Death at the Inn - ebook

Contents

PART I

THE GAMBLER: NARRATED BY ROBERT MORTIMER

I. THE MAN IN THE PORCH

II. JOHN GILLUM

III. THE GAMING HOUSE

IV. ABEL WEBB, DECEASED

V. CLIFFORD’S INN

VI. THE PASSING OF JOHN GILLUM

VII. THE CORONER’S INQUEST

PART II

THE CASE OF JOHN GILLUM, DECEASED: NARRATED BY CHRISTOPHER JERVIS, M.D.

VIII. IS THERE A CASE?

IX. THE EMPTY NEST

X. MR. WEECH DISAPPROVES

XI. A FRESH PUZZLE

XII. THE PURSUIT OF DR. PECK

XIII. DR. AUGUSTUS PECK

XIV. FURTHER EXPLORATIONS

XV. SERMONS IN DUST

XVI. THE DISCLOSURE

XVII. A SYMPOSIUM

XVIII. CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE

XIX. RE-ENTER MR. SNUPER

XX. EPILOGUEPART I

THE GAMBLER: NARRATED BY ROBERT MORTIMER

I. THE MAN IN THE PORCH

THERE is something almost uncanny in the transformation which falls upon the City of London when all the offices are closed and their denizens have departed to their suburban homes. Throughout the working hours of the working days, the streets resound with the roar of traffic and the pavements are packed with a seething, hurrying multitude. But when the evening closes in, a strange quiet descends upon the streets, and the silent, deserted by-ways take on the semblance of thoroughfares in some city of the dead.

The mention of by-ways reminds me of another characteristic of this part of London. Modern, commonplace, and dull as is the aspect of the main streets, in the areas behind and between them are hidden innumerable quaint and curious survivals from the past; antique taverns lurking in queer, crooked alleys and little scraps of ancient churchyards, green with the grass that sprang up afresh amidst the ashes of the Great Fire.

With one of these curious “hinterlands”–an area bounded by Cornhill, Gracechurch Street, Lombard Street, and Birchin Lane, and intersected by a maze of courts and alleys–I became intimately acquainted, since I usually crossed it at least twice a day going to and from the branch of Perkins’s Bank at which I was employed as a cashier. For the sake of change and interest, I varied my route from day to day–all the alleys communicated and one served as well as another–but the one that I favoured most was the very unfrequented passage which took me through the tiny churchyard of St. Michael’s. I think the place appealed to me specially because somewhere under the turf reposes old Thomas Stow, grandfather of the famous John, laid here in the year 1527 according to his wish “to be buried in the litell Grene Churchyard of the Parysshe Church of Seynt Myghel in Cornehyll, betwene the Crosse and the Church Wall, nigh the wall as may be.” Many a time, as I passed along the paved walk, had I tried to locate his grave; but the Great Fire must have made an end of both Cross and wall.

I have referred thus particularly to this “haunt of ancient peace” because it was there, on an autumn even in the year 1929, that there befell the adventure that has set me to the writing of this narrative; an adventure which, for me, changed the scene in a mom from a haunt of peace to a place of gruesome and tragic memories.

It was close upon eight o’clock when I emerged from the bank and started rather wearily on my way homeward. It had been a long day, for there had been various arrears to dispose of which had kept us hard at work hours after the bank had closed its doors; and it had been a dull, depressing day, for the sky had been so densely overcast that no single gleam of sunlight had been able to break through, and we had perforce kept the lamps alight all day. Even now, as I came out and shut the door behind me, twilight seemed to have descended on the City, though the sun had barely set and it was not yet time for the street lamps to be lit.

I stood for a moment looking up the gloomy, twilit street, hesitating as to which way to go. Our branch was in Gracechurch Street close to the corner of Lombard Street, and both thoroughfares were equally convenient. Eventually, I chose Gracechurch Street, and, crossing to the west side, walked up it until I came to the little opening of Bell Yard. Turning into the dark entry, I trudged up the narrow passage, cogitating rather vaguely and wishing that I had provided some thing better than the scanty cold supper that I knew awaited me at my lodgings. But I was tired and chilly and empty; I had not had enough food during the day, owing to the pressure of work; so that the needs of the body tended to assert themselves to the exclusion of more elevated thoughts.

At the top of the yard I turned into the little tunnel-like covered passage that led through into Castle Court and brought me out by the railings of the churchyard. Skirting them, I went on to the entrance to the paved walk and passed in up a couple of steps and through the open gateway, noting that even “the litell Grene Churchyard” looked dull and drab under the lowering sky and that lights were twinkling in the office windows beyond the grass plot and in those of the tavern at the side.

At the end of the paved walk is a long flower-bed against the wall of St. Michael’s Church, and, just short of this, the arched entrance to another tunnel-like covered passage into which, near its middle, the deep south porch of the church opens. I was about to step down into the passage–which is below the level of the churchyard–when I noticed a hatlying on the flower-bed close up in the corner. It lay crown downwards with its silk lining exposed, and, as it appeared to be in perfectly good condition, I picked it up to examine it. It was quite a good hat; a grey soft felt, nearly new, and the initials A. W., legibly written on the white lining, suggested that the owner had set some value on it. But where was the owner? And how on earth came this hat to belying abandoned by the wayside? A man may drop a glove or a handkerchief or a tobacco pouch and be unaware of his loss; but surely the most absent-minded of men could hardly lose his hat without noticing the fact. And then the further question arose: what does one do with a derelict hat? Of course, I could have dropped it where I had found it; but from this my natural thriftiness and responsibility revolted. It was too good a hat to have been casually flung away by its owner, and, since Fate had appointed me its custodian, the duty seemed to devolve on me to restore it.

I stood for a few moments holding the hat and looking through the dark passage at the shape of light at the farther end, but no one was in sight; and I now recalled that I had not met a soul since I entered Bell Yard from Gracechurch Street. Still wondering how I should set about discovering the owner of the hat, I stepped down into the passage and began to walk along it; but when I reached the middle and came opposite the church porch, my problem seemed to solve itself in a rather startling fashion; for, glancing into the porch, I saw, dimly but quite distinctly in its shadowy depths, a man sitting on the lowest of the three steps that lead up to the church door. He was leaning back against the jamb limply and helplessly as if he were asleep or, more probably, drunk, the latter probability being rather confirmed by a stout walking-stick with a large ivory knob, which had fallen beside him, and what looked like a rimless eyeglass which lay on the stone floor between his feet. But what was more to my present purpose was the fact that not only was he bare-headed, but that no hat was visible. This, then, was doubtless the owner of the derelict.

Holding the latter conspicuously, I stepped into the cavern-like porch, and, addressing the man in a rather loud tone, enquired whether he had lost a hat. As he made no reply or any sign of having heard me, I was disposed to lay the hat down by his side and retire, when it occurred to me that he might possibly have had some kind of fit or seizure. On this I approached closer, and, stooping over him, listened for the sound of his breathing. But I could hear nothing nor could I make out any movement of his chest.

As he was sitting, or sprawling, with his legs spread out, his shoulders supported by the jamb of the door and his head drooping forward on his chest, his face was almost hidden from me. But I now knelt down beside him, and, taking my petrol lighter from my pocket, held it close to his face. And then, as the gleam of the flame fell on him, I sprang up with a gasp of horror. The man’s eyes were wide open, staring before him with an intensity that was in hideous contrast to his limp and passive posture. And the face was unmistakably the face of a dead man.

Dropping the hat by his side, I ran through the passage into St. Michael’s Alley and down this to Cornhill. At the entrance to the alley I stood for a moment looking up and down the street. In the distance, near the Royal Exchange, I could see a white-sleeved policeman directing the traffic, and I was about to start off towards him when, glancing eastward, I saw a constable approaching along the pavement. At once I hurried away in his direction and we met nearly opposite St. Peter’s Church. A few words conveyed my information and secured his very complete attention. “A dead man, you say. Whereabouts did you see him?”

“He islying in the south porch of St. Michael’s Church, just up the alley.”

“Well,” said he, “you had better come along and show me”; and without further parley he started forward with long, swinging strides that gave me some trouble to keep up with him. Back along Cornhill we went and up the alley until we came to the arched entrance to the passage, and here the constable produced his lantern and switched on the light. As we came opposite the porch and my companion threw a beam of light into it, the cave-like interior was rendered clearly visible with the dead man sitting, or reclining, just as I had left him.

“Yes,” said the constable, “there don’t seem to be much doubt about his being dead.” Nevertheless, he put his ear close to the man’s face, raising the head gently, and felt for the pulse at the wrist. Then he stood up and looked at me.

“I’d better get on the phone,” said he, “and report to the station. They’ll have to send an ambulance to take him to the mortuary. Will you stay here until I come back? I shan’t be more than a minute or two.”

Without waiting for an answer, he strode out of the passage and disappeared down the alley, leaving me to pace up and down in the gathering gloom or to stand and gaze out on the darkening churchyard. It was a dismal business, and very disturbing to the nerves I found it; for I am rather sensitive to horrors of any kind, and, being now tired and physically exhausted, I was more than ordinarily susceptible. I had suffered a severe shock, and its effect was still with me as I kept my vigil, now glancing with horrid fascination at the shadowy figure in the dark porch, and now stealing away to the entrance to be out of sight of it. Once, a man came in from the offices across the churchyard, but he hurried through into the alley, brushing past me and all unaware of that dim and ghostly presence.

After the lapse of two or three incredibly long minutes the constable reappeared, and, almost at the moment of his arrival, the lights were switched on and a lamp in the vault of the passage exactly opposite the porch threw a bright light on the dead man.

“Ah!” the officer commented cheerfully, “that’s better. Now we can see what we are about.” He stepped up to the body, and, stooping over it, cast the light from his lantern on the step behind it.

“There’s something there on the stone step,” he remarked; “some broken glass and some metal things. I can’t quite see what they are, but we’d better not meddle with them until the people from the station arrive. But while we are waiting for the ambulance I’ll just jot down a few particulars.” He produced a large note-book, and, taking an attentive look at me, added: “We’ll begin with your name, address and occupation.”

I gave him these, and he then enquired how I came to discover the body. I had not much to tell, but, such as my story was, he wrote it down verbatim in his note book and made me show him the exact spot where I had found the hat; of which spot he entered a description in his book. When he had completed his notes, he read out to me what he had written; and on my confirming its correctness, he handed me his pencil and asked me to add my signature.

He had just returned the note-book to his pocket when an inspector appeared at the alley entrance of the passage, closely followed by two constables carrying a stretcher and one or two idlers who had probably been attracted by the ambulance. The inspector walked briskly up to the porch, and, having cast a quick glance at the dead man, turned to the constable.

“I suppose,” said he, “you have got all the particulars. Which is the man who discovered the body?”

“This is the gentlemen, sir,” the constable replied, introducing me; “Mr. Robert Mortimer; and this is his statement.”

He produced his note-book and presented it, open, to his superior; who stood under the lamp and ran his eye over the statement.

“Yes,” he when he had finished reading and returned the book to its owner, “that’s all right. Not much in it except the hat. Just show me where you found it.”

I conducted him up into the churchyard and pointed out the corner of the flower-bed where the hat had beenlying. He looked at it attentively and then glanced down the passage, remarking that the dead man had apparently come down from Castle Court. “By the way,” he added, “I suppose you don’t recognise him?”

“No,” I replied, “he is a total stranger to me.”

“Ah, well,” said he, “I expect we shall be able to find out who he is in time for the inquest.”

His reference to the inquest prompted mc to ask if I should be wanted to give evidence.

“Certainly,” he replied. “You haven’t much to tell, but the little that you have may be important.”

We were now back at the porch, on the floor of which the stretcher had been placed. At a word from the inspector the two bearers lifted the corpse on to it, and, having laid the hat on the body and covered it with a waterproof sheet, grasped the handles of the stretcher, stood up, and marched away with their burden, followed by the spectators.

The raising of the body had brought into view the objects which the constable had observed and which now appeared to be the fragments of a broken hypodermic syringe. These the inspector collected with scrupulous care, spreading his handkerchief on the upper step to receive them and picking up even the minute splinters of glass that had scattered when the syringe was dropped. When he had gathered up every particle that was visible, and taken up some drops of moisture with a piece of blotting-paper, he made his collection into a neat parcel and put it in his pocket. Then he cast a rapid but searching glance over the floor and walls of the porch, and, apparently observing nothing worth noting, began to walk towards the alley.

“I wonder,” he said as we turned into it and came in sight of the waiting ambulance, “how long that poor fellow had beenlying there when you first saw him. Not very long, I should say. Couldn’t have been. Somebody must have noticed him. However, I expect the doctor will be able to tell us how long he has been dead. And you had better note down all that you can remember of the circumstances so that you can be clear about it at the inquest.”

Here we came out into Cornhill, where the ambulance had been drawn up opposite the church, and the inspector, having wished me “good night,” pushed his way through the considerable crowd that had collected and took his place in the ambulance beside the driver. Just as the vehicle was moving away and I was about to do the same, a voice from behind me enquired:

“What’s the excitement? Motor accident?”

I seemed to recognise the voice, which had a slight Scottish intonation, and when I turned to answer I recognised the speaker. He was a Mr. Gillum, one of the bank’s customers with whom I had often done business.

“No,” I replied, “I don’t know what it was, but the dead man looked perfectly horrible. I can’t get his face out of my mind.”

“Oh, but that won’t do,” said Gillum. “It has given you a bad shake up, but you’ve got to try to forget it.”

“I know,” said I, “but just now I’m rather upset. This affair caught me at the wrong time, after a long, tiring day.”

“Yes,” he agreed, “you do look a bit pale and shaky. Better come along with me and have a drink. That will steady your nerves.”

“I am rather afraid of drinks at the moment,” said I. “You see, I have had a long day and not very much in the way of food.”

“Ah!” said he, “there you are. Horrors on an empty stomach. That’s all wrong, you know. Now I’m going to prescribe for you. You will just come and have a bit of dinner and a bottle of wine with me. That will set you up and will give me the great pleasure of your society.”

Now I must admit that a bit of dinner and a bottle of wine sounded gratefully in my ears, but I was reluct ant to accept hospitality which my means did not admit conveniently of my returning. A somewhat extravagant taste in books absorbed the surplus of my modest income and left me rather short of pocket-money. However, Gillum would take no denial. Probably he grasped the position completely. At any rate, he brushed aside my half-hearted refusal without ceremony and, even while I was protesting, he hailed a prowling taxi, opened the door and bundled me in. I heard him give the address of a restaurant in Old Compton Street. Then he got in beside me and slammed the door.

“Now,” said he, as the taxi trundled off, “for ‘the gay and festive scenes and halls of dazzling light’; and oblivion to the demmed unpleasant body.”