Five Red Herrings (34 page)

36

‘Jimmy Fleeming does bear him out, as far as I can see,’ observed the Fiscal, turning over his papers.

‘Och, ay,’ said Duncan, ‘Jimmy Fleeming’s the biggest leear in the Stewartry. Forbye, Graham is weel likit by that poachin’ lot. There’s no a man among them that wadna swear to a wee lie or so tae protect Graham.’

‘That’s true enough,’ said Macpherson. ‘An’ there’s no need for them tae be tellin’ sic a big lie, neither. They’d be up half the nicht wi’ their poachin’ an’ sleepin’ half the day. What’s tae hinder Graham walking off an’ committin’ his murder — ay, an’ pentin’ his bit picture — wi’oot them knowin’? He wad say he’s ta’en a wee walk, maybe. Or maybe they’d be sleepin’ and never notice when he comed or gaed?’

‘Your idea, Duncan, is that Campbell came up to the Minnoch — when, exactly?’

‘That’s clear enough,’ said Wimsey. ‘We’ve got to take Ferguson’s times, because, on this assumption, there’s no reason for doubting them. Starting at 7.30, and driving at an ordinary speed, he wouldn’t be likely to do the twenty-seven miles in much under an hour. Say he arrives there at 8.30 and sits down and gets his painting things out. Graham taking his morning walk, gets along there at, say, 8.45. They quarrel, and Campbell is knocked into the river and killed. At 9 o’clock, summer time, Graham might reasonably begin to do his painting, it takes him an hour and a half. We know that, because we’ve seen him do it — at least, I have. That brings us to half-past ten. But we know he was still there at five past eleven, so we’ll have to give him till then. That’s quite likely, because if, when I saw him, he was merely copying his own painting, he’d probably do it quicker than if it was his effort. As soon as he’s finished, and the road is free of inquisitive passers-by, he strolls back to his sleeping friends, who will subsequently be ready to swear that they never took their eyes off him the whole time. That’s your theory, isn’t it, Duncan?’

‘Ay, that’s it,’ said Duncan, gratified.

‘It’s not a bad one, either, as far as it goes,’ went on his lordship, with the air of a man sampling a glass of old port. ‘It has at least three snags, but I dare say they could be demolished with a little goodwill. First, the doctor has got to be all wrong in his calculations, but, as he doesn’t seem to mind that, neither need we. Secondly, who ate Campbell’s breakfast? Well, we can suppose that, having drunk rather deeply the night before, he nevertheless courageously cooked his egg and rasher and, having cooked them, didn’t like the look of them and shot them into the fire. Or we can suppose — though I should hate to do so — that Mrs. Green ate them herself and said she hadn’t. Or we can suppose that Campbell ate them, was promptly sick, and filled up the void with whiskey. Any one of those suppositions would account for the conditions as found, eh, doctor?

‘Then there are the marks of tar on Campbell’s Morris, which we put down to bicycle-tyres, but they might quite well have been due to something else. I pointed them out in the first place, but I wouldn’t be bigoted about them on that account. They’re not significant enough to wreck a theory on.

‘The big snag in Duncan’s ingenious reconstruction is the man who saw the car pass the New Galloway turning at 9.35. I’m afraid Duncan hasn’t accounted for him at all. Still, we can say he was mistaken. If a doctor can be mistaken, so can an honest workman. He didn’t see the number of the car, so it may have been another Morris.’

‘But the piled-up stuff under the rug at the back,’ said the Chief Constable, ‘and the driver’s conspicuous cloak. You can’t get away from them.’

‘Can’t I?’ said Wimsey. ‘You don’t know me. I could get away from a galloping fire-engine. You’d been advertising for a Morris car driven by a man in a loud cloak, with a pile of luggage behind, hadn’t you? Well, you know what happens when you advertise for things. A man sees something that corresponds to part of the description and imagines the rest. Probably twenty Morris cars drove over the main road from Castle-Douglas to Stranraer that morning and probably half of those had luggage in them. Several of them may have been driven by gentlemen whose dress was more noisy than discriminating. Your man had no very particular reason to notice the car at the time, except that he shot out on it unexpectedly. If the truth was known, he was probably riding carelessly himself. The car got in his way and annoyed him, and if he can persuade himself that he had an encounter with a desperado fleeing from justice, he’s not going to stick at remembering a few things that weren’t there. There are plenty of people who are always ready to remember more than they saw.’

‘That’s awfu’ true,’ sighed Macpherson.

‘I will tell you a thing I like about this theory of Duncan’s,’ said the Fiscal. ‘It makes it appear likely that the crime was unpremeditated. It is more likely that Graham, coming suddenly upon Campbell like that, should quarrel with him and knock him down than that anybody should contrive a scheme to carry a dead body all those miles and plant it in so awkward a place.’

‘The place was more or less forced on the murderer, was it not, by Campbell’s expressed intention of painting there that day?’

‘But he might be supposed to have changed his mind, Sir Maxwell.’

‘To an innocent man,’ said Macpherson, acutely, ‘that supposition wad present no difficulty at all. But a murderer might weel be ower particular, even tae the point o’ riskin’ the miscarriage of his plans by an unnecessary verisimilitude.’

‘Well, Inspector,’ said the Chief Constable, ‘I can see that you are not altogether satisfied with any of our theories. Let us have yours.’

The Inspector brightened. This was his moment. He felt convinced that he, and no other person, had the right sow by the ear, and was, indeed, extremely grateful to Dalziel, Sir Maxwell and Duncan for having produced such inferior animals and refrained from spoiling his market.

‘The Sergeant said just noo,’ said he, ‘that Jimmy Fleeming was the biggest leear in the Stewartry. Weel, I ken three that’s bigger leears than him, an’ that’s Gowan and his pack of English servants. An’ ye’ll mind that they three are the only pairsons that’s proved oot o’ their own mouths tae be leears, exceptin’ Strachan an’ his bit tale aboot a gowf-ball.

‘I believe Gowan killed Campbell when they met on the road, an’ I dinna credit one word o’ that story aboot his beard.

‘Noo, I’ve written doon the course o’ events as I see them, an’ I’ll ask ye tae read it out for me, Mr. Fiscal, seein’ as ye’re better accustomed tae speakin’ in public than I am.’

With these words, the Inspector handed over a neatly-written manuscript which he produced from his breast-pocket, and leaned back with the shy smile of a poet attending a public reading of his own works.

The Fiscal adjusted his glasses and, in a clear voice, proceeded to do justice to –

The Case against Gowan

The evidence of the girl Helen McGregor is that Campbell met with another motorist, since proved and admitted to be Gowan, on the Gatehouse-Kirkcudbright road at about 9.45 on Monday night. That there was a quarrel, and that one of the parties then placed the inanimate body of the other party in the two-seater car and drove off with it in the direction of Gatehouse. That she then became frightened and ran home. This story was subsequently substantiated by the finding of a spanner, bearing Campbell’s finger-prints, close to the locus of the alleged assault, and by the discovery of car-tracks tending to show that a car had been driven into a grass lane, through a gate some fifty yards from the said locus.

In my opinion, the crime is to be reconstructed as follows.

Having killed Campbell in the struggle, Gowan’s first consideration was to remove the corpse to a place where it would not be seen by a passer-by. This he effected by placing it in his own car, driving up to the gate, and dumping the body inside. He selected his own car for this purpose because it was the nearest to Gatehouse and could be more readily shifted by him. If he had put the body at once in Campbell’s car, he would have had to move his own car first, to get the other past, and someone might have arrived while he was so doing. If such a person had found Campbell’s car obstructing the road and had ascertained upon investigation that it contained a dead body it would have a very suspicious appearance.

He then brought up Campbell’s car, drove it through the gate, placed the body in it and deposited it at some distance up the lane. He then proceeded on foot to his own car, turned it and returned in it to Kirkcudbright. He could accomplish this, driving like hell (the last two words were carefully ruled out) in a reckless manner in rather under five minutes. Say at 10.10. The girl Helen saw him when he passed her house.

He would find Hammond on duty and would urge him to return with him at once. On reaching the scene of the crime at, say, 10.20, he would proceed on foot to the Morris car and drive it out of the lane in the direction of Gatehouse, while Hammond would return with the two-seater to Kirkcudbright.

Gowan could be back with the Morris at Standing Stone cottage at, say, 10.30. (Note: Ferguson gives the time as 10.15, but he only says ‘about.’)

Gowan then conceives the plan of simulating an accident to Campbell. Since his black beard would make it impossible to impersonate Campbell, he shaves this off with Campbell’s razor, carefully cleaning the same, and destroying the hair in the fire, except a portion which he reserved for another purpose.

When Strachan arrived, Gowan was in hiding some place or other, probably in the garage. On Strachan’s departure, he returned to the cottage in a stealthy manner, destroyed the note and proceeded with his preparations.

At 7.30 he would start out with the car, disguised in Campbell’s clothes and carrying the corpse, the painting materials and the bicycle, which he would have taken from the Anwoth Hotel. Now we have to account for the long time taken by him to arrive at the New Galloway road, where he was seen by the workman. In my opinion he proceeded to some town or village not yet ascertained, and there instructed Hammond to meet him at some point with the two-seater. In my opinion this would be a locality in the neighbourhood of Pinwherry. Inquiries have been set on foot to trace this telephone message within an area of thirty miles round about Gatehouse.

At this point the Chief Constable interrupted the reading.

‘Could not the call be readily traced at the Kirkcudbright end?’ he inquired.

‘No, no,’ said Wimsey, before Macpherson could speak. ‘Hammond would have been instructed to go somewhere else to get it. A desperate fellow like Gowan isn’t going to take all this trouble only to trip up on a trifle like a telephone-call, eh, Macpherson?’

‘That’s so,’ said the Inspector. ‘That’s jist exactly what was in my mind.’

‘Then why did he not tell Hammond what to do when they were together, and avoid the telephone call altogether?’ demanded Sir Maxwell.

‘He hadn’t made his plan then,’ said Wimsey. ‘How fretful you people are! Do give the man time to think. His first idea is, “Let’s get the body away off this road that I’m known to have driven along. I’ll plant it somewhere. I don’t know where. I’ll think it out and ’phone you tomorrow at 8 o’clock. Go to Laurieston or Twynholm (or Kamschatka or Timbuctoo or whatever was the handiest place) and I’ll put the call through to you there.” After all, you’ve got to explain the delay on the road somehow. Ferguson is a liar, Strachan fell down a mine, Farren — let me see; oh, yes — Farren was a poor hand with a car and Gowan made a telephone call. Please go on with the reading, Fiscal.’

Gowan then proceeded to the site on the Minnoch and painted his picture. This would occupy him till about 11.30. He then mounted the bicycle and rode along the road to Pinwherry and Girvan to the spot selected by him. It would be just as he had passed Barrhill that he was observed by Mr. Clarence Gordon. Mr. Gordon said that the bicyclist was not a very tall man, but Gowan would not look so tall if he was bent down over a bicycle and pedalling fast. Without his beard, Gowan would not be recognisable from his photograph. Hammond would meet him with the two-seater some place between Barrhill and Girvan, and he would be provided with any necessary tackle for securing the bicycle to the car. They would drive together to just this side of Girvan, where Hammond would alight, take the bicycle and proceed to Ayr, contriving whether by design or mischance to lose the bicycle in the station. It will be remembered that the person travelling with the bicycle was said to speak like an Englishman. Gowan then proceeded with the car to some point from which he could write and dispatch his letter to Major Aylwin. He would not wish to make his appearance in Kirkcudbright without his beard so that he probably did not return till that night. Efforts are being made to trace the movements of the car during this period.

With reference to the portions of beard discovered on the Gatehouse-Kirkcudbright road. It would occur to Gowan and his confederates that the fact of murder might be suspected and his own movements investigated. In that case the shaving-off of his beard and his disappearance to London might present a suspicious appearance. They therefore concocted a story to fit the case, and planted the portions of hair by the roadside in order to support this invention. This was the story subsequently told by Gowan at Scotland Yard, which was very misleading, on account of containing so large a proportion of facts. The details of Gowan’s escape from Kirkcudbright occurred exactly as related in his statement. This is the case against Gowan as presented by me.

(Signed) John macpherson,

Inspector of Police.

‘Ingeniouser and ingeniouser,’ said Wimsey. ‘There are a good many details that need verification, but the whole thing is very pretty indeed. What a shocking set of crooks these English servants are! Not even murder will turn them from their feudal devotion to the man who pays!’

The Inspector flushed.

‘Ye’re tryin’ tae make a fool of me, my lord,’ he said, reproachfully.

37

‘Indeed, no,’ replied his lordship. ‘One thing in your story pleases me particularly, and that is that you have bravely tackled the business of the bicycle at Euston, which everybody else has fought shy of.’