Page 38 of Lies in Little Sutherland
“Was anyone else about?”
I hadn’t seen anyone.Little Sutherland isn’t anything like a metropolis, and on a chilly, gloomy November day it’s even quieter than usual.
“Someone must have seen me, though,” I added.
“What makes you say that?”
I indicated the note, still sitting there on the surface of the desk.“If I hadn’t stirred from Sutherland Hall all day, I could have simply said so and this wouldn’t be an issue.Someone saw me in the village and decided to implicate me.”
Daniels eyed the note in silence for a second.“Any idea who that might be?”
“None.I don’t really know many people here.Aside from Doctor Meadows, most of the ones I know were up at the Hall.”
He didn’t respond to that, and I added, “Where did it come from?It couldn’t have been posted.Not between the time I last saw Doctor Meadows and when you came and fetched me from the Hall.”
That had been a matter of a hour and a half, at most.Probably less.Certainly not enough time to write a note, post it, and have it delivered.His Majesty’s Royal Mail doesn’t move that quickly.
“We don’t know of anyone else who has seen Doctor Meadows this morning,” Constable Daniels said.“You were alone at the infirmary?”
“Other than Christopher and Doctor Meadows, as far as I know.Although someone might have been in the back room, as long as they were quiet about it.”
He tilted his head.“Do you have any reason to think someone was there?”
“That’s where Doctor Meadows came from when we arrived,” I said.“He was in the middle of drying his hands and rolling down his sleeves.”I hesitated.“Although for all I know he might have been doing the washing up.He lives above the infirmary, doesn’t he?”
The constable nodded.
“Well, then I suppose he might have been upstairs when we arrived.I don’t think I heard anyone come down the stairs, though.”
“And what did you talk about?”
He waited with a pen poised over a piece of paper while I repeated the conversation that had taken place, as verbatim as I could recall it.
“And Mr.Astley will confirm this?”he asked at the end of it.
“Of course he will.He’s probably outside right now.”
I glanced at the front door.Daniels did the same, but he didn’t get up from behind the desk.“And that was when you left?
“That was when we left,” I confirmed.“We stood for a moment outside the front door while we pulled on our gloves and fastened our scarves, and then we walked back up the hill.”
“And when you got there?”
“We packed,” I said.“When we came down the stairs to leave, Uncle Harold talked us into staying for luncheon.And then you arrived.”
“But Doctor was definitely alive when you left the infirmary.”
I nodded.“Ask Christopher if you don’t believe me.”
I had thought that that might be enough for him to let me go, but no.He changed the subject again.“Tell me about the people up at the Hall.Who knew that you were going to the village this morning?”
“Everyone,” I said.“All the guests, and at least some of the staff.Francis and Constance took breakfast with us.So did Aunt Roz and Uncle Herbert.And whoever wasn’t at breakfast would have heard us discuss it after dinner last night.I can’t imagine that anyone didn’t know.”
“Tell me again who’s at the Hall this weekend.”He pulled a clean piece of paper over to take notes.
“There’s Uncle Harold and Crispin, of course, and the staff.You probably know them better than I do, but there’s Tidwell, and Mrs.Mason, and Cook, and Sadie—she’s the parlor maid—and Hugh and Alfie, the two footmen, and a kitchen maid, and a couple of chambermaids, and the grooms and gardeners....”
Sutherland Hall is a large estate, with a large staff.It made me long for my little flat in London, where all I had to worry about was Christopher and Evans the doorman.
