Murder in the Mine

by Roy Lewis

  ‘She’s an old woman,’ Crow argued. ‘Old, gullible, simple, and a valley woman — people in the valley don’t go to solicitors except . . . well, when do they?’

  ‘Bloody never,’ Dai Chippo grunted, ‘all sharks they are.’ He eyed Crow speculatively. ‘And I can see how she’d be scared. And scared afterwards too, because she’d told this chap from the Council—’

  ‘She was waiting for Death,’ Crow said simply.

  Skene stood up abruptly, jammed his hands in his pockets.

  ‘The story sounds stupid to me,’ he said harshly. ‘An old woman’s story? An old layer-out who’s always been half-way around the bend? Why, I remember as a kid we used to knock at her door and run away, and sing obscene songs through her letter-box because we knew she was crazy as a coot! I mean, have you checked with the Council, to start with? They’d never send anyone around like that.’

  ‘They didn’t.’ Crow smiled unpleasantly. ‘We checked of course. But we already knew the answer before we asked. No, to say he was from the Council gave the man in question entry, and it gave him power, power to frighten Lily Jenkins. And she got frightened, all right. And he got the information he wanted.’

  ‘And I suppose she gave you his name too,’ Skene scoffed. ‘What was it? John Jones Devil or something?’

  ‘She didn’t have to; she didn’t have it of course and she thought she might not recognize him again though I suspect she certainly would, if he faced her again. But let me ask you these questions, Mr Skene. Let us assume Martin Evans received a blackmail letter concerning Ceinwen; that he upbraided Donna with it; that she went back to discover from some source what it was all about; that she and this other man then agreed to work together. He then drove her to the Rhondda. That would be on the eighth. It was to be for a second meeting with Evans; she met Evans at the Bwylffa pit head but was terrified when he became enraged, hit her, so that she fell against the wheelhouse. He left her, terrified by the anger and passion she had aroused in him, and as for her, she went down to Pentre where Dai Davies accosted her. When she broke away from Davies, she met her accomplice. Which was when she made her fatal mistake.’

  Crow looked around at the silent listening group.

  ‘A poor judge of character, Donna. She had blackmailed James Klein successfully, she tried to blackmail Evans and was surprised and frightened by the violence of his reaction. . .she simply had not read his character aright. And she certainly had misread the character of her accomplice. I imagine she had probably recovered some of her poise, after Davies was got rid of. She told her accomplice that she wasn’t prepared to keep after Evans—the man was dangerously violent, almost crazed in his fury. But her accomplice was also angered. He felt he could go on without her, target Evans alone. But Donna, she said she’d still need money, to go away and let him do what he wanted with Evans and his secret.’

  Crow shook his head sadly.

  ‘It was a stupid thing to do, and yet in character for Donna. She had come so far, blackmail was the ladder she’d used in the past, now she was telling this man she’d go away, let him press Evans for money, as long as he first paid her to go away. . .and keep quiet. It may have seemed reasonable enough to her, but it was not reasonable to him. He calculated that if he paid her once, she would be a never-ending drain upon him. Evans had scared her, but how long would that fear last? If he scared her, how long would that last, in turn? Donna was unreliable, he was on to a good thing with Evans, it could go on for years, a regular source of income, and now Donna was spoiling everything. As he milked Evans, so Donna would milk him. It was something he couldn’t stand for. . .and even if he didn’t press Evans for money Donna still held out a threat to him. So he killed her.’

  There was a short, tense silence. The door at the far end of the room opened and Detective-Inspector Dewi Jones came in. As he walked forward towards them Crow nodded, and smiled.

  ‘I’m just putting them in the picture, Inspector. I’m explaining that the killer maybe tried to frighten Donna in the first instance, as Evans had frightened her, but either way, whether accidentally or deliberately, he succeeded in killing her. Disposal was then the problem . . .’

  ‘So he thought, why not the shaft?’ Jones added. ‘Dump her there, have her disappear completely.’

  ‘Forget her, the whole unhappy episode, write it off to experience,’ Crow continued. ‘That’s how it was, we believe. A lot of assumptions, I admit, but they’re what we’re working on, because we’re convinced Evans did not murder his wife and I think he’ll tell us she walked down that hill alive on the eighth.’

  Dai Chippo licked his dry lips.

  ‘If Evans didn’t do it, who you after then?’

  Crow glanced at Jones. Expressionlessly, the Inspector said, ‘A man who fits a description, Dai. He’ll be a man of few moral scruples, maybe one with a criminal record of some kind. He’ll be a Welshman, and a Rhondda man, probably brought up in the valley. He’ll have the sort of job where he can come and go as he pleases, with no one to ask where he’s been at any particular time, so he could have come up the valley on several occasions from the end of May to the beginning of June.’

  ‘All that’s pretty general,’ Dai Chippo said.

  ‘We have some specifics too. He’d have to be a man who would have developed the sort of investigatory skills that would have allowed him, first, to trace Martin Evans when Donna came looking for him; second, to note the curious relationship existing between Evans and Ceinwen Williams and to ask a few questions about it; and third, to hit upon the idea of obtaining the truth from Lily Jenkins. To reach Lily Jenkins, he must have heard some whispers, long ago, about the fathering of Ceinwen, local whispers’ private whispers, family whispers, and once he learned Evans’s true identity, Lily could perhaps provide the key. And she did. So we want a local man with local knowledge, a greedy man who told Donna Stark her husband’s new name but not his old secret, a vicious man who agreed to work with her when she returned in a hurry by taxi from the Rhondda on the sixth but murdered her when she threatened him on the eighth. A man who’d terrify an old woman in May, blackmail Evans in June, and murder Donna Stark the same month. Does that sum it up, sir?’

  Crow nodded. ‘Admirably.’

  Slowly, Dai Chippo rose to his feet. He stood, shaking slightly, and his face was ashen. He stepped backwards and his clumsy movement sent the chair falling with a clatter, but in spite of the noise his gaze remained fixed on Teddy Skene.

  ‘Bloody hell,’ he said and scurried across the room towards the window as though fearful of contamination.

  Skene ignored him, took out a cigarette, lit it casually. His hand was not shaking; he appeared perfectly calm.

  ‘Was it an accident?’ Crow asked him quietly. ‘Or couldn’t you face the threat of Donna clinging to your bank book the way she’d clung to Klein’s, and wanted to cling to Evans’s?’

  Skene looked at Crow and shook his head.

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘She wanted to drop Martin Evans, but she still wanted someone to hook on to. The someone was to be you. She was going to bleed you. . . you had to pay her, or she’d tell Martin you were the real blackmailer. And you knew just how much silence meant to Evans. So you killed her. You strangled her . . .’

  ‘You’ll never prove a thing,’ Skene said in contempt.

  * * *

  ‘We’ll prove it all right,’ Crow said to Jason Warlock on the steps outside the Crown Court. ‘It all links up: Donna’s rush back on the sixth to beard Skene, his reluctant agreement to use her as an accomplice, his rage when she got scared and wanted to back out of blackmailing Evans only to turn her attention to him. We’ll be having a second cousin of his to testify that there were rumours years ago that Ceinwen’s father was Alan Stark. When Skene discovered Martin Evans was really Martin Stark and Ceinwen was working for him he did the pressure bit on Lily Jenkins. And that old lady will recognize him again, I’m sure of that. He made quite
an impression on her as the man from the Council. Dewi Jones and the Chief Superintendent will make sure they have more proof this next time, anyway, with tighter caulking of the ship.’

  ‘I hope so,’ Warlock said, smiling, ‘for the sake of the prosecution, and my client. Evans told me, by the way. . .she did try to blackmail him and he hit her. He’ll testify to that.’

  ‘What a mess,’ Crow said tiredly, ‘Klein is now unlikely to marry his heiress and is headed for bankruptcy; Dai Davies is in trouble with his wife.’ He looked around at the elegant civic buildings, the distant clouds above Cardiff Castle and the hint of green from Sophia Gardens. ‘But worst of all, there’s Ceinwen and Martin Evans.’

  ‘Hmmm.’ Warlock nodded thoughtfully. ‘I’ve spoken to the Williams woman. A shy mouse; the publicity will crucify her. It’s what Evans was trying to avoid, it’s what sent him into a rage with Donna Stark, made him prepared to accept guilt for a crime he didn’t commit. God knows he feels guilty inside: he’s got a strong religious streak, as has the Williams woman. So Evans is suffering from moral guilt, social guilt, even guilt for her death, for if he hadn’t failed Donna in their marriage, he feels, she wouldn’t have died. Ceinwen and Martin . . . as you say, a mess, but it will blow over.’

  ‘He’ll be worried about his trial.’

  Warlock looked surprised.

  ‘I don’t understand. What do you mean, trial? What on earth has Martin Evans now got to be worried about?’

  Crow stared at the lawyer.

  ‘Incest and bigamy! Hasn’t he got enough to worry about?’

  Warlock laughed and shook his head.

  ‘Go back to your Moriarty, Chief Inspector Crow and leave the real law to us lawyers! Bigamy? The Marriage Act 1949 by its Schedule 1 sets out the prohibited degrees of consanguinity. It declares that a marriage celebrated between a half-brother and half-sister, whether the relationship is traced through wedlock or not, is void. It follows then that if Evan’s marriage to Ceinwen was void—no marriage can be deemed to have taken place. It then follows that if the marriage cannot be said to have legally taken place, how can this second marriage be bigamous? It can’t be—since his first marriage never took legal form, in effect.’

  Warlock shook his head again, squinted up into the pale sunshine.

  ‘And a charge of incest? The fact is, Evans has committed no crime. The Sexual Offences Act 1956, section 10, states it is a criminal offence for a man to have sexual intercourse with a woman he knows to be his half-sister. Martin Evans was not aware of the relationship any more than Ceinwen Williams was—until her grandmother disclosed the situation, after they had married. I tell you, man, they’re both in the clear! There’ll be no prosecution to face for either of them!’

  * * *

  Trust a lawyer to miss the point Crow thought as he walked alone towards Sophia Gardens in the sunshine. Know the law, ignore the reality. Muffled words struggled in his brain as he walked, words he had heard and not understood at the time, though coincidentally they would have given him a clue to the truth in the Evans case had they really registered at the time.

  What were they?

  That lecturer at the Conference in Cardiff, he had been speaking, answering a question just as Crow had decided to leave the hall. What was it he had said?

  Moral responsibility . . . social responsibility . . . the Levitical injunction. . . the rigorous hostility of the Judaic-Christian ethic.

  These were the things Martin and Ceinwen had to contend with, within the society in which they lived, and within themselves. The speaker’s words came back to Crow, finally, as sadly he stared into the dark river water flowing towards the city.

  ‘For them in this modern world, must life be a tragedy, must to love be a crime . . .?’

  THE END

  INSPECTOR JOHN CROW SERIES

  Book 1: A LOVER TOO MANY

  Book 2: ERROR OF JUDGMENT

  Book 3: THE WOODS MURDER

  Book 4: MURDER FOR MONEY

  Book 5: MURDER IN THE MINE

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  Glossary of English Slang for US readers

  A & E: Accident and emergency department in a hospital

  Aggro: Violent behaviour, aggression

  Air raid: an attack in which bombs are dropped from aircraft on ground targets

  A
llotment: a plot of land rented by an individual for growing fruit, vegetable or flowers

  Anorak: nerd (it also means a waterproof jacket)

  Artex: textured plaster finish for walls and ceilings

  A Level: exams taken between 16 and 18

  Auld Reekie: Edinburgh

  Au pair: live-in childcare helper. Often a young woman.

  Bar: as in The Bar, the profession of barrister.

  Barm: bread roll

  Barney: argument

  Barrister: lawyer who argues in court

  Beaker: glass or cup for holding liquids

  Beemer: BMW car or motorcycle

  Benefits: social security

  Bent: corrupt

  Bin: wastebasket (noun), or throw in rubbish (verb)

  Biscuit: cookie

  Blackpool Lights: gaudy illuminations in seaside town

  Bloke: guy

  Blow: cocaine

  Blower: telephone

  Blues and twos: emergency vehicles

  Bob: money

  Bobby: policeman

  Broadsheet: quality newspaper (New York Times would be a US example)

  Brown bread: rhyming slang for dead

  Bun: small cake

  Bunk: do a bunk means escape

  Burger bar: hamburger fast-food restaurant

  Buy-to-let: Buying a house/apartment to rent it out for profit

  Charity Shop: thrift store

  Carrier bag: plastic bag from supermarket

  Care Home: an institution where old people are cared for

  Car park: parking lot

  CBeebies: kids TV

  Chat-up: flirt, trying to pick up someone with witty banter or compliments