The Crozier Pharaohs

She walked away from Dame Beatrice and up the slope before she stepped into the river again. This time, although her stance was precarious, her efforts met with success. She gave a shout and held up a piece of stone. Sekhmet, aware of drama, barked excitedly.

Two early strollers came along the path, the vanguard to several others. Dame Beatrice resurrected a small towel from the bag she had with her and vacated the chair so that Laura could sit down and dry her hands, arms, legs and feet. The newcomers gave the two women a cursory glance and passed on. Laura put on her walking shoes (in which, incidentally, Sekhmet had shown not the slightest interest) and then carefully dried the piece of flint.

‘Here is a thing and a very pretty thing, ’ she said, handing it over to Dame Beatrice. ‘Matters begin to add up. That is not a casual chunk of stone. It’s been worked over.’

‘It is a particularly fine example of what the Cambridge Book of Ancient History calls a coup de poing, but we wait to examine your find until after we have returned Sekhmet to her owners and Bryony has had a chance to confirm that we have the object she hid in the river.’ They followed this plan and then picked up the car from the gates of Crozier Lodge and returned to the Stone House. Here they closely examined the piece of flint. It had been painstakingly and beautifully shaped, with feather-edged flaking and sharp, straight edges to the blade. It had obviously been intended by its neolithic fabricator as a dagger, for although at one end it had been fined down to a sharpish point, the other end had been smoothed and rounded and was intended to be grasped in the fist.

There was no trace of blood on the flint dagger. If ever there had been, Bryony or the murderer or the action of the running water had cleaned it off. Laura said, ‘Of course we have no proof of where it came from and who owned it.’

‘No, that is true. The first thing, I think, is to get the pathologist’s opinion. We need to verify our own suspicions that this could have been the Watersmeet murder weapon.’

‘Does that mean digging up the corpse?’

‘The photographs may prove our point, but our course is to present the flint implement and leave the decisions to those who are qualified to make them. I shall suggest, however, that the Home Office pathologist is asked to give a second opinion to that of the county man and it may mean that he will insist upon an exhumation. After all, we are dealing with two cases of murder — three, in fact, if my deductions have not misled us — and the more evidence we can produce to lead the police to the guilty party the better.’

‘I’m a bit surprised that you’re so keen to hunt down this chap,’ said Laura. ‘You think he was being blackmailed by one of those he’s killed and I know what you think of blackmailers.’

‘It is on account of Bryony that I am concerned. She tried to hide the murder weapon, this flint artefact, and it was she who, after her father’s death, most irresponsibly transferred the scalpels to the loft above the garage, where, as we have seen, any ill-disposed person could obtain access to them. She is an intelligent young woman and now that we have shown her the coup de poing for what it is, it will not take her long to put two and two together and come to the correct conclusion as to who owns it. Once she does that, I would not go bail for her safety. A person who has killed three is not likely to burke at a fourth, particularly if he has something against her already.’

‘You say “he”. Can it be that you are certain that the murderer is a man, not a woman?’

‘When in doubt, the masculine pronoun covers both sexes,’ said Dame Beatrice aggravatingly.

16

Exhumations

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In different locations, but on the same subject, four conversations had been carried on.

‘If that is what Dame Beatrice suggests,’ said Sir Ranulph, the Home Office forensic expert, ‘we had better have both the coffins up.’

‘I hardly think much can be discovered in the case of Dr Rant which did not come out at the inquest,’ said the county pathologist. ‘The man drank and doped himself to death. The evidence at the inquest was quite clear and the coroner’s direction to the jury was the only possible one. I had examined the body and both the police doctor and I concurred in our findings. I cannot think why Dame Beatrice entertains any suspicions. Given the facts, she cannot query them.’

‘The fact remains that she has queried them. More than that, I understand the police were not altogether satisfied with the outcome.’

‘That is true in the case of this man who died at Watersmeet, not in the case of Dr Rant.’

‘Several people benefited from Dr Rant’s death, though, I believe. That, in itself, may have aroused doubts in Dame Beatrice’s mind.’

‘Who can read the mind of a psychiatrist who specialises in tracking down murderers?’

‘A single-track mind, you think. I do not agree with you there. She has something up her sleeve, I think. Perhaps when the next analysis has been carried out, we may know what it is. I have been associated with her as a Home Office colleague for several years now. I have learnt to respect her judgement. Anyhow, bring out your dead!’ concluded Sir Ranulph, lapsing into incongruous cheerfulness.

‘We shan’t be called upon to identify father, shall we?’ asked Morpeth anxiously, after the sisters had been informed of what was in the wind. ‘I couldn’t bear that, I really couldn’t.’

‘Of course we shan’t be asked to do anything of the kind. What a horrible idea!’ responded Bryony. ‘Father’s name is on the coffin. That will be sufficient identification. Nobody will query it, so stop worrying. I don’t know how they will manage about the other one. He was buried before it was known that he was the Castercombe chemist’s assistant. The cemetery people will have records of the graves, though, and anyway he is no business of ours. I take it very unfriendly of Dame Beatrice to have father dug up, but there it is.’

‘I don’t think it was her decision,’ said Morpeth. ‘Once she had voiced her suspicions they must have carried some weight, but after that the whole thing would be up to the police.’