Page 59 of Corpse in the Canal

“All over the county by now. Always asking for trouble, that lad. Never thought he’d find it here, though.”

“You knew Percival Harvey?”

“Since he were a little lad when his parents bought Channing House. Pretty child, but he were spoilt even then. He was their only one, I suppose, their pride and joy. They must be in pieces.”

“They are,” Constance said. “You say Percy was asking for trouble—whom did he annoy the most, do you think?”

The old woman cackled. “Both the Wests, one way and another! And that poor lady over at Dare Hall—he couldn’t take not being irresistible!”

“I hear West has a temper.”

“So does his missus. Doesn’t make them killers.”

“I don’t suppose you saw Percy the day he came back from London?” Constance asked hopefully. “Last Thursday?”

Surprisingly, the old woman took a few moments to answer. “I don’t know,” she said reluctantly. “I might have.”

Constance felt the leap of her pulse. It was only a possibility, but it was more than they had discovered up until now.

“Where?” Constance asked.

The old woman nodded toward the opposite bank. “Over there. My eyes aren’t so good now. That’s what’s really annoying. I see what goes on. I just can’t see who’s doing it.”

“And what does go on?” Constance asked.

The old woman winked. “I don’t sleep much now, so I walk a lot. You’d be surprised what—and who—I see at night, creeping about.”

“I gather Percy crept more than his fair share at night.”

“He did that, though Daphne West should know better than to encourage him.”

“He crept around Mrs. Jenkins’s too, didn’t he?”

“Saw him skulking there often enough. But then, they all do.”

“Who do?” Constance asked.

Something flickered in the old woman’s eyes. “All of ’em.”

“All of them” because her eyes were too poor to see? Or because she didn’t want to name names? Constance let it go for now and returned to the main point.

“Where did you see Percy last Thursday?”

“On his horse, on the road to Channing House.”

*

“And yet he never got home,” Constance said excitedly to Solomon when they met up at the Channing bridge over the canal. “He must have bypassed the house, cut through the wood to Dare Hall, perhaps even abandoned his horse there if it were lame or sick, while he went looking for Adelaide.”

“Maybe,” Solomon said noncommittally.

Constance sighed. “I know, I know. The old woman can’t even confirm it was Percy, just some man on horseback.”

“More than some man,” Solomon argued. “He must have been dressed as a gentleman, with a gentleman’s dress and posture.”

“Did you see David, sketching on the opposite bank?”

“I did, but he seemed rather engrossed. I heard you talking to him.”