The Leavenworth Case

CHAPTER II
THE CORONER’S INQUEST

‘The baby figure of the giant mass

Of things to come.’

—TROILUS AND CRESSIDA

FOR a few minutes I sat dazed by the sudden flood of light greeting me from the many open windows; then, as the strongly contrasting features of the scene before me began to impress themselves upon my consciousness, I found myself experiencing something of the same sensation of double personality which years before had followed an enforced use of ether. As at that time, I appeared to be living two lives at once: in two distinct places, with two separate sets of incidents going on; so now I seemed to be divided between two irreconcilable trains of thought; the gorgeous house, its elaborate furnishing, the little glimpses of yesterday’s life, as seen in the open piano, with its sheet of music held in place by a lady’s fan, occupying my attention fully as much as the aspect of the throng of incongruous and impatient people huddled about me.

Perhaps one reason of this lay in the extraordinary splendour of the room I was in; the glow of satin, glitter of bronze, and glimmer of marble meeting the eye at every turn. But I am rather inclined to think it was mainly due to the force and eloquence of a certain picture which confronted me from the opposite wall. A sweet picture—sweet enough and poetic enough to have been conceived by the most idealistic of artists: simple, too—the vision of a young flaxen-haired, blue-eyed coquette, dressed in the costume of the First Empire, standing in a wood-path, looking back over her shoulder at someone following—yet with such a dash of something not altogether saint-like in the corners of her meek eyes and baby-like lips, that it impressed me with the individuality of life. Had it not been for the open dress, with its waist almost beneath the armpits, the hair cut short on the forehead, and the perfection of the neck and shoulders, I should have taken it for a literal portrait of one of the ladies of the house. As it was, I could not rid myself of the idea that one, if not both, of Mr Leavenworth’s nieces looked down upon me from the eyes of this entrancing blonde with the beckoning glance and forbidding hand. So vividly did this fancy impress me that I half shuddered as I looked, wondering if this sweet creature did not know what had occurred in this house since the happy yesterday; and if so, how she could stand there smiling so invitingly—when suddenly I became aware that I had been watching the little crowd of men about me with as complete an absorption as if nothing else in the room had attracted my attention; that the face of the coroner, sternly intelligent and attentive, was as distinctly imprinted upon my mind as that of this lovely picture, or the clearer-cut and more noble features of the sculptured Psyche, shining in mellow beauty from the crimson-hung window at his right; yes, even that the various countenances of the jurymen clustered before me, commonplace and insignificant as most of them were; the trembling forms of the excited servants crowded into a far corner; and the still more disagreeable aspect of the pale-faced, seedy reporter, seated at a small table and writing with a ghoul-like avidity that made my flesh creep, were each and all as fixed an element in the remarkable scene before me as the splendour of the surroundings which made their presence such a nightmare of discord and unreality.

I have spoken of the coroner. As fortune would have it, he was no stranger to me. I had not only seen him before, but had held frequent conversation with him; in fact, knew him. His name was Hammond, and he was universally regarded as a man of more than ordinary acuteness, fully capable of conducting an important examination, with the necessary skill and address. Interested as I was, or rather was likely to be, in this particular inquiry, I could not but congratulate myself upon our good fortune in having so intelligent a coroner.

As for his jurymen, they were, as I have intimated, very much like all other bodies of a similar character. Picked up at random from the streets, but from such streets as the Fifth and Sixth Avenues, they presented much the same appearance of average intelligence and refinement as might be seen in the chance occupants of one of our city stages. Indeed, I marked but one amongst them all who seemed to take any interest in the inquiry as an inquiry; all the rest appearing to be actuated in the fulfilment of their duty by the commoner instincts of pity and indignation.

Dr Maynard, the well-known surgeon of Thirty-sixth Street, was the first witness called. His testimony concerned the nature of the wound found in the murdered man’s head. As some of the facts presented by him are likely to prove of importance to us in our narrative, I will proceed to give a synopsis of what he said.

Prefacing his remarks with some account of himself, and the manner in which he had been summoned to the house by one of the servants, he went on to state that, upon his arrival, he found the deceased lying on a bed in the second-storey front room, with the blood clotted about a pistol-wound in the back of the head; having evidently been carried there from the adjoining apartment some hours after death. It was the only wound discovered on the body, and having probed it, he had found and extracted the bullet which he now handed to the jury. It was lying in the brain, having entered at the base of the skull, passed obliquely upward, and at once struck the medulla oblongata, causing instant death. The fact of the ball having entered the brain in this peculiar manner he deemed worthy of note, since it would produce not only instantaneous death, but an utterly motionless one. Further, from the position of the bullet-hole and the direction taken by the bullet, it was manifestly impossible that the shot should have been fired by the man himself, even if the condition of the hair about the wound did not completely demonstrate the fact that the shot was fired from a point some three or four feet distant. Still further, considering the angle at which the bullet had entered the skull, it was evident that the deceased must not only have been seated at the time, a fact about which there could be no dispute, but he must also have been engaged in some occupation which drew his head forward. For, in order that a ball should enter the head of a man sitting erect at the angle seen here, of 45 degrees, it would be necessary, not only for the pistol to be held very low down, but in a peculiar position; while if the head had been bent forward, as in the act of writing, a man holding a pistol naturally with the elbow bent, might very easily fire a ball into the brain at the angle observed.

Upon being questioned in regard to the bodily health of Mr Leavenworth, he replied that the deceased appeared to have been in good condition at the time of his death, but that, not being his attendant physician, he could not speak conclusively upon the subject without further examination; and, to the remark of a juryman, observed that he had not seen pistol or weapon lying upon the floor, or, indeed, anywhere else in either of the above-mentioned rooms.

I might as well add here what he afterwards stated, that from the position of the table, the chair, and the door behind it, the murderer, in order to satisfy all the conditions imposed by the situation, must have stood upon, or just within, the threshold of the passageway leading into the room beyond. Also, that as the ball was small, and from a rifled barrel, and thus especially liable to deflections while passing through bones and integuments, it seemed to him evident that the victim had made no effort to raise or turn his head when advanced upon by his destroyer; the fearful conclusion being that the footstep was an accustomed one, and the presence of its possessor in the room either known or expected.

The physician’s testimony being ended, the coroner picked up the bullet which had been laid on the table before him, and for a moment rolled it contemplatively between his fingers; then, drawing a pencil from his pocket, hastily scrawled a line or two on a piece of paper and, calling an officer to his side, delivered some command in a low tone. The officer, taking up the slip, looked at it for an instant knowingly, then catching up his hat left the room. Another moment, and the front door closed on him, and a wild halloo from the crowd of urchins without told of his appearance in the street. Sitting where I did, I had a full view of the corner. Looking out, I saw the officer stop there, hail a cab, hastily enter it, and disappear in the direction of Broadway.

CHAPTER III
FACTS AND DEDUCTIONS

‘Confusion now hath made his master-piece;

Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope

The Lord’s anointed temple, and stolen thence

The life of the building.’

—MACBETH

TURNING my attention back into the room where I was, I found the coroner consulting a memorandum through a very impressive pair of gold eye-glasses.

‘Is the butler here?’ he asked.

Immediately there was a stir among the group of servants in the corner, and an intelligent-looking, though somewhat pompous, Irishman stepped out from their midst and confronted the jury. ‘Ah,’ thought I to myself, as my glance encountered his precise whiskers, steady eye, and respectfully attentive, though by no means humble, expression, ‘here is a model servant, who is likely to prove a model witness.’ And I was not mistaken; Thomas, the butler, was in all respects one in a thousand—and he knew it.

The coroner, upon whom, as upon all others in the room, he seemed to have made the like favourable impression, proceeded without hesitation to interrogate him.

‘Your name, I am told, is Thomas Dougherty?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Well, Thomas, how long have you been employed in your present situation?’

‘It must be a matter of two years now, sir.’

‘You are the person who first discovered the body of Mr Leavenworth?’

‘Yes, sir; I and Mr Harwell.’

‘And who is Mr Harwell?’

‘Mr Harwell is Mr Leavenworth’s private secretary, sir; the one who did his writing.’

‘Very good. Now at what time of the day or night did you make this discovery?’

‘It was early, sir; early this morning, about eight.’

‘And where?’

‘In the library, sir, off Mr Leavenworth’s bedroom. We had forced our way in, feeling anxious about his not coming to breakfast.’

‘You forced your way in; the door was locked, then?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘On the inside?’

‘That I cannot tell; there was no key in the door.’

‘Where was Mr Leavenworth lying when you first found him?’

‘He was not lying, sir. He was seated at the large table in the centre of his room, his back to the bedroom door, leaning forward, his head on his hands.’

‘How was he dressed?’

‘In his dinner suit, sir, just as he came from the table last night.’

‘Were there any evidences in the room that a struggle had taken place?’

‘No, sir.’

‘Any pistol on the floor or table?’

‘No, sir.’

‘Any reason to suppose that robbery had been attempted?’

‘No, sir. Mr Leavenworth’s watch and purse were both in his pockets.’

Being asked to mention who were in the house at the time of the discovery, he replied, ‘The young ladies, Miss Mary Leavenworth and Miss Eleanore, Mr Harwell, Kate the cook, Molly the upstairs girl, and myself.’

‘The usual members of the household?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Now tell me whose duty it is to close up the house at night.’

‘Mine, sir.’

‘Did you secure it as usual, last night?’

‘I did, sir.’

‘Who unfastened it this morning?’

‘I, sir.’

‘How did you find it?’

‘Just as I left it.’

‘What, not a window open nor a door unlocked?’

‘No, sir.’

By this time you could have heard a pin drop. The certainty that the murderer, whoever he was, had not left the house, at least till after it was opened in the morning, seemed to weigh upon all minds. Forewarned as I had been of the fact, I could not but feel a certain degree of emotion at having it thus brought before me; and, moving so as to bring the butler’s face within view, searched it for some secret token that he had spoken thus emphatically in order to cover up some failure of duty on his own part. But it was unmoved in its candour, and sustained the concentrated gaze of all in the room like a rock.

Being now asked when he had last seen Mr Leavenworth alive, he replied, ‘At dinner last night.’

‘He was, however, seen later by some of you?’

‘Yes, sir; Mr Harwell says he saw him as late as half-past ten in the evening.’

‘What room do you occupy in this house?’

‘A little one on the basement floor.’

‘And where do the other members of the household sleep?’

‘Mostly on the third floor, sir; the ladies in the large back rooms, and Mr Harwell in the little one in front. The girls sleep above.’

‘There was no one on the same floor with Mr Leavenworth?’

‘No, sir.’

‘At what hour did you go to bed?’

‘Well, I should say about eleven.’

‘Did you hear any noise in the house either before or after that time, that you remember?’

‘No, sir.’

‘So that the discovery you made this morning was a surprise to you?’

‘Yes, sir.’

Requested now to give a more detailed account of that discovery, he went on to say it was not till Mr Leavenworth failed to come to his breakfast at the call of the bell that any suspicion arose in the house that all was not right. Even then they waited some little time before doing anything, but as minute after minute went by and he did not come, Miss Eleanore grew anxious, and finally left the room saying she would go and see what was the matter, but soon returned looking very much frightened, saying she had knocked at her uncle’s door, and had even called to him, but could get no answer. At which Mr Harwell and himself had gone up and together tried both doors, and, finding them locked, burst open that of the library, when they came upon Mr Leavenworth, as he had already said, sitting at the table, dead.

‘And the ladies?’

‘Oh, they followed us up and came into the room and Miss Eleanore fainted away.’

‘And the other one—Miss Mary, I believe they call her?’

‘I don’t remember anything about her; I was so busy fetching water to restore Miss Eleanore, I didn’t notice.’

‘Well, how long was it before Mr Leavenworth was carried into the next room?’

‘Almost immediate, as soon as Miss Eleanore recovered, and that was as soon as ever the water touched her lips.’

‘Who proposed that the body should be carried from the spot?’

‘She, sir. As soon as ever she stood up she went over to it and looked at it and shuddered, and then calling Mr Harwell and me, bade us carry him in and lay him on the bed and go for the doctor, which we did.’

‘Wait a moment; did she go with you when you went into the other room?’

‘No, sir.’

‘What did she do?’

‘She stayed by the library table.’

‘What doing?’

‘I couldn’t see; her back was to me.’

‘How long did she stay there?’

‘She was gone when we came back.’

‘Gone from the table?’

‘Gone from the room.’

‘Humph! When did you see her again?’

‘In a minute. She came in at the library door as we went out.’

‘Anything in her hand?’

‘Not as I see.’

‘Did you miss anything from the table?’

‘I never thought to look, sir. The table was nothing to me. I was only thinking of going for the doctor, though I knew it was of no use.’

‘Whom did you leave in the room when you went out?’

‘The cook, sir, and Molly, sir, and Miss Eleanore.’

‘Not Miss Mary?’

‘No, sir.’

‘Very well. Have the jury any questions to put to this man?’

A movement at once took place in that profound body.

‘I should like to ask a few,’ exclaimed a weazen-faced, excitable little man whom I had before noticed shifting in his seat in a restless manner strongly suggestive of an intense but hitherto repressed desire to interrupt the proceedings.

‘Very well, sir,’ returned Thomas.

But the juryman stopping to draw a deep breath, a large and decidedly pompous man who sat at his right hand seized the opportunity to inquire in a round, listen-to-me sort of voice:

‘You say you have been in the family for two years. Was it what you might call a united family?’

‘United?’

‘Affectionate, you know—on good terms with each other.’ And the juryman lifted the very long and heavy watch-chain that hung across his vest as if that as well as himself had a right to a suitable and well-considered reply.

The butler, impressed perhaps by his manner, glanced uneasily around. ‘Yes, sir, so far as I know.’

‘The young ladies were attached to their uncle?’

‘Oh yes, sir.’

‘And to each other?’

‘Well, yes, I suppose so; it’s not for me to say.’

‘You suppose so. Have you any reason to think otherwise?’ And he doubled the watch-chain about his fingers as if he would double its attention as well as his own.

Thomas hesitated a moment. But just as his interlocutor was about to repeat his question, he drew himself up into a rather stiff and formal attitude and replied:

‘Well, sir, no.’

The juryman, for all his self-assertion, seemed to respect the reticence of a servant who declined to give his opinion in regard to such a matter, and drawing complacently back, signified with a wave of his hand that he had no more to say.

Immediately the excitable little man, before mentioned, slipped forward to the edge of his chair and asked, this time without hesitation: ‘At what time did you unfasten the house this morning?’

‘About six, sir.’

‘Now, could anyone leave the house after that time without your knowledge?’

Thomas glanced a trifle uneasily at his fellow servants, but answered up promptly and as if without reserve:

‘I don’t think it would be possible for anybody to leave this house after six in the morning without either myself or the cook’s knowing of it. Folks don’t jump from second-storey windows in broad daylight, and as to leaving by the doors, the front door closes with such a slam all the house can hear it from top to bottom, and as for the back door, no one that goes out of that can get clear of the yard without going by the kitchen window, and no one can go by our kitchen window without the cook’s a-seeing of them, that I can just swear to.’ And he cast a half-quizzing, half-malicious look at the round, red-faced individual in question, strongly suggestive of late and unforgotten bickerings over the kitchen coffee-urn and castor.

This reply, which was of a nature calculated to deepen the forebodings which had already settled upon the minds of those present, produced a visible effect. The house found locked, and no one seen to leave it! Evidently, then, we had not far to look for the assassin.

Shifting on his chair with increased fervour, if I may so speak, the juryman glanced sharply around. But perceiving the renewed interest in the faces about him, declined to weaken the effect of the last admission, by any further questions. Settling, therefore, comfortably back, he left the field open for any other juror who might choose to press the inquiry. But no one seeming to be ready to do this, Thomas in his turn evinced impatience, and at last, looking respectfully around, inquired:

‘Would any other gentleman like to ask me anything?’

No one replying, he threw a hurried glance of relief towards the servants at his side, then, while each one marvelled at the sudden change that had taken place in his countenance, withdrew with an eager alacrity and evident satisfaction for which I could not at the moment account.

But the next witness proving to be none other than my acquaintance of the morning, Mr Harwell, I soon forgot both Thomas and the doubts his last movement had awakened, in the interest which the examination of so important a person as the secretary and right-hand man of Mr Leavenworth was likely to create.

Advancing with the calm and determined air of one who realised that life and death itself might hang upon his words, Mr Harwell took his stand before the jury with a degree of dignity not only highly prepossessing in itself, but to me, who had not been over and above pleased with him in our first interview, admirable and surprising. Lacking, as I have said, any distinctive quality of face or form agreeable or otherwise—being what you might call in appearance a negative sort of person, his pale, regular features, dark, well-smoothed hair and simple whiskers, all belonging to a recognised type and very commonplace—there was still visible, on this occasion at least, a certain self-possession in his carriage, which went far towards making up for the want of impressiveness in his countenance and expression. Not that even this was in any way remarkable. Indeed, there was nothing remarkable about the man, any more than there is about a thousand others you meet every day on Broadway, unless you except the look of concentration and solemnity which pervaded his whole person; a solemnity which at this time would not have been noticeable, perhaps, if it had not appeared to be the habitual expression of one who in his short life had seen more of sorrow than joy, less of pleasure than care and anxiety.

The coroner, to whom his appearance one way or the other seemed to be a matter of no moment, addressed him immediately and without reserve:

‘Your name?’

‘James Trueman Harwell.’

‘Your business?’

‘I have occupied the position of private secretary and amanuensis to Mr Leavenworth for the past eight months.’

‘You are the person who last saw Mr Leavenworth alive, are you not?’

The young man raised his head with a haughty gesture which well-nigh transfigured it.

‘Certainly not, as I am not the man who killed him.’

This answer, which seemed to introduce something akin to levity or badinage into an examination the seriousness of which we were all beginning to realise, produced an immediate revulsion of feeling toward the man who, in face of facts revealed and to be revealed, could so lightly make use of it. A hum of disapproval swept through the room, and in that one remark, James Harwell lost all that he had previously won by the self-possession of his bearing and the unflinching regard of his eye. He seemed himself to realise this, for he lifted his head still higher, though his general aspect remained unchanged.

‘I mean,’ the coroner exclaimed, evidently nettled that the young man had been able to draw such a conclusion from his words, ‘that you were the last one to see him previous to his assassination by some unknown individual?’

The secretary folded his arms, whether to hide a certain tremble which had seized him, or by that simple action to gain time for a moment’s further thought, I could not then determine. ‘Sir,’ he replied at length, ‘I cannot answer yes or no to that question. In all probability I was the last to see him in good health and spirits, but in a house as large as this I cannot be sure of even so simple a fact as that.’ Then, observing the unsatisfied look on the faces around, added slowly, ‘It is my business to see him late.’

‘Your business? Oh, as his secretary, I suppose?’

He gravely nodded.

‘Mr Harwell,’ the coroner went on, ‘the office of private secretary in this country is not a common one. Will you explain to us what your duties were in that capacity; in short, what use Mr Leavenworth had for such an assistant and how he employed you?’

‘Certainly. Mr Leavenworth was, as you perhaps know, a man of great wealth. Connected with various societies, clubs, institutions, etc., besides being known far and near as a giving man, he was accustomed every day of his life to receive numerous letters, begging and otherwise, which it was my business to open and answer, his private correspondence always bearing a mark upon it which distinguished it from the rest. But this was not all I was expected to do. Having in his early life been engaged in the tea-trade, he had made more than one voyage to China, and was consequently much interested in the question of international communication between that country and our own. Thinking that in his various visits there, he had learned much which, if known to the American people, would conduce to our better understanding of the nation, its peculiarities, and the best manner of dealing with it, he has been engaged for some time in writing a book on the subject, which same it has been my business for the last eight months to assist him in preparing, by writing at his dictation three hours out of the twenty-four, the last hour being commonly taken from the evening, say from half-past nine to half-past ten, Mr Leavenworth being a very methodical man and accustomed to regulate his own life and that of those about him with almost mathematical precision.’

‘You say you were accustomed to write at his dictation evenings? Did you do this as usual last evening?’

‘I did, sir.’

‘What can you tell us of his manner and appearance at the time? Were they in any way unusual?’

A frown crossed the secretary’s brow.

‘As he probably had no premonition of his doom, why should there have been any change in his manner?’

This giving the coroner an opportunity to revenge himself for his discomfiture of a moment before, he said somewhat severely:

‘It is the business of a witness to answer questions, not to put them.’

The secretary flushed and the account stood even.

‘Very well, then, sir; if Mr Leavenworth felt any forebodings of his end, he did not reveal them to me. On the contrary, he seemed to be more absorbed in his work than usual. One of the last words he said to me was, “In a month we will have this book in press, eh, Trueman?” I remember this particularly, as he was filling his wine-glass at the time. He always drank one glass of wine before retiring, it being my duty to bring the decanter of sherry from the closet the last thing before leaving him. I was standing with my hand on the knob of the hall-door, but advanced as he said this and replied, “I hope so, indeed, Mr Leavenworth.” “Then join me in drinking a glass of sherry,” said he, motioning me to procure another glass from the closet. I did so, and he poured me out the wine with his own hand. I am not especially fond of sherry, but the occasion was a pleasant one and I drained my glass. I remember being slightly ashamed of doing so, for Mr Leavenworth set his down half full. It was half full when we found him this morning.’

Do what he would, and being a reserved man he appeared anxious to control his emotion, the horror of his first shock seemed to overwhelm him here. Pulling his handkerchief from his pocket, he wiped his forehead. ‘Gentlemen, that is the last action of Mr Leavenworth I ever saw. As he set the glass down on the table, I said good-night to him and left the room.’

The coroner, with a characteristic imperviousness to all expressions of emotion, leaned back and surveyed the young man with a scrutinising glance. ‘And where did you go then?’ he asked.

‘To my own room.’

‘Did you meet anybody on the way?’

‘No, sir.’

‘Hear anything or see anything unusual?’

The secretary’s voice fell a trifle. ‘No, sir.’

‘Mr Harwell, think again. Are you ready to swear that you neither met anybody, heard anybody, nor saw anything which lingers yet in your memory as unusual?’

His face grew quite distressed. Twice he opened his lips to speak, and as often closed them without doing so. At last, with an effort, he replied:

‘I saw one thing, a little thing, too slight to mention, but it was unusual, and I could not help thinking of it when you spoke.’

‘What was it?’

‘Only a door half open.’

‘Whose door?’

‘Miss Eleanore Leavenworth’s.’ His voice was almost a whisper now.

‘Where were you when you observed this fact?’

‘I cannot say exactly. Probably at my own door, as I did not stop on the way. If this frightful occurrence had not taken place I should never have thought of it again.’

‘When you went into your room did you close your door?’

‘I did, sir.’

‘How soon did you retire?’

‘Immediately.’

‘Did you hear nothing before you fell asleep?’

Again that indefinable hesitation.

‘Barely nothing.’

‘Not a footstep in the hall?’

‘I might have heard a footstep.’

‘Did you?’

‘I cannot swear I did.’

‘Do you think you did?’

‘Yes, I think I did. To tell the whole: I remember hearing, just as I was falling into a doze, a rustle and a footstep in the hall; but it made no impression upon me, and I dropped asleep.’

‘Well?’

‘Some time later I woke, woke suddenly, as if something had startled me, but what, a noise or move, I cannot say. I remember rising up in my bed and looking around, but hearing nothing further, soon yielded to the drowsiness which possessed me and fell into a deep sleep. I did not wake again till morning.’

Here requested to relate how and when he became acquainted with the fact of the murder, he substantiated, in all particulars, the account of the matter already given by the butler; which subject being exhausted, the coroner went on to ask if he had noted the condition of the library table after the body had been removed.

‘Somewhat; yes, sir.’

‘What was on it?’

‘The usual properties, sir, books, paper, a pen with the ink dried on it, besides the decanter and the wineglass from which he drank the night before.’

‘Nothing more?’

‘I remember nothing more.’

‘In regard to that decanter and glass,’ broke in the juryman of the watch and chain, ‘did you not say that the latter was found in the same condition in which you saw it at the time you left Mr Leavenworth sitting in his library?’