to Callandra, his eyes very wide open.
'That is not entirely correct," Kristian answered. "The corridor has no windows, and during the daytime the gas is not lit, it saves expense."
"Still," Jeavis argued, "one would be bound to notice a person standing or sitting around, and certainly one would see a person lifting a body and putting it down the chute. Wouldn't one?" There was a faint lift of inquiry in his tone, less than sarcasm but more than courtesy.
"Not necessarily," Callandra said defensively. "Bundles of sheets are sometimes left on the floor. The nurses occasionally sit in the corridors, if they are intoxicated. In the dim light a corpse could look like a pile of linen. And certainly if I saw someone putting laundry down the chute, I would assume it was merely a bundle of sheets. I image anyone else would also."
"Dear me." Jeavis looked from one to the other of them. "Are you saying that anyone could have stuffed the poor creature down the chute in full sight of respectable medical people, and no one would have thought anything amiss?"
Callandra was uncomfortable. She glanced at Kristian.
"More or less," she agreed at length. "One is not usually watching what other people are doing, one has one's own affairs." In her imagination she visualized a dim figure, shapeless in the half-light, lifting a bundle, heavier than it should have been, shrouded in sheets, and pressing it down the open chute. Her voice, when she continued, was husky and a little choked. "I myself passed what I assumed was a nurse in either intoxication or sleep this morning. But I do not know which it was. I didn't look at her face." She swallowed with a sudden sick realization. "It could have been Prudence Barrymore!"
"Really!" Jeavis's pale brows rose. "Do your nurses often lie about in the corridor, Lady Callandra? Do they not have beds to sleep in?"
"The ones who live in the dormitory do," she said tartly. "But many of them live out, and they have very little indeed. There is no place for them to sleep here, and precious little to eat. And yes, they frequently drink too much."
Jeavis looked temporarily disconcerted. He turned back to Kristian.
"I shall want to speak to you again, Doctor. Anything you can tell me about this unfortunate woman." He cleared his throat. "To begin with, how long do you estimate she has been dead? Not, of course, that we won't have our own police surgeon tell us his opinion, but it will save time if you can give us yours now."
"About two hours, perhaps three," Kristian replied succinctly.
"But you haven't looked at her," Jeavis exclaimed.
"I looked at her before you came," Kristian answered.
"Did you! Did you indeed?" Jeavis's face sharpened. "I thought you said you had not disturbed the body! Was that not why you remained here, to see that no one tampered with the evidence?"
"I looked at her, Inspector. I did not move her."
"But you touched her."
"Yes, to see if she was cold."
"And she was?"
"Yes."
"How do you know she has not been dead all night?"
"Because rigor had not yet passed away."
"You moved her!"
"I did not."
"You must have," Jeavis said sharply. "Otherwise how could you know whether she was stiff or not?"
"She fell out of the chute, Inspector," Kristian explained patiently. "I saw her fall, and how she collapsed into the basket, the movement of her limbs. It's my estimate that she has been dead between two and four hours. But by all means ask your own surgeon."
Jeavis looked at him suspiciously. "You are not English, are you, sir? I detect a certain accent, shall we say? Very slight, but it is there. Where are you from?"
"Bohemia," Kristian replied with a faint flicker of amusement in his eyes.
Jeavis drew in his breath, Callandra thought, to ask where that was, then realized even the laundrywomen were watching him, and changed his mind.
"I see," he said thoughtfully. "Well now, perhaps you would be good enough to tell me, Doctor, where you were early this morning? For example, what time did you come here?" He looked at Kristian inquiringly. 'Take a note of it please, Sergeant," he added with a nod at Evan, who had been watching silently some two or three yards away all through the exchange.
"I have been here all night," Kristian replied.
Jeavis's eyes widened. "Indeed. And why was that, sir?" He invested it with a great deal of meaning.
"I had a patient who was extremely ill," Kristian answered, watching Jeavis's face. "I stayed