The witness seemed quite startled by this information.
“You may step down, Mr. Millhouse.”
And so he did, leaving Mr. Marsden space to rise and call the next witness, one unknown to me, a Mistress Sarah Linney. As soon as she had placed herself before Sir John, he began to question her.
“Mistress Linney, you were acquainted with the woman, now deceased, known as Priscilla Tarkin, were you not?”
“I was, y’r Lordship, but I — ”
“Let me interrupt you and assure you I am not so august a personage as to deserve the title you have just conferred upon me. I would be pleased to be addressed simply as ‘sir.’ “
“Yes, sir,” said she. “Well, as I was sayin’, sir, I knowed her but only by the name of Polly. In our game we don’t much go by our right names.”
“And what is your game, if I may ask?”
“Polly and me and half the women in Covent Garden, we was strumpets together. But I must say it come on me as a surprise to hear she thieved.”
“Ah,” said Sir John, “you introduce a Biblical term, ‘strumpet,’ yet I understand you well and accept the word. But now I ask you, when did you last see Priscilla Tarkin, known to you as Polly?”
“That would be the darkey she croked.”
“Would you repeat that in plain English, please? While the court accepts words to be found in the Bible, it will not recognize such flash cant.”
“Yes, sir, that was the night she died.”
“Give me the circumstances, if you will. Tell me the whole story, as you remember it.”
“Well, there ain’t much to tell, but it was on Bedford Street outside the Dog and Duck, just round the comer from that alley where she croked — uh, died. It ain’t a place where I go, the Dog and Duck, so I was just passin’ by, like. But I hear this bloody roue — a quarrel, sir, a turrible quarrel it was. And I looks over, and I see it’s old Poll havin’ it out with himr’ She pointed at Yossel, who was seated next Mr. Donnelly.
“I take it. Mistress Linney, that you have just pointed to someone in this room. Do not point. Name the party if you know him by name.”
“Yes, sir. Poll was havin’ it out with him that’s known as Yossel.”
“Do you know him by any other name?”
“No, sir.”
“Then that will do.”
“Anyways, I went right over to her, and I asked her did she need help, and she said no. Then he — Yossel — raises his hand to me to strike me, like, then he thinks better of it, turns and walks away down Bedford, toward the Strand. Then I turn back to Poll, and I find she left me, too, headed into the Dog and Duck. Like I said, it ain’t a place I go to, so I just shrugged and walked on down Bedford, telling myself it was none of my affair.”
“So you never really discovered the reason for their quarrel?”
“No, sir, but I had a good notion seeing that fellow Yossel, who had bothered us poor girls in the past, try in’ to rob us of our earnings, like.”
“Had he ever tried that with you?”
“Aye, he tried.”
“Without success?”
“No, sir, no success.”
“Mistress Linney, you were very specific about the altercation between Priscilla Tarkin and this fellow Yossel, yet one thing you have not made clear is just when this took place.”
“Well, that’s a bit hard to say, sir. Y’see, when you’re out on the game, prowling about all night, well, a body loses track of time. Also, I had some to drink that night, as I must admit, and gin does no good keeping things in order in your head.”
“You must be more definite than that,” insisted Sir John. “Was it early or late?”
“Something in the middle, I’d say. I’d put it between my second gent and my third.”
“Mr. Millhouse!” spoke Sir John, loudly summoning the last witness, “if you will stand where you are, perhaps you can clear up this matter for us. I recall that you declared in your interview with me that you saw Priscilla Tarkin in the Dog and Duck before her death on that night. Was it only once she was there?”
“So far as I know, sir,” said Millhouse, who had risen from his chair as instructed. ‘ T, at least, saw her only one time whilst I was there — and I was sitting in view of the door.”
“We shall assume, then, for our purposes, that it was her only visit to the Dog and Duck that night. I recall, too, that you said she simply walked through the place and left. Is that correct?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Can you place the time of her visit?”
“Yes, I can, for shortly after she came and went, Mr. Goldsmith, who was one of our party at the table, pulled out his timepiece and said that it was just past one o’clock and that he must be getting on, for he had work to do that night. He then generously settled for our drinks and advised us all to follow his example and return home. Would that I had taken his advice!”
“Indeed! You may sit, Mr. Millhouse. Now, Mistress Linney, will you accept that estimate of the time? You saw Polly enter the Dog and Duck. Mr. Millhouse places that visit at one o’clock, give or take a bit.”
“If you says so, sir.”
“I say so. You may step down. Mistress Linney.” He gave her a moment or two to scuffle back to her chair. Then did he resume: “And so, as far as we know, Priscilla Tarkin was not seen nor heard from further until her body was discovered nearby by Constable Brede at four o’clock. She had been dead for some time. The blood from her wounds had begun to dry. You have heard Mr. Donnelly say that that fact would suggest she had been dead about an hour. So between one o’clock and, roughly, three o’clock, we know not where she might have been. Yet she was found quite near the Dog and Duck, where she was last seen. Is this a mystery, or simply a discrepancy? Let us proceed. Mr. Marsden?”
The twelve ordinary-looking men who sat together at Sir John’s right took uncommon interest in the next witness called by Mr. Marsden, for it was Josef Davidovich, whom I recognized immediate as the man brought in by Rabbi Gershon the night before. There was a murmur of discussion from the jury. Sir John silenced it at once, calling for order.
“You are Josef Davidovich, commonly known as Yossel?” he asked the man who had taken his place before him.
“I am, sir, that’s me, yes,” said he.
“Did you encounter Priscilla Tarkin. commonly known as Polly, on the night of her death?”
“I did, yes, I did, sir.” He had an eager, quick way of speaking — as if he wished to assure his cooperation by the readiness of his replies.
The fellow was somewhat the worse for the night he had spent in the strong room. Yet in spite of the two-day growth of beard and his unkempt hair, there remained something crudely handsome about him. I wagered with myself that he had charmed more money from women than he had taken by threat. Here and now, however, he made no attempt to charm Sir John, which would have been quite useless in any case. He stood before him, nervously crushing his hat in his hands.
“You were seen to be quarreling with her,” said Sir John. “What, pray tell, was the reason for your quarrel?”
Yossel hesitated. “Well, sir, I may be stickin’ my head in a noose, like, but it won’t be for no murder. I knowed Polly as a thief, and a skilled one at that. And while I didn’t do no thievin’ myself, I had given her a tip, so to speak, where she might put her skill to work — a partic’lar place, a partic’lar house. Now, for that, I was entitled to a share — not a big one, not a halver or any such. Now, I awready knowed she had visited this house in a manner I thought of special, and she had taken certain objects of value, so I wanted my full wack, I did, like we’d agreed. So I sees her on Bedford Street, and I approached her and demanded what was comin’ to me, for truth to tell, I had to share my share with one who worked in that partic’lar house. And so, seein’ Polly, I — ”
Sir John interrupted: “Would you care to be more specific as to the house and its residents?”
“Uh, no, sir, I would not. But mind you, I did no thievin’ myself. I just pointed her in the right direction, so to speak.”