"Mortimer, John - Rumpole on Trial" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mortimer John)

I didn't think it was a case of death by drowning because there was no water in the lungs.' 'Might death have been caused by a deliberate attack?' Swabey asked eagerly. 'A blow to the head by some assailant?' 'I thought it might.' As the pathologist said this, there was a buzz of interest in court, but I sat expressionless.

'Struck before the body was put into the lake?' Swabey asked.

'Yes.' 'Which would make this an unlawful killing. Or, to use a word with which the Jury might be more familiar, murder.' The coroner was delighted to say this for the first time in the proceedings.

'I couldn't rule out that possibility. No.' 'Mr Rumpole. Do you wish to apply to ask the pathologist a question?' Swabey asked with a cheerless smile in my direction.

'Yes.' I rose purposefully to my hind legs. 'A good many questions.' 'Then I shall grant your application.' 'Very generous, sir. Dr Malkin. In a case of drowning it's possible for death to occur immediately, due to a sudden cardiac arrest. Is that not so? It's happened in the case of sailors falling off ships, for instance.' 'It has happened.' 'And in such a case, there might be no water in the lungs.' 'There might not be.' 'Such deaths have often occurred with drunken sailors.

They fall off the deck and alcohol produces a state of hypersensitivity to sudden and unexpected contact with water,' 'It may do so.' The pathologist was reluctant to admit it.

'Dr Malkin. You have read the great Professor Ackerman's ( work The Causes of Death, I'm sure?' 'Of course I've read it!' Dr Malkin was running out of patience before I ran out of questions.

'Professor who, Mr Rumpole?' The coroner was foolish enough to ask.

'Ackerman, sir. Required reading, I should have thought, for any Keeper of the Decisions.' After that enjoyable interruption, I returned to Dr Malkin and the business in hand.

'The Professor quotes many such cases.' 'I believe he does.' 'And we know that this old lady had an almost empty gin bottle in her possession. You found a high level of alcohol in her blood, didn't you?' 'Fairly high.' 'Fairly high. So it remains a possibility, does it not, that this unfortunate lady met her death by drowning?' There was a long pause before Dr Malkin, with the utmost reluctance said, 'It's a possibility. Yes.' 'Dealing with the blow to the head. This was a particularly steep bit of bank, was it not?' 'It was fairly steep.' 'With a number of branches and tree stumps. On some of which traces of blood were found.' 'Yes.' 'Can you rule out the possibility that this old lady, having drunk rather more gin than was good for her, slipped and fell into the lake, striking her head on one of those tree stumps as she fell?' 'I can't rule that out altogether.' Clearly Dr Malkin hated to have to say it. Murder was a far more exciting alternative.

'Thank you, Doctor. It seems we may have reached a sensible interpretation of the facts and one that should be obvious even to those who haven't read Professor Ackerman's great work.' As I sat down I looked meaningfully at Swabey, but he ' was busy trying to repair the damage I had done to his witness.

'Dr Malkin,' he said, 'we gather from your evidence that this blow to the head might have been accidental, or it might have been deliberate. Is that right?' 'Quite right, sir.' 'You, of course, didn't go into the circumstances in which someone might have had a motive for causing the death of this old lady.' 'No,' Malkin started, but it was time for Rumpole to rise in, at least well-simulated, fury. 'I object to that question. How can Dr Malkin possibly answer it?' 'He can't, Mr Rumpole.' Swabey again smiled unconvincingly.

'That will be the subject of the next part of my investigation.

I know you will wish to help me with it. Thank you, Dr Malkin. We would now like to ask Mr Saggers a few questions.' Mr Saggers turned out to be the attendant at the West Gate who took charge of our luggage when we first visited the castle. He was a solid Yorkshireman, clearly reliable, and turned out to be a devastating witness. As soon as he was in the box and sworn in, Pringle, the coroner's officer, showed him the mortuary photograph of the dead bag lady, and, in particular, a close-up of her large, but possibly once pretty, face.

'Mr Saggers,' the coroner said, 'can you recognize the lady in that photograph?' 'The Lady in the Lake,' I whispered, and Swabey again made a public pronouncement. 'For those of us unused to courtroom practice, I should say that silence is kept while a witness is giving evidence.' 'Wonder who his grandmother is?' I asked Cursitor. 'And can she suck eggs?' But now Saggers was telling a story I had to listen to. 'It was the day before they found her,' he said.

'She came up to the castle entrance and wanted to go in. She wasn't with any of the groups that'd paid already, so I asked her for two pounds. She said she hadn't got it, but she wanted to see his Lordship. I told her that wouldn't be possible. I didn't think she was anyone he'd want to see. So, well, she sort of wandered off.' 'What time was that?' Swabey asked.

'Just before four, because I was going off for my tea-break.

Then, as I was passing the formal gardens, you know, where the long border, the white border they call it, runs down to the statue? Well, I saw them there.' 'You saw who, Mr Saggers?' 'The old lady. And his Lordship.' I whispered to his Lordship, urgently taking instructions, but Richard shook his head and firmly denied the suggestion.

This added considerably to my worries.

'What were they doing?' Swabey asked.

'Just talking together. I saw them and then I went on for my tea.' 'Have you any questions, Mr Rumpole?' The coroner was looking more cheerful than I felt as I rose to do my best with Saggers.

'Before you went on for your tea, how long did you see these two together?' 'Perhaps half a minute. I didn't stop to look at them.' 'And how far away were they down at the end of the border?

Fifty yards?' 'About that.' 'It was afternoon. Was the sun behind them?' 'I think it was. Mind you, I'd seen the woman close to, at the gate.' 'So you said. But you couldn't see Lord Sackbut's face clearly in the garden?' 'I made sure it was his Lordship.' 'How was he dressed?' 'A tweed cap, and his jersey and cord trousers. Like he does. He'd been doing something with the horses.' 'He was dressed like many other men who might have been about the garden and the statues that day, Mr Saggers.

When you say you think it was his Lordship, will you accept the possibility that you might have been mistaken?' I did my best, as you can see, but it didn't get very far. Saggers, the reliable witness, answered, 'I know what I saw, Mr Rumpole. To be quite honest with you I got no doubt about it.' When we were getting ready for bed in the castle, I told Hilda my worries. 'Richard's going to tell a lie! He spoke to the old lady and now he's going to deny it.' 'Oh, Richard wouldn't do a thing like that.' She was sure of it.

'Why not? Because he's a Lord? Because he lives in a castle?