Mrs. Sherlock Holmes by Brad Ricca

Author:Brad Ricca
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

14

The Man Who Laughs

The Italian doctor took Cocchi out of the cell and gave him a glass of clean water. When Cocchi returned, he was much calmed. As Cocchi’s words stopped and started in his mouth, he still shook slightly. He continued with his story.

“When I returned home I was like a person in a trance. I remember speaking of this peculiar mental condition as though I was ill.” Cocchi paused. “I had been constantly quarrelling with my wife. This day, the 13th, when I ate my mid-day meal at home, I drank five glasses of California wine to make me forget my trouble.” He paused to drink more water.

“In a nervous condition I went to my shop about 1:20 o’clock, when there immediately entered the girl who before noon had left her skates for sharpening. She was very beautiful and I lost my head. When she went to the rear of the shop to get her skates without seeing me, I barred the street door with a block of wood. Then I started to embrace the girl, but she was very strong and threw me backward. I tried again and succeeded, despite her resistance.

“I picked her up and dropped her into the repair room,” said Cocchi, matter-of-factly. He stopped for a moment. “She fell about twelve feet below, striking a motor cycle sidecar on her side, but she was not hurt. All the while she was screaming ‘Police! Police!’” He stopped again. “When I joined her in the lower room, my head was gone. I tried again to embrace and kiss her, but again did not succeed; she was so strong. I said ‘Please don’t say anything, I have two children,’ but she would not listen.” He seemed to be seeing it play out before him. Cocchi looked away again. He said the next part slowly, while still shaking. “Finally, exasperated by her resistance, I grabbed in my left hand a stick of heavy wood a yard long and struck her twice or thrice across the back of the neck, holding her with my right hand. She groaned and sank down.

“I swear before God and man that I did no carnal violence to the girl,” Cocchi said earnestly. “If she had pardoned my first offensive act and listened to my prayers to tell nobody I would have let her go without touching a hair of her head. This is my first offense, but it is of such a nature that I cannot believe it to be true. The greatest punishment is to think what suffering and agony my wife and children are undergoing, as notwithstanding our misunderstandings, we love each other most tenderly.”

Judge Zucconi listened as his clerk wrote furiously. The story had obviously changed, but his ears had missed something. The judge pressed Cocchi for specific details about Ruth’s death. After admitting hitting her with a block of wood, Cocchi had ended his story there. Cocchi collected himself, then continued.

“After I had seized her and tried to throw her down I got scared,” Cocchi said.

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