Free The Death Chamber by Sarah Rayne Page A

a mental pounce, ‘he needed the chemist’s shop as a bait for the victims. Like, uh, a spider’s
parlour for the fly to walk into.’
    ‘It kills me to say it, but that’s actually very shrewd of you. In any case he’d have had bills to pay, wouldn’t he? Electricity and income tax. Even a
mortgage.’
    ‘Would Fremlin have had a mortgage?’ Phin sounded doubtful.
    ‘He might have done. And he wouldn’t give murdering as his occupation when he applied. He’d say chemist, which is very respectable indeed. I’ll bet he’d have been
looked on as a very safe thing for a loan. “Come into the office, Mr Fremlin, sign here and there’s your cheque.” It’d all make a good angle for a programme, wouldn’t
it?’
    ‘An ordinary day in the life of a murderer,’ said Phin, thoughtfully.
    ‘Yes. I’ll tell you what else we could do, Phin, we could check who was working in Calvary when Fremlin was executed. We can find out who the hangman was easily enough, but how about
others? There’d have been a prison chaplain and a doctor, wouldn’t there?’
    ‘That might be a really good angle. It’s not so very far back, either.’
    ‘Nineteen thirty-eight. I should have thought that was pre-history to a child of your tender years.’
    I’ll have to say something to them, thought Georgina, and before she could worry about whether they would think she was intruding, she moved to their table, and said, a bit diffidently,
‘I hope you don’t think I’m butting in, but I couldn’t help hearing what you said about people who worked at Calvary. Uh – I’m Georgina Grey and my
great-grandfather was the prison doctor there in the thirties. His name was Walter Kane. I’m in Thornbeck for a few days to sort out some of his old papers.’
    Far from thinking she was intruding, they welcomed her enthusiastically. The girl, whose name was Drusilla, invited her to sit down and despatched the American boy who was called Phin Farrell,
to the bar to buy her a drink. Drusilla explained about the television programme.
    ‘We’re sort of the advance party – research and preliminary material.’
    ‘Except we’re starting to think there’s more than one programme in all this,’ said Phin.
    ‘Yes, and if your great-grandfather really did attend Neville Fremlin’s execution . . .’
    ‘I should think it’s a good possibility,’ said Georgina. ‘The dates fit.’
    ‘Well then, if you do find anything that mentions Calvary, and if you felt like giving us permission to use it . . .’
    ‘As far as I’m concerned,’ said Georgina, ‘you’re welcome to Walter’s entire history. All I know about him is that he was Calvary’s doctor in the years
leading up to the Second World War, and that he lived abroad afterwards.’
    ‘It’s the Calvary years we’re after,’ said Phin. ‘Nothing – uh – private, of course.’
    Georgina said she didn’t think there was anything private. ‘Or if there is, I haven’t found it yet. How long are you staying in Thornbeck? Because if you want to come up to
Caradoc House sometime, you can see what there is. So far I’ve only found mostly medical papers, but there’s a second box of stuff I haven’t looked at yet. That might yield
something more interesting.’
    ‘We’ll take you up on that offer,’ said Drusilla at once. ‘Can we bring Chad? Dr Ingram? He absolutely loves primary source material.’
    ‘Yes, of course.’ Georgina did not say she would be intrigued to meet Chad Ingram. ‘If you think it’ll be worth it. When would you like to come?’
    They looked at one another. ‘Would Friday be all right?’ said Drusilla.
    ‘Yes, certainly. Would you . . .’ Georgina hesitated, and then said, ‘Would lunchtime suit you? I expect you’ve got a lot to do, so I could put out some salad and cheese
or something and you could eat while you look at everything.’
    ‘We’d like that,’ said Drusilla at once. ‘Thank you very much.’
    She likes to give