More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
And there they were, just lying there in the middle of all his papers. How long had she been in the room? Had she seen them?
The Vicar is hiding something and is nervous the house made Mary saw?
He and Henrietta had been away on holiday when she had died.
They have an alibi!
I didn’t ever take to Mary Blakiston and I’m not going to start singing her praises just because she managed to fall down a flight of stairs and break her neck.’
The Vicars wife doesn't have much nice to say about Mary.
She remembered the conversation she’d had with Mary Blakiston just two days before Brent had called her to the house. Dr Redwing had discovered something. It was quite serious, and she’d been about to go and find Arthur to ask his advice when the housekeeper had suddenly appeared as if summoned by a malignant spirit. And so she had told her instead. Somehow, during the course of a busy day, a bottle had gone missing from the surgery. The contents, in the wrong hands, could be highly dangerous and it was clear that somebody must have taken it.
Mary seems to know everyone's dark secrets. What else does she know that could make her a target?
‘Don’t you worry, Dr Redwing,’ Mary had said. ‘You leave it with me for a day or two. As a matter of fact, I may have one or two ideas . . .’ That was what she had said. At the same time there had been a look on her face which wasn’t exactly sly but which was knowing, as if she had seen something and had been waiting to be consulted on this very matter. And now she was dead.
Mary knew about the missing poison and may have taken that information to an unknown someone.
‘Sir Magnus and Lady Pye won’t be there,’ Johnny muttered as an afterthought. ‘Where?’ ‘At the funeral. They won’t be back until tonight.’
More ppl with an Alibi.
‘Her son wanted to get it over with. Can’t blame him, really. The whole thing’s been a bit of a shock.’
Suspicious?
‘What was she doing here?’ she asked suddenly. ‘Mary Blakiston?’ ‘When?’ ‘The Monday before she died. She was here.’ ‘No, she wasn’t.’ Johnny laid down his knife and fork. He had eaten quickly and wiped the plate clean. ‘Don’t lie to me, Johnny. I saw her coming out of the shop.’ ‘Oh! The shop!’ Johnny smiled uncomfortably. ‘I thought you meant I’d had her up here in the flat. That would have been a right old thing, wouldn’t it.’ He paused, hoping his wife would change the subject but as she showed no sign of doing so, he went on, choosing his words carefully. ‘Yes . . . she did look in the
...more
Suspicious?
As for Johnny Whitehead, despite what he had said, he remembered very well his last encounter with Mrs Blakiston. She had indeed come into the shop, making those accusations of hers. And the worst of it was that she had the evidence to back them up. How had she found it? What had put her on to him in the first place? Of course, she hadn’t told him that but she had made herself very clear. The bitch. He would never have said as much to his wife, of course, but he couldn’t be more pleased that Mary Blakiston was dead.
Again Mary seems to know everyone's dark secrets and he was lying..
She and Magnus were twins. They were equals, happily protected by all the wealth and privilege which surrounded them and which the two of them would enjoy for the rest of their lives. That was what she had always thought. How could this have happened to her?
Why was she even going to this funeral? It suddenly struck her that her brother had been closer to Mary Blakiston than he had ever been to her. A common housekeeper, for heaven’s sake!
that was when the thought had first wormed itself into her head. It had remained there ever since. It was there now. She had tried to ignore it. She had prayed for it to go away. But in the end she’d had to accept that she was seriously contemplating a sin much more terrible than covetousness and, worse, she had taken the first step towards putting it into action. It was madness. Despite herself, she glanced upwards, thinking about what she had taken and what was hiding in her bathroom cabinet. Thou shalt not kill.
That evening he had argued with his mother and in truth the two of them had never really been civil to each other from that time. But the worst argument had happened just a few days ago, when the vicar and his wife were away on holiday and Mary Blakiston was looking after the church. They had met outside the village pub.
‘Why don’t you leave me alone? I just wish you’d drop dead and give me a bit of peace.’ ‘Oh yes. You’d like that, wouldn’t you!’ ‘You’re right! I would.’
‘I wouldn’t put it past you, Magnus.’ ‘Well, I couldn’t have. I was here the whole time with you.’
There was something he had to do and he would do it as soon as he got home.
And here was something rather strange. One of the mourners was already leaving even though the vicar was still speaking. Jeffrey hadn’t noticed him standing at the very back of the crowd, separate from them. He was a middle-aged man dressed in a dark coat with a black hat.
I told them I was going to the theatre in Bath and that I was staying overnight with a girlfriend. But the fact is that I was with Robert all night and I left him at nine o’clock in the morning, which means he couldn’t have had anything to do with it.’
‘The M is large but the w is small,’ Pünd pointed out. ‘Then it might be a word. He did that too. If you asked him to buy the newspaper when he went out, he’d jot down Np.’
The thief broke in through the kitchen window—cut himself on glass. You’d have thought that would be a big enough clue but the police weren’t interested, of course.
Mr Whihead broke in and prob broke into Pye aslo. past comments suggests he is convicted criminal.
