“The question is, who pulled the trigger? The pistol-which was the same one you gave to him night before last-was the weapon that killed him. ’Twas found in his hand. Lord Lamford admits to being there, and he says the two of them was arguing about Pegasus-whether ’twould be possible for Lamford to sit astride Pegasus to have his picture painted.”
“Why would he want to do that?”
“Oh, he’s got some mad notion that he should be painted with his proudest possession, which is what Pegasus is now that he won the King’s Plate in Newmarket.”
“But how did that lead to Bennett taking his life?”
“Lord Lamford’s pretty vague on that, but the damndest thing is, he can be just as vague as he wants to be because nobody actually saw him shoot Bennett. And besides, that magistrate they got out here would sooner die than disagree with Lamford.”
“We’re headed so far out from London?”
He nodded. “So far indeed.”
“And the local magistrate calls it suicide?”
“That he does.”
“Well, didn’t the stable boys tell him about that shout, ‘You dare to judge me?’”
“Yes, I thought I had to say something about that myself,” said Deuteronomy. “But the magistrate wouldn’t hear of it. You know what he said? ‘The bullet was in his head, and the pistol was in his hand. What could be simpler?’”
“And that was where it ended?” I asked.
“No, not really. I pushed a little more, and I got from him Lord Lamford’s account of the so-called suicide. He said that according to him, Bennett got nastier and more personal, and that was when Lamford said, ‘Who are you to judge me?’ Bennett backed away from him then, and pulled out the pistol. He pointed it as if he meant to kill Lamford with it. Then, as if changing his mind of a sudden, he put the barrel of the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger. When I asked the magistrate if he accepted that, he looked at me as if I were a troublesome fellow and said to me that I seemed to be implying that there was some irregularity involving Lord Lamford. ‘Is that your game?’ he asked. ‘The very idea!’”
Somewhat bewildered by all that I had heard, I spent some minutes trying to master it, looking at it this way and that, questioning what I had earlier assumed to be so. All this as the horses plodded along. Thus was I occupied as we crossed London Bridge and headed off down Tooley Street into Bermondsey. We both kept silent for a long while. At last, Mr. Deuteronomy spoke up.
“’Course you and I know,” said he, “that it wasn’t that way at all. We heard what poor old Bennett had to say about his master. The way I see it, he must have handed over the pistol to Lord Lamford. Then, somehow or other, with all that Dutch courage in him, he must have got carried away and accused him of all that he told you about night before last.”
“Yes,” said I, “that’s the way it seems. How much farther is this farm of Lord Lamford’s, anyway?”
“It’s still a piece on from here-around Deptford it is.”
“Well, I’m sorry to tell you this, but I may not be able to do much more than shake my head and go tsk-tsk-tsk when we get there.”
“Well, how’s that happen? Ain’t you a Bow Street Runner? You do investigating and the like, don’t you?”
“I’m Sir John’s assistant and a deputized constable, but Sir John’s power as magistrate only goes so far.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean, each magistrate has his own jurisdiction.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Each magistrate has his own territory. For instance, Sir John just had a case taken away from him because the crime in question was committed outside his jurisdiction, his territory, which is the City of London and the City of Westminster.”
“You mean if you and me went before him, and we both swore as to the story we heard from poor old Bennett, Lamford couldn’t be tried on the basis of that?”
“No, probably not.”
“Why?”
“Why? Well. . because it would be merely hearsay evidence. That’s hearsay, as in we heard him say it, but he didn’t live to say it himself.”
“Well, what’s wrong with that, just so long as we swear to it and tell the truth?”
“You’ve just put your finger upon it,” said I, “for we would tell the truth, but another might swear the same oath and tell nothing but lies.”
“Like Lord Lamford.”
“Exactly.”
“Why, that ain’t fair, is it? I thought the law was supposed to be fair.”
“Usually it is fair, but the law is made by man, and all that’s made by man can be improved upon.”
Deuteronomy chewed upon that for a bit. Then did his eyes narrow as he declared: “Well, by God, I intend to improve on it some.”
I didn’t ask Deuteronomy Plummer how he might go about that. I really didn’t want to know.
By the time we reached the horse farm, I had learned from him that since Lord Lamford knew my face, I was to keep as far away as I was able. It was just as well he didn’t see me at all, said Deuteronomy. Therefore, I was to remain in the barn to interrogate the two stable boys and stay inside just as long as Lamford was about.
When I protested that I would not willingly hang about in a barn eight hours or more, Mr. Deuteronomy assured me that there would be no such lengthy wait ahead for me.
“I cannot suppose,” said he, “that Lord Lamford will be with us for more than a couple of hours.”
“But he may well see me from a distance. Are you prepared to account for my presence, should he ask?”
“Oh, that’s all taken care of,” he assured me. “I told him you were Bennett’s brother and had come to claim the body and cart it away.”
Thus was it set, and all was ready for me as we entered by the dirt track that led off the main road. It had taken a good hour to get there, yet it was still quite early, owing to our departure time. The place was quite as I had expected, though I will say that Bennett’s description of the manse as the “big house” did it little justice. Oh, it was indeed big, yet it was also comparatively new and far more stylish in design and execution than one would expect so far out in the country. As for the rest of it-the outbuildings, et cetera-they were no better and no worse than one might happen to see anywhere in the realm. The stable was not ramshackled, nor did it lean to any extent. Still, the fact that under its broad roof were housed the stable boys and, until night before last, Bennett as well, made for a larger structure than one might have looked for here. There were, after all, only six horses a-gamboling in the meadow.
Mr. Deuteronomy caught me studying them at a distance, shielding my eyes from the morning sun.
“Don’t look for Pegasus out there on the green. Lord Lamford decreed that he must wait in the stable till Lamford has arrived with the painter fellow.”
“What’s his name?”
“Who? The painter?” Deuteronomy frowned in his effort to remember. “Reynolds, I think-something-something Reynolds.”
“Sir Joshua?”
“That’s it!” said he, brightening. “Why? Do you know him?”
“I met with him once. I don’t recall that I was introduced to him, though. He’s terribly good, you know.”
“He better be, for what he’s charging. Two hundred guineas to paint a picture. Could you suppose such a thing?”
“That’s fifty guineas more than he was set to charge Sir John.”
“Lord Lamford told me to help him set up. What’s that mean, exactly?”
“Oh, I don’t know, just do as you’re told.”
He smiled rather bitterly at that. “I’ve got pretty good at that. Had a lot of experience doing what I’m told.” Then, more to himself than to me: “Not for long, though.”
As Mr. Deuteronomy had warned me beforehand, the two stable boys had little more to say than what they had already said to the local magistrate. They had been wakened by angry voices the other side of the wall. About the only words they understood for certain had been, they agreed, spoken by Lord Lamford: “You dare to judge me?”
Quite frankly, I was surprised that the two had gone that far, for their master had evidently had some difficulty explaining to the local magistrate just on what matter it was Mr. Bennett had dared to judge him. After he had tried twice (“I’d had a bit to drink, after all, and. .”), the magistrate had dismissed it as “probably of no importance, anyway.”