Strong Poison: Chapter 3 - The Hung Jury That Saved Harriet Vane from the Gallows

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

CHAPTER III They won't be long, I shouldn't think, said Waffles Newton. It's pretty damned obvious. Look here, old man, I'm going to push my stuff in. Will you let me know what happens?

Sure, said Salcombe Hardy.

Salcombe Hardy (0:13)

If you don't mind dropping mine in at our place as you go.

You couldn't send me a drink by phone, could you? My mouth's like the bottom of a parrot's cage.

SPEAKER_1 (0:25)

He looked at his watch.

Salcombe Hardy (0:27)

We shall miss the Six-Thirty Edition, I'm afraid, unless they hurry up. The old man is careful, but he's damned slow.

SPEAKER_1 (0:36)

They can't in decency not make a pretense of consulting about it, said Newton. I give them twenty minutes. They'll want a smoke. So do I. I'll be back at ten to encase. He wriggled his way out. Cuthbert Logan, who reported for a morning paper, and was a man of more leisure, settled down to write up a word picture of the trial. He was a phlegmatic and sober person and could write as comfortably in court as anywhere else. He liked to be on the spot when things happened and to note down glances, tones of voice, colour effects and so forth.

His copy was always entertaining and sometimes even distinguished. Freddy Arbuthnot, who had not after all gone home after lunch, thought it was time to do so now.

He fidgeted and Wimsey frowned at him. The Dowager Duchess made her way along the benches and squeezed in next to Lord Peter. Sir Impey Biggs, having watched over his client's interest to the last, disappeared, chatting cheerfully to the Attorney General and followed by the smaller legal fry.

The dock was deserted. On the bench, the red roses stood solitary, their petals dropping. Chief Inspector Parker, disengaging himself from a group of friends, came slowly up through the crowd and greeted the Dowager.

Charles Parker (1:48)

And what do you think of it, Peter?

SPEAKER_1 (1:51)

He added, turning to Wimsey.

Charles Parker (1:53)

Rather neatly got up, eh?

Lord Peter Wimsey (1:56)

Charles, said Wimsey's, You ought not to be allowed out without me. You've made a mistake, old man.

Charles Parker (2:02)

Made a mistake.

Lord Peter Wimsey (2:04)

She didn't do it.

Charles Parker (2:05)

Oh, come.

Lord Peter Wimsey (2:08)

She did not do it. It's very convincing and watertight, but it's all wrong.

Charles Parker (2:13)

You don't really think that.

Lord Peter Wimsey (2:16)

I do.

SPEAKER_1 (2:17)

Parker looked distressed. He had confidence in Wimsey's judgment, and in spite of his own interior certainty, he felt shaken.

Charles Parker (2:25)

My dear man, where's the floor in it?

Lord Peter Wimsey (2:31)

There isn't one.

It's damnably knife-proof.

There's nothing wrong about it at all, except that the girl's innocent.

Charles Parker (2:39)

You're turning into a common or garden psychologist, said Parker with an uneasy laugh. Isn't he duchess?

SPEAKER_1 (2:50)

I wish I had known that girl, replied the dowager in her usual indirect manner.

The Dowager Duchess (2:54)

So interesting, and a really remarkable face, though perhaps not strictly good-looking. And all the more interesting for that, because good-looking people are so often cows. I have been reading one of her books, really quite good, and so well-written, and I didn't guess the murderer till page 200 Rather clever, because I usually do it about page 15

So very curious to write books about crimes, and then be accused of a crime oneself. Some people might say it was a judgment. I wonder whether if she didn't do it, she has spotted the murderer herself.

I don't suppose detective writers detect much in real life, do they? Except Edgar Wallace, of course, who always seems to be everywhere. And dear Conan Doyle, and the black man. What was his name? And of course the Slater person. Such a scandal, though now I come to think of it, that was in Scotland, where they have such very odd laws about everything, particularly getting married. Well, I suppose we shall soon know now, not the truth necessarily, but what the jury have made of it.

Charles Parker (4:20)

Yes, they are being rather longer than I expected. But I say, Wimsey, I wish you'd tell me.

Lord Peter Wimsey (4:32)

Too late, too late, you cannot enter now.

I have locked my heart in a silver box and pinned it with a golden pin. Nobody's opinion matters now, except the jury's. I expect Miss Climpson is telling them all about it, when once she starts she doesn't stop for an hour or two.

Charles Parker (4:49)

Well, they've been half an hour now, said Parker.

SPEAKER_1 (4:54)

Still waiting, said Salcombe Hardy, returning to the press table. Yes, so this is what you call twenty minutes. Three quarters of an hour, I make it.