CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Philip Vane had driven up early that morning in time to be there for the summing-up. Royston was full of optimism.

‘Deveen has done a wonderful job.’

Mr. Justice Lane explained to the jury that he would direct them as to the Law. What they had to concern themselves with, he said, were the facts of the case as they had been brought out in evidence. It was not for them to try anything else but this charge made against the prisoner that he had murdered his wife by poisoning her.

After underscoring that Merrill was entitled to the benefit of the doubt, the judge made it clear that it was all circumstantial evidence, that the jury had heard. No one had actually seen Merrill give his wife arsenic.

Philip Vane stood at the back of the musty little court; from where he was he couldn’t see Margot Stone, as the judge went on: ‘If you came across a dead man lying on a path it would be unreasonable of you to suppose that he had necessarily been killed by a poacher. But if you knew that the dead man was a gamekeeper who was always on the look-out for poachers, and you had arrived in time to see a notorious poacher running away from the body, then you would be in possession of sound circumstantial evidence for believing that the poacher had killed the gamekeeper.’

He was a good judge; Vane had heard him before, sometimes when he’d thought he hadn’t been so good. That time when he’d sent Vane down was one of the times.

There was the question of opportunity, Mr. Justice Lane was saying. Obviously Merrill had the opportunity of poisoning his wife with arsenic. ‘He was in the house with her; he was married to her.’

But even if they thought he had every possible opportunity to bring about his wife’s death, they must not therefore jump to conclusions.

‘The experts found in her body more arsenic than they, who are accustomed to deal with these things, have found in any exhumed body before. That being so, could it be that she took it accidentally? Or did she take it herself with intent to take her own life for reasons which, though they may be impossible for them to fathom, cannot necessarily be ruled out?’

As for motive, he echoed Ainger’s argument, he advised the jury not to give much thought to it; the next point was Stone. ‘It was submitted that his case had nothing to do with this one, where Merrill is charged with murdering his wife. I decided that the evidence respecting Stone was relevant here and that you should hear it.’

He sipped from the glass of water before him. ‘If you decide that Merrill did not give Stone arsenic with intent to kill him, then the evidence in that case has no bearing whatever on the case of Mrs. Merrill. But if you come to the conclusion that he did give it to Stone, then it shows that he had got poison and that he was prepared to put it to deadly use. And you might say that what he did to Stone, he had also done to his wife.’

He came to Mrs. Merrill’s illness; how she had suffered from peripheral neuritis. ‘According to the prosecution it was caused by arsenical poisoning. According to the defence it was caused by toxaemia.’ He summarized the doctors’ evidence; Dr. Mortlake, Sir Martin Wiltshire and Dr. Griffiths; Dr. Soutar and Julian York.

It was a matter of deciding which medical witness they believed; and he reviewed Mortlake’s powerful evidence, his post-mortem on Mrs. Merrill had showed that a large dose was taken within twenty-four hours of her death, and other poisonous doses had been taken during the preceding four or five days. Wiltshire had also said that there must have been several doses taken from 16th January to 21st January; and that Mrs. Merrill had taken a large dose of arsenic within twenty-four hours of her death, and that she could not herself have taken it within the last four or five days.

‘Mr. York, however, says death was caused by arsenic taken on 16th January and none after. It was a large dose of arsenic which in his view became encapsuled in the stomach. Could this dose of arsenic have become lodged in the stomach for several days before it acted? Dr. Soutar, also for the defence, but who had no experience of arsenical poisoning, said that Mrs. Merrill died as the result of a dose of arsenic taken on or about 16th January, which had become encapsuled and lain wait, so to speak, until 21st January.’

Mrs. Merrill had died from arsenical poisoning; arsenic had been available at Fancy, Merrill had said she had bought it.

‘You may think it strange that he did not know that there was any arsenic in the house; or you may think he was lying, that he knew only too well it was there.’

Next, Llewellyn. ‘The prosecution produced what they ask you to accept as a piece of direct evidence that Merrill was, in fact, in possession of poison at or about the time of Stone’s illness. Was Llewellyn telling the truth when he described to you how, when Stone, who seemed angry, called at Merrill’s office, the accused said: ‘Angry is he? I’ll very soon make him quiet’? And do you believe that just afterwards Llewellyn saw on Merrill’s desk a white package, open at one end?’

The judge was referring to his notes, and then looking down his long nose at the jury. He read out. ‘I distinctly saw it said poison in red at the top and something written underneath,’ Llewellyn said, ‘but I couldn’t see what it was. There was some words at the bottom of the label, also in red. But I couldn’t see what they were.’ Llewellyn saw Merrill hurriedly put the package in his desk drawer. Very detailed evidence, and you have to ask yourselves whether it is possible that Llewellyn could have imagined the whole incident.’

Mr. Justice Lane pointed out that before Llewellyn’s evidence it had been established that Merrill asked Llewellyn to make a cup of tea for Stone and one for himself. Llewellyn had recalled this clearly; had he been equally reliable when he said he said he saw the white package labelled poison on Merrill’s desk?

‘If what he says was true, then you may think Merrill intended to poison Stone’s tea; and if that was his purpose, you may also believe that the poison was arsenic, which he had at the time of his wife’s illness and with which he poisoned her to death.’

The shadows began to creep about the court, and the dusk lying in wait outside moved in, as the judge came to the end of it. ‘Remember what you have heard about the burden of proof, that it is for the prosecution to establish their case. And now will you please consider your verdict, and say how you find, whether you find the accused Guilty or Not Guilty.’