Furious Old Women by Leo Bruce Page A

where Mrs Waddell was already seated behind a silver tray. “A lean and hungry-looking woman who seems thoroughly dissatisfied with life” was Mrs Bobbin’s description of her and it fitted. She did not look too pleased at the inclusion of Carolus in the party. She gave him a toothy and unwilling smile and after a minute or two spoke to him.
    â€œI may as well tell you, Mr Deene, that I was againstmy husband giving you any information in this matter at all. It seems to me wholly a police affair”
    â€œYou think the police will discover the murderer, Mrs Waddell?”
    â€œI daresay. I’m not much interested. But I see no reason to assist a private detective. Milk and sugar?”
    â€œPlease. I hope the police are successful,” said Carolus and added mischievously—” It would be disgraceful if a kind, generous and devout old lady could …”
    The thin face of Agatha Waddell had turned scarlet.
    â€œIs that the impression you have been given about the late Millicent Griggs?” she asked.
    â€œAgatha, my dear …” protested the vicar.
    â€œNow, mother,” said his daughter.
    â€œI don’t know who can have told you that,” said Agatha Waddell. “Millicent Griggs was kind to no one but herself, she was generous only to gain her own ends and as for her devoutness she was the most hypocritical, narrow-minded….”
    â€œAgatha, my dear, what
will
Mr Deene think of us?”
    â€œI don’t care what he thinks. If he’s fool enough to believe that Millicent Griggs was kind….”
    â€œYou must forgive my wife’s strong feelings, Mr Deene. She had her difficulties with the late Miss Griggs, as we all had.”
    â€œPerhaps you were of the other faction, Mrs Waddell?” suggested Carolus.
    â€œGrazia Vaillant’s? Certainly not. A gushing insincere woman.”
    â€œMy dear, we must be charitable in our judgments.”
    â€œThere’s a limit to charity. I’ve seen my husband’s life here made a purgatory by these two self-centred, bigoted women.”
    â€œAren’t you somewhat overstating the case, dear? They have been most generous.”
    â€œWhen it suited them. More tea, Mr Deene? I wonder how you would like being a vicar’s wife in a small country parish.”
    â€œI’m sure I should find it a most difficult transformation,” said Carolus, pacifically.
    â€œIntrigue, suspicion, back-biting, jealousy the whole time.”
    â€œYou are not suggesting that Millicent Griggs was murdered from sheer malice, are you?”
    â€œI’m not suggesting anything. But there’s enough malice in Gladhurst to murder fifty people.”
    â€œYou alarm me.”
    â€œMillicent Griggs herself was capable of it.”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œI know for a fact that she wrote to the Bishop.”
    â€œWhat about?”
    â€œPrejudice again. Fortunately the Bishop knows my husband. He has been here to lunch. Otherwise it might have meant all sorts of difficulties for us. She said that my husband intended to ride into church on an ass on Palm Sunday.”
    â€œAnd didn’t he?” asked Carolus who unfortunately knew very little about ritual.
    â€œCertainly not. She even implied that there was something between my husband and Grazia Vaillant.”
    â€œAnd …” Carolus stopped himself in time. “And that was an obvious lie,” he said.
    â€œOf course. There was no limit to what that woman would say.”
    There was a long pause.
    â€œI wonder whether just for the sake of form, Mrs Waddell, you will tell me how you spent that afternoon? I have to ask everyone that.”
    To Carolus’s surprise she acceded without protest.
    â€œI had my Mothers from four to six.”
    â€œWhere?” said Carolus not revealing his ignorance of her meaning.
    â€œAt the Institute.”
    â€œOh, I see. And afterwards?”
    â€œI came