Read Online Stiff News by Catherine Aird - Free Book Online Page B

confusion by fiddling with the controls on his wheelchair. ‘Because she’d been ill for ages and ages.’
    â€˜Elizabeth Forbes has been more ill for much longer and hasn’t died,’ pointed out the Judge.
    â€˜Gertie was different,’ blurted out Markyate. ‘Always.’
    The Judge turned in his direction. ‘In what way precisely?’
    Markyate was saved from replying to this by the entrance of Hazel Finch pushing a tea trolley. She said, ‘I’m surprised that any of you can eat anything at all after that lovely lunch.’
    â€˜Taste is one of the last faculties to go, m’dear,’ said the Judge, leaning forward to lift the lid off a chafing dish. ‘Ah, hot anchovy toast.’ He let the lid fall back out of his tremulous grasp with a clatter. ‘Good.’
    Walter Bryant said piously, ‘Miss Ritchie doesn’t think I should have too much butter. Bad for the heart.’
    â€˜Bah!’ exploded the Brigadier vigorously. ‘The only thing wrong with your heart, Bryant, is that it’s in the wrong place. You should know better at your age.’
    â€˜Now, then, no fighting,’ said Hazel. ‘Let’s see … who’s going to be mother and pour the tea?’ She ran a swift assessing eye over the group. ‘I think it had better be you, Captain Markyate, if you don’t mind.’
    *   *   *
    â€˜The late Gertrude Powell, officer?’ Dr Angus Browne’s bushy eyebrows lifted enquiringly. ‘What about her?’
    â€˜Did you,’ asked Detective Inspector Sloan, ‘have any reservations about certifying the cause of her death?’
    â€˜None.’
    Sloan waited; so did Dr Browne, a downy bird if ever there was one.
    â€˜Mrs Powell did,’ said Detective Constable Crosby into the silence.
    Sloan groaned inwardly. All the good books on how to question a suspect or a witness suggested that one of the two police officers – and there should always be two – should adopt an aggressive approach and the other one a more softly-softly manner. In practice in almost all cases the person being questioned turned away from the ‘nasty’ policeman and spoke more openly to the ‘nice’ one – who would then give every indication that they understood and sympathized. None – but none – of the good books advocated having a half-witted investigating officer with two left feet as the second man.
    â€˜If I may say so,’ pointed out the doctor, ‘the patient is not always in the best position to judge, but…’
    â€˜But?’ Sloan seized on the word. He really would have to have another go at Inspector Harpe about letting Crosby transfer to Traffic Division after all.
    â€˜But,’ said Browne realistically, ‘they usually make a better fist of it than the relatives do.’ He regarded the two policemen straightly. ‘Now then, gentlemen, what is all this about?’
    Detective Inspector Sloan gave the general practitioner a carefully edited résumé of Mrs Powell’s allegations.
    â€˜She died after a long illness,’ said Dr Browne, touching a button on an intercom and asking a receptionist to bring him the late Gertrude Powell’s notes, ‘but ye’ll know that already.’
    â€˜Yes, doctor,’ said Sloan. Another factor the good books on questioning always stressed was the importance of the interview taking place in surroundings unfamiliar to the subject being questioned. Not, of course, that this implied approval of police-state tactics – such as first leading a bewildered captive up and down through labyrinthine corridors finally to settle in the cellars of the building and thus patently out of earshot of everyone else. Unfortunately, interviewing the doctor in his own consulting room gave him – not the police – the edge.
    â€˜And the family had been told,’ said Angus