Murder in the Dark - A Libby Sarjeant Murder Mystery (Libby Sarjeant Murder Mystery Series) Read Online Free Page B

if they were already treasured possessions of the Watsons. She heard Adelaide’s phone ring again from across the hall.
    ‘Would you believe it?’ Adelaide came in with an exasperated expression and a tray. ‘That was Roland. He’s just got off the Eurostar at Ashford and wants me to pick him up.’
    ‘Oh, dear,’ said Libby.
    ‘I told him I couldn’t, I was waiting for the police,’ said Adelaide triumphantly. ‘He’ll have to get himself home.’
    ‘Is that how he always goes to and from work?’
    ‘Yes, but he won’t drive himself to the station because he says the parking costs too much when he has to be over there for at least a week at a time, and mostly longer.’
    ‘Ah,’ said Libby, thinking that the Watsons were probably as selfish as each other and wondering if their sons were the same.
    ‘Are your boys coming home?’ she asked.
    ‘No, and I don’t see why they should. The police have been to see them both, though. Such a cheek.’
    ‘The body was found here, though. They must have wanted to see if either of them – are there two? – knew her.’
    ‘Yes, two. One in Leeds, the other in London. Ridiculous. How could either of them have got here in the middle of the night?’
    Privately, Libby thought it was perfectly possible overnight, as long as you had a decent car. And no one was there at night except Johnny, who lived beyond and out of sight of the grotto, apparently, whatever that was.
    ‘I was thinking about your grotto,’ she said aloud. ‘It sounds intriguing. Did you have it built?’
    Adelaide’s face brightened. ‘No, it was built by the people who lived here in the late eighteen hundreds. They seem to have liked ruins.’
    ‘And ferns,’ said Libby. ‘They loved ferns.’
    ‘Oh, yes, the grotto’s covered with ferns. It was one of the things we liked about this house. No one else we know has anything like it.’
    That would be it, thought Libby. Not your own taste, then.
    It was just after ten o’clock when the doorbell rang.
    To Libby’s surprise, Ian and DC Robertson walked in.
    ‘I’m sorry to bother you so late, Mrs Watson, but I just need to confirm what Doctor Oxenford told me this evening.’ Ian smiled his most charming smile and Libby watched Adelaide almost simper.
    ‘Of course,’ she said, her voice dropping by at least two tones.
    ‘Is it Ramani Oxenford?’ asked Libby.
    Ian scowled at her. ‘Doctor Oxenford’s being taken to view the body,’ he said. ‘Now, Mrs Watson, he called you when?’
    ‘Not long after you got here, wasn’t it?’ Adelaide looked at Libby.
    ‘Yes, about eightish or just after. Then again about ten minutes after that.’
    ‘And can you remember exactly what he said?’
    ‘Well –’ Adelaide looked at Libby again. ‘He just said had she come here?’
    ‘Even though you’d never met her,’ put in Libby.
    Ian turned another ferocious scowl on her, but Adelaide said, ‘No, Inspector, she’s right. And I put him on speakerphone, you see. And then he phoned again and said their car was gone.’
    ‘Anything else?’
    ‘He said he’d been picked up by a colleague Sunday evening,’ said Libby. ‘To go to a conference in Hertfordshire.’
    ‘Yes,’ said Ian. ‘And nothing else?’
    Both women shook their heads.
    ‘So what can you tell me about Carl and Ramani Oxenford, Mrs Watson? Have you known them long?’
    ‘No, not long. Carl is our doctor down here, and, as I was telling Libby, we’ve met him a few times socially. I don’t think his wife goes out much. I think that’s why he thought she might come here, as she knows I don’t go out much here, either.’
    ‘But how would she have known you were here?’ asked Ian.
    Adelaide looked bewildered. ‘But she didn’t. She didn’t come here.’
    ‘He means why would the doctor think his wife knew you were here,’ explained Libby.
    ‘A stab in the dark,’ said Adelaide, then covered her mouth with her hand in horror. Ian’s own mouth