“Toadmen? I’ve heard of them. Down toward Stowmarket, there’s toadmen. Or used to be. Can’t say as I’ve heard of ’em since I were a lad.”
“Not since they were all given the keys to a shining new tractor,” Joe said, smiling. He took the piece of bone, held it between his finger and thumb and twisted it as he would have turned the starting key of a motor. “There’s more power in the turn of a piece of steel in a Fordson tractor engine than in a brittle bit of bone working inside a darkened mind. But, evidently, there’s still one hereabouts who has the knowledge—and the malice—to pass on this evil piece of equipment to an unsuspecting woman and cause her death.” Joe glanced at the open cupboard door. “We’ll just put it back where we found it for the moment. It seems to be safe there. Did you look in the bottom? Anything else Grace left behind for us to see?”
Ben took a slender house-man’s torch from his belt and shone it around the depths of the cupboard. “Yes, there is. Not much but we ought perhaps to take a look.”
He brought out four blue paper chemist’s bags and put them in front of Joe. “All empty. Shall I read the labels? Well, well! Cummin, coriander, cinnamon and …”
“Fenugreek,” Joe finished for him. “Those bags contained the substance she thought she was marching into the stables armed with. We’ll lock those up in the cupboard again too. But where did she get the bate that caused her death? You can’t summon up a stew of stoat’s liver and rabbit’s blood overnight.”
“G. R. Harrison, Purveyor of Pharmaceuticals. Estd. 1882, it says on the labels. You going to arrest him?”
“For the crime of purveying curry spices to a rich household? No, I don’t think so. Mr. Harrison is about as guilty as the horse in all of this. Which is to say—not in the slightest. But there is someone lurking, someone with very evil intent, working through his own agenda. I wonder how far along he’s got … and whether he can hear us scrabbling down the rabbit hole after him.”
CHAPTER 18
Joe was awake again at five. He bathed, shaved and dressed himself in the hooray-hurrah outfit of flannels, linen shirt and Hermès cravat that he felt a summer Sunday morning in the country called for. He had no wish to undertake his next task looking bleary and unkempt in a dressing gown. ‘Never frighten the upstairs maid’ was another rule of country house living he abided by.
He heard her coming down the corridor at six o’clock precisely and nipped out the moment she drew level with his door. A quick: “Shh! It’s only the Police, miss!” and he’d tugged her, still clutching her dustpan and brush, into his room and shut the door.
He held his Scotland Yard warrant card under her startled eyes to calm or at least distract her. “I do beg your pardon! Are you the maid who normally takes care of the rooms in this guest wing?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Were you here on duty in April when the mistress was killed?”
“I was, sir.”
“Then I have a few questions for you. This will only take a moment and then you may return to your duties. What is your name?”
“Rose, sir. Rose Nicholls.”
“Known to Ben as ‘Rosie’?” Joe smiled. At last, one thing was going in his favour. “Rose, tell me—the morning of the awful event in April—did you tidy out all the rooms along this corridor?”
“Yes, sir. Nothing interfered with the routine. The guests were still here, all of them, and their rooms had to be seen to.”
“Were you also responsible for the guest in the Old Nursery?”
“I had that duty, sir.” Had he imagined that the reply came less swiftly and was accompanied by a slight upturning of the nose? The very pert nose. Ben had omitted to say how pretty Rosie was.
“The occupant of the room—Miss Joliffe—was she still in residence?”
“She was. Still abed. Fast asleep when I drew the curtains back. She’d asked me to wake her at six with a cup of tea. No breakfast required. No help with dressing. A very independent young lady. Good as gold, very polite and no trouble. She left me half a crown on the mantelpiece and her copies of True Confessions.”
“All as normal, then?”
The response came more slowly. “Yes, sir.” The eyes narrowed and looked away as she added, “No harm done, I’m sure, sir.”
“Right. That’s enough pussy-footing about, Rose. I want you to tell me what exactly was not normal about that room when you did it out. I have to tell you that Ben and I inspected it last night. I’m pretty sure I know what went on in there—I would be interested to hear your confirmation. And—hear this, Rosie—I usually work in the stews of East London. You can say nothing that could possibly shock me.”