Friday,
17
March, 1876
We began the day anew when Mr Frazer arrived. Sir Simon and I met
him at the central Oxford train station. He brought reports about some
of the parties who have had the most connexion with Rev Summerfield and
with Mr Moriarty. None of the faculty on our list have a police
record, save a few youthful indiscretions in their student days.
Mr Moriarty's servants are somewhat more dubious, which will not
reflect well on him.
Mr Frazer and I were delegated the task of informing the late Reverend
Summerfield’s niece of his demise, and to question and search that
household as gently, yet thoroughly, as possible.
The unhappy Mrs Cole (nee Lucinda Waring) had already been wondering at
her uncle’s absence from their rooms, in conjunction with the alarming
newspaper stories about a grisly murder in the night. She
understood the import of our visit immediately, bursting into tears at
the sight of my husband’s uniform. I solemnly confirmed her
fears, and all that remained was to sit with her and hear what she
could tell me.
Every account of the deceased’s nature has agreed that he was a
difficult person to like, but his niece made a most delicate effort to
speak well of him.
The Reverend had been in Oxford since Sunday evening. It was usual for
him to stay with the Coles at their lodgings if he were visiting
Oxford--his own residence and living being in Shawbury, some distance
away. According to Mrs Cole, he was in good spirits on his arrival, and
looking forward to discrediting Mr Moriarty's theories about
asteroids.
When asked if Reverend Summerfield had seemed concerned for his safety,
or if he had any enemies, Mrs Cole explained that he did not express
any particular fear, though he considered many of the faculty of Oxford
to be hostile to his interests. He has long thought that he
had been unfairly prevented from attaining a teaching position here,
and thus forced to become a practicing clergyman instead. Mrs
Cole named Mr Lynch, Prof Maple and Prof Clithering as recently
featuring in his tirades, particularly because of their support of Mr
Moriarty's visit here.
Mrs Cole's assessment of the deceased's temperament is generally borne
out by my own observations: He was prone to impatience, dismissive of
arguments against his point, and likely to resort to insulting ad
hominem arguments. We all witnessed his behaviour toward Mr
Moriarty at the latter's lecture, and his satisfaction in provoking Mr
Moriarty's confession of Atheism.
Also potentially relevant was the scene witnessed by Lady
Cowperthwaite, between the deceased and Mr Cole at Prof. Maple's
reception. Mrs Cole, obviously pained by having to reveal such
family discord, explained that Mr Cole has been trying to persuade Rev
Summerfield to increase Mrs Cole's living allowance. The
Reverend, as the trustee of Mrs Cole's inheritance, has refused to
raise her allowance beyond minimum, even though as a married woman, her
household expenses are greater, and her husband's income is not enough
for them to live comfortably. Although Reverend Summerfield
endorsed the marriage between then Miss Waring and Mr Cole, he had
subsequently taken against Mr Cole. The terms of the trusteeship
will require some further investigation.
On the evening before his death, the Reverend had been in a bad
temper. Upon seeing a note that the Coles had received from Lady
MacGreggor (inviting them to tea with Lady Cowperthwaite), he flew into
a rage, complaining of people (by which he likely meant Mr Cole)
toadying to the wealthy and seeking preferment.
The landlady of Mr & Mrs Cole reported that when Rev Summerfield
left the house at 20 min before 11:00pm, he was muttering "too much
strado and escallus." After some thought, I decided that
this might mean Strato and Aeschylus, classical Greek poets, seeing as
Jordan College has a significant body of classical scholarship in
addition to the mathematical and astronomical topics which currently
occupy our concerns.
While walking toward Jordan College to look in the library for
references to Aeschylus and Strato, we met Miss Moriarty's
acquaintance, young Mr Holmes, who is presently a student here, and
whom we met at Prof Maples' party.
He pointed out some tracks he had been following:
Sir Simon appeared across the green, while searching out one of the
Lecturers he was trying to interview, and we hailed him. We
pointed out the tracks, and also reported the morning's
interviews. Sir Simon relayed salient points from his interviews
with Dean Caruthers and Prof Maples.
When we looked in the Jordan College Library, knowing that several of
the faculty on the interview list are Classics scholars, we looked up
their works. Prof Maples, earlier in his career, had written 2
papers on the poets in question, about their "musopaedic" works (not a
word I had encountered before, it proved to mean homo-erotic literature
referring to adolescent males). These papers presented an
analysis sympathetic to homo-erotic interpretations of the original
Greek works, as opposed to some scholars attempts to make them less
explicit. We also found a much later paper by Mr Cole, which
cited Maples' paper as a source.
I must say, poor Mr Frazer was terribly flustered by the whole
subject--he just did not know where to look, blushed bright pink for a
full quarter hour, kept knocking things over. I finally asked him
to go out and find me a nice cup of tea and return in 25 minutes.
He was profoundly relieved.
I was starting to form an inkling of a possible alternative motive in
Rev Summerfield's murder. When we reconvened with Sir Simon an
hour later, this inkling was strengthened. Professor Maples had
stated with conviction that he had been at home at the time the murder
of Rev Summerfield. One of the other scholars, Mr Linch, who was
acquainted with both Rev Summerfield and Mr Moriarty, and whose rooms
at Jordan College open to the green, described essentially the same
argument between Summerfield and Moriarty as Mr West and Mr Fortune
had, but went on to say that shortly after that disturbance, he had
also observed an argument between Rev Summerfield and Prof
Maples. He reported that Summerfield had shouted "You can't keep
it dark!" So, if Mr Linch is telling the truth, then Prof Maples
has lied about his whereabouts. If Linch's testimony proves
untrue, then we can investigate his motives for lying.
Sir Simon interviewed another one of Jordan's scholars, Professor
Clithering, who was reputed to be closer in sympathies to Rev
Summerfield than anyone else in the Faculty. He offered a
second-hand account of some of Rev Summerfield's concerns. By
this report, Summerfield expressed a conviction that Prof Maples, Mr
Linch, and Mr Cole were together involved in something disreputable,
and that is why Rev Summerfield was now so set against allowing Mr Cole
any access to Mrs Cole's trust. We could speculate as to what he
found so distasteful...
We returned to Uffington for a short time, for baby feeding and to
confer with the Mystics. Mr Salmalin had surreptitiously taken
Prof Maples' cane (a somewhat distinctive one, with a brass head shaped
like a duck's) from the stand in his rooms. Sir Simon
subsequently compared it to contusion on the victim's forehead, and
found it a likely match. A very small trace of blood was visible
in the tiny groove under the ferrule by the head. We hoped that the
Mystics could tell us if we were on the right track.
The Mystics' work so far on this case had been suggestive, but
inconclusive--According to Mrs Cuthbert, the aetheric discharge of the
autunite explosion so near the murder scene caused distortion of her
readings. The attempt to reach Rev Summerfield's spirit was
unsuccessful--he had already "gone on"--somewhat surprising for a
person of reputedly vindictive temperament. The ebony handled
folding knife showed them that it did indeed belong to Mr
Moriarty--that he had taken it from a would-be attacker some years
ago. (I should note here that Mr Moriarty did not attempt to deny
owning the knife--and none of what the Mystics learned from the knife
conflicted with Moriarty's statements). It did not show the
murder or who committed it. Now the Mystics went to work on the cane,
which we could hope would bear a clear impression, since it would have
been taken away well before the autunite explosion. It could at
least tell us if we must keep looking elsewhere
While we waited for the Mystics to complete their work, I had a chat
with Miss MacGreggor. As an unofficial student, sitting in on
lectures and classes all over Oxford, but especially in Jordan college,
and having many friends there, I thought she might know what rumours
were circulating. It is not unlikely that those rumours Miss
MacGreggor had heard about Prof Maples, Mr Linch, and Mr Cole having
predilections in common, would have also reached Rev Summerfield, who
would be incensed about "immoral" men being given all the plum academic
posts when he himself laboured in obscurity.
The Mystics returned with their report on the cane. It showed
walking about at night, with its owner Prof Maples, some little way
behind another small group of people; hiding in some shrubbery until
the other people left; walking up a grassy hillock, and Prof Maples
picking up an object (the knife) from the ground; walking on;
meeting with Rev Summerfield on a street; a somewhat confused blur of
swinging and striking bone; waiting lying on the pavement; being picked
up and wiped clean by Maples; walking on.
Sir Simon went back to Oxford and arrested Professor Maples. He
has not confessed, but we are quite certain of his guilt. We can
hope that he will choose to confess to the murder and spare his wife
and his associates the indignity of this matter coming to trial.
The greatest shame of it all is that Professor Maples killed a man (and
deliberately framed another man) to conceal the truth (or supress a
rumour) about his behaviour when in fact this behaviour has all along
been widely rumoured and winked at. If I could find this out in
one day, how could Maples think it a secret? For heaven's sake,
Miss MacGreggor, whom polite society would think could not even
conceive of such behaviour, knew all about it. If Maples was
ashamed of his behaviour, he should not have carried on so. And
think of the price that Mrs Maples will pay in humiliation, after all
the long years of pretending a contented marriage with a man who by all
these accounts had no particular use for her except as
window-dressing? How cruel to her.
For all that I cannot imagine why a man would find another man
intimately appealing, it plainly is so. I know enough persons for
whom this is the case, persons who have earned my respect, that I
cannot regard it as wholly unnatural or deviant. But for a
professor, a man of standing, to use his position to extort favours
from students, offering them membership in the inner circles of academe
in exchange for their participation, that is wholly repugnant to
me.
The whole situation makes me worry for the future of female university
students. Without doubt, women should receive the same academic
opportunities as men. And yet, how easily the men teaching them
could press them in just this same way, with results just as
disastrous. Though I pity the unwise professor who might try such
a scheme on Miss Moriarty or the wily Miss MacGreggor.
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