by Ngaio Marsh
(The JUDGE stares at the MAJOR and then nods to PROSECUTION COUNSEL to continue).
GOLDING: Yes, Major. So you put the dish before the dog. And?
MAJOR: He swallowed part of one piece.
GOLDING: Yes.
MAJOR: It happened at once. Frightful contortions. Convulsions. Agony. By Gad I’ve seen some terrible sights in my time, but never anything like that. And it was my dog, sir. It was Bang, my dog. My faithful old Bang. (He breaks down, blows his nose and belches. The JUDGE contemplates him stonily).
GOLDING: A most painful experience and I am sorry to revive it. Mercifully it was soon over, was it not?
MAJOR: Nothing merciful about it. (At the prisoner) A fiendish, cold-blooded murder, deliberately brought about by a filthy-minded, vindictive old cat.
MISS FREEBODY: (standing) Cat! Cat! You dare to utter the word!
MAJOR: I do so advisedly, madam. Cat. Cat is what I said and cat is what I meant…
MISS FREEBODY: Poor defenceless little thing. It was&…
JUDGE: Silence. Silence. If there is any repetition of this grossly improper behaviour I shall treat it as a contempt of court. (Turning to the MAJOR) You understand me?
MAJOR: (mumbling) Great provocation. Regret—
JUDGE: What? Speak up.
MAJOR: I apologize, my lord.
JUDGE: So I should hope. (He nods to PROSECUTION COUNSEL.)
GOLDING: My lord. Major Ecclestone, I want you to tell His Lordship and the jury what happened after the death of the dog.
MAJOR: My wife came down. At my suggestion, telephoned Dr Swale.
JUDGE: Why not a veterinary surgeon?
MAJOR: I’ve no opinion of the local vet.
JUDGE: I see.
MAJOR: Besides, there was my wife.
JUDGE: Your wife, Major Ecclestone?
MAJOR: She was upset, my lord. He gave her a pill. I had a drink.
JUDGE: I see. Yes, Mr Golding.
GOLDING: Go on please, Major.
MAJOR: Swale took away the remaining piece of liver to be analysed and he also removed the – the body.
GOLDING: Was there any other event before or at about this time that seemed to you to have any bearing on the matter?
MAJOR: Certainly.
GOLDING: Please tell the court what it was.
MAJOR: That woman’s (The JUDGE looks at him) – The accused’s bathroom window overlooks my premises. It’s got a Venetian blind. She’s in the habit of spying on us through the slats. I distinctly saw them – the slats, I mean – open in one place.
GOLDING: When did you see this?
MAJOR: Immediately after Swale left. She’d watched the whole performance. And gloated over it.
JUDGE: You are here to relate what you observed, Major, not what you may have conjectured,
GOLDING: Had anything occurred in the past to make bad blood between you and the defendant?
MAJOR: Yes.
GOLDING: What was it?
MAJOR: A cat.
JUDGE: What?
MAJOR: She had a cat, my lord. A mangy brute of a thing–
MISS FREEBODY: Lies! Lies! It was a beautiful little cat. (The WARDRESS quells her.)
GOLDING: (coughs) Never mind what sort of cat it was. Yes, Major?
MAJOR: About a week earlier it strayed into my garden at night. Not for the first time. Always doin’ it. Yowlin’ and diggin’. Drove my dog frantic. Naturally he broke his tether. Tore it away with a piece of the kennel.
GOLDING: And then?
MAJOR: Ask yourself.
GOLDING: But I’m asking you, you know.
MAJOR: Made short work of the poor pussy. (He laughs shortly.)
MISS FREEBODY: Brute!
JUDGE: Miss Freebody, you must be silent.
MISS FREEBODY: Pah!
JUDGE: Mr O’Connor, will you speak to your client? Explain.
O’CONNOR: Certainly, my lord. (He turns and speaks to the accused who stares over his head, biting her lip.)
GOLDING: What were the results of the cat’s demise?
MAJOR: She kicked up a dust.
GOLDING: In what way?
MAJOR: Waylaid my wife. Went to the police. Wrote letters. Threatened to do me in.
GOLDING: Did you keep any of these letters?
MAJOR: Last one. Burnt the others. About five of them.
GOLDING: May he be shown Exhibit Two?
(The letter is produced, identified, circulated to the JUDGE, to COUNSEL and to the jury.)
GOLDING: Is that the letter which you retained?
MAJOR: Yes.
GOLDING: It reads, members of the jury: ‘This is my final warning. Unless your brute is destroyed within the next three days, I shall take steps to insure that justice is done not only upon it but upon yourself. Neither you nor it is fit to live. Take warning. M E Freebody.’ (To MAJOR) You received this letter – when?
MAJOR: First of April.
(Laughter)
USHER: Silence in court.
GOLDING: Did you answer it?
MAJOR: Good God, no. Nor any of the others.
JUDGE: Why did you keep it, Major?
MAJOR: Thought of showing it to my lawyer. Decided to ignore it.
GOLDING: (quoting) ‘I shall take steps to see that justice is done not only upon it but upon yourself.’ Can you describe the nature of the letters you had received before this one?
MAJOR: Certainly. Same thing. Threats.
GOLDING: To you personally?
MAJOR: Saying that my dog ought to die and if I didn’t act smartly we both would.
GOLDING: And it was after the death of the dog and in consideration of all these circumstances, Major, that you decided to go to the police?
MAJOR: Precisely. Decided she meant business and that I was at risk personally. My wife urged me to act.
GOLDING: Thank you, Major Ecclestone.
(GOLDING sits down. DEFENCE COUNSEL rises.)
O’CONNOR: Major Ecclestone, would you describe yourself as a hot-tempered man?
MAJOR: I would not.
O’CONNOR: As an even-tempered man?
MAJOR: I consider myself to be a reasonable man, sir.
O’CONNOR: I said ‘even-tempered’, Major.
MAJOR: Yes.
O’CONNOR: You get on well with your neighbours and tradesmen, for instance? Do you?
MAJOR: Depends on the neighbours and tradesmen. Ha!
O’CONNOR: Major Ecclestone, during the five years you have lived in Peascale you have quarrelled violently with your landlord, your late doctor, the secretary of your club, your postman and your butcher, have you not?
MAJOR: I have not ‘quarrelled violently’ with anyone. Where I encounter stupidity, negligence and damned impertinence I made known my objections. That is all.
O’CONNOR: To the tune of threatening the postman with a horsewhip and the butcher’s boy with your Alsatian dog?
MAJOR: I refuse to stand here and listen to all this nonsense. (He pulls himself up, looks at his watch, takes a small container from his overcoat pocket, extracts a capsule and puts it in his mouth.)
JUDGE: What is all this? Are you eating something, Major Ecclestone?
MAJOR: I suffer from duodenal ulcers, my lord. I have taken a capsule.
JUDGE: (after a pause) Very well. (He nods to DEFENCE COUNSEL.)
O’CONNOR: Major Ecclestone, was the liver the only thing in the safe that evening?
MAJOR: No, it wasn’t. There was stuff for a mixed grill on Friday. Chops, kidneys, sausages. That sort of thing.
O’CONNOR: And these had been delivered with the dog’s meat that afternoon?
MAJOR: Yes.
O’CONNOR: Did you have your mixed grill?
MAJOR: No fear! Chucked it out. Destroyed it. Great mistake, as I now realize. Poisoned like the other. Not a doubt of it. Intended for me.
O’CONNOR: And what about Mrs Ecclestone?
MAJOR: Vegetarian.
O’CONNOR: I see. Can I have a
list of complaints, please? (Solicitor gives him a paper.) Major Ecclestone, is it true that, apart from my client, there have been five other complaints about the character and behaviour of your dog?
MAJOR: The dog was perfectly docile. Unless provoked. They baited him.
O’CONNOR: And is it not the case that you have received two warnings from the police to keep the dog under proper control?
MAJOR: Bah!
O’CONNOR: I beg your pardon.
MAJOR: Balderdash!
O’CONNOR: You are on oath, Major Ecclestone. Have you received two such warnings from the police?
MAJOR (pause) Yes. (Nods.)
O’CONNOR: Thank you. (He sits down.)
(DR SWALE is called to the stand. PROSECUTION COUNSEL rises.)
GOLDING: Dr Swale, you were called into The Elms on the evening of 4th April, were you not?
SWALE: Yes. Mrs Ecclestone rang me up and sounded so upset I went round.
GOLDING: What did you find when you got there?
SWALE: Major Ecclestone was in the yard near the dog kennel with the Alsatian’s body lying at his feet.
GOLDING: And Mrs Ecclestone?
SWALE: She was standing nearby. She suffers from migraine and this business with the dog hadn’t done anything to help her. I took her back to her room, looked at her and gave her one of the Sternetil tablets I’d prescribed.
GOLDING: And then?
SWALE: I went down to the Major.
GOLDING: Yes?
SWALE: He, of course, realized the dog had been poisoned and he asked me, as a personal favour, to get an analysis of what was left of the liver the dog had been eating and of the contents of the dog’s stomach. I arranged this with the pathology department of the general hospital.
GOLDING: Ah yes. We’ve heard evidence of that. Massive quantities of potassium cyanide were found.
SWALE: Yes.
GOLDING: Did you, subsequently, discuss with Major Ecclestone the possible source of this cyanide?
SWALE: Yes.
GOLDING: Dr Swale, were you shown any letters by Major Ecclestone?
SWALE: Yes. From the defendant.
GOLDING: Are you sure they were from the defendant?
SWALE: Oh yes. She had in the past written to me complaining about the National Health. It was her writing and signature.
GOLDING: What was the nature of the letters to Major Ecclestone?
SWALE: Threatening. I remember in particular the one that said his dog ought to die and if he didn’t act smartly they both would.
GOLDING: What view did you take of these letters?
SWALE: A very serious one. They threatened his life.
GOLDING: Yes. Thank you, Dr Swale. (He sits.)
(DEFENCE COUNSEL rises.)
O’CONNOR: Dr Swale, you have known the Ecclestones for some time, haven’t you?
SWALE: Yes.
O’CONNOR: In fact you are close friends?
SWALE: (after a slight hesitation) I have known them for some years.
O’CONNOR: Would you consider Major Ecclestone a reliable sort of man where personal judgments are concerned?
SWALE: I don’t follow you.
O’CONNOR: Really? Let me put it another way. If antagonism has developed between himself and another person; would you consider his view of the person likely to be a sober, fair and balanced one?
SWALE: There are very few people, I think, of whom under such circumstances, that could be said.
O’CONNOR: I suggest that at the time we are speaking of, a feud developed between Major Ecclestone and the defendant and that his attitude towards her was intemperate and wholly biased. (Pause) Well, Dr Swale?
SWALE: (unhappily) I think that’s putting it a bit strong.
O’CONNOR: Do you indeed? Thank you, Dr Swale. (DEFENCE COUNSEL sits.)
JUDGE: You may leave the witness box, Dr Swale.
(THOMAS TIDWELL is called to the stand. PROSECUTION COUNSEL rises.)
GOLDING: You are Thomas Tidwell, butcher’s assistant of the West End Butchery, 8 Park Street, Peascale, near Fulchester?
TIDWELL: Yar.
GOLDING: On Friday 4th April, did you deliver two parcels of meat at The Elms, No. 1 Sherwood Grove?
TIDWELL: Yar.
GOLDING: Would you describe them please?
TIDWELL: Aye?
GOLDING: How were they wrapped?
TIDWELL: In paper. (JUDGE looks.)
GOLDING: Yes, of course, but what sort of paper?
TIDWELL: Aye?
GOLDING: Were they wrapped in brown paper or in newspaper?
TIDWELL: One of each.
GOLDING: Thank you. Did you know, for instance, the contents of the newspaper parcel: what was in it?
TIDWELL: Liver.
GOLDING: How did you know that?
TIDWELL: (to JUDGE) It was bloody, wannit? Liver’s bloody. Liver’ll bleed froo anyfink, won’t it? I seen it, din’ I? It’d bled froo the comics.
(MAJOR half-rises. PROSECUTION COUNSEL checks him with a look. MAJOR signals to USHER, who goes to him.)
JUDGE: Are you chewing something, Mr Tidwell?
TIDWELL: Yar.
JUDGE: Remove it.
GOLDING: You’re sure of this? The wrapping was a page from a comic publication, was it?
TIDWELL: That’s what I said, din’ I? I seen it, din’ I?
GOLDING: If I tell you that Major Ecclestone says that the liver was wrapped in sheets from the Daily Telegraph, what would you say?
TIDWELL: ’E wants is ’ead read. Or else ’e was squiffy.
