The Other Side of Midnight Read Online Free PDF Page A

precisely, and without passion. She had no defensive wounds on her hands. There is no bruising around the wound, as of a man punching the blade with force. The knife was inserted between her ribs and into the cavity of the heart, causing the heart to cease almost immediately. Death, the coroner states, would have come in seconds.”
    I looked down at my lap.
    “So he hit her first,” George said. “Once, hard enough to stun her. Then he put a knife into her and stopped her heart. Then he carried her body to the pond and dumped her in. She had told the othersshe wanted some air, and she was not immediately missed. Because the body was hidden in the pond, it was some time before she was discovered and anyone knew a murder had occurred.”
    I frowned. How could he know all of this?
    He continued talking. “Scotland Yard has interviewed all of the people present that night, of course. You may have noticed that none of them are named in the papers. Most of the people in attendance were inconsequential; however, one of them was from a good family who wishes to keep things quiet. Suspicion falls on all of them, but the house was not exactly isolated. There are neighboring homes twenty minutes’ walk in two directions, and the property backs onto woods in which there are well-trodden paths. The pond itself is in easy reach of at least two of those paths. A stranger or neighbor could have done this just as easily as one of the inner group—more easily, in fact, as the people inside the house are now alibis for one another.”
    “They could be covering for someone,” I said, my words almost automatic. I had a suspicion about who the person “from a good family” was.
    “I thought so as well,” George replied, “but the Scotland Yard reports indicate that this was not a group of loyal friends. Far from it, in fact. They seem to have been a random group of pleasure seekers.”
    “The Scotland Yard reports?” I asked. “Gloria was murdered just over a day ago, and the papers say nothing. How have you seen the reports?”
    “That’s none of your concern,” he said, turning away and looking out over the traffic passing in the square.
    I tried to follow his gaze, taking a closer look around me. The spires of the Houses of Parliament were visible not very far away; Scotland Yard itself, though it couldn’t be seen, was not far, either. Any number of government buildings, including Buckingham Palace, was within easy distance. My companion had approached me from behind, and I hadn’t seen which direction he’d come from.
    “Mr. Sutter, what exactly do you do for a living?”
    He shook his head. “That is also not your concern, Miss Winter. Be assured my sources of information are valid. What I’m telling you is the truth. May I continue?”
    I trained my gaze on a man sitting on another bench in the square, reading a newspaper propped in front of his face. MURDER! the headline shouted. NOTORIOUS PSYCHIC S TABBED TO DEATH AT S ÉANCE. And underneath it: WHO KILLED GL ORIA SUTTER?
    “Continue,” I said.
    “I’ll put it bluntly. We may have been estranged, Miss Winter, but someone brutally killed my sister and dumped her body. I have no faith that Scotland Yard can solve this crime. There are too many possibilities.”
    “They’ve barely begun investigating,” I said.
    “It doesn’t matter. I have no faith, Miss Winter. None at all. This is not unusual for me. Even in the smallest things, I never have faith that anything competent can be done unless I’m in charge. And this is, to me, very far from a small thing. They have not even found a murder weapon. I will not go home and wait for the official investigators to bungle this up. Do you understand?”
    “Yes,” I said. I did. To my left, I vaguely heard the marionette man playing his music again. The man reading the newspaper turned a page.
    “I considered hiring an investigator, but the note Gloria left me made it simple. I came to see you instead, and you