Shades of Murder by Ann Granger

Author:Ann Granger
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2000-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Stanley Huxtable set off for court on Monday morning anticipating plenty of lively copy as Mr Green was due to begin his defence. Rubbing his hands together briskly as he waited for the Oxford train at Bamford Station he looked about him for the Reuter’s man and was both relieved and suspicious not to see him. The man from the international press agency had been assiduous in attaching himself to the local man and Stanley knew it wasn’t for the pleasure of a fellow hack’s company. But now that Stanley couldn’t see him, he began to worry where he was. Had he overslept? Had he stumbled on some story and beaten Stanley to it?

At that moment, all thought of the absent Reuter’s man was pushed from Stanley’s mind. A pair of women had arrived on the platform. One was middle-aged and respectable in appearance. The other, Stanley presumed by her figure and the way she moved, was young. He couldn’t be sure because her face was obscured by a heavy veil as though she were in deepest mourning. The older woman was fussing round the younger one who seemed very nervous.

Now, what’s all this? wondered Stanley. Is the young one a widow? Is the older one her mother?

At that moment, the breeze caught the veil and for the barest second it flicked aside. He caught a glimpse of her left profile, and a very pretty profile it was. But he was more intrigued by her reaction to the movement of the veil. Her hand shot up to drag it back into place, after which she looked round as if to check no one had noticed. If she’d seen Stanley at all at that moment, she’d have seen a young man intent on studying the railway tracks.

The train was approaching. It drew in with a groan of its mighty wheels and a hiss of expelled steam which enveloped the platform and waiting passengers in a cloud of thick smelly fog. When it had cleared, the two women were nowhere to be seen. Stanley shrugged and climbed aboard.

* * *

The Reuter’s man had travelled ahead of him and was sitting in the press box by the time Stanley arrived. He’d pinched Stanley’s place nearest the witness box. What’s more, he’d already come by some information.

‘He’s going to put that nursemaid on the stand,’ said the Reuter’s man.

‘What – old Green?’ asked Stanley disbelievingly. ‘He never is.’

‘That’s what I’ve learned. It might be clever at that. If she comes over well, as an honest girl and all that, it scuttles that housekeeper’s testimony well and truly.’

‘He’s taking a blooming big risk,’ said Stanley, adding, ‘Well, I’m damned!’

The Reuter’s man nodded in agreement but he had mistaken the reason for Stanley’s last words. Surprised as he’d been to hear of defence’s intentions, he was even more surprised to see, entering the court through the public gallery, the two women he’d last seen on Bamford Station.

They appeared to be debating where to take their seats.

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