Venom House. Arthur W. Upfield
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were sound. When I last saw her, and that was two years ago, she walked upright and her mind was unimpaired.”
“She was not drowned, I think.”
“She was strangled with rough cord or light rope. The mark of the ligature was quite plain. She was dead when her body entered the water. I believe death was very rapid, and that death was due to asphyxia rather than to shock. There was but little mucus froth and no water in the lungs.
“The body was fully clothed,” the doctor proceeded. “I found more weed adhering to the back of the head than to any other part of it. There was a quantity of weed pressed into the cavity between the neck and the back of the blouse, and there was much weed adhering to the calves of the worsted stockings. All that provides me with a picture. I can see the body being dragged through shallow water by the cord or rope with which the woman was strangled, and then, when the ligature had been removed, pushed out into deep water.”
“Where, it was thought, it would sink,” added Bony. “Assuming that the body had not floated, that it remained submerged till putrefaction brought it to the surface to be found and at once examined by you, what might have been the result?”
“It would be probable that the mark of the ligature had faded into the general slough of the skin, and also the internal appearance would be such as to indicate drowning. Assumption would point strongly to death by drowning, but in view of the Carlow drowning, assumption would not have been accepted.”
“H’m!” Bony smiled his thanks. “Do you remember, Doctor, or you, Mawson, whether during the inquest on Carlow anything was said of the specific gravity of the body?”
“Yes,” promptly replied Lofty. “Old Harston ... he’s the coroner, you know ... asked me if it wasn’t a fact that the specific gravity of a fat man, like Carlow, was much lighter than that of the body of a lean man.”
“He wanted to know if the body was weighted with anything which submerged it,” added Mawson.
“And I had to give a lecture on the subject,” Lofty continued.
“Mrs Answerth was not a fat woman, was she?” inquired Bony.
“No, she was tall and gaunt. She had no more fat than I have,” answered the doctor.
“And therefore her murderer possibly thought it certain that her body would sink and remain submerged for days.” Bony stood. “The body of the next victim disposed of in Answerth’s Folly will be efficiently weighted.”
Dr Lofty stubbed the butt of his cheroot and rose from his chair.
“Pleasant prospect,” he drawled, and Bony decided that the accent had been cultivated. “You know, Inspector, another asphyxia case will bore me. Arrange that the next one is by bullet or bludgeon. Good night! Anything you want of me, don’t hesitate.”
Mawson accompanied him to the street gate. Bony studied the doctor’s excellent photographs of the cord mark round the dead woman’s neck. Voices drifted inward through the open doorway, and he looked up to see a tall, prosperous-looking man precede the constable into the office.
Chapter Four
Venom House
Mr Harston was imposing and emphatically solid. To observe him was to regret that he wasn’t wearing morning clothes, complete with top hat and spats. Instead, he wore a pair of beautifully cut gabardine trousers and a sports jacket of extremely conservative hues. The hazel eyes were alive and friendly. The tint of the grey hair from which rose the bald dome, the crow’s-feet and the mouth combined to place his age in the late fifties.
“Sit down, Mr Harston,” Bony said affably. “I understand you are the deputy coroner. Happy to make your acquaintance. I am, of course, looking into the circumstances surrounding the death of Mrs Answerth.”
“So I’ve been given to understand by Miss Answerth ... Miss Mary Answerth, Inspector.” Mr Harston carefully arranged the creases of his trousers. “Er, I can assure you that everyone here wishes you success in your investigations. It’s very late to call on you, but I was prevailed on to do so by Miss Answerth, who telephoned me half an hour ago with reference to her mother’s body. They’d like to have it as soon as it can possibly be released.”
“That will depend now on you as coroner,” Bony stated. “I have the report of the post mortem conducted by Dr Lofty, and from it you will agree that an inquest is called for. The report definitely favours homicide. Perhaps you would glance through it.”
Mr Harston accepted the document with a faint: “Ha! Just too bad!” He produced black-rimmed spectacles attached to a thin black ribbon, and took his time to read the report.
“Yes, an inquest is certainly indicated, Inspector. Have you thought of a date convenient to you?”
“Well, no, Mr Harston. It would, I think, be best to defer the date ... say for a week or ten days. I arrived only late this afternoon, and haven’t yet visited Answerth’s Folly. I intend doing so early tomorrow.”
“Oh! Yes, very well, Inspector. The body ...”
“There’s no reason why the family cannot take charge of it tomorrow ... tomorrow afternoon ... after I have interviewed the members of the family and staff. You could, I think, decide to sign the release at one o’clock. You have known the family for some time, I understand.”
“For many years, Inspector. When I came to Edison I was but a youth, and old Jacob Answerth was almost my first client and became my most valued one. He was a strange man, full of inhibitions, and sometimes violent, in order, I think, to triumph temporarily over fear. There’s a name for it which I cannot recall. Anyway, he was generous to me, making me a beneficiary under his will, and in his will he commanded his daughters to have me continue as their business agent, general adviser and friend.” Mr Harston chuckled. “They obeyed the command to the extent that I have, since the old man’s death, been a sort of Grand Vizier.”
“He suicided, did he not?”
“Yes. Shot himself. No apparent reason. Financial position was pleasing and secure.”
“I understand there is a son. What of him?”
“By the second wife ... the late Mrs Answerth. Mary and Janet are the children of the first wife. Morris Answerth would be about twenty-six or seven. Not quite normal. Harmless, of course, but needs supervision. He doesn’t enter the picture so far as I am concerned. I haven’t seen him for years. After old Jacob blew out his brains, the younger daughter, Janet, returned home and slipped into authority over the family. A quiet girl, artistic, universally liked. Mary manages the station and the stock and the employees. An Amazon. She offends my sense of what is right in a woman.”
“I met her,” Bony smilingly admitted.
“Rude, ignorant, violent and almost always objectionable,” Mr Harston proceeded. “Mary Answerth has shouted me down in my own office. She has called me every name used by rough working men. She has openly insulted me in the street. Because now and then I feel that her attitude is less deliberately intended than natural to her, and in view of her forebears, I’ve put up with it, and eventually found it best to give back as much as she gives. I have to admire her for her business acumen. Peculiarly enough, I get along better with her than with her sister. Yes, old Jacob Answerth didn’t leave behind him easy clients.”
“May I assume that Miss Mary Answerth is equally objectionable to other people?”
“That is so.”
“Would the Answerths, as a family, be likely to have enemies?”
“It’s likely that Mary Answerth has a hundred enemies. But Mrs Answerth, no. Mrs Answerth was entirely negative. From the time her husband died, she was never seen in Edison but once, and on that occasion she came to town to consult Dr Lofty.”
“Did you know the first wife?”
“Oh, yes! The first wife was a kind of hanger-on