June 21

June 21 is the date that allows Tom Hartigan and Mrs Marbury to test whether Alexander Bonaparte Cust was away when the first murder, at Andover, took place. Reconstructed months later from an unexpected family visit and a ship’s arrival, the date turns an uncertain recollection into a practical check on Cust’s alibi.

Reconstructing the Date

After the Doncaster murder, newspapers sought information about a man identified as A B Case or Cash, with a description that seemed to fit Cust. On his first evening off, Tom went to Lily Marbury’s home and asked her for Cust’s initials. Lily could not remember them at first; her mother recalled that they were A B.

Tom and Mrs Marbury then tried to establish whether Cust had been away at the time of the Andover murder. The interval of roughly three months made ordinary memory unreliable, so they worked backward from a circumstance Mrs Marbury could place: her brother had arrived from Canada unexpectedly on June 21.

The Lodging and the Independent Anchor

The visitor needed a bed, and Lily suggested that Bert Smith could use Cust’s bed while Cust was away. Mrs Marbury rejected the suggestion because she considered it unfair to her lodger. That disagreement helped fix the circumstances around Cust’s absence rather than leaving the recollection as a vague impression.

They established the date through a separate detail: Bert Smith’s ship had docked at Southampton that day. The ship’s arrival gave the family memory a firm chronological anchor, making June 21 more than an approximate recollection and enabling the question of Cust’s whereabouts to be investigated.

Evidence and Narrative Function

Tom reports the reconstruction to Inspector Crome, who listens closely and makes occasional notes. The account does not itself state the outcome of the alibi check; it supplies a dated lead, grounded in the visitor, the proposed use of Cust’s bed, and the ship’s docking. Its significance lies in how a domestic decision and a public timetable combine to recover a date that memory alone could not securely provide.