SV - 03 - Sergeant Verity Presents His Compliments (24 page)

'No,' said Verity, 'but you wait till Mr Somerville sees 'em. All in all, Mr Samson, I'm ready to tell Mr Croaker that Lord Henry was murdered. Only thing is, I got no idea who done it.'

11

There was an unaccustomed stillness in Inspector Croaker's room, the calm broken only by the busy wings of a large fly, beating against a glass pane and striving for the open sky above the Thames at Westminster. Croaker put the tips of his fingers together, as he sat at his desk, and appeared to be framing a judgment in his mind. Lord William Jervis sat at his ease in a dun-leather chair by the empty grate, his youthful and black-whiskered face presented in disdainful profile to the other occupants of the room, as though the proceedings were no concern of his. Paraded at attention, though without an escort on this occasion, Verity waited before Croaker's desk. Presently, Croaker spoke, as though courteously airing a proposition in a philosophic argument.

'Sergeant Verity, you were under no misapprehension that your hire by Mr Richard Jervis was ended?'

'No, sir.'

'Yet you went, with Sergeant Albert Samson, to Lord Jervis' estate at Bole Warren. You entered those lands and broke in upon the gamekeeper, Rumer, in the middle of the night?'

'Trespass!' said Lord William, turning, half-profile, with an impatient twist of his mouth.

'With respect, sir, it ain't trespass for me nor any man to visit Mr Rumer. And now I know there were murder done, as Mr Richard swore, I must talk a little more with Mr Richard. You saying I'm not to see 'im again can't alter that, sir. With respect, sir.'

In his self-assurance, Verity settled his head a little lower and a flushed bulge of superfluous flesh began to form round the rim of his stiff ollar.

'Murder!' said Croaker in exasperation, bringing his fist down on the desk. 'Lord Henry's body was medically examined by Dr Jamieson and the evidence was heard by a coroner's jury, who brought in a verdict of accidental death. What murder?'

"ave the honour to ask, sir, if Dr Jamieson might ever have been a military man.'

Lord William supplied the answer.

'No Why?'

'Just it, sir,' said Verity firmly, "im being a gentleman that practised among the better classes in Burlington Street, he probably never saw a man that was shot to death. If he'd been a month in the Rifle Brigade, he'd a-told how far a man was shot from, what with, and who by. And he'd a-learnt all that without the expense of going to a medical school, sir.'

Momentarily, Croaker seemed prepared to indulge Verity with the aim of bringing him down in a harder fall later on.

'So you set yourself up as a pathologist, do you, sergeant?'

'No, sir. But I got two eyes and I seen the picture took of Lord Henry's poor head. If he'd been shot from less than twenty feet, there'd a-bin a dark ring of bruising round the wound. And there ain't

'Photographs don't always show every detail, sergeant.'

'No, sir, but then there's the bullets in the sand, sir.'

Lord William swung round.

'You fooll There were a hundred times when Lord Henry might have fired his rifle into that sand, merely to test the action. Of course there were bullets from his rifle there!'

Verity stared impassively ahead of him.

'It ain't just that, sir. The last thing Mr Richard Jervis swore to me, sir, was that his brother, Lord Henry, was murdered, that he saw it done with his own eyes, and he named to me the party that he accused. With respect, sir. Now, sir. Mr Richard may be mistook. The camera may be mistook. The bullets may be in the sand by mistake. I can believe one mistake, even two. But when it gets to three sir, then I say there's evidence enough for me to be allowed to see Mr Richard again and ask him what he meant."

'No!' Lord William's voice rang across the room, as it might have done across the quarter-deck, and he sprang to his feet. 'By God, you shall not!'

'Don't see why, sir. With respect, sir.'

'Damn your thick skull!' shouted Lord William. 'Have I not told you before? My poor brother is more hurt in his mind than ever he was in his body! Richard Jervis, sir, is insane. Even you must have seen how brooding and impulsive and ill-balanced his conduct was!'

'Yessir, but a man can be all those things and still not be lunatic'

'Fiddle-faddle!' said Lord William. 'Richard Jervis has the rage of a madman against the world. He might kill me, I suppose, for putting Jack Ransome over him.'

'Over him, sir?'

'Ain't it plain?' said Lord William more softly. 'Jack Ransome is his keeper. The little money that goes from me to Richard Jervis goes through Jack Ransome. Captain Jack don't get trusted with much but he's a power of attorney to Richard Jervis till the crack of doom.'

T was
'ired
to humour Mr Richard?' asked Verity, his plump face creased with incredulity.

'Something of that,' said Lord William gruffly. 'By God, had I been at Portman Square and not with the fleet, it should have been stopped.' He returned to his chair and sat, tapping his boot irritably with his cane.

'I shall 'ave to see Mr Richard just the same, sir,' said Verity gently, 'and ask the poor gentleman to explain his words to me.'

'He's in a strait-waistcoat,' said Lord William gruffly, 'committed to an insane asylum by Dr Jamieson and another physician. My family has suffered quite enough for Richard Jervis. Let the matter end there.'

'Don't alter facts, sir. With respect, sir.'

'Facts?' said Croaker, his face going a deeper yellow as he swallowed. 'Do I understand, sergeant, that in the name of your so-called facts you propose to interrogate a patient in an asylum?'

'Very sorry I am it should be so, sir. But I gotta be sure there ain't anything to what he says. Poor Mr Richard may not be a well gentleman. But he's still got his eyes and he swore that with them he saw murder done. Now, sir, murder was done all right. I gotta know what he saw. His reason may be touched but his eyes is clear.'

'Sergeant Verity,' said Croaker in a dry matter-of-fact tone which he reserved for giving orders, 'you are forbidden from making or attempting to make any contact with Mr Richard Jervis. If I hear that you have so much as tried to find where he has been committed, your dismissal from this force will follow the next day. Do I make myself clear?'

'Yessir. One thing to say, sir.'

'Yes, sergeant?'

'I was 'oping, sir, that me seeing poor Mr Richard might save Lord William and the family a deal of unpleasantness. Course, I can be forbidden from seeing him. But I can't be forbid from doing a citizen's duty, which is to go to the Westminster coroner and tell him what I know. There'd have to be a new inquest with poor Lord Henry disinterred. And then, of course, the newspapers must be full of it, morning and evening. You no idea, sir, how they like exhumations, though I never saw why.'

'I formally forbid you to reveal any of this to the coroner or anyone else!' said Croaker, his voice shrill and his eyes gleaming. 'Your oath of loyalty forbids it!'

'Couldn't say, sir. 'owever, I ain't the only one. There's Mr Rumer and a few others that knows it all. They ain't sworn oaths and might just as soon go to the coroner. The truth's out, sir, and had best be told.'

'I always thought,' said Croaker softly, 'that you would prove a scoundrel in the end!'

'Damned blackguard!' Lord William rose with cane in hand.

'Get out!' shrieked Croaker hastily. 'Get out of my sight!'

'Yessirl' Verity stamped about and marched out with a rolling, policeman's gait, half expecting to feel Lord William's cane on his shoulders as he withdrew.

He waited for reprisals, but when the noon watch paraded there had still been no sign of any. Inspector Swift beckoned him at the end of the parade.

'Superintendent Gowry's office for you, my lad. At once and smartly!'

Superintendent Gowry's room was on a higher level than that of the inspectors of 'A' Division in Whitehall Place, far above the smells of horse-dung and soot which pervaded the lower floors of the house so pungently. Go wry himself was an ex-cavalry captain and so a cut above Croaker, the former artillery lieutenant, in his origins. He was aged and whitened beyond his years but his manner was milder than Croaker's and he bore no particular ill-will towards Verity. As the sergeant entered, he looked up, brushed his white moustaches and waved away Inspector Swift. Verity came to attention.

'Sergeant Verity,' said Gowry, studying a sheet of paper. 'YessirP

Gowry looked up.

'You have been recommended to me, sergeant, for a particularly delicate undertaking which will require tact and judgment. I hope I may trust you to uphold the reputation of the division?'

"ope so, sir, I'm sure.'

'Inspector Croaker, who is an example to us all in the matter of methodical detection, has unearthed certain details concerning the death of the late Lord Henry Jervis. Frankly, sergeant, they point to the possibility of foul play.'

'Well I never, sir!'

'Unfortunately,' Gowry resumed, 'there appears to be no material witness. One such witness to the deed would make the case conclusive.'

'Sometimes 'appens like that, sir.'

'Quite, sergeant. However, Mr Croaker has devised a scheme of great ingenuity.' 'Yessir?'

Gowry brushed his moustaches again and allowed himself a smile of boyish pleasure.

'Yes, sergeant. Mr Richard Jervis, now sadly at Friern House Sanatorium, is the one witness whom a murderer would not expect the police to inter
view. The poor gentle
man may not be a competent witness in court but his eyes may confirm what Mr Croaker's other evidence suggests.'

'Indeed, sir,' said Verity impassively.

'Mr Croaker suggests that you be sent to interview Mr Richard Jervis, accompanied by Sergeant Samson and backed up by a warrant authorizing search of the premises at Friern House, in case you should be denied access to the gentleman. Your warrant will be signed by two justices and counter-signed by two commissioners in lunacy.'

Superintendent Gowry sat back with the smile of a man who has revealed his master-stroke.

'Yessir,' said Verity flatly.

Gowry shook his head.

'Ah, sergeant, there are too few officers who acquire the skill and energy of Mr Croaker, let them rise never so high in rank. Think yourself fortunate to serve directly under the command of such a man, sergeant, for no other form of instruction can equal it.'

'That's a fact, sir.'

'We can all learn so much, sergeant, from men of imagination.'

'Yessir. Even in me own way, sir, I'm learning from Mr Croaker all the time.'

Where the twopenny bus ended and the horses were taken from the shafts and watered at the trough, Verity and Samson began their walk. On the outskirts of the city, half-built streets of houses spread on either side across pleasant fields. Gas-lights had been placed at long intervals and the gravel of the unmade road crunched under the boots of the two sergeants as they started on the half-mile to the more spacious villas beyond Shepherds Bush, each set in its own grounds.

When they reached Friern House, the building was visible from the road, though it was well back from the handsome iron gates. In appearance, it was a large square mansion, built of red brick with stone facings and corners. A metal plate by the bell-pull was embossed w
ith the letters 'Ring and enter’
. Samson pulled the iron handle and pushed open the side gate intended for visitors on foot. As the two men walked up the driveway, Verity noticed that a porter in some kind of livery had appeared on the steps promptly as soon as the bell was rung. Scanning the facade of the house, he also saw that the row of garret windows had been almost entirely hidden behind a newly-erected stone balustrade.

'Funny,' said Samson, 'I'd a-thought they'd have more bars and things to stop the softies getting out and running wild all over the neighbourhood.'

Verity grunted and led the way up the steps.

'Sergeant Samson and Sergeant Verity to see Mr Richard Jervis,' he announced to the porter. 'We're expected.'

The wiry, grey-haired little man bowed them into a spacious hall, lined with antlers and polished armour, as though it had really been the suburban villa of a successful lawyer or bill-broker. They passed up the left-hand flight of the fine sweep of a double staircase, crossed a landing with folding doors at one end of it and entered a finely furnished drawing-room which was partially darkened by Venetian blinds. The porter turned to Verity.

'If you'll have the goodness to be seated, gentlemen, I'll see Sister Liddell acquainted with your being here.'