Murder in the Afternoon Read Online Free PDF

question is,
Where did you see your father’s body?
    ‘Your little brother came with you on Saturday.’
    She kicked at a pebble. ‘Austin, yes.’
    ‘Do you know what time it was when you brought the supper for your dad?’
    ‘The church clock was striking five. He’d been gone since morning.’
    ‘Your mam said you put up the food yourself?’
    ‘I am ten years old.’ There was a hint of rebuke in her voice and perhaps a little doubt about my intelligence.
    Grilling would lead me into troubled waters with this child.
    The path turned muddy. I followed Harriet’s footsteps as she skirted onto the damp grass. The river came into view, at the bottom of the steep bank. It flowed swiftly,giving off a soothing sound, and a terrible whiff of chemicals.
    ‘I’m sorry to ask, Harriet. But would you tell me all about that day, as much as you can remember about Saturday.’
    ‘What everything, from getting up?’
    ‘Yes,’ I said firmly.
    Her gaze was incredulous. It said,
you’ve got a cheek
. Then she coloured up and said quietly, ‘You don’t tell people
all
your business.’
    Mistake. I had asked too much and brought that deep-grained, early-learned Yorkshire caution into play. See all, hear all, say nowt. Eat all, sup all, pay nowt.
    ‘Please, Harriet. It might help. Your mam has told me of course but everyone notices different things.’
    She sighed, but did not answer.
    I pressed on. ‘Had your dad received any letters or messages? Did he say anything about visiting someone, or going off somewhere?’
    I felt mean, introducing the possibility that Ethan may have gone visiting, but it did the trick.
    ‘I don’t know about any messages or letters. He was supposed to be going to Hawksworth Moor on Sunday, and he said he would take me and Austin.’
    This was the trade union meeting Mary Jane had mentioned. Ethan must have intended to introduce his children to politics at an early age.
    ‘Harriet, I want to find out as much as I can about what might have happened. Anything you can tell me might help, even if it seems a small thing. Tell me about Saturday.’
    She had been dragging her feet. Now she made up her mind to help me. She held herself erect. Her steps becamepurposeful. I did not look at her. The energy in her voice made me kick myself for raising hopes that would not be met.
    ‘Dad starts work later on a Saturday – eight o’clock instead of seven. We were still in bed when he left, me and Austin. He didn’t call up that he was going, but when I went downstairs, he’d left me some tea in his pint pot. He allus does that. He likes it strong, with sugar, and he leaves some for me. I don’t mind that it’s cold. I like tea. I’m greedy for tea. Him and me both are. I’d heard him talking to Mam. He asked where was his snack. She said he mun come home at dinnertime. He said she knew fine well he was working the sundial. He’d finish it and come home when it was done and not before. She said what was the point of fighting for Saturday half day and then working it? And hadn’t he promised to do the heavy work in the garden. He said he’d do it Sunday, and she said oh was he foregoing Hawksworth Moor and his socialist chums then, and he said he’d forgotten that. Then he left.
    ‘I helped Mam all morning in the house and out in the garden. Which I have to do because she’s making me a Whitsun dress and Austin Whitsun breeches and shirt, and she can’t do everything. When it come to dinnertime, I said should I take summat to Dad and she said no, he was coming home. Me and Austin went along to the shops on Town Street, to the butcher and the bread shop. I got a cream bun with a hat on, and he got a jam tart.
    ‘After we’d eaten us buns, Mam said where was her Woodbines, and I said I’d forgotten them. She said go get them and I said my legs ached and my arms ached from carrying shopping. And she said Oh all right then and went off herself. That was when I got the basin and put the boiled