Blackmail explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Deception and Secrecy

  Domlio's initial lies about the locket and his secret meetings with Mrs. Berlyn highlight the theme of concealment.

• Blackmail

  The anonymous letter demanding £50 for a photograph of Domlio and Mrs. Berlyn drives the plot forward.

• Justice and Truth

  French's methodical investigation and the pumping of the well represent the pursuit of truth despite obstacles.

Characters to notice

• Inspector French

  Leads the investigation, confronts Domlio, and arranges to pump the well.

• Colonel Domlio

  Suspect in the murder; admits to lying about his whereabouts to protect Mrs. Berlyn, reveals blackmail letter.

• Sergeant Daw

  Assists French in obtaining a pump and preparing to drain the well.

• Mrs. Berlyn

  Mentioned as the woman Domlio was trying to protect from scandal; had been meeting with Domlio for entomology.

• Stanley Pyke

  Victim; his coat was recovered from the well.

• Coombe

  Present at the well when police begin pumping.

Key passages

• “Seven separate facts pointed to his guilt. French ran over them in his mind: Domlio had the necessary qualifications for partnership in the crime. He knew the dramatis personae and he was acquainted with the works. He could have ordered the duplicator, and arranged for Berlyn and Pyke to visit Tavistock on the night in question. He was out in his car on that night at the time and for the distance required. He had denied this. When cornered he had told a false story of a search for a lost locket. The clothes of the dead man had been found in the very place where French imagined Domlio would have hidden them. There was a quite adequate motive if, as might well be, Domlio was really attached to Mrs. Berlyn.”

  French lists seven circumstantial points linking Domlio to the murder: his knowledge of the people and works, ability to order the duplicator, presence on the night, false alibi, and discovery of the victim's clothes in a place Domlio might have chosen.

  French's internal summary of evidence against Domlio.

• “About—let me see—four months before the tragedy Mrs. Berlyn came out here one afternoon. She said that she had been in London to a lecture on entomology and that she had been so much interested that she had read one or two books on the subject. She said that she knew I was doing some research in it and she wondered whether I would let her come and help me and so learn more.”

  Domlio explains that Mrs. Berlyn began visiting him four months before the murder to assist with his entomological research, after attending a lecture in London.

  Domlio's account of how his relationship with Mrs. Berlyn began.

• “On that morning I had received by post a letter addressed in a strange hand and marked 'Personal.' It was signed 'X.Y.Z.' and said that the writer happened to be walking about four p.m. on the previous Tuesday in the Upper Merton glen at a certain point which he described; that he had seen me with Mrs. Berlyn in my arms; that, having a camera, he had at once taken two photographs, one of which had come out; and that if I cared to have the negative he would sell it for fifty pounds.”

  Domlio reveals he received a blackmail letter from someone calling themselves X.Y.Z., claiming to have photographed him embracing Mrs. Berlyn and offering to sell the negative for £50.

  The blackmail letter that prompted Domlio's secretive behavior.