Death Comes to Cambers by E.R. Punshon Read Free Book Online

there’s a good deal he may be able to tell us.’
    â€˜I was Lady Cambers’s guest,’ Bobby said, in a low voice. ‘If I can do anything to help...’
    â€˜I’ll ring the Yard up and ask,’ Lawson said decidedly.
    â€˜Thank you, sir,’ murmured Bobby.
    One of those who had accompanied Colonel Lawson, and had since been busy at the table where lay the body of the dead woman, spoke now. He said: ‘The cause of death is plain enough. Strangling. With a cord – bit of washing line, very likely. Sort of thing Dene sells by the dozen yards. Every house and cottage in the village has it. Probably slipped over her head from behind, and pulled tight. Simple. Efficacious. Silent. Never knew anything about it, most likely.’
    The speaker was a Dr. Ball, a general practitioner in the neighbourhood.
    â€˜Ought to be a post-mortem, though,’ he added. ‘Might be something else as well.’
    â€˜Yes, that would be best,’ Lawson agreed. He turned to his superintendent again. ‘Moulland,’ he said, ‘look after that, and have a search made to see if any piece of washing-line can be found. It’s a clue worth following up – somebody may know something in the village.’ He turned back to the doctor. ‘Can you say what time death occurred?’
    â€˜Probably about eight hours ago. I should say a little before midnight. Very heavy rain about eleven. She wasn’t in that. Clothing only a little damp, and quite dry next the skin. I’ve noted the rectal temperature. Best guide. Of course, I’m assuming she was murdered where they found her. Bit different if body had been kept in warm, dry room. But not much different. Rectal temperature is pretty safe, taken with other indications.’
    â€˜I think Dene was with Lady Cambers till half-past ten or thereabouts,’ Bobby volunteered. ‘I remember hearing Farman saying he would be nicely caught in that heavy rain there was last night.’
    â€˜Who is Farman?’ Colonel Lawson asked.
    â€˜Lady Cambers’s butler,’ Bobby answered.
    â€˜I suppose Lady Cambers did not accompany Dene – there’s no suggestion that she went out with him, or followed later on?’
    â€˜I hardly think so,’ Bobby answered. ‘I was playing bezique with my grandmother. Lady Cambers had been in her own sitting-room with Dene since soon after dinner. When we finished our bezique, about eleven, my grandmother said she would go to bed, but first she would say good night to Lady Cambers. I think she was a little curious to know why they had been talking so long. She came back to get her glasses, and she remarked to me that Lady Cambers seemed very agitated and upset, but wouldn’t say what the matter was. She went to bed then, and I sat reading till nearly half-past eleven. Then I went to bed, too.’
    â€˜You didn’t see Lady Cambers again, hear anything unusual, or hear her go out?’
    â€˜No,’ Bobby answered. ‘But there is a garden door only a little way down the passage from her sitting-room. She could easily have slipped out without anyone being the wiser, if she had wished to. I believe Farman found all the doors and windows fastened as usual this morning.’
    â€˜Then, apparently, except for Lady Hirlpool, when she went to say good night, Dene is the last person who saw Lady Cambers alive?’
    â€˜Except the murderer,’ Bobby answered gravely.

CHAPTER 5
FIRST SUSPICIONS
    From the shed, Colonel Lawson and his party, to which Bobby had now, unostentatiously but firmly, attached himself, proceeded across the fields towards Cambers House, where the chief constable meant to continue the investigation. On the way they had to pass the spot where the murdered woman’s body had been found, and to the colonel’s intense indignation most of those he had expelled from the shed, together with a number of new-comers, had gathered