grounds of Beeches Lawn. I don’t think the evidence is good enough, that’s all.’
‘But what more do you want? The woman was got up to impersonate Gloria. Right?’
‘Quite right.’
‘Well, who would have wanted an impersonation of Gloria except Gloria herself?’
‘Somebody who wanted to murder Gloria a bit later on, perhaps. Once she was presumed dead and her remains supposed to be in the grave, nobody was going to bother what happened to her after that.’
‘Then why not have killed her there and then at Beeches Lawn?’
‘Because the murderer may have been known to have been on the premises at about the same time as Gloria was there.’ As I said this, I could see what an insubstantial argument it was, but I let it stand, although I wanted to add a bit to it in an attempt to justify it. He forestalled me.
‘Oh, dash it all, Corin,’ he said. ‘The murderer must have known that, with forensic medicine at its present high level of knowledge and skill and all the facilities it has for the scientific study of dead bodies and the injuries which they have suffered, the substitution of another body for that of Gloria was bound to be discovered. The fact that the head was unrecognisable, whereas the wig was only badly scorched, was such a significant clue that the experts were bound to be suspicious and to make the most thorough investigation.’
‘Perhaps you’ve got something there,’ I admitted.
‘Of course I have. It comes back to the same thing. Gloria Mundy murdered that woman and chanced her arm that a mistake would be made in identifying the corpse, as, apparently, it was at first, but it’s rectified now, so her hunch has not come off.’
There was no denying this. I thought of tackling Roland Thornbury again, but shelved this in favour of getting in touch with Kay Shortwood. I got her address from Celia and telephoned Kay to ask for an interview, suggesting that we might have dinner together somewhere.
‘Not unless Roland comes, too,’ she said primly. ‘I don’t go out with unattached men now that our engagement has been announced.’
‘Fair enough,’ I said. ‘I’ll bring my fiancee. Will that clear the decks? We’ll make a foursome of it.’
It proved to be a very expensive outing, but I got a private session with Kay because Roland loved dancing and Kay was not up to his standard but Imogen was, and he took the floor with her not once but four times, and left the two of us to talk.
‘I really shall have to polish up my ballroom stuff,’ Kay said. ‘I don’t intend to let this sort of thing go on much longer. It’s either that, or weaning Roland off dancing, and I don’t think that would be a very wise move.’
‘Better ballroom dancing in the warm than watching rugger matches in the cold,’ I said, thinking of Celia and Kate. ‘Look, Kay, we haven’t got a lot of time. I want to talk about Gloria Mundy. You and Roland saw her that evening you ditched your car. You saw her at the window of the old house. Can you be sure it was Gloria you saw?’
‘Of course.’
‘Why of course?’
‘Because we recognised her hair and, from all that has come out about the murdered woman wearing a wig, the wig couldn’t have been put on her head until she was dead and the bonfire had done its work on the body.’
‘You know, I ought to have realised, when the police took me to the mortuary, that they had something up their sleeves. They knew the red and black hair was a wig, but at that stage they were not giving anything away. They just wanted my reactions.’
‘Do you think that at that point they suspected Gloria of murder?’
‘I don’t know, but they must have suspected that it was to somebody’s advantage to have it thought that Gloria was dead.’
‘To put a wig on an otherwise burnt-up corpse was rather a crude way of establishing that, wasn’t it?’
‘Granted. Look, now, if it’s all the same to you, let us lay off the burnt corpses. They don’t go with this supposedly festive set-up.’
‘You don’t care that when the police catch up with Gloria — and they are bound to be hot on her trail — she may be found guilty of murder?’
‘But she
‘ “Nymph, nymph, what are your beads?” ’ I quoted ironically.
‘ “Green glass, goblin. Why do you stare at them?” ’ she retorted. ‘That’s what I said, Corin. Her eyes were green glass. The others are coming back to the table. Roland,’ she went on, as they seated themselves, ‘Corin is trying to whitewash Gloria Mundy.’
‘No, I’m not,’ I said, ‘but she did go back to her job, you know.’
‘Needed the money, I suppose,’ said Kay. Imogen and Roland sat out the next dance and during subsequent dances Kay and I did not renew the topic. Altogether I found it a wasted evening and I wished I had made it an outing only for Imogen and myself. She was of the same opinion and voiced it when we got back to her flat.
‘What on earth made you invite those two shattering bores?’ she asked. ‘Don’t tell me that Kay Shortwood has charms to soothe your savage breast.’
‘I thought you enjoyed dancing with Roland,’ I said. ‘Sorry if I was wrong.’
‘The dancing was fine.’
‘Well, then?’
‘His conversation, what there was of it, was all about himself, of whom he seems to think extremely highly.
