CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Mr. Justice Lane took his seat the next morning, Monday 22nd October and Ainger asked for leave to call an additional witness.

‘It is rather late, Mr. Attorney, is it not?’

‘Yes, my lord, it is. May the jury retire while I explain the circumstances?’

The judge muttered something, and the jury filed out of court, their faces showing their speculation. Ainger handed the judge a copy of Llewellyn’s statement.

On the day when Stone called at Merrill’s office Llewellyn said that he had actually seen a packet labelled poison on Merrill’s desk. He explained his failure to come forward before, by saying that a week later he had left Merrill’s employment and had gone to live with a sister in a village near Armagh in Northern Ireland.

He had no knowledge of the Merrill case until an acquaintance from Castlebay visiting Armagh had chanced to meet him yesterday, and told him about the trial. ‘I realized,’ Llewellyn said, ‘that my evidence might be important, and so I decided to take an airplane from Belfast that same evening. I arrived at Manchester at eight p.m. and was driven straight to Castlebay, where I went to the police.’

‘What do you say about this?’ Mr. Justice Lane said to Deveen.

‘My lord, I could say a lot about it; but I will confine myself to asking your lordship not to admit it. I never heard of this evidence until last night and the defence would be greatly prejudiced if your lordship were to accede to my learned friend’s application. We have been taken completely by surprise. My client’s solicitor has had no opportunity of taking instructions from the accused.’

The judge pulled at his long nose, and then decided that the best course would be for the Court to adjourn for half an hour, which would give Deveen and Royston an opportunity to see Merrill and take his further instructions.

Mr. Justice Lane went slowly from the court to his room, leaving behind him a buzz of conversation.

Merrill had gone down from the dock, and a prison officer opened the door leading from the court into the dock and Harry Deveen and Royston followed him down the short flight of stairs.

At the foot of the stairs there was an iron gate. It was locked. The prison officer pressed the bell alongside it and another prison officer appeared. He had a bunch of keys, and he opened the gate.

‘We want to see Merrill for a few minutes,’ Royston told him.

Merrill was not in a cell. He was in a musty, ill-lit room with the senior prison officer who discreetly retired as Deveen and Royston came in.

‘Of course, I want to shut out the statement from Llewellyn,’ Deveen said at once. ‘But I don’t see how it can be done. Do you know of anything?’

‘I know that Llewellyn’s a damned liar,’ Dick Merrill said.

‘That won’t help,’ Deveen said quietly.

‘I never had any packet of poison, so he must be a liar.’

‘Not necessarily,’ Deveen said. ‘He may have been mistaken.’

‘Not maybe,’ Merrill said emphatically, ‘must be mistaken. I never had any arsenic, I tell you.’

‘I know what you said,’ Deveen said. ‘You’ll have every opportunity of saying that when you go into the witness box.’

‘Do your best to stop the evidence, and then I won’t have to say what I’ll have to say about that lying old bastard. It’s not fair to spring it on us at the eleventh hour.’

Half an hour later the judge was back and Harry Deveen got to his feet. ‘My lord, I have seen my client with his solicitor; and I am instructed to persist in my objection to the admissibility of this additional evidence.’

‘Would you like an adjournment?’

‘No, my lord, I do not think that is necessary.’

‘Very good, Mr. Deveen, I understand your position, and I do not want you to feel embarrassed in any way. But I feel that in the circumstances I ought to admit the additional evidence.’

Harry Deveen had no more to say, and he glanced at the dock where Merrill had followed all these discussions with evident anxiety. Now he watched intently as William Llewellyn made his way into the witness box. He was a grey-haired figure, short and fragile.

‘Is your name William Llewellyn?’ It was Ainger who took him through his examination-in-chief.

‘It is.’

‘What is your occupation, Mr. Llewellyn?’

‘I haven’t any now. I am retired, you know. I used to be with Mr. Merrill as his clerk.’

‘And when did you give up your work?’

‘Oh, a few months ago.’

‘And what did you do then?’

‘I went to a village near Armagh, in Northern Ireland on a visit to my sister. Soon after I arrived in Ireland she was taken very ill and I stayed on to look after her. Then I heard yesterday about this.’

‘What did you hear?’

‘Why, this about Mr. Merrill poisoning his wife and Mr. Stone with arsenic.’

‘And when you heard this what did you do?’

‘I felt I ought to come here and tell the judge what I know.’

‘And is that how you came to be giving evidence now?’

‘It is.’

‘My lord,’ said Ainger, ‘may the witness see Mr. Stone?’

Stone, who had been outside, came into court and stood there. ‘Do you know that man?’ Ainger turned to the figure in the witness box.

‘Yes, I remember seeing him once.’

‘Do you remember his name?’

‘No, I can’t say that I do,’ and Llewellyn gave Stone an apologetic smile.

‘Where did you see him?’

‘At Mr. Merrill’s office.’

‘Do you remember the circumstances in which he came there?’

‘Yes, I remember them very well. Somebody rang up and said he wanted to see Mr. Merrill.’

‘Did he give his name?’

‘Yes, he did.’

‘Do you remember what it was?’

‘No, I’m afraid I don’t.’

‘Do you remember what was said?’

Harry Deveen was up on his feet. ‘My lord,’ he said. ‘Must we have what took place between this witness and some unknown stranger?’

It was a neat job of implication. Ainger said he wouldn’t pursue the conversation.

‘Let us come at once to the point,’ he said to Llewellyn. ‘Did you see this man come to the office?’

‘Yes, very soon afterwards, he came to Mr. Merrill.’ He nodded to Stone, who still stood there.

‘We may take it that it was Mr. Stone.’ Stone sat down in the well of the court. ‘What happened next?’

‘He said he wanted to see Mr. Merrill urgently,’ Llewellyn said. ‘I went in and told him.’

‘Where was Merrill then?’

‘He was sitting at his desk. I said a gentleman wanted to see him urgently. I must have given a name. I remember telling him that the gentleman seemed very angry.’

‘What did the accused say?’

‘I remember that very well; he said: ‘Angry is he? I’ll very soon make him quiet’.’

‘And what did you do?’

‘I went out and I told him,’ he nodded in Stone’s direction, ‘that Mr. Merrill would see him and I showed him in.’

‘Now, Mr. Llewellyn, did anything attract your attention?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘What was it?’

‘When I showed him into the office I saw something on Mr. Merrill’s desk, a white package open one end, it was. I caught a glimpse of the label, and I distinctly saw it said poison in red at the top and something written underneath, but I couldn’t see what it was. There were some words at the bottom of the label, also in red. But I couldn’t see what they were.’

‘Did you see the accused do anything?’

‘Yes, I saw him quickly open a drawer in his desk and put the package in.’

‘And did you leave the accused and Mr. Stone together?’

‘Yes, I did.’

‘What was the next thing that happened?’

‘Mr. Merrill came out and asked me to make them some tea. Two cups, he told me, one for himself and one for the other one. I used to make tea for him in the office, and sometimes a caller.’

‘And did you make tea?’

‘Yes.’

‘And took in two cups?’

‘Yes.’

‘And how long did Mr. Stone stay?’

‘Not very long.’

‘And did you go into the inner office?’

‘Yes, I did. I saw that one of the cups was empty and the other was still full.’

‘And did the accused say anything?’

‘Yes, he said his visitor didn’t want tea, after all.’

‘Do you remember anything else?’

‘No, I think that is all.’

Ainger sat down and now Harry Deveen got up on his feet to cross-examine.

‘Do you really mean to say,’ he said, without looking at the witness box, but keeping his eyes on the jury, ‘that you heard nothing about this case until yesterday?’

‘That’s quite true.’

‘Although the newspapers have been full of the case?’

‘I never saw an English paper while I was away.’

‘That may be so, but surely the Irish papers had something about it?’

‘They may have done, but I didn’t see anything.’

‘So it must have come as a shock to you to learn of your one-time employer being on trial for murder?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you decided there and then to rush here and give evidence against him?’

‘Well, I remembered what I have just said about the package on his desk.’

‘When you say you remembered are you sure that is the right word?’

‘Well, yes. It came back to me.’

‘Or do you think you may have imagined it?’

‘Imagined it?’ Llewellyn said, with evident surprise.

‘Yes, imagined it.’ Now Deveen turned upon him, and his face appeared more shark-like than ever. ‘If Merrill says he had never had poison in his possession, either on his desk or anywhere else, do you not think you may have been mistaken?’

Llewellyn hesitated momentarily. He turned to the judge. ‘I am quite clear what I saw,’ he said firmly. ‘Otherwise I wouldn’t have come all this way to tell you about it.’

‘And you are quite clear,’ Deveen said, ‘in your recollection of what was said?’

Llewellyn turned back to Deveen. ‘Yes,’ he said.

‘Did the accused say: ‘I’ll very soon quieten him down’?’

‘I thought he said: ‘I’ll very soon make him quiet.’ He may have said what you suggest.’

‘And it was a very natural thing to say?’

‘I thought so at the time.’

‘When did you change your mind?’

‘When I heard all this about the arsenic.’

‘When you discovered that your employer was charged with murder?’

‘Yes, that’s correct.’

Harry Deveen stared at him, then with a shrug at the jury as much as to say he regretted wasting their time, he sat down.