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17 - Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers · Unnatural Death

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen of Unnatural Death by Dorothy Sears. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain the country lawyer's story,
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  Speaker 1: and he that gives us in these days new lords
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  Speaker 1: may give us new laws. Whither contented Mans Morris. Letter
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  Speaker 1: from mister Probin, retired Solicitor of the La Blanca Fiesole.
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  Speaker 1: Two Mister Merbles, Solicitor of Staple Inn, Private and confidential.
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  Speaker 1: Dear Sir, I was much interested in your letter relative
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  Speaker 1: to the death of Miss Agatha Dawson, late of Leehampton,
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  Speaker 1: and will do my best to answer your inquiries as
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  Speaker 1: briefly as possible, always, of course, on the understanding that
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  Speaker 1: all information as to the affairs of my late client
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  Speaker 1: will be treated as strictly confidential. I make an exception,
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  Speaker 1: of course, in favor of the police officer you mentioned
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  Speaker 1: in connection with the matter you wish to know. One
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  Speaker 1: whether miss Agatha Dawson was aware that it might possibly
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  Speaker 1: prove necessary, under the provisions of the New Act for
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  Speaker 1: her to make a testamentary disposition in order to ensure
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  Speaker 1: that her great niece, Miss Mary Whittaker, should inherit her
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  Speaker 1: personal property. Two, Whether I ever urged her to make
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  Speaker 1: this testamentary disposition, and what her reply was three, whether
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  Speaker 1: I had made Miss Mary Whittaker aware of the situation
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  Speaker 1: in which she might be placed, supposing her great aunt
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  Speaker 1: to die intestate later than December thirty one, nineteen twenty five.
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  Speaker 1: In the course of the spring of nineteen twenty five,
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  Speaker 1: my attention was called by a learned friend to the
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  Speaker 1: ambiguity of the wording of certain clauses in the Act,
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  Speaker 1: especially in respect to the failure to define the precise
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  Speaker 1: interpretation to be placed on the word issue. I immediately
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  Speaker 1: passed in review the affairs of my various clients, with
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  Speaker 1: a view to satisfying myself that the proper dispositions had
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  Speaker 1: been made in each case, to avoid misunderstanding and litigation.
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  Speaker 1: In case of intestacy, I at once realized that Miss
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  Speaker 1: Whittaker's inheritance of Miss Dawson's property entirely depended on the
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  Speaker 1: interpretation given to the clauses in question. I was aware
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  Speaker 1: that Miss Dawson was extremely averse from making a will,
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  Speaker 1: owing to that superstitious dread of decease which we meet
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  Speaker 1: with so frequently in our profession. However, I thought it
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  Speaker 1: my duty to make her understand the question, and to
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  Speaker 1: do my utmost to get a will signed accordingly, I
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  Speaker 1: went down to Leeampton and laid the matter before her.
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  Speaker 1: This was on March the fourteenth, or thereabouts, I am
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  Speaker 1: not certain to the precise day. Unhappily, I encountered Miss
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  Speaker 1: Dawson at a moment when her opposition to the obnoxious
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  Speaker 1: idea of making a will was at its strongest. Her
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  Speaker 1: doctor had informed her that a further operation would become
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  Speaker 1: necessary in the course of the next few weeks, and
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  Speaker 1: I could have selected no more unfortunate occasion for intruding
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  Speaker 1: the subject of death upon her mind. She resented any
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  Speaker 1: such suggestion. There was a conspiracy, she declared, to frighten
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  Speaker 1: her into dying under the operation. It appears that that
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  Speaker 1: very tactless practitioner of hers had frightened her with a
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  Speaker 1: similar suggestion before her previous operation. But she had come
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  Speaker 1: through that, and she meant to come through this if
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  Speaker 1: only people would not anger and alarm her. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: if she had died under the operation, the whole question
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  Speaker 1: would have settled itself, and there would have been no
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  Speaker 1: need of any will. I pointed out that the very
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  Speaker 1: reason why I was anxious for the will to be
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  Speaker 1: made was that I fully expected her to live on
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  Speaker 1: into the following years, and I explained the provisions of
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  Speaker 1: the Act once more as clearly as I could. She
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  Speaker 1: retorted that in that case I had no business to
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  Speaker 1: come and trouble her about the question at all. It
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  Speaker 1: would be time enough when the Act was passed. Naturally,
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  Speaker 1: the fool of a doctor had insisted that she was
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  Speaker 1: not to be told what her disease was. They always do,
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  Speaker 1: and she was convinced that the next operation would make
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  Speaker 1: her all right and that she would live for years.
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  Speaker 1: When I ventured to insist, giving as my reason that
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  Speaker 1: we men of law always prefer to be on the
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  Speaker 1: safe and cautious side, she became exceedingly angry with me,
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  Speaker 1: and practically ordered me out of the house. A few
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  Speaker 1: days afterwards, I received a letter from her complaining of
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  Speaker 1: my impertinence and saying that she could no longer feel
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  Speaker 1: any confidence in a person who treated her with such
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  Speaker 1: inconsiderate rudeness. At her request, I forwarded all her private
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  Speaker 1: papers in my possession to mister Hodgson of Leehampton, and
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  Speaker 1: I have not held any communication with any member of
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  Speaker 1: the family since that date. This answers your first and
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  Speaker 1: second questions. With regard to the third, I certainly did
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  Speaker 1: not think it proper to inform Miss Whittaker that her
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  Speaker 1: inheritance might depend upon her great aunts either making a
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  Speaker 1: will or else dying before December thirty first, nineteen twenty five.
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  Speaker 1: While I know nothing to the young lady's disadvantage, I
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  Speaker 1: have always held it inadvisable that persons should know too
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  Speaker 1: exactly how much they stand to gain by the unexpected
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  Speaker 1: decease of other persons. In case of any unforeseen accident,
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  Speaker 1: the heirs may find themselves in an equivocal position, where
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  Speaker 1: the fact of their possessing such knowledge might, if made public,
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  Speaker 1: be highly prejudicial to their interests. The most that I
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  Speaker 1: thought it proper to say was that if at any
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  Speaker 1: time Miss Dawson should express a wish to see me,
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  Speaker 1: I should like to be sent for without delay. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: the withdrawal of Miss Dawson's affairs from my hands put
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  Speaker 1: it out of my power to interfere any further. In
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  Speaker 1: October nineteen twenty five, feeling that my health was not
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  Speaker 1: what it had been, I retired from business and came
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  Speaker 1: to Italy. In this country, the English papers do not
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  Speaker 1: always arrive regularly, and I missed the announcement of Miss
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  Speaker 1: Dawson's death. That it should have occurred so suddenly and
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  Speaker 1: under circumstances somewhat mysterious, is certainly interesting. You say further
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  Speaker 1: that you would be glad of my opinion of Miss
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  Speaker 1: Agatha Dozen's mental condition at the time when I last
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  Speaker 1: saw her. It was perfectly clear and competent, in so
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  Speaker 1: far as she was ever competent to deal with business.
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  Speaker 1: She was in no way gifted to grapple with legal problems,
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  Speaker 1: and I had extreme difficulty in getting her to understand
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  Speaker 1: what the trouble was with regard to the New Property Act.
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  Speaker 1: Having been brought up all her life to the idea
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  Speaker 1: that property went of right to the next of kin,
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  Speaker 1: she found it inconceivable that this state of things should
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  Speaker 1: ever alter. She assured me that the law would never
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  Speaker 1: permit the government to pass such an act, when I
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  Speaker 1: had reluctantly persuaded her that it would. She was quite
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  Speaker 1: sure that no court would be wicked enough to interpret
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  Speaker 1: the Act so as to give the money to anybody
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  Speaker 1: but Miss Whittaker, when she was clearly the proper person
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  Speaker 1: to have it. Why should the Duchy of Lancaster have
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  Speaker 1: any right to it. She kept on saying, I don't
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  Speaker 1: even know the Duke of Lancaster. She was not a
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  Speaker 1: particularly sensible woman, and in the end I was not
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  Speaker 1: at all sure that I had made her comprehend the situation.
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  Speaker 1: Quite apart from the dislike she had of pursuing the subject. However,
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  Speaker 1: there is no doubt that she was then quite compassmenttous.
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  Speaker 1: My reason for urging her to make the will before
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  Speaker 1: her final operation was, of course, that I feared she
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  Speaker 1: might subsequtquently lose the use of her faculties, or, which
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  Speaker 1: comes to the same thing from a business point of view,
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  Speaker 1: might have to be kept continually under the influence of opiates.
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  Speaker 1: Trusting that you will find here the information you require.
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  Speaker 1: I remain yours faithfully, Thomas Probin. Mister MERBLD read this
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  Speaker 1: letter through twice, very thoughtfully. To even his cautious mind,
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  Speaker 1: the thing began to look like the beginnings of a case.
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  Speaker 1: In his neat elderly hand, he wrote a little note
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  Speaker 1: to Detective Inspector Parker, begging him to call at staple
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  Speaker 1: In at his earliest convenience. Mister Parker, however, was experiencing
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  Speaker 1: nothing at that moment, but inconvenience. He had been calling
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  Speaker 1: on solicitors for two whole days, and his soul sickened
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  Speaker 1: at the site of a brass plate. He glanced at
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  Speaker 1: the long list in his hand and distastefully counted up
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  Speaker 1: the scores of names that still remained unticked. Parker was
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  Speaker 1: one of those methodical painstaking people whom the world could
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  Speaker 1: so ill spare when he worked with Whimsy on a case.
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  Speaker 1: It was an understood thing that anything lengthy, intricate, tedious,
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  Speaker 1: and soul destroying was done by Parker. He sometimes felt
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  Speaker 1: that it was irritating of Whimsy to take this so
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  Speaker 1: much for granted. He felt so now. It was a
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  Speaker 1: hot day. The pavements were dusty pieces of paper blue
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  Speaker 1: about the streets. Buses were grilling outside and stuffy inside.
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  Speaker 1: The express dairy, where Parker was eating a hurried lunch,
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  Speaker 1: seemed full of the odors of fried place and boiling
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  Speaker 1: tea urns. Whimsy, he knew, was lunching at his club
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  Speaker 1: before running down with Freddy arbuthnot to see the New Zealanders.
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  Speaker 1: At somewhere or other he had seen him a vision
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  Speaker 1: of exquisite, pale gray ambling gently along pall mall damn Whimsy.
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  Speaker 1: Why couldn't he have let Miss Dawson rest quietly in
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  Speaker 1: her grave there she was doing no harm to anybody,
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  Speaker 1: And Whimsy must insist on prying into her affairs and
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  Speaker 1: bringing the inquiry to such a point that Parker simply
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  Speaker 1: had to take official notice of it. Oh well, he
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  Speaker 1: supposed he must go on with these infernal slicters. He
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  Speaker 1: was proceeding on a system of his own which might
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  Speaker 1: or might not prove fruitful. He had reviewed the sun
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  Speaker 1: subject of the New Property Act and decided that if
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  Speaker 1: and when Miss Whittaker had become aware of its possible
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  Speaker 1: effect on her own expectations, she would at once consider
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  Speaker 1: taking legal advice. Her first thought would, no doubt be
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  Speaker 1: to consult a solicitor in lee Hampton, and unless she
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  Speaker 1: already had the idea of foul play in her mind,
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  Speaker 1: there was nothing to deter her from doing so. Accordingly,
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  Speaker 1: Parker's first move had been to run down to lee
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  Speaker 1: Hampton and interview the three firms of solicitors there. All
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  Speaker 1: three were able to reply quite positively that they had
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  Speaker 1: never received such an inquiry from Miss Whittaker or from
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  Speaker 1: anybody during the year nineteen twenty five. One solicitor, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: the senior partner of Hodgson and Hodgson, to whom Miss
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  Speaker 1: Dawson had entrusted her affairs after her quarrel with mister Probin,
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  Speaker 1: looked a little oddly at Parker when he heard the question,
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  Speaker 1: I assure you, Inspector. He said that if the point
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  Speaker 1: had been brought to my notice in such a way,
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  Speaker 1: I should certainly have remembered it. In the light of
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  Speaker 1: subsequent events. The matter never crossed your mind, I suppose,
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  Speaker 1: said Parker, when the question arose of winding up the
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  Speaker 1: estate and proving Miss Whitaker's claim to inherit. I can't
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  Speaker 1: say it did. Had there been any question of searching
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  Speaker 1: for next of kin, it might. I don't say it
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  Speaker 1: would have occurred to me, but I had a very
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  Speaker 1: clear history of the family connections from mister Probin. The
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  Speaker 1: death took place nearly two months before the Act came
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  Speaker 1: into force, and the formalities all went through more or
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  Speaker 1: less automatically. In fact, I never thought about the Act
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  Speaker 1: Act one way or another. In that connection. Parker said
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  Speaker 1: he was not surprised to hear it, and favored mister
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  Speaker 1: Hodgson with mister Tulkington's learned opinion on the subject, which
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  Speaker 1: interested mister Hodgson very much. And that was all he
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  Speaker 1: got at Leehampton, except that he fluttered Miss Clemson very
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  Speaker 1: much by calling upon her and hearing all about her
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  Speaker 1: interview with vera Findlater, Miss Clemson walked to the station
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  Speaker 1: with him in the hope that they might meet Miss Whittaker.
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  Speaker 1: I am sure you would be very interested to see her,
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  Speaker 1: but they were unlucky on the whole, thought Parker. It
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  Speaker 1: might be just as well. After all. Though he would
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  Speaker 1: like to see Miss Whittaker, he was not particularly keen
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  Speaker 1: on her seeing him, especially in Miss Clemson's company. By
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  Speaker 1: the way, he said to miss Cleen, you had better
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  Speaker 1: explain me in some way to missus Budge, or she
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  Speaker 1: may be a bit inquisitive. But I have replied missus
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  Speaker 1: Clempson with an engaging giggle. When Missus Budge said there
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  Speaker 1: was a mister Parker to see me, of course, I
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  Speaker 1: realized at once that she mustn't know who you were,
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  Speaker 1: so I said quite quickly, mister Parker, oh, that must
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  Speaker 1: be my nephew, Adolphus. You don't mind being a Dolphus,
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  Speaker 1: do you? It's funny, but that was the only name
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  Speaker 1: that came into my mind at the moment. I can't
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  Speaker 1: think why, for I've never known an Adolphus. Miss Clemson,
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  Speaker 1: said Parker solemnly. You are a marvelous woman, and I
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't mind even if you'd called me Marmaduke. So here
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  Speaker 1: he was working out his second line of inquiry. If
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  Speaker 1: Miss Whittaker did not go to a Leehampton solicitor, to
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  Speaker 1: whom would she go? There was mister Probin, of course,
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  Speaker 1: but he did not think she would have selected him.
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  Speaker 1: She would not have known him at Crofton, of course,
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  Speaker 1: she had never actually lived with her great aunts. She
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  Speaker 1: had met him the day he came down to Leehampton
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  Speaker 1: to see Miss Dawson. He had not then taken her
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  Speaker 1: into his confidence about the object of his visit, but
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  Speaker 1: she must have known from what her aunt said that
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  Speaker 1: it had to do with the making of a will.
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  Speaker 1: In the light of her new knowledge, she would guess
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  Speaker 1: that mister Probin had then had the act in mind
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  Speaker 1: and had not thought fit to trust her with the facts.
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  Speaker 1: If she asked him now, he would probably reply that
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  Speaker 1: Miss Dawson's affairs were no longer in his hands and
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  Speaker 1: refer her to mister Hodgson. And besides, if she asked
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  Speaker 1: the ques question and anything work to happen, mister Probin
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  Speaker 1: might remember it. No, she would not have approached mister Probin.
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  Speaker 1: What then, to the person who has anything to conceal,
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  Speaker 1: To the person who wants to lose his identity as
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  Speaker 1: one leaf among the leaves of a forest, To the
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  Speaker 1: person who asks no more than to pass by and
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  Speaker 1: be forgotten. There is one name above others which promises
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  Speaker 1: a haven of safety and oblivion. London, where no one
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  Speaker 1: knows his neighbor, Where shops do not know their customers,
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  Speaker 1: where physicians are suddenly called to unknown patients whom they
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  Speaker 1: never see again. Where you may lie dead in your
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  Speaker 1: house for months together, unmissed and unnoticed till the gas
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  Speaker 1: inspector comes to look at the meter. Where strangers are
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  Speaker 1: friendly and friends are casual. London, whose rather untidy and
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  Speaker 1: grubby bosom is the repository of so many odd secrets, Discreet, incurious,
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  Speaker 1: and all enfolding London. Not that Parker put it that
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  Speaker 1: way to himself. He merely thought ten to one she'd
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  Speaker 1: try London. They mostly think they're safe there, Miss Whittaker
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  Speaker 1: knew London. Of course, she had trained at the Royal Free.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: That meant she would know Bloomsbury better than any other district.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: For nobody knew better than Parker. How rarely Londoners move
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  Speaker 1: out of their own particular little orbit, unless, of course,
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  Speaker 1: she had, at some time during her time at the
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  Speaker 1: hospital been recommended to a solicitor in another quarter. The
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  Speaker 1: chances were that she would have gone to a solicitor
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  Speaker 1: in the Bloomsbury or Holborn district. Unfortunately for Parker, this
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  Speaker 1: is a quarter which swarms with solicitors. Gray's Inn itself
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  Speaker 1: Bedford Row, Holborn Lincoln's Inn. The brass plates grow all
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  Speaker 1: about as thick as blackberries, which was why Parker was
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  Speaker 1: feeling so hot, tired and fed up that June afternoon.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: With an impatient grunt, he pushed away his eggy plate,
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  Speaker 1: paid at the desk please, and crossed the road towards
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  Speaker 1: Bedford Row, which he had marked down as his portion
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  Speaker 1: for the afternoon. He started at the first solicitors he
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  Speaker 1: came to, which happened to be the office of one J. F. Trigg.
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  Speaker 1: He was lucky the youth in the outer office informed
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  Speaker 1: him that mister Trigg had just returned from lunch, was
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  Speaker 1: disengaged and would see him would he walk in. Mister
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  Speaker 1: Trigg was a pleasant, fresh faced man in his early forties.
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  Speaker 1: He begged mister Parker to be seated and asked what
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  Speaker 1: he could do for him for the thirty seventh time.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Parker started on the opening gambit, which he had devised
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  Speaker 1: to suit his purpose. I am only temporarily in London,
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  Speaker 1: mister Trigg, and finding that I need legal advice. I
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: was recommended to you by a man I met in
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  Speaker 1: a restaurant. He did give me his name, but it
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  Speaker 1: has escaped me, and any way, it's of no great importance,
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  Speaker 1: is it. The point is this. My wife and I
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  Speaker 1: have come up to town to see her great aunt,
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  Speaker 1: who is in a very bad way. In fact, she
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  Speaker 1: isn't expected to live well now. The old lady has
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  Speaker 1: always been fond of my wife, don't you see? And
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: it has always been an understood thing that missus Parker
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  Speaker 1: was to come into her money when she died. It's
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  Speaker 1: quite a tidy bit, and we have been, I won't
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  Speaker 1: say looking forward to it, but in a kind of
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  Speaker 1: mild way, counting on it as something for us to
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  Speaker 1: retire upon later on. You understand there aren't any other
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  Speaker 1: relations at all. So though the old lady has often
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  Speaker 1: talked about making a will, we didn't worry much one
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  Speaker 1: way or the other because we took it for granted.
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  Speaker 1: My wife would come in for anything there was. But
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  Speaker 1: we were talking about it to a friend yesterday and
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  Speaker 1: he took us rather aback by saying that there was
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  Speaker 1: a new law or something, and that if my wife's
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  Speaker 1: great aunt hadn't made a will, we shouldn't get anything
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  Speaker 1: at all. I think he said it would all go
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  Speaker 1: to the crown. I didn't think that could be right,
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  Speaker 1: and told him so. But my wife is a bit nervous.
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  Speaker 1: There are the children to be considered, you see, and
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  Speaker 1: she urged me to get legal advice because her great
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  Speaker 1: aunt may go off at any minute, and we don't
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  Speaker 1: know whether there is a will or not. Now how
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  Speaker 1: does a great niece stand under the new arrangements. The
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  Speaker 1: point has not been made very clear, said mister Trigg.
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  Speaker 1: But my advice to you is to find out whether
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  Speaker 1: a will has been made, and if not, to get
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  Speaker 1: one made without delay. If the test a Trix is
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  Speaker 1: capable of making one. Otherwise I think there is a
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  Speaker 1: very real danger of your wife's losing her inheritance. You
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  Speaker 1: seem quite familiar with the question, said Parker with a smile.
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  Speaker 1: I suppose you are always being asked since this new
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  Speaker 1: act came in. I wouldn't say always. It is a
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  Speaker 1: compact naratively rare thing for a great niece to be
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  Speaker 1: left as sole next of kin, is it well? Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I should think it must be. Do you remember being
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  Speaker 1: asked that question in the summer of nineteen twenty five,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: mister Drake? A most curious expression came over the solicitor's face.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: It looked almost like alarm. What makes you ask that
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: you need have no hesitation in answering, said Parker, taking
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: out his official card. I am a police officer and
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: have a good reason for asking. I put the legal
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: point to you first as a problem of my own,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: because I was anxious to have your professional opinion first.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: I see, well, Inspector. In that case, I suppose I
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: am justified in telling you all about it. I was
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: asked that question in June of nineteen twenty five. Do
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: you remember the circumstances? Clearly? I am not likely to
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: forget them, or rather the sequel to them. That sounds interesting.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: Will you tell the story in your own way and
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: with all the details you can remember? Certainly just a moment,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: mister Trigg put his head out into the outer office. Badcock,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: I'm engaged with mister Parker and can't see anybody. Now,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: mister Parker, I am at your service, won't you smoke?
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Parker accepted the invitation and let up his well worn briar,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: while mister Trigg, rapidly smoking cigarette after cigarette, unfolded his
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: remarkable story. End of Chapter seventeen.