Free Anthem for Doomed Youth by Carola Dunn

thoughtfully. ‘I don’t suppose Ernie does, either. It’s long enough ago that I never considered a possible connection there. Even if they served together at some point, it seems unlikely that it could have anything to do with their murders eight years after the Armistice. As tenuous as the pub link.’
    ‘Pub link?’
    ‘I shouldn’t have mentioned that. Definitely not to be passed on.’
    ‘I won’t.’
    ‘Nor your idea about their war service, just in case. But I will find out about it. I must run.’ He gulped the rest of his coffee. ‘Bye, love, and give Belinda my apologies and my love, won’t you.’
    ‘Of course, darling. And the peppermint creams. Good luck.’
    He kissed her cheek and was gone.
    ‘Oh well, it was an idea,’ she said to the empty air, and went back to bed.
     
    On time to the minute, the Prasads’ dark red Sunbeam tourer pulled up in front of the house. It was another gorgeous June day, so Kesin had let down the hood. Knowing Sakari, though, she would probably have it put up as soon as they got out of town. She wasn’t one to put up with the inconvenience of wind in her face at thirty or forty miles an hour.
    Melanie, in her typical self-effacing way, had moved to the passenger seat in front as soon as the car stopped in Constable Circle. Daisy joined Sakari in the back. Kesin hopped back in, and they proceeded in a stately manner round the circle and out into Well Walk.
    ‘Kesin tells me,’ said Sakari, her tone dramatic, ‘that the most direct route runs through Epping Forest! I told him on no account to go that way, so we shall make a circuit. He says we shall not go far out of our way. Daisy, have you any further information from Alec?’
    ‘Oh no!’ Melanie protested, looking back. ‘Can’t we let that subject rest for today?’
    ‘You need not listen, Melanie.’
    ‘Short of putting my fingers in my ears, which would look very odd, I can hardly help it.’
    ‘I shan’t talk about gruesome details,’ Daisy assured her, ‘if that’s what you’re worried about. In any case, Alec didn’t tell me much beyond what was to be given to the papers, so you’ve probably read everything already.’
    ‘I never read about murders,’ said Melanie, somewhat self-righteously . ‘I hardly ever read the papers at all.’
    ‘I do,’ Sakari declared, ‘but this morning I had not time enough even to open the Times . Tell all, Daisy.’
    ‘It’s mostly that all three victims have been identified, and their names. Alec’s hoping for tips from the public about any connections between them.’
    ‘What sort of connections?’
    ‘Any sort. As long as they’re three discrete individuals—’
    ‘My dear Daisy, being dead, they cannot help but be discreet!’
    ‘Discrete spelt e-t-e .’
    ‘This is a word I do not know. Perhaps I should stay home from classes and lectures for a while and study the English dictionary instead.’
    ‘I don’t know it, either, Sakari,’ said Melanie, proving she had been listening closely. ‘Remember Daisy is a writer. Words are her business.’
    ‘I wouldn’t use that discrete in an article. It would go over the heads of too many of the sort of readers I write for.’
    ‘But you expected us to be better educated,’ said Sakari mournfully.
    ‘English was always my best – my favourite – subject.’
    Sakari laughed. ‘Do not apologise, Daisy. We cannot hold you to blame for our ignorance, can we, Melanie?’
    ‘Of course not, Daisy dear. It must mean something like separate, does it?’
    ‘Yes, more or less, though in that context … But I’m not going to try and define it more precisely!’
    ‘These are so far three separate individuals,’ said Sakari, ‘and Alec must discover what is the connection between them that explains why they were all murdered by the same person.’
    ‘Very well put.’
    ‘This is praise indeed from a professional writer!’ Sakari laughed again. ‘“Well put” I understand, though it is a rather