The Color of Death Read Online Free PDF Page B

well-mannered propriety, he would not think of interrupting his chief unless there were a matter of some urgency.
    “Yes, Mr. Bailey, what is it?”
    “Constable Patley has just returned with Mr. Donnelly and Mr. Donnelly would like to know where is the body? “
    “Show him, won’t you, Mr. Bailey? Or if you don’t know, take Burley here with you. He can show you.”
    “As you say, Sir John.” This was delivered with a salute. He did a quick turn and went off to fetch Mr. Donnelly.
    “All of which leaves us,” said Sir John to me, “without Mr. Patley. Do you see him about?”
    I looked round the room — but looked in vain. He was nowhere to be seen. “No sir,” said I. “Shall I check outside with Constable Brede?”
    “No … well, perhaps. But first let me try this. Constable Patley!” he bellowed. “Come at once. ” At that all heads in the great entry hall (and most of the household staff were there, milling about) turned his way, surprised at his intemperate shouting. I, too, was surprised, for I had never known him to employ such methods before. Ah well, he was full of surprises.
    “Tell me, Jeremy,” said he mildly, “do you see him now?”
    “I’m afraid not, Sir John.” Ah, but I had spoken a bit too early, for there he was, pulling himself away from the flirtatious Mistress Pinkham. They had just stepped from behind the wide, winding staircase which so dominated the room; they had thus been hidden from view. “No, I was wrong, sir. I see him now. He’s coming this way.”
    Constable Patley presented himself at attention and brought a stiff hand to his brow in a military salute. (He was said to have been a soldier in the colonies.) “Here I am, sir!”
    “Constable Patley, is it?”
    “Yes sir!”
    “I have a few questions for you.”
    “And I am pleased to answer them, sir.”
    “That is gratifying,” said Sir John. “Now tell me, Mr. Patley, where were you when you were notified of this felonious invasion of the Lilley residence?”
    “Quite close by, sir, walking the Pall Mall, I was.”
    “And who was it approached you? Which of the servants?”
    “Why, I don’t remember his name, but he come running up to me, and he said there’d been a terrible robbery and murder at Lord Lilley’s. I sent him on to Bow Street and come here myself. Did I do right?”
    “You did right enough, but I wanted to talk with whomever it was brought word to Bow Street. Do you see him here?”
    Mr. Patley, a reasonably tall fellow to begin with, went up on his tiptoes to survey the faces of those in the room. There must have been more than a dozen there in the entry hall, but most of them were women — upstairs maids, downstairs maids, cooks, kitchen slaveys, et cetera. After studying them carefully, he came down to our level, shaking his head in a negative manner.
    “No sir,” said he, “I don’t see him anywheres.”
    “Well, next time, when such a crime is committed, you must at least get the name of him who reports it.”
    “I promise to do it that way in the future,” said Mr. Patley.
    “See that you do, sir, for you will need names and facts for the report that you must write.”
    “Report, sir? What report?”
    “The one that you will write and give to Mr. Marsden, the court clerk, in the morning. Didn’t Mr. Bailey tell you that when you are first on the scene of any serious crime, then you must write a report on it?”
    “He said something about that, sir.”
    “Well, it seems your turn has come, does it not?”
    “As you say, sir.”
    “Oh, and by the bye, you must have in it some estimate of the value of the goods stolen. It need not be absolutely accurate; it can later be raised or lowered. That you can probably get from the butler, Mr. Collier. If not, then tell him I said that we must have it. Is all that understood?”
    Constable Will Patley sighed a deep, unhappy sigh. “All understood, sir,” said he.
    “Is there some part of this you wish to discuss?”
    “No