The Girl in the Yellow Dress by Jane A. Adams

Author:Jane A. Adams
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448307104
Publisher: Severn House
Published: 2022-04-13T00:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

They called first that afternoon at the Greens’ farm to speak to Jeb Mortimer who had found Sarah Downham’s body. They were told that the family was absent, but they were directed to one of the barns close beside the farmhouse where Jeb would be working. They found an older man and a young boy, by Henry’s estimation no more than mid-teens and probably younger. He wondered if the boy should still be in school or if he was simply small and skinny for fourteen. He was indeed, Henry thought, small and skinny, and rather scared-looking when he realized it was a policeman he would be talking to. The older man, who introduced himself as Ted Arnold, put down his rake and stood to one side with his arms folded, making it plain that he was not going to leave young Jeb to the mercy of these foreign officers. Henry ignored him, but he noticed Mickey give a slight nod as though in approval.

They perched themselves on hay bales, and Henry said as gently as he could, ‘I know this must be hard on you, especially as you must have thought that all of this business was over and done with, but I have to ask you to tell me about that morning when you found Miss Downham’s body. Did you know the young lady?’

The boy looked awkwardly at Henry and said, ‘I knew who she was; she visited here, but I never spoke to her. I recognized her straight off, though, just lying there, staring up at the sky.’

‘And you immediately knew she was dead? You didn’t think she might just be hurt?’

Jeb nodded. ‘I could see she was dead. I’ve seen dead sheep and dead cattle, and my grandpa when he died. Dead looks like dead.’

Henry nodded. ‘It does,’ he agreed. He saw the look of relief on Jeb’s face that this stranger understood what he meant. ‘Can you describe that moment to me, the way she was lying, what you thought? Any small thing that you observed.’

‘I told this to Inspector Walker.’ Jeb looked worried again. ‘I’m not in trouble, am I? Did I say something wrong?’

‘No, you did nothing wrong, and I’ve read Inspector Walker’s reports, but we policeman sometimes like to ask our own questions. So humour me.’

The boy took a deep breath and glanced across at Ted. The big man shifted from foot to foot impatiently, as though he could not see the purpose of the damn fool policeman coming in and asking the same thing over and over again and upsetting the boy. Henry felt a twinge of sympathy.

Finally, Jeb said, ‘She was lying on her back, her eyes open, like she was looking up at the sky. Her body looked untidy, as though she’d fallen back. Her skirt was all rucked up.’ He blushed furiously. ‘I remember thinking the lady wouldn’t like that, not her skirts all rucked up. I touched her hand, that was all I did – I knew she was dead, but I touched her hand.

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