The Cretingham Murder by Sheila Hardy Read Free Book Online

the events already mentioned in preceding pages, we are now presented with the first version of what actually took place between the household going to bed and Bilney being called; that is, Harriet Louisa’s statement. The report stated:
    Mr Farley called out, ‘What is that?’ This awakened Mrs Farley and she then heard what she describes as a ‘rattling noise’ outside the bedroom door. She at first thought it was the maid rattling with a candlestick and got up and went to the door, which was locked on the inside as usual. She unlocked it, and upon opening the door, saw the curate standing in his dressing gown, with an earthenware candlestick, holding a lighted candle, in his right hand. He was perfectly quiet but deathly pale, and she cried out, ‘Good gracious, what do you want?’ He replied, ‘I want to come in,’ and tried to force his way into the bedroom. With some difficulty she prevented him, and having succeeded in closing the door, turned the key, exclaiming to her husband as she did so, ‘Why, he is mad.’ Mr Cooper called out, ‘I want to come in and see the Vicar.’ Mr Farley replied, ‘Oh, poor fellow, open the door and see what he wants.’ Mrs Farley accordingly opened the door again, and Mr Cooper walked into the room. He made no remark, but walked right into the room round by the foot of the bed, past the crib on which Mrs Farley had been sleeping, and then to the side of the Vicar’s bed. All this time he had the candlestick in his right hand. Nothing was observed in his left, but that he had a razor there can be no possible doubt. He approached the bedside and quietly put out his left hand in the direction of the Vicar’s throat. ‘Mr Farley exclaimed, ‘What do you mean? What do you mean?’ The curate laughed, turned round and walked quietly out of the room. Before he reached the door, Mr Farley exclaimed in a feeble voice, ‘He’s cut my throat.’ Mrs Farley at first believed her husband was in a delirium, and as she could see no blood she replied, ‘Oh, nonsense.’ She, however, followed the curate to his room, and while going thither she heard Mr Farley call ‘Frank,’ the coachman, by name twice. She went up to Cooper, and in as firm a voice as she could command, said to him, ‘What have you in your hand? Give it to me.’ He replied, ‘I have nothing,’ and even then she could not see that he had any weapon. She then went back to her husband’s room, and found Mr Farley lying on the floor with blood rushing from his throat. Stricken with horror, she ran back to the curate’s room, and said to Cooper, ‘Come and help me; you don’t know what you have done.’ Cooper made no reply, and she ran back to her husband and tried to staunch the blood. Meanwhile she despatched the groom for Dr Jones, of Framlingham, but long before he arrived Mr Farley had expired.
    Presumably this account was based on statements made by the police but the reporter also managed to obtain an interview with William Emmerson who gave the information, mentioned earlier, of his conversation with Mrs Farley as to Arthur’s state of mind and the likelihood of her getting Mr Allen to take the service.
    However, the second reporter, in his piece, makes a conflicting reference as to who should take the Sunday service:
    On Saturday there was nothing in his [Cooper’s] conduct to excite alarm, although it is understood that Mrs Farley felt some concern about him. He complained of want of sleep; he was anxious that some other clergyman should be called in to take the Sunday service; and he added, somewhat ominously, that while he should be bad on the coming Sunday, he should be worse still on the Sunday after that. No arrangement, however, seems to have been made to relieve him of his duties.
    Unfortunately, the journalist does not name his source for this overheard conversation. If it was not Emmerson, then it must have been either Bilney or Annie Wightman, they being the only others in the house, but