The Master Mind
IT WAS BONY who first recovered. He assisted Penwarden to his feet, felt the trembling of the old body, was perturbed, by the prospect of heart failure cutting off a vital source of information.
“We’ll go out to the workshop and talk about it,” he said, finding it necessary to steer the old man to the packing case at the bench. Having sat him down, Bony took from the wall shelf the pipe and the tin of tobacco, and liftedhimself to sit on the bench. With effort to control his fingers, he rolled a cigarette.
“Be easy, Mr Penwarden,” he urged the old man, who sat with face turned down to the hands resting on his knees. “I am, indeed, a detective inspector investigating the death of the man in the Lighthouse, and it seems that you have had the idea that I was a bird of entirely different plumage.”
“That’s how ’twas, Mr Rawlings, sir.” Penwarden reached for pipe and tobacco, and the hand trembled violently. “I am truly sorry I was somistaken, and very glad that the mistake didn’t end in a bad way… for both of us. What will yoube doing about it?”
“Having admitted the mistake, and the mistake not having ended in a bad way, nothing. We will forget about that little episode, and concentrate on matters of greater importance. Now light your pipe and be easy. As you urged me to do, take your time.”
“Thatbe very kind of you, Mr Rawlings, sir. What I done was inthinkin ’ for others. Now I can see what an old fool I was. Ah me! ’Tis a sad thing that the Lord thrashes those He loves, and if you would spare ’emall you can, I’m sure your reward in the hereafter would be certain.”
“If you refer to the innocent, Mr Penwarden, I have known many instances when the police have striven to lessen the suffering of innocent persons occasioned by the guilty,” Bony said, quietly. “After all, we policemen are ordinary men. We are fathers and sons or brothers. We uphold the law, and try to do so impersonally, and the older we become, so are we the more inclined to be sympathetic, even to the criminal, who is, of course, suffering an illness of the mind.”
Penwarden puffed vigorously at his pipe without speaking, till he put the pipe down on the bench and heaved a sigh. The unwrinkled face was gaining a little of its normal pinkness, and the hands were less agitated. Bony waited patiently, his mind sponged clean of rancour, and presently the old man spoke.
“Itwere Fred Ayling who told me about you finding their old cave, and then telling me you must be a friend of the man they found dead in the Lighthouse. That man had Eldred Wessex in his clutches. Fred warned me against you, and I sharpened my wits and put two and two together. I happened to see you going into Moss Way’s campt’othernight, and I sneaked close and heard him and you talking. You played him well, and I come to be sure about you. Now I’m sad at heart, Mr Rawlings, sir, that I gave you such a fright.
“I’ll have to go back a long way to the time I came here as a lad with nothing but the strength in me arms and back. In them days, Eli Wessex was a mere boy, and Tom Owen wasn’t born. No one hereabout had much money, and to journey to Melbourne was a big thing to do.
“In course of time, we all took wives and sired children, and we never hadno quarrels like most neighbours have. When the present Lake’s father and mother came to take up land, we helped ’emto their feet. When the fires came and burned the Owens out, we set ’emup again. When the present Lake broke his leg, Tom Owen bossed the lads and seen to it they did their work. All of us did our best to be upright and God-fearing.
“Itwere Eli Wessex’s father who set me up as wheelwright and undertaker. He advanced me a hundred pounds, and when I was able to repay the debt he was dead, and Eli wouldn’t take the money… wiped out the debt, saying I’d already paid it in service.
“My sons grew up before Eldred and Dick Lake and Fred Ayling, and it was Eli who had ’emover to his place and read and talked to ’emand set their feet firmly on the road. To this day, my sons haven’tforgot Eli, and what Eli did for ’em.
“Then came up Eldred, with Dick and Fred, and Eli did for them what he did for my boys. Boys are boys, and the generations don’t change ’em. There’s no difference between boys and young horses. They like to show off. They wants to be men before their whiskers sprout, and when their whiskers do grow long enough to shave off, most of ’emquiet down and get a bit of sense. My sons did. So did Dick Lake, in his own way, and Fred Ayling in his.
“But Eldred, he never got sense, never got past the showing off stage, never took in anything from his father. Several times before the war, a policeman came to find where Eldred was, and to tell Eli and his wife that, if they didn’t put a brake on him, he’d find himself in gaol. All of us thought that the Army would tame him.
“He never went to America after the war. He never came home neither. Said he was trying to make good before he came home. I know he didn’t make good, ’coshe wrote asking me for money, and saying I was not to tell his parents about it.
“I sent him the money to Sydney. It was a fairish bit, too. A couple of months after that he wrote for more, and more I sent him, thinking about that hundred pounds I never repaid his grandfather. When he wrote for the third time asking for money, I refused him. It was only the other day that I learned that his mother used to send him money, and even Dick Lake did.
“And then one morning Dick Lake popped in here to tell me that Eldred was coming home. He’d had a telegram from Eldred saying he’d be arriving at Geelong that veryday, and Dick planned to meet him and take him home to give Eli and his wife the surprise of their lives. Dick borrowed Eli’s car and went up to Geelong, but he didn’t come back that day, or the next day till ten that night.
“He knocked on my front door, and I answered as the old woman had gone to bed. Dick tells me he wants to talk private like, and would I go with him to the workshop. We came here, me carrying a hurricane lamp. I set the lamp down here on this here bench, and Dick’s beside me. Then Ihears a noise behind me, and I turns round to see Eldred.
“He’s the same Eldred, yet different. Older of course. There’s no colour to his face. His mouth is sort of sagging and both cheeks are twitching like he’s got the palsy. Ilooks at him, and he looks at me, and we don’t say a word. Dick says:
“ ‘Meand Eldred is up against it, Ed. Want to talk it over, sort of, like when we were kids. Pretty serious this time, though. Eldred’s all played out, and I can’t think straight. It’s terrible crook, Ed!’
“Dick wasn’t cocky, like usual. He looked like he did when he was a little feller and come to me to get him out of scrapes. He made me fear, and Eldred stood thereslobberin ’ and saying something over and over what I couldn’t understand. Him I didn’t care tuppence for. I went over to the door and locked it. Then I came back to the bench and put the light out, so’s no one would know we were here, and I told Dick to ‘fess up’.”
Penwarden lit his pipe with hands which trembled as much as when he assisted Bony from the coffin. The pipe gave no ease to the memory of that night, and again he discarded it.
“Eldred got off that train at Geelong in the late afternoon after Dick’s been waiting outside the station since the day before. Dick seen him leaving the station and went to meet him. Eldred’s a bit nervous of something, and he wants to know this and that, and Dick tells him he had Eli’s car parked opposite. They get into the car, and then, just before they can get away, a stranger to Dick comes up and says ‘I’m going with Eldred! Little spot of business to settle.’
“Dick looks at Eldred and Eldred nods all right, and the Stranger gets into the back seat with Eldred. They don’t talk, and Dick drives through the town and when he comes to the Belmont Hotel, he stops there for a drink. The others won’t leave the car, and Eldred don’t want Dick to go into the pub, but Dick is a bit sore by this time and he has his way. After a bit, he bought a bottle of brandy and went out to the car. Dick gets in and drives on for Split Point.
“All the way to Anglesea, Eldred and the stranger in the back don’t speak a word, and when they get to the top of the hill by the Memorial Dick pulls off the road and parks, and he says he don’t go no further until he hears what’s what.
“It’s getting dark by this time, and ’cosDick hasn’t hadnothin ’ to eat since breakfast, he oughtn’t to have opened that brandy bottle. The bottle goes the round, and then Eldred says that the stranger thinks he’s got aholt on him. The stranger says he’s certainly got a goodholt on Eldred, and that if he don’t part up with something over four hundred pounds owing to him, he’ll see Eldred’s father about it. Then he tells Dick how Eldred’s been in business with him, selling drugs and smuggled pearls and suchlike, and had cleared off from Sydney thinking he’d escape paying the stranger his share.
“There’s quite an argument up there by the Memorial. Eldred don’t deny anything, and the stranger tells of other things about Eldredworse’n peddling cocaine. Dick says ’tis best to take ’emboth back to Geelong, for he don’t want either of ’em, let alone both, walking in on Eli and his wife. But the stranger won’t hear of that. Says nothing will stop him talking to Eldred’s father, exceptin ’ four hundred and some pounds.
“The argument gets hot and hotter, and presently Eldred tells the stranger that if hedon’t get out of the car, he’ll bash him. So the stranger leaves, and Eldred gets out, too. Then Eldred punches the stranger and knocks him down. Dick can see him lying in the faint light from the rear lamp, and he can see most of Eldred, too. And as the stranger’s lying on his back, Eldred shoots him.
“Dick’s out like a flash. In time to stop Eldred firing again. He wrestles for the gun and takes it off Eldred, and when he bends down over the stranger, he knows murder has been done. They sit on the running board, with the dead man at their feet. Eldred is crying and Dickdon’t know what to do. He’sthinkin ’ of Eli, and Eldred’s mother. And he’s stillthinkin ’ of them when he ’fesses up to me.
“In the dark we sit here for a long time,” continued old Penwarden. “Mostly it’s silent, sometimes Dickaskin ’ me what to do, sometimes Eldred whining it wasn’t hisfault, that he didn’t mean to shoot. And me justthinkin ’ what’s best to do.
“Even now you’ve got me to rights, Mr Rawlings, sir, I’m not fretful over what I advised Dick to do. There’s Eldred, a no-good waster, a be-devilled human who’s never given anything but sorrow. There’s the stranger, another waster, adefier of the law, a despoiler of souls with his evil drugs. There’s Eli, well-nigh helpless, sittin ’ andlyin ’ and justthinkin ’ and being troubled like Job. And there’s his wife who never spared herself, who poured out a mighty love upon her only man child. They mustn’t know about murder. And there’s only Dick Lake and me to stop ’emknowing.
“What use to tell Eldred he oughtn’t to have done it? What use to say anything to Eldred? Eldred’s finished. He finished himself. If he hadn’t killed that drug smuggler, he’d end up by killing someone else. So this is what I told him and Dick Lake.
“ ‘It’sno good thinking you can get rid of the body. If you took it to Fred Ayling’s camp, he’d find a burial placeso’s it would never be found. But in the first place, you wouldn’t get it past Dick’s home, for one of the children would hear the car, and you couldn’t pass without stopping; and in the second place, we won’t have Fred Ayling brought into it.
“ ‘Inthe buccaneers’ cave you have skeleton keys of the Lighthouse, so you told me a long, long time ago. One of you will fetchthem keys. You’ll drive the body to the picnic ground, and carry it up to the Lighthouse. It must be midnight now, and no one will be abroad this wet night. You’ll strip the body naked… strip it of everything. You’ll take the body into the Lighthouse. It’ll be two months before the next inspection’s done, and if you plant it in the locker it mightn’t be found even then. You take everything belonging to the dead man to your old cave. No one has ever found that cave beside you boys, and no one is likely to now.’
“Dick, he says it’s a good plan, and they’ll carry it out. Eldred chips up like me andhim is great friends, but I stops him quick. Itells him that when the body and the dead man’s things are safely stowed, Dick drives him back to Geelong. Eldred is to keeptravellin ’, to get as far away as he can, and keep away.
“Eldred wants to see his father and mother beforeleavin ’ Split Point. I tells him no. Itells him if he went home, or if he ever comes back, I’ll tell the police about him. He tries to argue that if they plant the body like Isaid, and the clothes like I said, he could go home to see his parents. Itells Eldred that he take it or leaves it, and Dick he tells Eldred that, too. We don’t argue with him, and Eldred says he’ll do what we say.
“Iruns over the plan again, and Dick says he’s got it all clear. Dick’s more himself, now, more confident, but Eldred’s snivelling, and I’mthinkin ’ Dick will have it all to do. In the dark, I hunted out some light rope, for no one could get down to the cave withouthavin ’ to use both hands. Withoutlightin ’ the lamp, I let ’emout, bided there five minutes and went home. It was ten minutes after one.”
The old man ceased speaking, and Bony significantly waited. Yet again, Penwarden lit his pipe, and this time was calm enough to smoke. Bony completed the rolling of another cigarette before the old man proceeded.
“After that night, I didn’t see Dick for a week. In that week, of course, the inspector, coming down by chance, found the body. Murder will out, Mr Rawlings, sir. I ought to have remembered that saying. Anyway, Dick came to tell me he’d driven Eldred to Ballarat, and Eldred had tipped a transport driver to take him across to Adelaide. And that’s all.”
“But how does Fred Ayling come into it?” Bony asked, and the old man sighed.
“Dick had to tell Fred. He’d never keep anything from him. Fred came here with Dick, to talk over what had been done with the dead man’s clothes and luggage. Fred wanted Dick to fetch the things, and he’d take ’emback to his camp and destroy ’emproperly. Not then, though. Not till after the detectives had given up and gone away. Dick backed me when I said they’d be safe enough where they were.
“But that wasn’t so, Mr Rawlings, sir. You found the cave. Mary Wessex seen you go down to it, and she told Fred about you, and how she hit you with a rock. Fred told Dick, and said he must bring up them clothes, if you’d of left them there. Didn’t mean Dick to go to the cave when it was raining like it did that night. I didn’t know anything about that till, day afore yesterday, Fred came here to tell me, and saying that as you didn’t look like a policeman you was an accomplice of the dead man come toferrit out what happened to him.”
“Did Mary Wessex know about the killing?”
“No. But she knew about the clothes and the case being in the cave. Unbeknownst to Dick, she went there sometimes. He happened to see her about to go down. You were on the beach that day, and he knew if she went down you would see her and guess there must be a cave. So he stopped her. Owen had comelookin ’ for Mary, and he was a bit too late to lend a hand.”
Bony gazed hard into the now not so bright blue eyes, and slowly he asked:
“You are convinced that Eldred did not visit his parents… as you ordained?”
“Yes. Dick spoke true, and Eldred never came back after being taken to Ballarat.”
“How do you account for the fact that the dead man’s fingerprints were found on the hand rail inside the Lighthouse?”
“Dick said… Dick said when he was telling me just what they done with the body that, as he was carrying the body on his back up the steps, Eldred took the dead man’s hand and made his prints on the rail to sort of confuse things for when the body was found.”
“To that extent Eldred still had his wits.”
“Seems like it were so,” Penwarden agreed.
“It’s certain that you had your wits about you that night. Tell me, what did you intend doing with my dead body inside the coffin?”
Penwarden slowlystood, the picture of bewilderment.
“Well, now… I don’t rightly know, Mr Rawlings, sir. I never got that far. You see, I didn’t think what to do about you until youwas being fitted.”