The Nine Tailors

Later, Wimsey is introduced to Superintendent Blundell, who is officially in charge of the investigation. He offers to share information with the amateur detective, and the two men develop a friendly working rapport.

Wimsey attends the murdered man’s funeral along with everybody else in town. He finds himself wondering what became of the rope used to tie Cranton up but is no closer to solving that mystery when he meets Hilary Thorpe. She has taken an avid interest in the case, and Wimsey admires her imaginative mind, encouraging her aspirations as a writer. Hilary says that her Uncle Edward disapproves of sending her to Oxford for a college education. Since Hilary’s father has just died, Edward is now the girl’s old-fashioned guardian. Wimsey remarks, “It came upon him with a shock that Uncle Edward could not be many years older than himself. He felt for him the apprehensive reverence which one feels for a quaint and brittle piece of antiquity” (139-40). The uncle hustles his niece away from Wimsey and any further discussion of the crime.

Wimsey catches up with Blundell after the funeral and quizzes him about the relationship between the two thieves. The detective tells him that Deacon was the butler at the Thorpe manor, Red House, and was married to Mary, a maid who worked there. Cranton was a con artist from London who knew that Mrs. Wilbraham would be attending her nephew’s wedding. Her emeralds had caught the attention of every thief in the city. Mrs. Wilbraham, an eccentric who doesn’t believe in either insurance or vaults, hid the jewels beneath a chamber pot in her room at Red House.

Mrs. Wilbraham’s maid found this comical and confided the story to Mary Deacon. Mary, in turn, told her husband. Deacon then contacted Cranton to arrange the theft. The plan was that Deacon would toss the necklace out the window to the waiting Cranton. However, Cranton insisted at his trial that all he received was an empty jewel case, meaning that the emeralds were hidden somewhere by Deacon. Since Deacon died shortly after escaping from prison years earlier, nobody knew where the jewels were. Cranton must have come back to search for them before running afoul of a third party.

The next day, Blundell visits the local busybody, Mrs. Gates. She is put out because the wreath she left on Lady Thorpe’s grave was moved the following morning. This indicates that whoever placed Cranton’s body in the same grave did so on the night of January 4 after the funeral.

When Blundell shares this information with Wimsey, he finds the detective busy pursuing another lead regarding the rope used to tie up Cranton. Wimsey concludes that someone dropped it down a well near the church. Using a fishing line, he snags Cranton’s hat and five cut pieces of bell rope, which Blundell takes into evidence so that he can study the knots.

That same afternoon, Blundell calls on the Thoday family and learns that Will was deathly ill during the holidays. Will’s brother Jim, a seaman, was helping at home but has since been called back to his steamer bound for Hong Kong. Will seems upset when Blundell stirs up events from Mary’s past, and he terminates the police interview.

Meanwhile, Wimsey chats with a farm family named Ashton. The couple helped Will home on the night when he became ill. They found him delirious, with his car stranded in a snowdrift. Will was clutching 200 pounds at the time. The Ashtons believe that Lord Henry must have sent him out to do some banking business that day. Mrs. Ashton also mentions that one of the Thoday children claimed to have seen a ghost in the cemetery on the night after Lady Thorpe’s burial. Wimsey realizes that the lights in the churchyard at one in the morning must have been the killer burying his victim. Wimsey shares this information with Blundell. They now know the exact date and time when Cranton was buried.