âPerhaps out of respect for the dead we ought to abandon the play-acting.â
A murmur of horror came from Priscilla. The next thing she knew Gilroy would kick her out and her miserable fee would shrivel into nothing.
âBut darlings, itâs perfectly lovely here. Why on earth leave just becauseâ¦â She cut herself short in the nick of time, having been about to say, â⦠because a dirty old manâs kicked the bucket.â
âWell, I donât want to stay if everyone else is going,â Loredana said, making it rather too clear that for her only Hamish counted.
âArenât you going to wait for Trevor?â Dulcie asked.
âWhy should I, when heâs so late?â
As Loredana stalked out of the library they all heard the scrunch of tyres on the gravel outside. The police had arrived. Dodgson excused himself and hurried through to the hall to let them in.
The police consisted of a young uniformed constable in a small car emblazoned with chequered flashes and the insignia of the Thames Valley Police. Twenty minutes later, having been shown the corpse and having talked briefly with Dr. Thompson, he demanded that everyone should remain in the house until the cause of George Welchâs death had been established.
âIâm sure thereâs nothing untoward, sir,â he said to Gilroy, âbut we have our procedures.â
Jim Savage nudged his daughter. âLucky I havenât got a job to get back to!â
âYou may not, Daddy, but I do.â A note of resentment came into her voice, which her father knew only too well. As a tiny girl she had gone into fits of the sulks and she had never completely grown out of it.
Jim leaned over and whispered in her ear and Jemmaâs face brightened. âI hadnât thought of that,â she said. âDâyou really think so?â
âIâd bet on it. Thereâs hardly a person here who didnât have something against Welch.â
6
P OLICE Constable Rutherford was puzzled. The police were required to âattendâ any sudden death, unless a doctor had been expecting it for three days. The officer then had to compile a detailed report for the coroner, from the date of birth to the time of death. Rutherford had only done this twice before and was being doggedly methodical. But every police officer is at heart a detective, so he was puzzled because Dr. Thompson himself seemed to be.
They were in Welchâs room, looking at Welchâs inert body, still propped up on the pillows.
âWhat do you estimate the time of death was, sir?â Rutherford asked, scanning the check-list the sergeant had given him before he came.
âBetween seven-fifteen and eight A.M . The body was still slightly warm when I first got here.â
âWhat about the cause of death?â
âThatâll need a post-mortem.â Thompson frowned. âSince thereâs no visible cause, itâs most likely to be one of two things. A cardiac arrest, due either to a heart attack or a brain haemorrhage, or a cerebral thrombosis.â
âA stroke, sir?â
âExactly.â
âIf he was conscious for long enough heâd have tried to shout for help.â Thompson looked again at the relaxed expression on Welchâs rubicund face. The pupils of his eyes were narrowed, which could be the effect of a drug, but they usually did become smaller at death. Whatever had overtaken the man must have done so in seconds. A heart attack was the most common reason for sudden death among middle-aged men. But â¦
âExcept, sir?â A query had been implicit in Thompsonâs tone.
âExcept that heart attacks are not usually instantaneously fatal and his wife says she never knew he had heart problems. There are nearly always early warning signs, like chest pains. Most wives would have known. Theyâre well aware of health risks these days. And,â he added breezily,
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