Death on the Air Read Online Free PDF Page A

of light came through the front of the radio.
    â€˜That’s peculiar, sir,’ said Bailey from the other side. ‘I don’t get the idea at all.’
    Alleyn pulled out the tuning knob.
    â€˜There’s another one there,’ he murmured. ‘Yes. Nice clean little holes. Newly bored. Unusual, I take it?’
    â€˜Unusual’s the word, sir,’ said Fox.
    â€˜Run away, Meadows,’ said Alleyn.
    â€˜Why the devil?’ asked Dr Meadows indignantly. ‘What are you driving at? Why shouldn’t I be here?’
    â€˜You ought to be with the sorrowing relatives. Where’s your corpse-side manner?’
    â€˜I’ve settled them. What are you up to?’
    â€˜Who’s being suspicious now?’ asked Alleyn mildly. ‘You may stay for a moment. Tell me about the Tonkses. Who are they? What are they? What sort of a man was Septimus?’
    â€˜If you must know, he was a damned unpleasant sort of a man.’
    â€˜Tell me about him.’
    Dr Meadows sat down and lit a cigarette.
    â€˜He was a self-made bloke,’ he said, ‘as hard as nails and – well, coarse rather than vulgar.’
    â€˜Like Dr Johnson perhaps?’
    â€˜Not in the least. Don’t interrupt. I’ve known him for twenty five years. His wife was a neighbour of ours in Dorset. Isabel Foreston. I brought the children into this vale of tears and, by jove, in many ways it’s been one for them. It’s an extraordinary household. For the last ten years Isabel’s condition has been the sort that sends these psycho jokers dizzy with rapture. I’m only an out of date GP, and I’d just say she is in an advanced stage of hysterical neurosis. Frightened into fits of her husband.’
    â€˜I can’t understand these holes,’ grumbled Fox to Bailey.
    â€˜Go on, Meadows,’ said Alleyn.
    â€˜I tackled Sep about her eighteen months ago. Told him the trouble was in her mind. He eyed me with a sort of grin on his face and said: “I’m surprised to learn that my wife has enough mentality to—” But look here, Alleyn, I can’t talk about my patients like this. What the devil am I thinking about.’
    â€˜You know perfectly well it’ll go no further unless—’
    â€˜Unless what?’
    â€˜Unless it has to. Do go on.’
    But Dr Meadows hurriedly withdrew behind his professional rectitude. All he would say was that Mr Tonks had suffered from high blood pressure and a weak heart, that Guy was in his father’s city office, that Arthur had wanted to study art and had been told to read for law, and that Phillipa wanted to go on the stage and had been told to do nothing of the sort.
    â€˜Bullied his children,’ commented Alleyn.
    â€˜Find out for yourself. I’m off.’ Dr Meadows got as far as the door and came back.
    â€˜Look here,’ he said, ‘I’ll tell you one thing. There was a row here last night. I’d asked Hislop, who’s a sensible little beggar, to let me know if anything happened to upset Mrs Sep. Upset her badly, you know. To be indiscreet again, I said he’d better let me know if Sep cut up rough because Isabel and the young had had about as much of that as they could stand. He was drinking pretty heavily. Hislop rang me up at ten twenty last night to say there’d been a hell of a row; Sep bullying Phips – Phillipa, you know; always call her Phips – in her room. He said Isabel – Mrs Sep – had gone to bed. I’d had a big day and I didn’t want to turn out. I told him to ring again in half an hour if things hadn’t quieted down. I told him to keep out of Sep’s way and stay in his own room, which is next to Phips’, and see if she was all right when Sep cleared out. Hislop was involved. I won’t tell you how. The servants were all out. I said that if I didn’t hear from him in half an hour I’d ring again and if there