Sixteen

THE EVIDENCE OF ELSIE BATT

Sergeant¹ O’Connor was unkindly nicknamed by his colleagues at the Yard: “The Maidservant’sPrayer.”

There was no doubt that he was an extremely handsome man. Tall, erect², broad-shouldered, itwas less the regularity³ of his features than the roguish and daredevil spark in his eye which madehim so irresistible⁴ to the fair sex. It was indubitable that Sergeant O’Connor got results, and gotthem quickly.

So rapid was he, that only four days after the murder of Mr. Shaitana, Sergeant O’Connor wassitting in the three-and-sixpenny seats at the Willy Nilly Revue side by side with Miss Elsie Batt,late parlourmaid to Mrs. Craddock of 117 North Audley Street.

Having laid his line of approach carefully, Sergeant O’Connor was just launching the greatoffensive.

“—Reminds me,” he was saying, “of the way one of my old governors used to carry on. Nameof Craddock. He was an old cuss, if you like.”

“Craddock,” said Elsie. “I was with some Craddocks once.”

“Well, that’s funny. Wonder whether they were the same?”

“Lived in North Audley Street, they did,” said Elsie.

“My lot were going to London when I left them,” said O’Connor promptly⁵. “Yes, I believe itwas North Audley Street. Mrs. Craddock was rather a one for the gents.”

Elsie tossed her head.

“I’d no patience with her. Always finding fault and grumbling⁶. Nothing you did right.”

“Her husband got some of it, too, didn’t he?”

“She was always complaining he neglected her—that he didn’t understand her. And she wasalways saying how bad her health was and gasping⁷ and groaning⁸. Not ill at all, if you ask me.”

O’Connor slapped his knee.

“Got it. Wasn’t there something about her and some doctor? A bit too thick or something?”

“You mean Dr. Roberts? He was a nice gentleman, he was.”

“You girls, you’re all alike,” said Sergeant O’Connor. “The moment a man’s a bad lot, all thegirls stick up for him. I know his kind.”

“No, you don’t, and you’re all wrong about him. There wasn’t anything of that kind about him.

Wasn’t his fault, was it, if Mrs. Craddock was always sending for him? What’s a doctor to do? Ifyou ask me, he didn’t think nothing of her at all, except as a patient. It was all her doing. Wouldn’tleave him alone, she wouldn’t.”

“That’s all very well, Elsie. Don’t mind me calling you Elsie, do you? Feel as though I’d knownyou all my life.”

“Well, you haven’t! Elsie, indeed.”

She tossed her head.

“Oh, very well, Miss Batt.” He gave her a glance. “As I was saying, that’s all very well, but thehusband, he cut up rough, all the same, didn’t he?”

“He was a bit ratty one day,” admitted Elsie. “But, if you ask me, he was ill at the time. He diedjust after, you know.”

“I remember—died of something queer, didn’t he?”

“Something Japanese, it was—all from a new shaving brush, he’d got. Seems awful, doesn’t it,that they’re not more careful? I’ve not fancied anything Japanese since.”

“Buy British, that’s my motto,” said Sergeant O’Connor sententiously. “And you were sayinghe and the doctor had a row?”

Elsie nodded, enjoying herself as she relived past scandals.

“Hammer and tongs⁹, they went at it,” she said. “At least, the master did. Dr. Roberts was everso quiet. Just said, ‘Nonsense.’ And, ‘What have you got into your head?’”

“This was at the house, I suppose?”

“Yes. She’d sent for him. And then she and the master had words, and in the middle of it Dr.

Roberts arrived, and the master went for him.”

“What did he say exactly?”

“Well, of course, I wasn’t supposed to hear. It was all in the Missus’s bedroom. I thoughtsomething was up, so I got the dustpan and did the stairs. I wasn’t going to miss anything.”

Sergeant O’Connor heartily¹⁰ concurred¹¹ in this sentiment, reflecting how fortunate it was thatElsie was being approached unofficially. On interrogation by Sergeant O’Connor of the Police, shewould have virtuously¹² protested that she had not overheard anything at all.

“As I say,” went on Elsie, “Dr. Roberts, he was very quiet—the master was doing all theshouting.”

“What was he saying?” asked O’Connor, for the second time approaching the vital point.

“Abusing of him proper,” said Elsie with relish¹³.

“How do you mean?”

Would the girl never come to actual words and phrases?

“Well, I don’t understand a lot of it,” admitted Elsie. “There were a lot of long words,‘unprofessional conduct,’ and ‘taking advantage,’ and things like that—and I heard him say he’dget Dr. Roberts struck off the—Medical Register, would it be? Something like that.”

“That’s right,” said O’Connor. “Complain to the Medical Council.”

“Yes, he said something like that. And the Missus was going on in sort of hysterics, saying‘You never cared for me. You neglected me. You left me alone.’ And I heard her say that Dr.

Roberts had been an angel of goodness to her.

“And then the doctor, he came through into the dressing¹⁴ room with the master and shut the doorof the bedroom—and he said quite plain:

“‘My good man, don’t you realize your wife’s hysterical¹⁵? She doesn’t know what she’s saying.

To tell you the truth, it’s been a very difficult and trying case, and I’d have thrown it up long ago ifI’d thought it was con—con—some long word; oh, yes, consistent—that was it—consistent withmy duty.’ That’s what he said. He said something about not overstepping a boundary, too—something between doctor and patient. He got the master quietened a bit, and then he said:

“‘You’ll be late at the office, you know. You’d better be off. Just think things over quietly. Ithink you’ll realize that the whole business is a mare’s nest. I’ll just wash my hands here before Igo onto my next case. Now, you think it over, my dear fellow. I can assure you that the wholething arises out of your wife’s disordered imagination.’

“And the master, he said, ‘I don’t know what to think.’

“And he come out—and, of course, I was brushing hard—but he never even noticed me. Ithought afterwards he looked ill. The doctor, he was whistling quite cheerily and washing hishands in the dressing room, where there was hot and cold laid on. And presently he came out, withhis bag, and he spoke¹⁶ to me very nicely and cheerily, as he always did, and he went down thestairs, quite cheerful and gay and his usual self. So you see, I’m quite sure as he hadn’t doneanything wrong. It was all her.”

“And then Craddock got this anthrax?”

“Yes, I think he’d got it already. The mistress, she nursed him very devoted¹⁷, but he died. Lovelywreaths there was at the funeral.”

“And afterwards? Did Dr. Roberts come to the house again?”

“No, he didn’t, Nosey! You’ve got some grudge¹⁸ against him. I tell you there was nothing in it.

If there were he’d have married her when the master was dead, wouldn’t he? And he never did. Nosuch fool. He’d taken her measure all right. She used to ring him up, though, but somehow he wasnever in. And then she sold the house, and we all got our notices, and she went abroad to Egypt.”

“And you didn’t see Dr. Roberts in all that time?”

“No. She did, because she went to him to have this—what do you call it?—’noculation againstthe typhoid fever. She came back with her arm ever so sore with it. If you ask me, he made it clearto her then that there was nothing doing. She didn’t ring him up no more, and she went off verycheerful with a lovely lot of new clothes—all light colours, although it was the middle of winter,but she said it would be all sunshine and hot out there.”

“That’s right,” said Sergeant O’Connor. “It’s too hot sometimes, I’ve heard. She died out there.

You know that, I suppose?”

“No, indeed I didn’t. Well, fancy that! She may have been worse than I thought, poor soul.”

She added with a sigh:

“I wonder what they did with all that lovely lot of clothes. They’re blacks out there, so theycouldn’t wear them.”

“You’d have looked a treat in them, I expect,” said Sergeant O’Connor.

“Impudence¹⁹,” said Elsie.

“Well, you won’t have my impudence much longer,” said Sergeant O’Connor. “I’ve got to goaway on business for my firm.”

“You going for long?”

“May be going abroad,” said the Sergeant.

Elsie’s face fell.

Though unacquainted with Lord Byron’s famous poem, “I never loved a dear gazelle,” etc., itssentiments were at that moment hers. She thought to herself:

“Funny how all the really attractive ones never come to anything. Oh, well, there’s alwaysFred.”

Which is gratifying, since it shows that the sudden incursion of Sergeant O’Connor into Elsie’slife did not affect it permanently²⁰. “Fred” may even have been the gainer!

 

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