INVESTIGATIONS 101

Guidance for Police Officers in G.K. Chesterton’s “Father Brown’s Detective Short Stories” – (1-5) 

Gilles Renaud – Ontario Court of Justice (Retired)

Introduction

The British writer G.K. Chesterton wrote more than fifty detective stories featuring a most improbable investigator, a Roman Catholic priest invariably referred to as Father Brown. This diminutive and apparently unremarkable prelate combined his knowledge of human nature, gained from serving his poor parishioners including a criminal underclass, with a logical and disciplined mind resulting from his rigorous religious studies. Indeed, as he modestly notes from time to time, one learns a lot about crime and those who engage in this conduct in the confessional and when visiting parishioners in custody.  Father Brown is rigorous in his incisive analysis of the anti-social events that he encounters seemingly every day of his life, but never rigid in extending compassion to those who have erred in their conduct, always desirous of bringing them back into the embrace of their community.  But, first, he must examine the clues the police overlooked or misunderstood, solve the crime, to then return to his quite life of a small parish, calling forth investigative skills still relevant today in this age of DNA, AI and technologically based forensic sleuthing of every kind.

It is this skill as a detective that commands attention in this article, and I seek to review the guidance for investigators found in the first five of Chesterton’s short stories featuring Father Brown, published in 1910 and 1911: “The Blue Cross”, “The Secret Garden”, “The Queer Feet”, “The Flying Stars” and “The Invisible Man”.  I follow the format I have adopted in my prior similar writings seeking instruction for modern detectives from the fiction featuring Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot, as posted in Blue Line magazine and Mack’s Criminal Law.  Of note, the valuable lessons are grouped within thematic discussions involving demeanour evidence, human nature, interviewing skills, judgment and professionalism in investigations.

In sum, I suggest that modern-day investigators can gain valuable insights from this great fictional investigator as to what to do and what not to do, as well as enjoying several good stories. 

DISCUSSION

Best practices

-       Deliberate before undertaking any important step

“The Blue Cross” includes this vital piece of advice: “But how was he to find him [the suspect]? On this, the great [Detective] Valentin’s ideas were still in process of settlement.” One must not leap before one looks, so to speak, and there is no fault that can be attached to one who thinks long and hard, save in emergent circumstances.

-       Notes

“The Secret Garden” includes this interesting passage: “The detective sat down at a desk quietly, and even without hesitation; but his eye was the iron eye of a judge at assize. He made a few rapid notes upon paper in front of him …” I suggest that you not write “rapid” notes as opposed to well-thought out and comprehensive notes. The victim is dead, and the house contains no suspects, and the other police agencies have been alerted and are on their way, so nothing justifies any urgency in making notes.

-       Officer safety “after hours”

One never knows whether a person you have investigated, or arrested, will seek revenge.  The retired former Chief Justice of the Tax Court of Canada was murdered in his home in Ottawa, together with his wife and a neighbour, years after he had signed a routine order involving a matter resulting in a financial consequence for a man who held a grudge, a man he never even saw.  You can never be too careful or assume that no one will seek to harm you away from your place of work.  In this vein, “The Secret Garden” includes an observation about the security measures of an outstanding Paris detective who had arrested “… some hundred criminals [who] had sworn to kill him].”

-       Protection of the judiciary and an assault upon their number

Civil lawsuits are often decided by invoking the Latin phrase res ipsa loquitor, loosely translated as “the thing speaks for itself”. In other words, if a barrel of beer rolls off a second-floor platform of a brewery and injures the plaintiff, walking on the public road below, the plaintiff need not do much to prove negligence by one the brewery workers - it being assumed that the injured person could not have contributed to the mishap. In fact, not being a member of the staff, it would be difficult for the plaintiff to obtain “inside” information demonstrating what led to the accident.  The Court is inclined to presume negligence by the brewery if they do not lead positive evidence demonstrating the absence of such neglect.

In the same vein, to justify the claim that the police protection unit failed in their important responsibilities and were liable for his injuries, the judge described in “The Blue Cross” need only inform the court that a prisoner “… turned the juge d’instruction upside down and stood him on his head, ‘to clear his mind’…” If the police officers had done their job even adequately, they would have prevented a prisoner from harming the judge in this most embarrassing way. 

-       Question everything and you will succeed

“The Queer Feet” includes this observation: “Father Brown had the kind of head that cannot help asking questions …” As noted in the title, success often depends upon searching questions, formulated repeatedly as new information is uncovered.

-       Search grounds immediately next to body upon being found

The scene that is next described, found in “The Secret Garden”, is the type of hard work that Detective Hercule Poirot described as “silly” in the Agatha Christie adventures he starred in, relying on his “little grey cells”, but it is the type of immediate and important investigative effort that we note in the Father Brown series. Thus, Detective Valetin “… went down on his hands and knees and examined with his closest professional attention the grass and ground for some twenty yards round the body …  Nothing rewarded their grovelling except a few twigs, snapped or chopped into very small lengths, which Valentin lifted for an instant’s examination and then tossed away.”

– Surveillance

“The Blue Cross” begins with reference to the difficulties typically associated with surveillance work, including the fact that the target is seeking to be moving about within a crowd and “… the man we must follow was by no means conspicuous—nor wished to be. There was nothing notable about him …” Later we read that the difficulties the authorities faced included the holding of a Eucharistic Congress in London, an unfamiliar event adding confusion.  Subsequently, in the same adventure, Chesterton had Detective Valentin inform a London police officer of the following:

If you know what a man’s doing, get in front of him; but if you want to guess what he’s doing, keep behind him. Stray when he strays; stop when he stops; travel as slowly as he. Then you may see what he saw and may act as he acted. All we can do is to keep our eyes skinned for a queer thing.

-       Unforeseen events and pure luck

“The Blue Cross” reminds us of this belief: “The most incredible thing about miracles is that they happen. … [Admiral] Nelson does die in the instant of victory … In short, there is in life an element of elfin coincidence which people reckoning on the prosaic may perpetually miss. As it has been well expressed in the paradox of Poe, wisdom should reckon on the unforeseen.” Later, in the account of this adventure, Chesterton penned about Valentin not having any success in finding a real time man.  Further:

In such cases he reckoned on the unforeseen. In such cases, when he could not follow the train of the reasonable, he coldly and carefully followed the train of the unreasonable. Instead of going to the right places--banks, police stations, rendezvous--he systematically went to the wrong places; knocked at every empty house, turned down every cul de sac, went up every lane blocked with rubbish, went round every crescent that led him uselessly out of the way. He defended this crazy course quite logically. He said that if one had a clue this was the worst way; but if one had no clue at all it was the best, because there was just the chance that any oddity that caught the eye of the pursuer might be the same that had caught the eye of the pursued. Somewhere a man must begin, and it had better be just where another man might stop. Something about that flight of steps up to the shop, something about the quietude and quaintness of the restaurant, roused all the detective’s rare romantic fancy and made him resolve to strike at random. He went up the steps, and sitting down at a table by the window, asked for a cup of black coffee. [Emphasis added]

-       Word based arguments to be avoided

Successful investigators select words precisely when testifying and take pains to avoid mention in their reports of long-winded or multi-syllabic sounds.  Precision and brevity are qualities to be adopted. By way of illustration, note this passage from “The Secret Garden”: “… They could argue with each other … After a time this “progressive” logomachy had reached a crisis of tedium …” If one meant to say in the underlined passage that “the battle of words got boring”, then say so. 

Demeanour evidence

-       Introduction

I have written extensively, and critically, of demeanour evidence in other publications and little is gained by repeating those observations in this article.[1] It will suffice to point to an interesting passage in “The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan”, involving Hercule Poirot: “Although this harangue was uttered in rapid and virulent French, Célestine had interlarded it with a wealth of gesture, and the chambermaid realized at least a part of her meaning. …” In effect, demeanour involves non-verbal communication, let us say the dragging of a finger horizontally across one’s throat, that is expressive and may denote thought, or betray it!

Of note, in some cases below, I merely list the relevant passages as the illustrations provided are self-evident, or the title suffices to identify the issue.  For investigators, the object is to identify all potential elements of demeanour that you might encounter in person, at the scene or the police station, or in assessing filmed behaviour in your police office, at your leisure.  For example, did the person blush or put a hand to their heart when told “x” or “y” fact, and in all cases, what does this non-verbal communication mean? At bottom, you seek to discover if the demeanour evidence betrays deceit and if so, is the deceit relevant as either showing a wish to send you down a rabbit hole away from the truth, to protect themselves or others from criminal involvement.  For our purposes, deceit is not relevant if unrelated to crime, such as attempting to cover-up an affair. 

-       Elements of demeanour

o   Air

         - Apology

“’No, no,’ said Brown with an air of apology. ‘You see, I suspected you when we first met. It’s that little bulge up the sleeve where you people have the spiked bracelet.” [The Blue Cross]

·      Resolution

“The Invisible Man”: “The dark young lady rose from her chair and walked to the window, evidently in a state of strong but not unsympathetic cogitation. When at last she swung round again with an air of resolution she was bewildered to observe that the young man …”

o   Animated

“The Blue Cross” includes this quote: “’Yes, sir,’ answered the attendant, bending busily over the change, to which Valentin silently added an enormous tip. The waiter straightened himself with mild but unmistakable animation …’” [Emphasis added]

o   Dual or multiple elements

“The Secret Garden” includes this quote: “Despite the irrelevance there was assent as well as irritation in Valentin’s face as he lifted his head.” Such elements only add to confusion, and they may cancel themselves out.

o   Earnestness

The quote that follows, from “The Secret Garden”, is quite useful: “… The instant the factotum had closed the door, Valentin addressed the girl with an entirely new earnestness.” Was this a natural reaction to the situation or a façade, so to speak, insincere and denoting a guilty mind at work. 

o   Exclamation

The adventure “The Flying Stars” includes this passage: “… The young lady, having scattered bread for the birds … passed unobtrusively down the lane of laurels and into a glimmering plantation of evergreens behind. Here she gave an exclamation of wonder, real or ritual, and looking up at the high garden wall above her, beheld it fantastically bestridden by a somewhat fantastic figure…” [Emphasis added] Part of your function as an investigator is to decide things such as the reliability of a witness statement and thus, whether an exclamation is sincere, practiced, etc.

o   Eyebrows

“’Oh, one’s little flock, you know!’ said Father Brown, arching his eyebrows rather blankly. …” [The Blue Cross] “… He saw Dr. Simon, a typical French scientist, with glasses, a pointed brown beard, and a forehead barred with those parallel wrinkles which are the penalty of superciliousness, since they come through constantly elevating the eyebrows.” [The Secret Garden] Valentin’s black brows had come together somewhat crossly, as they did on principle at the sight of the cassock.” [The Secret Garden] “’An invisible man?’ inquired Angus, raising his red eyebrows…” [The Invisible Man]

-       Eyes

o   Burning

“’Well?’ cried Valentin, moving slowly, but with burning eyes …” [The Blue Cross]

o   Empty

The short story “The Blue Cross” described Father Brown in these terms: “… he had eyes as empty as the North Sea [that he had just travelled upon]”

o   Menacing

Note as well, a few lines later: “The red-faced shopman regarded him with an eye of menace …”

o   Variety

Later, we read in “The Blue Cross”: The eyes of the tradesman stood out of his head like a snail’s; he really seemed for an instant likely to fling himself upon the [Detective…].” “The star of the fanatic sprang into Valentin’s eyes … [The Secret Garden] “The Queer Feet” includes this comment: “Why,” said the colonel, eyeing him with a certain sardonic approval …” “Crook looked at him with an eye of interest and even respect. ‘Does one want to own soot?]’ he asked. ‘One might,’ answered Brown, with speculation in his eye…” “The Flying Stars” sets out this interesting comment, after the report of an apparent murder and diamond theft: “Father Brown dropped his book and stood staring with a look of blank mental ruin. Very slowly a light began to creep in his grey eyes…” “The Invisible Man”:

His order was evidently a usual one. ‘I want, please,’ he said with precision, ‘one halfpenny bun and a small cup of black coffee.’ An instant before the girl could turn away, he added, ‘Also, I want you to marry me.’ The young lady of the shop stiffened suddenly and said, ‘Those are jokes I don’t allow.’ The red-haired young man lifted grey eyes of an unexpected gravity.

Finally, in “The Invisible Man”: “The man called Angus emptied his coffee-cup and regarded her with mild and patient eyes…”

o   Face

         Austere

“The other priest raised his austere face to the spangled sky and said …” [The Blue Cross]

         Clouded

“… a common messenger [asked]. ‘Any of you gentlemen Mr. Blount?’ he asked and held forward a letter doubtfully. Mr. Blount started and stopped in his shout of assent. Ripping up the envelope with evident astonishment he read it; his face clouded a little, and then cleared, and he turned to his brother-in-law and host…” [The Invisible Man]

         Dazed

“The small man from Essex turned what seemed to be a dazed face in the dusk…” [The Blue Cross] The words “seemed to” are quite important. Note also: “The chairman turned in disorder, and with a dazed stare saw [the restaurant owner] coming towards them with his lumbering quickness. The gait of the good proprietor was indeed his usual gait, but his face was by no means usual. Generally, it was a genial copper-brown; now it was a sickly yellow.” [The Queer Feet]

         Red-faced

“… He drew the attention of the red-faced fruiterer, who was looking rather sullenly up and down the street, to this inaccuracy in his advertisements…” [The Blue Cross]

         Resolute

“He was a tall, burly, red-haired young man, with a resolute face but a listless manner.” “The postman … a lean fair-bearded man of very ordinary appearance, but as he turned an alarmed face over his shoulder …” [The Invisible Man]

         Scornful

“… he was surprised to meet his daughter, who swept past with a white, scornful face …” See “The Secret Garden”. 

-       Features

There are many elements described herein that could be listed under the more comprehensive rubric of features. Thus, in “The Flying Stars”, one reads: “The individual riding the party wall like an aerial horse was a tall, angular young man, with dark hair sticking up like a hairbrush, intelligent and even distinguished lineaments [i.e., features] but a sallow and almost alien complexion…” This type of description is also described as the “kitchen sink” variety of demeanour!

-       Fingers

“The Invisible Man”: “… confronting the newcomer. A glance at him was quite sufficient to confirm the savage guesswork of a man in love. This very dapper but dwarfish figure, with the spike of black beard carried insolently forward, the clever unrestful eyes, the neat but very nervous fingers …”

-       Gravity 

“The Blue Cross” includes this quite early reference to the target of surveillance: “There was nothing notable about him, except a slight contrast between the holiday gaiety of his clothes and the official gravity of his face…”

-       Hands

“The star of the fanatic sprang into Valentin’s eyes; he strode towards the priest with clenched hands.” [The Secret Garden] “The Queer Feet” includes this vivid example of hand movement: “Mr. Lever opened his hands with a gesture of agony…”

-       Head

“The Queer Feet” short story reminds us of this image from demeanour: “… It was represented to me that the same could be done at the Café Anglais. Nothing like it, sir,” he said, shaking his head ruthlessly, like a hanging judge. “Nothing like it.” …”

-       Look

“The proprietor also examined the sugar-basin and then the salt-cellar; the proprietor also looked bewildered…” as the saltshaker had sugar and vice versa. [The Blue Cross] “’Parcel?’ repeated Valentin; and it was his turn to look inquiring.” [The Blue Cross] The short story, “The Flying Stars”, also includes this quote: “’Nothing of the sort shall be suggested,’ said Colonel Adams, with a firm look at Fischer, which rather implied that some such thing had been suggested…”

-       Manner

“Father Brown, therefore, with a meek impudence which he would have shown equally in Buckingham Palace …” [The Queer Feet] “The Flying Stars” includes this excerpt: “Dislike of the red-tied youth, born of his predatory opinions and evident intimacy with the pretty godchild, led Fischer to say, in his most sarcastic, magisterial manner: ‘No doubt you have found something much lower than sitting on a top hat. What is it, pray?’” In “The Flying Stars”, a cast member is sought out, and one returns and states: “… with staccato gravity, ‘The policeman is still lying on the stage. The curtain has gone up and down six times; he is still lying there.’” Finally, “The Invisible Man” includes this observation: “He was a tall, burly, red-haired young man, with a resolute face but a listless manner.”

-       Morals are greater as we grow older?

At least, this is what is suggested in “The Flying Stars”: “’The most beautiful crime I ever committed,’ Flambeau would say in his highly moral old age, ‘was also, by a singular coincidence, my last. It was committed at Christmas…”

-       Nodding eagerly

Consider this example: “’That’s true,’ admitted Crook, nodding eagerly and walking about…” [The Flying Stars]

-        Pause

“The Flying Stars” includes this interesting illustration: “’Oh, that’s my godfather, Sir Leopold Fischer. He always comes on Boxing Day.’ Then, after an innocent pause, which unconsciously betrayed some lack of enthusiasm, Ruby Adams added: ‘He is very kind.’” [Emphasis added]

-       Placidly

“The Blue Cross” includes this comment: “’Quite true,’ replied their leader placidly, ‘if we only had an idea of where we were going.’” [The Blue Cross]

-       Sadness

“Father Brown seemed rather to like the saturnine candour of the soldier…” I looked up the word, and it means sad or gloomy.

-       Speaking

“The parson at the door he says all serene, ‘Sorry to confuse your accounts, but it’ll pay for the window.’ ‘What window?’ I ask? ‘The one I’m going to break,’ he says, and smashed that blessed pane with his umbrella.’” [The Blue Cross] “… Then he added rather sadly…” [The Blue Cross]

-       Seriousness

We read early in the short story “The Blue Cross”: “He was smoking a cigarette with the seriousness of an idler….”

-       Smile

“The shadow of a smile crossed the round, simple face of his clerical opponent…” [The Blue Cross] Note as well: “The Invisible Man”: “The dark young lady had never taken her dark eyes off him, but seemed to be studying him with almost tragic exactitude. At the end of her scrutiny she had something like the shadow of a smile, and she sat down in a chair.” [Emphasis added] In both cases, one questions whether a shadow is worth being considered a sufficient observation to be relevant, assuming it is probative…

-       Sneer

“The star of the fanatic sprang into Valentin’s eyes; he strode towards the priest with clenched hands. “And, perhaps,” he cried, with a blasting sneer, “perhaps he was also thinking of leaving all his money to your church.” [The Secret Garden]

-       Speaking, way of

“’Well, it was like this,’ said the little priest, speaking in the same unaffected way…” [The Blue Cross]

-       Stare

“He stopped because of the singular stare with which his daughter was regarding him …” [The Secret Garden]

- Teeth

“Though the other had a student’s stoop and an inconspicuous manner, he could see that the man was well over six feet high. He shut his teeth and went forward, whirling his stick impatiently. …” [The Blue Cross]

-       Thigh

“The Flying Stars” offers us a rare example of a demeanour element involving the thigh: “Blount frowned thoughtfully a space and then smote his thigh. ‘Yes, we can!’ he cried.”

-       Voice

“The Secret Garden” includes a rather stereotypical comment: “I think I can tell you,” cried Lady Margaret, in that clear, quivering voice with which a courageous woman speaks publicly…” “The Secret Garden” also includes these remarks: “’You have to remember,’ replied Margaret, with a faint irony in her voice, ‘that I had just refused him, so we should scarcely have come back arm in arm. …’”

                  Issues with demeanour evidence

A first criticism of demeanour involves its very subjective nature, along the lines of “a guilty looking dude”! As well, critics raise the concern that it can be “all things to all people”, and this “one size fits all” quality suggests that one may interpret demeanour to mean whatever you wish it, including a contradiction in terms.  Consider this example drawn from “The Secret Garden”: “This was Commandant O’Brien, of the French Foreign Legion. He was a slim yet somewhat swaggering figure, clean-shaven, dark-haired, and blue-eyed, and, as seemed natural in an officer of that famous regiment of victorious failures and successful suicides, he had an air at once dashing and melancholy.”  In other words, demeanour can be twisted to advance any argument and this lack of objectivity results in little rigour at the analytical level.

Investigators must also avoid a so-called “doubling” effect when attempting to analyze the behaviour and demeanour of those suspected of wrongdoing.  Let us assume a videotape exists of an important meeting.  The prudent detective ought to view it any number of times without the sound, to formulae your opinion as to what took place. Thereafter, listen to the dialogue to verify if your views were correct.  This will avoid the double effect expressed in the passage below from “The Secret Garden”: “Rising impatiently from the drawing-room, as he had from the dining-room, he stamped along the passage once more…” If you hear of an argument that could not be hinted at by the calm demeanour, but you think the person then “stamped” down the hallway in response to a cry, you might compound the finding of some important event by thinking the man had been impatient earlier, when this was not the case. 

Human nature

-       Complain if things do not work as they should

Father Brown explained to the great criminal Flambeau how he knew that Flambeau was not a true priest: on the one hand he never complained about anything untoward, and there was much in this vein that took place, and on the other, he did all he could to avoid drawing attention to himself.  Thus:

“Behind that tree,” said Father Brown, pointing, “are two strong policemen and the greatest detective alive. How did they come here, do you ask? Why, I brought them, of course! How did I do it? Why, I’ll tell you if you like! Lord bless you, we have to know twenty such things when we work among the criminal classes! Well, I wasn’t sure you were a thief, and it would never do to make a scandal against one of our own clergy. So I just tested you to see if anything would make you show yourself. A man generally makes a small scene if he finds salt in his coffee; if he doesn’t, he has some reason for keeping quiet. I changed the salt and sugar, and you kept quiet. A man generally objects if his bill is three times too big. If he pays it, he has some motive for passing unnoticed. I altered your bill, and you paid it.” [Emphasis added]

-       Disrespect for police officers in general

“The Flying Stars” includes this element in support: “… Why couldn’t we have a proper old English pantomime--clown, columbine, and so on. … I want a hot poker and a policeman made into sausages, and they give me princesses moralising by moonlight … ‘I’m all for making a policeman into sausages,’ said John Crook. ‘It’s a better definition of Socialism than some recently given. …” The same short story also refers to a play put on by the residents of a home and to a person dressed as a police officer and then to the constabulary chorus in the “Pirates of Penzance”. To be more precise, later, the pantomime that was staged included these actions: “The worthy officer started from Putney police station to find you, and walked into the queerest trap ever set in this world. When the front door opened he walked straight on to the stage of a Christmas pantomime, where he could be kicked, clubbed, stunned and drugged by the dancing harlequin, amid roars of laughter from all the most respectable people …”

-       Exaggeration

It is not uncommon for stories to become wildly embellished in the field of the administration of criminal justice, going back to Robin Hood if not before...  For example, consider this quote from “The Blue Cross” about Flambeau: “He was a Gascon of gigantic stature and bodily daring; and the wildest tales were told of his outbursts of athletic humour … how he ran down the Rue de Rivoli with a policeman under each arm…” The lesson for police investigators that they must be careful not to allow some element of “inflation” of the truth, so to speak, to influence their judgment, it being understood that the hyperbole described earlier can be easily rejected as without foundation. 

-       Hide in plain sight

“The Queer Feet” theft is based on the belief that important and rich persons will not pay any attention to individuals “in service”, a word I became familiar with watching Downton Abbey, and it includes those who wait upon their tables.  One hopes that this is a distant perspective, no longer true of our modern and egalitarian age.

-       How people answer questions – never what you say

The author of the Father Brown mysteries provides his insightful view on this question in “The Invisible Man”:

“Have you ever noticed this--that people never answer what you say? They answer what you mean--or what they think you mean. Suppose one lady says to another in a country house, ‘Is anybody staying with you?’ the lady doesn’t answer ‘Yes; the butler, the three footmen, the parlourmaid, and so on,’ though the parlourmaid may be in the room, or the butler behind her chair. She says ‘There is nobody staying with us,’ meaning nobody of the sort you mean. But suppose a doctor inquiring into an epidemic asks, ‘Who is staying in the house?’ then the lady will remember the butler, the parlourmaid, and the rest. All language is used like that; you never get a question answered literally, even when you get it answered truly. When those four quite honest men said that no man had gone into the Mansions, they did not really mean that no man had gone into them. They meant no man whom they could suspect of being your man. A man did go into the house, and did come out of it, but they never noticed him.” [Emphasis added]

-       “I am depraved on account I was deprived!”

This famous statement found in “West Side Story” about deprivation leading to delinquency was foreshadowed by what we read below: “’Well,’ said the young man, “if you’re born on the wrong side of the wall, I can’t see that it’s wrong to climb over it.’” Today, we would speak of the “wrong side of the tracks”.

-       Inspiration

Note this interesting passage from “The Queer Feet”:

Father Brown’s figure remained quite dark and still; but in that instant he had lost his head. His head was always most valuable when he had lost it. In such moments he put two and two together and made four million. Often the Catholic Church (which is wedded to common sense) did not approve of it. Often he did not approve of it himself. But it was real inspiration--important at rare crises--when whosoever shall lose his head the same shall save it. [Emphasis added]

I agree with the sentiment though I cannot explain it better.

-       Jilted suitor, actions of a

“The Secret Garden” also includes these remarks: “’You have to remember,’ replied Margaret, with a faint irony in her voice, ‘that I had just refused him, so we should scarcely have come back arm in arm. He is a gentleman, anyhow; and he loitered behind—and so got charged with murder.’”

-       Letter carriers go unnoticed

“The Invisible Man” records these thoughts: “’Nobody ever notices postmen somehow,’ he said thoughtfully; ‘yet they have passions like other men, and even carry large bags where a small corpse can be stowed quite easily.’”

-       Miracles do occur

“The Blue Cross” reminds us of this belief: “The most incredible thing about miracles is that they happen. … Nelson does die in the instant of victory … In short, there is in life an element of elfin coincidence which people reckoning on the prosaic may perpetually miss. As it has been well expressed in the paradox of Poe, wisdom should reckon on the unforeseen.”

-       Oath, to support the statement witness just advanced

Chesterton’s “The Blue Cross” includes this quite typical example of what we read in detective novels of all kinds: “Well, I’d have sworn on seven Bibles that I’d put 4s. on that bill. But now I saw I’d put 14s., as plain as paint.”

-       Quick witted

There are individuals who are so quick witted they can bluff to cover up any difficulties and this make your task much more demanding in making sense of it all. Consider this example from “The Queer Feet”: “When he could not think of a joke he said that this was no time for trifling and was called able….”

-       Shock interferes with a person’s ability to describe events

“… when the other [the witness] had brokenly described all that he had dared to examine…” after discovering a dead body. [The Secret Garden] This is quite normal, but the needs to arrest a culprit before a second victim is harmed may require more direct questioning. 

-       Sound heard better at night

Let us quote from “The Queer Feet”: “… The time of darkness and dinner was drawing on; his own forgotten little room was without a light, and perhaps the gathering gloom, as occasionally happens, sharpened the sense of sound.”

Interviewing skills

-       Contradicting the witness by means of information

I suggest that it is not improper to attempt to point out to a witness that some of the information they are communicating to you is not accurate or reliable, as this may lead to a fruitful reconsideration, or the witness may turn around and admit that what was said is not true.  But, I suggest, you should delay until you have completed obtaining all the information that the witness wishes to disclose to you.  To confront a witness too quickly may stem the flow of information and this might be counter productive.  For example, if you follow the illustration described below, from “The Queer Feet”, you may well find that the witness becomes agitated and truculent, to no profit to your investigation. In this situation, a guest insisted that he had counted all 15 waiters at the same time prior to a theft:

The proprietor turned upon him, quaking in a kind of palsy of surprise. “You say--you say,” he stammered, “that you see all my fifteen waiters?” “As usual,” assented the duke. “What is the matter with that!” “Nothing,” said Lever, with a deepening accent, “only you did not. For one of ‘zem is dead upstairs.”

-       Curiosity, question with a degree of carelessness

A short story titled “The Blue Cross” includes this quote: “’Indeed? Tell us about it,’ said the detective with careless curiosity.”

-       Details, request a full account of what was seen, heard, perceived, etc.

Consider this example, from “The Blue Cross”: “’For goodness’ sake,’ said Valentin, leaning forward with his first real confession of eagerness, ‘for Heaven’s sake tell us what happened exactly.’”

-       Descriptions and recourse to the Internet

So far as possible, when references are made to objects, allow the witness to describe the object fully, to then consider the wisdom of obtaining photos from the Web to attempt to distinguish this type of ironing board from another, or whatever is being discussed.  The short story “The Queer Feet” includes an excellent example of a clear description, by reference to our common experience. Thus: “… After groping through a grey forest of overcoats, he found that the dim cloak room opened on the lighted corridor in the form of a sort of counter or half-door, like most of the counters across which we have all handed umbrellas and received tickets…”

Of course, there are times when a description is rather poor if not useless though poetic. “The Queer Feet” refers to “… an elegant man in very plain evening dress; tall, but with an air of not taking up much room; one felt that he could have slid along like a shadow where many smaller men would have been obvious and obstructive.” [Emphasis added]

-       Details

Father Brown was curious to know the length of the cigar the suspect claims to have smoked in the garden, to understand better if he was able to commit the crime and yet smoke the cigar. As we read: “In the centre of this morbid silence an innocent voice said: ‘Was it a very long cigar? The change of thought was so sharp that they had to look round to see who had spoken. ‘I mean’, said little Father Brown, from the corner of the room, ‘I mean that cigar Mr. Brayne is finishing. It seems nearly as long as a walking-stick.’”

At times, a witness can do no better than to provide descriptions using commonly used expressions that are both precise and vague.  For example, Father Brown referenced the noises he heard outside of his room in the hallway for a few pages and then expressed this thought: “… Just as he came to this solid certainty, the step changed to the quicker one, and ran past the door as feverishly as a rat. The listener remarked that though this step was much swifter it was also much more noiseless, almost as if the man were walking on tiptoe. Yet it was not associated in his mind with secrecy …” [The Queer Feet] From the interviewer’s perspective, the most important element is not the comment “tiptoe”, which may be imprecise, but the fact that Father Brown did not associate this action with a covert action, a stealthy movement that we associate with crime.

 Later, Father Brown muses that the movement of the feet are now different in quality. It is an important element of the interviewing process to draw out such nuances. Thus:

This time they had a third oddity. Previously the unknown man had walked, with levity indeed and lightning quickness, but he had walked. This time he ran. One could hear the swift, soft, bounding steps coming along the corridor, like the pads of a fleeing and leaping panther. Whoever was coming was a very strong, active man, in still yet tearing excitement. Yet, when the sound had swept up to the office like a sort of whispering whirlwind, it suddenly changed again to the old slow, swaggering stamp. [The Queer Feet]

Finally, the author G.K. Chesterton wrote what follows, and I have underlined the beautiful imagery:

“You see, colonel,” he said, “I was shut up in that small room there doing some writing, when I heard a pair of feet in this passage doing a dance that was as queer as the dance of death. First came quick, funny little steps, like a man walking on tiptoe for a wager; then came slow, careless, creaking steps, as of a big man walking about with a cigar. But they were both made by the same feet, I swear, and they came in rotation; first the run and then the walk, and then the run again. I wondered at first idly and then wildly why a man should act these two parts at once. One walk I knew; it was just like yours, colonel. It was the walk of a well-fed gentleman waiting for something, who strolls about rather because he is physically alert than because he is mentally impatient. I knew that I knew the other walk, too, but I could not remember what it was. What wild creature had I met on my travels that tore along on tiptoe in that extraordinary style? Then I heard a clink of plates somewhere; and the answer stood up as plain as St. Peter’s. It was the walk of a waiter--that walk with the body slanted forward, the eyes looking down, the ball of the toe spurning away the ground, the coat tails and napkin flying. Then I thought for a minute and a half more. And I believe I saw the manner of the crime, as clearly as if I were going to commit it.”

-       Explain your objective

Detective Valentin asked:

’Pray excuse my apparent irrelevance, my good sir, but I should like to ask you a question in experimental psychology and the association of ideas.’ The red-faced shopman regarded him with an eye of menace; but he continued gaily, swinging his cane, ‘Why,’ he pursued, ‘why are two tickets wrongly placed in a greengrocer’s shop like a shovel hat that has come to London for a holiday? Or, in case I do not make myself clear, what is the mystical association which connects the idea of nuts marked as oranges with the idea of two clergymen, one tall and the other short?’

The shopkeeper explained that the two clergymen had further interfered by knocking down apples to then leave in a certain direction, quite promptly.

-       Fill in the blanks versus identifying them to you

Refer to the discussion under the title “Judgment - “Fair witness”- Stranger in a Strange Land.”

-       Flight as circumstantial evidence of guilt

Flight from a scene of the crime is often judged by the Courts in the assessment of guilt or innocence, and thus must be assessed earlier in the investigation by detectives as an element of circumstantial evidence. As a rule, circumstantial evidence is now entitled to little weight and only if all the circumstances are well known.  But the traditional belief that such an act is an indication of a guilty mind was encouraged by Macbeth and by the passage that follows: “… Don’t mistake me. I don’t doubt that Brayne did it; his flight, I fancy, proves that. But as to how he did it…” See “The Secret Gaden”. In the final analysis, it is worthy of examination but may add little to the conclusion reached as to guilt based on other information.

-       Leading questions

“… Dr. Simon, you have examined it. Do you think that to cut a man’s throat like that would need great force? Or, perhaps, only a very sharp knife?” The two related questions are improper and should have been framed in a neutral fashion, such as: “Could you comment, if you are competent to do so, on the degree of force required to commit this act?” And, what significance, if any, does the type of knife play in your judgment?” The difficulty is that if you ask both questions at the same time, you are pointing out to the expert a possible reply he might not have thought of, which is another sort of “leading”. 

Judgment in investigations

-       Admissions against interest

Investigators are often provided with the type of background information, or hearsay-based slander, that one must weigh, being mindful of the dangers of gossip and of negative talk which is so easy to bring forward: “’She has lately,’ cried out old Fischer, ‘opened her father’s house to a cut-throat Socialist, who says openly he would steal anything from a richer man. This is the end of it. Here is the richer man …” And, of course, the richer man has had diamonds stolen that the Socialist had seen. 

-       Bias, be careful of evidence influenced by those love

“The Secret Garden” includes an interesting example of a potential witness who will defend the innocence of the man whose ring and betrothal she refused. Thus:

“I think I can tell you,” cried Lady Margaret, in that clear, quivering voice with which a courageous woman speaks publicly. “I can tell you what Mr. O’Brien was doing in the garden, since he is bound to silence. He was asking me to marry him. I refused; I said in my family circumstances I could give him nothing but my respect. He was a little angry at that; he did not seem to think much of my respect. I wonder,” she added, with rather a wan smile, “if he will care at all for it now. For I offer it him now. I will swear anywhere that he never did a thing like this.” [Emphasis added]

The nuance is that one who claims no love sufficient to set aside family concerns will nonetheless falsely swear that the man is innocent, almost as if she must make up for him the hurt she caused.

-       Clues, search for – or not…

“The Blue Cross” recorded how Detective Valentin followed an omnibus thinking that the two clergymen had boarded it, explaining to his newly acquired London detective friend that they would follow until they found an odd event, a queer one in the language of the day. Thus:

“Our cue at last,” cried Valentin, waving his stick; “the place with the broken window.” “What window? What cue?” asked his principal assistant. “Why, what proof is there that this has anything to do with them?” Valentin almost broke his bamboo stick with rage. “Proof!” he cried. “Good God! the man is looking for proof! Why, of course, the chances are twenty to one that it has nothing to do with them. But what else can we do? Don’t you see we must either follow one wild possibility or else go home to bed?” He banged his way into the restaurant, followed by his companions …

-       Conjecture – was your guess probable or not?

In this context, note that the adventure “The Queer Feet” includes these observations: “If (to pursue the same vein of improbable conjecture) you were to meet a mild, hard-working little priest, named Father Brown …” [Emphasis added] A few lines later, the author rote: “… He is perhaps a little proud of this wild and wonderful guess of his …”

-       Criminals do not look like criminals

Refer to this interesting passage in “The Invisible Man”:

“… and by the time they reached the crescent with the towering flats, he had leisure to turn his attention to the four sentinels. The chestnut seller, both before and after receiving a sovereign, swore stubbornly that he had watched the door and seen no visitor enter. The policeman was even more emphatic. He said he had had experience of crooks of all kinds, in top hats and in rags; he wasn’t so green as to expect suspicious characters to look suspicious; he looked out for anybody, and, so help him, there had been nobody…”

-       Deception – do not be taken in

Consider this example from “The Secret Garden”.  The question was asked why anyone would mutilate a head that was already removed from a body, save to inflict further degradation having taken the life.  Father Brown stated: “… “it was done so as to make you assume exactly the one simple falsehood that you did assume. It was done to make you take for granted that the head belonged to the body.”

-       Detecting fake letter boxes

“The Blue Cross” includes reference to a crook who “… invented a portable pillar-box, which he put up at corners in quiet suburbs on the chance of strangers dropping postal orders into it.” It is one thing to detect the fakes, another to detect who is behind the scheme and to arrest them.  The modern “cousin” to this crime of deceit involves a criminal financing a fake ATM and paying out withdrawals to acquire confidential information about the targets’ bank accounts and PINS, etc.

-       Dumb luck

An example is seen in “The Blue Cross” in which Detective Valentin decides to pursue two priests as one had done something silly, in throwing coffee against a wall.  As we read, “… The detective was on his feet, hat settled and stick in hand. He had already decided that in the universal darkness of his mind he could only follow the first odd finger that pointed; and this finger was odd enough. …” [Emphasis added]

-       Evidence, objective

The short story entitled “The Invisible Man” includes improbable scenarios but it does remind detectives of the value of objective evidence, notably the presence of footprints on fresh snow. “For it was unquestionably true that down the middle of the entrance guarded by … ran a stringy pattern of grey footprints stamped upon the white snow.”

-       “Fair witness”- Stranger in a Strange Land

In 1961, author Robert A. Heinlein wrote a novel entitled Stranger in a Strange Land and created a profession, that of a “Fair Witness”, a person who was called upon to describe sightings without interpretation, bias or pre-conceived notion.  In a telling passage, when asked the colour of a residence he stated that the only side he could see was white.  It would have been speculative to suggest all the other sides, if there were any, were the same colour as he saw none of it! In “The Flying Stars”, G.K. Chesterton wrote of an observation by the criminal Flambeau about a young girl who came out of a house with bread to feed the birds on the afternoon of Boxing Day. “… She had a pretty face, with brave brown eyes; but her figure was beyond conjecture, for she was so wrapped up in brown furs that it was hard to say which was hair and which was fur. But for the attractive face she might have been a small toddling bear.” [Emphasis added] This ridiculous example illustrates the type of judgment you must engage in when analyzing the value of the testimony you have accumulated. In effect, have the witnesses guessed or interpreted or applied bias in “filling in the blanks” when you were seeking that they identify the blanks for you so that you might apply your reasoning and skill to “supply” that omission, if possible.

-       Identification

Evidence of identity is given little weight in the criminal courts and much scepticism is expressed when witnesses seek to inform the courts as to why they believe the person they can see in the courtroom was the person at the scene of the crime.  “The Secret Garden” includes this useful illustration: “… It was a ponderous, yellow face, at once sunken and swollen, with a hawk-like nose and heavy lids--a face of a wicked Roman emperor, with, perhaps, a distant touch of a Chinese emperor…” Of course, this is a passage from fiction, with poetic licence, but is shows how persons police will interview might say anything to support their identity opinion and that they beheld this and that characteristic. 

-       Logical progression in thinking

When it was suggested that a Socialist had stolen diamonds in “The Flying Stars”, Father Brown responded: “’What it’s worth you can say afterwards. But the first thing I find in that disused pocket is this: that men who mean to steal diamonds don’t talk Socialism. They are more likely,’ he added demurely, ‘to denounce it.’”

-       Memory is faulty

“… The listener remarked that though this step [past his door] was much swifter it was also much more noiseless, almost as if the man were walking on tiptoe. Yet it was not associated in his mind with secrecy, but with something else--something that he could not remember…” [The Queer Feet] From the detective’s perspective, to hear a witness qualify their memory during the initial interview is far more valuable than to hear it at trial and you can better judge the potential value of testimony if qualifiers are provided.

-       Objective versus subjective judgment of a statement

“The Flying Stars” suggests using the words “inside” and “outside” that the correct understanding and interpretation of a person’s statement, in this case the confession by an offender of his crime, may well be quite challenging on an objective basis, and might only be intelligible from a purely subjective standard. As we read of Flambeau’s recitation of his last crime, at Christmas time, we learn what follows:

Flambeau would then proceed to tell the story from the inside; and even from the inside it was odd. Seen from the outside it was perfectly incomprehensible, and it is from the outside that the stranger must study it. From this standpoint the drama may be said to have begun when the front doors of the house with the stable opened on the garden with the monkey tree, and a young girl came out with bread to feed the birds on the afternoon of Boxing Day. …

The obvious concern is that the account is true, but that the crime was committed by another offender and that Flambeau wishes to confess in order to end the investigation and thus shelter the criminal.  The other explanation, of many, is that the offender is wishing to be punished and ids saying more than required or, conversely, wishes to be judged a criminal but one with a conscience …

-       Paper trail of widespread fraud

It no doubt requires a great deal of effort to investigate a “colossus of crime” as Flambeau is described in “The Blue Cross”, notably in cases in which almost nothing exists but a trail of falsehoods and fabrication. We read amongst many outrages perpetrated by in ingenuity that “… ran the great Tyrolean Dairy Company in London, with no dairies, no cows, no carts, no milk, but with some thousand subscribers…” He hit on the scheme of moving the little milk cans outside people’s doors delivered by others to the doors of his own customers.

-       Philosophy of policing judgment about crime

The passage that follows is illuminating about crime and how criminals act, and is spoken by Father Brown:

“A crime,” he said slowly, “is like any other work of art. Don’t look surprised; crimes are by no means the only works of art that come from an infernal workshop. But every work of art, divine or diabolic, has one indispensable mark--I mean, that the centre of it is simple, however much the fulfilment may be complicated. Thus, in Hamlet, let us say, the grotesqueness of the gravedigger, the flowers of the mad girl, the fantastic finery of Osric, the pallor of the ghost and the grin of the skull are all oddities in a sort of tangled wreath round one plain tragic figure of a man in black. Well, this also,” he said, getting slowly down from his seat with a smile, “this also is the plain tragedy of a man in black. Yes,” he went on, seeing the colonel look up in some wonder, “the whole of this tale turns on a black coat. In this, as in Hamlet, there are the rococo excrescences--yourselves, let us say. There is the dead waiter, who was there when he could not be there. There is the invisible hand that swept your table clear of silver and melted into air. But every clever crime is founded ultimately on some one quite simple fact--some fact that is not itself mysterious. The mystification comes in covering it up, in leading men’s thoughts away from it. This large and subtle and (in the ordinary course) most profitable crime, was built on the plain fact that a gentleman’s evening dress is the same as a waiter’s. All the rest was acting, and thundering good acting, too.” [Emphasis added]

-       Reasoning in reaching conclusions

G.K. Chesterton stated in “The Blue Cross”: “… But exactly because [Detective] Valentin understood reason, he understood the limits of reason. Only a man who knows nothing of motors talks of motoring without petrol; only a man who knows nothing of reason talks of reasoning without strong, undisputed first principles. Here he had no strong first principles…”

                  - Reformed offenders – fear of backsliding

On occasion, repentant offenders will provide great intelligence to police officers and without any interest at payment or sentence reduction, etc. The careful investigator, however, will be concerned as to a possible return to an earlier outlook.  This is hinted at in “The Flying Stars”: “Well, my last crime was a Christmas crime …  It seems almost a pity I repented the same evening.” A defence lawyer would quite naturally seek to explore that last comment in cross-examination…

-       Reversing the proposition

“The Invisible Man”: “… Just then, I heard Welkin say, ‘He shan’t have you, though.’ It was quite plain, as if he were in the room. It is awful, I think I must be mad.” “If you really were mad,” said the young man, “you would think you must be sane…”

                  - Role reversal

At one point in “The Blue Cross”, Detective Valenton realized that he had no idea why the priests had behaved as they had, switching salt and pepper signs, food signs, paying for windows before breaking it, throwing coffee on a wall, paying too much for an altered food check, posting a package.  Then, the narrator suggested: “When he failed (which was seldom), he had usually grasped the clue, but nevertheless missed the criminal. Here he had grasped the criminal, but still he could not grasp the clue.”

-       Simplicity

“[Father Brown] explained with a moon-calf simplicity to everybody in the carriage that he had to be careful, because he had something made of real silver ‘with blue stones’ in one of his brown-paper parcels. His quaint blending of Essex flatness with saintly simplicity continuously amused …” [the police officer].  As it turns out, Valentin the detective was quite wrong in every aspect of his judgment, focusing on superficial versus profound elements of intelligence and acumen. 

-       Thinking like a criminal

One of the interesting thoughts we read in “The Blue Cross” follows: “… He thought his detective brain as good as the criminal’s, which was true. But he fully realised the disadvantage. ‘The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic,’ he said with a sour smile…”

Professionalism in investigations

-       Arrest only when have RPG for each element of offence

Although difficult to express simply, it is not legal to arrest based on suggested RPG unless there is information supporting each element of the offence, what was once described as the “Gibson test”, and nothing contradicting the “identity” of the suspect.  In few words, no matter how good the evidence is on the elements and the similarities in terms of the person involved, one glaring “can’t be” factor knocks out your arrest powers. To track the facts of the short story “The Blue Cross”, the police were on the lookout for a quite tall man: “There was one thing which Flambeau, with all his dexterity of disguise, could not cover, and that was his singular height. If [Detective] Valentin’s quick eye had caught a tall apple-woman, a tall grenadier, or even a tolerably tall duchess, he might have arrested them on the spot…” But, if a quite short person shared the looks, eye colour, etc., it would be unlawful to arrest them – you can simulate great height, but you cannot explain away lack of height.  It must be another culprit, and it is unprofessional, indeed a tort of false arrest and a crime of assault, to arrest one against whom an accusation cannot be made out obviously. All that said, the author Chesterton’s great contribution along these lines is the following: “… there was nobody that could be a disguised Flambeau, any more than a cat could be a disguised giraffe.”

-       Discharge duties fully, even the ones that one dislikes

“The Secret Garden” includes this phrase: “… and though these duties were rootedly repulsive to him, he always performed them with precision”, referencing executions.  The lesson for modern-day officers is that certain tasks are quite difficult, let us say removing children from their parents’ home for child protection hearings, but they must be performed with great respect for the orders of the court. 

-       Double standard

An example is seen in the Father Brown adventure “The Secret Garden”. When a high-ranking police official named Valentin discovered a murder victim on his grounds, during a dinner party, he took the decision to exclude from suspicion his guests!

-       “No time to lose”

As they say in the movies, “No time to lose”. Father Brown’s client Mr. Angus expressed it differently: “’If you don’t mind,’ he said, ‘I think you had better tell me the rest on the nearest road to this man’s house. It strikes me, somehow, that there is no time to be lost.’”

[1]           Refer to Gilles Renaud, Demeanour Evidence on Trial: A Legal and Literary Criticism, Sandstone Academic Press, Melbourne, Australia, 2008, and to Alan D. Gold’s Criminal Law Articles, in Quicklaw.