We had been walking up and down the strip of lawn that lay between the house and the boundary wall, and at the end of one of our sentry goes she turned and faced me, the sun lighting up her dear face so that I could see the tiny gold brown hairs that straggled across the bridge of her delectable little nose. I wanted to help her and felt absurdly that I had the right to. I wanted endless consultations. Here we were, within an hour of the inquest, with the mystery that had bedeviled the Dalehouse atmosphere from cellar to attic as far from solution as ever, and while yesterday my head had been full of such thoughts as, “If he did this, then why did he go and do that?” now this morning I could think of nothing but Janet and how I might keep her near me.
“Do please be sensible,” she smiled.
“But how can I help you if I’m all in the dark?”
“It helps me just to know you’re there at hand. Now I must really go.”
She turned to go back to the house. The two boys were sitting out of earshot, under the cedar tree. “I say, do sit next to me at the inquest,” I called after her gently.
She laughed outright. “Certainly, sir,” she said, “only I’m not going.” She was gone, leaving me uncertain as to whether I was annoyed or pleased about what she had said. And I only remembered afterward that I had told her nothing of Annie’s missing table-cloth.
Two police cars came for us at a quarter before the hour, backing into Dalehouse Lane where we got into them without attracting the attention I had rather feared. Two men only observed us, and I heard one say to the other in passing, “Aye, that’s ’im, goes about the town as bold as brass,” a remark which made me appreciate the doctor’s bravery, or effrontery, in continuing to attend his patients.
I had never been to an inquest before and the only thing that really impressed me was the brevity of the whole proceeding. A room behind the mortuary was used for the purpose, a long room it was with a plain deal table running nearly the length of it, and with whitewashed walls that made the most of the rather inadequate light.
The jurors were all assembled when we arrived, a solemn uninteresting dozen, with, so far as I could judge, not one man of any personality among them. They were seated round the table. We were given seats against the wall, and the coroner, a very much younger man than I had expected, came in as we took our places.
He was business itself.