The Shape of Snakes (6 page)

John Howlett, Esq.
White Cottage
Littlehampton
Nr Preston
Lancashire

March 23, 1983

Dear Mr. Howlett,

Thank you for your letter of March 7. I should tell you that I visited Annie in her house two months before she died and there was nothing then to indicate a deterioration in her circumstances. I am not a cat lover myself, so did not take particular notice of the ones I saw that day. However, had there been more than normal I'm sure I would have registered the fact. Certainly there was no question of the house smelling.

One of the reasons for my visit was to tell her that I was going away for twelve months. Annie became extremely agitated at the news, which I had been expecting. Sufferers from Tourette's syndrome dislike change, so I sat with her for an hour in her sitting room talking about the colleague who would be taking over in my absence. I had ample opportunity, therefore, to evaluate the room and what was in it. Before I left, she said she wanted to give me a going-away present and invited me to choose something. We spent a further fifteen minutes examining the many treasures she had-most of them quite small- and I can say with absolute certainty that, on that day- September 8-that room was full of ornaments.

Unfortunately I am having huge difficulty persuading the police that the most likely explanation for the house being "empty" nine weeks later is that she was robbed. I have shown your letter to Sergeant James Drury-one of the officers who accompanied you that day-and he tells me that unless I can find someone who saw the interior during the week before her death, he must conclude, as you did, that she sold her possessions herself in order to buy drink. This was his most helpful contribution! Rather less helpful was his suggestion that my memory is at fault or, worse, that I am deliberately lying in order to gloss over my failure to safeguard the health of a patient. Neither is true. I cannot repeat often enough that the last time I saw Annie she was in good mental and physical health. There was no indication that she was drinking more than usual and certainly no evidence of incontinence.

At the time of her death, I assumed that the only privileged knowledge I had about her was her medical history. However, I now realize I also had privileged information about the inside of her house because I was among the handful of people who were allowed beyond the front door. Even the vicar was made to stand on the doorstep because she mistrusted his perceived friendship with her neighbors. I have located a social worker who was shown into the sitting room in '77 but her description of it, although it accords with mine, has been ruled too out of date to be of value. Sergeant Drury dismisses your recollection of "vivid paintings," "peacock feathers" and "silhouette pictures" for the same reason-i.e., your last visit was in August '78-on the basis that three months was quite long enough for her to have disposed of the items herself.

I won't bore you with my extreme irritation (and anger!) at having both my memory and my professional expertise questioned by a policeman who is clearly reluctant to reopen an old case, but I do wonder if you could try to picture to yourself what was on the right-hand side of the mantelpiece in the sitting room. The going-away present that Annie gave me came from there and, as I still have it, it would be very helpful indeed if I could demonstrate to Sergeant Drury that in this respect at least I am not "imagining things." A positive and unprompted memory from one of her few "friends" would be invaluable.

It's only fair to tell you that I am extremely unimpressed by both Sergeant Drury and by the coroner, both of whom seem to have paid lip service to their responsibility for investigating Annie's death. While I wouldn't go so far as to say she was murdered-as I understand one of her neighbors did-I certainly believe she was reduced to a state of extreme anxiety by having her house invaded and her treasured possessions stolen. This, in turn, may have led to the deterioration in her circumstances and the overindulgence in alcohol, which was a contributory factor in her death.

Yours sincerely,
Sheila Arnold
Dr. Sheila Arnold
 

WHITE COTTAGE, LITTLEHAMPTON, NR
PRESTON, LANCASHIRE

Dr. Sheila Arnold
39 Lyvedon Avenue
Richmond
Surrey

March 24, 1983

Dear Dr. Arnold.

I regret I cannot remember the mantelpiece at all, nor what was on it, but my wife has reminded me that one of the pictures in the sitting room was a framed mosaic of an Aztec god-Quetzalcoatl-otherwise known as the plumed serpent or feathered snake. My wife is a lover of D. H. Lawrence's work and apparently I told her after one of my visits to Graham Road that Miss Butts owned an extraordinary mosaic of "The Plumed Serpent." Sadly, 1 can barely remember either the picture or the conversation, but my wife is adamant that it was "the mad black woman with the cats" who had the Quetzalcoatl on her wall.

Trusting this will be of help,

Yours sincerely,
John Hewlett
 

Correspondence between Dr. Sheila Arnold and
Richmond Police-dated 1983

39 LYVEDON AVENUE, RICHMOND, SURREY

Sergeant J. Drury
Richmond Police Station
Richmond
Surrey

May 25, 1983

Dear Sergeant Drury,

Re Miss Ann Butts, 30 Graham Road, Richmond, Surrey

Following numerous conversations with you, both in person and on the telephone, I have become increasingly angry about your refusal to investigate the possible theft of property from Miss Ann Butts prior to her death on 14.11.78. In the absence of any other explanation, I am forced to conclude that Richmond Police are as indifferent to Miss Butts today as they clearly were at the time of her death.

It is unacceptable to say, as you did on the telephone this morning, that "anyone as mad as Mad Annie could easily have blown a fortune on drink over a nine-week period." As your own report from the time states, she had Ł4,000 in her bank account and Ł15,000 in a building society. Therefore there was no necessity for her to sell her prized possessions as you claim she must have done. Nor can I stress too strongly that Tourette's syndrome is not a form of insanity, but rather an inability to control certain motor functions, and the fact that Miss Butts made faces and muttered to herself in no way affected her intelligence.

I am now convinced that her extraordinarily rapid decline must have been due to her house being ransacked in the week before her death. I have said to you many times that an invasion of her property would have triggered extreme anxiety because of her compulsive-therefore uncontrollable-obsession with home and personal security, and it is pointless to keep arguing that she would have called the police if such an invasion had happened. All strangers worried her, including officials in uniform (c.f. John Howlett's letter, dated March 7, '83) and if you and your colleagues treated her while she was alive with the sort of indifference you seem to be demonstrating now, she would have had no reason to trust you. In this one respect-trusting strangers-Ann's behavior could be described as irrational but only because obsessive behavior is compulsive. In all other respects her behavior was normal.

I hesitate to say that your indifference amounts to contempt, although I am angry enough to believe that that is what it is. Yes, Ann suffered a neuropsychiatric disorder, and yes, she was black, but neither fact should influence your decision to pursue belated justice on her behalf.

Of course it's true-and I am quoting your own words-that the cost of pursuing her alleged robbers will far outweigh any benefit to the taxpayer from the recovery of her possessions, but since when did justice have anything to do with cost? Justice is, and should be, impartial, yet your remark suggests that the police are selective in how, when and for whom they enforce the law.

Yours sincerely,
Sheila Arnold
Dr. Sheila Arnold

c.c. Police Superintendent Hathaway, Richmond Police
Rt. Honourable William Whitelaw, home secretary
 

FROM THE OFFICE OF:
POLICE SUPERINTENDENT A. P. HATHAWAY,
METROPOLITAN POLICE, RICHMOND

Dr. Sheila Arnold
39 Lyvedon Avenue
Richmond
Surrey

June 21, 1983

Ref: APH/VJ

Dear Dr. Arnold,

Re Miss Ann Butts, 30 Graham Road. Richmond

Thank you for the copy of your letter of May 25 to PS Drury, together with photocopies of correspondence and notes of telephone conversations, all of which I have read with interest. I have since discussed the case at some length with Sergeant Drury and, while I have some sympathy with your contention that Miss Butts was robbed prior to her death, I also agree with Sergeant Drury that no purpose would be served by investigating it.

Sergeant Drury admits that the inquiry in November 1978 did not take into account the possibility of robbery, however he stresses that at
no time
was it suggested to him that the situation found inside Miss Butts's house was unusual. Quite the reverse. There was considerable evidence, already on record following complaints from her neighbors, that the house was overrun with cats: that there was a continuous unpleasant smell from the premises: and that her living conditions were unhygienic and squalid. In these circumstances I do not consider that Sergeant Drury was either indifferent or negligent in his handling of the case.

The incidence of theft and burglary in England and Wales is rising at over 15 percent per annum, with few successful convictions resulting from police investigations. These figures are a matter of public record, and politicians from all parties are now demanding tougher sentencing policies and increased funding for police forces in order to stem what has effectively become a crime epidemic.

In such a climate it would be unreasonable to order an investigation into a burglary that may or may not have happened five years ago; where the alleged victim is no longer alive to give evidence; where there is no accurate inventory of what was in her house: and where the chances of successful closure are zero. While I realize this is not what you want to hear, I hope you will understand the reasoning behind this decision. It would be different had there been any question marks over the manner of Miss Butts's death, but the inquest verdict was unequivocal.

In conclusion, let me assure you that Richmond Police take their responsibilities to all members of the public extremely seriously, irrespective of race, color, creed or disability.

Yours sincerely,
A. P. Hathaway
Police Superintendent A. P. Hathaway

*4*

"One of your letters to the RSPCA inspector mentions a going-away present that Annie gave you," I said to Sheila Arnold when she and her husband came to lunch the following Sunday. "What was it?"

She extended an arm. "A jade bracelet," she said, turning a pale green bangle on her slender wrist. "There was a set of them on her mantelpiece and she chose this one for me because she thought it suited my coloring. I had red hair in those days."

"I remember," I said.

Her husband, Larry, a tall, soft-spoken American, stirred in his seat. "In fact it's jadeite," he said, "which is the most expensive of the jades. We had it assessed in '83 so that Sheila could demonstrate to the police that she wasn't imagining the value of what was in Annie's house." He circled the bracelet with a finger and thumb. "It's of Mexican origin ... probably eighteenth century ... worth in excess of Ł200. Considering Sheila thinks there were ten in the set, it gives you some sort of starting point for estimating Annie's wealth."

Sam gave a low whistle. "No wonder you wanted the police to investigate."

Sheila sighed. "I still feel I should have pushed a bit harder ... at the very least forced Drury to face a disciplinary hearing. He was appallingly negligent. Worse, a racist. He just assumed a black woman would be living in squalor."

Larry clicked his tongue impatiently. "That's twenty-twenty vision speaking. I agree the man was an asshole but he was correct about one thing ... no one suggested there was anything odd about the house ... even John Hewlett, the RSPCA inspector, didn't challenge the conditions." He spoke with surprising firmness as if the subject were a touchy one between them. "And there weren't enough hours in the day for you to commit any more time to Annie's cause, not with your practice and two kids to bring up. Also," he went on, turning to us, "the Superintendent made sense when he talked about zero success rates. Sheila made a list of the things she remembered but it was very vague on detail and, as the police pointed out, there was no hope of a prosecution if she couldn't be more positive in her descriptions. In the end it seemed pointless to go on."

We were sitting outside on the terrace under the shade of a worn umbrella which had had most of its color bleached out by long summers of sunshine. The garden fell away at the back of the house and some sensible person in the distant past had had the foresight to construct a raised platform out of Portland stone, which gave a glorious view of the other side of the bowl-shaped valley in which we lived. It seemed strange to me how the English climate had changed during the years we'd been away. I had always thought of it as a green and luscious place, but the garden, paddocks and fields had turned brown in the heat, and the drought-starved flowers drooped their heads. Sheila and Larry were sporting matching panama hats and they made an elegant couple, she in a primrose-colored cotton dress, he in white shirt and chinos. I guessed him to be about ten years older than she was, and I wondered where they'd met and when they'd married, and whether the two children he'd mentioned were his or a previous husband's.