'It was fairly obvious. Bella, of course, knowing the boys so much better than your husband did, was afraid that something of the sort would happen. She went along to see whether Mr. Turney was all right. It was when she discovered that he was going to use the incident to lay a charge against her of attempting to murder him because he had evidence against her for the murder of Aunt Flora that she realized it would be safer for her if he were out of the way. It would be easy enough, she thought, to accuse the boys of the murder. What I can't understand, and what I should like you to explain, if you can, are these points:—'
Muriel shied like a startled horse at the sight of Mrs. Bradley's little notebook.
'I don't suppose I can tell you anything at all,' she said wildly. 'And I don't know at all why she wanted to kill poor Tom and those poor boys. All I know is ...'
'Now, listen, Mrs. Turney,' said Mrs. Bradley. 'First, I can't understand why, with the death certificate duly signed by the doctor, she was afraid of anything which your husband might have to say about the cause of Aunt Flora's death. After all, even an exhumation of the body couldn't have proved the doctor wrong. It was Bella Foxley's word against that of your husband.'
'Ah, but there was the motive, wasn't there? All Aunt's money, except for the little bit left to Eliza Hodge.'
'Ah, yes, the money. But, don't you see, Mrs. Turney, that, even granted a motive, there would be little to gain by accusing Bella of a murder which could not possibly be proved? If your husband had gone to the police with his story he would have been thought a malicious man who was jealous because the woman he was accusing had inherited a fortune to which he may have thought he had some claim. If he had been able to produce other witnesses, or some sort of circumstantial evidence ... but even you yourself could not have supported his statement, could you?'
'Don't you believe, then, that Bella
'That is not the point. At the moment I am pointing out that belief isn't proof, and that the unsupported testimony of one man could not be accepted in a court of law. Now, come along, Mrs. Turney! Why
'I don't know anything more than I've told you already,' said Muriel tearfully. 'I don't see why you won't have it. 1 don't suppose Bella knew any more about the law than 1 do. I still think she believed Tom would give her away.'
'And I still believe that that is nonsense,' said Mrs. Bradley crisply. 'Oh, well, if you won't tell me, I must seek other means of finding out.'
'I'm sure I wish you success,' said Muriel, perking up a little. 'As long as she's punished for it, I don't mind what means you take.'
'It is the death of the boys I am investigating,' Mrs. Bradley reminded her. 'Bella Foxley has already been acquitted of murdering your husband.'
'Well, the boys were killed because they knew she was going to kill Tom,' said Muriel. Mrs. Bradley looked at her for a little time in silence. This apparently caused her some alarm and discomfort, for she added, dropping her eyes, 'Oh, no, it couldn't be that! How silly of me to say that! Unless, of course ...'
'Unless what?'
'Unless, as you thought at first, I believe, it was Bella who pushed Tom out of the' window the first time, and not the boys at all.'
'It was not Bella,' Mrs. Bradley responded. 'If it had been, Tom—your husband—would not have exposed himself a second time to be attacked.'
COUNSEL'S OPINION
Love forbid that through dissembling I should thrive, Or in praising you myself of truth deprive! Let not your high thoughts debase A simple truth in me: Great is Beauty's grace, Truth is yet as fair as she.
CAMPION.
THE trial of Bella Foxley for the murders of Frederick Pegwell and Richard Kettleborough began on Tuesday, November 5th, and was concluded on Friday, November 8th. It was not a sensational trial, as trials go; it had none of the historic horror of the trial of Burke and Hare for the murder of the Widow Dogherty; it did not enhance the reputation of the Counsel for the Defence as did the trial of Mrs. Maybrick for the murder of James Maybrick, her husband; neither did. it achieve that almost sublime position in the annals of the Sunday press which was granted to the trial of Hawley Harvey Crippen for the murder of his wife, Belle Elmore, Cora Turner or Cunigunde Mackamotzi; to the trial of Ronald True for the murder of Gertrude Yates, alias Olive Young; and to the trial of Patrick Mahon for the murder of Emily Kaye in the bungalow on the Grumbles at Eastbourne. Nevertheless, it had its own interest, and received, as Mrs. Bradley admitted to Mr. Pratt later, a very good press.
The trial opened on a fine but chilly morning, with Bella Foxley pleading 'Not Guilty' to the charges brought against her. Muriel and the young seaman, Larry Lawrence, should have been the most damning witnesses for the prosecution, but Muriel made a bad impression, was confused, hesitating, contradictory and nervous, and the defence scored several points in the cross- questioning. Larry, however, was unshakable. He was slow-minded, sure of his facts, unimpressed by his surroundings and obviously certain of Bella Foxley's guilt. Unfortunately, however, his early lapses, for which he had been sent to the Institution, told against him, although they were not referred to in so many words. It was enough that he had been an inmate.
Gradually the story of the crimes emerged, but the most interesting part of the trial from the point of view of the spectators was when Bella Foxley herself went into the witness box to give her own version of the occurrences.
She had heard of the haunted house through an agency, she averred, which sent her advertisements from time to time of such houses. Knowing (she did not give Cousin Tom's name at this point, and was not asked for it in case it should prejudice the jury if they remembered that she had been tried for his murder) that some relatives on her mother's side were interested in psychical research, she had informed them that this particular house was in the market and that she had already visited it and had been greatly impressed by some unaccountable happenings which she had witnessed.
Later (she did not refer to Aunt Flora's death) she went to visit them after they had taken a lease of the house, and they agreed with her that the house was under supernatural influences. She visited them on three or four occasions. The longest single visit that she made lasted from a Friday evening until the following Sunday afternoon. On other occasions, two or three in number, she could not remember exactly how many, she had stayed a single night.
It was represented to her by the prosecution that she had once spent more than a week in the house. She denied this, and then, looking very uncomfortable for the first time since the proceedings had begun, she admitted that she had stayed for several days in a hotel not far from where the house was situated. As this week covered and included the time of Cousin Tom's death, she was not asked to enlarge in any way upon her answer, and it was doubtful, Mrs. Bradley thought, whether the prosecution had scored a point or not, since the jury were not to be encouraged to realize that they were trying a woman who already had been acquitted on one murder charge and was fortunate to have escaped a previous one.
Bella then denied completely that she had had any part in the escape of the two boys from the Institution, that she had connived at it, or that she had the slightest idea of what had happened to them after they had got away.
The defence of stout denial is always a good one, Mrs. Bradley reflected, particularly if the accused does not commit the error of embroidering the denial by producing facts in support of it. Bella Foxley produced none. In effect, she challenged the prosecution to prove that the bodies which had been found in the crypt were those of the two boys who had escaped from the Institution, and she challenged them to show that she had had any knowledge of the whereabouts of the boys after they had escaped.
'All over bar the shouting,' wrote Mr. Pratt to Mrs. Bradley in the court. She grimaced at him in reply. It was Larry against Bella, she knew, for Muriel could not have done more to prejudice the case in favour of the prisoner if she had been on the opposite side; and Larry, poor fellow, still had his boyhood to live down. Bella herself appeared to have no doubt of the result. She remained calm, almost phlegmatic, self-assured and clearheaded.
A scale model of the haunted house had been prepared, and from it Mrs. Bradley had made clear her discovery of the passage connecting the well with the crypt and of her further discovery of how simple a matter it was, with the aid of two boys, to reproduce psychical phenomena of
The old caretaker had referred to screams, shouts and moans which had come up 'through the floor' of the house, but his evidence did not stand the test of cross-examination by the defence, for he was confused as to dates, and ended by agreeing (although he did not, to the end, realize this !) that he had imagined the whole thing. Miss Biddle's charwoman fared no better at the hands of Counsel for the Defence.
'You'll never get her, Mother,' said Ferdinand, gloomily. 'She's as guilty as hell, but old Crodders has got you on toast. You see, you yourself can't speak to anything except the finding of the bodies, and although Muriel ought to have been able to slam the nail on the head that they were the bodies of those particular wretched kids, she didn't do it. Scared of finding her own neck in the noose; that's the trouble with her.'
'Oh, I knew she'd make a thoroughly bad witness,' said Mrs. Bradley comfortably. Her son gaped at her, but she did not enlarge upon her answer.
The cross-questioning of
