In Muffled Night by D. Erskine Muir

Author:D. Erskine Muir
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Golden age mysteries british;1930s murder mysteries;fictional mystery based on true crime
Publisher: Moonstone Press
Published: 2021-08-19T15:24:08+00:00

‌Chapter X

The Trial

“Devoid of pity, and being so shall have like want of pity”

Titus Andronicus.

The trial of Mary Spens for the wilful murder of Helen Bailey had already lasted two days, and Inspector Woods felt unutterably weary as he left the court.

“Well, to-morrow will see it done with,” he thought as he pushed his way through the swarming, jostling crowd. Disgust welled up as he listened to the comments of the people round him. The case had attracted immense interest, as indeed he had foreseen the very moment he opened the suit-case brought by Eleanor Spens. The wealth and position of the Murrays had, in the first place, focused attention on the murder. Then natural horror had risen over the circumstances of the crime, and the horrible details as to the injuries inflicted; excitement had been roused by the arrest of a young and attractive woman; and finally the personality of the accused had deepened the public interest in the case.

As he sat at home that evening, glancing through the notes he had made in court, Woods sank into a reverie, thinking of the figure of Mary in the dock and, despite his strong common sense and his experience that often appearances gave a wrong clue to character, he wondered how Mary Spens could ever have brought herself to the murder of her friend. Before his eyes he seemed to see once more her small slight figure, as she had sat wearily hour after hour in that dock, very pale, with a look of incredulous misery stamped on her face, drooping, apparently broken with the horror of her situation. To the spectators the futility of her defence seemed to be almost pathetic—the case she had had to meet almost appalling in its strength.

The case presented by the prosecution had been straightforward enough. The Murray family had for years been on the most intimate terms with both Jack and Eleanor Spens, and as Mary Hookham Mary had as a child shared Glenda’s lessons and been taught by Helen Bailey. Glenda had been one of Mary’s bridesmaids. Helen had always been specially fond of Mary and, when Mary’s marriage began to lead to trouble, Helen had taken Mary’s side in the quarrels with Jack and Eleanor, declaring that Mary’s position was intolerable with Eleanor’s jealous interference continually breaking in upon her married life.

It was proved that Mary was heavily in debt. Her husband, supported by his sister, had refused to pay her debts, and told her she must raise the money herself to pay her creditors. Mary had realized most of her small capital, for she did not apparently wish to make public her position by allowing her husband to be sued for her debts. She had tried speculating, but had only met with ill success and increased her difficulties. The situation had become intolerable, the quarrels more and more embittered.

Counsel for the prosecution had drawn a picture of Mary rushing from her home early on the Friday morning after her violent quarrel at breakfast with her husband and going over to “The Towers.

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