Such Is Death (21 page)

Moore nodded, and Carolus went on to describe in detail Lobbin's appearance and behaviour in the bar, both before and after his dramatic announcement.

“The bar was crowded at the time,” said Carolus, “mostly with people I did not know, but there were also a number I had met while I was mooning round making enquiries.”

“Is that what you call it? Go on.”

“Your policeman Sitwell came in with a very showy young woman.”

“I know.”

“And the parson who was on the promenade on the night of Ernest's murder was showing himself a good mixer with a glass of ginger ale.”

Carolus described Mr Morsell's care of Lobbin.

“I know,” said Moore again, “he came round here with him. I had quite a job to get rid of him. Officious type and I don't like all that ‘old man' stuff.”

“Bodger was in,” said Carolus, “and a man called Stringer.”

“How did you run into him?”

“He too was on the promenade that night, though I don't think Sitwell saw him. He spoke to Morsell, who is his Vicar.”

“I know the man.”

“Then there was a man called Biggett,” said Carolus slyly, for he remembered that Moore had not yet traced the ‘muffled-up' figure of the night of the murder. He thought that Moore was unlikely to admit this.

“Who?”

“Biggett. A Londoner who has recently come to live here. Retired.”

“Do I know him?”

“I can't say. He's short and stout and walks about the promenade at night muffled up to the eyes.”

Moore grinned.

“You mean?”

“Yes. I found him,” said Carolus, “quite by luck, of course.”

Carolus give Biggett's full name and address, which Moore wrote down.

“What is rather interesting about him is that he travelled down from London with Ernest Rafter that day. Ernest told him, quite frankly, that he was going to his family for money.”

“How did you meet this man?”

“He continued his walks after the event, though avoiding Sitwell, I gather. He is a creature of habit.” Carolus enlarged on this. “He always had two half-pints of beer on Christmas night and that, he said, was why he came to the Queen Victoria this evening. He arrived at the bar while I was outside Lobbin's shop waiting for you.”

“Waiting for me! In another moment you'd have been up those stairs.”

“At all events that is just when he arrived.”

“It seems to have been quite a party in the bar. Anyone else?”

“The Bullamys, of course.”

“Why, ‘of course ‘?”

“They're in every evening.”

“Are they? I admit I was rather interested in the Bullamys before this second murder. I've had a report on them from Australia. Somewhat shady characters. She did a short term of imprisonment some ten years ago. More recently they appeared to have come into or obtained a large sum of money and decided to ‘retire', they said—though it was hard to know from what they were
retiring. They gave out that they were going to live in England and here they are.”

“Is there any evidence that they knew Rafter?”

“None, though they were in Brisbane at the same time. However, you say they were in the bar. Do you know what time they came in?”

“About eight, I think. That's their usual time. I noticed them talking to Lobbin once—nothing unusual about that. Earlier in the evening Emma Rafter came in for a quick drink, by the way. She often does.”

Moore did not seem much interested in that. But he was appreciative of Carolus's information about the bar's customers that night.

“Very useful, Carolus. Any other bits and pieces you've picked up?”

“One or two. All connected with the first murder. I'm afraid you'll consider most of them irrelevant now. Though perhaps not the fact that Lobbin left the bar of the Queen Victoria for a short time on the night Ernest was killed. That night, as tonight, he had quarrelled with his wife. Apparently when he had had a drink he worried about it and when round to see her, but found her just as intractable and returned.”

“I get the full point of that,” said Moore.

“You know all about the scene between Mrs Dalbinney and Lobbin's wife?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“And the movements of Emma Rafter and Isobel Dalbinney that night? They went for a breather on the promenade and saw Lobbin near the Palatine Cinema at soon after ten.”

“Yes. I know about that.”

“Morsell's finding the public lavatory closed …”

“No. What's that?”

Carolus told him and went on to the Bullamys and the man they saw crossing the road.

“They came and told me that. But only a few days ago. They did not mention it when I first saw them.”

“I think I scared them into coming to you. Then I
take it Locksley Rafter has told you of his movements that night?'

“Oh yes. He seemed to want to convince me that he had been quite near the shelter at the time of the murder.”

“Curious, isn't it? The only other thing I have to tell you is that Ernest Rafter had an envelope full of treasury notes in his breast pocket that night. Did you know that?”

“I did not actually know he had it on him, but I knew he received an envelope with money in it. His King's Cross landlady says that the only letter he received during his two weeks with her contained money, because he immediately pulled out some notes and paid her. Unfortunately it was not registered or we could have traced the sender.”

“And it was not found on the body?”

“No envelope containing money. Seven pounds in a pocket case in his hip pocket.”

“So robbery could have been the motive?”

“It could, I suppose. Or one of the motives.”

“Or the money could have been removed to suggest robbery?”

“That, too.”

“Or the corpse could have been rifled by someone other than the murderer?”

“I suppose that can't be ruled out.”

“Look, John. You're putting on your old air of inscrutability. Do you think you know who killed Ernest Rafter?”

“I can't answer that just now, Carolus.”

“And Bella Lobbin?”

“I'm holding her husband.'

“Have you sufficient evidence for that?”

“Enough to charge him. I can't do anything else.”

“I'd like to know your case, as it stands.”

“First of all it's a matter of common sense. Unless you want me to believe that there are two murderers in this town.”

“I don't want you to believe anything.”

“It all boils down to motive, Carolus. As usual. Tell me who else in the word had motives for murdering both these people? Lobbin has made a statement in which he admits recognizing Ernest Rafter as a collaborator of the Japanese, who helped to make his life, and that of other prisoners, a greater hell than it already was. He denies having spoken to him, but says he saw him in the bar of the Queen Victoria that night and, although at first he was uncertain, he was afterwards quite sure of his man. I conclude that since you say Ernest had a wad of money on him Lobbin could have seen him pull it out in the Queen Victoria. So even if it was robbery …”

“Other people could have seen that. The barmaid in fact did see it and I daresay the Bullamys could have done so.”

“As I've told you, I don't think the principal motive was robbery. The very way in which the murder was done argues a maniacal hatred.”

“Or a maniacal something-or-other.”

“I think Lobbin recognized Ernest, heard him say he was going to the promenade, went home and got his weapon …”

“But he still had a coal-hammer in his shop afterwards.”

“He could have had two, surely? Followed him down to the promenade, murdered and robbed him. I am driven to this conclusion because no one else had motive
and
opportunity.”

“So far as we know.'

“Then the second murder. The side door of the house had not been forced. Only Lobbin and his wife had keys.”

“I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, John, but I think it may be helpful to point out snags. Mrs Lobbin could have opened the door to the murderer if it wasn't Lobbin.”

“She could have. But wait. We come to motive once again. Tell me who else in the world could have a motive for killing that woman? Lobbin had suffered from her tongue for twenty years. He made no secret of the kind
of hell she made his life. She had killed his (perhaps silly, but to him very real) ambition to write. There is an end to everyone's patience and I think he reached his tonight.”

“You haven't convinced me yet. And I don't believe you're quite convinced yourself.”

“I haven't had detailed reports yet, but I do know that the only fingerprints found in the room are those of Lobbin and his wife. Moreover the hammer used belonged to them.”

“It had been lying in the shop for some days. Bella Lobbin kept it as an exhibit to show it had not been used to murder Ernest. Anyone could have seen it there.”

“But the street door of the shop was locked. Did Bella Lobbin allow this mysterious murderer of yours to go down from the rooms above the shop to fetch the hammer with which to kill her? Who else could have got it
but
her husband?”

“Circumstantial,” said Carolus annoyingly.

“Then time. On a first examination the police surgeon, who reached the place at half past nine, an hour after Lobbin claims to have found his wife dead, thinks death occurred between one and three hours before he saw the body. So Lobbin could either have killed her before going to the pub and then gone back to ‘find' her dead, or during the seven minutes while he was absent. At all events it seems, again on a preliminary examination, that this time the blows were unmistakably the work of a powerful man. In the other case the hammer was heavier and could have been used by almost anyone. This time a man of Lobbin's build is strongly suggested.”

“What does Lobbin himself say to all this?”

“Denies it, of course. But can't suggest anyone else who might have a motive for killing his wife.”

“I should like to be the barrister defending him. I don't think you have a chance of convicting him on what you've told me.”

“But you take no account of the experts' evidence.
That is all to come. I shall be surprised if it isn't conclusive.”

“If it is, I shall have nothing more to say. I'm the last to under-rate the importance of expert evidence in a case like this. I've got nothing to show against it. But I'm going to ask you one thing, John, in return for what I've been able to tell you tonight. It's all-important to me. Will you let me know whether your experts agree on one point? That Bella Lobbin was killed by the hammer found beside her; that is, the hammer from the shop?”

“You want to introduce a new hammer?”

“Not necessarily. But I do want an answer to that. It can be no breach of confidence, because that evidence would have to come out in Court afterwards. If it wasn't, if some other weapon was used, I may have something worth putting to you. If it was, my notions are probably wrong.”

“I'll remember your request,” said Moore guardedly.

“One other thing. Was anyone else seen approaching Lobbin's shop this evening?”

“That's a foolish question, Carolus. It's a busy little street. Even if anyone had been watching it all the evening they could only say that a number of people had passed. Most of those you observed in the pub for instance.”

“And was anyone watching?”

“Not that I know of. There's a woman who keeps the sweetshop opposite whom I questioned this evening, but she says she saw nothing, never looked out of her window, heard nothing, knows nothing and wouldn't tell us anyway if she did. She was prosecuted for selling short weight some months ago and has a violent hatred for the police. But I gained the impression she really didn't see anything, even Lobbin's going out or return. You can try her, if you like. Mrs Cocking, her name is. I wish you luck with her.”

“Thanks. I will.”

“I don't know what you're up to, Carolus, or what
wonderfully abstruse theory you are going to pull out of your hat, but you can't get away from motive. It's the key which opens everything. Only one man, as I have told you, had the opportunity and motive in the first murder. Only one man had opportunity and motive in the second murder. And
it's the same man.
What more do you want?”

“Evidence,” said Carolus.

“We'll get that tomorrow when our reports come in. Even bloodstains.”

“What bloodstains?”

“On Lobbin's overcoat. When he returned to the pub.”

“Presumably he made sure that his wife was dead.”

“There wasn't much need for that,” said Moore.

“Still, it's not extraordinary that someone who discovers a corpse in that condition should afterwards find that somehow or other …”

“All right, Carolus. Only you talked about evidence. That's the sort of evidence a jury wants. They love bloodstains.”

“Are we talking about the same thing? I want to find the truth. You seem to be interested chiefly in a conviction.”

“That's not fair, Carolus.

“Perhaps not. But you can't help being a policeman, John. I don't mean by that that you'd try to get a man hanged unless you were convinced. Only you naturally want to tidy up every case you handle with a conviction. It's your job. However, it's past one o'clock and I suppose you mean to be up bright and early.”

John Moore detained him a few minutes longer, however.

“You said just now you might have what you called something worth putting to me. Does that mean you have a theory?”

“The beginnings of what may become one.”

“Does it cover both the crimes?”

Carolus seemed to consider this before answering.