‘Right through’
‘Then how is it he didn’t die till two o’clock?’
‘We have no evidence at all,’ said Wimsey, ’as to the time Alexis died.’
Chapter XXXIV. The Evidence Of What Did Happen
‘Take thou this flower to strew upon his grave,
A lily’ of the valley; it bears bells,
For even the plants, it seems, must have their fool, —
So universal is the spirit of folly;
And whisper, to the nettles of his grave,’
“King Death hath asses’ ears.”“
— Death’s Jest-Book
Wednesday, 8 July
‘Do you mean to say,’ demanded Inspector Umpelty, with slow indignation, ‘that the young lady finds herself mistaken all this time?’
Harriet shook her head, and Wimsey said, ‘NO.’
‘Well, my lord, I don’t think you can. go against the doctor. I’ve asked other doctors about it, and they say there’s no doubt about it.’
‘You didn’t tell them the whole of the facts,’ said Wimsey. ‘I don’t blame you,’ he added, kindly, ‘I’ve only just thought of the rest of the facts myself. Something you said about blood put it in my head, Harriet. Suppose we put down a few things we know about this supposed heir of the Romanovs.’
1. He is known to have been very ill as a child, through being knocked down in the playground.
2. At the age of twenty-one he wore a beard, and had never used a razor. He was also
3. Extraordinarily timid about using sharp weapons or visiting the dentist.
4. Moreover, he had had at least one molar crowned the last resort to avoid extraction.
5. On Thursday 18th, when scrambling over rocks, he wore gloves.
6. Periodic pains in the joints, caused him acute suffering.
7. He used antipyrin to relieve this condition.
8. In no circumstances would he see a doctor, though he anticipated that the trouble would eventually cripple him.
9. Lack of the usual post-mortem stains were remarked on at the inquest.
10. Inquest also established that the great vessels were almost completely drained of blood.
11. And, finally, one may inherit other things besides Imperial crowns through the female line.
Harriet and the Inspector stared at this for a moment or two. Then Harriet laughed:
‘Of course!’ she said. ‘I thought, your style was a little laboured in places! But as an impromptu effort it’s creditable.’
‘I don’t see what you get from all that,’ said Umpelty. And then, suspiciously: ‘Is it a joke? Is it another of these ciphers?’ He snatched up the paper and ran a large thumb down the lines, ‘Here!’ he said, ‘what are you playing at? Is it a riddle?’
‘No, it’s the answer,’ said Harriet. ‘You’re right, Peter, you’re right you must be. It would explain such a lot. Only I didn’t know about antipyrin.’
‘I’m almost sure that is right; I remember reading about it somewhere.’
‘Did it come through the Romanovs?’
‘Possibly. It doesn’t prove that he really, was a Romanov, if you mean that. Though he may have been, for young Simons recognised something familiar m his face, which may have been a family resemblance: But it may quite likely have been the other way: the fact that he had it may have lent colour to the tradition. It often occurs spontaneously.’ ‘What is all this?’ asked the Inspector.
‘Don’t tease him, Peter. Try the initial letters, Mr Umpelty.’
‘Ah — oh! You will have your fun, my lord! H, A, E — Haemophilia. What in the name of blazes is that, when it’s at home?’
‘It’s a condition of the blood,’ said Wimsey, ‘due to a lack — of something-or-the-other, calcium or what not. It is inherited, like colour-blindness, through the female, and shows itself only, or practically only, in the male, and then only in alternate generations. That is to say, it might lie hidden in generation after generation of daughters, and then, by some malignant chance, pop suddenly up in a son born of a perfectly healthy father and an apparently quite healthy mother. And so far as is known it is incurable.’
‘And what is it? And why do you think Alexis had it? And what does it matter if he’ did?’
‘It’s a, condition in which the blood doesn’t clot properly; if you get even a tiny little scratch, you may, bleed to death from it. You may die of having a tooth drawn or from cutting your chin with a razor, unless you know how to deal with it and in any ease, you will go on bleeding like a stuck pig for hours. And if you get a fall or a blow, you have internal bleeding, which comes out in great lumps and swellings and is agonisingly painful. And even if you are terribly careful, you may get internal bleeding at the joints for no reason at all. It comes on from time to time and is horribly painful and gives you a hell of a fever. Hence, if I remember rightly, the antipyrin. And what’s more, it generally ends up by ankylosing your joints and making you a permanent cripple.’
‘The Tsarevitch has it, of course,’ and Harriet. ‘I read about it in those books of Alexis — but like a fool, I never thought about it in connection with the murder.’
‘I don’t know that I see it now,’ said the Inspector, ‘except that it explains why Alexis was such a namby-pamby and all that. Do you mean it proves that Alexis really was a royalty of sorts and that the Bolshies—?’
‘It may or may not prove any of that,’ said Wimsey. ‘But don’t you see, my dear old goat, that it completely busts up and spifflicates the medical evidence? We timed the death for two o’clock because the blood hadn’t clotted — but if Alexis was a haemophilic, you might wait till Kingdom Come, and his blood would never clot at all. Therefore, he may have died at noon or dawn for all we know. As a matter of fact, the blood might end by clotting very slightly after some hours — it depends how badly he had the disease — but as evidence for the time of death, the blood is a simple washout.’
‘Good lord!’ said Umpelty.
He sat open-mouthed.
‘Yes,’ he said, when he’d recovered himself a little, ‘but here’s a snag. If he might have died any time, how are we to prove he died at twelve o’clock?’
‘Easy. First of all, we know it must have been then, because that’s the time these people have an alibi for. As Sherlock Holmes says somewhere: “Only a man with a criminal enterprise desires to establish an alibi.” I must say, this case is really unique in one thing. It’s the only one I have ever known in which a murderer didn’t know the time he was supposed to have done the murder at. No wonder the evidence at the inquest gave Henry Weldon such a jolt!’
‘Yes but—’ the Inspector seemed worried. ‘That’s all right for us, but I mean to say, that doesn’t prove it was a murder — I mean, you’ve got to prove it was a murder first, before you prove anything else. I mean to say—’