Free Barbara Cleverly by The Last Kashmiri Rose Page B

he said, offering Joe a paper knife.
    Joe made two slashes across his wrists.
    ‘That’s right. Outside edge to inside on each. With Peggy’s wounds it was outside to inside on the left and inside to outside on the right. Try that. Impossible, isn’t it? Well, not impossible perhaps but bloody unlikely if you’re killing yourself. A bit of fancy knife-work is going to be the last thing on your mind if you’re doing away with yourself, I would have thought.’
    ‘And the third thing?’ asked Joe.
    ‘The force used. Now Peggy was a strapping lass but I have strong doubts that she could have exerted the degree of strength that was shown. Her wrists weren’t just slashed — her hands were damn nearly severed.’
    ‘Thank you, Halloran,’ said Joe, scribbling in his notebook. ‘And lastly, can you tell me anything about the marks on her neck? They were even visible on the photographs Mrs Drummond took.’
    ‘Finger and thumb marks. I did manage to get a reference to that into the report, you’ll see. When I insisted that it couldn’t be suicide, Bulstrode interpreted the marks as evidence that Somersham had tried to strangle her before cutting her wrists.’
    ‘Are they consistent with a strangulation attempt in your estimation?’
    Halloran shrugged. ‘Not unless Somersham is deformed and has his hands on back to front. Look here,’ he said, getting to his feet and walking behind Joe. ‘There were thumb marks (pre-mortem) here on the back of the shoulders and finger marks here at the front at the base of her throat.’ He demonstrated the hold used. ‘That’s not how you’d go about strangling your wife.’
    ‘But it is exactly how you’d hold a wriggling woman down in a bath of water until she bled to death.’
    ‘Quite. Tell you something else, Sandilands. If you’ve seen the room you’ll have noticed the stains?’
    Joe nodded.
    ‘You should have seen them before they were cleaned! Sprayed all over the walls. She’d obviously thrashed around and waved her arms about in agony. You don’t do that if you’re killing yourself according to the Roman tradition. You sit quietly and wait for the end, thinking noble thoughts.’
    ‘But if you’re being killed surely you scream? If the murderer has both his hands on your shoulders, you are free to scream? And your servants and husband come running.’
    ‘Not if the person unknown has already gagged you,’ said Halloran. ‘Not something you could have made out on the photographs, however sharp Mrs Drummond’s Kodak lens! There were abrasions at the corners of her mouth, abrasions consistent with the application of a gag. Removed after the act because it was never found.’
    ‘One last question,’ said Joe. ‘You didn’t do a full postmortem investigation, I see — I wonder whether you were aware that Peggy Somersham was pregnant?’
    Halloran sat back in his chair, his surprise evident. ‘Good Lord, no!’ he said. ‘Oh, no! How bloody! No, she hadn’t been to consult me. Not unusual
    they normally wait until they’re absolutely certain. This is terrible news, Sandilands! Bulstrode was pushing for burial — we don’t get the thirty hours before decomposition you get in London and the cause was very obvious
    ’ His voice trailed away and he looked uncomfortably through the window, lost in thought.
    ‘I think she had told no one but her husband, so no surprise,’ said Joe equably. ‘And I think it might be a good idea to keep it between ourselves at this stage.’
    ‘Certainly. Quite see why,’ agreed Halloran quickly. ‘And look here, Sandilands, off the record and stepping outside my job — the poor girl was murdered, we both know that — and I’m overjoyed that, belatedly, someone has picked this up. Rumour has it that we owe this to Nancy Drummond. Am I right? Determined girl! She’s got the ear of the Governor and now she’s got your ear too. And come to that, she’s got mine, begod!’
    Thanking him for his time and mutually expressing the hope that ‘we should meet at the Club one of these