MURDOCH HAD BEEN ABLE TO SEND a telephone message from Dr. Semple’s office to say he was coming to the jail, and Harry was waiting for him in the visiting room. For an instant he caught an unguarded expression on his father’s face of such despair and darkness that it was like a stab into his own chest. However, Harry smiled up at him.
“Thought you’d never get here, Will.”
“I came as soon as I could.” He nodded at the guard. “I brought in a couple of plugs if you’d care for one, Mr. Barker.”
“I won’t say no to that, sir.”
Murdoch handed over his little package of Jolly Tar, and the guard tipped his cap. “I’ll leave you to your chin wag then. I’m right outside the door if you need me.” He left.
Murdoch took another bag from his pocket and gave it to Harry. “I got Bull Durham today.”
“That’s a good one,” Harry said. “Funny thing is, I’ve almost lost my craving. Never thought that would happen. I’ll hold off for a bit.” He pushed a piece of drawing paper across the table. “Do you know who this is?”
The pencil sketch was of a woman’s head, half in profile, smiling down at a flower she was holding. She was unmistakable.
“It’s Mother.”
“She’s young there, of course. My first sight of her. I forget what she was looking at, so I made it a flower. She was a pretty lass back then. Fair took my heart.”
Murdoch had never to his knowledge heard his father make any public declaration of affection for his mother. He could not conceal his astonishment or his disgust. Harry took back the sketch.
“It’s writ all over your face what you’re thinking. But I did care for her, Will.”
“Did you? It might have made her life happier if you had showed it.”
Harry didn’t react. “I know that and I’m sorry for the way I was.” He rubbed at his head with the now familiar gesture. “How many times am I going to have to repeat it?”
Murdoch wanted to snap at him, A dozen more times? A hundred? Forever? However, his temper was held in check by the sight of his father’s distress.
“Let’s get to the matter at hand. I’m here to give you an up-to-date report.”
“I can tell it’s nothing I haven’t heard already.”
Murdoch shrugged. “So far nothing new has come to light. I went into the ravine first to get a look around.”
“Did the trees talk to you, Will?”
Harry smiled slightly to show he meant this as a joke, and suddenly Murdoch remembered how he’d been teased as a child when he was adamant that he could converse with the trees.
“I’m raising a lass, not a lad,” Harry had said.
“I only wish they could. We’d know unequivocally, wouldn’t we. However, there is something I’d like to ask you. I’ll come back to it in a minute. I met up with Walter Lacey, the hired man …”
“Ah yes. He took a scunner to me. That didn’t help my case at all.”
“I didn’t say we were related, just that I was investigating the case privately.”
Harry nodded. “Better that way.”
“I talked to Newcombe. He didn’t add anything. While I was there Mr. Pugh arrived together with Mr. Craig. I understand his son is back to courting Miss Delaney. Newcombe said that her father had forbidden the relationship earlier.”
Harry leaned forward. “I hadn’t heard that.”
“I doubt it has much significance. According to the trial report, Miss Craig swore under oath that her father and brother were at home from eight-fifteen that evening and did not leave.”
“She could be lying.”
“Was that your impression?”
“Frankly, I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention. I might have if I’d known James was after the Delaney girl.”
“Let’s not go galloping after the fox too soon. Newcombe didn’t think James was too chagrined by the father’s edict. Miss Delaney apparently was.”
“Maybe she met up with her father and quarrelled with him. Damnation, why didn’t Clement pursue this? I told you they had all passed verdict on me from the beginning.”
“You forget that Mrs. Delaney was on the witness stand. She said both her son and daughter were in the house all evening. She and Miss Delaney were apparently making a quilt together. But I suppose she, too, could be lying to protect her daughter.”
He could see Harry wince at his tone. “It isn’t out of the question, Will. You seem able to accept that I am lying but not that these women might be.”
Murdoch let that pass. “This morning I visited the doctor who conducted the post mortem. Shall we go over his evidence again? First, the bruise on your cheek, the blood on your right shirtsleeve and cuff …”
Murdoch let that go. Semple had told him they could not distinguish between human and animal blood even with the most powerful microscopes they had. “However, we can distinguish different fibres, and we can tell human and dog hair apart. Look, I’ll show you.”
He was proud of his microscope, which he assured Murdoch was the best and most up-to-date money could buy. He insisted Murdoch press his eye to the lens while he inserted a slide.
“Here are three different strands of hair. This first one is from a spaniel. The second is from a horse. You can see it is much wider and coarser. The third is human hair, and the transverse lines are much finer.”
At this point Semple had paused. “I consider this the most damning piece of evidence I collected. Even though he was in the water, some strands of hair were caught on Delaney’s shirt and not washed away. I discovered them, dried them, and magnified them so. This hair, as you can see even with the naked eye, is dark. Henry Murdoch’s hair is quite dark. Delaney’s is light, grey in fact. But here, look. Under the microscope, you can see that each strand still has the root capsule attached. It suggests to me that the two men did fight and fight viciously, to the extent that Delaney pulled out some of Henry’s hair by the roots.”
Murdoch related this to his father, who listened quietly. “Yes, he blathered on about that. He kept saying all the evidence, but what did they have when it come down to it? A bruise on my face, blood stains, bits of hair. Could be anybody’s.”
Harry rubbed his head as vigorously as if he had nits. Murdoch knew he must have appeared in the exact same way while he was in the court, and he could see how unprepossessing he was. It would have been hard to convince a jury he was innocent.
“He showed me the photographs he’d had taken of the dead man. The wounds seemed to indicate that the blows were coming at a downward angle. The assailant was therefore taller than Delaney.”
Suddenly Harry thumped his fist on the table. “No, Will, goddamn it! I’m not a total fool. My counsel nailed him on that matter, and he admitted that Delaney might have been pushed to the ground. If he was even on one knee, the blows would have come at that kind of angle. His killer didn’t have to be bigger than him. Semple agreed. Did he tell you that, or have you chosen to ignore it?”
In fact, the doctor had told Murdoch of all the possibilities.
He pushed back his chair, walked down the length of the table, and studied the photograph of Her Majesty. With his back to Harry, he said, “As we say in the police world, give me opportunity and motivation and I will show you the criminal. You had both, it seems.”
“I admit I was in a temper with Delaney, but that doesn’t mean you go out and kill the man. We wouldn’t have much of a population left if that were the case.”
Murdoch came back to his seat. “You have asked me to do everything I can to help you, but how can I?” He met his father’s eyes. “You are still lying. Unless you tell me the absolute truth, I will have to put a stop to any further investigations.”
“I …”
“Of course you had a fight with Delaney. You purposely went into the ravine to wait for him. You had no other reason to be there. When he came along the path, you had an argument during which he struck you on the cheek and quite possibly grabbed you by the hair.”
Harry flushed. “That’s it then. You think I’m guilty as charged?”
“I didn’t say that. I am just asking for some honesty here. Did you or did you not have a fight with Delaney?”
“I don’t know!” Harry yelled. He glared at Murdoch for a moment then quickly looked away. “Lately I have had vague recollections. I’ve thought so much I can hardly tell if they’re dreams or real, but I can see his face, him standing over me. I assume he had clobbered me one. After that, it’s totally blank. I sort of remember crawling off into the bushes, but that’s all. Then there’s a man leaning over me telling me Delaney is dead. They made a lot of what I said, but I thought there’d been an accident. I was still in a bad skin. What I said didn’t mean anything.”
“And this has just come back to you?”
Another pause while Harry considered what to say. “Not just now. I did know it when I was tried, but I’d already denied any fight so I thought it wiser to say nothing.” He shrugged. “Didn’t seem to make a difference one way or the other.”
Murdoch reached for the piece of drawing paper. “Do you mind if I use this?”
“Go ahead.”
He took out his fountain pen, reversed the paper, and did a quick sketch.
“Here’s the bridge at the bottom of the ravine. Here’s the creek and the path that goes to the right. You were found here, Delaney’s body was in the water, just there, a few feet up from you. Why was he on that path? His house is the other way. I assume you would have been lying in wait for him at the bridge.”
Harry studied the drawing. “I wish I could say I remember, but I don’t any more than I just said. We might have been moving and shoving each other, but I don’t know.”
“There are some other things I’d like to clarify. You accused Delaney of distracting your dog during the match by whistling at him. But he didn’t have a whistle on him. He emptied his pockets.”
“Ah, that one I am clear about. There are special dog whistles called mouth whistles. They use them for sheepdogs in Scotland. They’re made of bone, triangular shaped, quite small. Real easy to conceal. I know he distracted Havoc.”
“Could it have been one of the others?”
“Not likely. Flash was the one to beat. One more rat and we would have won the match. That’s when he did it.”
“All right. We’ll let that go for now. Did you let Havoc out of his box when you went into the ravine?”
“What?”
“Newcombe says you put the dog in a box and left the tavern. But Mr. Pugh said Havoc was on the loose and barking at him, which was how he discovered you.”
“I have no recollection. Sometimes Havoc has got out. He’s a cunning little fellow. Is it important?”
“Probably not. Just another loose end I’m trying to tie up.”
Harry actually glanced with admiration at his son. “You’re thorough, Will. I thought you would be. You take after me in that regard. Did you locate the dog, by the way?”
“Yes, Newcombe was looking after him. He’s currently with somebody I know. A dog fancier.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
Harry looked as if he was about to discuss the dog’s future. Murdoch didn’t want to get into what might possibly happen to Havoc, and he moved on quickly.
“The money that was gone from Delaney’s pouch. Any more vague recollections about that you haven’t mentioned?”
“None.”
“You’re sure you didn’t take back what you considered your rightful money?”
“If I did, where is it?” Harry gave a wry smile. “Even full to the gills, I can’t see myself taking money then letting it blow away in the wind.”
“You could have hidden it.”
“I don’t believe I was capable of that much effort. But I was thinking about that, too. What’s to say Delaney didn’t hand over some of his bills before he met up with me?”
“Nobody came forward.”
“They wouldn’t, would they, if they was the one who killed him?”
“In which case the encounter would have occurred after yours.”
Harry rubbed his head again. “Right. I’m not thinking straight. But say this unknown somebody felt cheated like I did. He confronts Delaney and demands money. Delaney hands over something but not enough. More argument and this person clobbers him, then rolls his body into the creek.”
“Any candidates? You were the one at the match. Who was the sore loser? Other than you?”
“Nobody lost too much, except me and Pugh. He coughed up the most. He wasn’t complaining, mind, but he could have been hiding it.”
“He has a solid alibi. He was with Newcombe the entire time.”
Harry sighed. “We’re going round in circles.”
“I have put somebody on the man White’s track. As you know, he too has an alibi. He went with the Craigs.”
“I heard that, but what’s to say he didn’t double back and follow Delaney?”
“Why would he? He didn’t lose money.”
“He didn’t win either. Maybe he had grand expectations. I wasn’t the only one tossing back brew. If he was all hotted up, he could have gone after Delaney. Especially if he believed me that Delaney was a cheat.”
“We’ll know better when we find him. If we do.”
Harry reached for the bag of tobacco and began to stuff the bowl of his pipe. Murdoch waited while he lit up and drew. When he spoke his voice was neutral, but Murdoch knew that was an effort.
“You sound as if you’ve given up.”
“That implies I ever started. I don’t know if that is the case.”
Harry put his pipe on the table and pushed back his chair. “I can’t just sit here while you gloat over me, Will. If you want to come back, I’d be glad. If you don’t …” He didn’t finish, but he stood up ready to go to the door.
Murdoch could feel his face going hot. It was true what his father said. He’d been relishing this strange experience of power over the man who had created so much terror around him. But he was also ashamed of himself. It was like fighting a cripple. Harry could not retaliate. His only hope lay with his son.
“Wait!”
Harry turned around.
“I apologise. I realise you have been relying on me.”
“Indeed I have.”
“Frankly, I don’t know what the truth is, but I promise you I will do what I can to find out.”
Harry returned to the table, reached over, and squeezed Murdoch’s shoulder.
“I’m grateful, Will. I don’t know anybody I’d trust more than you.”
Briefly, Murdoch patted his father’s hand. He felt almost unbearably awkward with this new softness.
The guard entered. “We’ve got to go to the yard, Harry.”
“I’ll come back as soon as I can,” said Murdoch.
Barker took Harry’s arm and led him out of the room. Murdoch remained where he was.