Margaret smiled and disappeared into the kitchen.
The toddler’s mouth was very moist.
Angel looked round for a tissue. There were none to hand, so took a new handkerchief out of his breast pocket, shook it open and wiped Carl’s lips dry. However, there was more dribble, a lot more. Carl dribbled mightily into it. Angel folded it, wiped the little boy’s lips dry again, folded it over again and pushed it back into his breast pocket.
Margaret came back in with a plastic feeding cup.
Carl looked up at her with the cup and lifted up his arms. That was what he needed. She gave him the cup, he took it eagerly, then she lifted him off Angel’s knee.
Angel was reluctant to have Carl taken from him. He smiled as he looked down at the little lad on his mother’s knee, noisily sucking at the juice.
Angel walked up the path, pressed the illuminated bell push on the door surround, stood back and waited.
The door was opened after a short delay, by the lady of the house, who peered at him cautiously. ‘Yes?’ she said adjusting her spectacles.
‘Good afternoon, Mrs Duplessis,’ Angel said. ‘Could I have a word?’
‘Oh, it’s Inspector Angel,’ she said, looking relieved. ‘Why, of course. Of course. Please come in,’ she replied.
She conducted him to her sitting-room.
‘Just a couple of things I need to clear up.’
‘Yes. Yes. Anything I can do to help.’
‘I understand that from time to time, you did some shopping for Mrs Prophet?’
‘Yes. Well, I would have done anything to help her. Poor woman.’
‘Well, last Monday, the day of the murder … did you do any shopping for her or Mr Prophet?’
‘No,’ she said. ‘I remember in the morning asking if she needed anything, but she said that Margaret was bringing in some bits and would drop them in on her way back from the shops.’
Angel frowned. ‘You see, there was unpacked shopping in two bags on the floor in the pantry and some money, presumably change, on the draining board.’
‘That would have been Margaret. Though I’m surprised she didn’t put the shopping away. Mrs Prophet could have tripped over it. She knew not to leave stuff lying around on the floor.’
Angel’s face dropped. He didn’t like the answer. ‘And the money on the draining board?’
‘That was the arranged place to leave money or keys or anything like that.’
‘But Margaret didn’t work for the Prophets on Mondays.’
‘That’s right, but Mrs Prophet knew that Margaret did her own shopping on Mondays and sometimes asked her to drop a few things in. After all, she has to pass the back gate from town up to Mansion Hill. It wasn’t out of her way.’
‘She would use the back door then? Hmm. So if she had come in to the Prophets’ house, you wouldn’t have seen her?’
‘No, I didn’t see her. I wouldn’t from my house. She would simply go through the gate, up the path, knock on the door, open it, call out and go in. That was the usual routine. It was the most considerate way, really, with Alicia being blind.’
‘Hmm.’
‘I might add that Lady Blessington simply walked straight in when she came visiting. She never, ever knocked.’
Angel blinked. ‘Really? Hmmm. The thing is, Mrs Duplessis, about Margaret Gaston, she says she didn’t call at the house on Monday, the day of the murder. She’s quite adamant about it.’
Mrs Duplessis sighed, shook her head and said, ‘Frankly, Inspector, she must be … mistaken.’
‘You mean she lying?’
‘I didn’t want to be so … confrontational, Inspector, but I can’t think of any other … explanation.’
Angel pursed his lips.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The shapely Karen Kennedy fluttered her eyelashes, held open the inner office door and said, ‘Mr Prophet will see you now, Inspector.’
‘Thank you,’ Angel said, appreciating the whiff of perfume as he brushed past her.
Charles Prophet was standing, leaning over the desk, his hand already outstretched, ready to welcome him.
‘So very pleased to see you, Inspector. Please sit down and make yourself comfortable.’
‘Thank you,’ Angel said. He noticed the pasty, unhappy face and the noted that he was wearing a black tie.
‘Please tell me what progress you are making finding this … woman,’ Prophet said.
‘Frankly, Mr Prophet, it isn’t easy. But have no fear, we will catch her in due course.’
‘You have something of a reputation, Inspector. The word round town is – like the Mounties – you always get your man?’
Angel looked at him, but said nothing. What was there to say?
‘Or, in this case,’ Prophet added, ‘your woman.’
‘I hope not to fail this time, Mr Prophet,’ he said evenly. ‘That’s why I am here. There are one or two points on which I would like clarification.’
Prophet nodded. ‘Of course. Fire away.’
‘There’s the matter of the description of Lady Blessington. You are probably the person who knew her the best … saw her the most, after your dear wife. Other witnesses say she that she had a squawky voice, unusually high-pitched.’
‘I never detected anything unusual in the way she spoke, Inspector. I thought that she spoke perfectly normally: educated, pleasant enough, with no particular accent.’
Angel nodded.
‘How old do you think she was?’
‘Must have been over sixty, I would have thought.’
Angel rubbed his chin. ‘Everybody else thought she was younger: between forty and sixty.’
‘Maybe she was. I am, perhaps, not good at assessing ladies’ ages. She was always pretending to be something she wasn’t. She was clearly unstable to have committed such a heinous crime.’ He stopped, swallowed and then added, ‘It’s hard for me to speak … dispassionately.’
‘Of course. Of course. Forgive my asking these sorts of questions.’
‘That’s all right. You have your job to do and I do want to help.’
‘You believe that she murdered your wife because she couldn’t extract any more money from her?’
‘Convinced of it. What other explanation could there be?’
‘I don’t know. And have you absolutely no idea where she lived … or where she came from?’
‘I believe she said that she had a small cottage in Norfolk.’
Angel looked up interestedly. That was new.
‘What part of Norfolk? Did she mention the town?’
‘Of course not,’ he said wryly.
‘Did she come here by train?’
Prophet said: ‘I really wasn’t interested enough to bother to find out these details, Inspector. I simply wanted her to leave us alone. As I have said, I never liked the woman and tried to put Alicia off her, but poor dear, she was always willing to help anyone who came to her with a sob story. This woman was clearly … deranged.’
‘Would it surprise you to learn that she wasn’t titled?’
‘Nothing about Cora would surprise me.’
‘We just can’t get a lead on her? Did she ever express any interest in a particular place, apart from Norfolk, where she might have bolted to. She’s disappeared off the face of the earth. Any information would be most welcome.’
Prophet wrinkled his nose. ‘Alicia once said that she had spoken fondly about the sunshine in Florida, I recall. But that was probably only a passing fancy.’
Angel sighed. Florida was a big state. He hoped that it would not come to contacting the Federal Police over there.
‘Well, if you think of anything…?’
‘Of course.’
Angel consulted his notes.
‘Now, about Margaret Gaston. She said she didn’t go to your house that … Monday.’
‘She doesn’t work for us on Mondays.’
‘Did you take any shopping into your wife anytime on that day? There was some shopping found in the pantry and some money, £6.56, found on the draining board in the kitchen.’