“Anyways he’d tell us so,” said Amelia.
“But if we paid him to be more accurate?” said Madame Goesler.
“They is so afraid of being took up themselves,” said Mrs. Meager. There was, however, ample evidence that Mr. Meager had possessed a grey great coat, which during the night of the murder had been left in the little sitting-room, and which they had supposed to have lain there all night. To this coat Mr. Emilius might have had easy access. “But then it was a big man that was seen, and Emilius isn’t no ways a big man. Meager’s coat would be too long for him, ever so much.”
“Nevertheless we must try and get the coat,” said Madame Goesler. “I’ll speak to a friend about it. I suppose we can find your husband when we want him?”
“I don’t know, Ma’am. We never can find him; but then we never do want him—not now. The police know him at the races, no doubt. You won’t go and get him into trouble, Ma’am, worse than he is? He’s always been in trouble, but I wouldn’t like to be means of making it worse on him than it is.”
Madame Goesler, as she again paid the woman for her services, assured her that she would do no injury to Mr. Meager. All that she wanted of Mr. Meager was his grey coat, and that not with any view that could be detrimental either to his honour or to his safety, and she was willing to pay any reasonable price—or almost any unreasonable price—for the coat. But the coat must be made to be forthcoming if it were still in existence, and had not been as yet torn to pieces by the shoddy makers.
“It ain’t near come to that yet,” said Amelia. “I don’t know that I ever see father more respectable—that is, in the way of a great coat.”
LVII
The Beginning of the Search for the Key and the Coat
When Madame Goesler revealed her plans and ideas to Mr. Wickerby, the attorney, who had been employed to bring Phineas Finn through his troubles, that gentleman evidently did not think much of the unprofessional assistance which the lady proposed to give him. “I’m afraid it is farfetched, Ma’am—if you understand what I mean,” said Mr. Wickerby. Madame Goesler declared that she understood very well what Mr. Wickerby meant, but that she could hardly agree with him. “According to that the gentleman must have plotted the murder more than a month before he committed it,” said Mr. Wickerby.
“And why not?”
“Murder plots are generally the work of a few hours at the longest, Madame Goesler. Anger, combined with an indifference to self-sacrifice, does not endure the wear of many days. And the object here was insufficient. I don’t think we can ask to have the trial put off in order to find out whether a false key may have been made in Prague.”
“And you will not look for the coat?”
“We can look for it, and probably get it, if the woman has not lied to you; but I don’t think it will do us any good. The woman probably is lying. You have been paying her very liberally, so that she has been making an excellent livelihood out of the murder. No jury would believe her. And a grey coat is a very common thing. After all, it would prove nothing. It would only let the jury know that Mr. Meager had a grey coat as well as Mr. Finn. That Mr. Finn wore a grey coat on that night is a fact which we can’t upset. If you got hold of Meager’s coat you wouldn’t be a bit nearer to proof that Emilius had worn it.”
“There would be the fact that he might have worn it.”
“Madame Goesler, indeed it would not help our client. You see what are the difficulties in our way. Mr. Finn was on the spot at the moment, or so near it as to make it certainly possible that he might have been there. There is no such evidence as to Emilius, even if he could be shown to have had a latchkey. The man was killed by such an instrument as Mr. Finn had about him. There is no evidence that Mr. Emilius had such an instrument in his hand. A tall man in a grey coat was seen hurrying to the spot at the exact hour. Mr. Finn is a tall man and wore a grey coat at the time. Emilius is not a tall man, and, even though Meager had a grey coat, there is no evidence to show that Emilius ever wore it. Mr. Finn had quarrelled violently with Mr. Bonteen within the hour. It does not appear that Emilius ever quarrelled with Mr. Bonteen, though Mr. Bonteen had exerted himself in opposition to Emilius.”
“Is there to be no defence, then?”
“Certainly there will be a defence, and such a defence as I think will prevent any jury from being unanimous in convicting my client. Though there is a great deal of evidence against him, it is all—what we call circumstantial.”
“I understand, Mr. Wickerby.”
“Nobody saw him commit the murder.”
“Indeed no,” said Madame Goesler.
“Although there is personal similarity, there is no personal identity. There is no positive proof of anything illegal on his part, or of anything that would have been suspicious had no murder been committed—such as the purchase of poison, or carrying of a revolver. The life-preserver, had no such instrument been unfortunately used, might have been regarded as a thing of custom.”
“But I am sure that that Bohemian did murder Mr. Bonteen,” said Madame Goesler, with enthusiasm.
“Madame,” said Mr. Wickerby, holding up both his hands, “I can only wish that you could be upon the jury.”
“And you won’t try to show that the other man might have done it?”
“I think not. Next to an alibi that
