Lessons in Temptation: [Cambridge Fellows Mysteries: 5] by Charlie Cochrane

Author:Charlie Cochrane [Cochrane, Charlie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery & Suspense
Amazon: B002VFPS7C
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2009-12-14T14:00:00+00:00

The baths were busy, it being Saturday afternoon and most people’s business finished with for the day. Millar had been rather alarmed that he wouldn’t be able to accommodate their needs, but when he’d had it discreetly explained what they were about, he was more than happy to see that they had all they required, which was in effect the free run of the place for a while. He knew of the Sarah Carter case and had been told to offer the gentlemen any assistance they might require in solving it. Buckner junior himself wasn’t present; he too had gone off to Bristol, that Mecca of the West Country towards which all men seemed to gravitate.

Millar couldn’t show them the exact place the body had been found. That area had been reconfigured a year after the event, because it held such sad associations for Buckner senior and was possibly having an inhibiting effect on the House of Sulis regaining its position as a bathing establishment of quality.

As Jonty had pointed out on their first visit, the atrium led down to the changing rooms, which was the hub of the institution. From there doors led off to the main pool, the steam room, the tepidarium and the frigidarium. Each of these had at least one smaller room or cupboard abutting onto them, to contain cleaning or other equipment, which couldn’t be left to pollute the view for refined customers.

The cupboard where Sarah Carter had been found naked and strangled had been opened up to provide a niche in which a statue of Niobe provided a tasteful remembrance to the girl. Back then, to have reached it from the main door would have involved crossing the atrium, the changing rooms and the frigidarium itself. Why the victim should have gone there of her own or anyone else’s volition was beyond them.

“Is there another entrance to the House of Sulis? Even a window which might have been used to gain access?” Jonty had got it into his mind that the killer had come from outside; his intuition had proved accurate before, so he felt it worth exploring every avenue.

“There is a small back door, used for deliveries and the like, but no gentleman would think to use it.”

Orlando turned and studied the wall, so that Millar couldn’t see his smile; the man would have been horrified to know what gentlemen would think to do.

“Could someone have made their way in through it? Someone determined not to be noticed?” Jonty was as persistent as a dog with a bone at times.

“If you’ll beg my pardon, sir, I’d say that route would be much more likely to attract attention. Let me explain. There’s always been a desk in the atrium and behind that a door into another room. I use it as a rest area or to make coffee and snacks or to let the cleaning ladies put their feet up. A hundred and one things. That’s where the back door gives onto—there’s usually someone in there and if not, someone’s sitting at the desk.

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