A Sudden, Fearful Death

Jeavis abandoned patience. "Was he tall, straight hair, regular features, smallish sort of mouth, light eyes, very level?"

"Yes! Yes, that's who he was, exactly," she said, affecting relief. "Is that him?"

"Never you mind. So she carried that with her, did she?

Sounds like she knew him pretty close. I suppose she got letters?"

"Oh yes, whenever the post came from England. But I didn't think Mr. Taunton lived in London."

"He didn't," he agreed. "But there are trains, and it's easy enough to come and go. Trip to Ealing only takes an hour or less. Easy enough to get in and out of the hospital. I'll have to have a good deal closer talk with Mr. Taunton." He shook his head darkly. "Nice-looking gentleman like that might have other ladies to set their caps at. Funny he chose to go on with her, even when she worked in a place like this and seemed set to continue with it."

"Love is funny, Inspector," Hester said tartly. "And while a great many people marry for other reasons, there are a few who insist on marrying for love. Perhaps Mr. Taunton was one of them?"

"You've got a very sharp tongue in your head, Miss Latterly," Jeavis said with a perceptive look at her. "Was Miss Barrymore like that too? Independent, and a bit waspish, was she?'

Hester was staring. It was not a pleasing description.

"Those would not have been my choice of words, Inspector, but essentially my meaning, yes. But I don't see how she could have been killed by a jealous woman. The sort of person who would have been in love with Mr. Taunton surely would not have the strength to strangle her. Prudence was tall, and not weak by any means. Wouldn't there have been a fight? And such a person would be marked as well, scratched or bruised at least?"

"Oh no," Jeavis denied quickly. "There wasn't a struggle. It must have been very quick. Just powerful hands on her throat." He made a quick, harsh gesture, like closing a double fist, and his lips tightened with revulsion. "And it was all over. She might have scratched a hand or so, or even once at the neck or face. But there was no blood in any of her fingernails, nor anything else, no other scratches or bruises on her. There was no fight. Whoever it was, she was not expecting it."

"Of course you are right, Inspector." Hester concealed her triumph beneath humility and downcast eyes. Did Monk know there was no fight? It would be something to tell him that he might not have learned for himself. She refused to think of the human meaning of it.

"If it was a woman," Jeavis went on, brows drawn down. "It was a strong woman, one with powerful hands, like a good horse rider perhaps. It certainly wasn't any fancy lady who never held anything bigger than a cake fork in her fingers. Mind, surprise counts for a lot. Brave, was she, Miss Barrymore?"

Suddenly it was real again, Prudence's death.

"Yes-yes she was brave," Hester said with a catch in her voice. She forced memories out of her mind: Prudence's face in the lamplight, the surgeon's saw in her hand. Prudence sitting up in bed in Scutari, studying medical papers by candlelight.

"Hmm," Jeavis said thoughtfully, unaware of her emotion. "Wonder why she never screamed. You'd think she would, wouldn't you? Would you scream, Miss Latterly?"

Hester blinked away sudden tears.

"I don't know," she said honestly. "I should feel so inadequate."

Jeavis's eyes widened.

"Bit foolish, that, isn't it, miss? After all, if someone attacks you, you would be inadequate to defend yourself, wouldn't you? Miss Barrymore was, right enough. Doesn't seem there's so much noise going on here that a good scream wouldn't be heard."

"Then whoever attacked her was very quick," Hester said sharply, angry with him for his words and for the dismissive tone of them. Her emotions were too raw, too close to the surface. "Which suggests someone strong," she added unnecessarily.

"Quite so," he agreed. "Thank you for your cooperation, miss. She had an admirer when she was in the Crimea. That was really all I wished to know from you. You may continue in your duties."

"I wasn't at my duties," she said angrily. "I was asleep. I had been up with a patient all night."

"Oh, is that so." A flicker of oblique humor lit his eyes for an instant. "I'm so glad I wasn't taking you away from anything important."

Furious as she was, she liked him rather better for that than if he had become obsequious again.

* * * * *

When she saw Monk the following day in Mecklenburg Square, with all its hideous memories of murder, guilt, and the unknown, there was a tense, oppressive heat, and she was glad of the shade of the trees. They were walking side by side, quite casually, he carrying a stick as if it were a stroll after luncheon, she in a plain blue muslin dress, its wide skirts trailing on the grass at the edge of the path. She had already told him of her encounter with Jeavis.

"I knew Geoffrey Taunton was there," he said when she had finished. "He admitted that himself. I suppose he knew he was seen-by nurses, if no one else."