telephone calls?’
‘Yes, there was one from Billie Kennett. She rather wanted to know what we were up to, I think, although she didn’t put it as baldly as that. She did say that, although she and the Barnes girl have teamed up again
‘It is easy enough to read too much into such incidents. I am not an upholder of private vengeance,’ said Dame Beatrice, ‘But there are occasions on which it has my full sympathy.’
‘Is this one of them?’ Laura enquired.
‘No. I am speaking my thoughts aloud.’
‘I wonder what the police are doing about those two murders? From what we know now, they must be connected in some way.’
‘Only in one way, of course.’
‘Two ways, I would have thought. There is the Satanist angle and also there is the point that both Minnie and this Black Art leader must have been killed by the same person.’
‘I admit your first contention. Your second is much less certain.’
‘You don’t think the same person klled them both?’
‘People who kill more than once are apt to repeat their methods. Poisoners continue to poison, stabbers to stab. The two deaths we are considering have nothing in common except death itself.’
‘Couldn’t it be that the murderer used whatever means happened to be at his or her disposal?’
‘Yes, it could be so, of course. Well, I must have a word with the Superintendent. No doubt he will be interested to hear an account of my activities and the conclusions I have drawn from them.’
‘May one ask what conclusions you have drawn from them?’
‘Well,’ said Dame Beatrice, ‘one of the conclusions I have drawn is that I think I may be inclined to keep the eleventh Commandment.’
‘Which is?’
‘Oh, come now! You, who must have been in hot water times out of number at school and you who, as I remember it, were not always a model student at Carteret College of Education, should not need to ask me that!’
‘No, honestly, I don’t get you. Is there an eleventh Commandment? If so, how come?’
‘Certainly there is an eleventh Commandment. Its place of origin, I believe, was Eton College, the pious foundation of King Henry the Sixth.’
‘Oh!’ said Laura, suddenly enlightened. ‘Tell a lie, tell a good ’un, and stick to it. Somehow, though, I shouldn’t have thought that kind of thing culd be in your line.’
‘In the ordinary course of events it would not, but circumstances, to quote a trite saying, do alter cases. With what are we confronted?’
‘Two murders.’
‘Of two infamous characters of whom the world is well rid.’
‘Do you mean you know who the murderer is, and that you’re going to cover up for him or her?’
‘I mean only that I think I know the identity of both murderers, and I think that one is male, the other female. If I am right – but I still can find objections to my conclusions – for the first I need provide no cover. For the second, well, we shall see what transpires. Edna St Vincent Millay was not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
‘I am fogged and bewildered.’
‘I may be wrong in my conclusions, of course, as I say. We must see what impression they make on the police. Of course those milk bottles may prove to present me with a problem. The Superintendent is anything but a fool.’
‘But you can’t take the law into your own hands!’
‘Perhaps I would need to love it before I did that. As it is, perhaps I have decided to ignore it.’
‘What have milk bottles to do with your decision?’
‘With
‘If you’re so concerned about the milk bottles, why didn’t you shove them into the fridge while you had the chance?’
‘They were important evidence on two counts. They gave a pretty clear indication of the day, although not the time of day, on which the antique-dealer died. Apart from that, I had not formulated any theory, when we found the man’s body, as to the identity of his killer. I do not know
‘Well, I suppose it’s of no use to ask any more questions. Do we go and see the Superintendent again, or shall I ring him up?’
‘I will go alone to see him. You, as a policeman’s wife, might be wiser to stay out of all future proceedings.’
