Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde: Part3

Part Three: The Carew Murder Case

One year passed. Then a terrible murder happened in London. The murder

shocked people because it was very violent, and because the victim was an

important man. Soon everybody was talking about it.

A young servant girl described what had happened. She lived in a house

near the river. She had gone to bed at about eleven o'clock one night. She

could not sleep, and she had got out of bed. She sat near the window for a

long time. She saw an old man who was walking along the street. The old

man had white hair. She also saw another, small man, walking towards the

old man. When the two men met, the old man said something to the small

man. He seemed to be asking a question. The girl could not hear the words

he spoke, but she said that he spoke very politely. Then the girl recognised

the small man. It was Mr Hyde. She knew him because he sometimes came

to the house where she worked, to speak to her employer.

Mr Hyde was carrying a heavy stick in his hand. He did not answer the

old man's question. Suddenly he lifted his stick above his head, and began to

hit the old man with it. He hit him again and again, and the old man fell to

the ground. Then Mr Hyde attacked him where he lay on the ground. The

girl was horrified at the violence of the attack, and she fainted.

It was two o'clock in the morning when the girl woke up from her faint.

She called the police immediately. The murderer had gone, but the old man

was lying in the street. The police found a piece of the murderer's stick in the

street next to the old man's body. When they searched the body, they also

found the old man's wallet and papers, and a letter.

The letter was addressed to Mr Utterson, the lawyer.

The police came to Mr Utterson's house the next morning.

He became very serious when they told him about the murder.

'I want to see the body,' he said. 'I can say nothing until I have seen the

body.'

Mr Utterson went to the police station. The police had carried the body

there.

'Yes,' said Mr Utterson, 'I recognise this man. It is Sir Danvers Carew, the

Member of Parliament. '

'Sir Danvers Carew!' the policeman said. 'Is it possible?' He looked at Mr

Utterson. 'This murder will be famous,' he said.

'Perhaps you can help us to catch the man, Mr Utterson?'

The policeman then told Mr Utterson what the girl had seen. Mr Utterson

was unhappy when he heard the name of Hyde. He asked to look at the piece

of the murderer's stick. He recognised it immediately.

'This Mr Hyde,' he asked the policeman, 'does the girl say that he was a

small man?'

'She says that he is a small, ugly man,' the policeman said.

'Come with me,' Mr Utterson said, 'I'll take you to Mr Hyde's house. I

know where he lives.'

Mr Utterson and the policeman went to the part of the city where Mr Hyde

lived. It was a dirty, poor part of the city.

They knocked on the door of Mr Hyde's house. An old woman with an

evil face opened the door. She told them that Mr Hyde was out. She

explained that Mr Hyde had come in very late the night before. Then he had

gone out again.

'We want to search his rooms,' the lawyer said. 'This man is Inspector

Newcomen of Scotland Yard.'

'What has Mr Hyde done?' the old woman asked. 'Why are the police

looking for him?'

The old woman showed the two men Mr Hyde's rooms.

They were comfortable rooms, with elegant furniture and pictures. The

rooms were untidy, however. They found clothes on the floor, and part of

Mr Hyde's stick behind the door.

There was also part of a cheque-book in the fire-place.

Someone had tried to burn it. Mr Utterson and the inspector went to the

bank. They discovered that Mr Hyde's bank account contained thousands of

pounds.

'We will find him, sir,' the inspector told Mr Utterson. 'He cannot escape

the police. We have the evidence we need. We can prove that he is the

murderer. We have his stick, and we know where his bank is. We will wait

for him to go to the bank. We will put up pictures of him all over the city.'

It was not easy to find pictures of Mr Hyde. He had no family, and he had

no friends. There was no photograph of him anywhere. The people who had

seen him could not describe him.

Everybody agreed that he was small and ugly —but no one could describe

him accurately.

It was late in the afternoon when Mr Utterson arrived at Dr Jekyll's house.

The servant Poole took the lawyer through the main part of the house to the

laboratory. It was the first time that Mr Utterson had been to Dr Jekyll's

laboratory. He looked at the scientific apparatus with curiosity.

'Have you heard the terrible news?' he asked his friend.

Dr Jekyll looked very unhappy.

'Yes,' he said, 'everybody is talking about this murder.'

'Listen to me,' said the lawyer slowly. 'Carew was my client. You are also

my client. I want to understand exactly what has happened. Are you hiding

Mr Hyde?'

'I will never see Hyde again!' the doctor cried. 'I promise you, my friend, I

have finished with that man. But he does not need my help. He has gone,

and no one will find him.'

'You seem very certain,' Mr Utterson said.

'I am certain,' Dr Jekyll told him. 'No one will see Hyde again. But there is

something else. I need your advice. I have received a letter, and I don't know

what to do with it. Will you advise me?'

'Show me this letter,' the lawyer said.

Dr Jekyll gave the lawyer a letter. It was written by Edward Hyde. In his

letter Mr Hyde thanked Dr Jekyll for his friendship. He said that he was

sorry for what he had done, and that he was going away.

'Where is the envelope?' asked Mr Utterson.

'I burnt the envelope,' Dr Jekyll told him, 'but the letter was not posted.

Someone came to the house and left it here.'

'I shall think about the letter,' Mr Utterson said. 'One other thing. Was it

Mr Hyde who made you write the will?'

Dr Jekyll looked at his friend. He said nothing, but he nodded his head.

'I thought it was him!' the lawyer cried. 'He planned to murder you. He

wanted your money.'

When he was leaving the house, Mr Utterson spoke to Poole for a moment.

'Someone came with a letter for Dr Jekyll today,' he said.

'What did the man look like?'

'No one came with a letter, sir,' the servant told him.

'Then the letter arrived at the laboratory, and not at the house,' Mr Utterson

thought. 'That is why Poole did not see the person who left it.'

That evening Mr Utterson sat with Mr Guest, his head-clerk and friend.

'This murder of Sir Danvers Carew is very sad,' the lawyer said.

'It is, indeed,' Mr Guest agreed. 'It is terrible. The man who killed him

must be mad.'

'You are an expert on crime and detection,' Mr Utterson said.

'I have a letter from Mr Hyde. Please look at it, and tell me about the

writer of the letter. Do you think he is really mad?'

Mr Utterson took out Mr Hyde's letter, and passed it to Mr Guest.

Mr Guest studied the letter for a few minutes. Then he said, 'Well, sir, the

writer of this letter is not mad. But his writing is strange. I know this writing,

I am sure I do.'

Mr Guest picked up a letter from Dr Jekyll. He put it next to the letter

from Mr Hyde.

'I thought so!' he cried. 'The same man wrote these two letters —I am sure

of it.'

'I don't think we should talk about this to anyone,' Mr Utterson said.

'No, sir,' Mr Guest agreed. 'I understand.'

When he was alone again, Mr Utterson put the letter from Mr Hyde into

his safe. He was very unhappy.

'Henry Jekyll forged a letter for a murderer!' he thought.

'What have you done, my old friend? And why are you protecting Hyde?'