True Love Ways Read Online Free Page B

England.”
     
    “That'll be about the money in the collection box
then. Old Mrs Wheston said she put a five shilling note in, but when the money
was counted the note was nowhere to be seen. Then there have been other
discrepancies, like the church roof fund, which was five hundred pounds short.”
     
    “Reverend Mortimer was also in the carriage, with
his new wife, Clarice. He doesn't strike me as the deceitful type, Aunty Peg.”
     
    “No, but you should be careful of discounting people
because you like them, dear. I made that mistake in my early days of sleuthing.
That includes the handsome Reverend Drew.” Aunty Peg's eyes twinkled.
    “There was a woman called Edith too,” said Meredith,
ignoring her. “I got the impression she was Reverend Mortimer's housekeeper.”
     
    “That'll be Edith Sanderson. She's related to us,
very distantly. Her great grandfather was labeled a lunatic. Very sad and all
that, but it is sometimes hereditary, and Edith Sanderson is a strange one.
Counts herself as a distressed gentlewoman. It's true some of her ancestors had
money. They were architects and built many of the newer houses in Midchester.
What on earth was she doing on the train?”
     
    “She said she had shopping to do in Stockport so
decided to meet them on their way home.”
     
    “I bet she did. She's smitten with Peter Mortimer.
Always has been, even during his first marriage. His wife died of pneumonia
five years ago.”
     
    “I got that impression. About Edith being smitten.
She doesn't like Reverend Mortimer’s new wife, does she?”
     
    Peg grinned. “Oh no. But everyone else does, which
is what makes it so much more difficult for her. Edith, unfortunately, is not
much liked at all. She's very disapproving of people. Gets all het up about the
young wives who put milk bottles on the table instead of a proper milk jug. That
sort of thing. People don't like to be judged nowadays.”
     
    “Then there was Alfred Turner. The dead man. He sat
opposite me,” said Meredith, continuing with her list. “And the three youngsters.
Jimmy, Betty and Bert. Funny I'm calling them youngsters. I don't think they're
that much younger than me. But they act younger. Like overgrown teenagers.
They've only come up from London for the strawberry picking. If Turner was a
policeman in Hereford and surrounding areas, he can't have meant any of them.”
     
    “But they may come up often, Meredith. We do tend to
get the same crowd year after year.”
     
    “I hadn't thought of that.” Meredith sighed. “The
other problem is that he didn't just speak to people in our carriage. He also
had that chat with someone in the corridor, and Reverend Mortimer said he saw
him talking to someone else in the buffet car.”
     
    “No, I think you're making it too complicated,
Meredith,” said Peg. “He stopped talking about his cases to you after he
mentioned deceitful vicars and had that funny turn. Which suggests he saw
something in that carriage. So let's confine it to there for now. I suppose we
could look at past cases in the area. The problem is that the headquarters in
Hereford would have covered such a wide circle.”
     
    “And he was a policeman for a long time,” said
Meredith. “So we've no idea how long ago any of these cases happened. We could
be going back fifty years.”
     
    “Maybe more, and perhaps even further afield. You
see Turner was the type to appropriate other peoples' stories as his own. I
remember him talking once about having been part of a big murder trial, but
when he mentioned the name, I knew it had taken place miles from Hereford. Well
out of his jurisdiction.”
     
    “But if someone tried to kill him because he
recognised them, that discounts any murders that took place out of his
jurisdiction,” said Meredith.
     
    “Yes, that's a good point. But that still doesn't
mean that everything he mentioned in your carriage took place around Hereford,
or really happened to him. The problem will be working