Whose Body? A Lord Peter Wimsey Novel
far as possible, and departed as I had come, going easily up between
the drain-pipe and the rope.
I walked quietly back, re-crossed my crevasse and carried in my ladder
and sheet. My discreet accomplice greeted me with a reassuring gurgle
and thump. I didn’t make a sound on the stairs. Seeing that I had now
been having a bath for about three-quarters of an hour, I turned the
water off, and enabled my deserving domestics to get a little sleep. I
also felt it was time I had a little myself.
First, however, I had to go over to the hospital and make all safe
there. I took off Levy’s head, and started to open up the face. In
twenty minutes his own wife could not have recognised him. I returned,
leaving my wet goloshes and mackintosh by the garden door. My trousers
I dried by the gas stove in my bedroom, and brushed away all traces of
mud and brickdust. My pauper’s beard I burned in the library.
I got a good two hours’ sleep from five to seven, when my man called me
as usual. I apologized for having kept the water running so long and so
late, and added that I thought I would have the cistern seen to.
I was interested to note that I was rather extra hungry at breakfast,
showing that my night’s work had caused a certain wear-and-tear of
tissue. I went over afterwards to continue my dissection. During the
morning a peculiarly thick-headed police inspector came to inquire
whether a body had escaped from the hospital. I had him brought to me
where I was, and had the pleasure of showing him the work I was doing
on Sir Reuben Levy’s head. Afterwards I went round with him to Thipps’s
and was able to satisfy myself that my pauper looked very convincing.
As soon as the Stock Exchange opened I telephoned my various brokers,
and by exercising a little care, was able to sell out the greater
part of my Peruvian stock on a rising market. Towards the end of the
day, however, buyers became rather unsettled as a result of Levy’s
death, and in the end I did not make more than a few hundreds by the
transaction.
Trusting I have now made clear to you any point which you may have
found obscure, and with congratulations on the good fortune and
perspicacity which have enabled you to defeat me, I remain, with kind
remembrances to your mother,
Yours very truly,
JULIAN FREKE
_Post-Scriptum_: My will is made, leaving my money to St. Luke’s
Hospital, and bequeathing my body to the same institution for
dissection. I feel sure that my brain will be of interest to the
scientific world. As I shall die by my own hand, I imagine that there
may be a little difficulty about this. Will you do me the favour, if
you can, of seeing the persons concerned in the inquest, and obtaining
that the brain is not damaged by an unskilful practitioner at the
post-mortem, and that the body is disposed of according to my wish?
By the way, it may be of interest to you to know that I appreciated
your motive in calling this afternoon. It conveyed a warning, and I
am acting upon it in spite of the disastrous consequences to myself.
I was pleased to realize that you had not underestimated my nerve and
intelligence, and refused the injection. Had you submitted to it, you
would, of course, never have reached home alive. No trace would have
been left in your body of the injection, which consisted of a harmless
preparation of strychnine, mixed with an almost unknown poison, for
which there is at present no recognised test, a concentrated solution
of sn—
* * * * *
At this point the manuscript broke off.
“Well, that’s all clear enough,” said Parker.
“Isn’t it queer?” said Lord Peter. “All that coolness, all those
brains—and then he couldn’t resist writing a confession to show how
clever he was, even to keep his head out of the noose.”
“And a very good thing for us,” said Inspector Sugg, “but Lord bless
you, sir, these criminals are all alike.”
“Freke’s epitaph,” said Parker, when the Inspector had departed. “What
next, Peter?”
“I shall now give a dinner party,” said Lord Peter, “to Mr. John P.
Milligan and his secretary and to Messrs. Crimplesham and Wicks. I feel
they deserve it for not having murdered Levy.”
“Well, don’t forget the Thippses,” said Mr. Parker.
“On no account,” said Lord Peter, “would I deprive myself of the
pleasure of Mrs. Thipps’s company. Bunter!”
“My lord?”
“The Napoleon brandy.”
FOOTNOTES
[A] This is the first Florence edition, 1481, by Niccolo
di Lorenzo. Lord Peter’s collection of printed Dantes
is worth inspection. It includes, besides the famous
Aldine 8vo. of 1502, the Naples folio of 1477—“edizione
rarissima,” according to Colomb. This copy has no
history, and Mr. Parker’s private belief is that its
present owner conveyed it away by stealth from somewhere
or other. Lord Peter’s own account is that he “picked
it up in a little place in the hills,” when making a
walking-tour through Italy.
[B] Lord Peter’s wits were wool-gathering. The book is
in the possession of Earl Spencer. The Brocklebury copy
is incomplete, the last five signatures being altogether
missing, but is unique in possessing the colophon.
[C] Apollonios Rhodios. Lorenzobodi Alopa. Firenze.
1496. (4to.) The excitement attendant on the solution
of the Battersea Mystery did not prevent Lord Peter
from securing this rare work before his departure for
Corsica.
[D] Lord Peter was not without authority for his
opinion: “With respect to the alleged motive, it is of
great importance to see whether there was a motive for
committing such a crime, or whether there was not, or
whether there is an improbability of its having been
committed so strong as not to be overpowered by positive
evidence. But _if there be any motive which can be
assigned, I am bound to tell you that the inadequacy of
that motive is of little importance_. We know, from the
experience of criminal courts, that atrocious crimes of
this sort have been committed from very slight motives;
_not merely from malice and revenge_, but to gain a
small pecuniary advantage, and to drive off for a time
pressing difficulties.”—L. C. J. Campbell, summing up in
Reg. v. Palmer, Shorthand Report, p. 308 C. C. C., May,
1856, Sess. Pa. 5. (Italics mine. D. L. S.)