twenty years.â
âAnd your husband is rector here?â
âThatâs right.â
âDid you know the deceased?â
âYes, but not as a friend. He was on the PCC and other local organizations.â
âWhat kind of person was he?â
âFrom what I knew of him not a very pleasant one. He would buttonhole one for information on this and that matter without even a good morning or a thank you. No manners at all.â
âYou mentioned to us before that several people â five, I think you said altogether â had spoken to you, worried that because theyâd had words with him they might be suspects. May I have their names?â
Elspeth frowned. âIâll have to think about that for a moment. It was before we went on holiday. We were away when it happened, you see.â
I hid a smile. She had forgotten for a moment the real identity of the man to whom she was speaking. I have never been able to fathom whether it is the easy manner inviting confidence, or hypnosis, that results in witnesses and others telling him everything they know. With those who could be described as real criminals there is an entirely different approach.
âShall I write them down?â Elspeth offered. âIâll find it easier to remember if I do.â
I gave her the pad and pen and she wrote busily. âThatâs the five but I have an idea there was someone else,â she mused a couple of minutes later, giving us our coffee. âAn unlikely person.â
âUnlikely?â Patrick queried.
âUm.â
âWhere were you when this person spoke to you?â
âIâm not sure. Oh, I know! It was in Sainsburyâs in Bath. Thatâs right, I saw Miss Trelawney and she told me that Melvyn Blanche had threatened to take her to court over her trees. Sheâs their neighbour and has what amounts to a small arboretum at the end of her garden. Sheâs a very knowledgeable lady about plants and trees and the ones she has are rare and lovely varieties. He told her he wanted most of them cut down as they took all his light.â
âDo they?â
âNot at all! Theyâre to the north east of his property so actually shelter his place from cold winds. She was very upset, as you can well imagine.â
âIs she on the cleaning rota?â I asked.
âYes, she is. Oh dear!â
âBut an unlikely person to commit murder?â Patrick queried.
âSheâs gentle,â Elspeth said. âA real lady from an old landed Cornish family. Vulnerable and the kind of person to be easily bullied.â
âWould she have had the trees felled just because of what heâd said?â
âOh, no. Theyâre her children. I have an idea she talks to them.â
â Not easily bullied then.â
âAll right, in every other respect,â Elspeth corrected.
âWere you ever invited to the Blanchesâ place for dinner, or drinks?â
âOh, no. I donât think they ever entertained.â
âDo you know if there are any children?â
âI canât remember them mentioning any. Theyâre not the kind of people you ask personal questions of.â
âDo you know anything about this black magic sect?â
âNo, youâll have to ask John when he comes back as heâll have gone into Bristol by now. He deals with that. I donât want to know about things like that.â
âBut you must hear rumours,â Patrick remarked gently. âThe WI, the Mothersâ Union . . .â
âAll I know is that it involves incomers. And weâre not talking about batty females who roll naked in the dew and concoct potions to cure warts but real Satanists.â
âShame about no naked females,â Patrick murmured, grinning at her and thus breaking the spell. âHow terrorized by me were you on a scale of one to ten?â
She thought about it.
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