Where Death Delights by Bernard Knight

us, especially since they moved to Wales. We didn’t see her that often – to tell you the truth, neither my wife nor myself were all that keen on her husband. All he seemed interested in was making a fast buck, as they say!’
    Richard began to wonder if he had driven almost eighty miles because of a father’s dislike of the man who had stolen his daughter, but there was more.
    â€˜Marjorie was particularly worried by Linda’s last letter, about a fortnight earlier,’ said Massey in sombre tones. ‘She said that Michael was becoming abusive because she refused to even contemplate a divorce and several times had actually shaken and punched her during flaming rows.’
    â€˜And you think he may have something to do with her death?’ concluded Pryor.
    Leonard Massey shrugged. ‘It may sound far-fetched, but I wouldn’t put it past the chap. And I can’t rest without at least making every effort to prove that it didn’t happen that way.’
    Richard thought for a moment. ‘You say that the post-mortem confirmed drowning as the cause of death? Nothing else found?’
    Massey took a thin briefcase from the floor besides his chair and handed Pryor a sheet of paper. ‘I saw the coroner on Friday and I copied out the relevant parts of the report he had from his pathologist. He seemed quite satisfied that it was drowning.’
    Richard quickly scanned the few handwritten paragraphs.
    â€˜There were some abrasions and bruises recorded, scattered over the body,’ he observed.
    Massey nodded. ‘He explained those by the body being tossed around in the tide for perhaps more than a day. The body was seen by a fisherman at the foot of the cliffs and it was recovered by the coastguards, who said it was in a deep gully between sharp rocks, which could easily have caused those marks.’
    Peter Meredith, who had been listening intently to the others, wanted to clarify the time scale.
    â€˜You said she went missing on a Tuesday night – at least, that’s when her husband said he returned home to find the house empty. And then her body was found on Thursday morning?’
    Massey nodded. ‘He didn’t report her missing until the next evening, because he admits they had some marital problems and he thought she had just up and left him.
    â€˜But when he had no message from her after twenty-four hours, he rang the police – especially as he says that he found that her handbag and almost all her clothes were still there.’
    â€˜Was she in the habit of going off alone to swim?’ asked Pryor.
    â€˜Yes, that was true enough. She loved swimming and she loved that coast, she was very happy to move down there from the Home Counties.’
    There was another silence as the three men thought about the possibilities.
    â€˜So what’s the situation at the moment?’ asked Richard.
    Leonard Massey moved into his courtroom mode again. ‘I want to be absolutely sure that there’s no sign of any foul play, Doctor Pryor! I’ve spoken to the coroner and in the circumstances, he has no objection to a private post-mortem examination.’
    â€˜How does the husband feel about that?’ enquired Meredith.
    â€˜He has no choice in the matter,’ replied Massey, brusquely. ‘The inquest has not been held, so the coroner still has full jurisdiction. If the possibility of a non-accidental cause exists, then he is entitled – indeed, he should be obliged – to take all measures to confirm or exclude it.’
    There seemed no answer to this, so Pryor confined himself to practicalities.
    â€˜Where was the first autopsy carried out – and by whom?’ he enquired.
    â€˜In the public mortuary – a rather primitive place, I’m afraid. It’s in Swansea itself, though the coroner who’s dealing with the matter is in Gowerton, a few miles away. The doctor was a retired pathologist who still does