‘Agreed. So what?’
‘What would you say is the primary approach by the police to a case of murder?’
‘That’s an easy one. They try to find out who, if anybody, gains (especially financially) by the death.’
‘Exactly. Let us then approach the subject, bearing this intelligent gambit in mind.’
‘I see what you mean, of course, but it’s not going to help.’
‘Why not?’
‘Well, it might work in the case of Karen Schumann. We think of three people who might benefit by her death, but, after that, we come to a full stop.’
‘Elucidate.’
‘Well, Karen seems to have won some money on Ernie …’
‘Five thousand pounds.’
‘Chicken-feed to the Rothschilds, but possibly a goodly sum to the Schumanns.’
‘Proceed.’
‘Right. If and when Karen died, three people, or any one or any two of them – we must preserve a broad outlook – could benefit from what she left. These people are her fiancé James, her mother, and her brother Otto.’
‘Who claims that half the money belonged to him by right.’
‘So, other things being equal, which they weren’t, I’d suggest that Otto, to get his share of the cash, murdered his sister.’
‘Which we know he could not have done.’
‘If I were the police, I’d have a second, yes, a forty-second look at that alibi of his. He’s just the type, I would have said, never to entertain scruples, and the second murder – the Spanish girl – keeps him right in the picture, you know.’
‘Sad, but true. Well, now, Otto has murdered his sister. Unfortunately for him, all her money has been willed to her mother, as Mrs Schumann herself has told us.’
‘She didn’t mention the five thousand.’
‘I wonder what Edward James thought of the arrangement that the death of his fiancée would benefit nobody but her mother?’
‘Thought the will would be changed once they were married, don’t you think?’
‘Then the last thing he would want to do, surely, would be to eliminate his fiancée before they were married.’
‘You mean Pass, James, all’s well, do you?’
‘Well, I feel that I have stated my conclusions already. Let us go further.’
‘And fare worse? Right – if you think so. Let’s consider the case of Otto Schumann in further detail. Now, it doesn’t seem as though he can possibly have actually murdered his sister, but can he have murdered her by proxy?’
‘My dear Laura!’
‘Well, such things have been known. I don’t want to refer to recent cases, but …’
‘Very well. Otto Schumann could have prevailed upon a third person to kill his sister. The motive for his desire to take her life is clear and, to some minds, acceptable. And then?’
‘Well, the police haven’t found this substitute, and neither have we, but it doesn’t prove his non-existence.’
‘True. This brings us to the death of Maria Machrado.’
‘Well, it still seems to me that Otto could have had a motive there, all right.’
‘If Otto were like Edward James, I could agree with you, but, as I see it, they are men of widely different character.’
‘The girl was pregnant.’
‘Apparently it is impossible to show that Otto was responsible for that. She seems to have been a young woman of many lovers.’
‘Still, he seems to have been the current issue.’
‘You ignore the passage of time. Otto was probably on the high seas when the girl conceived. Are you suggesting that her pregnancy was also by proxy?’
‘Don’t press your advantage! I’m being serious. Apart from anything else, James couldn’t have had anything against her, could he?’
‘Not so far as we know. One cannot say more than that. He must have met her at Mrs Schumann’s cottage, of course. We concluded that such was the case.’
‘We know she was going to have a baby, and I still believe it was Otto’s. You said he was probably on the high seas when she conceived, but it came out that they’d known one another quite a bit before she ever came to England, and he admits she travelled on his ship.’
‘Granted. I agree, therefore, that the baby might have been Otto’s.’
‘Well, the Spaniards being what they are, her brothers would have killed him if ever it had come out. He murdered her to stop her telling them who the father was. What do you say to that?’
‘Most plausible. Otto killed his sister by proxy, either because he expected that she would have mentioned him in her will, or out of revenge because she refused to give him half of the five thousand pounds which he claimed was his own; then he killed Maria Machrado for the reason you have stated. The trouble is to account for the other deaths, if all the murders were committed by the same person. That is where I think the case against Otto Schumann breaks up. We have found no shadow of connection between him, the Italian maid Lucia, Mrs Castle and now this Irish girl who came from Swansea. Indeed, I think this last death exonerates Otto almost completely.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘Swansea is a port. His ship must sometimes have called there. We could find that out.’
‘You mean he could have got to know her there? Granted. But he may have preferred to murder her somewhere else.’
‘We had better find out whether she was pregnant, whether by proxy or otherwise,’ said Dame Beatrice.
‘All right, all right!’ said Laura, grinning. ‘I still think Otto stays in the picture. Well, tomorrow morning I renew my studies of heresy. I shall be able to write a book on it by the time I’ve finished. The odd thing about these heretics, you know, is that they all seem to have been so well-meaning. They were in advance of their time, that’s all.’
‘Well in advance of it, in some cases,’ commented Dame Beatrice, ‘although even the most advanced of them have not caught up with some of our modern theories concerning the nature of the Deity. But let that pass. We are concerned with an
