Spotted Hemlock

students in her hostel and that they preferred to think of her as Norah Coles and not as Norah Palliser. Coupled closely with this is the fact that the first student to see the body immediately identified it as Palliser. Of course, the college authorities still knew her as Palliser, but I noticed that a warning, in the form of a kick on the ankle, was given to one student who might have become too talkative. You see, the students had had to be taken into Mrs Coles’ confidence over the matter of this daring impersonation.’

Laura stared at her employer. ‘You mean that Palliser was actually in college as Coles?’

‘I haven’t any doubt of it.’

‘But—since when?’

‘I do not think that Mrs Coles returned to college after the summer vacaton. I think her sister came back in her place then, and the students in her hostel had to be told, in order that they might help in perpetuating the fiction.’

‘What about the head of the hostel, though, apart from the lecturers?’

‘Cast your mind back to your own student days, and remember that Mrs Coles was not much of a public figure in the college. Her work was adequate, she played no games, she got into no trouble and her sister was sufficiently like her for the mother to make a mistake in identifying the body.’

‘What was Norah Coles’ idea, then?’

‘To be with Mr Basil.’

‘So that was the reason for the broken leg business! Oh, yes, of course. What’s more, I see the point now of the postmistress’ evidence that Palliser had served in an agricultural college. Well, I’m dashed! Then who administered the poison?’

‘Presumably somebody who did not know of the imposture.’

‘Old Biancini!’

Dame Beatrice shook her head.

‘Do not forget that, although the prosecution does not need to show motive in a case of murder, it is, from the layman’s point of view, a matter of enormous importance. A motiveless, or apparently motiveless, murder, unless it is committed by a homicidal maniac, is a murder unrelished by the public, who, after all, are represented by the jury. “But why should you think he did it, if he had no reason to do it?” they are apt to enquire.’

‘One can see their point,’ said Laura. ‘Anyway, in this case, we do know that he disliked the girl.’

‘Not at all. It was the girl who disliked him. Besides, the strongest motive in the world (according to the available statistics) is the hope of financial gain. Now, Biancini had no such hope. Mrs Coles’ inheritance was already in her possession, and, unless she made a will, it would revert to her husband upon her death.’

‘Coles? But Coles wouldn’t hurt a fly! He’s the complete art student, absorbed in his painting and in his future, and all that sort of thing.’

‘Mr Coles has no particular reason to love his wife, you know, and he does need money very badly, I’m afraid. Besides, by that time, he must have known that he’d been cuckolded, and that is not a situation to appeal to most husbands. I think that, although his motive was the expectation of money, he salved his conscience by reminding himself of the other things. He had even found out Basil’s name.’

‘It sounds likely enough, when you put it that way. The only trouble is that I can’t connect it with the man himself. He just doesn’t seem the type for a cold-blooded killer. And another thing: how did he know about the coniine? I shouldn’t think it’s generally known that the spotted hemlock can be deadly. Again, how was it administered? He could hardly have gone to the college and poured it down the girl’s throat. Besides, if he had, he’d have known that the person he was poisoning wasn’t his wife. How do you work all that out?’

‘I don’t know how he knew about the coniine, but I suspect that Norah Coles had told him, probably just as an item of interest. There is lots of spotted hemlock about the Calladale grounds and she may have—indeed, I think she must have—told him of its properties. It would have seemed to him a sort of poetic justice to poison her with it, I dare say.’

‘I wonder how long it took him to distil the stuff?’

‘He may have experimented for months.’

‘When you said he would have shown more imagination if he hadn’t talked so much, were you thinking about the coniine?’

‘Chiefly, yes. He felt himself perfectly safe at our last interview and made the mistake all murderer’s make—he underestimated the opposition’s brains.’

chapter twenty

Painter’s Colic

‘ “What, do you think it is a fox?” “Yes,” replied Ernest, “I think it is a golden fox.”’

Ibid.

‘ “ …you must know that, according to naturalists, the jackal partakes the nature of a wolf, a fox, and a dog.”’

Ibid.

« ^

We find ourselves confronted by a tortuous mind,’ said Dame Beatrice. ‘Nevertheless, I think we have enough to convince ourselves of the truth. Whether, on the evidence we can offer, Coles will be arrested and charged, I cannot say, but I believe the inspector is prepared to take the risk. The strength of Coles’ position is that he took nobody into his confidence except, to some extent, the dead woman.’