5

Fraser of the Yard

Through my friendship with Oscar Wilde, I encountered many remarkable men. None, I think, made a more profound impact upon my life than Aidan Edmund Fettes Fraser.

On the day that Oscar and I first met him, 1 September 1889, Fraser had just turned thirty-two. Despite his hooded, sunken eyes, he looked much younger than his years. He was clean-shaven, with clear-cut features, all proportionate, a complexion as white as chalk and a high forehead as smooth as alabaster. He wore his dark, near-black hair swept back, without a parting, and a touch longer than was the fashion. He was, by any account, extraordinarily striking: tall, slim, athletic, angular. He put Oscar in mind of Rossetti’s painting, Dante Drawing an Angel on the Anniversary of Beatrice’s Death. (It was one of Oscar’s favourite pictures; almost any handsome, pale-faced youth reminded him of Rossetti’s Dante!) In his appearance, Aidan Fraser put me more in mind of my notion of Conan Doyle’s creation, Sherlock Holmes.

Fraser was now a Metropolitan Police Inspector—the youngest of the twenty-two inspectors in ‘the Met’—but he had been born a gentleman. According to Conan Doyle, who knew him and his family well, Fraser’s late father had inherited a banana plantation in the West Indies and his great-uncle (Fraser’s father’s mother’s brother) had been the noted Scottish entrepreneur and philanthropist, Sir William Fettes, whose benefaction had made possible the founding of Fettes College, in Edinburgh, in 1870. When the school opened, Aidan Fraser had been among its first pupils. Apparently, he was an exemplary student: courteous, conscientious, achieving—captain of cricket, captain of rugby and, in due course (and to none of his contemporaries’ surprise or resentment), captain of school.

It was only after Fettes that an element of the unexpected was introduced to Fraser’s curriculum vitae. He might have gone, as a scholar, to Balliol College, Oxford, to read law. Instead, he chose to stay closer to home and study natural sciences at the University of Edinburgh. There it was that he met Arthur Conan Doyle, two years his junior (though Doyle was always taken for the older of the two), and the pair became ‘best friends’, for three years near-inseparable, boon companions.

According to Doyle, their friendship was founded on a mutual admiration for the controversial writings of Professor Thomas Huxley (the biologist known as ‘Darwin’s Bulldog’) and fostered (less controversially) over many hours on the golf links. Huxley is credited with coining the term ‘agnostic’, and Fraser and Conan Doyle—to the dismay of the traditional true-believers in both their families—became outspoken and enthusiastic champions of ‘agnosticism’. Quite as alarming to his family was Aidan Fraser’s startling announcement, which he made shortly after his twenty-first birthday, at which he had come of age and, as his late father’s only son, inherited a fortune in excess of forty thousand pounds. Upon graduation, he said, he proposed not to follow in the Fraser and Fettes tradition of a career in commerce, but, instead, to leave Edinburgh, go to London and join the recently formed Criminal Investigations Department of the Metropolitan Police.

Fraser claimed that he had been drawn to the CID both by its reassuring address (Great Scotland Yard) and by the prospect of doing ‘something real, something useful in life’, applying to police work the philosophy he had learnt from Professor Huxley. “Science,” said Huxley, famously, “is nothing but trained and organised common sense.”

To become a detective in the CID, Fraser had first to serve as a constable on the beat. He had the necessary qualifications. He was over twenty-one and under twenty-seven at the time; he stood a clear five feet nine inches without shoes or stockings; he was able to demonstrate that he could ‘read well’, “write legibly’ and had ‘a fair knowledge of spelling’; he was judged to be ‘generally intelligent’ and seen to be ‘free from any bodily complaint’. Unsurprisingly, given his advantages of education and upbringing, Fraser rose effortlessly through the ranks, gaining a promotion or accolade of some kind in every year of his service. The day that we met him was the first day of his latest appointment. He was now the detective inspector responsible for coordinating all CID operations in five of the Met’s seventeen divisions: A (Whitehall), B (Chelsea), C (Mayfair and Soho), D (Marylebone) and F (Kensington). (He had hoped—‘if only for reasons of alphabetical neatness’, he explained—to secure E division also, but, as he put it, “with a logic at odds with all the best traditions of the Met’, E (Holborn) had been grouped with G (King’s Cross) and N (Islington) under the command of his friend and fellow Scot, Inspector Archy Gilmour.)

When Oscar and I were shown into his office, on the third floor of the new building at Scotland Yard, it was a little before four o’clock. We discovered Fraser standing, alone, behind his desk, with his back to us, apparently gazing out of a narrow window onto the Thames Embankment below. “Please,” he said, turning sharply as he heard us enter, “I was not looking idly out of the window, I assure you. I was examining your cards. This is my first day in this office. It’s a brand-new building and the architect is Scottish, but the light is terrible in here. I apologise.”

The room was indeed dark, cramped and inhospitable, but Fraser’s welcome was as warm and sunny as we could have wished for. He shook our hands; he clapped his own; he beamed upon us.

“Welcome,” he said. His mouth was quite small, but his smile was remarkable because his teeth were so perfect. They were white and even, and gleamed like newly polished, mother-of-pearl shirt-studs.

“Welcome,” Fraser said again, seating himself on the edge of his bare wooden desk while inviting us to ‘take a pew’. There were just two hard, upright chairs ranged side by side against the office wall. Oscar eyed them suspiciously.

“We apologise for troubling you,” he began, perching himself, somewhat awkwardly, on one of the chairs.

“You do not trouble me,” said Fraser, cordially. “You honour me. Any friend of Conan Doyle’s is a friend of mine.” His face was so white, his skin so smooth, his eyes so dark, that the ebullience of his manner, by contrast, and the dazzle of his smile, were quite disconcerting. “This is my first day in a new job and you are my first visitors. May I offer you both a cup of tea?”

“No—thank you,” said Oscar quickly, fearing, no doubt, that the quality of the tea would be consonant with the comfort of the furnishings. “Let me introduce myself—”

Fraser interrupted him. “You do not need to, Mr Wilde. I know your reputation. I admire your work. I have done so for several years, since chancing on one of your early essays when I was an undergraduate, in fact.”

“Oh,” said Oscar, gratified. “May I ask which one?”

“‘The Truth of Masks’,” Fraser replied, slowly switching his steady gaze from Oscar’s eyes to mine. “And Mr Sherard,” he went on, “I was reading your article on the great Emile Zola in Blackwood’s Magazine only this weekend. You are a social reformer, sir—as I hope to be.”

Aidan Fraser charmed us and disarmed us. He put us completely at our ease and, having done so, invited us to tell our tale.

Oscar told it. He told it well, in detail, but without embellishment. Fraser listened. He listened intently, his eyes glancing between us, occasionally nodding assent or gently tapping his chin with his forefinger to indicate that he was following Oscar’s narrative in every particular, but never interrupting. He listened carefully and, when Oscar was done, he allowed a prolonged silence to fall before he spoke.

“Gentlemen,” he said, eventually, leaning towards us, his eyes narrowed, his smooth brow almost furrowed, “we have a problem.”

“A problem?” Oscar repeated.

“Yes, Mr Wilde, a problem…You see, a murder where there is no body is indeed a mystery—”

“But I saw the body!” Oscar exclaimed.

“Yes,” said Inspector Fraser calmly, “so you tell me. Twenty-four hours ago you saw a body—but the body has disappeared.”

“I saw the body,” Oscar repeated, plaintively.

“And you recognised the body…” Fraser continued.

“It was Billy Wood—”

“—whom you knew, but did not know well?”

“I knew the boy, but I…” Oscar hesitated. He waved his right hand in the air in a sort of dismissive gesture. “I knew him, but I did not know him…intimately.”

Fraser observed Oscar’s awkwardness. He let another silence fall. “Did you know the housekeeper?” he asked.

“No.”

“Did you recognise her?”

“No.”

“Could you describe her for me?”

“No, I paid her no attention.”

“What was her age? What was her height? Had she no distinguishing features?”

“None that I recall.” Oscar hesitated. “There was a touch of red about her, I think—a flower perhaps, a kerchief, I don’t know. I brushed past her. I paid her no heed.”

The inspector glanced in my direction and spoke as if soliciting my support. “You see the problem? So many questions, so few answers.” He looked steadily at Oscar. “You tell me that there was a housekeeper at the scene of the alleged crime, Mr Wilde, but you cannot describe her. You tell me that there was a body, but it seems that it has disappeared. You tell me that this body was that of a boy you knew, but did not know ‘intimately’…Why, I wonder, have none of those who did know him intimately—his family, his friends, his contemporaries—not come forward to report him missing? Where is his body now? Where, in short, is the evidence of murder?”

“There is the blood on the wall!” Oscar protested.

“Which you saw?” asked Fraser.

“Which Doyle saw,” said Oscar.

“Ah, yes,” murmured Fraser, almost to himself, “Arthur’s tiny spots of blood…” He clapped his hands and got to his feet. “Those we must investigate,” he said, emphatically. “That we can do. I will send a man to Cowley Street directly—this afternoon. Number 23, you say? If we find evidence we can make a start, but without evidence, Mr Wilde, without a body—”

“The body must be found!” cried Oscar.

Fraser was now standing behind his desk, resting his long thin fingers upon it. “Our resources are meagre, I fear,” he said, almost dolefully. “We have thirteen hundred men to patrol a city of five million. We cannot go out looking for bodies like needles in haystacks, Mr Wilde. And the sad truth is that, even when we stumble upon them, even when we come face to face with the bloodiest evidence imaginable, we are still, all too often, unable to solve the mystery…Do not raise your hopes, Mr Wilde. Think of those unfortunate women in Whitechapel.”

For months on end the previous year, the notorious ‘Jack the Ripper’ case had filled the pages of the popular press.

“There was another one found recently, was there not?” I said.

“Yes,” said Fraser, “six weeks ago, in Castle Alley. Alice McKenzie. We have her body—or what remains of it. We know her history. We know of her movements in the hours leading up to her death. We have tracked down and interviewed all those closest to her, those who saw her last. We have a mountain of evidence—we even have a letter purporting to come from her killer—and still we are nowhere near a solution to the crime…It is possible we never shall be.”

“Was her throat not cut?”

“It was,” said Fraser, “but do not get carried away, Mr Sherard. Her abdomen was mutilated too. The Whitechapel murderer preys on women in dark alleys, not young men in candlelit rooms.”

It was clear that our interview was coming to an end. Fraser stepped from behind his desk and moved towards the door. Oscar and I got to our feet. As he stood up, Oscar swayed for a moment and looked pale. John Simpson’s fine wines and Aidan Fraser’s airless room had taken their toll. The police inspector put out a hand to steady him.

“I am sorry if I disappoint you, Mr Wilde,” he said. “I do not want to promise more than I can deliver. But, rest assured, I will do what I can. I will send a man to Cowley Street this afternoon.”

“Will you let me know the outcome?” asked Oscar.

“Of course,” said Fraser, retrieving our cards from his waistcoat pocket. “I will send a wire to Tite Street, without fail.”

“To my club, if you don’t mind,” said Oscar, quickly.

“Of course,” said Fraser. “The Albemarle, is it not?”

“You know?” said Oscar, surprised. “Are you a member?”

“No,” said Fraser, revealing a line of perfect teeth. “I am a detective.”

Oscar, regaining his colour, laughed softly and shook Fraser by the hand. “Thank you for your time, Inspector. Thank you for listening. I hope you do not think I have acted amiss in coming to see you today.”

“Quite the opposite,” said Fraser. “You have done your duty—you have reported a suspected crime to the proper authorities. You have acted entirely correctly, as a gentleman should.” He paused for a moment and looked directly at Oscar. “I am only surprised that you did not call upon us yesterday, immediately after you made your discovery. Is there a reason why you waited twenty-four hours before coming forward?”

Fraser smiled slyly as he asked the question. To my surprise, Oscar was not discomfited. “I am the prince of procrastination,” he said. “It is my besetting sin. I never put off till tomorrow what I can possibly do—the day after.”

Fraser laughed. “Well, you’ve done your duty now, Mr Wilde, and, having done your duty, sir, take my advice: leave well alone. Murder is a sordid business. It is a matter for the police, not for the prince of procrastination, nor yet the fastidious champion of aestheticism. You have done all you can in this matter. You have done well. I salute you.”

The sun was still shining brightly when we reached the street, but the air was cooler. Oscar turned back towards the building and looked up to the third floor. At a narrow latticed window we saw Inspector Aidan Fraser gazing down upon us. Oscar raised his hand and waved. Fraser inclined his head and waved back.

“What now?” I asked.

“Now,” said Oscar, “I need to clear my head. I shall walk home, along the river—by way of Cowley Street, I think. I have a favour to ask of Mrs O’Keefe.” As I began to speak, he raised a finger to silence me and then, with both hands, straightened my tie and lightly brushed my shoulders as he might have done to his sons as they readied themselves to go to school. “And you, my dear Robert,” he said, “need to go home to clear your desk. There is work to be done, a mystery to be solved, and I shall be grateful for your assistance—and your company. Meet me at the club at eleven, or a little after. Meantime, return to your room and finish whichever of your unfinished articles is nearest completion. And wire your wife’s solicitor. Tell him a divorce is out of the question just at present. You are currently engaged in a matter much more pressing: murder. He will be baffled by the truth. The mediocre always are.”

At 11.15 that evening, as arranged, I met Oscar at the Albemarle. I found him alone in the library, drinking champagne and reading Wordsworth.

“Your great-grandfather is a great man,” he declared. “He teaches us to accept the ‘burthen of the mystery’, “the heavy and the weary weight of all this unintelligible world”—does he not?”

I was spared the challenge of summoning up a suitable response by the arrival of Hubbard. The club servant stood obsequiously by the door, holding a small silver salver in his hand. “A telegram for you, Mr Wilde,” he said.

“It will be from Fraser,” said Oscar, picking up the small yellow envelope and passing it to me. “What does he say?”

I tore open the envelope and read out the communication. SEARCH COMPLETE STOP NO EVIDENCE FOUND STOP REGRET NO FURTHER ACTION POSSIBLE AT THIS STAGE REGARDS FRASER.

Oscar said nothing. Hubbard was still hovering at the door. He gave a little cough, like a butler in a stage comedy, and murmured, “And there’s a person to see you, sir. In the entrance hall.”

Oscar was galvanised. “Come, Robert, come,” he said, throwing down the Wordsworth and sweeping us past Hubbard into the hallway. “The game’s afoot.”

The person who had come to see Oscar was waiting nervously in the club’s outer lobby, by the porter’s lodge. I recognised her at once. It was Mrs O’Keefe. As we appeared, she made her deep obeisance. Oscar raised her by the hand and said simply, “Well, madam?”

“I did exactly as you instructed, Mr Wilde. I did not leave 23 Cowley Street until your cab came to collect me at eleven o’clock. Nobody has been near the house since you last called by. No police, nothing—nobody, nobody at all.”

“God bless you, Mrs O’Keefe,” said Oscar.

“And you, sir,” said Mrs O’Keefe. “I’ll pray for you.”

“Let us pray for one another,” said Oscar, handing her a sovereign.