Fred Saberhagen Vlad Tepes 09 A Sharpness on the Neck
Fred Saberhagen The Book of the Gods 01 The Face of Apol
Fred Saberhagen Berserker 00 Earth Descended
Fred Saberhagen Berserker Throne
Loving_the_Beast_Naima_Simone
Martyn_Leah_ _Ocalone_maśÂśźeśÂstwo
Cartland Barbara W ramionach ksićÂcia
Brad Thor Pierwsze przykazanie
Lois McMaster Bujold Chalion 2 Paladin of Souls
Suzanne Carey Us
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
realise that the situation was so unusual as to demand a stronger police presence. He had
therefore been through to his sergeant, Sergeant Atkinson, on his pocket radio. Thereafter,
Sergeant Atkinson had arrived with another police constable.
A stage had come when the night porter from St John's had been unable to contain his
curiosity. Going to the Chapel himself, he had recognised - or thought he had recognised -
the deceased as a Fellow of his own College, Dr Howarth. So the Chaplain had been called
from St John's. The Chaplain had then confirmed the night porter's identification, and in
answer to a question from Sergeant Atkinson had said the dead man was a physicist
employed at the Cavendish Laboratory, whereon the Dean had offered the information that
the new head of the Cavendish Laboratory happened to be resident there in College, only a
moment's walk away. Sergeant Atkinson had then proceeded to knock Isaac Newton out of
bed, and Isaac Newton had also joined the party in the Chapel. Such was the story that
unfolded.
Turning his mind back to the actual events, it had all seemed straightforward enough at the
time to Isaac Newton, but in the courtroom, in the clear light of day, this toing-and-froing
sounded overdone. Faced by a seemingly inexplicable state of affairs, the reaction had
been to add one person after another to the party, apparently in the hope that the
inexplicable would somehow become explicable with the arrival of each new individual. By
the time Sergeant Atkinson came in with his testimony, describing Isaac Newton's own
joining of the party, the Coroner had himself reached saturation point. Looking up from the
pad on which he had been writing, the Coroner said:
'Sergeant Atkinson, can we get this straight? By now I have Mr Kent, the Dean of Trinity, the
Chaplain of St John's, the night porter from St John's, Constable Green, Constable
Reddaway, yourself and Professor Newton. Is that correct? Have I now got everybody?'
Sergeant Atkinson hesitated for a long moment, glancing up and down as if in
embarrassment.
'Not quite, sir,' he eventually replied. 'There was also a young lady.'
Everybody except Isaac Newton and the Master of Trinity reacted in the same way to this
item of news. They looked up if they had been
" L
writing, or became instantly attentive, if they hadn't. Although each made only a slight noise,
because the noise was the same in each case, the effect was to generate a sharp pulse of
sound within the courtroom.
'It hasn't taken long to come out. I didn't think it would,' the Master of Trinity whispered. It had
taken one hour and five minutes to come out, Isaac Newton noted from the clock on the wall.
'Could I have the young lady's name? To complete my list,' the Coroner asked.
'I didn't take it, sir,' Sergeant Atkinson replied, revealing the source of his embarrassment.
'You see, she came suddenly out of the bedroom, just as we were on the point of returning
from Professor Newton's rooms to the Chapel.'
'Bullseye, first shot,' the Master whispered again.
Isaac Newton caught Featherstone's eye. The man gave a slight shrug, to which Isaac
Newton replied by raising his eyebrows. The thing to do was to be entirely unconcerned.
Then you remained the boss, the lady in question had assured him.
With this tit-bit under its belt, the court turned its attention to the medical evidence. The
doctor who had first examined the body explained that a time interval of about half-an-hour
had elapsed between his being telephoned by the Dean and his arrival in the Chapel. He
had found the subject dead, sprawled across the organ console. There was no visible sign
of the cause of death, so far as he could tell under the prevailing circumstances and
conditions of low- light intensity. A flash photographic record had then been made, and at
the Dean's urgent request the body had been removed shortly before daybreak for eventual
post-mortem examination.
Sergeant Atkinson had been left in charge of the non-medical aspects of the situation,
especially the examination of the College organ, it being judged that finger-printing of the
keyboard could better be accomplished in the light of day.
The doctor, who was thus the first medical witness, was then bowed out in favour of the
official Police Surgeon. The proceedings settled down thereafter into a technical discussion
between the Police Surgeon and the Coroner. Isaac Newton was concerned now with
conclusions rather than with details. Howarth had not been found to suffer from any organic
defect. No drugs had been found in the body, but an exceptionally high level of adrenalin
was present in the blood. So far as an estimate of the time of death could be made, the
Police Surgeon gave the opinion that it had not been before 11.30 p.m. and not after 1.00
a.m. - perhaps an hour before the discovery of the body by Mr Kent.
'Half-an-hour would be more like it,' Isaac Newton whispered to the Master of Trinity.
'How do you arrive at that?' the Master replied.
Whatever Isaac Newton's response might have been, it was drowned by an interruption from
the legal-looking man beside Clamperdown.
'Might I ask the witness a question, sir?'
'Of course, Mr Sherbourne,' the Coroner agreed.
'They seem to know each other. All in the family,' the Master whispered.
'Could the witness state if he found anything that would definitely point to suicide as the
cause of death?'
'No, nothing definite.'
'Thank you.'
Isaac Newton was surprised to hear his own voice ringing out through the courtroom. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
