River of Darkness Read Free Page B

formal. There were pictures of polo matches and clay-pigeon shooting. Madden seemed more interested in a pair of shotguns mounted on a wall rack.
    'Was he trying to reach one of those, I wonder?' He spoke the thought aloud. 'Or the telephone, sir?' Billy seized on the chance to participate. He indicated the instrument standing on the desk. Madden grunted. He was still looking at the gun rack, frowning. 'Something's missing from the mantelpiece, sir.' Billy tried again. He was feeling better. The smell was less strong in here. 'That mark on the wallpaper 'A clock, most likely.' Madden spoke without turning. 'There might have been other stuff up there. Silver cups. The maid will know.' He led the way out and walked back along the passage, checking each room as he came to it. He paused at only one, the dining-room, where plates and cutlery from the previous night's meal lay on the uncleared table. At the far end of the corridor was a swing door. The inspector pushed it open and went through. Billy, following on his heels, retched involuntarily and almost threw up as a pungent reek assailed his nostrils. They were in the kitchen. The afternoon sun poured through unshaded windows on to a table where the remains of a roast chicken rested on a platter beside a glistening ham. As Madden approached, a cloud of flies rose into the air and then settled on the food again. Beyond the table a chair had been knocked over on its back and directly behind it a woman's body lay on the flagstoned floor, half propped against the wall. Grey-haired, plump-featured, she was dressed in a bloodstained white blouse and an ankle-length skirt of dark blue material. Her face wore a surprised expression. 'The nanny,' Madden murmured. He glanced at Billy, who had chosen that moment to shut his eyes while he tried to control his heaving stomach. 'Give me your handkerchief, Constable.' 'Sir?' Billy's eyes shot open. 'You've got one, haven't you?' 'Sir!' He gave it to Madden, who wet the cloth at the sink and handed it back to Billy. 'Put that over your nose, son.' 'Please, sir, I don't need--' 'Do as I say.' Without waiting to see if his order was carried out, the inspector crossed the room to where the body lay. Brushing aside the flies he bent down and unfastened the blouse, drawing it apart. From where he was standing Billy could see the wound, neat as a buttonhole, between the tops of the veined breasts. Madden stayed staring at it for a long time. When he rose his eyes had that unseeing 'other world' look, and Billy was relieved. The damp mask across his nose made the stench in the kitchen bearable, but the handkerchief felt like a badge of shame. As soon as they were back in the passage he tugged it off. They returned to the hallway and he followed Madden up the stairs to the floor above. When they came to a landing the inspector paused. 'Do you see?' he asked, pointing. Billy peered into the shadows. Embedded in the pile of the wine-coloured stair carpet were tiny pinpricks of reflected light. 'What are they, sir?' he asked. 'Seed pearls. From a bracelet, I should think. They've been trodden in. Watch your step." At the top of the stairs there was another passage, like the one below, running the length of the house. 'Wait here,' Madden told Billy. He walked down the corridor to his right, checking the rooms, and then returned to the stairway. At the first doorway on the other side he paused. 'Over here, Constable.' The inspector's voice carried a note that gave Billy time to prepare himself. He walked the few steps to the door and followed Madden into the room. At first he could make nothing of the twilight gloom. The curtains, which must have been drawn the previous evening, still blocked out most of the daylight. Then, as his eyes grew accustomed to the half-darkness, he saw the body. Mrs Fletcher, Billy thought. The colonel's lady. (The painting in the drawing-room was fresh in his mind.) She was lying on her back on the bed, flung across it, it