‘It was a great discovery,’ Mrs Bradley replied. ‘He was poking into the badgers’ sett and he unearthed two leather leads and two chains. I want Jon to see them.’

She went up to her room and came down with the evidence. Jonathan said:

‘No fingerprints?’

‘Nothing at all. I have tested them very carefully, and Mr Emming, the students and I were all wearing gloves.’

‘Those belong to Tiny Fullalove,’ said Jonathan. ‘He chains up those tykes of his at night, and those are their leads, too. Anstey says Tiny told him he was sending the dogs to boarding kennels and the cats to a home, but Anstey can’t believe it, and neither do I.’

CHAPTER 10

Peculiar Persons

‘Did his foe slay him? He shall slay his foe.’

Giles Fletcher, Junior

Deborah had been right about the snowdrops. They were spread almost as thickly as the snow itself on a great slope where the lawn rolled downwards towards the beech trees.

‘What do you hope to gain from our little stroll today?’ Jonathan asked his aunt when he had gathered a bunch of the snowdrops for his wife to wear, and the three of them with Sally were out for a short walk in the woods.

‘I am going to trace history backwards,’ Mrs Bradley replied. ‘We will walk to the Fullaloves’ bungalow from the spot where we found Mrs Dalby Whittier’s body, and when we get there we will call on Mr Tiny and put some leading questions.’

‘Trap him, do you mean?’ asked Deborah, with distaste.

‘Certainly not. He won’t allow us to do that if he is guilty, and if he is innocent he cannot harm himself, whatever answer he gives.’

‘I like your moral sense,’ said Jonathan. ‘Anyway, it will be nothing more than neighbourly to call on him and ask how the knee is getting on and whether he’s had any more anonymous letters. Shall you say anything about the dog-chains and leads?’

‘No. At any rate, not yet. And I beg that you will allow me to order the conversation.’

‘Only too glad. It’s got too hot for me to handle!’

‘I am silly!’ said Deborah suddenly. ‘I knew there was something nagging at me. Was Mrs Dalby Whittier’s identity card in her handbag?’

‘Certain to have been; and her ration book, too, if she really intended to go to London. Why?’

‘Well, her signature would be on her identity card, and her ration book would be more useful still, because she’d have written her address as well on that.’

‘I still don’t see …’

‘Oh, but I do,’ said Mrs Bradley. ‘If we could see her book and card we could decide – or an expert could decide for us – whether she wrote that first anonymous letter. All the others were typed, but—’