“Have you heard anything new since the inquest?”I wanted to know.
Tom shook his head.“They have no reason to communicate with me.None of this concerns Scotland Yard.”
“But surely the constables do at least believe that the doctor’s death, and that of the footman, are related,” Laetitia insisted.
Tom pretended not to have noticed the not-quite-furtive-enough glance she directed my way.“Of course.Two men killed within a half mile of each other, the same morning, and with the same weapon.It’s likely that the same hand wielded it both times.”
“And are they any closer to figuring out whose hand that might have been?”
I rolled my eyes.“They don’t think it was mine, so there’s no need to look at me like that.”
“The note said it was you,” Laetitia said.
“I’m well aware of that.”I turned to Tom.“Were you able to get everyone’s writing sample earlier?”
“I’m afraid I had to abandon the experiment,” Tom said apologetically, “when Kit came and fetched me.I would finish now, but everyone is a bit too much under the influence, I’m afraid.Such things are better done sober.”
“Every sample I saw looked the same anyway,” Christopher said, and Tom nodded.
“I don’t suppose the constables had anything interesting to say earlier?”
“Not to me,” Tom said.“They accepted my help because I was here, and I have dealt with more crime scenes than they have, but I’m not involved in the case otherwise.There was no need to update me on what they’d discovered.”
“But you must have heard them talk to each other.”Francis fiddled lazily with the fringe on Constance’s evening frock as he spoke.“They’ve interviewed the villagers, haven’t they?Hadn’t anyone seen anything this morning?”
“One woman saw Pippa arrive and then leave again,” Tom said with a glance at me.“She said Pippa was accompanied by a young man who looked like Lord St George.”
Laetitia made a face.I shook my head, and so did both Christopher and Crispin.
“I was in the study looking at paperwork,” Crispin said, while Christopher added, “We left Sutherland Hall while Crispin and Lady Laetitia were in the garden maze.”
Tom nodded.“The witness said that the people she saw only stayed inside the infirmary for a couple of minutes, and that they looked no different when they left than when they arrived.”
No, of course not.We had had no reason to scurry away like guilty people.
“I assume she didn’t see it necessary to check on Doctor Meadows,” I said, and Tom shook his head.
“She’s also not the person who wrote the note.The constables tested her, and she spelled Philippa wrong.”
Yes, that’s easy to do, between the double and single Ls and Ps.
“Someone else mentioned having seen a black motorcar at the approximate time of the murder,” Tom continued, “and we’re assuming that was Lord Herbert and Lady Roslyn motoring through Little Sutherland on their way to Beckwith?—”
“Before,” I said, and Tom broke off to look at me.I clarified, “It must have been before the murder.Doctor Meadows was still alive when we left the infirmary, and we didn’t see the Bentley on our way home, did we, Christopher?”
Christopher shook his head.“They must have been past the infirmary before we came out.And as Pippa said, he was still alive then.”
Tom didn’t respond.Instead, he informed us blandly, “There’s enough room to park behind the infirmary, and there’s a spot of oil on the ground there that indicates that a motorcar might have stood there for a bit earlier today.”
“Why just today?”I wanted to know.“Why not yesterday, or the day before?”
Francis shook his head, and Tom said, “The heavy rain last night would have washed away anything from before this morning.”
“But it’s been raining off and on most of the day.Surely anything from this morning would have been washed away too?”
He shook his head.“I’m afraid not, Pippa.The mizzle hasn’t been heavy enough to wash away an oil slick.The storm last night would have done.”
“Do you suspect Aunt Roz and Uncle Herbert, then?”
