Eleven That Went Up to Heaven by Anthea Fraser

Author:Anthea Fraser [Fraser, Anthea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2015-09-01T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Penny Graham was close to tears, though from shock rather than grief.

‘Imagine her lying there all night!’ she exclaimed for the second time, blowing her nose. Betty, still frozen with shock herself, could only nod agreement. In the conference room, she was thinking, the lecture would be going ahead, the audience all unknowing. No doubt Myrtle, with an empty seat beside her, was wondering where she was.

Bob Gregory, the chairman of the Autumn School committee, had been discreetly winkled out of the lecture to be given the news, and since Penny was sitting next to him and had shared a room with Erica, she’d been extracted as well, on the assumption that the police would want to speak to her.

They’d just arrived, apparently, and Mr Young had gone down to meet them, leaving the three of them sitting there awkwardly holding the cups of hot tea with which they’d been supplied.

The image of the broken body on the cold paving haunted Betty, and she wished Erica could be brought indoors and decently laid on a bed somewhere. However, the doctor who’d come to check on her had said this wasn’t possible. Not, she reminded herself, that it would make any difference to Erica.

Time crawled past, but a furtive look at her watch showed Betty, to her surprise, that it was only a quarter to eleven. The coffee break would be in fifteen minutes. Would Myrtle come looking for her?

Then the door opened and Mr Young stood there with a tall, stern-looking man whom he identified as DCI Webb. They were introduced in their turn, more tea was produced, and they all self-consciously sat down.

Webb turned at once to Betty. ‘Now, Mrs Fife,’ he began pleasantly, putting her at her ease, ‘I believe it was you who found Miss Mann; were you specifically looking for her?’

Betty shook her head, explaining about her headache and that she had merely been in search of some air.

‘But Miss Mann had been missing since last evening, hadn’t she? Hadn’t there been any kind of search?’

Penny spoke up. ‘We assumed she’d gone to the theatre — she’d been talking about it. I’m sure, though, that she spent the afternoon in our room, because her book was lying face-down on her bed and the window was wide open.’

‘The window was open?’ Webb repeated sharply.

Penny paled, belatedly seeing the significance. ‘Yes, but I didn’t think anything of it, just cursed her for letting the room get cold.’ She glanced at him guiltily. ‘Isn’t that awful? But Erica was always leaving the window open; she said the room was stuffy and she couldn’t breathe.’

‘It’s on the first floor?’

‘Yes.’

‘Who’s on either side of you?’

‘Mr and Mrs Benson, and Mr and Mrs Lock.’

Webb turned to Young, who, all the chairs being occupied, had perched on a corner of his desk. ‘I’ll need to speak to them next, sir, find out where they were yesterday afternoon; also, whoever has the room directly beneath. They might have heard something without paying it much attention.

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