The Judgement of Strangers by Taylor Andrew

Author:Taylor, Andrew [Taylor, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Thriller, Historical
ISBN: 0312287305
Google: 6o7_4uproa4C
Amazon: B00AXPJOXQ
Barnesnoble: B00AXPJOXQ
Goodreads: 1257532
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 1997-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

23

Shortly after the police left, I went to visit the widow of the man who had died over the weekend. She lived in one of the council houses on Manor Farm Lane, not far from the Potters’. The house was full of relations, and the television was on all the time I was there. I did what I could and left as soon as was decently possible; now the man was dead and the funeral was arranged, I was no longer wanted.

I walked back along the north side of the green. As I was passing the bus shelter, I heard a voice call my name. Audrey was leaning from the window of her first-floor sitting room.

‘Can you spare a moment?’ Her face was bright and alert. ‘One or two points about our fete.’

She came down to meet me in the hall. The tea room had just closed, and Charlene Potter was clearing the tables. She gave me a smile as I passed. I followed Audrey upstairs. She settled me in the wing armchair that had been her father’s. (‘It’s a chair meant for a man, don’t you think? I never sit in it myself.’) She opened the door of her sideboard and took out glasses and a bottle.

‘You’ll join me in a glass of sherry, won’t you?’

‘Thank you.’

She was already pouring sherry into the glasses. ‘Such terribly sad news about Lady Youlgreave. Of course, she was very old and I suppose it could have happened at any time – living by herself in that wreck of a house with only those dogs for company.’ She handed me a brimming glass. ‘I wonder who will inherit. I believe there are Youlgreave cousins in Herefordshire somewhere, but I don’t think they were in touch. And some of them emigrated. New Zealand, was it?’ She settled herself in the chair by the window, sighed with satisfaction, and raised her glass. ‘Chin-chin. She should have gone into a home years ago. She would have had to if Doris hadn’t been there. I told Charlene, “Your mother may think she’s doing Lady Youlgreave a kindness,” I said, “but the poor dear would be much better off in a proper nursing home.” Still, some people just won’t be told.’

I sipped my sherry.

‘Do smoke. It’s Liberty Hall here!’ Audrey jumped up to fetch me an ashtray. ‘Charlene tells me you were actually there.’

‘Doris phoned me when she found the body.’

‘It must have been frightful,’ Audrey said with relish. ‘Of course, the police have got it wrong as usual. Typical. I’m not surprised after the way they handled Lord Peter’s death.’

‘What have they got wrong?’

‘Apparently they think that Lady Youlgreave was trying to reach her medicine on the mantelpiece, and she tripped. But it can’t have happened like that. Charlene was quite upset about it. She thinks the police are trying to blame her mother – for leaving the medicine out on the mantelpiece. But that’s nonsense. The whole point of leaving it on the mantelpiece was because Lady Youlgreave couldn’t reach it there.

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