CHAPTER XXXIII
An hour after the trial Crewe entered the chambers of Mr. Walters, K.C.
"I congratulate you on the way you handled him in the witness-box," saidCrewe, who was warmly welcomed by the barrister. "You did splendidly toget it all out of him--and so dramatically too."
"I think it is you who deserves all the congratulations," repliedWalters. "If it had not been for you there would not have been such asensational development at the trial and in all probability Kemp'sevidence would have got Holymead off."
"Yes, I'm glad to think that Holymead would have got off even if I hadn'tseen through Kemp," replied Crewe thoughtfully. "I made a bad mistake inbeing so confident that he was the guilty man."
"The completeness of the circumstantial evidence against him wasextraordinary," said Walters, to whom the legal aspects of the caseappealed. "Personally I am inclined to blame Holymead himself for thepredicament in which he was placed. If he had gone to the police afterthe murder was discovered, told them the story of his visit to Sir Horacethat night, and invited investigation into the truth of it, all wouldhave been well."
"No," said Crewe in a voice which indicated a determination not to havehimself absolved at the expense of another. "The fact that he did not dowhat he ought to have done does not mitigate my sin of having had thewrong man arrested. The mistake I made was in not going to see him beforethe warrant was taken out. If I had had a quiet talk with him I think Iwould have been able to discover a flaw in my case against him. Whatmade me confident it was flawless was the fact that both his wife and herFrench cousin believed him to be guilty. Mademoiselle Chiron followedHolymead from the country on the 18th of August with the intention ofaverting a tragedy. She arrived at Riversbrook too late for that, but intime to see Sir Horace expire, and naturally she thought that Holymeadhad shot him. When Mrs. Holymead realised that I also suspected herhusband and had accumulated some evidence against him, she sentMademoiselle Chiron to me with a concocted story of how the murder hadbeen committed by a more or less mythical husband belonging toMademoiselle's past. Ostensibly the reason for the visit of thisextremely clever French girl was to induce me to deal with Rolfe, who hadbegun to suspect Mrs. Holymead of some complicity in the crime; but thereal reason was to convince me that I was on the wrong track insuspecting Holymead. Of course she said nothing to me on that point. Sheproduced evidence which convinced me that she was in the room when SirHorace died, and, as I was quite sure that she believed Holymead to beguilty, I felt that there could be no doubt whatever of his guilt."
"It is one of the most extraordinary cases on record--one of the mostextraordinary trials," said Walters. "You blame yourself for having hadHolymead arrested but you have more than redeemed yourself by the finaldiscovery when Kemp was in the witness-box that he was the guilty man.That was an inspiration."
"Hardly that," said Crewe with a smile. "I knew when he swore that he hadseen Sir Horace leaning out of the library window that he was lying.After the murder was discovered I inspected the house and groundscarefully, and one of the first things of which I took a mental note wasthe fact that the foliage of the chestnut-tree completely hid the onlywindow of the library."
"Ah, but there is a difference between knowing Kemp was committingperjury and knowing that he was the guilty man."
"There is at least a distinct connection between the two facts," saidCrewe, who after his mistake in regard to Holymead was reluctant toaccept any praise. "Kemp's description of the way in which Sir Horace wasdressed showed that he had seen him. The inference that Kemp had beeninside the house was irresistible. Sir Horace had arrived home at 7o'clock and it was not likely that Kemp would hang about Riversbrook--thescene of a prospective burglary--until after dark, which at that time ofthe year would be about 8.30. He must have seen Sir Horace after dark,and in order to be able to say how the judge was dressed he must haveseen him at close quarters. The rest was a matter of simple deduction.Kemp inside the house listening to the angry interview between Holymeadand Fewbanks--Kemp with his hatred of the judge who had killed hisdaughter in the dock and with his desire to do Holymead a good turn--Ihad previously had proof of that from my boy Joe, whom you have seen.Besides Kemp fitted into my reconstruction of the tragedy on the vitalquestion of time. How long did Sir Horace live after being shot? Themedical opinions I was able to obtain on the point varied, but aftersifting them I came to the conclusion that though he might have lived forhalf an hour, it was more probable that he had died within ten minutes ofbeing hit."
"How is that vital?" asked Walters, who was keenly interested inunderstanding how Crewe had arrived at his conviction of Kemp's guilt.
"Holymead's appointment with Sir Horace at Riversbrook was for 9.30 p.m.The letter found in Sir Horace's pocket-book fixed that time. It wasexactly 11 p.m. when he got into a taxi at Hyde Park Corner after hisvisit to Riversbrook. On that point the driver of the taxi was absolutelycertain. I was so anxious for him to make it 11.30 that I went to see himtwice about it. Assuming that Holymead arrived at Riversbrook at 9.30, Iallowed half an hour for his angry interview with Sir Horace, half anhour for the walk from Riversbrook to Hampstead Tube station, and half anhour for the journey from Hampstead to Hyde Park Corner, which would haveinvolved a change at Leicester Square. As I could not induce the driverof the taxi to make Holymead's appearance at Hyde Park Corner 11.30instead of 11, I had to admit that Holymead must have left Riversbrook at10. But it was 10.30 according to Mademoiselle Chiron when she found SirHorace dying on the floor of the library. Therefore if Holymead did theshooting, the victim's death agonies must have lasted half an hour ormore. Medically that was not impossible, but somewhat improbable. But ameeting between Kemp and Sir Horace after Holymead had gone filled in theblank in time. That came home to me yesterday when Kemp was in thewitness-box committing perjury in his determination to get Holymead off.I take it that the interview between Kemp and his victim lasted about 20minutes. Therefore Sir Horace was shot about 10.20; certainly before10.30, for Mademoiselle heard no shots while nearing the house."
"You have worked it out very ingeniously," said Walters. "You must findthe work of crime detection very fascinating. I am afraid that if I hadbeen in your place--that is if I had known as much about the tragedy asyou do--when Kemp was in the witness-box yesterday, I would not have seenanything more in his evidence than the fact that he was committingperjury in order to help Holymead."
"I think you would," said Crewe. "These discoveries come to one naturallyas the result of training one's mind in a particular direction."
"They come to you, but they wouldn't come to me," said Walters with asmile. "But do you think Kemp's story of how Sir Horace was shot isliterally true? Do you think Sir Horace got in the first shot and thentried to fire again? If that is so, I don't see how they can hope toconvict Kemp of murder--a jury would not go beyond a verdict ofmanslaughter in such a case."
"You handled Kemp so well that he was too excited to tell anything butthe truth," said Crewe. "Sir Horace fired first and missed--the bulletwhich Chippenfield removed from the wall of the library shows that--andhe pulled the trigger again but the cartridge which had been in therevolver for a considerable time, probably for years, missed fire. Hereis a silent witness to the truth of that part of Kemp's story."
Crewe produced from a waistcoat pocket one of the four cartridges he hadremoved from the revolver Mademoiselle Chiron had handed to him and heplaced it on the table. On the cap of the cartridge was a mark where thehammer had struck without exploding the powder.
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