Маргарет Миллар - The Murder of Miranda

“Most of you, if you have heard at all of the crime lab in Sacramento, may think of it as a remote place where obscure research is carried on which has no connection with you personally. Well, it is no longer remote and its work no longer obscure. The lab, in fact, has moved right into your lives in the form of the document I am now holding in my hand. It contains the results of the tests made on the material taken from the scene of Iris Young’s death. This covered a wide range of things, the most important being the blood and tissue samples from Iris Young’s body. Among the items salvaged from the ruins — the wood splinters and pieces of glass and other rubble — two specific items stand out, a cane and a candlestick.

“Each of you has been furnished with a list of exhibits I will offer you in support of my case. The first is the document I’m now holding in my hand. Many people, scientists and lab technicians, contributed to it, but it’s signed by Dr. Gustave Wilhelm, acting head of the arson division. Dr. Wilhelm cannot be here to testify until later in the week, so I will take the liberty of presenting to you an outline of his report in order to answer the first of the three significant questions in this case: Was a murder committed? What were the reasons behind it? Who had these reasons? It would be illogical to proceed with the last two questions until we’ve established a definite answer to the first. Was a murder committed? Yes. This document in my hand is, in fact, the story of a murder, written in the language of science instead of literature and having as its leading character not a person but a cane.

“The cane belonged to Iris Young. According to a statement by her husband, she purchased it merely as an artifact used by an African chieftain in certain tribal rites. Later it became her constant companion. It is made of zebrawood with an ornamental head of copper and the remnants of it are on the table to your left wrapped in plastic and identified by a red tag. Even without my unwrapping it you can see that it’s been badly burned. What you can’t see is that at the head, where the copper has been hammered into the wood, there are bloodstains. The fact that any of Iris Young’s blood was found on this cane is enough to suggest foul play. Microscopic tests have made the suggestion a fact. Let me clarify.

“A by-product of any fire is carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless gas which has a strong affinity for the red blood cells of the body. Its presence is easily detected not only in the bloodstream but in the respiration passages and the lungs, where small granules of carbon can be found if a person has breathed in smoke. Tissues taken from Iris Young’s nasal and bronchial passages and lungs contained such granules. Also, samples of her blood indicate that carbon monoxide had forced the vital oxygen out of her red cells and caused death by asphyxiation. So what she died of is clear. How it happened is another matter.

“It was at first believed that Iris Young while leaning over in the act of lighting the gas log lost her balance and fell, that she struck the upper area of her face hard enough to cause bleeding and to render her unconscious. But now let’s ask some basic questions:

“Was blood found on the gas log? No.

“Anywhere near it? No.

“Any place in the room at all? Yes. On the head of the cane.

“What type of blood was it? AB negative.

“Did it, in fact, come from Iris Young’s body? Yes.

“Did it contain evidence of carbon monoxide? No. I repeat, no. The blood on the cane came from a woman who had not breathed in any smoke at all.

“Is it possible that Iris Young’s head wound was the result of her falling on her own cane? No. The force of such a fall would not have been enough to cause the kind of injury she sustained.

“How, then, did she die? She was struck. She did not fall and strike anything, she was struck with her own cane.

“Could this blow have been an act of impulse and the fire a desperate attempt to cover up the attack? No. I believe that the fire was, in fact, the main event, premeditated, carefully planned even down to the date, July Fourth, when the sound of an explosion would be nothing unusual. The holiday also made it easier to get the other people out of the house — Admiral Young to watch a fireworks display with his daughters, and the housekeeper to babysit her grandson while his parents went out celebrating. Oh yes, it was carefully planned, all right, except that explosions and fires are not predictable whether they’re arranged by an amateur or a professional. As many prisoners are painfully aware, arson doesn’t necessarily burn up evidence of itself.

“Iris Young was meant to be cremated in that fire. Perhaps that would have happened if she’d been fatter, since body fat acts as a fuel, but Iris Young was a thin woman. Her cane was meant to be destroyed and it was, but only partially. The part that was left provided the blood samples to compare with those taken from her body.

“There is still another object which was intended for destruction, or at least for damage enough to render it useless as evidence.”

He walked over to the table where the exhibits were displayed and picked up a candlestick wrapped, like the cane, in transparent plastic.

“Here it is. An antique silver candlestick, ten inches high, bent, as you can see, by the force of the explosion and somewhat discolored by smoke. According to the housekeeper and the members of the family, it’s one of a set of four always kept on the buffet in the dining room. How did it get from the buffet in the dining room to the floor of Iris Young’s sitting room? The obvious explanation is that she took it there herself. But let me read a couple of sentences from a statement given to one of my deputies by the housekeeper, Mrs. Norgate:

“ ‘Miranda Shaw liked to use candles on the dinner table because she thought they made her look more youthful. But lately Mrs. Young had gotten so she couldn’t stand them. She said flickering lights gave her a headache.’ There’s no reason to doubt Mrs. Norgate’s word. Moreover, the same observation has been made by other members of the household, that Mrs. Young hated candles. Yet this candlestick was found in her room. Without her fingerprints on it, without, in fact, any fingerprints on it at all. I have lost count of the curious facts in this case but this must be number five or six. Or ten. Or fifteen. More questions arise:

“What was the candlestick doing in Iris Young’s room? It was doing what came naturally, holding a candle.

“And what was the candle doing? Committing a murder.

“And what does all this add up to? The following sequence of events: Iris Young was struck with her own cane, the candle was lit and its holder wiped clean, the gas was turned on and the murderer left the house.”

The District Attorney paused again, not for effect but because one of the jurors, a retired librarian, had raised her hand.

“Yes, Mrs. Zimmerman?”

“Why don’t you bring in some witnesses?”

“I will, of course. But in order to save both time and the taxpayers’ money — two important advantages of the grand jury system — I’m calling only enough witnesses to present my case without the kind of detail and repetition necessary in a criminal trial.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t—”

The foreman intervened. “The calling of witnesses — who, when, how many — is up to the District Attorney, Mrs. Zimmerman.”

“But he’s just standing there telling me what to think.”

“He’s giving you material for thought. That’s an entirely different matter... Please continue, Mr. District Attorney.”

“Thank you, Mr. Foreman. I would like to go back for a minute to the results of the autopsy performed on Iris Young. Tissue removed from her air sacs and breathing passages showed carbon particles which indicated that she died of asphyxiation caused by the inhalation of smoke. Tissue removed from other areas, especially the abdominal cavity, showed traces of other chemicals, in particular flurazepam hydrochloride. This is a crystalline compound readily soluble in either alcohol or water and rapidly absorbed and metabolized by the body. It’s a commonly used sedative sold, by prescription only, under the name Dalmane. That Iris Young, a semi-invalid, should have taken something to induce sleep is not surprising. But the circumstances are peculiar. Dalmane is a very quick-acting drug meant to be administered only after the patient has retired or is about to retire. Iris Young was in her sitting room, fully clothed. So we have another curious fact to add to our growing list.