Читать книгу Inspector Alleyn 3-Book Collection 4: A Surfeit of Lampreys, Death and the Dancing Footman, Colour Scheme - Ngaio Marsh, Stella Duffy - Страница 27

Fox had lavished the most delicate attention on the skewer. It was tied down to a strip of cardboard and lay in a long box. Alleyn held the box under the lamp. The plated ring at the broad end of the skewer caught the light and glinted. The blade did not glint. It had had time to dry a little.

‘Disgusting,’ said Alleyn. He laid down the box. ‘Yours, Bailey. The blade had obviously been lifted by the point.’

‘That’s me,’ said Dr Kantripp. ‘I thought it better to avoid the ring as much as possible, though of course in drawing it out –’

‘Of course,’ said Dr Curtis.

‘Well, you’d better try the ring and top of the shaft, Bailey,’ said Alleyn.

‘It’s a whale of a great skewer,’ said Dr Curtis.

‘Yes. An old one. People use them nowadays for paper-knives.’

‘They got this one from the kitchen,’ said Fox.

‘Did they? We’d better take a look at the body, if you please, Dr Kantripp.’

They moved to the bed. Fox tilted the lamp. Dr Kantripp drew back the sheet.

‘Nothing’s been done,’ he said. ‘I thought, under the circumstances –’

‘Yes, of course. His wife hasn’t seen him like this?’

‘No. She wouldn’t come. Just as well perhaps.’

‘Yes,’ agreed Alleyn staring at the gargoyle’s head on the sheet. ‘Just as well.’

‘No. He’s not very pretty,’ muttered Dr Curtis absently. He bent down. Fox moved the lamp.

‘It seemed a bit queer to me his lasting so long, doctor,’ said Fox.

‘The head’s a queer thing,’ observed Dr Curtis. ‘There have been cases of survival – What was the angle, Kantripp?’

‘Slightly upward. But it may have shifted.’

‘Yes.’

‘You say, Fox,’ said Alleyn, ‘that he tried to speak?’

‘Well, sir, not to say speak. He made noises.’

‘It wasn’t likely, I thought, that he could say anything,’ said Dr Kantripp, ‘but Mr Fox thought there was just a chance. As Curtis says, queer things happen with injuries to the brain. There have been cases –’

‘I know. What are those marks beside the eyes? Hypostases?’

The two doctors exchanged glances.

‘I didn’t think so,’ said Dr Kantripp diffidently.

‘Bruises, more likely,’ said Dr Curtis. ‘You don’t get hypostases there. Not with the way he’s lying.’

‘They said, Fox, that he sat on the right-hand end of the seat?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Have a look at the left temple, would you, Curtis?’

Dr Curtis began to take away the dressing over the left eye.

‘You’re quite right, Alleyn,’ said Dr Kantripp. ‘There’s a cut on the temple under the bandage. I was going to show you. Yes, there it is.’

With a swift and delicate gesture Alleyn placed his long left hand across the staring right eye and the left socket. The heel of his hand was against the right side of the face, thumb downwards.

‘There’s a sort of fancy steel fretwork affair in the wall of the lift,’ said Fox. ‘With knobs on. There’s a bit of a smear on one of the knobs. It looks as if it had been wiped.’

‘Does it, indeed?’ Alleyn murmured and swiftly drew away his hand. ‘We’ll get him out of here,’ he added.

‘I’ve left orders for the mortuary van.’

‘Yes. Thank you, Curtis. You’ll do the post-mortem tomorrow?’

‘Yes.’

‘I think before I see the family we’ll take a look at the lift. You can get to work in here, Bailey. Try those bruises for prints. You’d better go all over the face. It’s a faint hope but you’d better have a shot at it. Then the skewer. Then come along to the lift. And, Thompson, you get some shots of the head, will you?’

‘Very good, Mr Alleyn.’

Alleyn did not move away from the bed. He stared at the face on the pillow and the single eye in the face seemed, in return, to glare sightlessly at him. Alleyn stooped and touched the jaw and neck.

‘No rigor yet?’

‘Just beginning. Why?’

‘We may have to perform an unpleasant experiment. Is the nurse still here?’

‘Yes,’ said Dr Kantripp.

‘When Bailey and Thompson have finished, get her to tidy him up. He’s a nightmare as he is. Come on, Fox.’