Dance to Your Daddy

'I was expecting them both to visit me, and I thought it more likely, when I found the body, that an absent-minded clergyman would have taken a wrong turning to my house and fallen over the cliff, than that a business-like young man, such as a secretary, would have done so.'

'Had you any reason to think that Mr Hubert was absent-minded?'

'It is a thing one connects with scholars and clergymen.'

'You thought, then, that the deceased had missed his way and fallen over the cliff?'

'Yes, it was the obvious thing to think.'

'What did you do, after you had found the body?'

'I returned to my car and drove to the nearest coast-guard station.'

'Were you present when the body was recovered?'

'Yes, I came back with assistance, and pointed out where the body was lying.'

'Did you do anything more?'

'Oh, I knew that the doctor would see to anything that was necessary. The police sent for Dr Randall at once, of course, and he had the body moved to the infirmary, where Detective-Inspector Kirkby saw it.'

'But you still did not realise that the death was not accidental, but was caused by suicide or murder?'

'No, of course I did not realise it. There was no reason, so far as I knew, for one of my nephews to commit suicide, particularly as I was still convinced that the body was that of Hubert, to whom, with his beliefs, suicide would have been a deadly sin, and one hardly thinks of one's close relatives being murdered.'

'Suicide is indeed a 'deadly' sin. I think we may agree with you there. When you heard that the body had received a stab wound, what were your reactions?'

'Until much later, I had no idea in what form death had taken place, except that I concluded it was either from the fall from the cliffs or by drowning. It was a great surprise to me, and I may say a considerable shock, when I knew that Detective-Inspector Kirkby was treating the case as one of murder. He has haunted my house continually since I reported the discovery of the body, but gave me no details as to the cause of death. I had assumed, of course, that it was accidental.'

'You have heard now that death was the result of a wound caused by stabbing.'

'Yes.'

'Did you pick up a sword which you found lying in the grass on the cliffs above the part of the coast known as Dancing Ledge?'

'Yes.'

'Did you show it to the police?'

'Yes. I thought it might be dangerous if children got hold of it.'

'Did you recognise it as being your property?'

'No, it doesn't belong to me.'

'Thank you, Mr Lestrange. Call Marlene Cobb.'

This woman was Romilly's cook. The sword was handed to her.

'Do you recognise this weapon?'

'That I do.'

'You have seen it before, then?'

'Ah, at Christmas time.'

'Under what circumstances, Mrs Cobb?'

'Beg pardon?'

'Why do you relate this sword to Christmas time?'

'Because the master cut the cake with it. Very lively and many goings-on had there been atween him and Mrs Judith, so-calling herself housekeeper, and very blaspheemious he was.'

'Indeed? What do you mean by that?'

'He told me to ice the cake with the words, 'The family, God bless 'em,' which I done.'

'That doesn't-that is not blasphemous, is it?'

'No, but after the goings-on-something shocking they was-he cuts the cake with this 'ere knife what you're showing me, and as he does it he gives a kind of a nasty giggle and he says, 'I come not to bring peace, but a sword.' Wouldn't you call that blaspheemious?'

'And you are certain that this is the same sword? How can you be sure?'

'Because I be sure. That's how.'

'Well,' said the coroner, when Marlene Cobb had been dismissed, 'I will now ask the jury to retire and consider their verdict, reminding them that this is primarily an enquiry into the cause of death. It is not a criminal court.'

'Might I ask a question?' said a woman juror. 'There is a point I'd like to clear up. The defendant-I mean Mr Lestrange-identified the body as that of the Reverend Hubert. Isn't it equally likely that Mr Rose, the hotel