Arthur & George

Arthur got what he wanted, and Jean Leckie did too, and they were happy together, where was the harm? But it made Alfred Wood a little more relieved that he had never himself come near to marrying. He did not see the benefit of the arrangement, except from a hygienic point of view. You married a true woman, and became bored with her; you married a false one, and did not notice rings were being run around you. Those seemed to be the two choices available to a man.
    Sir Arthur sometimes accused him of having moods. It was rather, he felt, that he had his silences – and his obvious thoughts. For instance, about Mrs Doyle: about happy Southsea days, busy London ones, and those long sad months at the end. Thoughts too about the future Lady Conan Doyle, and the influence she might have upon Sir Arthur and the household. Thoughts about Kingsley and Mary, and how they would react to a stepmother – or rather, to this particular stepmother. Kingsley would doubtless survive: he had his father’s cheerful manliness already. But Wood feared a little for Mary, who was such an awkward, yearning girl.
    Well, that would do for tonight. Except: he thought that in the morning he might accidentally leave the bootscraper and the other parcels behind.
    At Undershaw, Arthur retreated to his study, filled his pipe and began to consider strategy. It was clear there would have to be a two-pronged attack. The first thrust would establish, once and for all, that George Edalji was innocent; not just wrongly convicted on misleading evidence, but wholly innocent, one-hundred-per-cent innocent. The second thrust would identify the true culprit, oblige the Home Office to admit its errors, and result in a fresh prosecution.
    As he set to work, Arthur felt back on familiar ground. It was like starting a book: you had the story but not all of it, most of the characters but not all of them, some but not all of the causal links. You had your beginning, and you had your ending. There would be a great number of topics to be kept in the head at the same time. Some would be in motion, some static; some racing away, others resisting all the mental energy you could throw at them. Well, he was used to that. And so, as with a novel, he tabulated the key matters and annotated them briefly.
    1. TRIAL
    Yelverton
. Use dossier (with perm.), build, sharpen. Cautious – lawyer. Vachell? No – avoid reit. defence case. Pity no official transcript (campaign for this?). Reliable newspaper accounts? (besides Umpire).
    Hairs/Butter
. W. probably right!! Not before (o/wise Edaljis perjurers) ∴ after. Unintentional, intentional? Who? When? How? Butter?? Interview. Also: hairs found, any latitude/ambiguity? Or
must
be pony?
    Letters
. Examine: paper/materials, orthography, style, content, psychology. Gurrin, fraudulence of. Beck case. Propose better expert (good/bad tactic?). Who? Dreyfus fellow? Also: one writer, more? Also, Writer = Ripper? Writer X Ripper? Connection/overlap?
    Eyesight
. Scott’s report. Enough? Others? Mother’s evidence. Effect of dark/night on GE’s vision?
    Green
. Who bullied? Who paid? Trace/interview.
    Anson
. Interview. Prejudice? Evidence w/held? Influence on Constab. See Campbell. Ask for police records?
    One of the advantages of celebrity, Arthur admitted, was that his name opened doors. Whether he needed a lepidopterist or an expert on the history of the longbow, a police surgeon or a chief constable, his requests for an interview would normally be smiled upon. It was largely thanks to Holmes – although thanking Holmes did not come easily to Arthur. Little had he known, when he invented the fellow, how his consulting detective would turn into a skeleton key.
    He relit his pipe, and moved on to the second part of his thematic table.
    2. CULPRIT
    Letters
. see prec.
    Animals
. Slaughtermen? Butchers? Farmers? Cf. cases elsewhere. Method typical/untypical? Expert – who? Gossip/suspicion (Harry C).
    Instrument
. Not razor (trial) ∴ what? Butter? Lewis? ‘curved with conc. sides’. Knife? Agricultural instr.? purpose? Adapted instr.?
    Gap
. 7 yr silence 96–03. Why?? Intentional/unintentional/enforced? Who absent? Who wd know?
    Walsall
. Key. School. Greatorex. Other boys. Window/spitting. Brookes. Wynn. Speck. Connected? Unconnected? Normal? Any GE business/connection there (ask). Headmaster?
    Previous/subsequent
. Other maimings. Farrington.
    And that was about it for the moment. Arthur puffed his pipe and let his eye wander