The Madman's Room

‘The whole business was conducted in a masterly fashion, and Francis held all the aces to control the situation. Sarah could confide in no one but him. Only he knew that it was she who killed her husband, and the manifestations of the deceased were calculated to exploit that fact. A ghost can be a vengeful spirit and I’m sure Francis underlined that point, just as he reminded Sarah of its jealous nature — hardly likely to appreciate a new fiancé, particularly if he happened to be a certain Dr. Meadows. Which made it practically impossible for her to share her fears with the latter. The conversation between Francis and his sister, overheard by Mr. Nolan, illustrates perfectly the insidious manner in which our murderer gives credence to her late husband’s return. He uses his own fainting fit — false though it was, and primarily intended for Brian’s benefit — to hint to Sarah that it was her dead husband that he saw in front of the fireplace. Let me remind you that she was unaware that her brother’s collapse was pure trickery, so the conversation inevitably makes her even more desperate. What has her brother seen? Why doesn’t he want to tell her? Francis knows his sister has a thousand questions, but he pretends that he can’t remember — or, rather, that he doesn’t want to remember. His words say that he’s seen nothing, but his voice, the expression on his face, and indeed his whole being, convey the contrary: he’s seen something so insane and so horrible he can’t bring himself to talk about it, for fear of terrifying Sarah even further. How, then, can she not believe that it was her late husband who’d been seen lying there, in the same spot where he’d met his death?

‘Mr. Nolan, you saw and heard them at that moment. Are you in agreement with what I’ve just said?’

‘Absolutely.’

Twist put the tips of his fingers together in a sign of meditation, then turned to Hurst.

‘Do you remember, old friend, when you told him someone had overheard them talking and he looked worried stiff? He was in a delicate position, because he didn’t know exactly what had been heard and what hadn’t. He was astute enough not to deny the facts and stick broadly to the truth. He would have preferred not to have divulged what it was that Sarah feared, but he was more or less obliged to, and got out of it rather well, by using the same technique which had worked on his sister: playing the fellow who doesn’t want to believe in such things. And he put it all down to the sinister atmosphere of the place and Sarah’s contagious anxiety. It was very convincing, and I freely admit I believed him at the time.’

‘Actually, I thought there was something fishy about the whole situation, myself,’ said the inspector, with an assurance which fooled nobody.

‘There is one thing in this dark and sinister tale which did make me smile,’ said Alan Twist. ‘Francis succeeded so brilliantly in terrifying his sister that she secretly changed her will in favour of Brian, hoping in that way to appease the vengeful ghost. I take great pleasure in imagining how he felt when the terms of the new will were announced. Be that as it may, he did achieve almost all he was aiming for. His sister was half dead with fright and it only remained to administer the final blow. After all that’s been said, you can probably guess what the “thing” was that finally killed her. Mr. Nolan, it’s your turn to speak, because you were the first to understand.’

28

Patrick cleared his throat, emptied his glass, and began:

‘I was indeed the first to understand, but I can’t take much credit. On that Monday evening, at around half — past eight — in other words, an hour and a half before Sarah’s death — I was coming back from London when I happened to see Francis coming out of the Blounts’ garden. He was pushing a wheelbarrow containing a corpse… a rather special one. I also need to tell you that, a few weeks earlier, I happened to see him coming out of an establishment specialising in refrigeration equipment, but he didn’t see me.’

‘He’d frozen Harris Thorne’s corpse!’ exclaimed the chief superintendent in astonishment.

People shifted uneasily in their seats.

‘Exactly. And it was that corpse which he brought into Harris’s old study and placed in front of the fireplace. Can you imagine the devastating shock that Sarah suffered upon seeing her late husband on the same spot where he’d died a year earlier? Let me remind you that the lamp on the desk was lit: Francis must have placed it in such a way as to maximise the effect. And a corpse which had been thawing out for over an hour. He didn’t even need to splash any water to wet the carpet. In theory, he couldn’t be absolutely certain that the scene would cause his sister to have a heart attack, but given all the conditioning he’d subjected her to, any other outcome would be hard to imagine.’

‘It’s monstrous,’ declared Redfern. ‘Absolutely monstrous.’

‘The bastard,’ said Meadows with gritted teeth.