Hidden in the Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

disfigured by a stone, though....’
    ‘More than that, Miss Bramwell.’
    ‘Good heavens! What more could there be?’
    ‘The body was covered in oil and lit on fire—’
    Lydia caught her breath. It was better than she could ever have imagined.
    ‘How horrible!’ she breathed. ‘No wonder, then, that nobody can tell who it is.’
    ‘I have my suspicions.’
    ‘Do you?’ She eyed him with growing respect.
    ‘I’m almost certain it’s your friend, the Nose.’
    In spite of herself Lydia blushed. Still, she could not allow embarrassment to spoil her fun.
    ‘The gentleman from the Mail?’
    ‘That’s right. A Mr Cole.’ John nodded emphatically. ‘He was putting up at the inn, but hasn’t been seen in several days. Left his bag and his belongings there, though.’
    ‘Could it really be him?’
    ‘I’d bet a goodly sum on it.’
    Lydia glanced around the room at the smiling, gesticu lating group. Her eye fell on an ornate clock which graced the mantel on the opposite side of the room and a sudden thought came to her.
    ‘Do you know if there was a silver watch found on the - the body?’ she asked.
    A look of surprise crossed the face of Mr Savidge. ‘I believe there was.’
    ‘Carved with some kind of grotesque faces?’
    ‘The masks of Comedy and Tragedy.’  He nodded.
    ‘I saw him take it out several times on the journey,’ she explained. ‘I believe he wanted to impress Ears with it.’
    Naturally, she then had to explain the curious appendages of Mr Cole’s travelling companion, which almost caused John to go into whoops. When he had gained control of himself, he said that he would pass along this information to his father. It seemed that the dead man had now been identified beyond all reasonable doubt.
     

Chapter Five
     
A NEW FRIEND
     
    ‘But then,’ Lydia said to her aunt the next morning as they sat together over their breakfast, ‘it makes no sense.’
    ‘I do wish you would leave off this subject, Lydia,’ Aunt Camilla protested faintly. ‘My nerves are all a-jangle as it is.’
    Of course there was no possibility of ignoring such a momentous event, even had Lydia wished to do so. However, she had no such wish.
    ‘If the motive for killing Mr Cole was robbery,’ she persisted, heedless of her aunt’s sensibilities, ‘why was his watch not taken? From the looks of it, I’d wager it was his most valuable possession.’
    ‘Well then, there must have been another motive,’ her aunt snapped, apparently accepting the fact that there was no escaping her niece’s morbid fascination with this unfor tunate incident.
    ‘Precisely. But what reason could there possibly be?’
    Lydia demanded. ‘Why would anyone in Diddlington murder a perfect stranger?’
    ‘Perhaps it was an accident,’ Camilla suggested hope fully.
    ‘I think it unlikely that anyone could accidentally smash someone’s head in with a stone; nor could they set fire to the corpse in error.’
    Camilla shuddered at the vivid images which this speech conjured up in her mind.
    ‘Please ...’ she whispered, fortifying her nerves with a few sips of strong Gunpowder Tea.
    ‘John thinks that it was all an attempt to disguise the identity of the victim. But then it would be foolish to leave the watch. Of course,’ she mused aloud, ‘that may have been an oversight.’
    ‘I daresay one can be quite forgetful when committing a murder.’
    This was a more trenchant remark than was usual for her soft-spoken relation, so Lydia deemed it politic to keep any further conjectures to herself. If she wished to discuss the matter with anyone, the most logical person was John Savidge. He was in a position to know more than any other of her aunt’s acquaintance, and he certainly seemed more intelligent than anyone else she had met in Diddlington.
    * * * *
    Her estimation of the mental powers of the village’s inhab itants was not improved by developments over the following week. No sooner had the first wave of astonish ment