Suspicious Death by Dorothy Simpson

Author:Dorothy Simpson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
Published: 2017-04-04T04:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

‘She’s not back from lunch yet.’ Mrs Pantry’s eyes flickered in the direction of the avenue of trees, as if she half-expected to see Edith Phipps walking up the drive. Despite the fact that it was pouring with rain, she did not ask them in. The sun had suddenly clouded over and a heavy April shower had materialised with very little warning.

Thanet hunched his shoulders against the water which was trickling down the back of his neck. He and Lineham had unwisely not bothered to put on their raincoats for the short distance between house and car, and Mrs Pantry’s inhospitality had caught them unprepared. He was annoyed that she had not invited them to take shelter from the downpour and annoyed, too, that he had not thought of calling in at the gatehouse on the way. He had, after all, been well aware that Edith always spent her lunch hours at home.

Still, there were various points he wanted to raise with the housekeeper.

‘In that case, I’d like another word with you, while we’re waiting.’

Grudgingly she opened the massive door a little wider and moved aside to allow them to pass. They stepped inside, brushing the rain off their jackets and wiping their faces.

There was a pungent smell of polish in the hall and halfway up the staircase lay an open tin and some dusters. Without asking permission, Mrs Pantry climbed the remaining stairs, plumped down on her knees and resumed the task which they had evidently interrupted. ‘You won’t mind if I get on with my work?’

Thanet was about to protest that yes, he did object, when he changed his mind. This was more than Mrs Pantry’s natural ungraciousness, it was a calculated snub, and it intrigued him. He would play it her way, for the moment. What had aroused her hostility? he wondered. Despite Edith Phipps’s brief account of Mrs Pantry’s unhappy past, Thanet found that his dislike of the housekeeper had not diminished. What was it about her that provoked this instinctive recoil? It certainly wasn’t her size. He had met any number of large women in the past, and some of them he had found very attractive. Nor was it the fact that she was physically unprepossessing. Perhaps it was her lack of femininity, her gracelessness, her uncompromising harshness. Or perhaps it was no one thing, but a combination of many. Irrelevantly, he found himself wondering about the husband who had absconded. What sort of man would be attracted to a woman like this?

Anxious to avoid the sight of her massive buttocks and treelike thighs advancing slowly towards him down the stairs, he crossed to the oak table against the wall on the other side of the hall and hitched himself up on to it. From here he had a good view of her profile through the banisters. Lineham stationed himself beside the staircase, his head just below the level of hers.

‘Is Mr Salden about?’ Thanet wanted to be sure that this conversation was not going to be overheard.

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