Chapter Five #2
“It wouldn’t surprise me. More coffee, anyone? Drambuie?” Everyone had had sufficient of the sweet liqueur. Daisy refilled coffee cups before she continued, “I suppose they have to work out how the three are connected.”
“Apart from being buried close together,” said Sakari, “and wearing good clothes.”
“I bet Alec’s furious that that got about. I wonder if Inspector Gant is trying to sabotage his investigation!” That was the name she’d been trying to recall. It reminded her of John of Gaunt.
“Inspector Gant? Who is this man?”
“Oh dear, I shouldn’t have mentioned him without asking you all to promise not to breathe a word.”
“I promise!” they chorussed, leaning closer.
“Thanks. Alec didn’t tell me not to talk about this bit, but I’m sure he’d be as angry with me as with Gant if word spread. That’s Detective Inspector Gant, of the Essex police.”
“But why should he do such a thing, Daisy? Do not the police cooperate with each other?”
“Not always. You see, the local police are the first to be called in, of course, and sometimes they resent it when the chief constable of the county decides to ask Scotland Yard to take over a case. Apparently Gant was so furious he didn’t even stay at the site to pass on to Alec whatever information he had already found.
That’s very bad form, not to mention exceedingly unhelpful. ”
“I should rather think so!” said Audrey. “My old nanny had to leave last year to go and take care of her aged father. Just imagine if she had refused to stay long enough to tell the new one all about the children!” Audrey saw most things in terms of her children.
“Nanny James was quite at liberty to leave, though, my dear,” said her mother-in-law. “I’d have thought the police would have a rule, or a regulation, or something of the sort. Surely it was his duty to stay, Daisy, not just his choice?”
“Well, I’m no expert, but I expect so. Alec has no authority over Gant, but he had to send to the Yard for men with spades—”
“Detective Inspector Gant took everything with him?” Sakari asked.
“And everyone. At least, that’s the impression I got.
The local constable was still there, I think, and one other officer.
Anyway, Alec’s boss, Superintendent Crane, must have had to authorise the extra people, and I’m sure he’d take it up with the chief constable of Essex.
If I’m not mistaken, they—the Metropolitan Police—bill the counties for their services, so Gant will probably get into trouble.
And that’s really about all I can tell you. ”
“This is very interesting,” announced Sakari. “I shall see if I can find a lecture on the organisation of the British police force.”
“Forces, darling. The Met, and one for each county, and big cities have their own, too, including the City of London. And the Scots are quite different, as well. It had better be a series of lectures.”
Sakari chuckled. “In India, it is very difficult for a woman to obtain education,” she explained to the Jessups, “so while I am here, I do the best I can for myself and my daughter. Deva is at boarding school with Daisy’s Belinda. Perhaps you have heard that we are to visit them this weekend?”
“Yes, Daisy mentioned it,” said Audrey. “Somewhere in Essex, isn’t it?”
“An odd coincidence!” said Daisy. “I hope we don’t run into DI Gant. The girls are in Saffron Walden. Do you know it?”
“I stayed the night there once,” said Mrs. Jessup.
“Maurice sometimes does business with Lord Braybrooke at Audley End House.” Mr. Jessup was a very superior purveyor of wines and spirits.
“In those days, I used to go with him when he wasn’t travelling too far from town and it was an easy train journey. ”
“Did you explore the town?” Sakari asked.
“A little. I remember a very large and beautiful church.”
“Perhaps you are able to advise us,” said Sakari.
“We have visited the girls at school before, of course, but never for more than a few hours. This time we must keep them amused for longer. I have brought a guidebook—always the quest for knowledge, you see!—so that Daisy and I may make plans. I left it on the hall table, Daisy, so that it would not distract you from telling me about the murders. But you have told us very little.” She sighed.
“Sorry! If he says any more tonight or in the morning, anything not desperately secret, I’ll tell you tomorrow.”
“Please, go ahead and make your plans. I’ll see if I can remember anything helpful.”
The rest of the evening was spent discussing the rival merits of the Saffron Walden Museum and Bridge End Garden, with detours to the mediaeval maze on the common and the castle ruins.
“Let them run about in the gardens till they’re tired,” suggested Audrey, “then take them to the museum.”
“Tired!” Sakari exclaimed. “I shall be exhausted.”
“There are plenty of benches in the gardens,” Mrs. Jessup assured her.
“We’re assuming the weather will hold,” said Daisy. “The forecast’s good, so let’s hope, but if it rains they’ll have to make do with the museum.”
When her friends left, Daisy’s thoughts returned to Alec’s case and the possible connections between the three bodies.
They were all buried in close proximity—not that she actually knew how close.
A few feet, she assumed. All three were well-dressed, which did indeed seem to dispose of the East-End gang theory.
And then there was the paper target, the three targets.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, the targets rang a very faint bell. For some obscure reason, they made her think of Michael, her erstwhile fiancé, killed in the War while working with a Friends’ Ambulance Unit.
It was because Michael had been a Quaker that the notion of sending Belinda to a Quaker school had not seemed utterly outlandish to her, when Bel begged to go with her friends. She was happy there, and doing well at her lessons, so what more could one ask for?