The Saltmarsh Murders (30 page)

Shall take a strong line with Burt. Probably get myself thrown into the stone quarries. Heigho! These violent inhabitants of peaceful villages!

August 20th
: Wells just returned from visiting Candy in prison. Do not think Candy had any hand in the murder. In any case, Mrs. Coutts responsible, I am certain, because the thing comes to its head with the attempt on Daphne Coutts in the church. No one but Mrs. Coutts could have known

1. That Daphne was to be playing the organ that evening,

2. Where to find key of vestry,

3. That she would not excite suspicion if seen entering or leaving church at that time.

Of course, her husband would fit most of the evidence, but his psychological make-up quite wrong. Besides, if he had intended to kill Meg Tosstick he would have done it to save his face, i.e.
before
the birth of the baby. This applies to
all
males including Candy
unless
somebody—e.g. Mrs. Coutts—told Candy that Meg's seducer was the negro servant at the Bungalow. That might be the explanation if Candy committed the murder. Must find out attitude towards the Colour Question among villagers. Must get my invaluable Boswell, Captain Hastings, Doctor Watson, Noel Wells on to it. Child has a head like a turnip. I do not think
the Bar suffered any great loss when he went into the Church. Nice enough youth, though. Little Daphne will do as she pleases with him.

August 24-th:
The village has made up its mind. The vicarage attacked to-day and the service disorganised. The vicar accused of being the father of Meg Tosstick's baby. Demands made for the production of the baby. I see Mrs. Courts' hand in all this. On Saturday she produced a notice printed on the back of one or two of the Gattys' visiting cards which (presumably) have been left at the vicarage in times past. The notice reads: “Where is Meg Tosstick's baby?”

The printing is rough enough, but the word “is “and the fact of the apostrophe “s “being in the right place, and the even more illuminating fact that Mrs. Coutts “discovered “these remarkable notices when nobody else was in the house, point clearly enough to their authorship. Anonymous writings are a feature of cases like hers. Sexual disorder, coupled with the mania for putting one's suspicions of others on to paper, very characteristic.

But what about Cora McCanley? Where has Mrs. Coutts hidden the body? She is the wife of the vicar. She ought to want a dead body buried in consecrated ground. That means the churchyard. Yes, but she
can't
have it buried. She murdered it. And there is no trace of it. Where could she put it? Well, that depends upon where she killed it.

Bransome Burns used to go for long lonely walks. … I was pretty sure he was Cora McCanley's lover when he found that Margaret despised him.

Later:
I've frightened him. He thinks I think he murdered Cora, and he's told me everything. They were to have met in London. She was to pretend to join this travelling company. But both fought shy in the end.
He was scared, I expect, of Burt, and she didn't trust Burns too far. They changed their minds, but Burns couldn't meet her at the Bungalow as arranged, and has not seen her since. Is obviously frightened. Wants to persuade me that he thinks she
did
go to the show and join the company after all.

August 25th
: Shall inform the police of my suspicions.

August 26th
: She could have thrown Cora's body into the sea.

Later
: Or buried it in Meg Tosstick's grave, if she could get the people at the inn to change the bodies for the undertaker. But there is nothing at present—Why, of course, there is! Whose suggestion was it, I wonder, that Meg should be cared for at the inn? Suppose it came from Mrs. Coutts! Suppose there is some very strong connection between Mrs. Coutts and the people at the inn! The Lowrys, of course, must be related by blood as well as by marriage. They are very much alike in appearance.

August 27th
: Solved it, I do believe! Exhumation order asked for. Now for it.

August 29th,
5.0 a.m.: Cora's body, not Meg's, exhumed. The Lowrys
must
be implicated. The funeral took place from the inn, and the coffin had obviously been made for Cora, a much bigger and taller girl than Meg. Now, what hold could Mrs. Coutts have had over either or both of the Lowrys, that they should become accessories after the fact of the murder? Oh, yes, I can answer that! …

October 20th:
Trial of Candy begins to-day.

October 24-th
: Candy found guilty of murdering mother and child. I must find some proof of Mrs. Coutts' guilt, I suppose, that will satisfy the authorities,
but I don't want the poor woman to be hanged. If Candy is reprieved, I shall kill her by shock. She obviously has a weak heart, and sudden death is the best gift I can present to her. If she isn't hanged she will be sent to Broadmoor. I will kill her, unless Candy is not reprieved. In that case, I shall have to save him by denouncing her to the police.

October 25th:
Good heavens! I'm wrong about the whole thing! The passage has no outlet at the inn. It has been bricked up these fifty years or so!

I must be right
! That passage must have a new outlet made by Lowry. He may have been a lover of Cora before Burns came upon the scene with his money and his more gentlemanly (!!) ways.

October 26th
: Mrs. Gatty to the rescue. Marvellous woman! The ground floor bathroom! Now to twist Lowry's tail and save that wretched woman, if only Candy is reprieved.

October 29th
: Candy set free. Sending him to Kent almost immediately.

November 5th,
2.30 a.m.: Guy Fawkes' Day. And I have committed my second murder.

 

 

 

 

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