Furious Old Women Read Online Free PDF Page A

the death of Miss Griggs. I’ll tell you frankly that I believe you know something you’re afraid to tell. I can’t see why you should be so evasive otherwise. Now don’t start crying.”
    â€œI’m not crying,” said Naomi unconvincingly. “Only you keep on at me with questions which have nothing to do with it.”
    â€œIf they have nothing to do with it, why not answer them?”
    â€œWhat is it you want to know?”
    â€œWhat time you met Grey.”
    â€œHe got off early that afternoon. He came home about four.”
    â€œTo your home?”
    â€œYes, for a minute. Then he went off to see Estelle. That’s his daughter. She’s only two. Then he got changed and came back here to pick me up. Then we went off to the pictures.”
    â€œBy bus?”
    â€œNo. Laddie, that’s Laddie Grey, everyone calls him that, has got a motor-bike and side-car. We went to Burley in that.”
    â€˜â€œ What is Grey’s job?”
    â€œHe’s on the building. Only there’s not much doing this month.”
    â€œThat’s why he was able to get off early that afternoon?”
    â€œI suppose so.”
    â€œWhere was he working?”
    â€œAt Commander Fyfe’s, I believe. Painting a room.”
    â€œHow do you think Miss Griggs was killed?”
    â€œMe? Oh I think the same as everyone else. Knocked on the head and robbed.”
    On her way to the church?”
    â€œI suppose so.”
    â€œYou don’t see anything difficult to believe about a woman leaving her afternoon snooze by a warm fire and walking through a dark afternoon to clean brass in an empty church?”
    â€œNot with her I don’t. She was church mad.”
    â€œYou don’t think she could have been killed anywhere but in the churchyard?”
    â€œWell, it would be a bit risky in the road. Where else could she have been killed?”
    â€œAnywhere. Here for instance.”
    Naomi goggled.
    â€œIn this house?”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œI should have heard it.”
    â€œBut after you had gone?”
    â€œOf course I don’t know what may have happened then.”
    â€œNo. Did you come back that day?”
    â€œMe? Come back? Whatever for?”
    â€œYou might have forgotten something.”
    â€œNo. I never came back.”
    â€œYou have your key?”
    â€œOf the back door, yes.”
    â€œWhen did you hear about Miss Griggs’s death?”
    â€œNext morning. While I was at work. Slatt, the village policeman, came to see Mrs Bobbin and told her.”
    â€œYou knew she was missing?”
    â€œOnly when I got to work. Miss Flora told me.”
    â€œWhen you left the house that afternoon did you walk home?”
    â€œYes. Of course.”
    â€œI wondered whether you had a bicycle,” said Carolus mildly.
    â€œNo. I always walk.”
    â€œHow far did you have to go?”
    â€œAbout half a mile. Beyond the church.”
    â€œWhom did you pass on the way home?”
    â€œNo one. Why?”
    â€œI quite understand that Gladhurst is a quiet little place, but surely between half past three and four on a fine weekday afternoon you’d have met
someone
?”
    â€œNot that I remember I didn’t.”
    â€œPlease try to remember. It may be quite important.”
    â€œI think I saw the Reverend Slipper. That’s the curate. He was just nipping into Jevonses the grocers. I don’t know whether he saw me.”
    â€œNo one else?”
    â€œNot to my recollection.”
    â€œYou didn’t call anywhere?”
    â€œDon’t think so.”
    Carolus handed Naomi his cigarette-case and lit both cigarettes.
    â€œLook here,” he said, “won’t you take my advice? I don’t know
why
you’re holding something back or who has persuaded you to, but whatever it is it’s fatal not to be open in a case like this.”
    This time Naomi began to cry in