John Carr - The Judas Window

He afterwards recalled that at this point he said something aloud, but he had no notion of what it was. He said it to cover his thoughts, as though by speaking rapidly he could prevent himself from thinking. But he had to think. Time was going on: he could still hear the ticking of the watch. If the one door and the two windows were both' locked on the inside, he was the only person who could have killed Hume."It was like his own favourite novels turned to a nightmare. Only, with the police of this material world, they did not believe in your innocence, and they hanged you. Also, it is all very well to talk of ingenious devices by which a door is bolted on the inside by someone who is actually outside the room - but he had seen this door, and he knew better.

He went back to look at it again. It was a good heavy door of oak, fitting so tightly into the frame and against the floor that the floor was scraped where it had swung. There was not even a keyhole for any flummery: a Yale lock had been set to the door, but it was out of order and stuck fast in the 'open' position of the lock. Instead the door was now secured by a long, heavy bolt so stiff from disuse that, when he gave it a tentative wrench in its socket, he found that even for him a powerful pull would be needed to move it at all.

From the bolt he found himself inspecting his own right hand. He opened the palm and studied it again: after which he went over to the light to get a better look. The fingers, the thumb, and the palm were now smudged with1 a greyish dust which felt gritty when he closed his hand. Where could he have got that? He knew for a certainty that he had touched nothing dusty since he had come into this room. Again he felt the bulge in his hip pocket; an unaccustomed bulge; but he did not investigate because he was half afraid to find out what it was. Then, from the hypnotic light of the desk-lamp, his eyes strayed down to the dead man.

The arrow, from hanging so long on the wall, had accumulated a coating of greyish dust: except for a thin line along the shaft where, presumably, it had hung protected against the wall. This dust was now broken and smudged in only one place. About half-way down the shaft, there were signs that someone had gripped it. When he bent down to look, even with the naked eye he could make out clear finger-prints. Answell looked back at his own hand, holding it out in front of him as though he had burnt it.

At that moment, he says, there came into his mind some faint notion of what might really have been meant by that telephone-call: of Mary's white face, and certain conversations in Sussex, and a hasty letter written overnight. But it was only a cloud or a ghost, a name that went by his ears. He lost it in Avory Hume's study, standing over Avory Hume's body, for there were other things to claim his attention.

No, it was not the sound of the blood beating in his own head.

It was the sound of someone knocking at the door.

AT THE CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT March 4, 1936

REX

V.

JAMES

CAPLON

ANSWELL

The Charge: Wilful murder of Avory Hume.

The Judge: Mr Justice Rankin.

The Counsel: For the Crown: Sir Walter Storm, K.C. (Attorney-General). Mr Huntley Lawton. Mr John Spragg.

For the Defence: Sir Henry Merrivale, K.C.

INSPECTOR MOTTRAM'S DRAWING, with notes:

1. X, position of body. Answell sat in chair y.

3. Two remaining arrows fastened to wall above fireplace; flat

against wall.

4. Side door in passage, leading to steps into brick-paved passage-

way between houses, found dosed but not locked. Probably nothing in this; back door unlocked as well.

5. Doors of sideboard in study locked, and keys in deceased's

pocket; but sideboard empty. (?)

'And True Deliverance Make -

'All persons who have anything to do before my Lords the King's Justices of Oyer and Terminer and general gaol delivery for the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court, draw near and give your evidence.

'God save the King, and my Lords the King's Justices.'

In Court-room Number One, the 'red' judge was taking his seat. Mr Justice Rankin was a very short plump man whose robe of scarlet slashed with black made him look even shorter and stouter. But he carried it with a swing of briskness. Under a grey tie-wig, fitting him as well as his own hair, his face was round and fresh-complexioned. His little narrow eyes, which should have been sleepy, had an alertness which gave him the air of a headmaster before a form.

To Evelyn and myself, sitting in the reserved seats behind counsel, the place had a look less of a court than of a schoolroom. Even the desks were arranged like forms. Over the court a big white-painted dome ended in a flat roof of glass, blurred with the light of a raw March morning. The walls were panelled to some, height in oak. Concealed electric lights under the cornices of the panelling threw a yellow glow up over the white dome; they made the oak look light, and turned the woodwork of the rest of the court to a yellowish colour. This resemblance to a schoolroom may have been caused by the brushed, business-like neatness of the place. Or it may have been the complete lack of haste or flurry, like the pendulum of a grandfather clock.

From where we sat - behind counsel - we could see of the barristers only the backs of their gowns and wigs: a few descending tiers of white wigs, with little ridges of curls like hair buttons. A school, bending towards each other and whispering. Towards our left was the big raised dock, now empty. Immediately across from us -. beyond the long solicitors' table in the well of the court - was the jury-box, with the witness-box beside it. Towards our right, the judge's bench showed behind it a line of massive tall chairs: the Sword of State suspended vertically over the chair in the centre.

Mr Justice Rankin bowed to the Bar, to the officers of the court, and to the jury. His bow was from the waist, like a salaam. The two clerks of the court, at the desk immediately below him, turned round and bowed in unison. Both were very tall men in wig and gown, and their deep bend together was in such sharp timing with the judge's as to give it the effect of a movement in a Punch-and-Judy show. Then the court settled down, and the coughing began. Mr Justice Rankin arranged himself in the chair immediately to the left of the Sword of State: never in the centre one, which is reserved for the Lord Mayor or one of the aldermen. Fitting on a pair of shell-rimmed glasses, Mr Justice Rankin took up a pen and smoothed flat the pages of a large notebook. Over the glass roof of the court, March daylight strengthened and then dulled. They brought in the prisoner at the bar.

You cannot look long at the prisoner, standing in that enormous dock with a policeman on either side of him. Or at least I can't. You feel like a ghoul. It was the first time either Evelyn or I had seen Answell. He was a decent-looking young fellow - almost anybody in court might have looked into a mirror and seen his counterpart. Despite the fact that he was well-dressed and freshly shaven, there was a certain air about him which gave the impression that he did not now particularly care a curse what happened. But he stood stiffly at attention. There were a few ghouls from the society columns sitting behind us; he did not glance in our direction. When the indictment was read over to him, he answered not guilty in a voice suddenly edged with defiance. Not an unnecessary word was spoken in the court. The judge seemed to conduct matters mostly by signs.

'I swear by Almighty God' -they were administering the oath to the jury - 'that I will well and truly try, and true deliverance make, between our Sovereign Lord the King and the prisoner at the Bar, whom I have in charge, and a true verdict give according to the evidence.'