“What about re-burial, sir? If it’s to be done without attracting attention it’ll be much better to do it straight-a-way—that is to say, if you decide not to proceed with the case. On the other hand, if you do proceed, there’ll have to be an inquest and, if it’s not too far gone, the jury’ll have to view the body. In that case it had better come straight up to the mortuary here.”
“Well,” said Sir Leward testily, “what do you suggest, Barrod?”
“Either that you come to Woking yourself, sir, and have the preliminary examination there—in which case, if there’s nothing you can give the order for the re-burial on the spot; or else that you authorize me to take the decision in the same way.”
“But I don’t know that there need necessarily be visible signs on the body, even if a murder has been committed. The cause of death was the rupture of an artery due to shock—the shock need not necessarily have left marks.”
“I think you’ll find it difficult, sir, to persuade a coroner’s jury, let alone a petty jury, to bring in a verdict of murder if there aren’t any marks. Personally I don’t see how your murderer could count on death ensuing from a mere push—there must have been a blow—and if there was a blow, there must be a mark.”
So it was eventually decided, that Barrod, Poole and a surgeon should proceed to Brooklands Cemetery that night, exhume the body by arrangement with the Cemetery authorities, and carry out a preliminary investigation on the spot. If there was the smallest suspicious sign, the body was to be brought to London and subjected to expert examination. If not, it was to be re-buried at once and a further conference would be held the next day to decide whether or not to drop the case.
As the three officials travelled down to Brooklands by the 5.10 train that evening, Poole thought that Chief Inspector Barrod was treating him with more respect than he had previously done, but he did not discuss the case upon which they were engaged. Probably, thought Poole, he did not want to commit himself. Instead, the talk turned entirely on another case which had just closed, and in which the police-surgeon had been actively engaged. The train reached Brooklands at 5.55 and as soon as it was dark the work of the exhumation began. It took nearly an hour to bring the coffin to the surface and even then the actual exposure of the body took some time, owing to its being enclosed in a lead shell, a possibility which neither Barrod nor Poole had taken into account.
At last the grisly work of unwinding was completed and the body laid upon a table. Naturally, after ten days, the flesh was beginning to show signs of decomposition, and to Poole’s untrained eye it appeared as if these marks might conceal what he was looking for. But the doctor had no such misgivings. Running his eye and his fingers rapidly over the chest, he shook his head.
“Nothing here,” he said. “Turn it over.”
“It would be on the back,” muttered Poole.