"What do you want?" Miss Chilmark asked.
"Just a few words."
"A few!"
What Shirley-Ann wanted was the chance to talk over the developments since Monday evening. It was right against her nature to suffer in silence. She had a chronic need to share her anxieties with some other woman. She couldn't trouble Polly again so soon after meeting her in the Bath Bun, and she didn't like to call at Jessica's art gallery in case the man A.J. was there. Miss Chilmark wasn't an obvious choice for a tete-a-tete, but she was the only choice left. Spotting her from the bus had seemed like destiny intervening.
"You must have heard about poor Sid?"
Miss Chilmark gave a nod. She was wearing a small version of Robin Hood's hat with a feather, and the feather was vibrating, whether with rage or the breeze it was impossible to judge.
Shirley-Ann did what she could to make this seem like a shared concern. "I heard the news from Polly. She had the police round yesterday morning. Well, so did I later. I dare say you did. But Polly is terribly upset. She cares so much about the Bloodhounds. We're like her own family to her."
Miss Chilmark said acidly, "If that's her idea of a family, she must have had a deprived upbringing."
"Well, you must know what I'm trying to say. The police are bound to think of us as suspects. This was a locked room murder-the very topic we were about to discuss on Monday evening."
"Not at my suggestion," Miss Chilmark was quick to point out.
Shirley-Ann sighed. "It doesn't really matter who suggested it. We all knew that Milo was going to read from the book, and we're all under suspicion. Did the police visit you?"
Grudgingly, Miss Chilmark said, "They did call briefly."
"You drive, don't you?"
"I beg your pardon."
"You have a car of your own?"
"I do."
"Then it's perfectly possible for you to have driven to the boatyard after the meeting finished. You're a suspect." Shirley-Ann added with more tact, "We all have cars, so far as I know."
Outrage had spread ominously across the suspect Miss Chilmark's features, and the feather was positively flapping.
Shirley-Ann said, "The detective who came to interview me made the point that it was the crime of someone of high intelligence."
Miss Chilmark looked a mite less outraged. "Low cunning, more like. I know whom I suspect."
"Rupert?"
"Who else?"
"But why? Why would he want to kill Sid? They weren't enemies."
"How can you tell?" said Miss Chilmark, her eyes on the Abbey front. "Sid-Mr. Towers as I prefer to think of him- was a quiet man. Who can say what his private opinions were? He wasn't the sort to articulate them at one of our meetings."
"But Rupert isn't a man to bottle up his feelings-and I can't recall him saying an unkind word about Sid, ever."
"He's a degenerate."
"Rupert?"
"You only have to look at him. That face."
"Now that really is unfair."
"Evil."
"I don't think of him as evil. Rather hollow-cheeked, I grant you, and he could do with some more teeth. He's no oil painting, but I find it a very watchable face. Anyway, it would be terrible if people were judged on their looks."
"His are clearly the result of many years of bad living."
And yours, Shirley-Ann thought, of mean-mindedness. "Or neglect."
"Depravity. He's constantly in public houses, so far as I can make out. His choice of reading is indicative-all that violence he wallows in."
"Really, Miss Chilmark, I've read a lot of those books myself and I'm not depraved, I hope. Millions of people read them. You admire The Name of the Rose, but it doesn't mean you want to go into a monastery, I mean a nunnery-oh, I don't know what I do mean, except that the books people read are no guide to their behavior."
Miss Chilmark turned to Shirley-Ann, her broad face pitted with disfavor. "Let me remind you that Mr. Towers worked for a security firm. They're expolicemen, a lot of them. They know the ne'er-do-wells in this city. If something came to his notice in the course of his duties, something particularly unpleasant regarding one of the Bloodhounds, and that person felt at risk of being exposed, you wouldn't have to look hard for a motive for murder."
Shirley-Ann had forgotten that Sid was a security guard. It was the first reasonable comment Miss Chilmark had made. "But that could apply to any of us. Any of us could have a skeleton in the cupboard."
"Speak for yourself," said Miss Chilmark.
"Even if I had, I wouldn't see murder as the solution," Shirley-Ann said thoughtfully. Mentally she was reviewing the other Bloodhounds, wondering what skeletons they might prefer to keep hidden. Jessica? Polly? She had been going to suggest a meeting, if only to compare notes on what the police had said. Now, she was less enthusiastic.
"Poor Mr. Towers didn't batter himself to death," said Miss Chilmark. "Someone wanted him dead."
"At the meeting last night," said Shirley-Ann, "do you remember anything that Sid said or did that might have caused someone else to kill him?"
"I was too distressed to notice."
"Before that. Before Rupert arrived."
"The only thing I can recall him saying was at the beginning, before we started. There were four of us present-Mr. Towers and the three lady members. Polly asked who was missing- as if she couldn't work it out for herself-and Mr. Towers spoke Rupert's name, adding that Rupert is always late. It was so unusual for Mr. Towers to say anything that I noticed it particularly."
"He said something later," said Shirley-Ann. "Now what was it? A quip of some sort. Just a couple of words. I know! Jessica was giving us her theory about the stealing of the Penny Black. She said it could easily be a collector. She could picture some middle-aged man with a personality defect gloating over his stamps, or something like that, and Sid said, 'Or woman,' and we all smiled about it. You do remember, don't you? After all, you were the one who suggested we discuss the stealing of the stamp."
"I can bring it to mind now, yes. But I don't see that it makes any difference. None of us took offense, the ladies, I mean."
"Do you think it was Sid who took offense? Do you think he took the remark personally, about the personality defect? He could have thought it was aimed at him."
"Conceivably. Who can say?"
Shirley-Ann trawled through her memory of the evening. "After that, you gave us your theories about the riddle, and Sid made no comment at all, did he?"
"I can't remember any."
"The next thing was that Rupert's dog appeared."
"Spare me that." Miss Chilmark looked away at the recorder player.
"I don't remember Sid saying anything while you were distressed, but when Jessica asked for a paper bag, he supplied one. He took it from his carrier bag. A book was wrapped in it. So it was thanks to Sid that she had the means to cope with your attack."
Miss Chilmark appeared to wish to dismiss the episode from her mind. At any rate, she said nothing.
Shirley-Ann picked up the thread again. "Soon after, I read the Stanley Ellin story, and then Milo opened his copy of The Hollow Man."
"Before that, he insulted Mrs. Wycherley."
"Who did?"
Miss Chilmark looked as if she had bitten into a sour apple. "Who do you think?"
"Rupert?"
"You remember, don't you? 'Jesus wants me for a sun-beam'?"
"Oh." Shirley-Ann tried to stop herself smiling.
"It was meant to wound, and it did."
"Yes, but it didn't have anything to do with Sid."
"It demonstrated the depths the man will sink to."
"Rupert. But we were talking about Sid and the things he did and said that evening," said Shirley-Ann. "And now I've remembered something else. At the end of the evening, after Milo opened his book and found the Penny Black, we were talking about what Milo should do next. Some of us said there was no need for him to get involved. He could send the stamp back to the P
ostal Museum, and no one need say anything about it. Someone-I think it was Rupert-asked Sid for his opinion and he said, 'I can stay quiet.' You must remember because you were one of the people who said he had a duty to go to the police. You and Polly insisted. Everyone else was inclined to turn a blind eye."
"Don't talk to me in that accusing tone of voice," said Miss Chilmark. "It was the proper thing to do."
"If he hadn't done it, he would have gone straight back to the narrowboat. Very likely, Sid wouldn't have been murdered."
"That, if I may say so, is about the most stupid thing I have heard you say," commented Miss Chilmark. "It's pure speculation and quite pointless. No one can say with certainty what would have happened. Anyway, my recollection is that Milo made up his own mind. It didn't require advice from me or anyone else. He would have gone to the police regardless, and quite right." She stood up. "And now, if we have quite finished this futile exercise, I have some business to attend to. Good morning."
She headed off in the direction of Waitrose.
Chapter Twenty
Julie Hargreaves routinely cleared the surface of her desk at the end of each day's work. She wasn't compulsive about tidiness, but the desk was quite modest in size, and she would transfer everything she could to the filing cabinet and the wire trays. For the pens, pencils, and clips, she had an arrangement of cylinders called a desk tidy. All she expected to find in front of her when she arrived for work next day was the mail, if any. So this Wednesday morning Peter Diamond, whose desk was a disgrace, was making mischief. He had heaped her space with objects in transparent plastic bags-Sid Towers's possessions, ready to be collected for forensic examination. An outraged howl was the least he expected.
She deflated him by saying mildly, "It's a little early for Christmas, isn't it?"
He said, "You're an optimist." He still hoped for an eruption.
But she moved the dialogue smoothly on to professional matters. "Surely he didn't carry all this in his pockets."
"It's all the loose stuff from his car as well."
"Anything of interest?" She picked up one of the bags and rattled the contents. "Keys."
"For the car, the doors to his flat and the warehouse where he worked."
"Nothing so helpful as the key to a certain padlock?"
"You're a superoptimist."
She handled a bulkier package. "This will be the book he had with him at the Bloodhounds' meeting. The Three Coffins."
Diamond frowned as a fresh thought popped into his brain. "Where's the brown paper bag we heard it was wrapped in?"
Julie shifted some of the objects.
"Should be here somewhere," said Diamond, joining in. "Every bloody item has its own plastic bag and label."
"I don't see it, do you? Here's a carrier bag." Julie picked up the packet and read the label. " 'Waitrose carrier used to contain book, The Three Coffins.' No mention of a brown bag."
"Come to think of it, he wouldn't fancy using it for his precious book after Miss Chilmark had been hyperventilating into it. Probably binned it."
"I expect so," said Julie, continuing to examine the collection. Packaged and labeled like this, anyone's possessions would have looked pathetic. There was about thirty pence in small coins. A five-pound note. A handkerchief. A comb. Two ballpoints. Haifa tube of Polo mints. "Does it matter?"
"The bag? Only if it's missing," said Diamond, beginning to question his own assumption. "Would he have thrown it away, seeing that it came in so useful? Suppose the old dear had another attack. They could have needed it a second time."
"Unless it got torn."
"Nothing was said about that. Who held the bag to Miss Chilmark's face?"
"The art gallery owner. Jessica Shaw. She knew what to do."
"Then I wouldn't mind betting she kept hold of the bag, at least until the meeting ended."
Julie gave him a long look. He had this way of pursuing to tedium points that seemed trivial. Once in a while this paid a dividend. Still, it was difficult to understand why the fate of a brown paper bag had any importance.
"And the meeting broke up in some disorder after the Penny Black was discovered," he continued, talking more to himself than Julie. "She may not have returned the bag to Sid. Well, she couldn't have, or it would be among these things."
"Unless Sid got rid of it later."
Diamond didn't think much of that suggestion. "She could have left it in the crypt, in which case some cleaner will have tidied it up."
"Or she may have taken it with her."
"Jessica? Stuffed it into her handbag, you mean?"
"Or a pocket."
He liked that better. "Right. We'll ask her now. We'll take a walk to that art gallery she manages."
"What do I do with all this?" she asked with her hand on the heap of plastic packets.
"Leave it there."
"Cluttering up my desk? No thanks."
"You're not a slave to tidiness, are you?"
"But there's money here."
"This is a police station, Julie. If you can't trust the police.."He spread his hands like the Pope and tried to look as benign.
She gave him a long look, and said, "It's not your money."
"Yours neither. Get your coat. We've more important things to do."
She looked at her watch. "Can't do it. Sorry."
"Why not."
"Actually, I've got an appointment."
His blood pressure rose several points. She had no business making appointments in police time. "What's that?"
"The postmortem on Sid Towers. You asked me to go- remember?"
"Ah." He'd dismissed it from his mind. "What time?"
"Noon, at the RUH."
"We can fit this other thing in first. I'll get you there on time, I guarantee."
"If you say so." Not for the first time in her dealings with Diamond, Julie showed restraint. She could easily have remarked that if he could drive her to the RUH, it was odd that he was prevented from attending the autopsy himself.
The Walsingham Gallery window was being dressed, and Jessica Shaw was directing, gesturing to a man on the other side of the glass exactly where a painting on an easel should stand. She was engrossed, and so was a small crowd of bystanders, making it difficult for anyone to reach the other end of the narrow, flagstoned passage of Northumberland Place. Jessica seemed to be well aware that this was street entertainment. In a cherry-red woolen dress and with a thick white cardigan draped around her shoulders, she was conspicuous among her audience in their drab padded jackets and wind-cheaters.
"Mrs. Jessica Shaw?"
She didn't even turn to answer Diamond's inquiry, but carried on giving instructions. "More to the right. The right, the right, the right."
"Police," said Diamond. "CID. This may be inconvenient, but are you Mrs. Shaw?"
"It is inconvenient, yes."
"And you are Mrs. Shaw?"
"I am. That's it, A.J.! Perfect!"
In a tone of formality amounting almost to a warning, he gave his rank and name and Julie's, too. "Could we talk to you inside, ma'am?"
"But I have talked," she said, still staring at her window arrangement. "I had a sergeant here yesterday and he wrote down everything I said."
"This is the follow-up."
She sighed and turned her face to him for the first time. "And I'm trying to get this ready for a private view this evening. I've got over a hundred people coming. What do you think of it so far?"
"The window? I like it. Not so keen on the picture. Meant to be Avebury, is it?"
"God help us," said Jessica Shaw. "What a brutal expression that is. Meant to be. We just have to be grateful the artist isn't here."
They went inside. AJ. was sent to fetch more pictures and unwrap them. "I hope this won't take long," Jessica said to Diamond. "It's interfering with my livelihood, all this third degree." She found them chairs at the rear of the shop. "You want coffee?"
"That's going to delay the questions even more," Diamon
d pointed out.
"Not if AJ. makes it. White with how many sugars? Two?"
She'd guessed correctly. "Thanks. You should be doing my job," Diamond remarked.
Eyeing his bulk, she commented, "It's not much of a deduction. And no sugar for you, right?" she said to Julie. She gave the order to AJ. as he shuffled past with a large wrapped painting, then she confided to Diamond, "AJ. is a brick. It's all voluntary. I don't pay him a cent. I only wish I could sell more of his work."
"His work?"
"He's an artist."
"Is that his stuff in the window?"
"Lord, no. I keep him upstairs."
"Lucky fellow," said Diamond, then wished he had guarded his tongue. The look he got was all he deserved. She didn't blush, or betray any embarrassment. She simply gave him a cold stare. "First question," he said quickly. "When did you join the Bloodhounds?"
"Last winter. I was one of the last to join, except for the new woman, Shirley-Ann. She's only been a couple of times."
"So was Sid Towers already a member when you joined?"
"Sid? Yes."
"Had you met him before?"
"No."
"Did you know any of them previously?"
"Only Polly Wycherley. I joined at her invitation. She came into the gallery a couple of times toward the end of last year and noticed what I was reading. We discovered we shared an interest in crime fiction, so she told me about the meetings in the crypt. I went along reluctantly. She's a great persuader, is Polly. Have you met her?"
"Not yet."
"She's cooled toward me for some reason. Probably something I said. People like you and me ought to think before we speak. But I don't go to please Polly anymore. I go to be entertained. The members are well informed, but I can tell you there are some pretty eccentric ones among them."
"Lost their Marples, you mean?"
She raised her eyebrows. "Did I hear right? Was that meant to be a pun?"
" 'Meant to be.' What a brutal expression."
Now she laughed, and it was clear from the look she gave him that she was beginning to alter her assessment of this paunchy policeman. "Anyway, 'eccentric' was the word I used. The Bloodhounds aren't so dim. They're well read. I like scoring points off them when I can."
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