Who Wants To Live Forever?

“You’ll be telling us Gene Hunt was a good cop next,” sneered Mike.

“I’m neither condoning nor condemning anybody. I’m just telling it as it was,” said Louise, a little exasperated. “Nowadays, smacking is not allowed, but in the thirties police and family members dispensed a good old-fashioned clip round the ear to straighten out wayward children. And it used to work, because nobody wanted to be on the receiving end twice. The police would often use their cape as a weapon, swirling it round and clouting people on the shoulders. With the thick collar and fastening clasp, it was a very quick, effective and painful means of dispensing justice.

“So, and now we come to the point of all this. With major crime a rarity, when there was a murder, it grabbed the headlines; far more so than would happen today, when suspicious deaths are unfortunately all too common. So what I want to talk about next is one of the stranger deaths that occurred in the county. It happened just over a hundred years ago, in Manchester. I know that isn’t in Lancashire now,” she added before anybody could interrupt, “but Manchester and Liverpool used to be as much a part of Lancashire as Lytham St Annes is. This course will look at events that occurred across the old historic county.”

I could see that Mike was itching to contradict Louise, despite Emma’s attempts to quieten him. For the next twenty minutes, I sat and listened to what I considered to be a rather unnecessary argument about whether or not a variety of locations were suitable subjects for a course about Lancashire.

Louise looked at her watch. “We’ve spent quite a bit of time on this discussion. I suggest we go for our break now, then we can start on the real content of tonight’s session when we return in twenty minutes.” And without another word, she stood and walked out of the room.

***

As I sipped my coffee Trish came over to join me. “That was a little unexpected. I’m glad she suggested a break. I was dropping off to sleep. Who really cares whether Todmorden is in Lancashire or Yorkshire? Unless you’re from there, I suppose.”

I nodded my assent. “I thought I was the only one. I hope that the rest of the sessions don’t get hijacked, as I was quite intrigued when she said we were going to look at a strange death. I know,” I added quickly, “it sounds a bit morbid, but I thought it would be interesting. I get the impression, though, that whatever content was included in the course, he wouldn’t be happy. Even his girlfriend — I’m assuming that’s what she is — was trying to calm him down, but he seems intent on confrontation. I don’t think he likes the fact that he’s in a group with so many oldies as I’m sure he refers to us, but that isn’t going to change. They could have helped change the dynamic if they’d encouraged some of their friends to enrol, but they were no more successful than the rest of us in getting new people to come along tonight. So this is the group, like it or not. I just hope that Louise hasn’t had second thoughts about twisting the arms of those at the department and letting the course continue. Half of me dreads going back in case she’s had a change of heart as a result of his aggressive negativity, and she’s used the break to cancel the remainder of the course.”

“Me too,” added Trish. “And it would be such a shame, for I’m with you on this. It isn’t being morbid at all. In fact, I was hoping the strange death would be a puzzling murder. Now that would be fascinating. Don’t you agree, Debbie?”

Debbie walked across, having obviously heard the tail-end of our discussion. “I’m not too sure. Perhaps I haven’t got the same kind of gory interests as you pair,” she added with a semi-laugh, “but I was hoping perhaps for more, well, shall we say historical facts to be discussed.”

As she spoke Debbie looked directly at me. Her blue eyes, sparkling as the light reflected in them, seemed to bore deep into my soul, and I found myself floundering beneath her gaze.

“He seems to have gone into a trance. What did you do to him?” Trish laughed, enjoying my obvious discomfort when I realised I had missed part of the conversation.

Mumbling something about it being an age thing, I led the three of us back to the classroom, hoping that there would still be a class to attend.

***

When we returned, Louise was finishing off putting some stapled sheets on our tables. “I’ve given you all some background information details about what we’ll be discussing. So, let’s begin with the bare facts about this murder.” I looked at Trish and she smiled. “It happened, as I said, in Manchester, on Friday, January sixth, 1911. Just over a century ago, and this is the farthest back I intend to go on the course. The victim was a woman called Enid Rodgers, and she died of arsenic poisoning.”

“A woman did it, then,” said Gail, but Louise shook her head.

“I know poison is traditionally associated with the fairer sex, but in this case…well, that’s what I want to talk about. Let me just say that a woman wasn’t found guilty of the murder; in fact, it was Enid Rodgers’ husband who was convicted. As far as the notion of poison being associated with female murderers goes, there are some notable precedents of men being involved in poisonings, such as Dr Crippen, who was hanged in 1910 for the murder by toxic drug of his second wife, Cora. You may have heard about his capture, which came after a telegraph message was sent by the ship’s captain as he spotted Crippen on board during a voyage to Canada. However, the murder of Enid Rodgers is nothing like that.”

“So what is so unusual about this one that warrants this discussion?” I asked, puzzled.

“Ah, I’m coming to that. Let me give you the facts of the case first. Enid Rodgers lived with her husband, Alfred, in central Manchester, close to the junction of the rivers Irwell and Irk. Enid was forty-eight years old and she was a cotton worker at one of the county’s many mills. The couple had no children, and seem to have kept themselves to themselves as much as possible. Enid first became ill towards the end of 1910, and was bed-ridden over Christmas and the New Year. At first, her husband didn’t think there was anything to it, as ill health amongst mill workers was a daily occurrence in those times, but when the headaches showed no sign of improving he turned to one of Enid’s friends from work, a woman called Eve Rhodes. Eve had been a visitor off and on over the preceding few weeks — she seems to have been the only person other than Alfred and Enid to have frequented the tiny one-bedroomed house in Arnside Street.

“Eve almost took up residence in the house over the festive period — it seems that she had no family over here, as she came over to England from Canada some time during 1910.”

“Perhaps she did a swap with Crippen, then,” joked Emma. “She did it, I’ll bet.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have mentioned Crippen yet,” said Louise, but she had a slight smile on her face. “But you could be right nevertheless,” she added, mischievously. “Anyway, Eve’s presence didn’t seem to make any difference. On the contrary, for Enid’s condition continued to deteriorate. The constant vomiting left her increasingly weak, and in desperation Alfred sent for the doctor, Patrick Woolley.”

“Sure it wasn’t Crippen?” sneered Mike.

Louise pointedly ignored the interruption. “The doctor came but it was too late. Enid fell into a coma on the morning of January sixth and never regained consciousness. She died later that afternoon. The doctor, her husband and Eve were all by her bedside when she passed. And that would have been it — just one more death in a city where early death was a fact of life as a result of the prevailing conditions of the time — had it not been for a keen-eyed clerk who read the doctor’s report of the death. Unfortunately, history doesn’t name this clerk, but without him this entire course might not exist.”

I looked over at Trish as Louise said this and mouthed, “Why?”, but Trish only shrugged her shoulders in response. I turned my attention back to Louise.

“…read that Dr Woolley reported seeing a ‘strange puff of dust’ at the exact time that Enid died, but he had no idea what it was. This intrigued the clerk, who decided to dig a little further, and he ascertained that there were some unusual aspects to the case. To begin with, Enid’s fingernails were discoloured with a white pigmentation called leukonychia, or — more commonly — white nail. The doctor hadn’t taken much notice of this, as it was relatively common, with any injury to the base of the nail a likely cause. But there was something else in this case — the whitening was in bands, called leukonychia striata, and the clerk knew that this was a symptom of poisoning, with lead or arsenic often the cause.

“As Enid had also suffered hair loss prior to her death, the clerk was convinced that something untoward had happened and an investigation was launched once Dr Woolley confirmed that there was no arsenic present in any of the tonics he had prescribed. It was common at the time for some women to whiten their skin by using a mixture of vinegar, chalk and arsenic, but Alfred Rodgers was vehement that his wife never paid any attention to those ‘ridiculous desires of fashion’ as he called them.”

“I take it,” said Debbie, “that her husband was putting a noose round his neck when he said that. Why on earth are some men so stupid? All he had to do was say his wife was fashion conscious and quite possibly he’d have walked away scot-free.”

“Yes, Debbie, you’re correct. But then, if he had, we wouldn’t have anything to talk about tonight, would we?”

“Stupid man,” muttered Mike. “Now we’re suffering a hundred years later because of him.”

Again, Louise refused to rise to the bait, continuing instead with her tale. “After this, the investigation increased in intensity, and the police concentrated entirely on Alfred. Nobody even thought to question Eve Rhodes, even though she, too, was present at Enid’s death. Even Alfred failed to think of involving her, probably because he never thought he’d be found guilty. By the time it was evident that he was going to be charged, several months had passed, Eve had left the mill and nobody knew where she had gone to.

“The case went to trial eventually, with the prosecution claiming that Alfred had been adding small amounts of arsenic to Enid’s meals over a period of several weeks until the concentrated levels in her bloodstream reached the fatal level. The jury seemed to be influenced in this by the fact that Enid had changed her diet in recent weeks, adding rice to most meals — rice was known to contain higher levels of arsenic than other foodstuffs. The prosecutor claimed that made it easy for Alfred to add small levels of arsenic and just hope it would be assumed to be the natural level in the rice if anybody analysed the cause of death.

“In his defence, Alfred denied initiating the change to her diet, but was unable to offer a suggestion as to why she had so suddenly altered her eating habits. When pressed on the matter, Alfred said it must have been something to do with somebody at work, but neither the mill-owner nor Enid’s colleagues had any knowledge of this. The prosecution claimed that this was proof that Alfred was trying to deflect suspicion onto somebody else, and this proved to be the final nail in Alfred’s metaphorical coffin.

“Alfred was found guilty of murder and was hanged at Strangeways on March twenty-fifth 1912 — and as we were talking about Crippen before, the hangman, Rochdale’s John Ellis, was the same man who executed Crippen in 1910, and he was also an assistant to Henry Pierrepoint, first of the dynasty of executioners.”

Louise stopped and waited for a response. I picked up the detailed sheets and began skimming through them, more to avoid eye contact with Louise and a possibly difficult question than to glean any more facts. Then a thought struck me.

“So this Eve Rhodes,” I began, “I mean, how come they couldn’t trace her? If she was the only other person present when Enid died, surely it would have been important to find her.”

“So you’d think,” replied Louise, “but remember, this was 1911, and initially there wasn’t any thought of foul play. But, even so, once it became a murder investigation, you would think that they would have made greater efforts to find her. And that is the real point of all of this.” She looked at me and smiled, and I suddenly felt glad that I had been the one to ask the question.

“I don’t understand,” said Gail, and Trish nodded in agreement. “What is the real point of it all?”

“Let me explain,” said Louise. “Alfred had a brother, Ernest, who campaigned unsuccessfully to get the death sentence quashed, and he looked everywhere for Eve. Digging far deeper than the police ever did, he trawled through records and managed to discover that she had come over from Canada — otherwise we wouldn’t even have known that about her. He eventually traced Eve’s parents, Mr and Mrs Haborham, who lived in Montreal. They had no more idea where Eve was than anybody else, but Ernest did manage to find out some interesting details concerning their daughter.

“She had married a man called Anthony Rhodes in 1908 — a lovely man, according to the Haborhams — but the marriage hadn’t worked out. Eve walked out on her husband and baby son a year or two later, leaving Anthony Rhodes distraught and the Haborhams threatening to disown their daughter. This all happened just before the Crippen arrest actually, in the first half of 1910. Not wanted back at her parents’ home, and not prepared to return to her husband and child, Eve seems to have disappeared from Montreal altogether; her parents told Ernest that they never heard another word about her whereabouts.

“Ernest refused to give up, though, and eventually found Eve’s name on a passenger manifest for a sailing from Quebec to England — she travelled on the SS Laurentic, the same ship that was used to intercept Crippen earlier in the year. Perhaps she had heard all about the Crippen case and had decided to travel to England to follow in his footsteps. Nothing was ever proven, of course, but I think there is enough in Ernest’s findings to at least doubt the guilt of Alfred Rodgers and raise questions as to the involvement of Eve Rhodes in the murder.”

Louise stopped and began to collect her papers. “Is that it?” asked an incredulous Mike. “You mean I’ve sat here and listened to your theory on why a murderer shouldn’t have been executed but somebody else should have been? And without a shred of evidence? What a waste of time!”

“There is more to this, much more,” said Louise, “but there isn’t time to go into all of that now. Read the factsheets I handed out, and, as the course progresses, I’m sure it will all become clear. Remember, I’ve been researching this for a long time. I wouldn’t expect you to understand everything in one short session.”

Mike clearly wasn’t interested in debating this further. He picked up his belongings and walked out of the classroom without a word to any of us; Emma trailed in his wake like a faithful lapdog. The remaining five of us looked at each other before executing a group shrug of the shoulders, and we all tidied away in readiness for leaving.

I walked out alongside Gail and Trish, with Debbie following just behind us. “That was interesting,” said Gail. “Do you think that woman did kill Enid or was it her husband after all?”

“It’s impossible to say on that evidence,” said Trish. “Doubtless Louise will have some more to tell us next week, or there might be more details in the handout.”

“I didn’t notice anything specifically in the papers,” I interjected, “although I didn’t have time to read them in full. But I agree, we don’t have enough information at the moment. We’ll have to wait and see what Louise has to say next week.” I turned and addressed Debbie. “What do you think about it all? You’ve been very quiet.”

“I know. Sorry. I suppose I’ve just been considering what I’ve heard, taking it all in. I don’t really have an opinion yet.”

“Well, I for one can’t wait for next week,” I said as I bade farewell to the other three and walked slowly home.

I rang Julie as soon as I arrived back. “You’ll be happy to hear that the course is going to run, so that’s my Tuesday nights sorted for the next few weeks. Now it’s just the other six nights I’ve to worry about.”

“Dad! Honestly, one minute I’m having to fight to get you out of your flat at all, the next it sounds like it’s going to be a job to keep you in at night! So what about the others on the course? Have you made any friends yet?”

“Not the way I think you mean, but, yes, we seem to get on quite well. Changing the subject, you’ll never guess what the topic tonight was.”

“You’re right, I won’t. I don’t do history, Dad.”

“I suppose it was history, but not the way I’d expected it to be. The teacher devoted nearly all tonight to talking about a murder that took place a hundred years ago. It was almost as if I’d enrolled on a criminology course after all.”

“That seems a bit odd for a history class. I thought you were there to learn about Lancashire in olden days.”

“So did I, but I’m not complaining. Besides, it did take place in Lancashire, so it did give us an insight into how life was in the county at that time.”

“And was there anything special about the murder? Is it a well-known case?”

“No, not at all. In fact, on the surface it seemed extremely ordinary, but the teacher seems to think that there might have been a miscarriage of justice all those years ago. I suppose that’s one reason why we looked into it, but it did paint a very vivid picture of early-twentieth-century Manchester.”

“Manchester? But that’s not in Lan—”

“Don’t start, Jules. We had enough of that earlier tonight.”

“You’ve lost me, Dad.”

“Ignore me, love. Anyway, as I was saying, I found it both illuminating and thought-provoking.”

“Ah, I can see you’ll be getting your deerstalker hat out later and studying the evidence.”

“Ha ha. You know I only bought that so we could play games when you and Gary were little. Besides, I know nothing about the case other than what was presented tonight. It’s the teacher who thinks the wrong person might have been executed, but I haven’t heard any pressing evidence to support that conclusion.”

“Whether you have or haven’t, from what you said it sounds like you’re enjoying yourself.”

“Yes, I am. I’m glad I enrolled.”

“Huh! Take the credit, that’s right. Don’t forget I was the one who persuaded you to do it.”

“Yes, but when I told you what course I’d enrolled on, you also said I’d be the only one on it, remember?”

“Okay, you win.”

“Enough about me. How are things with you and Dave? I’m still waiting for that call to say I’m going to be a grandad.”

“And you’ll have to wait a bit longer. There’s plenty of time for a family once I’m more established in my job.”

“I know. I understand your desire to progress up the ladder. Like I said, carry on as you are doing and you’ll soon get that promotion. How is your presentation coming along? Are you still having to work late most nights?”

We chatted for a few more minutes before saying our goodbyes. As I readied myself for bed I had to concede that Julie had been right to badger me into going on this course. This was becoming the most interesting thing I’d done in an age.

Chapter Three

Mike — Monday 3rd October 2011

He put the phone down and smirked. That had told them. It would serve them all right if the entire thing was cancelled. Who did they think they were, treating him like that? He had rights, and he knew it. Without him and Emma, the whole thing would have floundered anyway.

Then he stopped for a moment and thought. Perhaps there was more to be gained from this than he’d considered? There were some rich pickings to be had if he played his cards right. He had listened while those old fools had told everybody their life history; she, in particular, was almost falling over herself to show how large her bank balance was.

He made his decision. He deserved some of that wealth, and he knew how to get it. Emma had already defied him once, telling him she wasn’t going to quit the course whatever he said. Perhaps he’d let her continue with it after all. She would be pliable now, and he could force her to ingratiate herself with her. He couldn’t do it, of course; he wouldn’t lower himself. But she had no say in the matter.

His smirk became a large grin as he began to count the riches that would soon be coming his way. Enrolling on this course wasn’t turning out to be a bad idea after all.

Chapter Four

Week 3 — Ormskirk — Bludgeoning

Tuesday 4th October 2011

I thought about Debbie and Trish constantly over the next week. I also had plenty of time to think about the course itself. I had read the handout from cover to cover, and, although it didn’t shed any more light onto the question of who really killed Enid Rodgers, it intensified my keenness to find out more. I was tempted to go to the reference library and see what details they had about the murder, but I resisted the urge; I felt that I would get more enjoyment by listening to Louise as she revealed the answer.

I arrived early, with only Debbie there before me. As the clock ticked towards seven first Gail and then Trish arrived, but there was no sign of either Mike or Emma. Louise walked in at just after seven and sat on the edge of the front desk. “I’ve had a phone call this week — or rather the department has had a phone call — complaining about this course.”

The four of us looked at each other blankly.

“No, it wasn’t from any of you. It was from Mike, no doubt backed by Emma. Anyway, the end result is that they are no longer in this class.”

I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. Not really wanting to hear the answer, I asked the question anyway: “Does this mean the course is cancelled due to insufficient numbers?”

“Of course not.” Louise laughed. “They’ve paid for the course — well, she paid the full amount, he only paid the reduced rate — but I’d already made the department aware of his rudeness, and they backed me to the hilt. If he hadn’t decided to quit, I think he might have been asked to leave anyway, although I suppose in that case the class might have had to close. Anyway, that didn’t happen, so let’s crack on. I think the five of us are going to get on just fine together.”

No sooner had Louise finished speaking than the door opened, and in walked Emma. We all looked at her, agape, but she either ignored us or didn’t seem to notice as she sat down and took out her notepad.

“I thought you had decided to leave the course,” said Louise, the note of challenge evident in her voice.

Emma’s response came as a surprise to all of us. “I didn’t, Louise. I know he rang in to complain, but that was nothing to do with me. He said I had to drop out as well, and that’s when I finally decided to stand up for myself.” As she spoke she brought her hand up to her face, then, as if she’d realised what she’d done, she quickly lowered it again. I looked at her eyes, and they were red and puffy underneath the make-up that was attempting to mask the discolouration. Had she been crying? “So here I am…if that’s okay?”

I wondered if I’d been wrong in my assessment of her. For the first time, I saw a chink in the armour that she had erected around herself; behind it was a small, lonely girl, and I began to sympathise with her. Emma saw me looking at her and she scowled. Almost as soon as it had appeared her vulnerable appearance had left her, and I wondered if I’d been mistaken. But I didn’t think I had been; those few seconds had been enough to show me that Emma was human after all.

Louise stroked her chin as if deep in thought. After a bare moment’s hesitation, she asked the question that I’m sure was on everybody’s mind. “And what about Mike? Is he likely to turn up as well?”