Something Wicked Read Free Page B

words Aquila non captat muscas . If I am not mistaken, my lord, that is the legend to be found on the Mersham family arms.’
    ‘How did you know?’
    ‘I remembered it from my visit to Mersham Castle.’ Three years before, Pride had investigated the murder of General Craig at the Duke of Mersham’s dinner table.
    ‘That’s very impressive, Chief Inspector. What a memory you have. But, do you think . . .?’
    ‘I think, Lord Edward, that this whole business concerns you. Someone has just sent you a peculiarly unpleasant message.’
    Edward finished shaving, cutting himself in the process, dressed hurriedly and downed a cup of black coffee, all the time going over in his mind Eric Silver’s suspicion that the deaths of three of his patients were somehow connected. He had been inclined to dismiss these fears as fanciful. On balance, he thought it was mere coincidence that three elderly people had died doing what they most enjoyed – Herold playing with his bees, Hermione Totteridge in her garden and General Lowther drinking himself into oblivion. However, Silver’s murder and the unequivocal challenge his killer had left him quite altered the situation. The murderer was not interested in concealing his crimes. On the contrary, he was arrogant enough to throw the gauntlet down for Edward to pick up.
    By the time the cab had dropped him in Devonshire Place, he had determined to avenge his friend’s brutal murder. It was by no stretch of the imagination his fault that Silver had been killed but it was clear that the murderer had somehow discovered that the dentist was expounding his theories to him and retribution had been swift and savage. But why had the murderer not killed Silver before he had spoken to him? Perhaps he had just happened to recognize Edward entering the surgery and it had aroused his suspicions. Perhaps he had actually overheard the conversation. How else could he know what Silver would say? Edward shivered as if someone was walking over his grave, as his old nanny used to say. He had heard nothing and nobody in the surgery apart from the dentist but then he was hardly listening for anyone and his ears were still ringing from the noise of that dreadful drill.
    The photographs had been taken by the time he arrived and the surgery dusted for fingerprints but the corpse, mercifully covered by a sheet, was still in the dentist’s chair.
    ‘It’s not a pretty sight,’ Pride warned before nodding to one of his men to lift the sheet. Edward took one look and turned away in horror. For a moment he thought he might vomit but he regained control of himself and looked again. The drill had been thrust into Silver’s ear and, through that, into his brain. Blood and gore covered the wound but the drill itself was still attached to the electrical wire that drove it.
    Pride signalled for the sheet to be replaced and ushered Edward out of the room. ‘I’m sorry you had to see that but I thought you might notice something.’
    ‘Forgive me, Chief Inspector, but I must have some air. Such a gruesome . . . the murderer must be mad . . . a sadist.’ The two men went out into the street and walked up and down until Edward began to feel better, but the horror of what he had just seen still made him want to retch. ‘Thank you. I’m sorry about that,’ he said at last. ‘I thought nothing could shock me but that . . . He was killed in his chair?’
    ‘Yes. I have to say it’s the most macabre murder I have ever investigated. Vindictive is the word which comes to mind.’
    ‘Indeed. Who else saw Silver yesterday, apart from me?’
    ‘He had four appointments in the morning and two in the afternoon before you. We’ll talk to them all, of course, but Miss Wilton says they are all regulars.’
    ‘She must be terribly shocked. Who’s looking after her?’
    ‘Her mother. One of my men has taken her back to Cricklewood. The doctor gave her a sedative but she was, as you would expect, in deep shock.’
    ‘She had