Death on the Air (20 page)

GOLDING
: Dr Swale carried his professional bag, I think you said?

TIDWELL
: S'right.

GOLDING
: And he went straight into the house? Without pausing, for instance, by the safe?

TIDWELL
: I couldn't see the safe, where I was, could I? But 'e went in.

GOLDING
: Quite so. To his patient who was ill upstairs.

TIDWELL
: Oh, yeah?

GOLDING
: I have one more question. Do you deliver meat at the accused's house?

TIDWELL
: Yar.

GOLDING
: When was your last call there, previous to the 4th April?

TIDWELL
: Free days before. She gets 'er order reg'lar on Wednesdays.

GOLDING
: Do you remember what it was?

TIDWELL
: Easy. Chops. Bangers. And – wait for it,
wait for it
.

GOLDING
: Please answer directly. What else?

TIDWELL
: Liver.

GOLDING
: I call Mrs Ecclestone.

USHER
: Mrs Ecclestone.

(
MRS ECCLESTONE
comes in with the
USHER
. Enters the box and takes the oath. While she is doing so we see
DR SWALE
and the
MAJOR
and then the accused, leaning forward and staring at her.
MRS ECCLESTONE
is a singularly attractive woman, beautifully dressed and aged about thirty-five. There is a slight stir throughout the court. At the end of the oath, she makes a big smile at the
JUDGE
.)

GOLDING
: You are Mrs Ecclestone?
(She assents.)
What are your first names, please?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: Barbara Helen.

GOLDING
: And you live at The Elms, No 1 Sherwood Grove, Fulchester?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: Yes.

GOLDING
: Thank you. Mrs Ecclestone, I want you to tell his Lordship and the jury something of the relationship between you and the accused. Going back, if you will, to the time when you first came to live in your present house.

MRS ECCLESTONE
: We used to see her quite often in her garden and – and –

GOLDING
: Yes?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: And in her house.

GOLDING
: You visited her there?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: We could see her at the windows. Looking out.

GOLDING
: Did you exchange visits?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: Not social visits. She came in not long after we arrived to – to –

GOLDING
: Yes?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: Well, to complain about Bang.

GOLDING
: The Alsatian?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: Yes. He'd found some way of getting into her garden.

GOLDING
: Was that the only time she complained?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: No, it wasn't. She – well, really, she was always doing it. I mean – well, hardly a week went by. It was about then, I think, that she first complained to the police. They came to see us. After that we took every possible care. We put a muzzle on Bang when he wasn't tied up and made sure he never went near Miss Freebody's place. It made no difference to her behaviour.

GOLDING
: Would you say that the complaints remained at much the same level or that they increased in intensity?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: They became much more frequent. And vindictive. And threatening.

GOLDING
: In what way threatening?

MRS ECCLESTONE
:
(to
JUDGE
,
a nervous smile)
Oh – notes in our letter box – waylaying us in the street – saying she would go to the police. That sort of thing. And when we were in the garden she would go close to her hedge and say things we could hear. Meaning us to hear them. Threats and abuse.
(The
JUDGE
is nodding.)

GOLDING
: What sort of threats?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: Well – actually to do my husband an injury. She said he wasn't fit to live and she said in so many words she'd see to it that he didn't. It was very frightening. We thought she must be – well, not quite right in the head.

GOLDING
: Coming to Friday 28th March
(She looks uncertain)
– was there any further incident?

(Miss Freebody sits forward.
)

MRS ECCLESTONE
: Oh – you mean the cat. I didn't remember the exact date.

GOLDING
: But you remember the event?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: Oh yes, I do. It was dreadful. I was horrified.
(She puts her head in her hands)
I was – I was so deeply sorry and terribly upset. I wanted to go in and tell her so.

GOLDING
: And did you do so?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: No. Basil – my husband – thought it better not.

GOLDING
: And after this incident, what happened between you and the accused?

MRS ECCLESTONE: It was worse than ever, of course. She complained again; she telephoned several times a day and wrote threatening letters. My husband burnt them but I remember one said something like vengeance being done not only on the dog but on himself.

GOLDING
: Yes. And now, Mrs Ecclestone, we come to the 4th April. The day when the dog was poisoned.
(Gestures to her.)

MRS ECCLESTONE
: I heard it happening – I was in my bedroom – and I got up and looked through the window. And saw. My husband shouted for me to come down. I went down and by then Bang was – dead. My husband told me to ring up Jim Swale – Dr Swale – and ask him to come at once. And he did.

GOLDING
: What happened then?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: They looked in the safe and Dr Swale said we should destroy the rest of the meat in case it was contaminated. So we did. In the incinerator.

GOLDING
: How was the other meat wrapped? In what sort of paper?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: Like the other- in newspaper.

GOLDING
: You are sure? Not in brown paper?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: No – I'm sure I remember noticing when we burnt it. It was the front page of the
Telegraph
.

GOLDING
: Thank you. And then?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: Dr Swale suggested getting the vet, but my husband wanted
him
to cope and he very kindly said he
would, I was feeling pretty ghastly by then
(smiles at Judge)
, so he asked me to go back to my room and I did. And he had a look at me before he left and gave me one of my pills. I didn't go downstairs again that evening.
(She hesitates.)
I think perhaps I ought to say that there was never any doubt in our minds – any of us – about who had put the poisoned meat in the safe.

O'CONNOR
: My lord, I must object.

MRS ECCLESTONE
: After all, it was what had been threatened, wasn't it?

JUDGE
: Yes, Mr O'Connor.
(To
MRS ECCLESTONE
)
You may not talk about what you think was in the minds of other persons, madam.

MRS ECCLESTONE
: I'm sorry.

GOLDING
: When do you think the meat was poisoned?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: It must have been after the butcher delivered the order, of course.

GOLDING
: Have you any idea of the time of the delivery?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: As it happens, I have. The church clock struck three just as he left.

GOLDING
: Did you hear any sounds of later arrivals?

MRS ECCLESTONE
:
(hesitating)
I – no – no, I didn't.
(Rapidly)
But of course it would be perfectly easy for somebody to watch their chance, slip across the right of way. Nobody would see. My bedroom curtains were closed because I darken my room when I have a migraine.

(Grin from
TIDWELL
to
SWALE
.)

GOLDING
: Yes. Had you seen anything of the accused during the day?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: Yes, indeed I had. That morning the paper boy delivered her
Telegraph
with our
Times
. I didn't want to see her; I slipped out by
our
front gate and up to
her
front door. I was going to put her
Telegraph
through the flap when the door opened and there she was. Stock still and sort of glaring over my head.

GOLDING
: That must have been disconcerting.

MRS ECCLESTONE
: It was awful. It seemed to last for ages, and then I held out her paper and she snatched it.

GOLDING
: Did she speak?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: She whispered.

GOLDING
: What did she whisper?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: That I needn't imagine this would stop justice from taking its course. And then the door was slammed in my face.

MISS FREEBODY
: Quite right.

GOLDING
: And then?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: I went back. And my migraine started.

GOLDING
: Mrs Ecclestone, do you know what happened to the wrapping paper round the dog's liver?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: Yes. My husband had dropped it on the ground and Jim – Dr Swale – said it shouldn't be left lying about and he put it into the incinerator.

GOLDING
: Did you notice what paper it was?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: It was the same as the other parcel – the
Daily Telegraph
.

GOLDING
: Thank you.

(He sits.
DEFENCE COUNSEL
rises.)

O'CONNOR
: Mrs Ecclestone,
anybody
could have come and gone through the right of way and through the garden gate and replaced one parcel of liver by another?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: I suppose they could have.

O'CONNOR
: Your husband has a lot of enemies in the neighbourhood apart from Miss Freebody, hasn't he?

MRS ECCLESTONE
:
(deprecatingly)
Oh – enemies!

O'CONNOR
: Let me put it another way. There had been a number of complaints about the dog from other neighbours, hadn't there?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: None of them threatened to kill my husband. Hers did.

O'CONNOR
: Did other persons, apart from Miss Freebody, write letters and complain to the police?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: There were some, I think.

O'CONNOR
: How many?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: I don't know.

O'CONNOR
Two? Three? Four? Half a dozen? More?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: No. No, I don't know. I don't remember.

O'CONNOR
: How very odd. Had the dog ever attacked any of your friends?
(She is silent.)
Dr Swale, for instance?

MRS ECCLESTONE
: Bang was rather jealous. Alsations can be.

O'CONNOR
: Jealous, Mrs Ecclestone? Do you mean jealous of you? Did the dog resent anyone paying you particular attention, for example?

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.

(
DEFENCE 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.
)