Such Is Death by Leo Bruce Read Free Book Online

chance.”
    â€œOr killed him by chance.”
    â€œOf course not. Therefore Rafter must have gone there by appointment, probably made on the phone when he said he couldn’t get through. I think if we had an idea whom he called we’d be on our way. So we’ve more or less got to concentrate on the family.”
    â€œI wish you luck,” said Carolus enigmatically and the discussion was closed.

5
    T HE interest of Carolus Deene in the Selby-on-Sea murder was heightened next day when one of his pupils, a cheerful spluttering boy called Dalbinney, came to him in the Break just as Carolus was hurrying to the masters’ common room.
    â€œExcuse me, sir. Could I ask you something?”
    Not one of these keen youngsters, Carolus prayed, with a question arising out of the morning’s history hour.
    â€œWell?” he said discouragingly.
    â€œYou go in for detection, don’t you, sir?”
    By now, Carolus thought, his favourite chair and
The Times
crossword would have been appropriated by Hollingbourne, who would be writing in ink the two clues he usually got wrong.
    â€œWell?” he said again.
    This curtness seemed to reduce the boy to the greatest confusion.
    â€œYou see, sir, I live at Selby-on-Sea. I thought … you see my mother …”
    Light dawned.
    â€œYour name’s Dalbinney, isn’t it?”
    â€œYes, sir. That’s why I thought … you see, it appears that the bumped-off man … my mother says …”
    â€œOh your prophetic soul! Your uncle,” said Carolus rather fatuously.
    â€œWell, yes, sir, I suppose he was. I mean I’d never heard of him … except that he died in the war … my mother thinks …”
    â€œDoes she? That’s unusual for a mother.”
    â€œNo, but I mean I told her … you see, she’s read your book … she’s coming to see you.”
    â€œLet’s get this straight. You told your mother I had the misfortune to teach you.”
    â€œYes, you see the police … I mean it being her long-lost brother … so I wrote and explained.”
    â€œThat’s more than you seem able to do now. What did you explain?”
    â€œAbout you going in for crime….”
    â€œBut I don’t.”
    â€œInvestigating I mean and all that … because my uncle …”
    â€œWhich uncle?”
    â€œBertrand. Uncle Locksley’s a solicitor in Bawdon … only the police seem to think … because they’re related you see … they’ve questioned mother already … so she’s coming to see you.”
    â€œThat seems to be the salient fact—your mother’s coming to see me.”
    â€œYes sir. Today I think it is … she’s not worried or anything … only the police…
    â€œThis is where we came in,” said Carolus firmly. “Thank you for warning me, Dalbinney.”
    He was right. Hollingbourne had written ‘Lopper’ for ‘Does he make short work of things at the stern? (6)’
    â€œNonsense,” said Carolus looking over his shoulder. “‘Docker’, obviously.”
    â€œThank you, Deene, for your brilliant intervention,” said Hollingbourne with seething sarcasm. “But I happen to prefer my own interpretation. ‘Short work’ is clearly ‘op’.”
    â€œThink so? What about ‘the stern’?”
    â€œAnagram of the remaining letters,” said Hollingbourne huffily.
    â€œLPER. What’s the word?”
    â€œPerl,” said Hollingbourne, committed now. “Old term for the rudder of a ship.”
    â€œYour vocabulary’s better than mine,” said Carolus, adding” or than any lexicographer’s. How’s the wife?”
    â€œSplendid, thank you. The baby’s not expected till January. I saw young Dalbinney cornering you. I suppose he wants you in on this murder?”
    â€œI couldn’t quite gather what he