Free Last Ditch by Ngaio Marsh Page B

see, sir. And I understand it’s a fatality. A horse-riding accident?’ They made noises of assent. ‘Very sad, I’m sure,’ said the sergeant. ‘Yes. So if I might just take a wee look-see.’
    Once more Jasper pointed the way. The sergeant in his turn tramped down the horse-paddock to the blackthorn hedge.
    ‘You could do with some of that coffee and grog yourself, darling,’ Jasper said.
    ‘I did take a sly gulp. I can’t think why I rushed at Sergeant Dixon like that.’
    ‘He’s not Sergeant Dixon.’
    ‘There! You see! I’ll be calling him that to his face if I’m not careful. Too rude. I suppose you’re right. I suppose I’m like this on account of my taking a wee look-see.’ She burst into sobbing laughter and Jasper took her in his arms.
    He looked from Ricky to Carlotta. ‘We ought to get her out of this,’ he said.
    ‘Why don’t we all just go? We can’t do any good hanging about here,’ said Carlotta.
    ‘We can’t leave Mr Harness,’ Julia sobbed into her husband’s coat. ‘We don’t know what he mightn’t get up to. Besides Sergeant Thing will want me to make a statement and Ricky, too, I expect. That’s very important, isn’t it, Ricky? Taking statements on the scene of the crime.’
    ‘What crime?’ Carlotta exclaimed. ‘Have you gone dotty, Julia?’
    ‘Where’s Bruno got to now?’ Jasper asked.
    ‘He went away to be sick,’ said Carlotta. ‘I expect he’ll be back in a minute.’
    Jasper put Julia into the back of the car and stayed beside her for some time. Bruno returned looking ghastly and saying nothing. At last the empty landscape became reinhabited. First, along a lane beyond a distant hedge, appeared the vet leading the sorrel mare. They could see her head, pecking up and down, and the top of the vet’s tweed hat. Then, beyond the gap in the blackthorn hedge, partly obscured by leafy twigs, some sort of activity was seen to be taking place. Something was being half-lifted, half-hauled up the bank on the far side. It was Miss Harkness on the stretcher, decently covered.

CHAPTER 4
Intermission
    Miss Harkness, parcelled in canvas, lay in the ambulance, her uncle was in his office with the doctor, and Julia and Bruno had been driven home to L’Esperance by Carlotta. Ricky and Jasper still waited in the stable yard because they didn’t quite like to go away. Ricky wandered about in a desultory fashion, half-looking at what there was to be seen but unable to dismiss his memory of Dulcie Harkness. He drifted into the old coach-house. Beside the car, a broken-down gig, pieces of perished harness and a heap of sacks; a coil of old and discarded wire hung from a peg. Ricky idly examined it and found that the end had recently been cut.
    He could hear the sorrel mare blowing through her nostrils – she was in a loose-box with her leg bandaged, having a feed. The vet came out.
    ‘It’s a hell of a sprain, in her near fore,’ said the vet. ‘And a bad cut in front, half-way down the splint bone. I can’t quite understand the cut. There must have been something in the gap to cause it. I think I’ll go down and have a look at the terrain. Now they’ve taken away…now – er – it’s all clear.’
    ‘The police sergeant’s there,’ Ricky said. ‘He went back after he’d seen Mr Harkness.’
    ‘Old Joey Plank?’ said the vet. ‘He’s all right. I’d be obliged if you’d come down with me, though. I’d like to see just where this young hopeful of yours took off when he cleared the jump. I don’t like being puzzled. Of course, anything can happen. For one thing, he’ll be very much lighter than Dulcie. She’s a big girl, but all thesame it’s a pretty good bet Dulcie Harkness wouldn’t go wrong over the same sticks on the same mount as a kid of thirteen. She’s – she would have been in the top class if she’d liked to go in for it. Be glad if you’d stroll down. OK?’
    In one way, there was nothing in the wide world Ricky wanted to do less,