The Lately Deceased by Bernard Knight

this barbecue, Mrs Moore, if you will.’
    She looked puzzled. ‘Barbecue?’ she asked. ‘Well, it was just the usual sort of thing. Gordon hired the outfit from a firm of caterers. The barman set it up in the kitchen. It looks like a charcoal brazier, but actually it’s gas. We all went in there about ten o’clock and cooked ourselves steaks and things. They were all laid out on a table with plates and garnishes and what-have-you.’
    Meredith leant forwards over the chipped teacups, looking directly into her oval face.
    â€˜Around ten o’clock, you said?’
    â€˜Yes, I would think it was about then.’
    â€˜What did you use to hold the steaks to cook them?’
    â€˜There were a lot of long skewer things with rings on the end for handles. They were lying on the table with the plates.
    â€˜What did you do with the skewers when you’d finished with them?’
    â€˜I’m not sure. I think I dropped mine in the sink. Other people left them wherever they happened to be. I remember seeing a few in the lounge; the barman collected them all up when he went around tidying up.’
    The significance of this morbid interest in skewers seemed suddenly to get through to her and she put a startled hand up to her mouth.
    â€˜Do you mean that she died from one of those things?’
    Meredith studied her gravely. ‘We think it possible, unless you can recall seeing any similar instrument in the flat. A long knitting needle, for instance?’
    She shook her head wordlessly, her eyes saucer-like. After a muttered word with Stammers, Meredith turned back to Pearl.
    â€˜Thank you again for coming to help us so quickly, Mrs Moore. We won’t want you again tonight, but please let us know where you may be found and don’t leave London again without telling us, please.’
    As soon as she had gone. Grey gave an appreciative wolf whistle under his breath.
    â€˜There’s a motive walking around on its own two lovely legs, if you ask me.’
    Stammers grinned. ‘You should be past being a dirty old man, Syd. You can get too old for anything in time. But either she’s a damn sight better actress than she appears to be on the telly, or she really hasn’t got a clue about this business.’
    Meredith sat down heavily in the chair behind the desk.
    â€˜She’s a hard unscrupulous hussy,’ he said, ‘but I’m inclined to agree with you.’
    Grey perched himself on the edge of the desk.
    â€˜What did you learn about the will from the lawyers, sir? Was there any lead there?’
    â€˜Well, she left a very odd sort of will. Most of the estate was made over to the husband, except for five thousand each for those Leigh characters. About half a million capital stays tied up in Canada. The husband can’t realise on that for fifteen years – it’s held in trust till then. Funny bit, that, unless she was providing for his old age.’
    â€˜Afraid he would blow the lot on wine, women and song,’ Stammers said. ‘Though she didn’t seem to care what he did while she was still alive. Odd creatures, women!’
    â€˜Do you mean that Walker doesn’t get a penny for fifteen years?’ Grey asked.
    â€˜He gets five thousand a year now and the house at Oxford. The big money is frozen for fifteen years.’
    â€˜Well, five thousand a year isn’t a bad sort of motive,’ said Stammers, thinking of his own mortgage and overdraft.
    â€˜The Leighs’ ten thousand cash on the nail could be a better one,’’ Meredith retorted. ‘We all know of killings for a tenth of that amount. Moreover, they might have been expecting a lot more, for all we know.’
    â€˜What about the skewers, sir, now that the lab has had a look at them?’
    â€˜Any one of ’em could have been used.’
    Meredith sounded disgusted and with good reason. After Colin Moore’s remarks on the previous