Free The Sudbury School Murders by Ashley Gardner Page B

several days by people who refuse to tell me the
truth. If I am to assist, I must have complete candor. That is my
price."
    She glared at me. "And I could simply leave
you here to take root in this meadow."
    "Marianne, Grenville will hire a Runner,
though I advised him not to. I imagine he has done so already."
    Marianne bit her lip. I had never seen her
look so anguished, not even when I'd spoken to her in Grenville's
house a few weeks ago, where he had more or less confined her and
assigned a maid and a footman to dog her footsteps. She'd been
angry then, but now, she looked frightened. "I am not certain I can
trust you."
    I hid a sigh. "You will have to trust me. Who
are you in Berkshire to meet? A man?"
    "No. I've told you."
    I shook my head. "You quite baffle me,
Marianne. Any money Grenville has given you has disappeared with
nothing to show for it. If you do not give it to a man, what
becomes of it?"
    She held up her hand. "Stop. Cease
questioning me. I am not certain what to do. I must think."
    She was trembling. I tried to conjure
sympathy for her, and I really did wish to help her. Marianne
struggled through life even more than I did. Grenville had offered
to become her protector, to give her every luxury, but she fought
him. Marianne loved her freedom, even if it brought her penury.
    We walked for a while in silence. The path
led behind the hedges and trees that screened us from the canal. I
wished we could come upon a bridge over which to cross back to the
towpath, which would be much easier to traverse. The track on this
side was little used and often plunged right into undergrowth.
    Marianne was lost in thought, and so was I,
so neither of us at first heard the curious drone that came from
behind a clump of brush. When I did hear it, I stopped,
puzzled.
    Marianne gave me an impatient look. I stepped
away from her, walked a little off the track, and parted the
grasses. I froze.
    "Whatever is the matter, Lacey?" Marianne
asked. I heard her behind me, then she peered past me, and
gasped.
    A horde of flies and other insects buzzed
about a knife that was half-buried in the grass. It was long and
serrated, the kind a butcher might use to cut up a carcass. The
blade and the mud and grasses around it were caked with brown
stains. The flies swarmed around it all.
    I looked up. The canal was not five feet
away, but thick scrub and trees screened it from view. We were
perhaps half a mile from Sudbury in one direction, and half a mile
from Lower Sudbury Lock. "Middleton was killed here," I
breathed.
    Marianne's hand went to her mouth. She looked
green. "How awful."
    I reached down and lifted the knife. I had no
doubt that Middleton's lifeblood stained it. The killer had lured
him here. Or--thinking of Middleton's past--perhaps Middleton had
been the one who lured his killer to this spot, then the tables had
turned.
    Ramsay had told me that Sutcliff had run
after Middleton in order to meet him on the road to the village.
But this spot was in the opposite direction, south of the lock.
What had made Middleton come this way?
    The brush was much broken here. I stepped
over the bloodstained grass and slipped and slid down to the bank
of the canal.
    A barge was drifting past the far bank, on
its way to Lower Sudbury Lock. The man at the tiller stared at me
curiously as I came plunging out of the brush, but lifted his hand
in a courteous greeting.
    I waved back, but my heart was beating
excitedly. No wonder we'd found no signs of the body having been
dragged through grass or mud near the Lower Sudbury Lock.
    "He was taken to the lock in a boat," I
announced to Marianne.
    Marianne looked puzzled. "You mean a bargeman
obligingly gave a murderer and his corpse a ride to the lock? Or do
you think he was murdered by a bargeman himself?"
    I climbed back to her. "Not a barge. A
rowboat. There are ample places to tie a rowboat at the bank. The
man murdered Middleton, tipped the body onto his boat, rowed up the
canal, and heaved him into the