Colbeck. All three were comfortably ensconced in the drawing room.
‘How did you come to hear of the latest development, Mrs Reader?’ asked Colbeck.
‘My husband sent me a note from the bank,’ she replied. ‘He’d been informed by Mr Everett, the lawyer, who, in turn, had been told by Mr Froggatt, the undertaker. In a town like Northallerton, news will spread like wildfire.’
‘So I see.’
‘You actually unearthed the body, I gather?’
Giving them an attenuated account of what had occurred, Colbeck kept one eye on Eve to make sure that the details were not disturbing her. In fact, she remained calm and unruffled throughout. When he finished, it was she who pressed for information.
‘Would she have suffered in any way, Inspector?’
‘No, Mrs Doel – death would have been fairly quick.’
‘What about her handbag and her jewellery?’
‘They’d been buried with her. This wasn’t the work of a thief.’
‘Then who could it have been?’
‘Was it some random act of violence?’ asked Agnes.
‘There’s no suggestion of that, Mrs Reader,’ said Colbeck. ‘The one thing I can say with certainty is that calculation was involved. The murder was carefully planned. That points to someone local.’
Eve trembled. ‘What a dreadful thought!’ she cried. ‘I shan’t be able to sleep properly, knowing that the villain is still out there.’
‘I’m hoping that you may be able to help me find him. You, too, Mrs Reader,’ he continued, turning to Agnes. ‘You know the people and the area. I’m a complete stranger.’
‘I left years ago, Inspector,’ said Eve.
‘But you corresponded regularly with your mother.’
‘Yes, I did, and her letters were full of news.’
‘Did she ever mention falling out with someone?’
‘Mother would never have fallen out with anybody.’
‘I can endorse that,’ said Agnes. ‘Miriam was far too nice a woman to have enemies. It was impossible not to like her. In all the years we knew her, I don’t believe I once heard her raise her voice.’
‘Oh, she did,’ countered Eve. ‘Mother raised her voice to me when I broke a mirror by accident and she had to reprove Adam all the time when he was young. But Agnes is right. By and large, she went out of her way to get on with people.’
‘What about your stepfather?’ asked Colbeck. ‘According to your brother, he could cause offence without realising it.’
‘He did have a gruff manner, Inspector, I concede that. And he did try to order people about.’
‘Can you think of anyone in particular he might have upset?’
‘No, I can’t.’
‘I think I can,’ volunteered Agnes. ‘I know that he had a fierce row with Eric Hepworth, the railway policeman. Hepworth’s daughter had worked here and been dismissed. He felt that the girl should be reinstated and told the colonel so to his face. I remember Miriam recounting the story to me. Hepworth was very angry, it seems.’
‘I’ve met Sergeant Hepworth,’ said Colbeck. ‘He told us that his daughter, Ginny, had worked here but there was no mention of an argument with the colonel.’
‘It certainly took place,’ confirmed Eve. ‘Mother wrote to me about it. She felt that Hepworth should’ve shown more respect.’
‘Is there anyone else who crossed swords with your father?’
‘I can’t think of anybody, Inspector.’
‘What about the stationmaster?’ suggested Agnes.
‘What about him?’
‘He and your stepfather had words about something or other. I remember it well. When Bertram and I came to play cards here that same evening, Aubrey was still seething. Apparently, he threatened to have the man dismissed for insolence.’
‘Are we talking about Mr Ellerby?’ asked Colbeck.
‘That’s the man, Inspector – Silas Ellerby.’
‘He didn’t strike me as the argumentative type.’
‘Men can change when drink is taken. I’ve seen it happen.’
‘So have I, Mrs Reader,’ said Colbeck, ruefully. ‘Alcohol causes more crime than almost anything else. It removes inhibitions. When a man has too much beer inside him, he surrenders to his demons.’
‘And he forgets the need for deference,’ complained Agnes. ‘My husband has encountered that at the bank. He had to dismiss one of his clerks last year for being drunk and unruly.’
‘Coming back to the colonel, you’ve given me two names so far.’
‘I can’t add to them,’ said Eve with a shrug.
Colbeck looked at Agnes. ‘Mrs Reader?’
There was a long pause as Agnes wondered if she should offer another name. Consideration for Eve told her to say nothing but she felt that the incident ought to be out in the open. At length, she reached her decision, prefacing her words with a warning.
‘I don’t want you to imagine for a second that this person is even remotely connected with the crime,’ she began, ‘because that is frankly impossible. But there is someone with whom Aubrey was at loggerheads for a time.’
‘And who was that?’ pressed Colbeck.
‘It was the rector, Mr Skelton.’
‘I never heard about any dissension between them,’ said Eve.
‘Your mother was too embarrassed to tell you. After all, the rector is your godfather. You looked up to him. Miriam didn’t want to alarm you with tales of a rift.’
‘What caused the rift, Agnes?’
‘It was some trifling matter over a donation to the church. It blew up out of all proportions. Bertram tried to intercede and pour oil on troubled waters but his efforts were in vain.’
Eve was shaken. ‘I knew none of this,’ she said. ‘It might explain why the rector told me at the inquest that my stepfather was not welcome in his churchyard. He refuses to have him buried there.’
‘He said the same to me,’ explained Colbeck, ‘but I shouldn’t let it upset you, Mrs Doel. The church is in the diocese of York so there’s a court of appeal in the person of the archbishop. I fancy that he’ll rap the rector over the knuckles about this.’
‘All the same, it’s very unnerving.’
‘Mr Skelton can be very unchristian at times,’ observed Agnes.
‘It was certainly a shock when he confronted me yesterday.’
‘You have my sympathy, Mrs Doel,’ said Colbeck. ‘It was both wrong and inconsiderate of him to accost you at a time like that. A man whose profession involves comforting the bereaved should know better. I hadn’t realised that personal animus came into it.’
‘No more did I,’ said Eve.
Casting the conversational net wider, Colbeck got them to talk about friends and acquaintances of the Tarletons in other parts of the county. It emerged that they had a relatively wide social circle but that, as time passed, several of their friends had fallen away. Neither Eve nor Agnes could offer any explanation for this beyond the fact that the colonel might inadvertently have upset them by being too brusque. When he felt that he’d drawn all he could out of them, Colbeck had a request to put forward.
‘When we first called here,’ he said, ‘the housekeeper showed us the colonel’s arsenal. It’s a fearsome assembly of weapons. I wonder if I might have a look at them again?’
‘Of course, you may,’ said Eve. ‘Mrs Withers will take you there. Are you looking for anything in particular, Inspector?’
‘Yes,’ replied Colbeck. ‘I’m searching for inspiration.’
