He gestured to his filthy trousers and showed his dirty hands. Mention of the two names was a like a hammer blow to Swift. He was reeling. Trying to control his rising panic, he fell back on bluff.
‘Don’t listen to anything that Gurney and his wife tell you,’ warned Swift. ‘Both of them worked under me as nurses and I dismissed them for incompetence. They’ll make up all sorts of weird tales to get back at me.’
‘Two tiny bodies have been uncovered in their garden,’ said Colbeck, regarding him with contempt. ‘The most recent of them was buried there on the night that Joel Heygate was killed. In fact, it was the reason that he was murdered. He saw something that he shouldn’t have seen and was battered to death as a result.’
‘This has got nothing whatsoever to do with me, Inspector.’
‘I think that it has, Dr Swift. The baby that the stationmaster saw was the murdered child of a young woman named Esther Leete, a patient at the deaf and dumb asylum. You were the father and you paid Gurney and his wife to dispose of the baby in the way that they’d disposed of the other child you fathered on a patient. Infanticide is a sickening crime,’ said Colbeck, sharply. ‘You incited it.’
Steel moved forward. ‘I need to put these handcuffs on you, sir.’
‘You can’t touch me,’ cried Swift in horror. ‘I’m essential to this place. I cure people with disordered minds. I’m a noted person in my profession.’
‘You’ll be noted for other reasons in the future.’
‘There’s obviously been a gigantic mistake.’
‘You’re the one who made it, Doctor Swift.’
‘Gurney and his wife have told us everything,’ said Colbeck, icily. ‘You suborned them and bought them that house in return for their services in getting rid of your unwanted progeny. When you heard that they’d killed the stationmaster, you helped Gurney to transport the body to the cathedral precinct on a handcart. But it’s not just his word and that of his wife on which we rely,’ he went on. ‘There’s the evidence of the two women you seduced and impregnated. One of them, I gather, was deaf and dumb. Could anything be more nauseating than the way you preyed on two vulnerable young women in your care?’
‘Hold out your hands,’ insisted Steel. ‘Your career here is finished.’
‘Come on,’ said Colbeck. ‘You shouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near the patients in this institution. Gurney and his wife were nurses here until you realised they could perform a more useful function. You corrupted them.’
‘They were corrupt enough already, if you ask me,’ said Leeming.
Steel stepped forward and snapped the handcuffs on to Swift’s wrists.
The prisoner hung his head in shame. The people he’d employed and trusted had clearly made a full confession. The game was up. He was destined to join them on the gallows.
Canon Smalley was so shocked by the latest developments that he hurried to the bishop’s palace so that he could deliver his report. Plucked away from the dinner table, Phillpotts was in an irascible mood but it soon changed. When he heard that Dr Swift had been arrested and charged with murder, he refused to believe it at first and said that he had every confidence in the man. Smalley described the evidence amassed against the doctor and the bishop was stunned into silence for minutes. Finding his voice again, he pressed for detail.
‘Two young women were involved?’
‘Two gave birth to children,’ said Smalley, ‘but others fell victim to Dr Swift’s charms. According to his accomplices, there were several females and, since they were patients kept in detention, there was nobody to whom the unfortunate women could complain. Dr Swift had complete control over their lives.’
‘And over their bodies,’ said the bishop with a shudder. ‘The man has the cunning and instincts of an animal. The litany of his crimes is vile. He and his two accomplices deserve more than hanging.’
‘I inadvertently saw something of his power over a female patient.’
‘Did you?’
‘When I first introduced myself to Esther Leete, the deaf and dumb girl, she was held in a straitjacket and unwilling even to let me talk to her. The next time I saw her, she was walking quietly by Dr Swift’s side. In his presence, she was subdued. At the time, of course,’ said Smalley, ‘I was unaware of the full facts. Now that I am, Miss Leete’s wild reaction to a painting of the Madonna and Child is explained. Like any mother, she wanted her baby back.’
‘Dr Swift is guilty of inhuman cruelty.’
‘He and his accomplices will pay for it, Bishop.’
‘What about Bernard Browne?’
‘He was in no way involved in the murder,’ said Smalley. ‘Other crimes will send him to prison for a long time but he’s been cleared of the charge of killing the stationmaster.’
Phillpotts was disappointed. ‘So Inspector Colbeck was right all along,’ he said, sourly. ‘In the teeth of the evidence, he championed Browne’s innocence with regard to the murder. I hope he doesn’t come to me for an apology because he won’t get one. Browne should not avoid execution,’ he said, vengefully. ‘It would be a travesty of justice if he did so. Use your imagination, Canon Smalley. Isn’t there some other reason we can find to hang the man?’
With Swift, Howard Gurney and May Gurney under lock and key, the detectives went up to Steel’s office to toast their success with a glass of whisky apiece. Leeming was glad that he’d been able to overpower the man who’d actually battered Joel Heygate’s head with the butt of his shotgun, Colbeck was pleased that he’d been able to save Bagsy Browne from an unjust death, and Steel was gratified that he’d been involved in the confrontation at the asylum. The superintendent was gracious in defeat.
‘I should have listened to you, Inspector,’ he said with admiration. ‘You had doubts about Bagsy’s guilt all long.’
‘He was guilty of just about everything else,’ Colbeck reminded him, ‘and will have a very long sentence to serve. Your job, I fancy, will be a lot easier with him off the streets of Exeter.’
‘How did you know that he had an alibi?’
‘I didn’t, Superintendent. But when a criminal facing the hangman requests an urgent meeting, I’m always prepared to hear him out. As a result, I checked that he wasn’t even in the area on the night of the murder and was satisfied that he was therefore in the clear. The very best way to exonerate one suspect, however, is to arrest and charge another — or three of them, in this case. Browne was in no way party to the crime.’
‘What exactly was his alibi, sir?’ asked Leeming.
‘It doesn’t matter any more, Victor,’ said Colbeck, smoothly. ‘He won’t stand trial for murder, so that particular witness need never be called. We can draw a veil over that aspect of the case.’
Colbeck was relieved to be able to keep the name of Christina Goss out of the case, not least because it might have caused severe embarrassment to her mother. The story told by the prisoner had been confirmed almost word for word by the girl. She and her mother had parted acrimoniously years before. Not daring to mention it to Adeline, Bagsy had taken pity on Christina because she was left to struggle alone. Whenever he was in South Devon, he called on her in Totnes to give her money, asking for nothing in return but her thanks and her discretion. Browne claimed that she’d always looked upon him as a kind uncle in the past. On his last visit, however, he wasn’t able to simply hand over the money and leave. Christina had admitted that she’d thrown herself at him and — like the red-blooded man he was — Browne had been unable to resist, even though she was Adeline’s daughter.
In Colbeck’s opinion, there was no virtue in recounting the details to the others, especially to Leeming. As a devoted family man, he would have been scandalised at the idea of someone having sexual relations outside marriage with both a mother and daughter. It was knowledge he could live more happily without.
Colbeck finished his whisky. ‘It’s time for us to leave,’ he said. ‘The case is closed. We’re keen to return to London and you, Superintendent, will be thrilled to see the back of us.’