Mrs Pargeter 02; Mrs, Presumed Dead

∨ Mrs, Presumed Dead ∧

Thirty-Six

Now more than ever Mrs Pargeter felt convinced that Theresa Cotton had been murdered by one of the women in Smithy’s Loam. One of the women who had been visited in Theresa’s final mind-clearing circuit on the evening she died.

There were five suspects, each with a guilty secret. And if Theresa had confronted each one with those secrets, as seemed likely, then any of the five might have had a motive for murder.

In her mind, Mrs Pargeter went round the close once more. Fiona Burchfield-Brown in ‘High Bushes’; in ‘Perigord’, Sue Curle (and of course Kirsten, but Kirsten had not been in at the time of Theresa’s confrontations, so she had to be excluded); Vivvi Sprake in ‘Haymakers’; Jane Watson in ‘Hibiscus’; and Carole Temple in ‘Cromarty’.

Fiona Burchfield-Brown had to maintain secrecy about her true origins.

Sue Curle was trying to keep quiet the affair with her boss, the West Indian Geoff, desperate lest her husband should find out and use it as a lever in his fight for custody of their children.

Vivvi Sprake had to keep her husband in ignorance of her little flutter with Rod Cotton.

Jane Watson thought that Theresa represented a threat to take her back to the hated Church of Utter Simplicity.

And Carole Temple had no doubt been confronted with the news of her husband’s transvestism. Not that it had probably been news to her; for Carole the terrible part would be that someone else knew about it.

Five women with five secrets. And one secret so important to its owner that it could justify murder.

Mrs Pargeter thought she had done well. She had worked most of it out on her own, and had had an unrivalled support team to follow up her ideas.

But she still hadn’t reached the solution. She still didn’t know who had killed Theresa Cotton. It was very frustrating.

Hmm, what was that expression Truffler Mason had used? Heroics, yes, that was it.

Maybe, Mrs Pargeter thought, with an irrepressible flicker of glee, it is time for a few heroics.