A Matter of Choice

by DoctorH

A Murdoch Mysteries teleplay, just like a TV episode. Following a brutal murder, Murdoch formulates a plan by which the premeditated crime could have been committed. But the plan seems to require the cooperation of someone whose ethics are beyond reproach; otherwise the plan had to account for choices that could not possibly have been known in advance. Solution included.

3. ACT 3

ACT III

(FADE IN: SHOT OF A BUILDING ON CAMPUS, later in the day. It is clearly a university building, but not clear which one. CUT TO: INTERIOR OF THE BUILDING, PROFESSOR NEWELL'S OFFICE. NEWELL is at his desk, writing. There is a knock [SFX] on the door.)

NEWELL
Come in!

(The door opens, and MURDOCH and CRABTREE enter. NEWELL is a little surprised to see them, and a little irked, but he waves them inside anyway. CRABTREE closes the door.)

MURDOCH
I am sorry to disturb you, Professor, but I had a few more questions.

NEWELL
Fine.

MURDOCH
As I'm sure you are aware, sir, Professor Trenton was killed in a laboratory in Building D. As I understand, that laboratory is typically locked. I was wondering, do you have a key to that laboratory?

NEWELL (promptly)
Yes.

MURDOCH
So you do use that laboratory.

NEWELL
Yes, of course I do! Some of the best scales are in that laboratory, for weighing precise amounts of chemicals or materials. When I need to make precise measurements, I use those scales.

MURDOCH
You do not use the scales in your own department?

NEWELL (grumbling)
The university will not pay for our department to have its own scales. If I need to do some precise measurement, I must use the scales in Building D.

MURDOCH
So you have been in the laboratory where Professor Trenton's body was found.

NEWELL (leaning forward)
I could have guessed that you get around to asking about that. Yes, I have been in that lab. Many times. In fact, I was in there three or four days ago. And I also suspect that you might find my finger marks or whatever you call them, in the lab, if you hadn't found them already. And further, I suppose you already KNEW that I had been in the lab, and that you are asking me to see whether I would foolishly deny it. Well, let me speak plainly: I have been in that lab. But I was not in that lab on the day that Professor Trenton was killed. I was not in the lab, I was not even in the building!

(NEWELL leans back.)

NEWELL
And no one could say otherwise.

MURDOCH
And Mr. Clay supports your story.

NEWELL
As well he should.

(MURDOCH looks at the professor's cane, propped in front of the desk. MURDOCH sees something and goes in for a closer look.)

MURDOCH
May I?

(Without waiting for permission, MURDOCH scrutinizes the head of the cane.)

MURDOCH
There is a small nick or dent in the head of your cane, Professor Newell. It looks like a tooth mark.

NEWELL (getting angry)
You can't prove that!

(MURDOCH stands up and smiles.)

MURDOCH
Perhaps not.

(CUT TO: ESTABLISHING SHOT OF STATION HOUSE NUMBER FOUR, afternoon. CUT TO: INTERIOR OF STATION HOUSE NUMBER FOUR, BRACKENREID'S OFFICE. BRACKENREID sits in his chair, MURDOCH stands.)

MURDOCH
Sir, we still have a ways to go in the investigation. I have asked Constables Crabtree and Higgins to contact some other witnesses, including the other nine student volunteers, to see what can be learned. Having said that, it would seem that there are one or more persons who stand out as our most likely suspects.

BRACKENREID
And they would be?

MURDOCH
Professor Newell, and his associate, Mr. Clay.

BRACKENREID
And why would they be the most likely suspects?

MURDOCH
They have motive. Professor Newell, especially. He had a long-standing grudge against Professor Trenton. Apparently this malice was based upon an incident of academic misconduct committed by Professor Trenton against Professor Newell, for which Professor Trenton escaped punishment.

BRACKENREID
This Professor Clay, what's his motive?

MURDOCH
Mr. Clay is not a professor. He is just a first-year university student who feels out of his element and who is looking to make "friends" who will help him at university.

BRACKENREID (slightly sarcastic)
Clay wants to make "friends" with Newell by killing Newell's enemy?

MURDOCH
We know that Professor Trenton was attacked by two men, at the very least. One of them carried an object of some kind that was used to strike Professor Trenton in the mouth, knocking out one of his teeth. Professor Newell carries a cane, which could have been used for that purpose.

BRACKENREID (unconvinced)
"Could have been used?"

MURDOCH
The cane is wooden, and has a recently-made concave dent or nick in it. When I mentioned to Professor Newell that this dent looked like a tooth mark, he said something strange. He might have said something like, "Oh, I never noticed that before"; or "Oh, that was caused by me dropping the cane." But instead, he said something curious. He said, "You can't prove that!"

BRACKENREID (a little more impressed)
In other words, he didn't deny it.

MURDOCH
And Mr. Clay fits the bill of being the second attacker, a man who is tall and very strong. As I understand, some of the other student volunteers were in good physical shape, but Mr. Clay was exceptionally so. He is big and muscular, and he grew up on a farm.

BRACKENREID
Grew up on a farm? You mean, he became very strong by hauling bushels of oats and slinging bales of hay and the like?

MURDOCH
Yes. And this farm was also a dairy farm.

BRACKENREID
So?

MURDOCH
Whoever attacked Professor Trenton had a very powerful grip. People who work on dairy farms, and who milk cows, tend to develop very strong hands, very powerful grips.

(MURDOCH pantomimes a milking action, squeezing and relaxing his grip.)

BRACKENREID (even more impressed)
And Newell and Clay have no alibis for the time of the crime, do they? Except they each support the other! And they admit they were near the scene of the crime at the time of the crime!

MURDOCH
And Professor Newell even admits he has a key to the laboratory where the crime took place.

BRACKENREID (nodding)
Yes, I'd say that makes them leading suspects, all right!

MURDOCH
There is just one problem.

BRACKENREID (deflated)
What problem?

MURDOCH
As best I can tell, there was only one time when this crime COULD have been committed, and that is the time it WAS committed. At any other time, Professor Trenton would be unlikely to be known to be alone in the laboratory, and Mr. Clay would have no reason to be on campus in the company of Professor Newell.

BRACKENREID
And why is that a problem?

MURDOCH
Because: for Professor Newell and Mr. Clay to commit this crime, they almost certainly conspired in advance.

BRACKENREID
Of course they conspired in advance. I'd find it hard to accept that Professor Newell could spontaneously convince a student— a student he'd never previously met— that he and the student ought to spend a morning committing a murder.

MURDOCH
So, in order for this plan to work, they would have had to conspired in advance to attack Professor Trenton, AND Mr. Clay would HAVE to be paired with Professor Newell. And yet, all of the statements we have so far seem to say that Mr. Clay was assigned to work with Professor Newell by someone else, and not by Professor Newell.

BRACKENREID
In other words, there were ten student volunteers. And any of them could be assigned to Professor Newell. Professor Newell could have been assigned to work with someone other than Clay.

MURDOCH
Yes. And if anyone other than Mr. Clay was assigned to Professor Newell, then the plan could not have gone forward.

BRACKENREID
You say Newell didn't make the selection of his own partner? Who did put Newell and Clay together?

MURDOCH
The consensus seems to be that Reverend Paul Spencer assigned Mr. Clay to Professor Newell; but it was just a matter of random chance. Any other student could just as easily have been assigned to Professor Newell.

BRACKENREID
And if any other student would have been assigned to Newell, then the murder could not have occurred at all. (bothered) Yes, that is a problem. Our case against Newell and Clay is circumstantial enough as it is. This was a premeditated crime. We'd have to show that they conspired ahead of time. They could counter that the only reason they were even together AT ALL was because this Reverend Spencer put them together.

MURDOCH
Yes.

BRACKENREID
If putting Newell and Clay together was truly random, that means they couldn't have planned the crime. They couldn't have participated in a premeditated murder.

MURDOCH
That would be one reasonable conclusion, sir.

BRACKENREID (harrumphing)
Maybe this Reverend Spencer was in on it as well.

MURDOCH (very skeptical)
He was part of the conspiracy? I doubt—

BRACKENREID
Have your talked to this Reverend Spencer yet?

MURDOCH
Not yet.

BRACKENREID
You better talk to him. Even if he wasn't in on it, I'll wager it wasn't a random thing. I'll wager that Newell told Spencer that he wanted Clay as his partner, and Spencer obliged him.

(CUT TO: SHOT OF A BUILDING ON CAMPUS, morning. The building may appear to have religious decoration in addition to an academic appearance. CUT TO: INTERIOR OF THE BUILDING, A SITTING AREA. REVEREND SPENCER sits in his wheelchair next to a table, on which there is a teacup. MURDOCH and CRABTREE sit in chairs nearby.)

SPENCER
This use of student volunteers shortly before term: yes, that was my idea. There always seem to be last-minute jobs to complete. In the past, I asked for volunteers by writing to alumnae whose children are now going to university, and by putting up notices in the student commons.

MURDOCH
This year, you attracted ten student volunteers. Is that typical?

SPENCER (gesturing indifferently)
Yes, I'd say so.

MURDOCH
How long have you been involved with this volunteer project?

SPENCER
Oh, it must be twenty, thirty years now. But I don't do it anymore. Professor Marcus Newell took over my duties three years ago. Professor Newell creates a list of tasks that need to be done.

MURDOCH
I understand that you still come out to meet the student volunteers?

SPENCER
Yes, to meet them, and to thank them, and to tell them that I will treat them to lunch.

MURDOCH
As you did earlier this week.

SPENCER
Yes.

MURDOCH
Who assigns which students perform which tasks?

SPENCER
Professor Newell does.

(MURDOCH thinks this is significant.)

SPENCER (continuing)
But earlier this week, I made the assignments. Professor Newell did not make them.

(MURDOCH is suddenly less impressed with the significance.)

MURDOCH (making sure he understood)
Professor Newell did not assign any student to a task? You made all of the assignments?

SPENCER
That is exactly right.

MURDOCH
Did Professor Newell in any way urge you or suggest to you how the assignments ought to be made?

SPENCER
No.

MURDOCH
Did Professor Newell say anything to you about what student volunteer might be best suited for a particular task?

SPENCER
No. It was entirely up to me.

MURDOCH
One of the assignments was to serve as an assistant to Professor Newell. Did Professor Newell ask you to assign a particular person to him?

SPENCER
Certainly not.

MURDOCH
Did Professor Newell SUGGEST that any particular person be assigned?

SPENCER (becoming irritated)
No. No! It was entirely left to my discretion.

MURDOCH
I understand that you assigned a student named Robert Clay to work with Professor Newell.

SPENCER
Yes.

MURDOCH
Would it be your testimony, Reverend, that you could have just as easily assigned a student other than Mr. Clay to assist Professor Newell?

SPENCER (a bit surprised, and a little offended)
My "testimony?" Do you mean, would I testify to such a thing under oath, before God? Most certainly I would! It was my choice as to who did what task. It was no one else's choice. You seem to be trying— for some reason— to get me to say that Professor Newell made the assignments, or that he requested or suggested the assignments. No such thing occurred! It was all my choice. (grumbling) I'm not senile! Not yet, anyway. I don't much care for any insinuation that I don't remember things or that I do only what I'm told.

MURDOCH (shocked that he caused offense)
My sincere apologies, Reverend. I was simply trying to confirm what the facts are.

SPENCER
And the facts are, Detective, that Professor Marc Newell let me do the choosing.

(MURDOCH nods and smiles, as if accepting what SPENCER said. FADE OUT.)