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“I will wait here for you,” she sighed and threw them an apologetic look. “I am sorry, I just can’t –”
Fred smiled sympathetically at her and walked past her.
Mark sighed as he squatted down beside the corpse and studied the handle that protruded from the man’s chest.
“What happened yesterday?” Isaac asked as he knelt on the other side of the body.
Ben sighed. “I found Beatrice hobbling along the road after the carriage had nearly run her over. I brought her back here on my horse. I stayed to help her with her boot and to wait out the thunderstorm. I put my horse in the stable beside the house, and am positive that the body wasn’t here then. I can’t say I really noticed anything when I left a couple of hours later. It was dark, you see, and I just didn’t look.”
He didn’t add that he had been too busy thinking about Beatrice to remember much of anything except the way the candlelight had reflected in the softness of her eyes, and the intimate atmosphere that had settled over them both during dinner.
“What time did you leave?” Mark asked quietly.
Beatrice sat on the rockery wall; close enough to hear them yet far enough so that she didn’t have to look at the body.
Ben looked at Mark, then Isaac. “I left here about ten o’clock. Mrs Partridge went to her friend’s house after church, and stayed there until the rain eased enough for her to come home. She got back here about four o’clock and made dinner while Beatrice and I were busy in the study. After dinner, I left.”
Mark looked at Beatrice. “Apart from the carriage, there was nothing else untoward happen that you noticed?”
Beatrice and Ben shared a look but, before they could reply, Isaac spoke.
“He doesn’t look familiar to you at all?” Isaac glanced at Beatrice expectantly.
“I have never seen him before,” Beatrice replied.
“Me neither,” Ben added.
“I don’t think he is familiar with us,” Isaac muttered with a sigh and began to rifle through the dead man’s pockets in search of clues.
Aside from a set of keys, and a few loose coins, there
was nothing in his pockets; no wallet and no identification of any kind. While Mark and Isaac studied the body, Fred began to walk backward and forward along the tree-line, studying the ground as he went.
Ben felt a little useless and merely watched them for several long moments before he turned to Beatrice.
“Fred, go and find the doctor, and send for reinforcements to take him to the mortuary,” Mark nodded to the body at his feet. “We will get him out of here soon, Beatrice.”
“Has there been any sign of a struggle?” Ben asked with a frown.
“Doesn’t look like it,” Isaac muttered as he studied the ground around the body.
“There must have been,” Beatrice sighed and turned around before she could stop herself. She closed her eyes as soon as she saw the body and turned her gaze resolutely toward Mark. “I mean; he can’t have just been walking along and then just accepted being stabbed in the chest. If someone comes at you with a knife, you would struggle for your life, wouldn’t you?”
“Most people would,” Mark agreed with a sigh. He had to agree with her theory because the twigs on the trees were unbroken, and the ground was unmarked by boot prints.
“Is there anything else we need to know?” Mark asked, and frowned when Beatrice and Ben looked cautiously at each other. Sensing there was something they didn’t want to mention outside, Mark gestured toward the house. “Shall we?”
Beatrice nodded and didn’t bother to look back as she hurried across the lawn.
“Stay with the body until Fred gets back,” Mark ordered Fred before he followed Ben.
Once inside the sitting room, they explained about the plant and led Mark and Isaac to the study.
“Good Lord,” Mark was too polite to mention the smell that came with it, but saw the wry look on Beatrice face and smiled. Beside him, Isaac coughed.
“Do you think it is supposed to smell like that?”
“If not, it’s a science experiment that’s gone horribly wrong for somebody,” she replied dryly.
