder the woman who had worked for him in England.

“Mrs Dalton at first said there was no man in Lodding’s life. Then she said that her sister had worked for Tuttaway. Tuttaway never came to the house. She knew next to nothing about Tuttaway. She and her sister had not discussed at length Tuttaway’s career. And yet she did not hesitate to tell me that Tuttaway went on tour in the precise year we knew he did. That, I believe, was a slip.

“The handle of the glass knife which slew Muriel Lodding was found inside Mrs Dalton’s gate. For some considerable time the butcher has been delivering daily eight pounds of steak to Mrs Dalton. There are no pets to account for the meat. Mrs Dalton and her sister did not entertain, and we know that an elderly woman who wore glasses and a younger woman were seen to enter the house or leave it. An elderly woman is thought to have poisoned Goldspink and a younger woman to have poisoned Gromberg.

“Then we know that firewood has been delivered to Mrs Dalton by a man named Goddard and, further, that in Goddard’s wood-yard office are several tins of cyanide. We know that Mrs Dalton’s dog died suddenly. We know that a man went round her house testing doors and windows in the early hours and that Mrs Dalton watched him from an upstairs window. Although there is a telephone, she did not communicate with the police.”

Bony ceased speaking, and rolled another cigarette. Luke Pavier said:

“A madman’s riddle.”

“The answer must be in Mrs Dalton’s house, but there isn’t sufficient evidence to ask for a search warrant. In any case, it is now too late for me to apply for one, and I can assure you that Stillman hasn’t a fraction of what we have. Which brings me to what lies right under his supercilious nose.”

Bony related the dates of Lodding’s absences from duty owing to sickness, pointed out that the periods between the first and second and the second and third were approximately the same, and added the dates of the three poisonings.

“At first study we might assume that Lodding suffered severe headache, sought for and obtained leave of absence, and within forty hours after returning to duty went hunting a victim with cyanide,” Bony continued. “But we know that Lodding was at work at Headquarters when those three men were killed, and we know that when O’Hara’s life was attempted Muriel Lodding was dead. Question: ‘When Lodding asked for sick leave, was it actually for herself?’ Again, Mrs Dalton’s house may provide an answer.

“Now for my proposal. It will be dark in less than an hour, and if the evening sky was read aright it will be very dark. Almost immediately Jimmy and I will set out for Mrs Dalton’s house, and we will enter it to see what we can see and hear what we can hear. I would much like you, Crome and Abbot, to come with us as far as the garden, conceal yourselves, wait and watch, and be ready for a signal. And I would like you, Luke, to be with Crome to observe and take notes for your paper. I think it likely that the man watched by Mrs Dalton last night will make an entry tonight. We shall permit him to enter, to learn his purpose, to overpower him if he should attack Mrs Dalton. And I think that man is Tuttaway.

“On consideration, if you think that you would rather not be associated with this somewhat unethical procedure, I feel sure you will just forget about it and go home to bed.”

“Too early-for bed,” Abbot pointed out.

“Not too early for me to get going, Mr Beaut Friend,” chirped the son of Superintendent Pavier.

Jimmy Nimmo was gripping the edge of the table. A lunatic killer, an insane poisoner, and now a madman detective. Was he coming in or going out? Abbot was faintly smiling. Crome sat stolid, his grey eyes small and sharp. It was he who broke down a wall of silence.

“I been in the department twenty-three years. This job could be the finish of me.”

“I’ve been in the department for eleven years, and I don’t care a damn if it is the finish of me,” Abbot said. “Could you tell us more, Inspector?”

Bony sipped brandy and drank the remainder of his coffee, cold. Luke thought it should be the other way about, but gave it up.

“Let us consider more of Tuttaway,” Bony went on. “After what was reported to you last night, or early this morning, Crome, you are bound to place men on watch for that window-testing man. Assuming he behaves tonight as he did last night, and you arrest him and discover him to be Tuttaway, what have you on him? Murder, you answer, and rightly, and Tuttaway is returned to Victoria to gaol. What next? Will Tuttaway oblige by telling why he attempted to enter the house? It is doubtful. You have gained something, but far from what could be gained if Tuttaway did enter the house and if it was found that someone else in the house was responsible for poisoning three men. Are you going to apply for a search warrant, or are you going to ask Mrs Dalton for permission to search her house? Why should she not grant permission when you hold the murderer of her sister, the man who tried to break into her house to murder her?

“Let us assume that Jimmy and I enter the house and find nothing incriminating, nothing suggesting that anyone living there could have poisoned Goldspink and Company. We leave, and there is no harm done. We will assume that Jimmy and I are discovered by Mrs Dalton, who raises blue hell and rings for the police. You need not be the police, but quietly return to your homes. Jimmy and I clear out-or take the knock. Having been pessimistic, let us be optimistic. We take Tuttaway, and we put on him or another responsibility for the death of those three men; we present the completed investigation to the Super in the morning-and Stillman can go back to Sydney on the first plane.”

Again silence. Luke studied Jimmy Nimmo, with whose profession he was not acquainted, and wondered why Jimmy looked green under the pale yellow lights. He studied Abbot and Crome, and his lips lifted slightly in a sneer for men hesitating to accept such a splendid opportunity. Then Abbot said: