‘Not the man who found the body next morning, was it?’ asked Sian excitedly. ‘In detective stories, it’s usually the finder who did it!’
Richard shook his head and told them the rest of what the solicitor had written.
‘At least this fellow Toms won’t hang… because he’s already dead! That’s how it came to light a few days ago. He was in a drunken fight in some other back-street poker game in St Paul’s and got his neck slashed in a knife fight. He bled to death at the scene, but made a dying declaration in the presence of a local doctor and a police officer, in which he confessed to killing Arthur Shaw. It happened at two o’clock in the morning during a row over an accusation of cheating in the poker game, in which Roscoe lost a lot of money to Shaw.’
‘Will that be enough to exonerate Millie Wilson?’ asked Moira. ‘What’s this “dying declaration” business?’
‘I’m a bit hazy myself,’ admitted Richard. ‘It’s a rare event, but as far as I recall, a person must be dying and know that he has no hope of survival, when it’s assumed that he would have no motive for not telling the truth. In those circumstances, any statement he makes in the presence of more than one witness is admissible in evidence.’
‘At least that’s more than ours was at the High Court!’ remarked Angela, rather bitterly.
Moira nodded sagely. ‘And it gives a new twist to the meaning of “natural justice” that we were talking about last month!’
