Page 88 of Corpse in the Canal

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Solomon, who had been wondering how to extract from Adelaide whatever information she was keeping from them, was wary but hopeful. And glad she had decided to trust them.

David stood and held his chair for her. Not for the first time, Solomon wondered if he remembered such manners from his childhood, or if he had relearned them from being around him and Constance, or perhaps from his Parisian friends who seemed to have made such an impression on him. All of those, perhaps. David observed and absorbed like a sponge.

Adelaide walked across the room and sat somewhat stiffly in David’s offered chair. He sat beside her. Constance shifted back against the pillows beside Solomon, her shoulder warm against his arm, and it came to him that to a casual observer they could be two couples of the same family, comfortable in each other’s company.

Except that Adelaide was not comfortable at all. And David was watching her, as though willing her to lean on his strength. Had he persuaded her to talk to them? Did he know what she was going to say?

Adelaide’s hands twisted together in her lap before she deliberately loosened them. “I stayed in the house that Thursday,” she said abruptly. “As I told you. But I did see someone from the front window.”

“Percy?” Solomon asked, hoping she would say no. By what they had worked out so far, Percy had never got as far as her house that day. Unless he had gone there and then to Larchford Wood?

Adelaide shook her head. “No. I never saw Percy that day.” She drew a breath. “I saw Sir Felix Everett.”

Constance’s shoulder flexed with suppressed excitement, though she spoke calmly enough. “Was he alone? What was he doing?”

“Yes, he was alone, just walking. He came along the path from the side of the house and walked right around before heading downhill toward the canal.”

“Did you speak to him?” Solomon asked.

“No. I didn’t think he saw me. He glanced toward the house a couple of times, but I was well back from the window and he wouldn’t necessarily have known I was there.”

“Had he any reason to be on your land?”

“Not unless he was calling upon me, which he did not.”

“Did he often call?” Constance asked.

“No.” Reluctantly, it seemed, Adelaide transferred her gaze to Constance. “But he did call occasionally to discuss the boundary or church committee matters that concerned us both. He was very polite and never stayed longer than five or ten minutes.”

Solomon frowned. “Then why did you keep this from us?”

“Because I was afraid you would jump to conclusions. Because he went toward the canal, where you thought Percy was shot.”

“You think Sir Felix is guilty?”

She shook her head impatiently. “No. I think he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I didn’t want him to suffer for it.”

“You were protecting him from us. Why?”

“Because he is one of the few people here who has been kind to me. It would be a poor return for friendship to hang him out to dry for something he did not do.”

Solomon shook his head in quick irritation. “Such flimsy evidence would never get him arrested, never mind convicted.”

“I know,” she said wearily. “But at the time I had little idea how you work…”

“But there’s more than that, isn’t there?” Constance said. “He has a motive to kill Percy, doesn’t he?”

Adelaide’s fingers twisted together in her lap and stilled again. “Some might think so. I believe he…admired me. In a respectful way that was nothing like Percy’s pursuit.”

“Did he know about Percy’s pursuit?” Solomon asked.

“Of course he did,” Adelaide snapped. “Percy was blatant. The whole town and countryside knew. And…” She drew another breath. “And I may have said something.”

“To Sir Felix?” Constance said. “What?”

“I can’t remember exactly, but…I met him at the market one day and stopped to exchange a word. I think we had only said good morning when I saw Percy coming directly toward me. In order to avoid him, I walked away from Sir Felix quite abruptly, and so I felt obliged to explain my rudeness when next I saw him.”