The Witness for the Prosecution

Agatha Christie

The trial of Leonard Vole for the murder of Emily French aroused widespread interest. In the first place the prisoner was young and good-looking, then he was accused of a particularly dastardly crime, and there was the further interest of Romaine Heilger, the principal witness for the prosecution. There had been pictures of her in many papers, and several fictitious stories as to her origin and history.

The proceedings opened quietly enough. Various technical evidence came first. Then Janet Mackenzie was called. She told substantially the same story as before. In cross-examination counsel for the defenсe succeeded in getting her to contradict herself once or twice over her account of Vole’s association with Miss French; he emphasized the fact that though she had heard a man’s voice in the sitting-room that night, there was nothing to show that it was Vole who was there, and he managed to drive home a feeling that jealousy and dislike of the prisoner were at the bottom of a good deal of her evidence.

Then the next witness was called.

“Your name is Romaine Heilger? ”

“Yes”.

“You are an Austrian subject? ”

“Yes.”

“For the last three years you have lived with the prisoner and passed yourself off as his wife? ”

Just for a moment Romaine Heilger’s eyes met those of the man in the dock. Her expression held something curious and unfathomable.

“Yes”.

The questions went on. Word by word the damning facts came out. On the night in question the prisoner had taken out a crowbar with him. He had returned at twenty minutes past ten, and had confessed to having killed the old lady. His cuffs had been stained with blood, and he had burned them in the kitchen stove. He had terrorized her into silence by means of threats.

As the story proceeded, the feeling of the court which had, to begin with, been slightly favourable to the prisoner, now set dead against him. He himself with downcast head and moody air, as though he knew he were doomed.

Yet it might have been noted that her own counsel sought to restrain Romaine’s animosity. He would have preferred her to be a more unbiased witness.

Formidable and ponderous, counsel for the defence arose.

He put it to her that her story was a malicious fabrication from start to finish, that she had not even been in her own house at the time in question, that she was in love with another man and was deliberately seeking to send Vole to his death for a crime he did not commit.

Romaine denied these allegations with superb insolence.

Then came the surprising denouement, the production of the letter. It was read aloud in court in the midst of a breathless stillness.

Max, beloved, the Fates have delivered him into our hands! He has been arrested for murder – but, yes, the murder of an old lady! Leonard who would not hurt a fly! At last I shall have my revenge. The poor chicken! I shall say that he came in that night with blood upon him – that he confessed to me. I shall hang him, Max – and when he hangs he will know and realize that it was Romaine who sent him to his death. And then – happiness, Beloved! Happiness at last!

There were experts ready to swear that the handwriting was that of Romaine Heilger, but they were not needed. Confronted with the letter, Romaine broke down utterly and confessed everything. Leonard Vole had returned to the house at the time he said, twenty past nine. She had invented the whole story to ruin him.

With the collapse of Romaine Heilger, the case for the crown collapsed also. Sir Charles called his few witnesses, the prisoner himself went into the box and told his story in a manly straightforward manner, unshaken by cross-examination.

The prosecution endeavoured to rally, but without great success. The judge’s summing up was not wholly favourable to the prisoner, but a reaction had set in and the jury needed little time to consider their verdict.

“We find the prisoner not guilty.”

Leonard Vole was free!

Little Mr. Mayherne hurried from his seat. He must congratulate his client.

He found himself polishing his pince-nez vigorously, and checked himself. His wife had told him only the night before that he was getting a habit of it. Curious things, habits. People themselves never know they had them.

An interesting case – a very interesting case. That woman, now, Romaine Heilger.

The case was dominated for him still by the exotic figure of Romaine Heilger. She had seemed a pale quiet woman in the house at Paddington, but in court she had flamed out against the sober background. She had flaunted herself like a tropical flower.

If he closed his eyes he could see her now, tall and vehement, her exquisite body bent forward a little, her right hand clenching and unclenching itself unconsciously all the time.

Curious things, habits. That gesture of hers with the hand was her habit, he supposed. Yet he had seen someone else do it quite lately. Who was it now? Quite lately –

He drew in his breath with a gasp as it came back to him. The woman in Shaw’s Rents…

He stood still, his head whirling. It was impossible – impossib­le – Yet, Romaine Heilger was an actress.

The KC came up behind him and clapped him on the shoulder.

“Congratulated our man yet? He’s had a narrow shave, you know. Come along and see him.”

But the little lawyer shook off the other’s hand. He wanted one thing
only - to see Romaine Heilger face to face.

He did not see her until some time later, and the place of their meeting is not relevant.

“So you guessed, ” she said, when he had told her all that was in his mind. “The face? Oh! that was easy enough, and the light of that gas jet was too bad for you to see the make-up.”

“But why – why – “

“Why did I play a lone hand? ” She smiled a little, remembering the last time she had used the words.

“Such an elaborate comedy! ”

“My friend – I had to save him. The evidence of a woman devoted to him would not have been enough – you hinted as much yourself. But I know something of the psychology of crowds. Let my evidence be wrung from me as an admission, damning me in the eyes of the law, and reaction in favour of the prisoner would immediately set in.”

“And the bundle of letters? ”

“One alone, the vital one, might have seemed like a – what do you call it? – put up job.”

“Then the man called Max? ”

“Never existed, my friend.”

“I still think, ” said the little Mr. Mayherne, in an aggrieved manner, “that we could have got off the – er – normal procedure.”

“I dared not risk it. You see, you thought he was innocent –”

“And you knew it? I see”, said little Mr. Mayherne.

“My dear Mr. Mayherne, ” said Romaine, “you do not see at all. I knew – he was guilty! ”