Read Online The Ellie Hardwick Mysteries by Barbara Cleverly - Free Book Online
Authors: Barbara Cleverly
Tags: Mystery
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us all in this way. More showmanship? I thought so.
âMy dearest Eddie, forgive me. I killed that friend of Rupertâs. Woman was a strumpet and did not deserve the honour he was about to bestow on her. I came down for a night-cap late last night and heard her planningâwith that appalling photographer chap whoâs been infesting the placeâto defile the family tomb. Couldnât have that. Made my preparations. I got to the church before them and let myself in through the vestry door on the north side using this old key. No one saw me. I hid and when the chap left the church to fetch something from his car I stabbed the girl with the dagger Iâd taken from the display in the drawing room. I waited with the intention of terminating his miserable existence as wellâI meant to snap his rabbit neckâbut he was off like a flash. I couldnât have caught him. Iâm a bit decrepit these days but not as bad as Iâve been making out. In fact, I was faking my condition. I took to my room to avoid meeting this dreadful pair of limpets. In any caseâit occurred to me that he was more useful to us aliveâheâd make a jolly useful suspect, damn his hide! I trust Rupert will learn from this fiasco and one day heâll be able to find a decent girl. God bless you both. Who dies? Eh?â
As he read I looked around the room, anywhere but at the poor, shattered body. I took in the military neatness of his arrangements, the bed already made, the books lined up on his bedside table. The only untidy item in the room was a pair of pyjamas lying in a crumpled heap on the bed. A discordant note in this precisely organised room. Fearful of what I might find, unnoticed by the others, I edged nearer, put out a hand and touched them. I looked at the carafe of water and the bottle of pills on the bedside table and I moved around until I could see the label and the contents.
What I saw confirmed all my fears.
* * *
Hours later after a sketchy lunch in which no one was interested and a tea tray in the library which seemed to have become the operations room, the police had finally left. Statements had been taken, frantic phone calls made, ambulances, police vehicles, pathologist and undertaker had gone about their business and, somewhere in the Islington nick I hoped that someone had thought to release Theo Tindall.
* * *
It had been a long, weary and sickening day but finally a weight seemed to have lifted from Edward Hartest. He poured me a glass of sherry, having, on one pretext or another, prevented my leaving for the last two hours. âNonsense! Not in the way at all! I can never apologise enough for dragging you into such a grisly family scene but weâve both been glad you were here. Kept us in touch with sanity in an increasingly mad scenario, you might say. And you were right, you see, Ellie, about the motive. Purity of the line. It meant a lot to my father.â He fell silent, plunging into painful thought. Recovering himself he said, more brightly, âEllie? Now thatâs short for Eleanor isnât it? And funnily enough, thatâs the modern spelling of Aliénore. Did you know that? Your surnameâs Hardwick? One of the Norfolk Hardwicks are you? Then your family are apple growers? You must know a good deal about apples?â
Suspicious and disturbed by his change of tone, I admitted that I did.
âLook, before you go, you must take a stroll in the orchard with me. The blossomâs wonderful at the moment. Weâve got some very special old strains that might interest an expert.â
The thought of wandering under the trees in the scented twilight with the handsome dark lord was making my knees quiver. I tried to fix an interested smile and appear relaxed but all my senses were screaming a warning.
For two men whoâd just suffered a double bereavement, Rupert and Edward were charming hosts. But it was more than noblesse obliging them to put on a
âMy dearest Eddie, forgive me. I killed that friend of Rupertâs. Woman was a strumpet and did not deserve the honour he was about to bestow on her. I came down for a night-cap late last night and heard her planningâwith that appalling photographer chap whoâs been infesting the placeâto defile the family tomb. Couldnât have that. Made my preparations. I got to the church before them and let myself in through the vestry door on the north side using this old key. No one saw me. I hid and when the chap left the church to fetch something from his car I stabbed the girl with the dagger Iâd taken from the display in the drawing room. I waited with the intention of terminating his miserable existence as wellâI meant to snap his rabbit neckâbut he was off like a flash. I couldnât have caught him. Iâm a bit decrepit these days but not as bad as Iâve been making out. In fact, I was faking my condition. I took to my room to avoid meeting this dreadful pair of limpets. In any caseâit occurred to me that he was more useful to us aliveâheâd make a jolly useful suspect, damn his hide! I trust Rupert will learn from this fiasco and one day heâll be able to find a decent girl. God bless you both. Who dies? Eh?â
As he read I looked around the room, anywhere but at the poor, shattered body. I took in the military neatness of his arrangements, the bed already made, the books lined up on his bedside table. The only untidy item in the room was a pair of pyjamas lying in a crumpled heap on the bed. A discordant note in this precisely organised room. Fearful of what I might find, unnoticed by the others, I edged nearer, put out a hand and touched them. I looked at the carafe of water and the bottle of pills on the bedside table and I moved around until I could see the label and the contents.
What I saw confirmed all my fears.
* * *
Hours later after a sketchy lunch in which no one was interested and a tea tray in the library which seemed to have become the operations room, the police had finally left. Statements had been taken, frantic phone calls made, ambulances, police vehicles, pathologist and undertaker had gone about their business and, somewhere in the Islington nick I hoped that someone had thought to release Theo Tindall.
* * *
It had been a long, weary and sickening day but finally a weight seemed to have lifted from Edward Hartest. He poured me a glass of sherry, having, on one pretext or another, prevented my leaving for the last two hours. âNonsense! Not in the way at all! I can never apologise enough for dragging you into such a grisly family scene but weâve both been glad you were here. Kept us in touch with sanity in an increasingly mad scenario, you might say. And you were right, you see, Ellie, about the motive. Purity of the line. It meant a lot to my father.â He fell silent, plunging into painful thought. Recovering himself he said, more brightly, âEllie? Now thatâs short for Eleanor isnât it? And funnily enough, thatâs the modern spelling of Aliénore. Did you know that? Your surnameâs Hardwick? One of the Norfolk Hardwicks are you? Then your family are apple growers? You must know a good deal about apples?â
Suspicious and disturbed by his change of tone, I admitted that I did.
âLook, before you go, you must take a stroll in the orchard with me. The blossomâs wonderful at the moment. Weâve got some very special old strains that might interest an expert.â
The thought of wandering under the trees in the scented twilight with the handsome dark lord was making my knees quiver. I tried to fix an interested smile and appear relaxed but all my senses were screaming a warning.
For two men whoâd just suffered a double bereavement, Rupert and Edward were charming hosts. But it was more than noblesse obliging them to put on a
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