The Formula for Murder Read Online Free PDF Page A

killed herself.”
    “It’s doesn’t even look like her.”
    “Nellie, she was in the water for at least a week. I hate to bring this up, but you saw her face. It’s awful what water does to a body and then you have the fish and…”
    “ Stop. Please, I understand.”
    “I’m sorry. That was insensitive of me.”
    “No, you’re correct.”
    I look down at the ground. I wish I could erase that moment when I saw Hailey’s bloated face.
    He takes my arm and leads me toward the carriages. “My job as a policeman would often be simpler if we were able to identify criminals and their victims with fingerprints.”
    He has changed the subject deliberately and I welcome it. I ask him, “Did you know that while Dr. Faulds was living in Japan his hospital was broken into and the police arrested a staff member?”
    He shakes his head. “I know very little about the man’s background.”
    “Dr. Faulds thought the man was innocent and he compared the fingerprints left behind at the crime scene to the man they arrested and they were completely different. He was released.”
    “Very good.”
    “It puzzles me that police agencies are still dismissing his fingerprinting method.”
    “Because we would have to have everyone in the world’s fingerprints to make his method useable. And that is impracticable and impossible.” He pauses and gives me another look of concern. “Don’t think of the situation as the loss of a friend. She is gone and that is her choice, and she is no longer suffering the mental maladies that caused her sorrow. She’s at peace now.”
    I give Inspector Abberline a peck on the cheek. “You’re right.”
    He turns beet red and clears his throat with a guttural rumble. “Now, Nellie dear, please let me drop you off at your hotel. We have the commissioner’s own fancy carriage.” He indicates the Victoria, a four-wheeled carriage with a calash top, a seat for two passengers, and a perch in front for the bobby driver.
    “Thanks, but I need to drop by Hailey’s old office on Fleet Street to see what needs tending to.”
    “I’ll drop you off. And on the way you can look at Hailey’s suicide note.”
    “I thought it was at your office.”
    “I knew you would want to see it, so I requested it be brought here.”
    I do want to see it, but I know in my heart it will throw out the possibility that Hailey’s death was not by her own hand. I don’t know if I’m ready for that.
    “Shall we go?”
    “Of course.”
    Before we pull away, a man comes out of the slaughterhouse next to the morgue and goes inside. He has a bloody apron on and a saw in his hand.
    Now I remember what the morgue attendants and their aprons reminded me of—the Pittsburgh meatpacking house I had done a story on.
    “Change of shift?” I ask the inspector.

 
     
    6
     
    My hands are shaking as I hold Hailey’s suicide note. Inspector Abberline is gracious enough to turn his head and look out the window.
    If anyone can recognize Hailey’s handwriting it’s me. I’ve seen enough of it. I believe that Inspector Abberline has alternative motives for getting the suicide note to me. He also wants to make sure it’s Hailey’s because of my reluctance. Like he said to me at the morgue, “Just an added point of confirmation that confirms her identity…”
    I take a deep breath and look down. “ Oh no. ”
    “It’s not Hailey’s handwriting?”
    “No … it’s hers.”
    He nods his head and looks back out the window.
    Tears roll down my cheek as I read her letter. I am so sorry for what I am about to do, but my life is no longer worth living. He’s left me and I have nothing to live for. I feel so lost, alone, I don’t know what to do. There is no way I can go back to America. I can’t bear the thought of prison. No, I can’t and I won’t go back. I have no place to go and no one to live for. There is only one thing I can do. Whoever finds this note please make sure my cat is given a loving home. Hailey