Desperate Acts

Chapter Nineteen

NINETEEN

Magistrate James Thorpe was weaned away from his second glass of after-dinner port and brought to the police quarters, where he found Constable Cobb, Chief Sturges, Marc Edwards, and a gentleman with a story he was eager to tell. Minutes later, a dishevelled Augustus French arrived and quickly set up his writing instruments. While Gussie took notes, Horace Fullarton unburdened himself of the guilt, remorse and self-loathing that had followed upon his clubbing Albert Duggan to death in the alley behind The Sailor's Arms. And Magistrate Thorpe, who found a criminal's heartfelt confession almost as satisfying as bringing down the maximum sentence on a deserving head, was so pleased with what he heard (while remaining shocked that a "gentleman" could stoop thus) that he was not tempted in the least to probe further into details that might have proved awkward. For example, what peculiar circumstances could have brought a police constable and the counsel for an accused murderer together to arrange an entrapment that involved the victim's cousin (having fortuitously resurfaced), a curious extortion-note (possibly forged?), and intimate knowledge of a blackmail scheme requiring either insider information or clairvoyance? Fullarton wished to speak only of the crime itself, however, and he gave the magistrate and the Crown all the detail they could have wished for.

Marc was not surprised at what he heard, having already worked out plausible scenarios for each of his "possibles." Fullarton stated that he had left the club-meeting a few minutes after Dutton, glanced out the back window while putting on his cloak, and saw Brodie accosting a stranger in the alley. He decided to intervene on behalf of his young friend, and ran down the stairs. But by the time he had flung open the outside door and wheeled around into the shadows to enter the alley, what he now heard, just a few yards away, brought him to a halt. Brodie was accusing the stranger of blackmailing him! For a moment he was paralyzed - incredulous at what he was hearing and uncertain as to what he should do. If this were his blackmailer - and this now seemed quite probable - then to intervene and help capture the villain might expose the banker himself and the secret he was desperate to keep from his wife (one he was not even now prepared to divulge). On the other hand, helping to arrest the blackguard might get the burden of extortion off both their backs. However, while he was trying to make up his mind, Brodie raised his right arm and struck the blackmailer with his fist. The fellow reeled away and slowly collapsed onto his back.

In shock at what he was witnessing (just minutes before, he and Brodie had been reading Shakespeare and enjoying themselves), Fullarton watched in silence as Brodie knelt down and began to check for vital signs. Then, after an anxious minute or so of indecision, his young friend had stood up, looking dazed, picked up his hat, turned and fled. It was at this moment that Fullarton claimed he decided to step into the alley and confront the man who, he was sure now, had tormented his days and nights for almost two months and extorted several dozen pounds. At this point, however, he heard Crenshaw open the side door and scurry down towards Front Street. Crenshaw, as he had testified, must have seen Brodie hunched over the unconscious man, panicked, and run. If the man were badly hurt, Fullarton reasoned, Brodie could be in serious trouble. But if he himself were now to step out into the moonlit alley, it was likely that Sir Peregrine would spot him as he was leaving the meeting. Fullarton certainly didn't want further complications added to an already complicated situation. Seconds later, the baronet was indeed clattering down the stairs. Had he been at the window in time to see Brodie fleeing? As it turned out, he had, but he too chose to scuttle away to Front Street.

So Fullarton was at last alone with his tormentor. He slipped into the alley and stood over Duggan just as the fellow was beginning to stir. As Duggan teetered up onto his elbows and opened his eyes, Fullarton remembered flinging a curse at him, but the blood was boiling in his brain, and he found it hard to think or breathe. Duggan recognized him instantly, swore an oath of his own, and then without warning grabbed a walking-stick lying next to him and swung it sharply against Fullarton's left shin. In a purely reflex action, Fullarton wrenched the weapon out of Duggan's hand, and as the villain rolled away to avoid being hit, Fullarton swung the walking-stick, knob-end first, and heard the sickening "thuck" as it struck home. (Only later did he learn to his horror that he had used Brodie Langford's easily distinguished shillelagh.)