02 - Flight of Fancy Read Online Free Page A

something awful had happened.
I’ve seen enough dead men in my time, but this, this was different. I just got up
and took to my heels to find the nearest policeman. I should have told
Florence, really, but I was so flustered.”
    The colonel shook his head
sadly.
    “By the time I got back with a
policeman the body had just… vanished. Like a magic trick. Florence was crying
and couldn’t fathom what had happened. The doctor was then turning up too. The
policeman was rightly unimpressed by the scene and it took a lot of talking to
persuade him there genuinely had been a body. Of course not being able to find
Goddard alive helped prove that. But the body was gone! Just gone! They
searched all over as soon as the dawn came up. Never knew a thing like it,
quite remarkable.”
    “So Miss Fitzgerald, what do
you make of it all?” O’Harris leaned over and topped up Clara’s sherry glass as
he asked.
    Clara mused on the question as
she took a short sip.
    “It is certainly peculiar.” She
said, hedging her bets as her audience leaned in excitedly, “I am inclined to
agree with the colonel that it was foul play.”
    “Knew it!” Colonel Brandt
laughed jovially.
    “But why is that Miss
Fitzgerald?” O’Harris pressed.
    “Because the body was moved.”
Clara said simply, “Assuming the colonel was correct and he was dead, and I
feel the colonel a man familiar enough with this subject to not make a simple
error, then the only way the body could vanish was if someone else moved it,
and the only reason someone would want to move a body is if they had something
to hide.”
    “Like a murder!” The colonel
said enthusiastically.
    “Or, at least, they felt
responsible for Goddard O’Harris’ death. That might not imply murder as such,
but someone had a guilty conscience that night and it drove them to take a
terrible risk and move the body.”
    “But, where too?” Demanded the
colonel, “I mean, the police were there in minutes, hardly time to bury a man!”
    “Oh colonel!” Mrs Rhone said
aghast.
    Clara ignored her.
    “There is no reason to suppose
the body was only moved once . Initially the person took it somewhere
nearby and handy for concealment, then they went back when the coast was clear
and moved it somewhere more suitable. You said yourself the police did not
begin searching until dawn, that leaves many hours in which to hide a body.”
    “By Jove, she is a smart lass!”
The colonel grinned at O’Harris, “So, my girl, tell me this, who did the deed?”
    Clara hesitated.
    “What’s this? Cat got your
tongue?” Brandt asked.
    Clara glanced at O’Harris,
uncomfortable with the thoughts running through her mind. Then she sighed,
there was no getting away from the colonel without an answer.
    “I must first state that with
the limited facts of this case I can only make a supposition, which, if I was
to examine the details further, might prove inaccurate.”
    “Don’t be so coy, girl!”
    “Colonel.” Interrupted
O’Harris, “Go on Clara, we appreciate the difficulties.”
    Clara wondered if he really did
but continued anyway.
    “We have to ask ourselves who
had the motive and the opportunity to kill Goddard, and of course we don’t know
for certain what actually did kill him. It had to be something fast-acting and,
going by the colonel’s brief glance at the body it was probably something
internally ingested rather than, let us say, a bullet, which would have left a
wound you would have noticed, yes colonel?”
    “Certainly! I know a bullet
hole when I see one.”
    “So that leaves us with few
choices, but I would not like to rule anything out unless I was able to have a
coroner’s view on the matter, which is, similarly, impossible.” Clara tried to
still the slight shake in her hands as she presented her case as she saw it,
the last thing she wanted to do was hurt the charming and handsome Captain
O’Harris, “What we can say was that the method used was quick, soundless, or at
least