CHAPTER XXXII
THE CONFESSION (_Continued_)
"In Geneva Square, Pimlico, I found the house I wanted. It was No. 13,and was said to be haunted, as cries had been heard in it at night, andlights had been seen flitting from window to window when no one was inthe house. I looked at it without entering, or calling on the landlord,and then I went into Jersey Street to see the back. The house in thesame section with it was kept by a Mrs. Bensusan, who took in lodgers.Her rooms were vacant, and as it suited me very well that I should be aneighbour to Clear, I took the rooms. They proved--as I shallexplain--better for our purpose than I was aware of.
"When I told Ferruci of my discovery, he gave Clear money and made himhire the house and furnish two rooms for himself. I supplied the money.In this way Clear, calling himself Berwin, which was the name of Vrain'shouse in the country, came to live in Pimlico. We also removed the realVrain to Mrs. Clear's at Bayswater, and he passed as her husband. Soweak were his brains, and so cowed was his spirit, that there was nodifficulty in keeping him in the house, and the neighbours were toldmerely that Clear was ill.
"For my part, I took up my abode in Jersey Street under the name ofWrent, and met Clear outside on occasions when it was necessary for meto see him; but I never entered the house--for obvious reasons.
"I was constantly afraid lest Clear, in his drunken fits--for he wasalways more or less drunk--should reveal our secret, and I took as mybedroom an apartment in Mrs. Bensusan's out of the window of which Icould overlook the back of No. 13. One night, when I was watching, I sawa dark figure glide into Mrs. Bensusan's yard and climb over the fence,only to disappear. I was terribly alarmed, and wondering what was wrong,I put on my clothes and hurried downstairs into the yard. Also I climbedover the fence into the yard of No. 13. Here I could not see where thefigure had disappeared to, as the doors and windows at the back of thehouse were all locked. I could not conjecture who the woman was--for itwas a woman I saw--who had entered, or why she had done so, or in whatway she had gained admission.
"While I was thus thinking I saw the woman again. She apparently roseout of the earth, and after closing what appeared to be a trap-door, shemade for the fence. I stopped her before she got there, and found to mysurprise that she was a red-headed servant of Mrs. Bensusan's--a kind ofgypsy, very clever, and--I think--with much evil in her. She wasalarmed at being discovered, and begged me not to tell on her. For myown sake, I promised not to do so, but made her explain how she got intothe house, and why she entered it. Then she told me an extraordinarytale.
"For some years, she said, she had been with Mrs. Bensusan, who hadtaken her from the gypsies to civilise her, and hating the restraint ofcivilised life, she had been in the habit of roaming about at night.Knowing that the house at the back was unoccupied, this Rhoda--for thatis her name--climbed over the fence and tried to get into it, but foundthe doors and windows bolted and barred.
"Then one night she saw a kind of grated window amid the grass, and asthis proved not to be bolted, she pulled it open. Taking a candle withher, she went on a voyage of discovery, and dropped through this holesome distance into a disused cellar. Only a cat could have got insafely, for the height was considerable; and, indeed, Rhoda did not riskthat mode of entrance again, for, finding a ladder in the cellar, which,I presume, had been used to get at the higher bins of wine, she placedthis against the aperture, and thus was enabled to ascend and descendwithout difficulty. Frequently by this means she entered the emptyhouse, and went from room to room with her candle, singing gypsy songsas she wandered. So here I had found the ghost of No. 13, although Idon't suppose this impish gypsy girl knew as much. She haunted thehouse just to amuse herself, when fat Mrs. Bensusan thought she wassafe in bed.
"I asked Rhoda why she had entered the house on that particular nightwhen I had caught her. She confessed that she had seen some articles ofsilver in Clear's rooms which she wished to steal; but on this occasionhe had locked the door--a thing which he did not always do in hisdrunken humours--and so Rhoda was returning disappointed. After thisconfession I made her go back to her own house and promised to keep hersecret. I also told her that if she held her tongue I would give her apresent. For this purpose I made Ferruci buy me a cloak lined withrabbit skins, as Rhoda on her night excursions wanted something to keepher warm. When Ferruci gave it to me, and it was lying in my room, Mrs.Clear came one night to see me, and finding it cold, she borrowed thecloak to wrap round her. She kept it for some time, and brought it backon Christmas Eve, when I gave it next day to Rhoda. It was Ferruci whobought the cloak, not I; and it was purchased for Rhoda, not for Mrs.Clear.
"The next night I entered No. 13 by the cellarway, and found it of greatadvantage, as I could visit Clear without exciting suspicion, and sokeep an eye on him. At first he was alarmed by my unexpected appearance,but when I showed him the secret way, he made use of it also. We used itonly on dark nights, and it was for this reason that we were not noticedby the neighbours. It would never have done for any one of us to beseen climbing over the fence. Mrs. Clear once visited her husband, andhad a quarrel with him about his drinking. It was her shadow and Clear'swhich Denzil saw on the blind. As soon as they heard his ring they bothwent out the back way, and in climbing hurriedly over the fence Mrs.Clear tore her veil. It was a portion of this which Denzil found.
"On that night, Clear, after leaving his wife, entered the square by thefront, and so met with Denzil, much to the latter's surprise. I was veryangry when Clear showed Denzil over the house; but he said that theyoung man was very suspicious, and he only showed him the house to provethat there was no one in it, and that he must have been mistaken aboutthe shadows on the blind. Notwithstanding this explanation, I did notapprove of Clear's act, nor, indeed, of his acquaintance with Denzil.
"For some months matters went on in this way. Clear remained in theSilent House, drinking himself to death; Mrs. Clear looked after Vrainin her Bayswater house; and I, in my old-man disguise, remained inJersey Street, although at times I left there and went to see mydaughter. All this time Lydia had no idea of what we were preparing.Then I began to grow wearied of the position, for Clear proved tougherthan we anticipated, and showed no signs of dying. In despair, I thoughtI would give him the means to kill himself.
"Mind, I did not wish to murder him myself; but the man, when in hisdrinking fits, thought he was attacked by enemies, and when in amelancholic frame of mind, on recovery, would frequently hint atsuicide. I therefore thought that if a weapon were left within his reachhe might kill himself. I don't defend my conduct in this case, butsurely this drunken scoundrel was better dead than alive. In choosing aweapon, I wished to select one that would implicate Ferruci rather thanmyself, in case there was any trouble over the matter; so I chose for mypurpose a stiletto which hung by a parti-coloured ribbon on the walls ofthe library at Berwin Manor. I fancied that the stiletto, having beenbought in Florence, and Ferruci coming from Florence, he, ifanyone--should any of these facts come to light--would be credited withgiving it to Clear.
"I took this stiletto from Berwin Manor some time before Christmas, and,bringing it up to town, I left it, on the day before Christmas, on thetable in Clear's sitting-room. That was at nine o'clock in the night,and that was when I last saw him alive. Who killed him I know no morethan any one else.
"On Christmas Eve I was ill, and wrote to Lydia to come up. She met meat the Pegalls', but as I felt ill, I left there at six o'clock, andLydia stayed with the family all night. At seven o'clock Mrs. Clear cameto me with Ferruci, and brought back the cloak which I gave afterwardsto Rhoda. She wanted to see her husband again, but I refused to let herrisk the visit. Ferruci came to tell me that he was arranging to placeVrain--who was becoming too violent to be restrained--in the privateasylum of Dr. Jorce, at Hampstead. Mrs. Clear was to go with him, and weconversed about the matter.
"Ferruci went away first, as he desired to see Clear, and for thatpurpose waited about until it was darker, and went into the back yardshortly after eight o'clo
ck. There he was seen by Rhoda as he was aboutto climb the fence, and, not knowing it was the girl, he took fright andran out of the yard into Jersey Street. Here he found Mrs. Clear, whohad left me and was waiting for him, and the pair went off to see Dr.Jorce at Hampstead. I believe they remained there all night.
"Left alone, I climbed over the fence about nine o'clock, and saw Clear.He was celebrating Christmas Eve by drinking heavily, and I was unableto bring him to reason. I therefore left the stiletto which I hadbrought with me on the table, and returned to my house in Jersey Street.I never saw him alive again. I went to bed and slept all night, so I wasaware of nothing in connection with the death until late on ChristmasDay. Then Mrs. Bensusan was told by Miss Greeb, the landlady of Denzil,that the tenant of No. 13 had been murdered. I fancied that he hadkilled himself in a fit of melancholia, with the stiletto I had left onhis table; but I did not dare to go near the house to find this out.
"Afterwards I learned that the doctor who examined the body was of theopinion that Clear had been murdered; and, being afraid about the policetaking up the case, I paid Mrs. Bensusan a week's rent and left herhouse two days after Christmas. I returned to Berwin Manor, and shortlyafterwards Ferruci joined me there, as he had successfully incarceratedVrain in the asylum under the name of Michael Clear.
"When the advertisement came out, it was I who hinted to Lydia that thedead man--seeing that he was called Berwin--might be her husband. Wewent up to town: Lydia identified the body of Clear as her husband inall innocence--for after death the man looked more like Vrain than ever;and in due time the assurance money was obtained.
"I do not think there is anything more to tell, save that I did not knowthat Mrs. Clear had betrayed me. I could not pay her the money, as Icould not get it from Lydia. I told Lydia I was going to Paris, but inreality I was hunting for Rhoda, who had run away from Jersey Street. Ifancied she might betray us, and wished to make things safe with her.Before I found her, however, I saw in the papers that Ferruci hadcommitted suicide; also that Lydia--who had gone to Dover to meet me,thinking I was returning from Paris--had been arrested. Then I saw Mrs.Clear's advertisement saying she would betray me if I did not pay themoney. I consented to meet her in order to implore her silence, and sofell into the clutches of the law.
"I may state that I did not kill Clear, as I never saw him after nineo'clock, and then he was alive. In spite of what the doctor said, I amstill inclined to think he killed himself. Now I have made a cleanbreast of it--I am willing to be punished; but I hope Lydia will be setfree, for whosoever is guilty, she is innocent. I have been an unluckyman, and I remain one at this moment when I sign myself for the lasttime, JABEZ CLYNE."
* * * * *
Needless to say, both Link and Denzil were greatly surprised at thisconfession, which revealed all things save the one they wished to know.
"What do you think of this idea of suicide?" asked Lucian.
"It is quite out of the question," replied the detective decidedly. "Thedoctor who examined the body said that it was impossible the man couldhave committed suicide. The position of the wound shows that; also thepower of the stroke. No man could drive a stiletto so dexterously andstrongly into the heart. Also the room was in confusion, which points toa struggle, and the stiletto is missing. It was not suicide, but murder,and I believe either Clyne or Ferruci killed the man."
"But Ferruci was not----"
"He was not there after ten," interrupted Link, "but he was there abouteight. I dare say when Rhoda saw him he was coming back after havingcommitted the deed, and Clyne says the stiletto was not there at thetime just to screen him."
"It is of little use to screen the dead," said Lucian. "I think only oneperson can tell the truth about this murder, and that is Rhoda."
"I'm looking for her, Mr. Denzil."
This was easy saying, but harder doing, for weeks passed away, and inspite of all the efforts of the police Rhoda could not be found. Thenone morning the detective, much excited, burst into Lucian's roomswaving a paper over his head.
"A confession!" he cried. "Another confession!"
"Of whom?" asked Lucian, surprised.
"Of Rhoda!" replied Link excitedly. "She has confessed! It was Rhoda whokilled Michael Clear!"