Free Rattle His Bones by Carola Dunn Page B

the desk to shake her hand.”Do sit dowd, please. Excuse be a bobet.” He turned his back and harumphed hugely into a large white handkerchief.”Ah, that’s better.”
    â€œSo they did call in Scotland Yard.” Daisy sat down in one of the red leather armchairs before the desk. “But where’s the Chief?”
    â€œDetective Chief Inspector Fletcher is out on another job and took young Piper with him. But seeing it involves some outdoor business and I’ve got this bit of a cold, he left me to clear up some paperwork at the office.”
    â€œI expect you’d rather have gone with them than getting stuck with desk work,” Daisy said sympathetically.
    His little brown eyes twinkled at her. “Isn’t that the truth! At least, it would be if it wasn’t for this affair coming up. The Chelsea division detectives are all out already, and my super hadn’t got an inspector to spare, so he sent me along.”
    â€œI’m very glad he’s put you in charge.” Though bang went any chance of keeping it from Alec.
    â€œHe thought it was a simple little case I’d be able to clear
up tonight.” Tom Tring sighed gustily. “Don’t suppose he has any idea what a regular rabbit warren the place is. Well, Miss Dalrymple, what have you got to tell me? Stop staring, Ross, and get your notebook out. Yes, this is that Miss Dalrymple.”
    Ross and Daisy both blushed, Daisy wondering whether she was notorious simply as Alec’s fiancée, or as the Assistant Commissioner for Crime’s bête noire.
    â€œI’ve been doing some research here for an article,” she said hurriedly. “This evening at twenty to six I went to Dr. Smith Woodward’s office—he’s the Keeper of Geology—to ask him about Piltdown Man.”
    â€œExactly twedty to six? Excuse be.” Tring pulled out his hankie, turned his head, and produced another explosion.
    â€œRoughly. You know how you look at a watch and you don’t so much notice the exact time as how long you have till … well, in this case till the museum closed. I saw I had about twenty minutes left and I decided it was long enough.”
    Tring nodded. “And then?”
    â€œWe walked round to the Piltdown skull, just around the corner in the fossil mammal gallery. Dr. Smith Woodward looked at it for a minute and decided he’d much rather talk about fossil fish. So we crossed the gallery—I didn’t notice anyone there, but I wasn’t really looking. There was no one in the hall leading to the reptile gallery, I’m sure of that.”
    â€œThat would be here?” The sergeant pointed to a large sheet of paper on the desk in front of him.
    Leaning forward, Daisy saw it was a plan of the museum. “That’s right,” she said. “We must have been about halfway along when we heard someone ahead speaking loudly, then a sort of roar, and then the most frightful crash.” She hesitated. “Thinking back, I’m pretty sure it was Dr. Pettigrew’s voice, though I didn’t recognize it immediately.”
    â€œWhat did he say?”

    â€œI couldn’t catch the words. This building’s so solid it muffles sounds. We would have seen, though, if anyone had entered the dinosaur gallery through this arch.” She showed him on the plan.
    â€œYes, that all agrees with Dr. Smith Woodward’s statement. That lets him out.”
    â€œAnd me,” said Daisy.
    Tring’s moustache waggled above a half-concealed grin. “And you,” he acknowledged. “What next?”
    â€œI dashed into the reptile gallery, and saw Pettigrew lying … I’m afraid I was rather too aghast to notice if anyone was running off. I’m most frightfully sorry.” More affected by the memory than she had been by the actual event, Daisy suddenly felt cold and horribly sick.
    Always light on his feet despite his size, Tom