The Port Fairy Murders (28 page)

‘Given that he’s suspected of having murdered two people, I’d have to allow the possibility. If you’d asked me yesterday if Selwyn Todd posed a danger to anyone, I’d have said no, and I’d have said it with absolute confidence. There are marks on his body that might explain why he snapped, if he did. The doc examined him, and said that he had welts on his back and on his buttocks consistent with being beaten.’

‘I noticed those when he came out of that shed of his,’ Halloran said.

HELEN AND JOE
sat at a picnic table in the yard of the station, with their notebooks open. Inspector Halloran and Constable Manton stood nearby. Constable Filan brought Selwyn Todd out of his cell. He was dressed in baggy trousers and a shirt that was too small for him, which was all that Filan had been able to find at short notice. Selwyn’s hands were manacled, and he kept pulling at them as if he couldn’t quite understand why his arms could move so far and no further. Filan spoke soothingly to him.

‘There are some people here who want to ask you a few questions, Selwyn. All right?’

Selwyn giggled and tried again to pull his hands apart. Paddy Filan led him to the table and sat him down opposite Helen and Joe.

‘Hello, Selwyn. My name is Helen.’

Selwyn giggled so that his jowls wobbled, and saliva made his protuberant lower lip glisten.

‘My name is Joe, Selwyn.’

Joe raised his hand to wipe sweat from his face. The movement made Selwyn flinch, and he automatically put his manacled hands up to protect his face. His giggling stopped, and he became wary.

‘It’s all right, Selwyn. No one’s going to hit you,’ Joe said. ‘Are there people who hit you?’

Selwyn gave no indication that he understood the question. When no blow came, he relaxed and made small, incoherent sounds.

‘Do you remember what happened this morning, Selwyn?’ Helen asked. ‘Did anybody make you very angry?’

Selwyn looked about him, focussing not on the people in the yard, but on a tree, the sky, and a bird that landed on the fence. The bird ruffled its feathers, and Selwyn giggled. Both his legs began to jiggle uncontrollably, and he seemed distressed. Paddy Filan guessed that he needed to go to the toilet.

‘Toilet, Selwyn?’

Selwyn still said nothing. He simply jiggled more vigorously. Paddy helped him up and showed him the backyard dunny. The handcuffs now caused Selwyn to panic.

‘He can’t work out what to do,’ Paddy said.

‘Free his hands,’ Halloran said, ‘before the poor man soils himself.’

As soon as the cuffs were removed, Selwyn hurried to the toilet. He didn’t bother closing the door, and the odour of carbolic and sawdust drifted into the yard as Selwyn emptied his bladder into the can. When he’d finished he turned around, unsure what he should do next.

‘I think you can take Selwyn back inside, Constable,’ Inspector Halloran said. ‘And don’t bother with handcuffs.’

With Selwyn gone, Halloran asked Helen and Joe for their impressions.

‘Does he speak?’ Helen asked.

‘His sister reckons he speaks when he’s at home, because he feels safe there.’

‘Did you see how he flinched when I made a sudden movement?’ Joe said. ‘I’d say he’s used to pretty harsh treatment, and that home isn’t a safe place at all.’

‘His sister is adamant that he’s more intelligent than he appears.’

‘His sister is lying,’ Helen said. ‘I’m not saying he mightn’t be capable of sudden, explosive violence. Is there any history of him losing his temper, or hurting animals? Anything at all?’

Paddy Filan had returned to the yard, and said that nobody in Port Fairy had ever reported seeing Selwyn do anything out of the ordinary. They were scared of him, but not because they thought he might hurt them. It was because he was so … Paddy struggled for the right word. ‘I suppose he’s just so … other. That’s the only way I can describe it. He’s other.’

‘Miss Todd believes that he might have been following the instructions of someone who wanted to teach Matthew a lesson,’ Helen said.

‘Do you think Selwyn Todd, now that you’ve met him, is capable of retaining an instruction, let alone carrying it out?’ Inspector Halloran asked.

‘No, sir. I don’t.’

‘Sergeant Sable?’

‘No, sir. He couldn’t work out how to open his flies with handcuffs on. Managing a hit on his niece and nephew seems impossible.’

‘I’ll take you to the house and introduce you to Miss Agnes Todd.’

THE FIRST THING
that struck both Helen and Joe at Aggie Todd’s house was the lack of disturbance. There was a faint odour of Matthew Todd’s body, and they could see dried blood on the lawn in the backyard.

‘The report said that there were no fingerprints on the handle of the shovel,’ Helen said.

‘That’s right.’

‘So whoever wiped it down understood about fingerprints. Aggie Todd claims that she actually saw Selwyn swing the shovel.’

‘She does.’

‘Is she suggesting he wiped it down afterwards?’

‘That’s a question you can ask her yourself. She’s had a good few hours to think about what happened here. I’ll be interested to hear how she answers your questions.’

Helen and Joe examined the inside of Selwyn’s shed, and Joe expressed his disbelief that a person could be banished there when the house had a spare bedroom.

‘I got the impression that Miss Todd didn’t consider Selwyn house-trained.’

‘You can’t accuse her of starving him at least,’ Joe said, ‘although I don’t imagine she ever sat down with him at the dining-room table.’

The sheet on Selwyn’s bed was stained with blood, and the slate was where the photograph indicated it would be.

‘No prints on the slate, either,’ Halloran said.

Helen peered down at the slate and frowned.

‘It’s so obvious, isn’t it?’ she said.

‘Yes. If Selwyn was the last person to handle that slate, his prints would be all over it.’

‘Well, that too,’ she said.

‘There’s something else?’

‘I’d like to talk to Aggie Todd.’

Neither Helen nor Joe was expecting a frail old lady after the sharp riposte that Inspector Halloran had given to Constable Adams. Nevertheless, it was difficult to read the emotions in Aggie’s face, which was composed, but tense.

As for Aggie, she was astonished to find herself being questioned by a woman. Initially, even though Helen led off, Aggie directed her answer to Joe. They asked her the same questions Halloran had asked, and Constable Filan took notes.

‘You’ve been very patient, Miss Todd,’ Helen said. ‘This must be very difficult for you.’

‘I don’t know what I’m going to say to Matthew and Rose’s parents tomorrow. I really don’t. It’s just beginning to hit me now. The town will be devastated by Matthew’s death.’

‘And your niece’s death, too?’ Joe said.

‘Yes, of course. Both their deaths will upset people terribly.’

‘There are one or two things I’d like to clarify with you, if I may, Miss Todd?’

Aggie Todd nodded. Inwardly she was wary of this plain young woman who spoke to her as if she, Aggie Todd, were her equal. She was used to a certain level of respect in the town.

‘You’re very clear that Selwyn was in the front room subduing Matthew, and when he’d finished, he came out and attacked Rose.’

‘I’ve already explained to the inspector that Selwyn would have made the room tidy if anything had been knocked over. That’s why it was so neat.’

‘Yes, I see. I just want to be absolutely clear about this. You heard Matthew and Selwyn scuffling, is that right?’

‘Yes.’

‘Matthew didn’t call out?’

Aggie couldn’t remember if she’d told the inspector whether Matthew had made any sound. Should she change her story, and tell them what she believed to be the truth about Matthew’s death — that Rose had murdered him? She could still stand by her version of Rose’s death. Why hadn’t she thought of this earlier? She’d sleep on it, and construct a convincing reason for lying about Selwyn and Matthew fighting. They’d understand an aunt’s reluctance to accuse her own niece. For now, she’d stick to the version she’d given Inspector Halloran.

‘I can’t think. I’m sorry — it was all so fast and hideous. I don’t think Matthew cried out. No, I’m sure he didn’t. There was just the noise of them fighting. Selwyn is strong.’

‘And when the fighting stopped, Selwyn came out of the front room …’

‘He came out, walked right past me, and attacked poor Rose. He bashed her with that shovel as if she was no more than a fence post or something.’

Helen left a gap for Joe to jump in.

‘Miss Todd,’ he said. ‘At the time you say Selwyn was noisily fighting Matthew, Matthew had been dead for at least fours — maybe more.’

Aggie’s mouth dropped open, and the colour drained from her face. Helen didn’t give her an opportunity to speak.

‘I want to talk to you about Selwyn’s confession.’

It hadn’t occurred to Aggie that the police would know the time of Matthew’s death, and in her panic she hadn’t heard Helen’s question.

‘Miss Todd?’

Inspector Halloran was curious as to why neither Helen nor Joe was capitalising on the time-of-death discrepancy. With admiration, he realised what the strategy was: strip Aggie Todd of all her lies, and deny her the opportunity to deal with them one at a time.

‘Miss Todd?’ Helen repeated. ‘Selwyn’s confession?’

Almost with relief, Aggie remembered the confession.

‘Yes, that’s right. I was very surprised when Inspector Halloran told me about it.’

‘Were you also surprised that there were no fingerprints on it?’

‘No. Selwyn was always spitting on it and cleaning it with his shirt.’

‘I’ve interviewed your brother, Miss Todd. I find the idea that the man I spoke to might be capable of writing anything at all, let alone a confession, absurd.’

The word ‘absurd’ startled Aggie. It signalled a change in Helen Lord’s tone. Aggie reacted to it with indignation.

‘You know next to nothing about my brother. You’ve spoken to him once. I imagine he was unco-operative. Of course he was. He’d just killed my niece.’

‘And your nephew,’ Joe said.

Aggie rallied. ‘Well, according to you, he was struggling with a corpse in my front room, and perhaps he was. I can’t explain why you believe Matthew was already dead, but …’

‘There’s something about the confession that struck me most particularly,’ Helen said firmly.

‘Oh?’

‘You said Selwyn could scratch out a few letters and the odd word that you’d taught him.’

‘I said that because it’s true.’

‘
Me do bad. Them bad, but.
Each of those words is among the words you taught him?’

‘I suppose they must have been.’

‘An odd selection to teach someone.’

‘Selwyn has been writing on that slate for 20 years, and I’ve been teaching him words for 20 years. I don’t think it’s in the least bit odd.’

‘How large do you think his written vocabulary might be?’

‘I have no idea. What is the point of these questions?’

‘Is that the first sentence you’ve known him to write?’

Aggie was getting flustered.

‘Why are you asking me this?’

‘Is that the first sentence you’ve known him to write?’ Helen’s repetition was calm and measured.

‘I’d hardly call it a sentence, but yes, I’ve never known him to string words together. As I say, no one’s ever been sure about the true nature of Selwyn’s intelligence.’

‘I don’t believe that for a minute, Miss Todd.’

Aggie reacted as if she’d been slapped.

‘How dare you talk to me like that, young lady.’

‘You wrote that confession, Miss Todd. I know you wrote it, because you weren’t able to forget rules that had been drummed into you, that have been drummed into all of us. There are two sentences in the confession. Each of them begins with a capital letter, and each of them ends with a full stop. The biggest mistake you made, though, was that comma.
Them bad, but
. Do you really want us to believe that Selwyn had a good grasp of punctuation?’

Aggie put her face in her hands. She needed to buy time. What, after all, did these people actually know? All right. Matthew had died a few hours before Rose. They knew that. She could still claim that she was protecting Rose’s name. She was certain they’d have no way of proving that Selwyn hadn’t killed Rose, perhaps in a rage after discovering that his beloved Matthew was dead. She’d insist that Matthew and Selwyn were close. She took her hands away from her face, breathed in deeply, and said, ‘Yes, I wrote that confession.’

There was silence in the room.

‘It was wrong of me, and it must seem callous to you that I’d do such a thing to my own brother.’

No one offered her any prompts.

‘I’ve probably committed a crime of some sort. I don’t care. What I’m about to tell you is the absolute truth. It’s difficult for me to say these things, because our family has a position in Port Fairy, and has had that position for several generations. This will destroy our family. I found Matthew’s body in the front room just when I told you I did. At first I thought he must have been asleep. I didn’t know what he was doing in my house at that hour. I tried to wake him, and when I realised that he was dead, I was terrified. I could see that he’d been strangled. Without thinking, I rushed to the backyard to see if Selwyn was all right. Rose was there, just standing, looking at the house vacantly. “I killed him, Aunt Aggie,” she said. It was as if she was in a trance. “I killed Matthew. I’ve always hated him.” It all happened so quickly after that. Selwyn must have heard her, because he rushed out of his shed and hit her with the shovel. Selwyn adored Matthew. Then he just went back into his shed as if he’d done nothing. I know it was wrong of me, very wrong, but I wanted to protect the family as much as I could. How would Rose’s parents bear knowing that their daughter had murdered their son? I wrote Selwyn’s confession because I thought it would help you. He killed Rose, after all, so why not have him confess to both murders, and that way Rose’s name wouldn’t be sullied? I can’t tell you how Rose killed Matthew, or how she managed to get his body into the front room. She must have had help — her husband, I suppose. That’s the truth. It’s shocking and devastating and destructive, but it’s the truth. I can’t tell you how ashamed I am of what I’ve done. Everything is ruined. Our lives have been ruined.’