“To the next-of-kin, whoever that was, if he or she could be traced.”
“Even if you had to burrow back to William the Conqueror to get at the relationship?”
“Always supposing you could get a clear record back to so very early a date,” replied Murbles. “It is, of course, in the highest degree improbable-”
“Yes, yes, I know, sir. But what happens now in such a case?”
“The new Act makes inheritance on intestacy very much simpler,” said Mr. Murbles, setting his knife and fork together, placing both elbows on the table and laying the index-finger of his right hand against his left thumb in a gesture of tabulation.
“I bet it does,” interpolated Wimsey. “I know what an Act to make things simpler means. It means that the people who drew it up don’t understand it themselves and that every one of its clauses needs a law-suit to disentangle it. But do go on.”
“Under the new Act,” pursued! Murbles, “one half of the property goes to the husband and wife, if living, and subject to his or her life-interest, then all to the children equally. But if there be no spouse and no children, then it goes to the father or mother of the deceased. If father and mother are both dead, then everything goes to the brothers and sisters of the whole blood who are at the time, but if any brother or dies before the intestate, then to his or her issue. In case there are no brothers or sisters of the- ”
“Stop, stop! you needn’t go any further. You’re absolutely sure of that? It goes to the brothers’ or sisters’ issue?”
“Yes. That is to say, if it were you that died intestate and your brother Gerald and your sister Mary were already dead, your money would be equally divided among your nieces and nephews.”
“Yes, but suppose they were all dead too- suppose I’d gone tediously on living on till I’d nothing left but great-nephews and great-nieces- would they inherit?”
“Why-why, yes, I suppose they would,” said Mr. Murbles, with less certainty, however. “Oh, yes, I think they they would,”
“Clearly they would,” said Parker, a little impatiently, “if it says to the issue of the deceased’s brothers and sisters.”
“Ah! but we must not be precipitate,” said Mr. Murbles, rounding upon him. “To the lay mind, doubtless, the word ‘issue’ appears a simple one. But in law”- (Mr. Murbles, who up till this point had held the index-finger of the right-hand poised against the ring-finger of the left, in recognition of the claims of the brothers and sisters of the half-blood, now placed his left palm upon the table and wagged his right index-finger admonishingly in Parker’s direction)- “in law the word may bear one of two, or indeed several interpretations, according to the nature of the document in which it occurs and the date of the document.”
“But in the new Act-” urged Lord Peter.
“I am not, particularly,” said Mr. Murbles, “a specialist in the law concerning property, and I should not like to give a decided opinion as to its interpretation, all the more as, up to the present, no case has come before the Courts bearing on the present issue- no pun intended, ha, ha, ha! But my immediate and entirely tentative opinion- which, however, I should advise you not to accept without the support of some weightier authority- would be, I think, that issue in this case means issue ad infinitum, and that therefore the great-nephews and great-nieces would be entitled to inherit.”
“But there might be another opinion?”
“Yes- the question is a complicated one- ”
“What did I tell you?” groaned Peter. “I knew this simplifying Act would cause a shockin’ lot of muddle.”
“May I ask,” said Murbles, why you want to know all this?”
“Why, sir,” said Wimsey, taking from his pocket-book the genealogy of the Dawson family which he had received from the Rev. Hallelujah Dawson, “here is the point. We have always talked about Mary Whittaker as Agatha Dawson’s niece; she was always called so and she speaks of the old lady as her aunt. But if you look at this, you will see that actually she is no nearer to her than great-niece: she was the grand-daughter of Agatha’s sister Harriet.”
“Quite true,” said Mr. Murbles, “but still, she was apparently the nearest surviving relative, and since Agatha Dawson died in 1925, the money passed without any question to Mary Whittaker under the old Property Act. There’s no ambiguity there.”
“No,” said Wimsey, “none whatever, that’s the point. But- ”
“Good God!” broke in Parker, “I see what you’re driving at. When did the new Act come into force, sir?”
“In January, 1926,” replied Mr. Murbles.
“And Miss Dawson died, rather unexpectedly, as we know, in November, 1925,” went on Peter. “But supposing she had lived, as the doctor fully expected her to do, until February or March, 1926- are you absolutely positive, sir, that Mary Whittaker would have inherited then?”
Mr. Murbles opened his mouth to speak- and shut it again. He rubbed his hands very slowly the one over the other. He removed his eyeglasses and resettled them more firmly on his nose. Then:
“You are quite right, Lord Peter,” he said in a grave tone, “this is a very serious and important point. Much too serious for me to give an opinion on. If I understand you rightly, you are suggesting that any ambiguity in the interpretation of the new Act might provide an interested party with good and sufficient motive for hastening the death of Agatha Dawson.”
“I do mean exactly that. Of course, if the great-niece inherits anyhow, the old lady might as well die under the new Act as under the old. But if there was any doubt about it- how tempting, don’t you see, to give her a little push over the edge, so as to make her die in 1925. Especially as she couldn’t live long anyhow, and there were no other relatives to be defrauded.”
“That reminds me,” put in Parker, “suppose the great-niece is excluded from inheritance, where does the money go?”
“It goes to the Duchy of Lancaster- or in other words, to the Crown.”
“In fact,” said Wimsey, “to no one in particular. Upon my soul, I really can’t see that it’s very much of a crime to bump a poor old thing off a bit previously when she’s sufferin’ horribly, just to get the money she intends you to have. Why the devil should the Duchy of Lancaster have it? Who cares about the Duchy of Lancaster? It’s like defrauding the Income Tax.”
“Ethically,” observed Mr. Murbles, “there may be much to be said for your point of view. Legally, I am afraid, murder is murder, however frail the victim or convenient the result.”
“And Agatha Dawson didn’t want to die,” added Parker, “she said so.”
“No,” said Wimsey, thoughtfully, “and I suppose she had a right to an opinion.”
“I think,” said Mr. Murbles, “that before we go any further, we ought to consult a specialist in this branch of the law. I wonder whether Towkington is home. He is quite the ablest authority I could name. Greatly as I dislike that modern invention, the telephone, I think it might be advisable to ring him up.”
Mr. Towkington proved to be at home and at liberty. The case of the great-niece was put to him over the ’phone. Towkington, taken at a disadvantage without his authorities, and hazarding an opinion on the spur of the moment, thought that in all probability the niece would be excluded from the succession under the new Act. But it was an interesting point, and he would be glad of an opportunity to verify his references. Would not Mr. Murbles come round and talk it over with him? Mr. Murbles explained that he was at that moment dining with two friends who were interested in the question. In that case would not the two friends also come and see Mr. Towkington?
“Towkington has some very excellent port,” said Mr. Murbles, in a cautious aside, and clapping his hand over the mouthpiece of the telephone.
“Then why not go and try it?” said Wimsey cheerfully.
“It’s only as far as Gray’s Inn,” continued Mr. Murbles.