High Marks for Murder (A Bellehaven House Mystery Book 1) Read Free Page A

"It would have been hard to see in the dusk."
    Meredith followed his gaze. "I hadn't noticed that." She looked up at the tree overhead. "It looks like a dead branch. It must have broken off."
    Reggie kicked at it with his toe. "Nah, it's been sawed off. Look, the end of it is as clean as a whistle."
    "Tom must have sawed it off." She frowned. "I wonder why he left it lying there. He's usually so particular about cleaning up everything."
    Reggie didn't answer. He appeared to be studying the branch with an intent expression that unsettled her.
    "What is it?" she asked sharply.
    "Unless I'm much mistaken, m'm, there's blood on it." He bent down and picked up the heavy branch.
    "Blood?" Meredith's stomach took a nasty turn. She glanced up again at the tree. "Oh, my. I wonder if Miss Duncan was under the tree when Tom sawed off the branch. The blow could have sent her into the rockery."
    "Could have happened that way." Reggie's voice sounded strange. "What I'm wondering, Mrs. Llewellyn, is why he didn't say nothing about it. He must have seen her fall. Seems very strange to me that he'd leave her out here all night without saying nothing 'til this morning."
    Meredith had to agree. She remembered Tom's face earlier when he'd tried to tell her he'd found Kathleen's body. His shock and distress had been genuine. She felt quite certain of that.
    "I suppose it could have been Davie," Reggie said. "After all, he's a bit of a sissy, ain't he. Wouldn't say boo to a goose, that one. Maybe Tom sent him to saw off the branch and when it hit Miss Duncan he got too scared to say nothing."
    Meredith stared at him in dismay. Davie Gray was the assistant Tom had recently hired to help him with the heavy work. She'd noticed that the lad seemed a little quiet and shy, but Tom seemed satisfied with his labor. She hated to think Davie could be responsible for such a dreadful accident.
    "I don't think Tom would have allowed him to prune a tree," she said, more to convince herself than Reggie. "Tom's very protective of them. I'm quite sure he would have taken care of that himself."
    Reggie's skeptical expression did nothing to ease her concern. "Reckon the best thing we can do is to ask Tom about it."
    "I shall do so, just as soon as I've addressed the pupils." She grasped her skirt to raise the hem an inch. "I'd like youto stay here with Miss Duncan until the doctor arrives. I'd like to make sure no one else sees her like that."
    "Yes, m'm." Reggie touched his forehead with his fingers. "I'll see to it, don't you worry."
    Worry, Meredith thought, as she hurried across the lawn to the school. How could she not worry, when someone was responsible for the death of a beloved teacher?
    How could she possibly explain that to the young women waiting for her in assembly? What would they all do without Kathleen's efficient contribution to their education?
    This was a black day for Bellehaven, indeed.
    As if to emphasize her thoughts, a dark cloud drifted across the sun, sending a wide shadow across the grass. At the same moment, a wisp of white seemed to float by the corner of the building, only to vanish in the next second.
    "I don't know what's going on." Olivia Bunting paused on the stairs to push her cap back up from her eyebrows, then picked up her mop and bucket again. "All I know is that someone called a general assembly and that's where they all went."
    Trailing up the stairs behind her, Grace Parker winced as the carpet sweeper she carried banged against her ankles. "They never call for an assembly on a Sunday unless it's something really important. The last time was when one of the debs painted 'Votes for Women' all over the music room walls."
    Olivia's snort of disgust echoed down the curving staircase. "Don't know why they'd get in a tizzy over that. Them teachers are all on the side of the suffragettes."
    "Yeah, but they're not supposed to be, are they." Reaching the top of the stairs, Grace dumped the sweeper onto the narrow strip of carpet.