Report of Post-Mortem Examination

Deceased: Mr Solomon Grice, aged 60 years Date of Examination: 18th April 1878 Place of Examination: The mortuary of Guy's Hospital, Southwark Surgeon: Mr George Milner, MRCS, LSA, of Jamaica Road, Rotherhithe

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External Appearance

The body is that of a stout, well-nourished gentleman of sixty years, approximately five feet seven inches in height. The complexion is sallow. Rigor mortis has passed. The features show evidence of considerable suffering before death: the mouth is drawn, the brow contracted, and the skin about the lips and fingertips exhibits a faint bluish discolouration.

The deceased is dressed in a brown frock coat, grey waistcoat, white shirt with starched collar, dark trousers, and leather boots. The front of the waistcoat and the blotter on the desk where the body was found bear dried traces of vomitus, yellowish-green in colour.

The hands are clean. The fingernails are trimmed and show no marks of scratching or struggle. No bruising is present on any part of the body. No wounds, no abrasions, no marks of restraint.

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Internal Examination

The stomach contains approximately two fluid ounces of partially digested food consistent with a cold meat meal taken some hours before death, and a quantity of liquid consistent with tea. The stomach lining is markedly inflamed: the mucous membrane is reddened, swollen, and shows patches of haemorrhage, particularly in the fundus and along the greater curvature. This inflammation is characteristic of an irritant poison.

The small intestine displays similar irritation in the upper portions.

The liver is slightly enlarged and congested but not diseased. The kidneys show early congestion. The heart is enlarged, consistent with the deceased's stoutness, and there is moderate thickening of the aortic valve, but these conditions are not the cause of death. The lungs are congested but otherwise unremarkable.

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Chemical Analysis

I submitted the stomach contents, a portion of the liver, and one kidney to Mr Frederick Abel of the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, for chemical analysis.

Mr Abel reports the detection of white arsenic (arsenious oxide) in the stomach contents and in the liver tissue. The quantity recovered from the stomach contents alone is estimated at approximately three grains. Given that a portion has already been absorbed into the tissues, the total dose administered was likely between four and six grains. A lethal dose for an adult is generally considered to be two grains or more.

The remaining tea in the cup found on the deceased's desk was also submitted. White arsenic was detected in the tea. The tea leaves in the deceased's caddy were separately tested. No arsenic was detected in the caddy.

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Items Recovered

1. A gold pocket watch and chain, the chain bearing a small brass key (identified as the key to the deceased's tea caddy)
2. A leather pocket book containing business cards and three pounds, twelve shillings in notes and coin
3. A linen handkerchief
4. A ring of two keys (identified as the keys to his private office and to the warehouse stores)

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Opinion

Death resulted from arsenical poisoning. The quantity of arsenic recovered is consistent with a single lethal dose administered in the tea found on the deceased's desk. The inflamed condition of the stomach lining, the congestion of the liver and kidneys, and the symptoms described by those who found the deceased (vomiting, pallor, collapse) are all consistent with acute arsenic poisoning.

The arsenic was present in the prepared tea but not in the tea caddy from which the leaves were taken. The poison was therefore introduced into the cup after the tea was brewed, not into the dry tea supply.

I estimate that death occurred between approximately four o'clock and half past four on the afternoon of Wednesday the 17th of April, consistent with the ingestion of arsenic in tea taken at or shortly after four o'clock.

I am satisfied that this death was not natural and not self-inflicted.

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George Milner, MRCS, LSA 18th April 1878

Case Notes: Death of Mr Solomon Grice

Inspector Henry Crewe, Metropolitan Police, M Division (Southwark) Notes compiled 18th-21st April 1878

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Arrived at the premises of Grice and Hartwell, tea importers, Rotherhithe waterfront, at ten o'clock on Thursday morning. A large brick warehouse of three storeys fronting the river, with a counting house and private offices on the first floor, reached by an external stone staircase from the yard. The warehouse below smells of tea and tar. The Thames is at low tide and the mud stinks. A dead cat was lodged against the river stairs. I mention this only because I stepped on it.

Mr Grice was found dead at his desk by the junior clerk, Thomas Ridley, at a quarter past five on Wednesday afternoon. The doctor, Milner, says arsenic. The chemical man at Woolwich confirms it. Arsenic in the tea cup, not in the caddy. Somebody put poison in Solomon Grice's tea while the cup sat on his desk. The cup was there, unattended, for a good fifteen minutes while Grice was on the warehouse floor inspecting water-damaged chests. The office door was unlocked. In Rotherhithe, of all places, where there are simpler ways to die.

The rat poison in the warehouse stores is Harrison's Vermin Destroyer, plainly labelled as containing white arsenic. The tin has been recently opened and a quantity is missing. The stores cupboard is locked. Three keys exist: Grice had one, Hartwell has one, and Pennock the head clerk has the third. All three keys are accounted for. The padlock shows no sign of forcing. Captain Morrow, I note, has no key. A locked cupboard with three keys is not a particularly locked cupboard, but it is locked enough to exclude a man without one.

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Persons of Interest

Captain James Morrow, 45. Master of the barque Dorado.

The first name anyone mentions, and they mention it with relish. Morrow carries tea from Canton for the firm. Grice discovered he had been smuggling opium in the tea chests and confronted him on Tuesday. Two warehousemen, Coote and Briggs, heard Morrow shout, "I'll see you in Hell before I let you ruin me." Grice told him the contract was terminated and he would report the smuggling to the Custom House. One might have expected Morrow to lower his voice. One would have been disappointed.

Morrow was in the warehouse on Wednesday. He came ashore at three o'clock to collect his sailing orders. But he did not leave. At about five past four, Pennock saw him going toward the offices. Morrow admits it. He says he went upstairs to Grice's office to make one last appeal about the Custom House report. Found the office empty. Left a note on the desk asking Grice to reconsider. The note has been recovered. It reads: "Mr Grice, I ask you to reconsider the matter of the Custom House. I have a family. J. Morrow." A plea, not a threat.

He was alone in that office with the teacup. He admits it. He had the strongest motive, the loudest threat, and the clearest opportunity. If this case were a play, the audience would have their man before the interval.

But. Morrow has no key to the stores cupboard. The padlock was not forced. The arsenic in Grice's cup matches Harrison's Vermin Destroyer from that cupboard. A phial of white powder was found in Morrow's cabin. I had it tested. Quinine, not arsenic. For the malaria, he says. Possible. Also convenient. But quinine is not arsenic, and the absence of a key is the absence of a key. A man who cannot open the cupboard cannot take what is inside it.

I want Morrow to be the answer. He is the obvious answer. But poison is not a sailor's weapon. A sailor reaches for a knife or his fists, not a teaspoon. And a man without a key to the poison is a man without the poison.

Mrs Constance Grice, 52. Wife of the deceased.

Grice changed his will five days before his death. The old will left everything to his wife. The new will leaves the estate to the Foundling Hospital. Twenty-eight years of marriage and the man leaves his fortune to orphans. Mrs Grice learned of the change on Monday the 15th. On Friday the 12th, the day the will was signed, she visited the warehouse and argued with her husband in his office. The clerks heard raised voices. One imagines the clerks hear a great deal and enjoy all of it.

She says she was at home in Camberwell all Wednesday afternoon. The cook, Mrs Boyle, and the housemaid, Annie Fleet, both confirm she did not leave the house. Camberwell is over two miles from Rotherhithe. If the servants are truthful, she could not have been at the warehouse.

The will gives her a powerful motive. She stands to lose everything. But if she did not leave Camberwell, she did not poison the tea. Unless she had an accomplice, and Mrs Grice does not strike me as a woman who delegates.

Walter Pennock, 34. Head clerk.

Eleven years with the firm. Keeps the books, manages the counting house, handles the post. A careful, precise sort of man. The kind who sharpens his pencils to a point you could lance a boil with. He is the one who prepares Mr Grice's afternoon tea every day. Knows the routine to the minute. On Wednesday, he made the tea as usual at four o'clock, brewed it in the pantry, and delivered the cup to Grice's desk. Nothing out of the ordinary, he says. He has done it a thousand times.

He has a key to the stores where the rat poison is kept. He made the tea and carried the cup. If the poison was added during preparation, Pennock had the best opportunity of anyone. The arsenic could have gone into the cup in the pantry and no one would have seen it.

There is a difficulty with the books. A page has been torn from the petty cash ledger for Wednesday the 17th. Pennock says he does not know how it happened. He says things tear. I have been a policeman for nineteen years and I have seen a good deal of paper. It does not tear itself from a bound ledger. Paper is patient. Paper waits to be torn.

Grice had ordered an audit of the firm's accounts to begin on Thursday the 18th. If Pennock has been dipping into the till, the audit would find it. He had a key to the stores. He made and delivered the tea. And the missing ledger page troubles me. A man who tears pages from ledgers is hiding something. The question is what.

Mr Nathaniel Hartwell, 38. Junior partner.

Son of the late Mr Arthur Hartwell, one of the firm's founders. Has been Grice's partner for fourteen years. A pleasant, well-spoken man who seems to take the death hard. He has been cooperative throughout, answering every question fully and volunteering information I did not ask for. He told me about Morrow's smuggling. He mentioned Mrs Grice's visit on Friday and the argument. He is, in short, the most helpful person in this building, which either speaks well of his character or means he is steering me somewhere he would like me to go. I see no reason to suppose the latter.

Hartwell says he went to Grice's office at about ten past four to leave the Dorado cargo insurance papers on the desk. Found the office empty. Left the papers and returned to his own office. Sat there with the door open. The clerks confirm his door was open. A minor errand, nothing remarkable.

He says he heard Grice call out at approximately forty past four but thought he was speaking to someone through the window. He says he did not investigate. A man hears his partner of fourteen years cry out and thinks nothing of it. Perhaps that is normal in tea importing. In police work it would draw a raised eyebrow.

Hartwell has a key to the stores, as does Pennock. He was in the empty office with the teacup, as was Morrow. But he is the least suspicious of the four. He had no apparent quarrel with Grice, no threat on the record, no damning evidence pointing his way. I am noting him for completeness.

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Key Questions

1. Morrow was alone with the cup. But can a man without a key to the stores obtain the arsenic? Was there another source of poison in the building?
2. Mrs Grice's servants. Are the cook and housemaid reliable, or would they cover for their mistress?
3. The torn ledger page. What was Pennock concealing? A man does not destroy his employer's records for the pleasure of it.
4. Pennock made the tea. Was the poison added in the pantry, or on the desk? The arsenic traces near the coaster suggest the desk, but I cannot yet be certain.
5. The stores cupboard. Three keys. Which one was used to open the rat poison?

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Next Steps

• Investigate Morrow's opium trade. Contact the Custom House and speak to his crew separately. Separately being the important word.
• Make enquiries in Camberwell about Mrs Grice. Speak to the servants without her present.
• Examine the petty cash records in detail. Bring in a qualified accountant.
• Interview the tea broker Jessop, who Hartwell mentions in passing as a regular visitor to the warehouse.
• Determine whether the arsenic traces on the desk mean the poison was added there, not in the pantry.

Morrow was in the office with the cup. Pennock made the tea and had a key to the stores. Both had the opportunity, but only one had the means, and the other cannot account for the torn ledger page. I shall continue.

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H. Crewe, Inspector Metropolitan Police, M Division 21st April 1878

Police Examination of the Scene

Case: Death of Mr Solomon Grice, Grice and Hartwell, Tea Importers, Rotherhithe Date of Examination: 18th April 1878 Examining Officer: Inspector H. Crewe, Metropolitan Police, M Division Assisting: Police Constable D. Oakley, M Division

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Mr Grice's Private Office

A first-floor room at the front of the building, approximately fourteen feet by ten, overlooking the river. One window, a sash, facing north toward the Thames. The window was found closed and latched on the afternoon of the 17th of April. The room is heated by a small coal fire. The door opens inward from the corridor and was closed when Mr Ridley entered at a quarter past five.

The desk: A large mahogany desk facing the window. Mr Grice was found slumped forward across the blotter, his right arm extended, his left arm hanging by his side. A teacup containing approximately one inch of cold tea sat on a leather coaster to the right of the blotter. Dried vomitus covered the blotter, the front of the deceased's waistcoat, and a small area of the carpet beneath the chair. Papers and correspondence were on the desk, including insurance documents relating to the Dorado cargo and a handwritten note (see below). An inkwell and two pens. A brass letter opener.

The teacup: A white china cup with a blue rim, Wedgwood pattern. Contained approximately one fluid ounce of cold tea and traces of dissolved sugar. A sample was submitted for chemical analysis. White arsenic was detected in the tea.

Arsenic traces on the desk: On close examination, faint traces of white powder were observed on the desk surface near the leather coaster, approximately one inch from the cup's resting position. The powder was scraped and submitted for analysis. White arsenic confirmed. The traces are consistent with a small quantity of arsenic having been spilled while being added to the cup on the desk.

The tea caddy: A rosewood caddy with brass fittings, kept on a shelf above the fireplace. The caddy is fitted with a lock. The key was found on the deceased's watch chain. The caddy was opened in the presence of Inspector Crewe and found to contain approximately four ounces of blended tea. A sample was submitted for chemical analysis. No arsenic was detected.

Handwritten note: A folded piece of paper found among the documents on the desk, in a hand identified as Captain Morrow's. The note reads: "Mr Grice, I ask you to reconsider the matter of the Custom House. I have a family. J. Morrow." The note was not present on the desk when Mr Pennock delivered the tea at four o'clock. It was placed there while Mr Grice was absent from his office.

The poison was in the cup, not in the caddy. Whoever introduced the arsenic did so after the tea was brewed. The traces on the desk, near the coaster, indicate the poison was added to the cup while it sat on the desk, not during preparation in the pantry.

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The Pantry

A small room, approximately six feet by eight, off the corridor between the counting house and the private offices. Contains a shelf, a spirit lamp and kettle, a stone sink with a single tap, and a set of cups and saucers. The tea tin (used for the daily measure of tea taken from the caddy each morning) was on the shelf beside the kettle.

The tea tin: Examined. Contains loose tea. No arsenic detected.

The shelf: A slate shelf running the length of the room. Examined for traces of powder or contamination. No arsenic detected. The pantry shows no sign of having been used to prepare or handle poison.

The pantry is accessible from the corridor. It has no lock. Any person walking along the corridor between the counting house and the offices could enter the pantry without being observed from either room, provided both doors were closed.

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The Warehouse Stores

A locked cupboard on the ground floor of the warehouse, at the rear of the building. The cupboard is approximately four feet wide and six feet tall, secured with a padlock. Three keys exist: one was held by Mr Grice (recovered from his person), one by Mr Hartwell, and one by Mr Pennock.

The cupboard contains naphtha, turpentine, brushes, lamp oil, and one tin of Harrison's Vermin Destroyer. The tin is printed with the words: "CAUTION: CONTAINS WHITE ARSENIC. POISON." The tin was approximately half full when examined. Mr Pennock states the tin was near full when he last used it in early March to lay poison on the ground floor. A noticeable quantity is missing.

The padlock shows no sign of forcing. The cupboard was opened with a key. Captain Morrow confirms he has no key to this cupboard.

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The Counting House

A large room on the first floor, at the rear of the building, overlooking the yard. The counting house contains two desks, a tall clerk's stool, a table, and shelving for ledgers and files. Mr Pennock and Mr Ridley work here.

From the counting house, the corridor is visible through the open doorway. Mr Hartwell's office is at the far end of the corridor, approximately twenty feet away, and its door is visible from the counting house when open. Mr Grice's office is midway along the corridor on the left. The office door is not visible from the counting house; only the section of corridor in front of it can be seen.

The petty cash ledger for April 1878 was examined. The page for Wednesday the 17th of April has been torn out. The stub of the page remains in the binding. Mr Pennock states he does not know how this occurred.

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Sound Test

At Inspector Crewe's request, on the 19th of April, PC Oakley stood in Mr Hartwell's office with the door open while Inspector Crewe stood in Mr Grice's office with the door closed.

Test 1: Inspector Crewe spoke in a normal voice. Not audible from Mr Hartwell's office. Test 2: Inspector Crewe raised his voice to a shout. Faintly audible from Mr Hartwell's office, but indistinct. No words could be made out. Test 3: Inspector Crewe called out with the force of an exclamation. Faintly audible from Mr Hartwell's office as a muffled sound. Not identifiable as a voice without prior knowledge.

Test 4: Inspector Crewe called out from Mr Grice's office with the office door closed, while PC Oakley stood in the corridor directly outside. The call was clearly audible at a distance of three feet from the door.

Mr Hartwell states he heard Mr Grice "call out" at approximately forty minutes past four. The sound tests indicate that this call, with Grice's door closed, would not be clearly audible from Hartwell's office. It would, however, be clearly audible to a person standing in the corridor outside Grice's door.

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Summary

1. The arsenic was in the prepared cup, not in the caddy or the tea tin. Traces of arsenic on the desk near the coaster indicate the poison was added to the cup after it was placed on the desk.
2. The pantry, where the tea was prepared, shows no traces of arsenic.
3. The rat poison tin in the locked stores has been recently depleted. Three keys exist. The padlock was not forced.
4. Captain Morrow's note was found on the desk, confirming he was in the office while Mr Grice was absent.
5. A torn page is missing from the petty cash ledger for the day of the death.
6. Mr Hartwell's claim to have heard Mr Grice call out from his own office is not supported by the sound test. The call would be clearly audible only from the corridor outside Mr Grice's door.

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H. Crewe, Inspector Metropolitan Police, M Division 21st April 1878

Statement of Mrs Constance Grice

Taken at 14 Addington Square, Camberwell, on the 19th day of April 1878, by Inspector H. Crewe.

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My husband and I were married in 1850 at St Giles, Camberwell. I was twenty-four. He was thirty-two and already in the tea trade, though in a small way then. A rented desk in a broker's office on Mincing Lane and one half-share in a shipment of Congou. Mr Hartwell, the elder Mr Hartwell, joined him the following year and they took the premises at Rotherhithe in 1856. I watched the business grow from nothing to what it is now. I do not say this to claim credit. I say it so you understand that I was there from the beginning, and that counts for something. Or it should have done.

We have no children. I mention this because you will wish to know the state of things between us, and it is relevant to the will. My husband was a man of business before he was anything else. He worked six days a week. He rose at six, breakfasted at half past, and was at the warehouse by half past eight. He came home at seven. After supper he read the shipping news and retired at ten. On Sundays he attended church and read. That was our life for twenty-eight years. I do not tell you this to invite your sympathy, Inspector. I tell you because you asked me to describe my husband, and that is my description.

I visited the warehouse on Friday the 12th of April. I had been to the solicitor, Mr Chepstow, on a matter of the household accounts, and Chepstow let slip that Solomon had been to see him that morning about a new will. He did not tell me the contents. I went to the warehouse and asked my husband directly.

Solomon was not forthcoming. He said he had revised his testamentary arrangements and it was not a matter for discussion. I pressed him. He asked me to leave. I dare say our voices were raised. The clerks may have heard something, but I cannot say what they made of it.

On Monday the 15th I received a letter from Mr Chepstow, sent at my husband's instruction, informing me that the new will left the bulk of the estate to the Foundling Hospital. The house in Camberwell and a small annuity were to be mine. Everything else, including his share of the firm, went to the Hospital.

I will not pretend this was welcome news. Twenty-eight years of marriage and a man leaves his fortune to strangers. I sat in this room and read the letter three times to be sure I had understood it. I had understood it perfectly the first time.

I did not poison my husband, Inspector. I did not leave this house on Wednesday. Mrs Boyle, my cook, was in the kitchen from ten in the morning until six in the evening. Annie Fleet, the housemaid, was about the house all day. They will both tell you I was here. You may question them separately. You may question them in Mandarin for all I care. The answer will be the same.

I have not been to the warehouse since Friday. I have not been near Rotherhithe. Camberwell is a long way from the river, Inspector, and I do not own a carriage.

I do not know who killed Solomon. I know he was not an easy man. He made enemies in business because he expected honesty and punished those who fell short. Captain Morrow had cause to hate him, if what I hear is true about the smuggling. Mr Pennock, the clerk, was always too obsequious for my taste. Those who bow lowest are often concealing something. And Mr Hartwell, for all his pleasant manners, has lived in Solomon's shadow for fourteen years. I have sometimes wondered how long a proud young man can bear that before he breaks.

But these are only a wife's observations. I have nothing more to offer you.

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Statement concluded. Signed: C. Grice Witnessed: H. Crewe, Inspector

Statement of Mr Nathaniel Hartwell

Taken at the offices of Grice and Hartwell, Rotherhithe, on the 18th day of April 1878, by Inspector H. Crewe.

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Solomon Grice was my father's partner and my own for fourteen years. My father, Arthur Hartwell, co-founded the firm with Mr Grice in 1851. When my father died in 1864, I was twenty-four and had been working in the warehouse since leaving school. Mr Grice offered me the partnership. He had no obligation to do so. He could have bought out my father's share and run the firm alone. Instead, he took me on, taught me the trade, and bore with my mistakes as a young man learning the business. I owe him a great deal.

I say this because I want you to understand the nature of our relationship. We were not friends, exactly. Mr Grice was twenty-two years my senior and not a man given to familiarity. But there was trust between us, and mutual respect, and a shared purpose in the firm that my father helped to build. I remember when I was new to the partnership, I miscalculated the duty on a consignment of Assam and it cost the firm eleven pounds. Mr Grice looked at the figures, looked at me, and said, "Well, you will not do that again." He was right. I did not.

On Wednesday the 17th of April, I arrived at the warehouse at half past nine, which is my usual time. Mr Grice was already at his desk. He had been there since nine. The morning was taken up with correspondence and a review of the insurance on the current Dorado cargo. I ate my dinner in my office: bread and cheese and a bottle of ale from the Waterman's Arms, which Ridley fetches for me.

During the afternoon I was working on the Dorado cargo insurance papers, which needed to be filed before the end of the week. At about ten past four, I took the papers along the corridor to Mr Grice's office. I knocked and received no answer. I opened the door and found the room empty. His cup of tea was on the desk, and his papers were spread out as usual, but he was not there. I placed the insurance papers on his blotter and returned to my own office.

I learned afterwards that Briggs, one of the warehousemen, had come upstairs with a message about water-damaged chests, and Mr Grice had gone down to the warehouse floor to inspect them. That would explain his absence.

I returned to my own office and sat at my desk with the door open. The clerks can confirm this. Pennock and Ridley were in the counting house, visible through my doorway.

At approximately forty minutes past four, I heard Mr Grice call out. A single sound, not a word exactly, more of an exclamation. I thought he was speaking to someone through the window, perhaps calling down to one of the warehousemen in the yard. It did not occur to me that anything was wrong. I continued with my work.

At a quarter past five, Ridley went in to Mr Grice with the evening post and found him. I heard Ridley shout and went immediately to the office. Mr Grice was slumped forward over the desk. His face was grey and there was vomit on the blotter. I knew at once that he was dead. I sent Ridley for Dr Milner on Jamaica Road.

I do not know who did this. I have turned it over in my mind and I cannot make sense of it.

Captain Morrow had cause to be angry. Mr Grice told me on Tuesday evening that he had discovered Morrow was carrying opium in our chests, and that he intended to terminate the contract and report the matter to the Custom House. I heard the argument on Tuesday morning from the warehouse floor. The whole building heard it. And I believe Pennock saw Morrow going toward the offices on Wednesday afternoon, at about the same time I went to leave the papers. Whether Morrow entered Grice's office I cannot say.

Mrs Grice visited on Friday and there were words. Pennock mentioned to me that she seemed very put out. I did not witness the argument myself, as I was at the Custom House that afternoon on other business.

I cannot speak to the matter of the petty cash ledger. The books are Pennock's domain. I do not examine the petty cash myself.

Mr Grice was a man of the highest principle. He expected honesty from everyone who worked for him, and he gave it in return. I can think of no one who would wish him dead, and yet someone did. I hope you find the person responsible, Inspector. The firm, and I personally, will provide whatever you need.

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Statement concluded. Signed: N. Hartwell Witnessed: H. Crewe, Inspector

Statement of Captain James Morrow

Taken aboard the barque Dorado, Rotherhithe Stairs, on the 18th day of April 1878, by Inspector H. Crewe.

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I am master of the Dorado, a barque of three hundred and forty tons, registered at Liverpool. I have been carrying tea from Canton for Grice and Hartwell these past six years. Before that I was with the P&O Line, running mail steamers to Bombay and Calcutta. I have held my master's certificate since 1862. I mention this so you understand the kind of man you are speaking to. I have brought ships through typhoons in the South China Sea. I do not poison people over a business dispute.

I arrived at Rotherhithe on Thursday the 11th of April with a cargo of China tea, some six hundred chests. The unloading began on Friday the 12th and was still under way on Wednesday.

I will tell you straight, Inspector, because you will hear it elsewhere if not from me. Mr Grice and I had words on Tuesday. He accused me of carrying goods in his tea chests that were not on the manifest. He said he would report the matter to the Custom House and terminate my contract. I told him he was wrong and he would regret it. I may have raised my voice. I will not deny that. Two of the warehousemen were standing twenty feet away and I dare say they heard every word. I am not a man who whispers, Inspector. My crew will tell you that. They will tell you at some length.

I did not murder Solomon Grice. If I had wanted to harm the man, I would not have done it with a teaspoon.

On Wednesday I was aboard the Dorado from seven in the morning. My mate, Josiah Cullen, and my bosun, Peter Fitch, were with me. We were supervising the hoisting of tea chests from the hold into the lighter alongside. At approximately three o'clock I went ashore to collect my sailing orders from the counting house. I spoke to Mr Pennock. He gave me the orders for my next voyage, Canton via Singapore, departing the 25th of April. I was in the counting house no longer than ten minutes, perhaps a quarter of an hour. I then walked through the warehouse floor to check the condition of some chests that had been damaged in the hold.

I should have gone back to the Dorado. I know that now. But I kept thinking about the Custom House, and what Grice had said, and what it would mean for me and my family. At about five past four I went upstairs to his office. I meant to reason with him. Not to shout, not to threaten, just to ask him to reconsider. A report to the Custom House would cost me my certificate and my liberty. I have a wife in Liverpool and two boys at school. A man thinks about those things when everything he has built is about to be taken from him.

I knocked on Mr Grice's door. No answer. I opened it and the room was empty. His cup of tea was on the desk, beside his papers. I stood there for a moment, not knowing what to do. I wrote him a note, short and plain, asking him to reconsider. I left it on the desk and went back down the stairs.

I did not touch the tea. I did not add anything to the tea. I did not go near the cup. I saw it on the desk and I left it there.

I returned to the Dorado at about a quarter past four. Cullen and Fitch were there. The lighter was still alongside. We worked until the light went. I heard the alarm from the shore at around half past five and sent Fitch to find out what had happened. When he came back, his face told me before his mouth did.

The phial in my cabin is quinine. I contract the ague in the East and take it when the shaking comes on. Any ship's surgeon between here and Hong Kong will tell you the same. You may test it. You have tested it. It is not arsenic.

I know there is rat poison in the warehouse. Every warehouse on this stretch of river has rat poison. The rats come off the lighters and up the mooring ropes in the dark. I have seen the tin in the stores, Harrison's Vermin Destroyer, on the shelf beside the naphtha and the turpentine. I have never opened it. I have no key to the stores cupboard. Ask Pennock. Ask Hartwell. The keys are theirs and Mr Grice's. Not mine.

Mr Grice was a hard man in business. Fair, I will grant him, but hard. He drove a tight contract and he expected every clause honoured to the letter. I know of others who bore him a grudge. His wife came to the warehouse the Friday before and there was shouting behind his office door. Pennock will tell you. I was on deck and heard nothing myself, but the story was round the warehouse by Saturday morning. News travels faster on the waterfront than tea does, Inspector, and tea is the fastest commodity in London.

I did not poison Mr Grice. I am a sea captain, not a chemist. Test my hands, test my coat, test whatever you like. You will find nothing on me but salt and tar.

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Statement concluded. Signed: J. Morrow Witnessed: H. Crewe, Inspector

Statement of Mr Walter Pennock

Taken at the offices of Grice and Hartwell, Rotherhithe, on the 18th day of April 1878, by Inspector H. Crewe.

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I have been head clerk to Grice and Hartwell for eleven years. I began as a junior clerk in 1867, under old Mr Hartwell, and was made head clerk in 1872 when Mr Parsons retired. My duties are the management of the counting house, the maintenance of the firm's books, the handling of daily correspondence, and the oversight of the junior clerk, Mr Ridley. I take some pride in these duties. A counting house runs on order, Inspector, and I keep order.

I prepare Mr Grice's afternoon tea every day. It is part of the routine. At four o'clock I go to the pantry, which is a small room off the corridor between the counting house and the private offices. I boil the kettle on the spirit lamp, take the tea from Mr Grice's caddy, brew the pot, and take a cup in to him. He drinks Darjeeling and Assam, a private blend he mixes himself and keeps in a locked caddy in his office. The caddy key is on his watch chain. Each morning he unlocks the caddy, measures the tea into a tin for the day's use, and relocks the caddy. The tin sits on the pantry shelf. I use the tea from the tin, never from the caddy itself.

On Wednesday the 17th of April, I made the tea as usual at four o'clock. I brewed the pot, poured a cup, added a lump of sugar as Mr Grice takes it, and carried it along the corridor to his office. He was at his desk, writing. I placed the cup on the coaster to his right, where it always goes. He thanked me without looking up. I returned to the counting house and took up the quarterly accounts, which I had been working on all afternoon.

A few minutes later, perhaps five minutes past four, Briggs the warehouseman came upstairs with a message for Mr Grice. Something about water-damaged chests on the ground floor. I saw Mr Grice come out of his office and go down the stairs with Briggs. His office door was left open. I thought nothing of it. Mr Grice inspected damaged goods himself. He did not trust anyone else's eye for it.

At about five past four, I saw Captain Morrow going toward the offices. He had been in the building since three o'clock, when he came to collect his sailing orders. I had assumed he had left, but there he was, going up the corridor toward Mr Grice's room. I do not know if he entered the office. I had the quarterly ledgers open before me and did not watch him.

Shortly after, perhaps five minutes later, I saw Mr Hartwell walk along the corridor toward Mr Grice's office. He had some papers under his arm. He went in the direction of the offices and came back a minute or two later. I assumed he was leaving something on Mr Grice's desk.

I was in the counting house from that point until Mr Ridley raised the alarm at a quarter past five. Mr Hartwell's office door was open and I could see him at his desk. Mr Grice's office door was closed when I next looked, so I assume Mr Grice had returned. I did not see him come back, as I was occupied with the figures.

At a quarter past three, before the tea, I left the counting house for approximately ten minutes to check a shipment manifest against the chests on the warehouse floor. Mr Coote, the warehouseman, was with me during that time. When I returned to the counting house, Captain Morrow was there, collecting his sailing orders. I gave him the orders. I believed he had left the building after that, but as I say, I saw him again at five past four.

I should mention the matter of the petty cash ledger. A page is torn. I do not know how it happened. It may have caught on a pen or a sleeve. These things occur. I keep the petty cash as part of my duties. The accounts are in order. Mr Grice had ordered an audit of the books to begin on Thursday, and I welcome it. A full examination of the accounts will bear me out.

I should like to say something else about Mr Grice, if I may. He was a fair employer. Firm in his expectations, yes, and he did not tolerate slackness. But he paid punctually and treated his clerks with respect. When my wife was unwell last winter he told me to take what time I needed. He did not dock my wages. I had no cause to wish him harm. Quite the opposite.

I have a key to the warehouse stores, as does Mr Hartwell and Mr Grice. The rat poison is on the top shelf, beside the naphtha and turpentine. I have not opened the tin myself in some weeks. The last time I used it was in early March, when we put poison down on the ground floor after a warehouseman reported gnawing on the chests nearest the river wall.

I wish to be of whatever assistance I can.

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Statement concluded. Signed: W. Pennock Witnessed: H. Crewe, Inspector