|
|
|
The Great Moghul
Interview CD
That’s right, and I couldn’t sleep a wink with worrying,
imagining - well I didn’t know what that Percy had been knocked
down in the blackout or something. Anyway the next morning early,
I had this telephone call from the police. They’d found him .
. . . . . but he was dead. In Leeds, the station, on the train from Bristol. Yes, and I just couldn’t understand it. I thought he meant
Puxton I kept on saying Puxton station, Puxton. But no, it was
Leeds Station he said. They’d found him in the lavatory on the
train. They thought at first that he’d fainted but he was dead.
It was his heart. That’s what they said. He was only 34. He had a weak heart,
they said, from the TB. That’s what no one knows. Of course they tried to make
out he was running off with the ruby but Percy would never do
that, he’d have never left me for a start. Well, he didn’t have one. I just don’t know. Gone. Disappeared. And I said to them if he’d been running
off with the ruby, where was it then, for it wasn’t found on him. As I told them at the time, I have no idea. They searched
all over our cottage, and the garden but there was no sign. The police. And the people working for Sir Roger. He was
in a great taking, of course. Shocked by Percy’s death, yes, but
shattered too by the loss of the stone so he had all sorts of
people making enquiries. They tried to make out I was in it with him that I was
going to run off to join him but it was plainly untrue. It was
obvious I didn’t know anything about the ruby, for Percy hadn’t
even told me what he was doing that day. Never, as far as I know. Once the coroner said that Percy
had died from natural causes, the police weren’t interested anymore.
The war was on and they had their hands full. As far as they were
concerned, Percy was running off with the stone, which he’d then
hidden somewhere, or it possibly it had been stolen from him after
his death. He had family in Scotland, of course, where the Elgins
came from originally, but not Leeds, no. That’s right. It was locked from the inside. They had
to get a key to open it which is why nobody found him until they
were clearing the carriages. No, but I think they just couldn’t be bothered with it
all. Oh yes, he did, as I said, He had his own people asking
questions and running about but all that stopped soon after. In just a few days news arrived from France that Sir Roger
and Lady Dyall's son Freddie, he was their only son, had been
killed. The Normandy landings. Well, after that Sir Roger was
quite broken up, you know, and he gave up any search for the Great
Moghul. Well, everyone thought that, of course, but no one said
it. Well, of course, I had to move way from Great Dyall. Percy’s
funeral was in Taunton at his parents, and after that I went back
to my parents too for a bit while I got myself sorted out. But
I heard that the Dyall family fell on hard times after that. They
never went back to London, just stayed on the estate, like in
mourning you know. The house in Manchester Square was sold shortly
after the war and is now flats I believe. Sir Roger was a shadow
of himself and died in the early 60’s. When her husband died, Great Dyall was put on the market
and became a school for a while. I heard said Lady Dyall moved
into a hotel in Weston-super-Mare and died there sometime in the
70’s. Oh no. That didn’t last. The school closed in the late
70’s and house was knocked down and the grounds developed with
housing for Weston. It’s all gone, even our cottage. Oh it was. We were so happy there before all this happened
and that horrible ruby came along. They were the happiest days
of my life you know … Before all that ………….. Your Great Uncle was an honest
man, John, he was not a thief. Oh but they do. That’s what’s always been said, but it
isn’t true and I should have done more to clear his name when
I could. I am old woman now, and I’ve not long to go I know. No, I haven’t and that’s the point. I shall meet up with
Percy soon and he’s going to ask me what I did to stand up for
him after he was gone, when he couldn’t stand up for himself.
And I didn’t do enough which is why I want us to put it right
now. Yes, me and you. I’ve no one as you know and you’re the
nearest I’ve got and I want you to help me…please. You can find the Great Moghul. If that ruby is found,
then everyone will know my Percy is innocent. Yes, but I would. There’s people you could talk to, still
alive, who remember what happened. You see I’ve been thinking
I can’t do much else now I’m stuck here and the more I think
about it the more I think something happened that day to explain
the disappearance of the stone. Fetch me that cardboard box, will
you, on the side. Yes, that’s the one. Now, I had most of his clothes back
soon after, his keys, watch, you know, and his wallet with a bit
of money in it. And apart from his hanky which never showed up,
I thought that was it. That’s as maybe, but Percy was very particular about his
handkerchief. I’d given him them, with his initials on and everything,
so I reckon it was one of those station people took it. Anyway, you open that box. That lot then turned up, oh
weeks later, after the funeral. It’s all stuff the police found
in Percy’s pockets after he died. They’d been put to one side,
I suppose, and overlooked. Yes, I do. And I don’t think the police ever properly
looked at them. I know I was too upset to think about them at
the time there was nothing of value so I just kept them in
this box, along with some other stuff about his death like the
newspaper cuttings. Yes, they’re from one of the Bristol papers. Oh no. Sir Roger was keen to keep the whole thing quiet,
you know. Yes, that’s him, a bit younger maybe. We had it taken
for our engagement. Well, I recognise his little notebook of course but the
rest of it I don’t know what to think. Oh no, it wasn’t his thing at all. And I can’t imagine
what he was doing because he’d never have had time to see a whole
show anyway before his train was leaving. If it wasn’t for the
manager I would have said it was just something he picked up somewhere. At the box-office. It came out at the inquest that he
recognised Percy when the police showed him that photograph. He
remembered him especially because he arrived sometime after 4’o’clock,
nearly at the end of the matinee. And he was followed shortly
after by another man too. Yes, that’s what was said. He remembered especially because
Percy then left on his own in a great hurry about ten minutes
later, and the other fellow a few minutes after that. And he asked
the doorman which way Percy had gone, and then he set off after
him towards Queen Square. I don’t know. I didn’t hear anything more. Not at the time, no. Except, well, there was Sir Roger’s
hat which turned up a lot later on. Just an ordinary grey trilby. I don’t think it’s got anything
to do with anything, really. It had been left in the theatre,
and when they were having a turn out of all the lost property,
all those umbrellas, you know, they recognised the name inside
and sent it back. But the funny thing was that Sir Roger couldn’t
remember the last time he’d been to the theatre at Bristol. Still
he really wasn’t himself by then, you know, he was that upset
about his boy so you can’t read much into that. Of course it’s not a theatre anymore, it was turned into
a bar . . . oh . . . ten years ago, I should say, so I am sure
we’d have heard if anything had ever turned up. Oh yes. You couldn’t get from Puxton and Worle to London
direct. You’d change at Bristol for the express to Paddington.
The same thing on the way back. Yes, it’s the return half. Percy had pills for his heart, but these don’t look like
them. I couldn’t say what they are. They’re all a mystery to me. Percy was neat man, always
tidy and smart. I can’t see him picking up bits and bobs like
that unless there was a reason. That’s right. That came later. It must have been a couple
of days after I’d heard the news and then this dropped through
the letterbox. Well, it doesn’t say so and why didn’t he telephone then?
The whole thing makes no sense. Anyway, I kept it like he said. Now look. Percy was an honest, trustworthy man. I’ll never
believe he stole that ruby so something must have happened. I
believe that there were others after it like I said, maybe someone
Sir Roger had shown it too. Maybe Percy had to hide the stone
away somewhere to keep it safe, intending to go back for it later
except he couldn’t. Nothing makes any sense what was he doing at the theatre,
and on a train to Leeds otherwise, except trying to get away maybe.
Somewhere in all this stuff there are clues to where that ruby
is now. You find it, John, and then Percy’s name will be cleared. Not think. I‘ve done nothing but think. You promise me
you’ll do something…. Don’t forget you promised, will you? Yes, I don’t feel
so good now……. Not right now, I think that’s all I can tell you.
|
|
| Interview 1 Interview 2 Interview 3 Interview 4 |