Five Dead Canaries Read Online Free PDF Page B

turned out to be a nightmare.’
    ‘What have you been doing, Harv?’
    ‘I spoke to the landlord, Leighton Hubbard. You only have to look at the pub to imagine how
he
must be feeling. The worst of it is that he thinks he’s somehow responsible for the deaths.’
    ‘That’s silly. It wasn’t his fault.’
    ‘He did give us one valuable clue.’
    ‘Oh?’ Keedy’s interest quickened. ‘What was that?’
    ‘That outhouse was almost never used. He only rented it out two or three times a year. That narrows down the possibilities at once, Joe.’
    ‘Does it?’
    ‘Of course,’ said Marmion. ‘It means that those five women were not just random victims. One or all of them were intended targets. The person who planted that bomb
knew
the time they’d be here and he could rely on them not being too inquisitive. When you go to a birthday party, the last thing you do is to search every nook and cranny for a bomb. They had no chance. They were sitting targets.’
    ‘Why should anyone want to kill five harmless women?’
    ‘The original intent was to kill
six
of them, remember.’
    ‘In that case, Maureen Quinn was very lucky to escape.’
    ‘According to the landlord, it wasn’t luck at all but design. He tried to persuade me that
she
was the bomber and knew exactly when to get out. It sounds like a fanciful theory to me.’
    ‘And to me, Harv,’ said Keedy, recalling his conversation with Maureen. ‘I don’t think she’s capable of anything like that. She seemed like a decent, honest, law-abiding young woman. There was no real spark in her. She was shy and unassertive.’ A memory nudged him. ‘On the other hand …’
    ‘Go on,’ prompted Marmion.
    ‘It’s always wise to double-check, I suppose.’ Keedy reached a decision. ‘When we’ve been to Agnes Collier’s house, perhaps we should go on to have another word with Maureen Quinn. I’d like to see what you make of her.’

    They couldn’t believe it. When Maureen got home and told her family the news, they found it impossible to accept. On the previous Sunday, Agnes Collier had come to the house for tea with her baby son. They’d all had a very enjoyable time. Yet they were now being told that they’d never see the woman alive again and that the child would have to grow up without a mother. Their sympathy went out to him. When Maureen told them about the other four women who’d died in the bomb blast, she had to force each name out and her voice trembled as she did so. Seated beside her on the sofa, Diane Quinn, her mother, kept a comforting arm around her shoulders and offered her a handkerchief whenever she lapsed into tears. Eamonn Quinn, her father, sat opposite in silence, his face blank, his mind in turmoil. Sitting cross-legged on the floor was fourteen-year-old Lily Quinn, not understanding the full import of what she’d been told but realising that something truly terrible had occurred and that her elder sister was at the heart of it.
    ‘Will they put your name in the papers, Maureen?’ she wondered.
    ‘Don’t ask such a stupid question,’ said her father, reproachfully.
    ‘Mrs Fenner’s name was in the
Standard
when she got knocked down by that car and all she did was to break a few ribs.’
    ‘Be quiet, Lily.’
    ‘But our Maureen is going to be
famous
.’
    ‘It’s not the kind of fame we want,’ said Diane, tightening her grip on her elder daughter. ‘Whenever she goes out, people will point atMaureen and say that she was the one who escaped from that dreadful explosion. Yes, and the tongues will wag about the rest of us as well. The whole family will suffer.’
    ‘I’m not worried about being stared at,’ said Maureen, solemnly. ‘I’m used to that. It’s the gossip that will hurt me. I’m bound to be blamed.’
    ‘No, you won’t, love. You didn’t plant that bomb.’
    ‘But I was the one who walked away without a scratch on me. Agnes’s mother will be the first to blame me. I know exactly what Mrs