“Your sick horse?”
“Yes. Beside her stall was Blackie, thelittle pony that Betsy often come out to see.”
“But you yourself did not see Betsy turnnorth towards the barn that day?”
“No. I couldn’t see outside the officewindow. I figured she’d gone straight to Spadina.”
“Please continue.”
“Ginger was doin’ fine. I gave her a goodstrokin’, then fer some reason I can’t remember I decided tostretch my legs by walkin’ back to the mill the long way – out theback door and around the barn. I got to the back doors. Both of ‘emwere open. I stood there fer a second, just enjoyin’ the warm sun,when I heard a rustlin’ noise. I knew the stall facin’ the doorssome ways away was empty, so I figured it might be a rat. So Iturned and had a look.”
Jake paused and took several gulpingbreaths.
“Take your time, young man. We know how hardthis must be for you.”
“I’m all right, sir, I can do this.”
“Good lad.”
“What I saw first was just a tangle of armsand legs and bare skin.”
At this, the jurors and everyone in the roomexcept the defendant eased forward.
“I blinked, and then I saw it was a man ontop of a girl, doin’ . . . doin’ – ”
“They were engaged in sexual union?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Embarrassing as it may be, Mr. Broom, I wantyou to tell the court exactly what you observed. Leave nothingout.”
Broom wiped his brow with his sleeve. “I seena man’s buttocks goin’ up and down.”
A woman in the galleries cried outinvoluntarily. The judge glowered.
“Did you get an impression of this man? Hissize? His age? His colouring?”
“I thought he couldn’t be young. The legsseemed a bit scrawny. The skin, what I could see of it, lookedquite pale.”
“Were the arms tanned?”
“I couldn’t really see them too good,sir.”
“Tall or short?”
“I’m sure he was short. Certainly nottall.”
“He was naked, then? Did you see his clothesanywhere about?”
“He hadn’t a stitch on that I could see. Buthis clothes must’ve been lyin’ in the straw, ‘cause I didn’t seeany.”
“In your statement to the police, youdescribed another prominent feature of the rapist’s anatomy.”
Marc stirred, but did not rise to thebait.
“I did. As the head bobbed up and down, Icouldn’t see the face, but all around the head was a great bush ofwhitish-grey hair, big as a halo.”
All eyes followed Broom’s up to the gentlemanin the dock – elderly and short, with a huge spray of whitish-greyhair.
“Do you know anyone fitting the descriptionyou’ve just given us?”
“I do. And I thought so at the time. I wascertain it could only be Mr. Seamus Baldwin.”
Following as it did the communal gaze up atthe dock, this bombshell was close to a dud, but it seemed to sealthe old man’s fate nonetheless.
“Do you know anyone else in yourneighbourhood who resembles Seamus Baldwin?”
“No, sir. I’ve never seen hair like that onsuch a little fella.”
“And you had seen Mr. Baldwin before Augustthe third?”
“All through July, sir. He come to angle fertrout up by the weir or down in the ravine.”
“Let us turn our attention to the girl. Didyou immediately recognize her?”
Broom blushed and sweated some more. “No,sir, all I could see – ”
“How far away were you, by the way?”
“It’s about twenty-five feet from the doorwayto the facin’ stall.”
“And there was plenty of light?”
“With the doors open on a sunny day, I couldsee easily. And the sun comes through the cracks in the barn-boardand a high window.”
“But the stall itself was in shadow?”
“With some sprinkles of sunlight.”
“Very good. Now, please tell us about thegirl you saw.”
“All I could see was her legs, kinda wavin’in the air. But they looked . . . they looked awful tiny.”
“She was hidden behind the rapist?”
“And the straw.”
“When did you suspect it was Betsy Thurgood?Did she cry out?”
Broom’s heavy frame drooped. “No, sir. Thatwas the queerest thing. All I heard was little gaspin’ sounds.”
“But you concluded at some point that it wasBetsy?”
“Yes. I saw her blue gingham dress drapedover the wall of the stall. And in the straw was the wicker basketshe brought the lunch in and a bit of her yellow apron showin’through – the clothes she had on when she first come into theoffice.”
Cambridge paused and appeared to be checkinghis notes. Behind and around him, not a limb stirred.
“Tell the court, Mr. Broom, what you didafter recognizing the pair and realizing you had stumbled across anolder man having illicit intercourse with a fifteen-year-oldfemale.”
“I know what I shoulda done, but I didn’t. Ishould’ve run over to the stall shoutin’ my lungs out. It was toolate to save Betsy from what’d already happened, but I could’vecaught the – the – ”
“Culprit?”
“Yes. But to my shame I didn’t. I decided torun fer help. I knew he hadn’t seen me, so I reckoned there’d betime to run to the office and get Mr. Whittle.”
“But he was at the weir with BurtonThurgood?”
“In my panic I’d forgot that. I got there andthe room was empty. Sol was in the mill where it was too noisy tocall to him. I looked down towards the ravine but didn’t see Joe. Iturned and raced back to the barn. This time I thought I’d saveBetsy myself. But when I got back there they were gone. The stallwas empty. I could see where the straw’d been mussed up, but thatwas all.”
“You’ve nothing to be ashamed of, Mr. Broom.You are a very young man, you had a moment of panic, but you didreturn determined to do your duty, to put yourself in danger.”
“Are you summing up, Mr. Cambridge?” thejudge said with an ironic tilt of an eyebrow.
“No, Milord.” Cambridge turned back to thewitness. “Did you now go looking for Mr. Whittle at the weir?”
Broom hung his large head again. “No, sir. Ishould have. But I got to thinkin’ that Mr. Whittle might notbelieve me. What if it wasn’t Mr. Baldwin, even though I wascertain it was? I’d be accusin’ a prominent gentleman with noproof, only my say so.”
“And you assumed, I’m sure, that the younglady herself would make a complaint.”
“And when she did, I could help her prove herclaim, couldn’t I?” Broom said eagerly.
Marc was about to interrupt this cozy,mutually satisfying dialogue, but he wasn’t quick enough: Cambridgegot in one last jab.
“And you had no way of knowing, as we now do,that the gentleman in question had been lurking in a ravine nearbywith a hidden route to that stall, did you?”
“Milord!”
“Mr. Cambridge, you’re summing up again. Thisis your last warning.”
Cambridge apologized without really doing so,then looked back at Broom.
“No, sir. I didn’t know he’d been around thatday.”
“Still, you had a duty to report acrime.”
“I know I did. And on my way home thatafternoon, I made up my mind to tell it all to Mr. Whittle the nextmornin’.”
“And why did you not have an opportunity todo so?”
“There was a letter waitin’ fer me. It saidmy father was dyin’ and the family needed me – in Port Talbot. Ileft at five o’clock the next mornin’.”
“And you did not return here until Octoberthe fifteenth?”
“That’s correct. Mr. Whittle, he took me backon at the mill, and I soon heard all about Betsy losin’ the babeand dyin’. I was very angry. I knew what had caused that babe andled to her dyin’. I went straight away to the police.”