Murder in Mesopotamia

‘There was also one other psychological point of interest – the curious state of tension described as existing amongst the members of the expedition. This was attested to by several different witnesses – some of them outsiders – and I made a note that although hardly a starting point, it should nevertheless be borne in mind during my investigations.

‘The accepted idea seemed to be that it was directly the result of Mrs Leidner’s influence on the members of the expedition, but for reasons which I will outline to you later this did not seem to me entirely acceptable.

‘To start with, as I say, I concentrated solely and entirely on the personality of Mrs Leidner. I had various means of assessing that personality. There were the reactions she produced in a number of people, all varying widely in character and temperament, and there was what I could glean by my own observation. The scope of the latter was naturally limited. But I did learn certain facts.

‘Mrs Leidner’s tastes were simple and even on the austere side. She was clearly not a luxurious woman. On the other hand, some embroidery she had been doing was of an extreme fineness and beauty. That indicated a woman of fastidious and artistic taste. From the observation of the books in her bedroom I formed a further estimate. She had brains, and I also fancied that she was, essentially, an egoist.

‘It had been suggested to me that Mrs Leidner was a woman whose main preoccupation was to attract the opposite sex – that she was, in fact, a sensual woman. This I did not believe to be the case.

‘In her bedroom I noticed the following books on a shelf: Who were the Greeks?, Introduction to Relativity, Life of Lady Hester Stanhope, Back to Methuselah, Linda Condon, Crewe Train.

‘She had, to begin with, an interest in culture and in modern science – that is, a distinct intellectual side. Of the novels, Linda Condon, and in a lesser degree Crewe Train, seemed to show that Mrs Leidner had a sympathy and interest in the independent woman – unencumbered or entrapped by man. She was also obviously interested by the personality of Lady Hester Stanhope. Linda Condon is an exquisite study of the worship of her own beauty by a woman. Crewe Train is a study of a passionate individualist, Back to Methuselah is in sympathy with the intellectual rather than the emotional attitude to life. I felt that I was beginning to understand the dead woman.

‘I next studied the reactions of those who had formed Mrs Leidner’s immediate circle – and my picture of the dead woman grew more and more complete.

‘It was quite clear to me from the accounts of Dr Reilly and others that Mrs Leidner was one of those women who are endowed by Nature not only with beauty but with the kind of calamitous magic which sometimes accompanies beauty and can, indeed, exist independently of it. Such women usually leave a trail of violent happenings behind them. They bring disaster – sometimes on others – sometimes on themselves.

‘I was convinced that Mrs Leidner was a woman who essentially worshipped herself and who enjoyed more than anything else the sense of power. Wherever she was, she must be the centre of the universe. And everyone round her, man or woman, had got to acknowledge her sway. With some people that was easy. Nurse Leatheran, for instance, a generous-natured woman with a romantic imagination, was captured instantly and gave in ungrudging manner full appreciation. But there was a second way in which Mrs Leidner exercised her sway – the way of fear. Where conquest was too easy she indulged a more cruel side to her nature – but I wish to reiterate emphatically that it was not what you might callconscious cruelty. It was as natural and unthinking as is the conduct of a cat with a mouse. Where consciousness came in, she was essentially kind and would often go out of her way to do kind and thoughtful actions for other people.

‘Now of course the first and most important problem to solve was the problem of the anonymous letters. Who had written them and why? I asked myself: Had Mrs Leidner written themherself?

‘To answer this problem it was necessary to go back a long way – to go back, in fact, to the date of Mrs Leidner’s first marriage. It is here we start on our journey proper. The journey of Mrs Leidner’s life.

‘First of all we must realize that the Louise Leidner of all those years ago is essentially the same Louise Leidner of the present time.

‘She was young then, of remarkable beauty – that same haunting beauty that affects a man’s spirit and senses as no mere material beauty can – and she was already essentially an egoist.

‘Such women naturally revolt from the idea of marriage. They may be attracted by men, but they prefer to belong to themselves. They are truly La Belle Dame sans Merci of the legend. Nevertheless Mrs Leidnerdid marry – and we can assume, I think, that her husband must have been a man of a certain force of character.