Yours very sincerely
Kate Twisledon.”
Miss Silver finished the letter and handed it back to Mr. Mottingley.
“I remember Miss Twisledon perfectly,” she said. “I think I should trust her judgment, unless she has changed very much.”
“I have known her for twenty years, and she hasn’t changed at all,” said Mr. Mottingley. “A fair wonder with boys, that was what she was. She’s gone to nurse an elderly relative, and she’s very much missed in the church, I can tell you that. And now will you listen to me? About this affair-Jimmy went down to Hazeldon on Saturday. He was going to see this girl-he had an appointment with her. But he started late. He started late because my wife called out to him just as he was about to leave the house, and she did that because an old friend had come in -one that had known Jimmy as a boy. She had moved away, and she was back on a visit, and my wife wanted her to see him. Well, it was half past six before he got away, and that they can both swear to. His story is that he drove down to Hazeldon and up on to the Heath. He left his car and came back to some gorse bushes near the road, which was the place she had set for them to meet. Well, he walked up and down for a bit, and he wondered whether she had gone because he was late. And he thought that wouldn’t be like her. And he was quite right, it wouldn’t. A more determined young woman I never set eyes on, and that’s the truth. I don’t say it excuses Jimmy for what he did, but I do say that she asked for it, and got nothing but what she asked for.”
Miss Silver’s eyes were upon his face. They had a very keen look.
“Mr. Mottingley,” she said, “are you justifying murder?”
“I! Miss Silver, what do you mean? I’m telling you the sort of girl she was!”
She watched him closely. There was no doubt that he was badly shocked.
He said, “No-no. I don’t know what I said to give you any such impression. Jimmy has been sinful enough, God knows, but he wouldn’t do murder. Look here, Miss Silver, there are some that could do it if they were wrought up. And there are others that couldn’t. Now Jimmy’s one of them. I swear it, and I’m not one to swear lightly.”
Miss Silver said, “I see that I misunderstood you. If you will go over what has passed, you will, I think, agree that there were grounds for my mistake.”
He said very earnestly, “Miss Silver, if I believed that Jimmy had killed that girl I shouldn’t be here now asking you to get him free. I should be telling him that he’d got to face the consequences of his own act.” A scarlet flush passed over his face. “It would be hard to do, but I’d be doing it. Thank God I haven’t got to. He’s a sinner, and he’ll suffer for his sin. But he’s not liable to the law. That I say, and that I’ll stick to. Will you help me to prove it?”
Miss Silver looked at the massive face with its scarlet flush. She looked at the great hands clenched until the knuckles showed as white as bone. She said,
“Yes, Mr. Mottingley.”
Chapter XXIV
Miss Silver was on her way to Hazeldon. She had to see the prisoner, and she wished also to see the place where the tragedy had happened, and to make such local enquiries as seemed good to her. As far as the first of these objects went, she had, paradoxically, deferred it to the end, since she wished to examine the scene of the crime and acquaint herself with all local details first, and Jimmy had been removed to the prison of the county town. She left the train and was looking about her for a cab, when a familiar voice hailed her.
“Miss Silver! And what might you be doing here?”
She turned with a smile to greet a very old friend, Detective Inspector Frank Abbott.
“I imagine that I am on the same business as you are,” she said.
Frank Abbott contemplated her with something approaching dismay.
“My dear ma’am, you don’t mean to tell me that you are in on this murder case!”
Miss Silver’s head rose a little.
“If by ‘this murder case’ you mean the charge against young Mr. Mottingley, I certainly mean it.”
Frank groaned in spirit.
“He did it, you know. Went too far, and when she threatened him with exposure he struck out.”
Miss Silver moved towards the entrance to the station.
“That is your opinion?” she said.
He nodded briefly.
“Oh, yes. And it will be yours, too, when you have seen the evidence. It’s all as plain as a pikestaff. I’m sorry you’ve let yourself in for it. But if you’re on your way to Hazeldon Heath, let me give you a lift. I’m going there, too.”
Miss Silver accepted the lift. It was a great advantage to have a foot in the other camp. She did not put it in quite this way, but that is what it amounted to. As they drove towards the Heath, she received a picture of the case against Jimmy Mottingley. It looked black enough, she could not deny that. She seized on the one point in Jimmy’s favour.
“No one knew that they were meeting,” she said. “Then why, if he had killed the girl, did he not make off? His car was just up the road. He could have been at a considerable distance from the spot, but instead he waits about and positively invites the attention of a passing cyclist.”
“Oh, my dear ma’am, this is a boy! He has killed the girl in a moment of madness and he loses his head. He is distraught-doesn’t know what he is doing. It’s common enough.” He shrugged. “Boy makes a fool of himself and takes the quickest way out. When it’s done he’s sorry-bitterly sorry and ashamed. The girl seems to have been a hard piece. I dare say she taunted him.”
“Nevertheless,” said Miss Silver gravely, “he stepped out into the road and hailed the farmer. His story is that he found the girl dead.”
Frank Abbott shrugged his shoulders.
“He had an appointment with her-he admits that. She is there first. He was late. He admits to that-says his mother had a visitor and kept him to see her. Well, there’s the makings of a row. He comes late and she has been waiting there for nearly an hour. Do you suppose she was in a very sweet temper?”
She said gravely, “I suppose not.”
“From what we have collected about the girl, I should say that she wasn’t. They have a row, and he knocks her down and then strangles her.”
Miss Silver turned to him with a look of attention.
“Say that again, Frank.”
“He knocks her out with a blow on the temple and then strangles her.”
“That is what happened?”
“That is what happened.”
“I did not know that. Do you not see that it makes all the difference? A young man not given to violence might conceivably strike an initial blow, but I find it quite impossible to believe that he would follow up that first blow with such determination that death would be inflicted. I have only had the elder Mr. Mottingley’s account of what happened, and he was so much distressed that I left the details for the moment. I knew that I should get them, and probably with less bias, when I came down here. If there was a first blow, I find it impossible to believe that Jimmy Mottingley was the murderer.”
Frank Abbott turned his head for a moment. He knew his Miss Silver very well. If she said she found it impossible to believe a thing, he might not share her view but he respected it.
“Well then, we know where we are,” he said. “I’m sorry we’re not on the same side, but what have you?”
Miss Silver’s expression deepened from gravity to reproof.
“My dear Frank,” she said, “antagonism between those who are seeking the truth is an impossibility. I am not for Jimmy Mottingley, neither are you against him. We are both, I hope, earnestly determined to seek for the truth of the matter, lay blame where it should be laid, and keep that open mind which alone can discern the truth.”
Frank, feeling quite unable to reply to this formidable peroration, was thankful to have come in sight of the two houses half way up the hill.