Say It With Flowers (Mrs. Bradley) by Mitchell Gladys

Author:Mitchell, Gladys [Mitchell, Gladys]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2014-04-07T16:00:00+00:00

Laura left Newcastle early on the following Monday morning, and brought news that the inquest had been adjourned and that there was going to be some fun when it was resumed, as the police doctor declared that the corpse had been dead for at least four months and probably longer.

“As, of course, it couldn’t have been,” declared Laura roundly. “We know for a fact that Hilary Beads was alive on May the twenty-first, because she didn’t leave the vicarage until May the twenty-second. Still, it wasn’t my business to contradict him. I know it was Hilary Beads. The BBC broadcast for her nearest relative, and some elderly female who said she was her mother turned up to identify the body. The woman was half fainting, I’m told, but said at once that it was Hilary. Oh, the police doctor was wrong. It’s quite easy to mistake the length of time a person has been dead. It depends on all sorts of circumstances. Besides, it must be Hilary Beads, and the Carmichaels are guilty. Work it out for yourself. First of all, there’s the locale where the body was found. We know the Carmichaels walked the Wall. We know the route they took.”

“We know nothing of the route they took, once the driver of the hired car had set them down and they were out of his sight, and you are jumping to conclusions much too readily,” declared Dame Beatrice.

“Well, I think it all fits much too well to be wrong. And, if the corpse isn’t Hilary Beads, she’s in America and can be traced, and that will settle it once and for all.”

“We know now—we have known since I returned from Newcastle without you—that Hilary Beads is not in America. We have been in touch with her aunt whom she had promised to visit before she embarked.”

“Not in America? Then there you are!” said Laura, in great triumph. “I’m right and the police doctor is wrong. Inexperienced, probably. I don’t suppose he’s seen all those many bodies which have been exposed on a Northumbrian moor.”

“It is the Northumbrian moor which troubles me,” said Dame Beatrice. “One is apt to think in terms of time and mileage.”

“Time and mileage?”

“Exactly. Consider the facts: we know that Hilary Beads did not leave the vicarage until after tea on the Wednesday. Phlox and Marigold Carmichael established themselves at the vicarage after lunch on the following Saturday. That only left Phlox Wednesday night, all day Thursday, all day Friday, and Saturday morning to murder Hilary, transport the body from place unknown (but Wandles Parva must be regarded as his base) to Northumberland, hide it in those bushes which can only be reached on foot, return here, and establish himself and his sister at the vicarage. I suppose it could be done, but . . .”

Laura screwed up her nose. She was a reasonable being, on the whole, and a highly intelligent one.

“Oh, Lord !” she said. “Have we really gone and identified the wrong body?

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