completely off their heads. She’d no enemies. Everybody liked her.’
He went to the desk drawer and fumbled through its contents.
He held out a faded snapshot. It showed a tall schoolgirl in a gym tunic, her hair tied back, her face radiant. Kennedy, a younger, happy-looking Kennedy, stood beside her, holding a terrier puppy.
‘I’ve been thinking a lot about her lately,’ he said indistinctly. ‘For many years I hadn’t thought about her at all-almost managed to forget…Now I think about her all the time. That’s your doing.’
His words sounded almost accusing.
‘I think it’s her doing,’ said Gwenda.
He wheeled round on her sharply.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Just that. I can’t explain. But it’s not really us. It’s Helen herself.’
The faint melancholy scream of an engine came to their ears. Dr Kennedy stepped out of the window and they followed him. A trail of smoke showed itself retreating slowly along the valley.
‘There goes the train,’ said Kennedy.
‘Coming into the station?’
‘No, leaving it.’ He paused. ‘She’ll be here any minute now.’
But the minutes passed and Lily Kimble did not come.
Lily Kimble got out of the train at Dillmouth Junction and walked across the bridge to the siding where the little local train was waiting. There were few passengers-a half-dozen at most. It was a slack time of day and in any case it was market day at Helchester.
Presently the train started-puffing its way importantly along a winding valley. There were three stops before the terminus at Lonsbury Bay: Newton Langford, Matchings Halt (for Woodleigh Camp) and Woodleigh Bolton.
Lily Kimble looked out of the window with eyes that did not see the lush countryside, but saw instead a Jacobean suite upholstered in jade green…
She was the only person to alight at the tiny station of Matchings Halt. She gave up her ticket and went out through the booking office. A little way along the road a signpost with ‘To Woodleigh Camp’ indicated a footpath leading up a steep hill.
Lily Kimble took the footpath and walked briskly uphill. The path skirted the side of a wood, on the other side the hill rose steeply covered with heather and gorse.
Someone stepped out from the trees and Lily Kimble jumped.
‘My, you did give me a start,’ she exclaimed. ‘I wasn’t expecting to meet you here.’
‘Gave you a surprise, did I? I’ve got another surprise for you.’
It was very lonely in among the trees. There was no one to hear a cry or a struggle. Actually there was no cry and the struggle was very soon over.
A wood-pigeon, disturbed, flew out of the wood…
‘What can have become of the woman?’ demanded Dr Kennedy irritably.
The hands of the clock pointed to ten minutes to five.
‘Could she have lost her way coming from the station?’
‘I gave her explicit directions. In any case it’s quite simple. Turn to the left when she got out of the station and then take the first road to the right. As I say, it’s only a few minutes’ walk.’
‘Perhaps she’s changed her mind,’ said Giles.
‘It looks like it.’
‘Or missed the train,’ suggested Gwenda.
Kennedy said slowly, ‘No, I think it’s more likely that she decided not to come after all. Perhaps her husband stepped in. All these country people are quite incalculable.’
He walked up and down the room.
Then he went to the telephone and asked for a number.
‘Hullo? Is that the station? This is Dr Kennedy speaking. I was expecting someone by the four-thirtyfive. Middle-aged country woman. Did anyone ask to be directed to me? Or-what do you say?’
The others were near enough to hear the soft lazy accent of Woodleigh Bolton’s one porter.
‘Don’t think as there could be anyone for you, Doctor. Weren’t no strangers on the four-thirty-five. Mr Narracotts from Meadows, and Johnnie Lawes, and old Benson’s daughter. Weren’t no other passengers at all.’
‘So she changed her mind,’ said Dr Kennedy. ‘Well, I can offer you tea. The kettle’s on. I’ll go out and make it.’
He returned with the teapot and they sat down.
‘It’s only a temporary check,’ he said more cheerfully. ‘We’ve got her address. We’ll go over and see her, perhaps.’
The telephone rang and the doctor got up to answer.
‘Dr Kennedy?’
‘Speaking.’
‘This is Inspector Last, Longford police station. Were you expecting a woman called Lily Kimble-Mrs Lily Kimble-to call upon you this afternoon?’
‘I was. Why? Has there been an accident?’
‘Not what you’d call an accident exactly. She’s dead. We found a letter from you on the body. That’s why I rang you up. Can you make it convenient to come along to Longford police station as soon as possible?’
‘I’ll come at once.’
‘Now let’s get this quite clear,’ Inspector Last was saying.
He looked from Kennedy to Giles and Gwenda who had accompanied the doctor. Gwenda was very pale and held her hands tightly clasped together. ‘You were expecting this woman by the train that leaves Dillmouth Junction at four-five? And gets to Woodleigh Bolton at four-thirty-five?’
Dr Kennedy nodded.
Inspector Last looked down at the letter he had taken from the dead woman’s body. It was quite clear.
Dear Mrs Kimble(Dr Kennedy had written)
I shall be glad to advise you to the best of my power. As you will see from the heading of this letter I no longer live in Dillmouth. If you will take the train leaving Coombeleigh at 3.30, change at Dillmouth Junction, and come by the Lonsbury Bay train to Woodleigh Bolton, my house is only a few minutes’ walk. Turn to the left as you come out of the station, then take the first road on the right. My house is at the end of it on the right. The name is on the gate.
Yours truly,
James Kennedy.
‘There was no question of her coming by an earlier train?’
