Where Death Delights Read Online Free PDF Page A

rang the solicitor in Lydney, who after a few phone calls, made arrangements for him to see Mitchell that morning and to go on to interview Mrs Oldfield afterwards.
    Leaving Angela and Sian to continue stocking the laboratory, he took the Humber up the valley for a short distance, past the hamlet of Llandogo, and across the river bridge. A side road took the heavy black car up a steep lane with sharp bends that climbed the English side of the valley, with superb views in all directions. At the top was the ancient village of St Brievals, which had been the medieval capital of the Forest of Dean and still had a castle to prove it. He stopped outside the Norman church to ask a lady for directions and was sent down a nearby lane to a thatched cottage whose picture should have been on a box of chocolates, even down to the roses around the door. A rap on the panels brought an almost immediate response, being opened by a large man wearing bib-and-brace brown overalls, looking like a carpenter or a plumber.
    He held out his hand and pumped Richard’s vigorously.
    â€˜Come in, Doctor, come in! Excuse the rig-out, but I’ve just come in from my workshop.’
    As he led the way into a low living room, with blackened beams in the ceiling, Pryor saw that Mitchell was a powerful man just past fifty, with a thickset body and cropped iron-grey hair. His face reminded Richard of a bulldog, the Churchillian features looking as if they had been crushed from above downwards.
    Mitchell piloted the doctor to a deep armchair, covered in flowery chintz like the rest of the three-piece suite. The room was like a film set of an English country cottage, with half-panelled walls, a large stone fireplace and numerous pictures of rural scenes. It even had a glass case containing a stuffed otter sitting on a dresser filled with blue and white china.
    â€˜You’ll have some coffee, Doctor?’ asked the investigator, in a tone that seemed to rule out any refusal. He went to a door at the back and in a deep bass voice roared out instructions to someone in the nether regions.
    Then he came back and dropped heavily on to a settee opposite.
    â€˜I understand that old Eddie Lethbridge put you on to this,’ he began. ‘A dry old stick, but he’s sound enough, not like some of these slick lawyers in the city.’
    Pryor nodded. ‘So far, there doesn’t seem much to go on. I hope this lady isn’t wasting her money on a wild goose chase.’
    Trevor Mitchell grinned, his stern face lighting up for a moment. ‘She’s not short of a few bob, is Agnes – though she’s keen to add a lot more to it from her nephew’s money. I’ve benefited from making a couple of similar goose chases for her in the last couple of years.’
    â€˜D’you think there’s anything in this one?’
    Mitchell shrugged his wide shoulders, from which his head seemed to rise without any neck.
    â€˜No reason why it shouldn’t be. This Anthony fellow did just vanish over three years ago, so he has to be somewhere!’
    â€˜But this Mrs Barnes seems to have it sewn up, with this ring and the watch.’
    The former detective pursed his lips. ‘It’s only her word that says they belonged to him. There’s no corroboration from anyone else, she’s got no one to confirm it.’
    They were interrupted by the kitchen door opening and a small lady entered carrying a tray. She was a wisp of a woman, with fair hair coiled in a roll around her head. Wearing a floral pinafore that almost matched the loose covers of the furniture, she gave Richard a smile from her elfin face as she set down the tray of coffee and biscuits on a small table between the two men.
    â€˜This is my good wife, Doctor!’ announced Trevor. ‘Mary, this is the professor from Singapore we’ve been hearing about. Come to live in Garth House, down in the valley.’
    â€˜I hope you’ll be very happy there,