Corpse in Waiting by Margaret Duffy Read Free Book Online

place for fifty thousand below if I don’t now pull out because of what’s happened. I’m only human and I’ve jumped at it as it’s a wonderful investment even if I don’t ever live here. But, being suspicious, I’m wondering if the owners’ solicitors really have their client’s interest at heart or someone else has their finger on the pulse and wants to get shot of the place, fast.’
    â€˜The nephew,’ Carrick murmured. ‘That’s my priority already, to find and talk to him.’
    â€˜Any other leads?’
    â€˜Not yet.’
    We bought the rectory at Hinton Littlemoor when the diocese planned to put it on the market having rehoused Patrick’s parents, John and Elspeth, in a rabbit hutch of a bungalow on a cheap little development where the railway station and goods yard had once been. Neither Patrick nor I had found this at all acceptable. A lot of alterations to what was already quite a large house later they have their own private annex where an old stable and garage used to be and the new rooms above are for our and our family’s use. John still has his study, sacrosanct, in the main house and they are welcome to use the living rooms there too if they wish. It is a very nice arrangement – but for the lack of an author’s workstation – with everyone respecting others’ privacy although I do have to rake the children out of their grandparents’ accommodation occasionally when I feel they are practically living there.
    Elspeth, still slim and elegant, was in her own kitchen, preparing her and John’s lunch.
    â€˜Do you remember anyone by the name of Alexandra Nightingale?’ I asked.
    â€˜You’re back early,’ she commented, as usual getting right to the heart of any situation. ‘Is everything all right?’
    â€˜I think so. It’s just that this woman’s popped out of the woodwork and Patrick’s helping her look at houses for sale.’
    â€˜ Really? ’
    â€˜Umm.’
    â€˜I take it this would be someone he knew when he came home badly injured.’
    â€˜That’s right.’
    Elspeth paused in grating cheese. ‘What does she look like?’
    â€˜Around five feet six inches tall, blonde hair – although it might not be natural – bright blue eyes.’
    â€˜Really piercing blue eyes?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Well, I can remember a girl like that but I think she had dark hair. Let me think a minute . . . That’s right. He brought her here one weekend. I didn’t like her at all, mainly because she was rude and patronizing. She put John’s back up straight away by saying that only people like country yokels still went to church. And now she’s turned up, you say?’
    â€˜Moving some kind of agency down here from London and buying a house. Apparently she used to be a model.’
    â€˜I’d be surprised if she was, unless I’m thinking of a different girl. She didn’t have the deportment of any kind of model.’
    â€˜Patrick thinks he met her in a pub in Plymouth.’
    â€˜That sounds more like it.’ Elspeth went back to grating. ‘What do you think of her?’
    â€˜Not much. She’s all over him.’
    â€˜And flattering him silly, I suppose.’
    â€˜Yes, but – Elspeth, please don’t say anything to him.’
    After taking a glance at an opened recipe book she shot me a look over her reading glasses. ‘No, of course not. Not unless he mentions it to me.’
    â€˜And you mustn’t think it’s anything to do with it but I’m buying a small house.’
    She did not turn a hair. ‘You don’t have anywhere quiet to work now, do you?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Someone found a head and some poor woman’s body in a house in Bath yesterday.’
    â€˜That’s the one.’
    A little later James Carrick rang. ‘Beaten around the head with