The House of Women Read Online Free

last visit, sir, because you can’t drink with the lower orders when you’re promoted. You’ll have to do your mixing elsewhere, like the golf club, or even the Lodge.’
    ‘ If . Not when . ’
    ‘ It’s a foregone conclusion, sir. Inspector Tuttle said so before he went on leave yesterday.’
    ‘ And he said the same to me when I went to relieve him of his cat-sitting duties, but we’ll see what Monday brings, shall we?’ He smiled. ‘Mind you, Eifion Roberts said the chief constable was being extraordinarily nice to me today.’
    Pushing an ashtray within McKenna ’s reach, Dewi said: ‘Shouldn’t you think about moving house, then? This street’s really horrible.’
    ‘ If I wait a bit longer, it might get gentrified.’
    ‘ Who by? The locals haven’t got that kind of money, and all the English want to be on Anglesey. What happened to the old folk across the road?’
    ‘ One’s gone to see out her days in a rest home, and the other two were carried out feet first in early April.’
    ‘ A lot of people die in the spring, don’t they?’ Dewi asked. ‘Maybe they have to see the world turning again before they can leave it behind.’ He drank half the cider without stopping. ‘Then again, people die all the time. Janet was called out to a sudden death this afternoon, at one of those big detached houses in Glamorgan Place, and I’ve been back this evening.’
    ‘ Why?’
    ‘ Just to check things are sorted until the autopsy result comes through. The doctor couldn’t certify cause of death, but it looks like natural causes.’ Draining his glass, he added: ‘It’s a weird household. The dead man lodged with this relative called Edith Harris, and she’s got three daughters, but there’s no sign of a husband or other visible means of support.’
    ‘ So perhaps her lodger was filling the voids, as it were. It wouldn’t be the first time.’
    ‘ Oh, I don’t think so, sir. He was fifty-seven.’
    McKenna grinned. ‘A year younger than Eifion Roberts, and you should have seen him leering at the girls on Llandudno beach. Still, you can’t blame him, I suppose. They don’t leave much to the imagination these days.’
    Dewi flushed slightly. ‘One of Mrs Harris’s girls is quite fetching. The youngest is so ugly I felt sorry for her. How they came out of the same pod is beyond me.’
    ‘ What about the third?’
    ‘ I didn’t see her. She lives in Llanberis.’
    ‘ And the mother?’
    ‘ Neurotic, irritating, and prone to asking questions you can’t answer.’
    ‘ She was probably in shock. It takes people different ways.’
    ‘ She struck me as being near hysterical most of the time.’ He uncapped the cider bottle and refilled his glass. ‘And Phoebe, the ugly sister, said her Uncle Ned was supposed to be crazy, but she also reckons he was bumped off, so maybe they’re all crazy.’
    ‘ Why should she think he was murdered?’
    ‘ I had a chat with Mrs Harris after forensics went and things had quietened down a bit, and she says Phoebe’s probably in denial. Ned Jones moved to Glamorgan Place before she was born, and they were very close.’
    ‘ Ned Jones?’ McKenna frowned. ‘Where did he come from?’
    ‘ A village called Penglogfa, not far from Bala. The family had a farm and his sisters still live there.’ Quaffing cider, Dewi went on. ‘Ned came years ago to lecture at the university, but they retired him because he was forever ill. His room’s stacked from floor to ceiling with old books and papers, but nobody seems to know if he was doing anything constructive with them. Mrs Harris kept saying: “It’s such a shame when that sort of thing happens, isn’t it? Such a terrible waste of his talent, wasn’t it?”, which is what I meant about the questions, because I hadn’t a clue what she meant.’ As McKenna rose to go to the parlour, he added: ‘Phoebe says the farm’s called Llys Ifor.’
    ‘ I know.’ Rummaging through the books on the shelves in the