The Lately Deceased Read Online Free PDF Page B

job needing considerable intelligence, sympathy and a great deal of patience. His days were spent in interviewing bereaved relatives, visiting witnesses, organising the post-mortems and running the court on the days that the coroner held inquests.
    Wally hoped that this Friday would be quiet and peaceful as he had a lot of paperwork to catch up on and to be called out because ‘Grandpa had fallen downstairs a month ago and broken his thigh before passing away’ would be an annoying waste of half a day.
    He rattled away at his machine until a freckled police cadet came in with a thick mug of tea. As he stopped typing to pick it up, the phone shrilled in front of him.
    â€˜Here we go,’ he sighed under his breath.
    â€˜Hello … yes. Coroner’s officer … oh, Dr Weinkaatz … yes … yes … 17a Great Beachy Street … yes … I’m listening, Doctor.’
    He reached for his mug and took a long drink while the voluble doctor gabbled away at the other end.
    â€˜Sudden death after drinking, you say? At a party? Sounds a bit odd to me.’
    He frowned, took up his pen and drew a message pad towards him. ‘Margaret Walker … aged forty-five … you don’t know? Why didn’t you call one of us out or ship her off to hospital? Well, if you were satisfied, that’s OK, but … what? All right, if you say so, sir. But sending her straight to the mortuary was quite irregular, you know. Yes … yes … I’ll go around there this morning. I may need a statement from you sometime … yes … goodbye, sir.’ Wally finished his tea at a gulp and covered up his typewriter.
    â€˜Bloody nit!’ he grumbled to himself. ‘Hasn’t a clue about correct procedure in the disposal of dead bodies and, if you ask me, he’s got as much idea of the real cause of death as I have!’
    Taking his overcoat off the back of his door and putting on his trilby, Morris turned to leave for the address the doctor had given him. Again the telephone rang, and he sat on the edge of his desk while he answered it.
    â€˜Coroner’s officer here.’
    â€˜Edgar here, Wally,’ came the slow morose voice from the other end. ‘Looks like I got a piece o’ dirt over here.’
    Wally felt that this was going to be ‘one of those days’.
    â€˜What d’you mean, Ed? I thought you only had a gas job and a couple of naturals there?’
    â€˜This party what came in this morning, early. What do you reckon on ’er?’
    Old Sidgwick was relishing his bit of news and was stretching his enjoyment to the full.
    â€˜Come on, Edgar, blast you! What have you got over there? Let’s have it, because I’m just on my way to see the damn relatives!’
    The mortuary keeper could hold his bombshell no longer.
    â€˜Better take the CID with you, then, ‘cause this party’s got a stab wound in the chest right over the ’eart!’
    Wally heard this quite clearly, but the sickening consequences made his mind reject it at first. Ever since the doctor had phoned, he’d had an uneasy feeling about the case, which was the reason for his prompt visit to Great Beachy Street.
    â€˜Are you mucking me about, Edgar?’ he said fiercely.
    â€˜Did you ever know me pull your leg about a client?’ answered Sidgwick stolidly.
    Wally hadn’t, and he made up his mind quickly.
    â€˜OK, chum. I’m on my way over there now.’
    He hurried downstairs and out to his car. As he drove the few hundred yards to the mortuary, he cursed Weinkaatz for being so ignorant of police procedure. He pulled up outside the big wooden doors of the mortuary and went through a side gate into the viewing room, used mainly, it seemed, for the storage of firewood and bicycles. He crossed to a door in the farther wall and entered the post-mortem room, where Edgar, standing with hands on hips, was contemplating the body of Margaret