Free The Corpse of St James's by Jeanne M. Dams Page A

said, no longer able to keep silent, ‘we’re going to do what we think needs to be done, and hang official policy. So that’s why I went to London today, and I managed to get a photo of . . . I’m sorry, Letty, but of the body Jonathan thinks might be your granddaughter.’
    â€˜Do you wish me to identify it?’ Her voice had nary a quaver, but her hands tightened in her lap. I was glad she’d put her teacup on the table beside her.
    â€˜No!’ said Jonathan. ‘I’m going to take it up to Town tomorrow and show it to Jemima. I hate to do it, Letty, but she has to know about Melissa sometime. This way we’ll know for sure, and can start trying to find the man who did this.’
    â€˜Man? What makes you think it was a man?’
    Letty was sharp.
    â€˜Was she raped, then?’ she went on stoically.
    â€˜No,’ said Alan. ‘Quite definitely not.’
    â€˜Then why are you presuming it was a man? I understand she was suffocated, with a scarf or something of the sort. A woman could do that as easily. Melissa was a slight child, always afraid she was too fat, not eating enough.’
    â€˜That’s true enough, Letty.’ Jonathan tried to save the situation. ‘You’re quite right, a woman could have done it, physically.’
    â€˜Then why did you say
man
? You’re careful about that sort of thing, always have been from a child. Pedantic, even. You’d have said
person
if you weren’t sure.’
    Jonathan threw up his hands. ‘I didn’t mean to tell you. Honestly, I don’t know for sure. I mean the Met doesn’t know for sure. But . . . well . . .’
    â€˜The girl was pregnant, Letty,’ said Alan quietly. ‘About three months. It’s a reasonable assumption that the man who was responsible for that might also have been responsible for her death.’
    Letty closed her eyes. Her hands relaxed, deliberately. She opened her eyes again, picked up her teacup, and drank deeply.
    â€˜Do you think,’ she asked when she had put the cup down, ‘that I might have a little sherry?’

NINE
    â€˜S he was always a wild child,’ Letty said when I had poured sherry for all of us. ‘Always, from the very first. She needed a father’s influence. Jemima did the best she could, but she was only seventeen, and working to support her daughter. She was a good mother, in her way, but she was too young, and . . . well, I’ll say it before Jonathan does . . . she’s too much like me for us ever to have got on well.’
    â€˜She’s not in the least like you,’ said Jonathan. ‘You’re level-headed and generous. Jemima . . . I’m sorry, Letty, but you know Jemima was always a handful.’
    â€˜I know, dear. So were you, you know. You had to have your own way, always.’
    Jonathan looked astonished, but grew silent, probably considering what she had said.
    Alan tactfully brought the discussion back to the present. ‘I believe Melissa lived with you?’
    â€˜When Jemima looked like getting the job with the Lord Chamberlain’s Office, she was of two minds about it. She’s always been obsessed by art, and living in a palace full of beautiful things was like a dream come true. On the other hand, she couldn’t have Melissa with her, and Jemima worried about leaving the child with me.’
    â€˜Was there ever any thought of sending her away to school?’ Alan asked.
    â€˜We couldn’t well afford that, and in any case . . .’ She hesitated.
    â€˜Melissa wouldn’t have put up with school discipline for a moment,’ Jonathan finished. ‘Bramber is a tiny village. It seemed better for her to stay there with Letty and go to the comprehensive.’
    â€˜But she ran away?’
    â€˜Several times,’ said Letty with a sigh. ‘The first time was last summer. She took some money from my purse and caught the train to London,