Page 22 of And Then There Was the One
CHAPTER EIGHT
Arthur was awaiting them outside theWoolly Registeroffices, looking damp and irritable.
“If we’re going to investigate a potential murder,” he said as soon as Georgie and Sebastian were within earshot, “I’d appreciate it if the weather would cooperate.”
“I don’t suppose you recall the fact that when Lady Tunbridge was murdered at Radcliffe Hall at Christmas, I spent two hours in a snowstorm waiting for her lady’s maid to emerge from the greenhouse where she was hiding?” Georgie reminded him.
Sebastian shook his head admiringly. “That was the one where the widow of a baronet was attacked by the daughter she’d had out of wedlock and abandoned at an orphanage years earlier? The one where you uttered the famous line, upon finding the corpse in her bed, ‘I wish I hadn’t bothered buying her a Christmas present’?”
Georgie stared at him. “How do you know that?”
Sebastian shoved a hand in his pocket, offering a modest smile. “I did my research.”
“Meaning?” Georgie asked suspiciously.
“Well,” Sebastian said, “while you were having your bumps and scrapes patched up by that doctor of yours yesterday, I happened to notice a couple of ladies sitting alone and I thought one of them looked dashedly familiar—”
“I imagine it’s hard to keep track of all their faces,” Georgie said.
“—so I took myself over to their table and introduced myself,” Sebastian continued, ignoring her entirely, “and that is how I learned that one of them is a Miss de Vere—a high-society sort, her uncle’s a marquess and the family seat is in Wiltshire—”
“Is there a point to this beyond proving that, mystifyingly, there’s still an audience forDebrett’s?” Georgie asked.
“—and it transpires that this is her third visit to the village this year,” Sebastian said, with the air of a man about to drop some sort of bomb that made Georgie very nervous. “Because she is anavidfollower of your exploits, Georgie.”
“Oh dear God,” Georgie said, looking at him in frank horror. “You do not mean to tell me you befriended aMurder Tourist!”
“I think she and her friend prefer the title ‘Detective Devotees,’ actually,” Sebastian said. “They showed me their notebook—they’ve been tracking all of your articles that have made it toThe Times, Crawley, and they’re positively fascinated by the intrepid Miss Radcliffe. They believe thatThe Deathly Dispatchis far too enamored of Detective Inspector Harridayand does not give you enough credit, for the record.” He shrugged. “In any case, they regaled me with all the tales of your detecting prowess in great detail—”
“Is this a nightmare?” Georgie muttered wildly.
“—which is why I now consider myself something of an expert on the crime-solving exploits of Georgiana Radcliffe,” Sebastian concluded.
“The last thing we need is to encourage the Murder Tourists,” Georgie informed him.
“I don’t think they need any encouragement,” he suggested. “Positivelyobsessedwith murder, those two. Although theywerequite fetching, so at least if they’re dogging our steps, it will be pleasant scenery.”
Georgie bit back the approximately half dozen scathing replies on her tongue and instead turned to Arthur.
“Are you busy with work today, or do you have time to do a bit of research for the investigation?”
“I’ve some time,” Arthur said cautiously. “What do you mean by ‘research,’ though?”
Georgie bit her lip, scrunching up her nose a bit as she thought. “It occurred to me as I was lying in bed last night—I think we should try to compile a list of people who might have held a grudge against Mr. Penbaker. I was thinking that perhaps if you were to ask some questions around the village—pretending that you’re writing some sort of feature on Penbaker’s life for theRegister—then you might be able to come up with a list of potential suspects for us to consider. No one would find it odd for you to be asking questions like that, seeing as you’re a reporter.”
Sebastian beamed at her. “Capital idea, Georgie.”
“It’s a good thought,” Arthur agreed. “What do you plan to do today, then?”
“Focus on the most important thing,” Georgie said grimly.
“And what’s that?” he asked uncertainly.
“Working out whether Mr. Penbaker was, in fact, murdered.”
“And how exactly do you plan to do that?”
“By speaking to the last two people to see him on the day of his death.”
