Death by the Book Read Online Free PDF Page B

through this way quite often. Saw there’d been some sort of row, so I thought I’d find out about it.”
    “And?”
    The old man scowled. “No one knows anything. People milling about, claiming a man was hit by a stray ball and killed outright. Shouldn’t be allowed, talking when one hasn’t a clue, yet they won’t let anyone near enough to see what did happen.I may as well pedal myself on back to the village, eh? Tomorrow’s newspaper will be quicker than this.”
    “I daresay.” Drew waved and made his way through to the course.
    Several constables were holding back onlookers, and by the time Drew could see the first green, he didn’t need Birdsong to tell him anything. There was a body lying not two feet from the hole.
    Drew removed his hat, grieved once again to look upon death.
    The chief inspector managed a grim smile. “Ah, Detective Farthering. Good of you to come.”
    “Not at all, Inspector. What’s happened?”
    “Act Two, it would seem, of our little drama in Winchester last week. I thought perhaps another pair of eyes that saw the aftermath of the Montford murder might help us here.” Birdsong shrugged a little self-consciously. “Saw your car turn into the drive.”
    Like the last time, there was a note on the body, secured by a hatpin through the heart. Judging by the amount of blood on the shirtfront, Drew assumed the man had first been stabbed in the same area.
    He knelt to get a closer look. The victim was a placid-looking middle-aged man with a sedentary paunch in his jowls and belly. Rather well-off too, judging by his clothing. There were tobacco stains on his fingers and tiny burn holes in his coat.
    Drew scanned the neatly clipped grass at his feet. It seemed pristine still. The body must have fallen where it lay. There were no marks that would have indicated it was dragged or even shifted much. It would take nerves of steel to stab a man here on the green at the first hole at three o’clock in the afternoon with dozens of potential witnesses.
    Drew looked about again. The trees were a good ten or fifteen yards away. The clubhouse was in plain view. He gave a quick wave to the men sitting up there with their gin and tonic, and they were obliging enough to wave back. He hadn’t a clue who they were, but they could certainly see him.
    How was it that no one seemed to have seen the murder?
    “Do you have any idea what sort of weapon might have been used?” Drew asked.
    “As best I can tell, something sharp and narrow-bladed,” the chief inspector offered. “Most likely the letter opener we found in the victim’s inside coat pocket. Common enough to be untraceable.”
    “And the body was lying this way?”
    “No. It was facedown, a bit doubled over. Impossible to see the blood or the wounds from any distance.”
    Drew considered that and then the note itself.
    Kentish wisdom would have him paid so.
    It was the same graceful writing, the same aged parchment as was used on Montford in the hotel room, fastened by another antique hatpin. This one was larger than the first and looked to be silver with an amethyst set into it. Drew read the words again. What did the killer mean by Kentish wisdom ? And what had that to do with the first murder?
    “‘Kentish wisdom would have him paid so,’” Drew murmured. “‘Advice to Jack.’”
    What was the connection?
    “I don’t know how I can help you, Inspector,” Drew said.
    “You were involved with the first murder. Your solicitor.”
    “I wouldn’t exactly say ‘involved.’ I merely had an appointment with the man. He was dead well before I arrived.”
    “Fair enough,” Birdsong said. “But you were some little helpin that matter at Farthering Place. I thought perhaps you might have some observations on these current cases.”
    Drew smiled faintly. “I see.”
    Birdsong drew himself up with a sniff. “It’s part of my job to make use of any source of information as may become available in an investigation.”
    “No need