The Cold Light of Mourning - By Elizabeth J. Duncan Page 0,46

officers arrived.

“Let’s go upstairs,” she said as they made their way through the shop. “I don’t want to talk here. Follow me.”

She led them upstairs to the flat and into the small sitting room. With a brief gesture at the sofa, Penny sat down in the matching armchair.

“I’m very sorry if I seem upset, but I am,” she began. “I’ve had something of a shocking idea and I felt I needed to tell you about it. I may be wrong. I hope I am. But I don’t think so.”

“What is it Miss Brannigan? Please tell us what’s happened,” said Morgan.

“Whatever it is, it’s obviously affected you,” said Davies gently. “Look, let’s have Sergeant Morgan get the kettle on, and we’ll take a few moments before you start.”

He gestured with his head toward the kitchen and Morgan rose obediently and went to organize a cup of tea.

“Would it be easier to tell just me, Miss Brannigan, or do you want to wait for Sergeant Morgan to return?” he asked.

Penny nodded.

“You want to wait?”

Penny nodded again.

“That’s fine. Miss Brannigan, did you want us here because you didn’t want to be on your own just at the minute?”

Again, a nod. Penny could barely bring herself to look at him, but when she did, she was encouraged by the concern in his eyes.

A few moments later Morgan returned with three mugs of tea, a carton of milk, and the sugar bowl.

“How do you take your tea, Miss Brannigan?”

Penny indicated the milk, and accepted the mug Morgan handed her. She took a sip, and then put the mug on the table between them.

Davies leaned back and then nodded at Morgan, who took out her notebook.

“Right,” he said. “In your own time, Miss Brannigan. You think you know where Meg Wynne Thompson is. Please tell us.”

Penny looked at him, took a deep breath.

“Look, there’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to say it. I think her body’s underneath Emma Teasdale’s coffin.”

In the stunned silence that followed, Davies, who had been about to take a sip of tea, paused with his mug halfway to his lips as if he had been flash frozen.

He recovered himself quickly, set his mug down on the table, and took charge of the conversation. “Who is Emma Teasdale, please?”

“She was buried on Monday afternoon. She was my friend and I miss her very much.”

Penny’s eyes filled with tears and Morgan handed her a tissue.

“I have to ask you,” said Davies, leaning forward with his hands clasped together between his knees, “why would you even think such a thing?”

“Since the funeral, I’ve had this awful feeling that something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I kept telling myself it was probably nothing, the way you do, but the feeling wouldn’t go away. I was going to ask Bronwyn Evans or some of the others who were there if they noticed anything wrong, but I kept telling myself not to be so silly, that it was just all in my head. And then today, when Mrs. Lloyd came into the shop, she was going on and on about her hat, how it wasn’t right, and then she put it on. And then she said, and I’ll never forget this, she said, ‘It’s sitting up way too high,’ and I realized that was the problem at Emma’s graveside. You know how you gather around the grave at the end and you toss earth on top of the coffin as the rector says the ‘Dust to dust, ashes to ashes’ bit?”

The police officers nodded.

“Well, that’s what wasn’t right. The coffin was too high. It was too close to us when we threw the earth on it. And now, I think the reason it’s too high is because there’s something underneath it.”

Again, there was a heavy silence as the two police officers took in what they had just heard. The sound of their breathing seemed amplified in the stillness.

Finally, Davies spoke.

“We need to be very careful with this, Miss Brannigan. I know you loved your friend, and you would not be telling us this unless you were quite certain of it. But is there any chance you might be mistaken? Because there’s only one way for us to find if you’re right and that is not something we would ever do without very good cause.”

“I know,” Penny said. “But I believe that’s what happened and I thought it was my duty to tell you. What you decide to do