The Pershore Poisoners (13 page)

‘Crabb,’ instructed Ravenscroft.

‘Get out of my way, constable,’ growled the man staring hard at Crabb who had positioned himself by the exit.

‘Mr Harris, we need to ask you some questions before I can allow you to leave,’ said Ravenscroft firmly.

‘The deuce you will!’

‘Sir, I have to remind you that two people are dead, Mrs Jacobson remains a strong suspect, and you may be complicit in these murders for all we know,’ said Ravenscroft standing his ground as the man swung round and faced him in an aggressive manner.

‘This gentleman has nothing to do with this matter,’ intervened Mrs Jacobson.

‘With all due respect, ma’am, that is for us to decide,’ said Ravenscroft.

‘Look here, Mrs Jacobson and I are great friends. We meet once in a while. I’ve never been to this Talbots’ Lodging House,
or whatever it is called, and I certainly know nothing of any murders. Now I would be obliged if your constable would let me go,’ said Harris firmly.

‘I would like to ask you some questions first, sir,’ said Ravenscroft.

‘Damn it, man! I would have you know that the Police Superintendent and I are good friends. I’ll have a word with him later and settle this affair.’

‘I would still like to ask you a few questions, sir,’ continued Ravenscroft anxious to maintain his position.

Harris stared at Ravenscroft for a few seconds, and then reaching out towards the detective’s arm said ‘Look, Ravenscroft, I might have been a bit hasty. Would be obliged if we could have a quiet word together, just man to man as it were. Would not want to upset the lady, as I am sure you appreciate.’

‘Very well, sir,’ agreed Ravenscroft opening the bedroom door.

Ravenscroft and Harris stepped out into the corridor.

Harris closed the door behind him. ‘Now see here, Ravenscroft, sorry for my abrupt behaviour in there. I can see you are a man of the world. Mrs Jacobson and I have been meeting here for the past year, usually once or twice a week. Neither of us would want this to get out. The lady is after all married and has a reputation to uphold, and I – well the least said about me the better. Let me just say that I have an important position to maintain in the county, and if this got out, tongues would wag. You know how it is. People are always putting two and two together, and drawing their own erroneous conclusions. If I give you my word that I know nothing about these deaths, I hope you would be gentlemanly enough to overlook this matter,’ said Harris taking out his wallet from his coat pocket.

‘Mr Harris, I trust that you will not open that wallet. It would be extremely uncomfortable for you if you did so,’ said Ravenscroft.

‘Your word against mine,’ replied Harris replacing the wallet inside his pocket.

‘All I require, sir, are some truthful answers to a few questions,’ said Ravenscroft.

‘Oh very well then, man,’ sighed Harris. ‘Let’s get on with it. I have not got all day.’

‘Thank you, sir. Overlooking the fact that “Harris” is not your proper name, I would ask you how long you have known Mrs Jacobson?’

‘For about six months, as I’ve just stated.’

‘You are aware that the lady is still married?’

‘Yes, yes, of course,’ replied Harris showing signs of annoyance.

‘Has Mrs Jacobson ever mentioned her husband to you?’

‘She may have done, once or twice.’

‘Were you and Mrs Jacobson planning to poison her husband, so that you could marry the lady?’

‘Good heavens no!’ laughed Harris. ‘I am a respectable married man. As I said, I have an important position to maintain in society. I am not inclined to surrender all that to run off with some trollop.’

Ravenscroft smiled. ‘You may like to know, sir, that we have caught Mrs Jacobson in possession of some arsenic powder.’

‘Good grief!’

‘She claims she uses it to improve her complexion.’

‘Well yes, I suppose some women do. Look Ravenscroft, I give you my word that Mrs Jacobson has never mentioned anything concerning arsenic to me, and that certainly neither she nor I have any intention of poisoning either her husband, or anyone else for that matter. To tell you the truth, I am getting
rather tired of all this secrecy. In fact I was going to end it all today. The rose has kind of lost its bloom, if you know what I mean,’ said Harris winking his eye at Ravenscroft.

‘Very well, sir.’

‘Good man. I knew you would understand. I would be obliged if you would let me go now. I have rather an urgent meeting in Worcester to attend.’

‘Mrs Jacobson?’

‘I will let you make my excuses, if you will. Well Ravenscroft, happy to have been of assistance. Will see if I can put in a good word for you next time I see the Superintendent. Good day to you.’

Ravenscroft said nothing as he watched Harris walk quickly along the corridor and out of sight.

Returning to the room he found a distraught Mrs Jacobson seated on the bed, and Crabb staring out of the window.

‘Has Lord … er Hubert left?’ enquired the woman.

‘Yes,’ replied Ravenscroft.

‘I see. I doubt I will ever see him again.’

‘I would say, ma’am, that that is highly likely. I have usually found that men in his position, once they have been found out in their indiscretion are only too anxious to avoid any scandal.’

‘I suppose you will tell my husband?’ asked Mrs Jacobson looking into the detective’s eyes. ‘I would be grateful if you did not.’

‘I cannot promise that, Mrs Jacobson, but then I would be highly surprised if your husband was entirely unaware of your activities.’

‘I only agreed to succumb to Hubert’s attentions because I felt rather sorry for him. He is such a lonely, sensitive man.’

‘Come now, Mrs Jacobson, you insult my intelligence. You and I both know the real reason why you and your so called admirer meet twice a week in this bedroom,’ said Ravenscroft.

‘We have so few savings. My husband is unable to work. Lord … Hubert has been so kind to us.’

Ravenscroft smiled.

‘Why have you followed me?’ asked Mrs Jacobson rising from the bed.

‘You are still a suspect in our investigations, Mrs Jacobson, and you have been caught in possession of arsenic. We knew that you had been meeting someone regularly, and it seemed a strong possibility that you and your “admirer” might well have been plotting the death of your husband. Furthermore, it seems highly likely that the two of you may have poisoned both Mr Jones and Miss Martin because they learned of your assignation with this man.’

‘All that is nonsense, inspector, as you well know. I would never do anything to harm my husband. I owe him my life. Yes, I have been one of your “ladies of the night” when I lived in Whitechapel, and my life had almost come to an end when I met Ivan. My life had become so wretched. I had nothing, and one night I walked down to the river with the intention of ending it all. I was about to throw myself off the bridge when Ivan came up to me. He took care of me, taught me to value my own life and to escape from the mire into which I had sunk. I would do nothing to break that trust. I hope you understand that?’

‘I think it would be better if you left, Mrs Jacobson,’ said Ravenscroft unmoved by the woman’s story.

Mrs Jacobson threw one more glance at Ravenscroft before quickly walking out of the room.

‘Well, that’s a surprise and no mistake,’ said Crabb.

‘People will sometimes resort to desperate courses of action when faced with extreme difficulty.’

‘I was half expecting your Captain Quinton to be here.’

‘Yes. That would have been most convenient. Cherrington
and Mrs Jacobson lovers, plotting to kill her husband, having previously been forced to kill Jones and Miss Martin because they had unearthed their little plot, but it was not to be.’

‘Who’s the gent?’

‘Well his name is not Harris. Mrs Jacobson let out his first name, Hubert, that is all, and also that he is a Lord. Do you know, Tom, he had the affrontery to offer me money to hush all this up.’

‘The nerve of the man. Do you believe all that sad tale of hers?’ asked Crabb.

‘There may be some truth in it, but that woman had lied to us so much, it is difficult to believe anything that she says now. Undoubtedly she only agreed to meet her so called lover here because he paid her for her attentions. I do not believe that they were planning to poison her husband. He would not have given up his wife and position for such a woman. That is why I decided to let the gentleman go. Well, now that we have satisfied our curiosity regarding Mrs Jacobson, I think we might return to our original intention of visiting the bank again to see if we can find out more concerning our main suspect.’

‘Good day to you again. I would like a word with the manager if you please,’ said Ravenscroft trying to sound as affable as he could.

The clerk gave him a disapproving stare, before disappearing into the inner room.

‘Inspector Ravenscroft, I have told you all that I can about Mr Cherrington,’ said Mortimer dismissively as he came out of his office.

‘Nevertheless, sir, I would appreciate a few moments of your time. The matter is quite urgent, I can assure you.’

‘Oh very well,’ sighed Mortimer. ‘You had best come into my office.’

Ravenscroft and Crabb followed the manager.

‘If you would care to take a seat, inspector,’ said Mortimer indicating a chair facing the desk.

‘Thank you, sir.’

‘Now how can I be of assistance to you?’

‘As you are no doubt aware, Mr Mortimer, I am investigating the deaths of two persons at Talbots’ Lodging House. What I have to tell you now is in the strictest confidence, as I am sure you will appreciate. Our chief suspect in this case remains your client, Mr Cherrington. I believe, however, that this is not the gentleman’s real name.’

‘I see.’

‘The gentleman’s real name is Quinton. Many years ago he was the chief suspect in the
Pimlico Poisoning
case and, although acquitted on a technicality, the police firmly believed that a miscarriage of justice took place.’

‘Yes, I see. Well yes, anything that I can help you with, inspector,’ replied Mortimer looking anxious.

‘Thank you, Mr Mortimer. What can you tell me about the gentleman’s funds? Has the money really been transferred from India?’

‘Oh yes, inspector, I can confirm that.’

‘And the amount?’

‘Three hundred and fifty pounds.’

‘Not a vast fortune, but nevertheless a reasonably large sum. Have you have any further details regarding these funds?’ asked Ravenscroft keen to know more.

‘One moment. Ah yes, I have the file here,’ replied Mortimer looking through a pile of papers on his desk. ‘Yes. Apparently most of the money came from the payment of a life assurance policy issued by the Bombay Life Assurance Company.’

‘Really, that is most interesting. I don’t suppose we have the name of the person who was covered by the policy?’ asked
Ravenscroft hopefully.

‘I don’t believe so, although, wait a moment. You may be in luck, inspector. Apparently the policy had been taken out on a certain Mrs Isabella Quinton.’

‘Now that is most interesting,’ smiled Ravenscroft.

‘Seems as though you were right, sir,’ said Crabb.

‘Quinton and Cherrington are one and the same. Thank you, Mr Mortimer, you have been most helpful. There is one more thing that you could do for us.’

‘Yes certainly.’

‘Mr Cherrington has announced his intention of visiting you again tomorrow to sign the papers for the transfer of his funds to your branch in London.’

‘That is so.’

‘I would be grateful if you come up with some pretext or other to delay the signing of the papers. You see we intend questioning this gentleman after our conversation, and we would hope to elicit a confession from him. However it may take us some time to acquire the necessary proof to implicate him in these murders here in Pershore. If you could, therefore, delay the transfer of his funds, say until the day after tomorrow, that would ensure that Mr Quinton remains in the town until then. I would be unhappy if he left Pershore tomorrow before we have acquired the necessary evidence against him. I am sure that you understand our position, Mr Mortimer?’ said Ravenscroft choosing his words carefully.

‘Yes indeed. I can arrange that.’

‘Then we are indebted to you,’ said Ravenscroft standing up and warmly shaking the manager’s hand.

‘So, Tom, now we have him. Having poisoned his first wife all those years ago in Pimlico, and then most probably his second wife in India to acquire the insurance money, Quinton
has now also poisoned two innocent residents of Talbots’,’ said Ravenscroft as he and Crabb hastened back towards the lodging house.

‘You were right along, sir,’ said Crabb.

‘Quinton must have poisoned Jones, or Murphy as we now know he was called, because he had met the man somewhere in the past, and Jones had threatened to expose him.’

‘And Miss Martin, sir?’

‘She must have realized that Quinton had poisoned Jones, and then decided to blackmail him. That was why Quinton had to kill her as well.’

‘Very neat,’

‘Yes. I am sure that is the case. We will confront Cherrington with our news and see how he reacts. If we press him hard enough, we may be fortunate enough to get him to confess.’

‘Let us hope so.’

‘Perhaps we could tie up this case by the end of the day, and I would be free to join Mrs Ravenscroft in Weymouth. We live in hope, Tom. We live in hope.’

Ravenscroft tapped on the door.

‘Oh for goodness sake, Ravenscroft, cannot you leave me alone? This is quite intolerable, man!’ exclaimed Cherrington when he opened the door.

‘We need to ask you some more questions, Mr Cherrington,’ insisted Ravenscroft.

‘I have told you all I can. You have seen how my funds have arrived from India, despite all your nonsense. I think I am quite in my rights to refuse to say any more about this matter,’ said Cherrington attempting to close the door on the two arrivals.

‘There has been a development in the case, Mr Cherrington, which directly affects you. I also have to remind you that we are still investigating two murders in this lodging house,’
replied Ravenscroft firmly placing his hand on the opened door panel.