Ordeal by Innocence Read Online Free Page A

Where? I read the paragraph, read that this young man was Jack Argyle, accused of murder, read that he had told the police that he had been given a lift by a man in a black saloon car.
    "And then, quite suddenly, that lost bit of my life came back I had picked up this selfsame young man, and driven him into Drymouth, parting from him there, going back to the flat - crossing the street on foot to buy my cigarettes. I remembered just a glimpse of the lorry as it hit me - after that, nothing until hospital. I still had no memory of going to the station and taking the train to London. I read and re-read the paragraph. The trial was over a year ago, the case almost forgotten. 'A young fellow what did his mother in,' my landlady remembered vaguely. 'Don't know what happened - think they hanged him.' I read up the files of the newspapers for the appropriate dates, then I went to Marshall & Marshall, who had been the lawyers for the defence. I learned that I was too late to free the unfortunate boy. He had died of pneumonia in prison. Though justice could no longer be done to him, justice could be done to his memory. I went with Mr. Marshall to the police. The case is being laid before the Public Prosecutor. Marshall has little doubt that he will refer it to the Home Secretary.
    “You will, of course, receive a full report from him. He has only delayed it because I was anxious to be the one who first acquainted you with the truth. I felt that that was an ordeal it was my duty to go through. You understand, I am sure, that I shall always feel a deep load of guilt. If I had been more careful crossing the street -” He broke off. “I understand that your feelings towards me can never be kindly - though I am, technically, blameless - you, all of you, must blame me.”
    Gwenda Vaughan said quickly, her voice warm and kindly: “Of course we don't blame you. It's just - one of those things. Tragic - incredible - but there it is.”
    Hester said: “Did they believe you?”
    He looked at her in surprise.
    “The police - did they believe you? Why shouldn't you be making it all up?”
    He smiled a little in spite of himself.
    “I'm a very reputable witness,” he said gently. “I have no axe to grind, and they have gone into my story very closely; medical evidence, various corroborating details from Drymouth. Oh yes. Marshall was cautious, of course, like all lawyers. He didn't want to raise your hopes until he was pretty certain of success.”
    Leo Argyle stirred in his chair and spoke for the first time. “What exactly do you mean by success?”
    “I apologise,” said Calgary quickly. “That is not a word that can rightly be used. Your son was accused of a crime he did not commit, was tried for it, condemned - and died in prison. Justice has come too late for him. But such justice as can be done, almost certainly will be done, and will be seen to be done. The Home Secretary will probably advise the Queen that a free pardon should be granted.”
    Hester laughed.
    “A free pardon - for something he didn't do?”
    “I know. The terminology always seems unrealistic. But I understand that the custom is for a question to be asked in the House, the reply to which will make it clear that Jack Argyle did not commit the crime for which he was sentenced, and the newspapers will report that fact freely.”
    He stopped. Nobody spoke. It had been, he supposed, a great shock to them. But after all, a happy one.
    He rose to his feet.
    “I'm afraid,” he said uncertainly, “that there is nothing more that I can say... To repeat how sorry I am, how unhappy about it all, to ask your forgiveness - all that you must already know only too well. The tragedy that ended his life, has darkened my own. But at least” - he spoke with pleading - “surely it means something - to know that he didn't do this awful thing - that his name - your name - will be cleared in the eyes of the world?”
    If he hoped for a reply he did not get one.
    Leo Argyle sat