A Case of Doubtful Death (32 page)

‘And you are quite
quite
sure that she died on the
19
th of September?’ asked Fairbrother.

‘Yes, I am.’

‘And when was she buried?’

‘Oh – it would have been the next week – yes, it was the Monday of the following week.’

‘Monday the 27th?’ said Frances.

‘Yes, I do recall that because it was the day of Mackenzie’s funeral, also.’

‘And was the body at her home during the interval?’

‘Only until the following day. We had a private viewing for the family on the morning after her death and she was taken to the Life House that same afternoon.’

Frances and Fairbrother looked at each other. ‘Then that accounts for the faster decomposition,’ said Frances.

‘Whatever do you mean?’ exclaimed Warrinder. ‘What is all this about?’

Fairbrother rose from his seat. ‘Dr Warrinder – I hardly know what to say.’

‘I think,’ said Frances, ‘that for the moment you had better say nothing.’

Later, in a nearby café over a cup of coffee and a pot of tea that neither of them felt much like drinking, they discussed what was to be done. ‘I am ruined,’ said Fairbrother.

‘That is nothing to the odium that will pour upon Dr Bonner’s head,’ Frances observed. ‘At least if the body in the canal
does
turn out to be that of Mrs Templeman we know that she was not the victim of a crime. But Dr Bonner must have been at the Life House during the period when Mrs Templeman’s body was held there, which was from the
20
th to the
26
th of September, and I can’t believe he never examined her once during that time, so how come he didn’t recognise the body taken from the canal?’

‘Perhaps this is all a mistake?’ said Fairbrother hopefully.

‘Did
you
examine Mrs Templeman?’

‘No, I don’t recall her at all. But then I spent most of that week assisting at post-mortem examinations at Paddington workhouse. I was at the Life House for the viewing of Dr Mackenzie, but not for several days thereafter.’

Frances suddenly recalled something. It may have meant nothing especially since the witness was so thoroughly unreliable, but all the same it could furnish a clue. She looked through her notebook for what Dr Carmichael had told her of his visit to the Life House.

‘I spoke recently to a medical gentleman who toured the Life House wards on the
23
rd of September when Mrs Templeman should have been there, and he told me that there was only one female patient, who was very elderly,’ said Frances. ‘Can you account for that?’

Fairbrother looked mystified. ‘I cannot.’

‘Is there a record kept of the times when orderlies or doctors are on duty in the Life House?’

‘Yes, the orderlies sign a record book when they arrive and again when they depart. The doctors also make a note when they have done a round of examination, and of course the admission of patients and burials are also recorded. It is very meticulous.’

‘Good. I will need to see the entries for the days between the
19
th and the
27
th of September. I suggest we proceed to the Life House at once.’

‘I can only admit you to the chapel,’ said Fairbrother, ‘but I will bring the record book which is held in the office.’

‘Might I see the office?’

He shook his head. ‘Oh no, visitors may only enter the chapel, nowhere else. I am in enough difficulty already without transgressing again. Dr Warrinder is bound to speak to Dr Bonner about our interview when he returns, and I dread to think what he might say and do.’

‘You may place all the blame on me,’ said Frances. ‘I questioned you with great violence and fearsomeness, and dragged the information out of you and then took the whole matter forward myself.’

It was a moment or two before he saw the import of what she had just said. ‘When you say “took the matter forward”, to what are you alluding?’

‘Well, we must have the body exhumed, mustn’t we? Until we have proof that the body in the canal was actually that of Mrs Templeman we can make no further progress.’

‘But – the distress that this will cause – to Dr Bonner, and Dr Warrinder!’

‘Dr Bonner has been lying to me repeatedly since our first meeting and you will forgive me if I feel no guilt at any distress he may feel. As to Dr Warrinder, do you think he will want to leave a relative’s body in a common grave? If Mrs Templeman was
your
relative, what would you do?’

Fairbrother had no answer and unwillingly accepted that Frances would proceed to do what she felt necessary, whatever he might say about it.

They took a cab up to the Life House, where Fairbrother, after knocking on the chapel door, spoke to Hemsley, who fetched the record book and returned to the wards. Only then was Frances admitted. The little chapel was much as she had seen it before although there were no burials waiting. ‘I don’t suppose,’ said Frances, ‘that under the exceptional circumstances, I might be permitted just to look inside the office and the wards?’

Fairbrother turned pale. ‘Please, I beg you, do not attempt it!’

‘But you are the senior medical man here. You have the authority to admit me.’

‘Mr Hemsley would inform the partners.’

‘You could instruct him not to.’

‘If you were to be taken ill, I would be blamed.’

‘If I am willing to brave a visit to the wards then I believe you should be brave enough to admit me. The circumstances are very unusual.’

He wavered, but at last he shook his head. ‘No! I dare not!’

‘Then I will apply to Dr Bonner again on his return,’ said Frances. It seemed somewhat inappropriate but needs must, and she took the heavy volume to the little altar and rested it there.

Nothing of any moment appeared to have occurred on Sunday the
19
th of September. The orderlies had been medical students who, said Fairbrother, regularly took the Sunday periods of duty. Dr Mackenzie had visited during the afternoon.

Henry Palmer had reported for duty at midday on the
20
th of September and made detailed notes of his work. He had made hourly surveys of the patients, cleaned the wards, tidied the flowers, and tended the fire. The admission of Mrs Templeman was recorded at
4
p.m. and Palmer had seen to everything necessary. He had been alone in the Life House until
7
p.m. when Dr Mackenzie had called and examined the patients, including Mrs Templeman, staying there for an hour. Neither Bonner nor Warrinder had been there that day, and Palmer left at midnight, being replaced by Mr Hemsley.

There had been no visitors until the following morning, the
21
st of September, when Dr Warrinder attended between the hours of
9
and
10
a.m. and examined the patients. Even with his poor eyesight, thought Frances, he can hardly have failed to recognise his wife’s niece. Palmer had then signed in at midday, for what would prove to be his last period of duty. Dr Bonner had arrived at
9
.
30
p.m. and Dr Mackenzie had called half an hour later. Palmer’s signature, which was a little shakier than his usual neat handwriting, showed that he had departed at
11
p.m.

In the crucial hour before Palmer had left, Frances knew, events had occurred that the record book would not show. Mackenzie had suffered his collapse, there had been attempts by Bonner and Palmer to revive him, and his body had been consigned to the chapel. Palmer had arrived at Mrs Georgeson’s at about
11
.
10
p.m., but had then turned north again about five minutes later. At about
11
.
30
p.m. or thereabouts, Mr Darscot had arrived at the Life House by cab and viewed Dr Mackenzie’s body, and then departed a few minutes later. There was no record of this, but Fairbrother said that visitors to the chapel were not recorded; there was merely an appointment book.

Following Darscot’s departure, Bonner had been alone until Hemsley arrived and signed in at midnight. No visitors had been admitted to the wards at any time during this period. Hourly examinations of the patients had been carried out as usual by Hemsley. There was no record in the book to suggest that Palmer had ever returned.

Although Bonner had been alone in the Life House before the arrival of Hemsley, he had been in a state of some distress at the sudden death of his friend. Frances thought that he would easily be able to persuade a court that he had not examined Mrs Templeman at all, and that his failure to recognise her in Kilburn mortuary was, in the circumstances, unsurprising. The record book showed that Bonner had departed at
1
a.m. and returned at
8
a.m. the next morning, the
22
nd of September. The names of the attendees at the viewing of Dr Mackenzie’s body were not recorded. Hemsley had left at midday and Dr Warrinder had stayed on until a temporary orderly could be found.

‘You did not go into the ward that day?’ Frances asked Fairbrother.

‘No.’

‘Where did you go after the viewing?’

‘I assisted Dr Bonner at Paddington mortuary.’

Frances reflected that it was very possible for someone on duty alone in the Life House to allow in an unauthorised visitor and not record the fact. Bonner had only been unaccompanied briefly, but both Palmer and Hemsley had been alone there for substantial periods of time. So when had Mrs Templeman’s body been removed?

‘Since there was a family viewing of Mrs Templeman’s body at her home on the morning of the 20th, I assume that there was not one here?’ she asked.

‘I believe not,’ said Fairbrother.

‘But Dr Mackenzie, who had attended her in life, examined her body only a few hours after it was admitted here, and we must assume that he recognised her then. Dr Warrinder would have seen her the following morning when he made his ward round, and even with his poor eyesight he must have known his wife’s relative. So if the body in the pauper’s grave is indeed Mrs Templeman, what happened to her after Dr Warrinder’s round?’ Frances studied the book again. ‘You were next in the ward on the
25
th of September assisting Dr Bonner while he tried to find a replacement for Mr Palmer.’

‘Yes.’

‘And did you and Dr Bonner examine Mrs Templeman’s body?’

Fairbrother frowned. ‘I don’t recall it. In fact, I rather think it was not there.’

‘But she was not buried until two days later.’ Frances peered at a note in what she felt sure was Hemsley’s muddled hand. ‘Ah,’ she said at last, ‘I think this says that Mrs Templeman’s body was taken to Kilburn mortuary on the morning of the
24
th of September. Why was that done?’

‘I think I can guess. In cases where decomposition occurs very quickly and there is no doubt that the person is deceased, but the family has not yet completed arrangements for burial, bodies may be placed in a conventional mortuary where they are kept in cold conditions so as not to constitute a danger to health.’

‘I’d better speak to Mr Hemsley again, and since I cannot go to him, you had best bring him to me.’

Fairbrother recognised the unspoken word ‘now’ at the end of that sentence and hurried away, returning a minute later with Hemsley, who looked as though he might have been awoken from a doze.

‘Mr Hemsley, do you recall a patient here by the name of Mrs Templeman?’ asked Frances. She showed him the admission entry for the
20
th of September.

‘Not specially, that’s Palmer’s writing. Has he been found?’

‘Not yet, no. I see that Mrs Templeman’s body was removed to Kilburn mortuary on the
24
th of September. Can you advise me of the reason for that?’

‘I can’t say. I just get orders to move them or sometimes the undertaker’s men call with an authority to take the bodies.’

‘I was informed by someone who toured the Life House that Mrs Templeman was not on the ward on the
23
rd of September. Where was she?’

He scratched his head and looked at the book again. ‘In the chapel, I expect. She couldn’t have been anywhere else.’

‘But there was no family viewing here for Mrs Templeman. Why would she be in the chapel?’

‘Well, sometimes, if the patients get a bit – well, you know – we don’t want them in the ward and we take them off somewhere a bit colder. Now I come to think about it, when they took her away she wasn’t on the ward, she was coffined in the chapel. Yes, that was it, I remember now! She was so bad she had to be coffined almost at once, and then she had to be taken away early.’

‘Was she already coffined in the chapel when you came on duty on the night of Dr Mackenzie’s collapse?’

He frowned. ‘I expect so. I don’t rightly remember.’

‘Did
you
transfer Mrs Templeman to the chapel?’

He shook his head. ‘I don’t think I did. It must have been Palmer.’

‘Would he have recorded that?’

‘We have to record when a patient comes in and when they go out, but not moving from the ward to the chapel. So – no, if he did it wouldn’t be in the book unless he chose to.’