[Mrs Bradley 55] - Nest of Vipers

He left the third bottle, but had wit enough to report at the depot. They told him not to leave any more, but, the next time he called, all the bottles had disappeared. However, he obeyed orders and did not leave any more milk, figuring that the customer, with three bottles in hand, was hardly short of milk and would contact him when he wanted more. All the householder had to do was what most of us do, just stick a note in an empty bottle, but Bosey doesn't seem to have done this.'

'Apparently not, Superintendent. I spoke to the man myself on one occasion.'

'The milkman? Really, ma'am? How was that, then.'

'Mrs Gavin and I had visited the shop and she had made a purchase. In the back of the shop I had seen a picture which, I thought, had magical connections and I wanted to persuade the proprietor to sell it to me, but the shop was closed. Although there was no milk on the step, I noticed that the man did not leave any.'

'Well, the bottles do pose a problem, Dame Beatrice. Now, ma'am, the doctors (we had two of them, our own and an outsider) agree that the corpse was at least three days old when they examined it, so who but the murderer took in the milk?'

'These are indeed deep matters, Superintendent.'

'What we and our colleagues in the other parts of the country where Minnie and this man are known to have lived are doing next is to check up on the parents of the missing schoolgirls. One of them - one of the fathers or boyfriends, presumably - may have got to know something of these Satanists' nasty little activities and trailed them down here and exacted a private vengeance, and if what we think happens to be true - molestation of virgin girls after kidnap and followed by the ritual death of the victims - well, speaking ex-officio, I damned well don't blame him. Still, my job is my job, and, if I can find him, it's my job to bring him to book.'

'Were there fingerprints on the milk bottles?'

'Yes, but nobody's that we could check up on. That's the worst of murder. Unless there's direct evidence and provided the man or woman only does it once and has never been in our records for any other crime, fingerprints don't mean a thing.'

'What about the weapon?'

'It was sticking into him. It was a broad-bladed kitchen knife and as sharp as a razor. He was sitting at his desk, we think, and the murderer sneaked in - probably from the shop if it was open - and caught him napping. Then either he fell or was tumbled on to the floor the way you found him. Well, he deserved what he got. He was a swine all right, if we read the papers in his desk and filing - cabinet correctly. They were in code, of course, but our experts soon broke it down and the details, although given in what we believe is a very low key, were horrifying enough, in all conscience. If somebody did take the law into his own hands and kill a monster, well, as I said, I'm only too sorry it's my job to catch the fellow, that's all.'

'It is a pity the shop is comparatively isolated,' said Dame Beatrice. 'You might have obtained useful information from the neighbours.'

'He was too fly a bird to want neighbours, ma'am, with the kind of doings we reckon went on in the top-floor rooms of that shop. A well-meaning party in the next street, Number Twelve, contacted us but wasn't helpful.'

'I take it that the question of suicide is not ruled out? People do stab themselves, and a nice mess some of them make of it,' said Dame Beatrice.

'Suicide? But I'm sure we've been very careful not to ring any alarm bells. No, my view is that some father with a real grievance had been brooding over things until he couldn't live with himself until the deed was done. My God! If one of those schoolkids had been my daughter, I'd have finished him off myself and be damned to my career and everything else!'

'A man of blood and iron,' said Laura, when they had left the Superintendent.

'A man whose professional training has not warped his social conscience. Well, there are various steps which you and I can take. First I want another talk with that milkman.'

'If he's as moronic as the Superintendent thinks, he won't be much help. In any case, I expect the regular milkman is back on the round by now. Influenza doesn't last all that long unless you die of it.'

'There speaks the heartless healthy.'

'Nonsense! I have every sympathy with illness. Well, if you're going to seek out the milkman, what do you want me to do?'

'Do nothing at all, and in your own masterly fashion, just for the present. Later on I shall be requiring signal service from you. You will have to conduct an interview which in your hands may bear fruit, but from which I myself should most probably obtain nothing at all.'

'If you still suspect Niobe Nutley of murdering the Minnie woman, who killed the shopkeeper? Niobe would have had no motive for that.'

'Who knows? - although I think you may be right. Besides, I no longer suspect Niobe any more than others I could mention. Since we discovered the antique shop and its varied contents, including the dead body of the proprietor, my range of suspects has been considerably widened.'

'You don't really think the police believe Bosey performed human sacrifices, do you? It seems utterly incredible to me.'

'It is not incredible at all. As we have reason to know, there are monsters among us. I am afraid that the Superintendent's observations on the matter are of the utmost importance and it is more than possible that whoever killed Bosey (unless he committed suicide) may have scotched the snake, not killed it. Oh,