Dorothy L. Sayers
Have His Carcase
About The Author
Born in Oxford in 1893, Dorothy Leigh Sayers was later to become a classical scholar and honours graduate in modern languages. Between 1921 and 1.932 she was employed as a copywriter in an advertising agency.
But in 1923 she put into print a character who was to become one of the most popular fictional heroes of the century — Lord Peter Wimsy, who features in a dozen novels and numerous short stories. Several of the novels have been adapted for radio and television.
Dorothy Leigh Sayers died in 1957.
Note
In The Five Red Herrings, the plot was invented: to fit a real locality; in this book, the locality has been invented to fit the plot. Both places and people are entirely imaginary.
All the quotations at the chapter heads have, been taken from T. L. Beddoes.
My grateful acknowledgments are due to Mr John Rhode, who gave me generous help with all the hard bits.
— Dorothy L Sayers
Contents
Chapter I. The Evidence Of The Corpse
Chapter II. The Evidence Of The Road
Chapter III. The Evidence Of The Hotel
Chapter IV. The Evidence Of The Razor
Chapter V. The Evidence Of The Betrothed
Chapter VI. The Evidence Of The First Barber
Chapter VII. The Evidence Of The Gigolos
Chapter VIII. The Evidence Of The Second Barber
Chapter IX. The Evidence Of The Flat-Iron
Chapter X. The Evidence Of The Police-Inspector
Chapter XI. The Evidence Of The Fisherman
Chapter XII. The Evidence Of The Bride’s Son
Chapter XIII. Evidence Of Trouble Somewhere
Chapter XIV. The Evidence Of The Third Barber
Chapter XV. The Evidence Of The Ladylove And The Landlady
Chapter XVI. The Evidence Of The Sands
Chapter XVII. The Evidence Of The Money
Chapter XVIII. The Evidence Of The Snake
Chapter XIX. The Evidence Of The Disguised Motorist
Chapter XX. The Evidence Of The Lady In The Car
Chapter XXI. The Evidence At The Inquest
Chapter XXII. The Evidence Of The Mannequin
Chapter XXIII. The Evidence Of The Theatrical Agent
Chapter XXIV. The Evidence Of The L.C.C Teacher
Chapter XXV. The Evidence Of The Dictionary
Chapter XXVI. The Evidence Of The Bay Mare
Chapter XXVII. The Evidence Of The Fisherman’s Grandson
Chapter XXVIII. The Evidence Of The Cipher
Chapter XXIX. The Evidence O F The Letter
Chapter XXX. The Evidence Of The Gentleman’s Gentleman
Chapter XXXI. The Evidence Of The Haberdasher’s Assistant
Chapter XXXII. The Evidence Of The Family Tree
Chapter XXXIII. The Evidence Of What Should Have Happened
Chapter XXXIV. The Evidence Of What Did Happen
Chapter I. The Evidence Of The Corpse
‘The track was slippery with spouting blood’
— Rodolph
Thursday, 18 June
THE best remedy for a bruised heart is not, as so many people seem to think, repose upon a manly bosom. Much more efficacious are honest work, physical activity, and the sudden acquisition of wealth. After being acquitted of murdering her lover, and, indeed, in consequence of that acquittal, Harriet Vane found all three specifics abundantly at her disposal; and although Lord Peter Wimsey, with a touching faith in tradition, persisted day in and day out in presenting the bosom for her approval, she showed no inclination to recline upon it
Work she had in abundance. To be tried for murder is a fairly good advertisement for a writer of detective fiction. Harriet Vane thrillers were booming. She had signed up sensational contracts in both’ continents, and found herself, consequently, a very much richer woman than she had ever dreamed of becoming. In the interval between finishing ‘Murder by Degrees’ and embarking on ‘The Fountain-Pen Mystery’, she had started off on a solitary walking-tour: plenty of exercise, no responsibilities and no letters forwarded. The time was June, the weather, perfect; and if she now and again gave a thought to Lord Peter Wimsey diligently ringing up an empty flat, it did not trouble her, or cause her to alter her steady course along the south-west coast of England.
On the morning of the 18th June, she set out from Lesston-Hoe with the intention of walking along the cliffs to Wilvercombe, sixteen miles away. Not that she particularly looked forward. to Wilvercombe, with its seasonal population of old ladies and invalids and its subdued attempts at the gay life, seeming somehow themselves all a little invalid and old-ladyish. But the town made a convenient objective, and one could always choose some more rural spot for a night’s lodging: The coast-road ran pleasantly at the top of a low range of cliffs, from which she could look down upon the long yellow stretch of the beach, broken here and there by scattered rocks, which rose successively, glistening in the sunlight, from the reluctant and withdrawing tide.
Overhead, the sky arched up to an immense dome of blue, just fretted here and there with faint white clouds, very high and filmy. The wind blew from the west, very softly, though the weather-wise might have detected in it a tendency to freshen. The road, narrow and in poor repair, was almost deserted, all the heavy traffic passing by the wider arterial road which ran importantly inland from town to town, despising the windings of the coast with its few scattered hamlets. Here and there a drover passed her with his dog, man and beast alike indifferent and preoccupied; here and there a couple of horses out at grass lifted shy and foolish eyes to look after her; here and there a herd of cows, rasping their jawbones upon a stone wall, greeted her with heavy snufflings. From time to time the white sail of a fishing-boat broke the seaward horizon. Except for an occasional tradesman’s van, or a dilapidated Morris, and the intermittent appearance of white smoke from a distant railway-engine, the landscape was as rural and solitary as it might have been two hundred years before.