Death in the Forest by Moray Dalton

Author:Moray Dalton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dean Street Press
Published: 2023-02-09T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XVI

A BOX OF DATES

The inquest on Doris Jupp was opened two days after her death and formal evidence of identity was given by the aunt who had brought her up. The enquiry was then adjourned for a few days.

“I expected more of a crowd,” Enderby told Celia. He had called at the vicarage on his way home and found her alone. “I said as much to Tomsett, and he told me there were rival attractions, market day at Ringwood and some film star or other due to land at Southampton.”

The church bell had begun to toll as he spoke. He looked at Celia and she nodded. “The funeral is this afternoon. I went to see poor old Miss Jupp yesterday. She’s quite bewildered. It was so sudden. But she says the Freres have been very kind. The elder Mrs. Frere sent her five pounds to buy her mourning and Roger is paying the funeral expenses. They both sent flowers and the other maids clubbed together for a wreath, so she was quite overflowing with gratitude to everybody at the Court. But you don’t want to hear all this—”

“On the contrary,” said Enderby.

Celia, who was darning her father’s old cassock, paused in the act of threading her needle to look at him.

“You say that as if—there can’t have been anything wrong. Miss Jupp was so angry about that. She said a man whom she supposed to be the insurance agent and who afterwards turned out to be a policeman in plain clothes had been asking her all sorts of questions about Doris and if she had many admirers and—and that sort of thing. Her aunt said she used to go out with Bert Moore at the forge, but that was broken off some time ago, and so far as she knew there wasn’t anybody else, and that Doris was never one to run after boys.”

“I think I saw her once or twice during the summer when I was at the Court playing tennis,” said Enderby. “She helped the parlourmaid bring tea into the garden. Cedric jumped up to do something for her, and I heard him call her Doris. The parlourmaid is middle-aged and rather grim, but I remember thinking that her aide-de-camp was a pretty fluffy little thing.”

“Oh, dear,” said Celia, “I do hope you’re wrong. That is, if you mean what I think you mean.”

“I know no more than you do,” he said, “a little more about procedure perhaps. The inquest has been adjourned, and the police are making enquiries. I’m afraid that means that the verdict is not likely to be death from natural causes.”

He broke off as Mrs. Bond came in with the tea trolley and a plate of new-made scones. Celia laid aside her work and poured out the tea. The tolling of the bell had ceased.

“Father won’t be back yet. He has to go a round of visits. He was saying that he thought she might have had a duodenal ulcer.”

“It sounded like that,” Enderby agreed.

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