(SEE CHAPTER XVI.)
N.B.: That suitcase.
Lulu Hirst, washerwoman.
The scorched curtains. Muslin. H’m! I wonder!
Scorched. Indeed?
My hat! The suitcase went to the Cottage on the Hill then! J. R. – I see light!
N.B.: Rabbits’ blood? Quite so.
(SEE CHAPTER XVII.)
N.B.: F. must go into Culminster again to find out whether the skull is still there.
N.B.: The murdered man’s clothes consisted of:
Flannel trousers,
Silk scarf,
White tennis-shirt (with detachable collar?),
Cellular vest and trunk drawers.
Tie? . . .
Quite so.
N.B.: The blood on the Stone. Not enough. N.B.: The Stone – a sacrificial altar.
Blood. Sacrifice. The head, then –
Aha!
N.B.: It was M. B. and C. W.
N.B.: Savile again. Robin Hood this time.
It is getting too easy.
(SEE CHAPTER XVIII.)
N.B.: The doctor did not react to ‘consanguinity’ suggestion. Have concluded he is not the murderer.
N.B.: L. H. is terrified. I wonder what she knows?
Questions:
The doctor and Lulu lovers? If so:
Savile jealous?
Wright jealous?
Sethleigh and Lulu lovers? If so:
Motive for Wright –
Savile –
Dr Barnes –
to have murdered Sethleigh?
I wonder.
N.B.: The skull has gone. If Savile moved it, it is in the butcher’s shop, in the drawer beneath the chopping-block where they keep the bones and the bits.
N.B.: Oh, yes! M. B. did meet C. W., and he saw the corpse, I think. That means (see plan) somebody had moved R. S. from the bushes where J. R. had hidden him, and possibly had begun dismembering the body.
Question: Who?
N.B.: That ‘black slug’ again:
Savile?
The doctor?
Not the vicar, I suppose?
(SEE CHAPTER XIX.)
So Savile moved the skull.
Queer that J. R. should have suggested the butcher’s shop.
These notes want rearranging. Let us try a time-table.
TIME-TABLE OF THE MURDER OF RUPERT SETHLEIGH ON SUNDAY, JUNE 22ND.
7.45 p.m. (N.B. – All these times are approximate.): Savile in hiding in the Manor Woods to trap Sethleigh with Lulu Hirst. Did not know that it was the doctor she was going to meet. Armed with weapon – probably axe or billhook.
Near Stone of Sacrifice.
7.55 p.m.: Redsey and Sethleigh go into the Manor Woods, quarrelling.
8.5 p.m.: Redsey knocks Sethleigh down. Fall kills him. Drags body into bushes. Seen by Savile.
Redsey departs for ‘Queen’s Head’ public house.
8.15 p.m.: Savile drags body from bushes.
Lifts on to Stone of Sacrifice.
Decapitates with axe or billhook. Cannot decide whether Sethleigh dead or only stunned.
Disturbed by:
8.30 p.m.: (Supposition only.) Dr Barnes’s and Lulu Hirst’s entry into woods. Has just time to lower headless trunk of Sethleigh to the ground on house side of the Stone, and disappear into bushes with head. Dr Barnes and Lulu do not approach the Stone, however, and Savile does not actually see them.
8.45 p.m.: Savile still in hiding with the head. Cleaver Wright and Margery Barnes sit down on side of Stone facing the Bossbury road (see plan), i.e., opposite side to the corpse.
9.0 p.m.: Margery, alarmed by buffoonery of Cleaver, runs away in circle.
9.1 p.m.: Dr Barnes, disturbed by the sounds of his daughter’s flight, crawls out to reconnoitre, and is observed by Margery – ‘great black slug’. Disappears hastily. Margery runs home, and arrives long before her father.
9.2 p.m.: Cleaver Wright, having risen to his feet and strolled a few steps round the Stone, comes upon the headless trunk of Sethleigh. Flight to ‘Queen’s Head’ to establish alibi for himself.
9.3 p.m.: Savile decides had better cover his tracks a bit, now Wright has seen the corpse. Worms way out of woods, leaving skull and billhook hidden, and returns to Cottage on the Hill, which, of course, is empty. Gets ready large knife, sharpens saw, places both in suitcase, together with muslin curtains. Takes carlamp. Hides all these things where can easily get at them later. Sits down and awaits return of Lulu Hirst and Cleaver Wright.
9.5 p.m.: Doctor and Lulu, afraid of discovery as so many people seem to be about in the woods, seek Bossbury road, and separate. Savile probably ill-treats Lulu when she arrives home, and sees that she goes up to bed early to be out of the way.
9.45 p.m.: Return of Wright in bloodstained and exhausted condition from the fight in the ‘Queen’s Head’. Goes up to bed. Coast clear for Savile.
10.30 p.m.: Return of Dr Barnes as though he had really spent the evening at the major’s.
11.30 p.m.: Savile to woods. Finishes dismembering the corpse. Wraps up the pieces and hides them, ready to take into Bossbury next day. Returns to Cottage with head and clothing of the corpse. Boils the first to remove flesh. Washes the tie (?) and shirt which are slightly bloodstained. Adds the grey flannels to his own wardrobe. (Supposition only.) Places trunk drawers, vest, tie, and shirt in laundry-basket. Lulu washes other people’s clothes besides Savile’s and Wright’s, so her suspicions not aroused. Summer weather. Damp things will soon dry.
