Chapter Fifty-one
NEWCOMBE WENT TO THE BAR COUNTER, reached underneath, and removed a small Bible. Murdoch handed the book to Lacey.
“Hold this in your right hand…. Do you swear that the evidence you are about to give touching the death of John Delaney shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God.”
“I do.”
“Mr. Newcombe and Constable Stanworth, take note of what Mr. Lacey says, commit it to memory. I, myself, will write it down. Please go on, sir.”
Lacey slid the Bible onto the bench beside him. “What I have to say isn’t that much different from what I’ve already told you. If the man had been in front of me, I would cheerfully have killed him with my bare hands. But he wasn’t and I didn’t.”
“What did you do?”
“Like I said, as soon as I’d got the story out of Jess, I ran down into the ravine. I expected to find Delaney’s body, and I did. He was lying across the path just up along from the bridge. I could see he was dead. I thought she had killed him. How was I to know any different given what she’d told me? I didn’t have no clear plan, but I rolled him into the creek, like you said, thinking it would look like he’d slipped in accidentally.”
“Did you kick the body? Remember, you’re under oath.”
Lacey stared at the Bible beside him as if it would jump up and bite him. Reluctantly, he said, “Yes. I put the boots to him. I was only sorry he couldn’t feel it.”
“What then?”
“I ran straight back here. Jess was in such a desperate state I knew right there and then I wasn’t going to tell her he was dead. So I said I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him. I didn’t expect that Harry Murdoch would be found nearby, and that him and Delaney had had a fight.” He wiped his wet face with the back of his wrist. “She couldn’t have said anything that night; she was too upset. The next day she miscarried … our first son. By the time she’d got over that sufficient to talk about what had happened, I’d heard enough to convince her that Harry Murdoch was the culprit, and it wouldn’t matter if she gave evidence or not. She hadn’t killed Delaney, Harry had. She was terrible low after she lost the child, but I thought she was coming out of it. But the trial last week was too much, as you see.”
Murdoch turned a fresh page in his notebook. “How much time elapsed from when your wife came into the barn till you found Delaney?”
“I can’t be too sure. Everything seemed to speed up. But I ran there and back, and that’s about ten minutes or so each way.”
“A few minutes to roll the body into the creek. Roughly twenty-five minutes. Add to that at least ten minutes or more for Mrs. Lacey to get here. She must have talked to you for another ten minutes at the minimum. All told that would give us about forty-five minutes from the time Delaney fell over the fence railing to when you found him. Did you touch him? Was the body still warm?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t think. He was dead, that’s all I can say.”
“Let’s suppose he was hardly even stunned by that first fall. He gets to his feet and proceeds to walk down the steps. He must have seen Mrs. Lacey going by way of the other path. Who knows, perhaps he intended to catch her at the bridge? However, when he gets to the bottom of the hill, he meets up with somebody else. That person hits him from behind, at least two blows and so hard the skull is fractured. That person disappears.”
Lacey scowled. “He didn’t go far. He was in the bushes. That person’s been convicted.”
“I don’t need to remind you, Mr. Lacey, that the verdict was reached without all the evidence being brought before the jury.”
“Don’t change the picture that much.”
“It might! Besides, that’s what our bloody justice system is all about, isn’t it? We let the jurymen hear everything, and they decide.”
Newcombe edged a little closer and Murdoch tried to calm down.
“Will the case be reopened?” asked Lacey.
“We’ll see when I take all this new information to the warden.”
“If there is a new trial, Jess will have to go on the witness stand, won’t she?”
“Yes, I’m afraid so.”
Lacey’s face was contorted with grief. “She would have spoke up if I’d insisted. But I couldn’t bear to put her through the ordeal …”
He was interrupted by Maria Newcombe entering the room. “Excuse me, gentlemen, but Jess is asking to speak to Walter.”
He jumped up. “How is she?”
Maria smiled a little. “I do believe she will recover. Now only a minute with her. I think she is worried about Sally.”
Lacey followed Maria from the room, the blanket clutched about his shoulders.
Murdoch let out a long, deep breath. “What do you think, Vince? Is this man telling the truth?”
“Constable Stanworth?”
The young man blushed a little with pleasure that Murdoch was consulting him.
“I found him convincing, sir.”
Suddenly, there was a soft whimper from behind the screen. Tripper appeared, a puppy dangling by its scruff from her mouth. Newcombe went over to her. “You get back in there.” His voice was fond. He picked up both dogs and replaced them in the whelping box. “Ever since we took the puppy up to the Delaney house, she keeps wanting to move the remaining litter to another place. I don’t want her to lose him. I might have to chain her up.”
Murdoch had been in the process of looking over the notes he had just taken, and he only half heard. However, at that moment, there was a shift in his mind rather as if a stereoscope card had come into focus. He went over to Newcombe and grabbed him by both arms.
“Vince, what did you just say?”
“About Tripper? Just that she’s trying to move the pups …”
“And you might have to chain her up?”
“Yes …”
Murdoch let him go. “Goddamn it, my own anger has closed my mind like one of your traps. From the beginning I assumed Harry was lying or simply did not remember. That he was guilty as charged. But what if it happened just as he said it did? He goes to the bridge, falls and hits his cheek. A bit of bad coincidence for him that Delaney clouted somebody as well. Let’s say for now, a different person. Then Harry staggers further along the path, passes out. He admitted to me that he had a hazy memory of Delaney standing over him. We assumed they’d had a barney. Harry is accustomed to barneys that he doesn’t recollect. But what if that wasn’t the case? That Delaney came across him, either on his way to the Lacey cottage or afterward. Nothing else happened. The only credence I have been able to give to my father is that he might have been too drunk to be capable of a fight. So let’s say Delaney left him where he was. Then he returned to the path, and here he encountered his murderer. Probably this is where Delaney got his scraped knuckles. However, that person picked up a heavy piece of wood and, when Delaney turned his back, hit him hard. The coroner said the blows came at a downward angle and concluded they were delivered by a tall man, hence Harry, but that doesn’t have to be the case. If I shoved you to your knees, then hit you, the blows would come from above your head. Am I right?”
Newcombe was regarding him doubtfully. “Yes, I suppose so.”
“And, Vince, all this while, Havoc was still in his box.”
“Is that important?”
“I’m beginning to think it is crucial. You see, I’ve also assumed the girl is too confused to say the truth or to know what happens. But what if that’s not the case? What if she was telling me exactly what took place.”
“Do you mean Nan?”
“I do. I can’t explain at the moment, Vince, it would take too long. Come on, I’ve got to talk to Mrs. Lacey.”
Murdoch beckoned to the constable. “There is a carriage waiting outside. I want you to go to Warden Massie at the Don Jail. Tell him you have a message from me that there is new evidence, no, say absolute evidence, that there must be a new trial. I will meet him as soon as I can. Make sure you see him eye to eye. Even if he’s in his own quarters, you must find him. Can you do that?”
“Yes, sir.”
Murdoch led the way on the double out of the taproom.