for gain. A man's humping disgusted her. She said it reminded her of dogs.'
Jack found the remark fascinating. 'I thought you said she looked up to men?'
Joanna smiled. 'Only because she knew how to manipulate them.'
The news that Mathilda Gillespie had left Dr. Blakeney three-quarters of a million pounds spread through the village like wildfire. The information surfaced after matins on Sunday, but precisely who started the fire remained a mystery. There was no doubt, however, that it was Violet Orloff who let slip the interesting snippet that Jack Blakeney had taken up residence at Cedar House. His car had remained on the gravel drive all Saturday night and looked like remaining there indefinitely. Tongues began to wag.
Jane Marriott was careful to keep her expression neutral when Sarah put in a surprise appearance at lunch-time on Wednesday. 'I wasn't expecting you,' she said. 'Shouldn't you be on your way to Seeding?'
'I had to give my fingerprints in the parish hall.'
'Coffee?'
'I suppose you've heard. Everyone else has.'
Jane switched on the kettle. 'About the money or about Jack?'
Sarah gave a humourless laugh. 'That makes life a lot easier. I've just spent an hour in a queue outside the hall, listening to heavy-handed hints from people who should have been diagnosed brain-dead years ago. Shall I tell you what the current thinking seems to be? Jack has left me to live with Joanna because he is as shocked as everyone else that I used my position as Mathilda's GP to persuade her to forget her duty to her family in favour of me. This being the same Jack Blakeney who, only last week, everyone loved to hate because he was living off his wretched wife.'
'Oh dear,' said Jane.
'They'll be saying next that I killed the old witch before she could change the will back.'
'You'd better believe it,' said Jane dispassionately. 'There's no point burying your head in the sand.'
'You're joking.'
Jane handed her a cup of black coffee. 'I'm serious, dear. There were two of them discussing it here in the waiting-room this morning. It goes something like this: none of the locals had reason to hate Mathilda more than usual in the last twelve months so none of them is likely to have murdered her. Therefore it has to be a newcomer, and you're the only newcomer with a motive who had access to her. Your husband, afraid for himself and Mrs. Lascelles, has moved in to protect her. Ruth is safe because she's at school. And last, but by no means least, why did Victor Sturgis die in such peculiar circumstances?'
Sarah stared at her. 'You
'Fraid so.'
'Do I gather I'm supposed to have killed Victor as well?'
Jane nodded.
'How? By suffocating him with his own false teeth?'
'That seems to be the general view.' Jane's eyes brimmed with laughter suddenly. 'Oh dear, I shouldn't laugh, really I shouldn't. Poor old soul, it was bad enough that he swallowed them himself, but the idea of you wrestling with a ninety-three-year-old in order to ram his dentures down his throat'-she broke off to mop her eyes-'it doesn't bear thinking about. The world is full of very foolish and very envious people, Sarah. They resent your good fortune.'
Sarah mulled this over. 'Do you think I'm fortunate?'
'Good lord, yes. It's like winning the pools.'
'What would you do with the money if Mathilda had left it to you?'
'Go on a cruise. See the world before it sinks under the weight of its own pollution.'
'That seems to be the most popular choice. It must be something to do with the fact that we're an island. Everyone wants to get off it.' She stirred her coffee then licked the spoon absent-mindedly.
Jane was dying of curiosity. 'What are you going to do with it?'
Sarah sighed. 'Use it to pay for a decent barrister, I should think.'
DS Cooper stopped at Mill House on his way home that evening. Sarah offered him a glass of wine which he accepted. 'We've had a letter about you,' he told her while she was pouring it.
She handed him the glass. 'Who from?'
'Unsigned.'
'What does it say?'
'That you murdered an old man called Victor Sturgis for his walnut desk.'
Sarah pulled a wry face. 'Actually, he did leave me a desk and it's a rather nice one, too. The matron at the nursing home gave it to me after he died. She said he wanted me to have it. I was very touched.' She lifted weary eyebrows. 'Did it say how I murdered him?'
'You were seen suffocating him.'
'It makes a weird sort of sense. I was trying to prise his dentures out of his throat. The poor old boy swallowed them when he dozed off in his chair.' She sighed. 'But he was dead before I even started. I had a vague idea of trying mouth-to-mouth if I could unblock his airway. I suppose, from a distance, it might have looked as if I were suffocating him.'
Cooper nodded. He had checked the story already. 'We've had a few letters, one way and another, and they're not all about you.' He took an envelope from his pocket and handed it to her. 'This is the most interesting. See what you make of it.'
