Ngaio Marsh - Collected Short Fiction of Ngaio Marsh

Mrs. Ecclestone: He was rather a one — I mean a two-person — dog.

(Mrs. Ecclestone and Dr. Swale exchange a brief look.)

O’Connor: Had Bang, in fact, ever attacked Dr. Swale?

Mrs. Ecclestone: I think — once. Before he got to know him.

O’Connor: Because Dr. Swale was paying you “particular attention,” Mrs. Ecclestone?

Mrs. Ecclestone: No. I don’t remember about it. It was nothing.

O’Connor: The dog did get to know Dr. Swale, didn’t it?

Mrs. Ecclestone: Well, yes, naturally.

O’Connor: Naturally, Mrs. Ecclestone?

Mrs. Ecclestone: Dr. Swale is in our circle of friends.

O’Connor: Apart from being your doctor?

Mrs. Ecclestone: Yes.

(She has become increasingly uneasy . Major Ecclestone has been eyeing Dr. Swale with mounting distaste.)

O’Connor: On that Friday afternoon, Mrs. Ecclestone— earlier in the afternoon, when you were lying on your bed in your darkened room, did Dr. Swale come and see you?

Mrs. Ecclestone: I — don’t know who you — I — I — (She looks at Dr. Swale. We see him very briefly close his eyes in assent) Why yes, as a matter of fact — I’d forgotten all about it, he did.

O’Connor: Thank you, Mrs. Ecclestone.

(Defense Counsel sits . Prosecution Counsel rises.)

Golding: As this earlier visit of Dr. Swale’s has been introduced, Mrs. Ecclestone, I think that perhaps, don’t you, that we’d better dispose of it? Dr. Swale, you’ve told the court, is an old friend and a member of your social circle. Is that right?

Mrs. Ecclestone (she has pulled herself together) : Yes.

Golding: Was there anything at all out-of-the-way about his dropping in?

Mrs. Ecclestone: No, of course not. He often looks in. He and my husband do crosswords and swop them over. I’d quite forgotten but I think that was what he’d come for — to collect the Times crossword and leave the Telegraph one. (She catches her breath, realizing a possible implication.)

Golding: Did you see him?

Mrs. Ecclestone (fractional hesitation) : I — think — yes, I remember I heard someone come in and I thought it was my husband, home early. So I called out. And Dr. Swale came upstairs — and knocked and said who it was.

Golding: Exactly. Thank you so much, Mrs. Ecclestone. (He sits.)

Judge: You may go and sit down, Mrs. Ecclestone.

Mrs. Ecclestone: Thank you, my lord.

(She does so. As she goes to the witness seats, she and the accused look at each other . Mrs. Ecclestone gets past the other witnesses, who leave room for her. She sits between Dr. Swale and her husband, looking at neither of them.)

Golding: That concludes the case for the prosecution, my lord.

(Defense Counsel rises.)

O’Connor: I now call Mary Emmaline Freebody.

(The accused is escorted to the witness box and takes the oath. The Clerk asks her to remove her glove.)

O’Connor: You are Mary Emmaline Freebody of No. 2 Sherwood Grove, Peascale near Fulchester?

Miss Freebody: I am.

O’Connor: Miss Freebody, did you attempt to poison Major Ecclestone?

Miss Freebody: I did not.

O’Connor: You are a practicing Christian, are you not?

Miss Freebody: Certainly.

O’Connor: And you swear that you had no such intention?

Miss Freebody: I do.

O’Connor: Miss Freebody, I’m sorry to recall an extremely painful memory to you, but will you tell his Lordship and the jury how you first learnt of the death of your cat?

Miss Freebody (breaking out) : Learnt of it! Learnt of it! I heard the screams. The screams. I still hear them. (To Judge) Still. All the time. Asleep and awake. I am haunted by them.

(Major snorts.)

O’Connor: Where were you at the time of the cat’s death?

Miss Freebody: Indoors. In my house.

O’Connor: What did you do when you heard the screams?

Miss Freebody: I rushed out. Of course. I thought he was in my garden. I hunted everywhere. The screams stopped but I hunted. And then I heard that man — that monster — that fiend—

O’Connor: Major Ecclestone?

Miss Freebody (she gives a contemptuous assent) : Laughing. He was laughing. Devil! He was talking to it. To that brute . And do you know what he said?

Golding (rising) : My lord! Really—

Miss Freebody (shouting) : He said “Good dog.” That’s what he said: “Good dog.” (She bursts out crying.)

Judge: If you would like to sit down, you may.

(The Wardress moves to lower the flap-seat in the box.)

Miss Freebody: I don’t want to sit down. Go away. (She blows her nose.)

O’Connor: Miss Freebody, what happened after that? Please remember that you may tell the court if you heard people talking and you may say who they were and what you did but not what they said, unless they are going to give evidence or have done so.

Miss Freebody: Idiocy! Legal humbug! Balderdash!

Judge: That will do .

Miss Freebody: No, it won’t. I won’t be talked down. I won’t be told what will do or won’t do. I’ll say what I’ve got to say and—

Judge: Be silent! Mr. O’Connor, I’m afraid that I am bound to agree with Miss Freebody that your exposition of the hearsay rules was so inaccurate as to amount to legal humbug. If you must tell witnesses what the law is, do at least try to get it right.

O’Connor: I’m sorry, my lord.

Judge: Miss Freebody, you will answer counsel’s question: what happened after that?

(She stares at him and he at her.)

Miss Freebody (suddenly and very rapidly) : “What happened after that?” He asks me, “What happened after that?” I’ll tell you what happened after that. She talked and he talked and she talked and he talked and then — then — then — no, I can’t. I can’t.

O’Connor: Miss Freebody—however painful it is—please go on. Try to speak calmly.

Miss Freebody: Out of the air. At my feet. Wet. Bleeding. Torn to pieces. Dead.

O’Connor: You are telling the court, aren’t you, that Major Ecclestone had thrown the body of the cat into your garden?

Miss Freebody: Cruel. Cruel ! Horrible and wicked and cruel.

O’Connor: Please try to be calm. After that? Immediately after that and subsequently, what did you do?

Miss Freebody: I — I couldn’t at first but then I did—I buried him. And then I — I went indoors and I felt desperately ill. I was ill and afterwards I lay on my bed.

O’Connor: Yes. You went to bed?

Miss Freebody: No. I lay there. As I was. All night. Sometimes I dozed off and then I had nightmares. I thought that brute was attacking me as it had my — my little cat. I thought it was coming at me . Here. (She clasps her throat) And for night after night it was the same.

O’Connor: And during the daytime?

Miss Freebody: I kept thinking it was loose and outside my doors, snuffling at them. Scratching at them, trying to get at me. I telephoned the police. I was terrified.

O’Connor: Did you go out?

Miss Freebody: I was afraid to go out. I stayed indoors. Day after day.

O’Connor: But you sent letters, didn’t you? To Major Ecclestone?

Miss Freebody: I gave them to my daily help to post. I was afraid to go out.

O’Connor: It has been suggested that you were spying upon Dr. Swale and his visits to The Elms.

Miss Freebody: Those two! I didn’t care about them . I used to think they were wicked but they were against him , weren’t they? They were making a fool of him. They wanted to be rid of him.