Holymead followed his words and he was satisfied that he had
created a favourable impression on her. It was his desire to do the
honours thoroughly which led him to remark after he had given her the
main facts of the tragedy:
"I'm sorry I cannot take you to view the body. It is downstairs, but the
fact is the Home Office doctors are in there making the post-mortem to
extract the bullet."
Mrs. Holymead shuddered at this information. The fact that such gruesome
work as a post-mortem examination was proceeding on the body of a man
whom she had known so well brought on a fit of nausea. Her head fell back
as if she was about to faint.
"Can I have a glass of water?" she whispered.
A fainting woman, if she is beautiful and fashionably dressed, will
unnerve even a resourceful police official. Had she been one of the
servants Inspector Chippenfield would have rung the bell for a glass of
water to throw over her face, and meantime would have looked on calmly at
such evidence of the weakness of sex. But in this case he dashed out of
the room, ran downstairs, shouted for Hill, ordered him to find a glass,
snatched the glass from him, filled it with water, and dashed upstairs
again.
Pages:
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70