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“Yes.”
“You were Miss May Trelawny’s doctor?”
“Yes. It is a very small island.” Mullane looked patient, solid, comfortable with himself, but at the moment burdened by a sadness.
“You were called when the body of May Trelawny was found?” Daniel sensed the judge’s growing impatience and asked the next question without waiting for Mullane to answer. “What was the cause of her death, Doctor?”
“It seemed that she was kicked to death by one of her horses,” Mullane said quietly.
There was an indrawn breath of horror around the crowd in the gallery. Two of the jurors shook their heads.
“An accident?” Daniel asked. It all hung on this. He must not seem to prompt the doctor.
“I thought so at the time,” Mullane answered. “But after the evidence was appraised more closely by Dr. fford Croft, I saw that it was in fact contrived. I imagine you will wish to see the evidence of that.”
No one in the court was moving, barely even breathing.
“Let me be clear, Dr. Mullane. Are you saying that Miss Trelawny was murdered?”
“Yes, I am.”
The judge interrupted sharply. “Are you going to tell us that this, too, is Philip Sidney’s work, Mr. Pitt?”
“No, Your Honor, I’m going to show that it is the cause of the framing of Philip Sidney. Because he knows the motive behind this death, and who committed it, only he does not realize it yet. He has all the pieces, he just has not put them together. The man behind it needs to discredit him, even destroy him, before he can move forward with his plan.”
If someone had dropped a pin on the floor, Daniel believed it would have been heard. Not a juror moved. They could have been made of the same carved wood as the bench on which they sat.
“Then you had better do so, Mr. Pitt,” the judge warned. “And to my satisfaction. Proceed.”
“Yes, Your Honor.” Daniel turned back to the witness. “Dr. Mullane, that is a very big change of mind, from an accident to deliberate murder. Could you describe the original evidence, briefly, and then the new evidence that changed your mind? What caused it to come to your attention? And remember that we are not doctors, so in as plain a manner as you can, please.”
Mullane looked pale, and he was evidently distressed, but he chose his words carefully.
“Certainly. I admired May Trelawny very much. She was a woman of courage and high intelligence, good temper and considerable wit.” His voice cracked only for a moment, and he recovered. “To the best of my knowledge, she had no enemies. Alderney is a small island. We know each other well. As the island doctor, I would say I know most people as my neighbors and my friends, as well as from time to time as my patients. It had never occurred to me that anyone would wish her harm. I did not look further than what seemed to be obvious. She had severe injuries to her head and shoulders, as if she had tripped and fallen in the stable, behind the horse. It had become startled and lashed out. Perhaps she had screamed, maybe for help. Maybe simply in pain. That had further panicked the animal and…the tragedy had happened.” He stopped abruptly, his pain at the image of this clear.
Daniel allowed him a few moments to collect himself, and for the jury to absorb the emotional impact, then asked him to continue.
“It was the questions of Dr. fford Croft that made me look further,” Mullane went on. “She discovered a partially healed injury on the horse’s back, still suppurating under the skin, as well as a thorn in May’s saddle. She had the only side saddle on the island. The injury was concealed by the lower part of the horse’s mane, and one would not find it without deliberately looking. And there was no bruised wood in the stable, no marks of blood on the wood, but signs of there having been a great deal of blood on the stable floor.”
“It had been cleaned from the floor in the intervening time?” Daniel asked.
“Yes. It was cleaned a day or two after, but the stains remained. We couldn’t let it…just stay there. It…” He floundered for a moment, overcome by emotion.
Daniel felt it, too. He had seen the stains. He could all too clearly imagine the depth of wet, scarlet blood that had made them. He wanted the court, the jury, to imagine it, too.
Daniel drew a deep breath. “It seems a mixed message to me. The wound on the horse and the thorn embedded in the saddle imply either an accident or a deliberate attempt to cause a bad fall. But she was found in the stables, as was all the blood. What do you deduce from that?”
Mullane shook his head. “It does not lie within my skill, Mr. Pitt, but I cannot imagine May mounting a horse inside the stable. She was a tall woman, too tall to ride out sitting side-saddle. There was a mounting block outside in the yard; she would have used that, as was her habit.”
“Did you observe Dr. fford Croft taking samples of blood from the stable floor and from the horse in question, Dr. Mullane?”
“Yes, I did. And I have photographs of that and of the saddle, and the injury to the horse.”
“Have you photographs of Miss Trelawny’s injuries also?”
Mullane winced and closed his eyes. “Good God, no, man! Why on earth would I want such a thing! As if I could forget…”
“But they were consistent with being repeatedly kicked by a horse?”
