John Carr - The Judas Window

'What else?'

'He said that if I didn't pay him five thousand he would show the photographs to Jim. He said he didn't see why he should not get something out of this when everyone else seemed to have so much money.'

'This was durin' the week of December 28th-January 4th?'

'That's right.'

'Now just go on, if you can, Miss Hume.'

'I said he must be c-completely crazy, and he knew I hadn't got five thousand pennies, and never would have them. He said yes, but my father would be willing to pay through the nose. He - he said that my father's one big dream in life was to make a good and wealthy marriage for me, and -'

'And -?'

'- and had got to the point where my father - well, despaired of ever doing it -'

'Steady, ma'am; stop a bit. Had you ever done anything like this before?'

'No, no, no! I'm only telling you what Reg - what Captain Answell said to me. He said my father would not let five thousand pounds stand in the way of my getting a good catch like Jim Answell.'

H.M. studied her. 'Your father was a pretty inflexible man, wasn't he?'

'He was that.'

'When he wanted something, he got it?' 'Yes, always.'

'Did your father know anything about these photographs?'

Her wide-spaced blue eyes opened as though she could not understand the stupidity that put such questions, even if they had to be asked for the sake of clearness in a court of law.

'No, no, of course he didn't. Telling him was nearly as bad as -'

'But you did tell him, didn't you?'

'Yes, it had to be done, so I did,' replied the witness, summing herself up.

'Explain how that happened, will you?'

'Well, Reg - Captain Answell said he would give me a few days to rake up the money. On - yes, it was on the Wednesday, I wrote to my father and said I had to see him about something horribly urgent and important in connection with my marriage. I knew that would bring him. I couldn't leave the house-party without any explanation, especially as Jim was throwing money right and left to celebrate, and all the local charities were coming to thank us. So I asked my father if he would come down on Thursday morning and meet me in a village near Frawnend ..."

'Yes, that's right; go on.'

'I met him at an inn called "The Blue Boar", I think it was, on the road to Chichester. I expected him to flare up, but he didn't. He just listened to me. He walked up and down the room a couple of times, with his hands behind his back, and then he said that five thousand pounds was absolutely ridiculous. He said he might have been willing to pay something smaller, but he had had a few reverses lately; and in fact he had been looking forward a bit to Jim's money. I said maybe Captain Answell would come down in price. He said: "We won't bother with paying him money; just you leave him to me, and I'll settle his hash."'

'Oho? "Just you leave him to me, and I'll settle his hash." What was he like when he said this? How'd he act?'

'He was as white as a sheet, and I think if he had had Reg there he would have killed him.'

'H'ra, yes. So,' observed H.M., jerking his thumb, 'the idea of your father settling Captain Answell's hash, and even giving him drugged whisky, don't sound so almighty foolish as it did when my learned friend was discussin' it, eh?' He hurried on before anyone could object to unscrupulous comment. 'Did he tell you how he meant to settle Captain Answell's hash?'

'He said he was going back to London, and he wanted a few hours to think. He said to let him know if Reg made any move in the meantime.'

'Anything else?'

'Oh, yes; he asked me to try to find out where Reg kept the photographs.' 'Did you try?'

'Yes, and I was horribly poor at it. I - that's what brought everything on. Reg just looked at mc and laughed, and said: "So that's the trick, is it? Now just for that, my little lady, I'm going straight to London and see your father."'

'This was on Friday, wasn't it?'

'Yes.'

'What did you do?'

'I telephoned my father early Friday evening -' 'That's the call we've heard about?' 'Yes. To warn him, and ask him what he was going to do.'

H.M. made mesmeric passes of some intensity. 'I want you to tell us what he said then; every word, as far as you can remember.'

'I'll try. He said to me: "Good; it's all arranged. I will get in touch with him to-morrow morning, and invite him here, and I promise you he will not bother us again."'

She spoke with extraordinary intensity, so that H.M. allowed a space for the words to sink into the minds of the jury. Then he repeated them.

'Did he tell you what he meant to do about settlin' Captain Answell's hash?'

'No; I asked him, but he would not tell me. The only other thing he said was to ask where he could be certain of finding Reg, and I said at Jim's flat. He said: "Yes, I thought so; I have already been there."'

'He said that he had already been there?' H.M. raised his voice. 'Did he say anything about pinchin' Captain Answell's automatic pistol out of the flat?'

The effect of this was broken by the judge's interruption.

'The witness has already told you, Sir Henry, that she heard nothing more.'

H.M., well satisfied, patted his wig. 'And then, on top of all this,' he went on, 'your fiance' all of a sudden decided to go to London as well, and you were afraid somethin' would blow up?' 'Yes, I was half crazy.'

'That's why you wrote to your father on Friday night, after the phone call?' 'Yes.'

'Does this postscript here, "You will take care of that other matter, won't you?" - does that refer to the effective settling of Captain Answell's hash?'

'Yes, of course.'

'One more little point,' pursued H.M., with a long and rumbling sniff. 'A witness has testified here about the rather odd way your father acted when he got that letter at the breakfast table on Saturday morning. He walked to the window, and he announced in a grim kind o' tone that your fiance was comin' to town that day - and meant to see him. The witness said: "Oh, then we will not go to Sussex after all; we will invite him to dinner," or words to that effect. The deceased said that those other two would go to Sussex as arranged. He also said: "We will not invite him to dinner, or anywhere else."' H.M. slapped his hand on the table. 'What he meant was, then, that they wouldn't invite him to dinner in case the two cousins ran into each other?'

Sir Walter Storm stirred out of his immobility.

'My lord, for the last time I must protest against this constant attempt to question witnesses about things they did not see or words they did not hear, particularly since it is always done in the form of a leading question.'

'Do not answer that,' said Mr Justice Rankin.

'In your opinion,' said H.M., after the customary form of sardonic apology, 'in your opinion, from the things you have seen and the things you have heard, doesn't what you've just told us show what really did happen on the night of the murder?'

'Yes.'

'Would a woman have the nerve to go through with what you've just told us to-day, unless she believed absolutely that this man is innocent?'

He pretended to listen for an answer, and then sat down with a whack that shook the bench.

There was some whispering behind us, around, beyond, a sound in long grasses which you knew centred in only one thing. Mary Hume must have known it as well; she was drawing patterns with her finger on the edge of the ledge, and looking down. But from time to time she would glance up, briefly, while the Attorney-General was taking some while before beginning his cross-examination. Her pretty face was growing dull red; and, as though unconsciously, she would draw her sables closer round her. How long this mental narcotic would sustain her you could not tell. She had badly damaged many parts of the prosecution's case: you realized that much of Answell's apparent stumbling and foolish testimony must be the solid truth: and it was clear the jury thought so too. But the whispering grew like noise in a forest. Someone enquired plaintively if they were not going to show us the photograph. I noticed that the space reserved for newspapermen was now completely empty, though I could not remember having seen any of them hurry out It was a matter for headlines and speculations in every British home.