Come Sweet Sexton, Tend My Grave by Eleanor Berry

Author:Eleanor Berry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Book Guild
Published: 2017-05-18T04:00:00+00:00

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I did not last in the solicitors’ office for long. After being there for a month, the overpowering filth in the place became so unbearable that I decided to clean everything little by little one afternoon, when the solicitors were at court. I started on Mr Hurecholedo’s room, and after throwing away the rotten food, used tins, bread crusts, cigarette stubs, etc. that had accumulated over about six months, I began to clear out the drawers. The first thing I saw was a long bloodstained knife with a jagged blade, on which dried blood had accumulated. By the knife, lay a coil of rope which was also covered with blood.

It seemed to me that both the rope and the knife had been left there for so long that neither could, in my opinion, have served any useful purpose. I bought a scrubbing brush, some disinfectant, some bleach and a plastic bucket from a local chemist. I soaked the offending articles in the plastic bucket and scrubbed them until the blood had disappeared without trace.

Two days later, the office was in an uproar. Mr Hurecholedo was walking up and down the dilapidated staircase, beating his brow and shouting,

“What the hell’s happened to Exhibits T.B.1 and T.B.2 in the Proverbs versus Patterson case?” he screamed like one demented, adding “I’m meant to be representing Mr Proverbs, who was given up for dead, after being attacked by Patterson with the knife and rope. It’s about the only case I’ll ever make anything out of in my life, and some fucker’s been in my office and washed the blood off the exhibits!”

I learnt through reading the file on the Proverbs versus Patterson case, that Gaslighter Tincan Proverbs was the man prosecuting he was black. He had settled in London. His first name was taken from a shop next door to his parents’ apartment in Harlem, in which he was born. His middle name had some connection with the film, The Wizard of Oz.

His opponent, Clive Patterson, was a vicious, supporter of the National Front. He and Proverbs lived in adjacent flats in south London.

“The fight between the two men was triggered off by a disagreement about the ownership of a television set. It belonged to Proverbs, but Patterson claimed that it was his. Patterson picked up a long knife with a jagged blade and slashed Proverbs deeply on the back of the head with it. He had meant to slit his adversary’s throat, but he got into a frenzy and lost his head.

On the knife, was a marked dent, showing where it had collided with the black man’s skull. Patterson finally tried to strangle Proverbs with the rope and, left hideous welts round his neck, having broken his skin. Hence, both the rope and the blade of the knife had been covered with blood.

“This really is the end! It’s just not fair!” Hurecholedo wailed wretchedly, “I was so certain I would win this case that I promised my wife I would take her to the south of France, where she’s never been in her life.

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