An Expert in Murder Read Online Free PDF Page A

glanced at the hat which lay scuffed and crumpled on the floor close to the body, a casualty of the violence that had taken place. ‘Yes, perhaps.’ He looked at the girl intently, trying to see beyond features which had been dulled by death, to imagine what she had been like just a few hours ago and pinpoint what would have struck him about her had he passed her in the street.
    With any murder investigation, he insisted on giving the dead a dignity and individuality which he could not always assume they had been afforded in life. The old adage was true: there were only a few genuine reasons for murder – love, greed and revenge topped the list – but each victim was different, and each had the right to be treated as if theirs were a unique death. He moved over to the body, close enough to notice a bloodstain on her collar. The mark indicated a cut to the neck but it was so small that it would have been easy to miss it. The victim’s head was tipped to one side and slightly forward, and he could see that a small patch of hair had been shaved off at the back. It had been roughly done – obviously the murderer had been in too much of a hurry to worry about breaking the skin – and a few strands of hair still lay on the girl’s left shoulder. Such an odd thing to do, he thought – so insignificant, and yet somehow so humiliating.
    The air in the compartment was heavy and oppressive, and Penrose was glad to step outside into the corridor. ‘Where is the luggage, by the way?’ he asked Fallowfield. ‘Was it being sent on or was she planning to take it with her?’
    ‘I’ve had it locked in one of the guards’ rooms, Sir. There were no instructions for it to be sent anywhere.’
    ‘Then someone must have been coming to meet her. You’d better go and see who you can find in that crowd, Sergeant. Whoever it is will be worried sick by now – unless they’ve got something to 21

    hide, of course. We’ll leave the scene to the boys, but tell them I want photographs of the lot – every small detail, particularly that cut on her neck. And we’ll need to start working through the passenger list, so the sooner you can get hold of that and a list of staff on duty, the better. I’ll go and see if Forrester can tell us anything we don’t already know – I could do with a cup of Maybrick’s tea myself, now you mention it – but if you find that anyone’s been waiting for her, I want to be told straight away. Have you gone through her bag yet?’
    ‘I’ve had a quick look, Sir. A few papers and a couple of weeklies, and this was in the side pocket with her train ticket,’ said Fallowfield, holding out a magazine. ‘Look at page fourteen.’
    Penrose did as he was told. When he saw the dated inscription, his heart sank: ‘To dear Elspeth, with thanks for an unforgettable trip. I hope we’ll meet again! Much love, Josephine (Gordon).’ So she had known her as well, and could have been one of the last people to see her alive. Suddenly he needed something a little stronger than Maybrick’s tea.
    When he saw the closest thing he had to a witness sitting in the waiting room clutching a full cup of tea that must have been cold for some time, Penrose realised he was unlikely to hear anything of great use. Fallowfield had been accurate in his assessment of Forrester’s fear, and it was hardly surprising. Most people were fortunate enough to reach a comfortable middle age before an awareness of the transience of life began to weigh heavily on them, but that was a luxury which had been denied to his own generation and he was all too experienced in recognising the moment when someone first came face to face with his own mortality.
    For Penrose, that moment had come before he really had a chance to find anything out about himself, to know who he might have become if the world had turned out differently. He could still remember that week in early September – a month or so short of his return to Cambridge for the final