And Then There Were None (10 page)

‘I suppose I’d better explain again.’

He did so, telling the story briefly and succinctly.

Blore said sharply:

‘What’s to prove it? There’s nothing to corroborate your story.’

The judge coughed.

‘Unfortunately,’ he said, ‘we are all in that position. There is only our own word to go upon.’

He leaned forward.

‘You have none of you yet grasped what a very peculiar situation this is. To my mind there is only one course of procedure to adopt. Is there any one whom we can definitely eliminate from suspicion on the evidence which is in our possession?’

Dr Armstrong said quickly:

‘I, am a well-known professional man. The mere idea that I can be suspected of—’

Again a gesture of the judge’s hand arrested a speaker before he finished his speech. Mr Justice Wargrave said in his small clear voice:

‘I too, am a well-known person! But, my dear sir, that proves less than nothing! Doctors have gone mad before now. Judges have gone mad. So,’ he added, looking at Blore, ‘have policemen!’

Lombard said:

‘At any rate, I suppose you’ll leave the women out of it.’

The judge’s eyebrows rose. He said in the famous ‘acid’ tones that Counsel knew so well:

‘Do I understand you to assert that women are not subject to homicidal mania?’

Lombard said irritably:

‘Of course not. But all the same, it hardly seems possible—’

He stopped. Mr Justice Wargrave still in the same thin sour voice addressed Armstrong.

‘I take it, Dr Armstrong, that a woman would have been physically capable of striking the blow that killed poor Macarthur?’

The doctor said calmly:

‘Perfectly capable—given a suitable instrument, such as a rubber truncheon or cosh.’

‘It would require no undue exertion of force?’

‘Not at all.’

Mr Justice Wargrave wriggled his tortoise-like neck. He said:

‘The other two deaths have resulted from the administration of drugs. That, no one will dispute, is easily compassed by a person of the smallest physical strength.’

Vera cried angrily:

‘I think you’re mad!’

His eyes turned slowly till they rested on her. It was the dispassionate stare of a man well used to weighing humanity in the balance. She thought:

‘He’s just seeing me as a—as a specimen. And—’ the thought came to her with real surprise, ‘he doesn’t like me much!’

In a measured tone the judge was saying:

‘My dear young lady, do try and restrain your feelings. I am not accusing you.’ He bowed to Miss Brent. ‘I hope, Miss Brent, that you are not offended by my insistence that
all
of us are equally under suspicion?’

Emily Brent was knitting. She did not look up. In a cold voice she said:

‘The idea that I should be accused of taking a fellow creature’s life—not to speak of the lives of
three
fellow creatures—is of course, quite absurd to any one who knows anything of my character. But I quite appreciate the fact that we are all strangers to one another and that, in those circumstances, nobody can be exonerated without the fullest proof. There is, as I have said, a devil amongst us.’

The judge said:

‘Then we are agreed. There can be no elimination on the ground of character or position alone.’

Lombard said: ‘What about Rogers?’

The judge looked at him unblinkingly.

‘What about him?’

Lombard said:

‘Well, to my mind, Rogers seems pretty well ruled out.’

Mr Justice Wargrave said:

‘Indeed, and on what grounds?’

Lombard said:

‘He hasn’t got the brains for one thing. And for another his wife was one of the victims.’

The judge’s heavy eyebrows rose once more. He said:

‘In my time, young man, several people have come
before me accused of the murders of their wives—
and
have been found guilty.’

‘Oh! I agree. Wife murder is perfectly possible—almost natural, let’s say! But not this particular kind! I can believe in Rogers killing his wife because he was scared of her breaking down and giving him away, or because he’d taken a dislike to her, or because he wanted to link up with some nice little bit rather less long in the tooth. But I can’t see him as the lunatic Mr Owen dealing out crazy justice and starting on his own wife for a crime they both committed.’

Mr Justice Wargrave said:

‘You are assuming hearsay to be evidence. We do not know that Rogers and his wife conspired to murder their employer. That may have been a false statement, made so that Rogers should appear to be in the same position as ourselves. Mrs Rogers’ terror last night may have been due to the fact that she realized her husband was mentally unhinged.’

Lombard said:

‘Well, have it your own way. U. N. Owen is one of us. No exceptions allowed. We all qualify.’

Mr Justice Wargrave said:

‘My point is that there can be no exceptions allowed on the score of
character
,
position
, or
probability
. What we must now examine is the possibility of eliminating one or more persons on the
facts
. To put it simply, is
there among us one or more persons who could not possibly have administered either cyanide to Anthony Marston, or an overdose of sleeping draught to Mrs Rogers, and who had no opportunity of striking the blow that killed General Macarthur?’

Blore’s rather heavy face lit up. He leant forward.

‘Now you’re talking, sir!’ he said. ‘That’s the stuff! Let’s go into it. As regards young Marston I don’t think there’s anything to be done. It’s already been suggested that someone from outside slipped something into the dregs of his glass before he refilled it for the last time. A person actually in the room could have done that even more easily. I can’t remember if Rogers was in the room, but any of the rest of us could certainly have done it.’

He paused, then went on:

‘Now take the woman Rogers. The people who stand out there are her husband and the doctor. Either of them could have done it as easy as winking—’

Armstrong sprang to his feet. He was trembling.

‘I protest—this is absolutely uncalled for! I swear that the dose I gave the woman was perfectly—’

‘Dr Armstrong.’

The small sour voice was compelling. The doctor stopped with a jerk in the middle of his sentence. The small cold voice went on:

‘Your indignation is very natural. Nevertheless you
must admit that the facts have got to be faced. Either you or Rogers
could
have administered a fatal dose with the greatest ease. Let us now consider the position of the other people present. What chance had I, had Inspector Blore, had Miss Brent, had Miss Claythorne, had Mr Lombard of administering poison? Can any one of us be completely and entirely eliminated?’ He paused. ‘I think not.’

Vera said angrily:

‘I was nowhere near the woman! All of you can swear to that.’

Mr Justice Wargrave waited a minute, then he said:

‘As far as my memory serves me the facts were these—will any one please correct me if I make a mis-statement? Mrs Rogers was lifted on to the sofa by Anthony Marston and Mr Lombard and Dr Armstrong went to her. He sent Rogers for brandy. There was then a question raised as to where the voice we had just heard had come from. We all went into the next room with the exception of Miss Brent who remained in this room—alone with the unconscious woman.’

A spot of colour came into Emily Brent’s cheeks. She stopped knitting. She said:

‘This is outrageous!’

The remorseless small voice went on:

‘When we returned to this room, you, Miss Brent, were bending over the woman on the sofa.’

Emily Brent said:

‘Is common humanity a criminal offence?’

Mr Justice Wargrave said:

‘I am only establishing facts. Rogers then entered the room with the brandy which, of course, he could quite well have doctored before entering the room. The brandy was administered to the woman and shortly afterwards her husband and Dr Armstrong assisted her up to bed where Dr Armstrong gave her a sedative.’

Blore said:

‘That’s what happened. Absolutely. And that lets out the judge, Mr Lombard, myself and Miss Claythorne.’

His voice was loud and jubilant. Mr Justice Wargrave, bringing a cold eye to bear upon him, murmured:

‘Ah, but does it? We must take into account
every possible eventuality
.’

Blore stared. He said:

‘I don’t get you.’

Mr Justice Wargrave said:

‘Upstairs in her room, Mrs Rogers is lying in bed. The sedative that the doctor has given her begins to take effect. She is vaguely sleepy and acquiescent. Supposing that at that moment there is a tap on the door and someone enters bringing her, shall we say, a tablet, or a draught, with the message that “The doctor says you’re to take this.” Do you imagine for one
minute that she would not have swallowed it obediently without thinking twice about it?’

There was a silence. Blore shifted his feet and frowned. Philip Lombard said:

‘I don’t believe in that story for a minute. Besides none of us left this room for hours afterwards. There was Marston’s death and all the rest of it.’

The judge said:

‘Someone could have left his or her bedroom—later.’

Lombard objected:

‘But then Rogers would have been up there.’

Dr Armstrong stirred.

‘No,’ he said. ‘Rogers went downstairs to clear up in the dining-room and pantry. Anyone could have gone up to the woman’s bedroom then without being seen.’

Emily Brent said:

‘Surely, doctor, the woman would have been fast asleep by then under the influence of the drug you had administered?’

‘In all likelihood, yes. But it is not a certainty. Until you have prescribed for a patient more than once you cannot tell their reaction to different drugs. There is, sometimes, a considerable period before a sedative takes effect. It depends on the personal idiosyncrasy of the patient towards that particular drug.’

Lombard said:

‘Of course you
would
say that, doctor. Suits your book—eh?’

Again Armstrong’s face darkened with anger.

But again that passionless cold little voice stopped the words on his lips.

‘No good result can come from recrimination. Facts are what we have to deal with. It is established, I think, that there is a possibility of such a thing as I have outlined occurring. I agree that its probability value is not high; though there again, it depends on who that person might have been. The appearance of Miss Brent or of Miss Claythorne on such an errand would have occasioned no surprise in the patient’s mind. I agree that the appearance of myself, or of Mr Blore, or of Mr Lombard would have been, to say the least of it, unusual, but I still think the visit would have been received without the awakening of any real suspicion.’

Blore said:

‘And that gets us—
where
?’

Mr Justice Wargrave, stroking his lip and looking quite passionless and inhuman, said:

‘We have now dealt with the second killing, and have
established the fact that no one of us can be completely exonerated from suspicion.’

He paused and went on.

‘We come now to the death of General Macarthur. That took place this morning. I will ask anyone who considers that he or she has an alibi to state it in so many words. I myself will state at once that I have no valid alibi. I spent the morning sitting on the terrace and meditating on the singular position in which we all find ourselves.

‘I sat on that chair on the terrace for the whole morning until the gong went, but there were, I should imagine, several periods during the morning when I was quite unobserved and during which it would have been possible for me to walk down to the sea, kill the General, and return to my chair. There is only my word for the fact that I never left the terrace. In the circumstances that is not enough. There must be
proof
.’

Blore said:

‘I was with Mr Lombard and Dr Armstrong all the morning. They’ll bear me out.’

Dr Armstrong said:

‘You went to the house for a rope.’

Blore said:

‘Of course, I did. Went straight there and straight back. You know I did.’

Armstrong said:

‘You were a long time…’

Blore turned crimson. He said:

‘What the hell do you mean by that, Dr Armstrong?’

Armstrong repeated:

‘I only said you were a long time.’

‘Had to find it, didn’t I? Can’t lay your hands on a coil of rope all in a minute.’

Mr Justice Wargrave said:

‘During Inspector Blore’s absence, were you two gentlemen together?’

Armstrong said hotly:

‘Certainly. That is, Lombard went off for a few minutes. I remained where I was.’

Lombard said with a smile:

‘I wanted to test the possibilities of heliographing to the mainland. Wanted to find the best spot. I was only absent a minute or two.’

Armstrong nodded. He said:

‘That’s right. Not long enough to do a murder, I assure you.’

The judge said:

‘Did either of you two glance at your watches?’

‘Well, no.’

Philip Lombard said:

‘I wasn’t wearing one.’

The judge said evenly:

‘A minute or two is a vague expression.’

He turned his head to the upright figure with the knitting lying on her lap.

‘Miss Brent?’

Emily Brent said:

‘I took a walk with Miss Claythorne up to the top of the island. Afterwards I sat on the terrace in the sun.’

The judge said:

‘I don’t think I noticed you there.’

‘No, I was round the corner of the house to the east. It was out of the wind there.’

‘And you sat there till lunch-time?’

‘Yes.’

‘Miss Claythorne?’

Vera answered readily and clearly:

‘I was with Miss Brent early this morning. After that I wandered about a bit. Then I went down and talked to General Macarthur.’

Mr Justice Wargrave interrupted. He said: