Death in Kashmir by M. M. Kaye Read Free Book Online

automatic on her it would have raised doubts in even the woolliest of minds; not to mention giving rise to a lot of awkward questions. People, even middle-aged widows, do not usually carry loaded weapons unless they are afraid of something.’
    Sarah said: ‘Couldn’t it have dropped out into the snow when she fell? Or perhaps the coolie who found her may have stolen it?’
    â€˜She wore it in a little holster under her arm—like I do in the daytime—and someone must have searched her body to find it. No coolie would have touched a corpse found under these circumstances, because he would have been too afraid of being accused of having something to do with her death. And even supposing a coolie had tried to rob the body, do you suppose for one moment that he would have gone to the trouble of removing the holster as well? It would have been easy enough to slip out the gun, but it can’t have been so easy to remove the holster and the sling. It must either have been cut away or her ski-coat taken off and replaced, which could only have been done while her body was still warm, because afterwards she—it——’
    â€˜I know,’ said Sarah hastily, ‘I saw them bring her in. But how do you know the gun wasn’t there when they found her? Major McKay may have taken charge of it.’
    â€˜Because,’ Janet’s voice was once more barely audible, and she shivered uncontrollably, ‘I found her at about four o’clock. Before the coolie did.’
    â€˜You!’
    â€˜Yes. I–I was worried. I hadn’t seen her since dinner-time the night before, because when I went to her room after breakfast she’d already left and the room servant said she’d gone off with the Khilanmarg party. So it wasn’t until you and Reggie Craddock and the Coply twins came back early from Khilan, and said you hadn’t seen her, that I began to get really worried. I went out to look for her myself. I don’t know why I went straight to the gully … except that Reggie had warned us that the snow there was dangerous, and I was afraid that——’ Janet left the sentence open, and then finished abruptly: ‘Anyway, I found her.’
    â€˜But—’ whispered Sarah breathlessly, ‘but that must have been long before the coolie found her! Why didn’t you fetch somebody?’
    â€˜What was the use? She was dead. She had been dead for hours. Even I could see that. Besides, I couldn’t afford to have my name brought into it, so I came back to the hotel by a different route and said nothing—it had begun to snow again by then, so I knew that my tracks would be covered.’
    Sarah said sharply: ‘What are you going to do now? Why don’t you go to the police?’
    â€˜The police? ’ said Janet scornfully. ‘Of course I can’t go to the police! What would I tell them? Give away the results of months of work and planning, and ruin everything at the eleventh hour? Or say I “just had a feeling” that it wasn’t an accident—and be told that I’m a hysterical female for my pains? No. There isn’t anything I can do but wait.’
    â€˜Wait?’ repeated Sarah incredulously. ‘Wait for what, for heaven’s sake?’
    â€˜I’ve told you. We have to meet someone here. I can’t go until he comes. Mrs Matthews is dead, but I know all that she knew. And I have to pass it on to the right person. After that, like you said, it’s somebody else’s pigeon and not ours—mine—any longer.’
    Sarah wanted to say ‘suppose he doesn’t come?’ but stopped herself in time: it seemed an unnecessarily cruel remark in the face of the girl’s desperate fear. She said instead:
    â€˜Why don’t you take a chance and write it down for once—the important part—and risk posting it? Yes, I know you said that agents in your department