[MaC] A pause in the music

[Margaret Dean]

Mel Mason wrote:
> 
> >
> > Marion had come up next to him and looked almost as
> > white-faced
> > as he did, though this was not the first murder
> > scene she had
> > ever viewed.
> >
> > "But how could he..." she whispered, "...sit here
> > playing ... and not see it, till now?"
> >
> 
> "In the dark, you mean?" asked Tabitha, appearing in
> the doorway. "I should imagine it would be more
> difficult to see it than not. He was probably paying
> more attention to his music than his surroundings,
> anyway." She moved towards the settee, where Lady
> Pamela was attempting to find a pulse, and looked at
> Nola Diamond with the detached expression of someone
> who had seen far too many dead bodies in her life.
> 
> "Yes," said Oswald, "that would work if she was strangled before he came
> here and started playing.  But she wasn't.  I remembered her saying
> something rude about Fitzroy after Barowenski had left the room."
> 
> Phillip, swirling his half-filled glass absently, stared at the body,
> though he was careful not to touch anything. "It looks--" His voice
> rasped; he cleared his throat and began again, looking slightly abashed.
> "It looks as though she was strangled *with* something, not bare-handed.
> Does anyone see anything here that might have been the, er, murder
> weapon?" He looked around the room as if uncertain of what he was
> searching for, then his gaze fell on the piano. "Piano wire, perhaps?"
> 
> "It can't have been that," Marion said almost too quickly.  "He
> was playing ... surely he would have noticed sooner if one was
> missing?"
> 
> "I suppose...unless there were spares kept somewhere? I don't know if
> that's the sort of thing one keeps..."
> 
> "I doubt if the average home player does," said Oswald thoughtfully. 
> "But a professional pianist ... that would be a different matter, I
> would think. We'll have to ask Barowenski."
> 
> He frowned.  "Someone needs to question him - two people for preference.
> And someone needs to go down and inform the wardens and the UXB team what
> has happened here."

"I'll help with the questioning," Marion volunteered.  "I have
experience with interviewing people, after all."

Then she added, grim-faced, "And we might want to check people's
hands.  If you used a wire like that to strangle someone, it
would cut into your hands too -- unless you were wearing heavy
gloves."


--Margaret Dean
  <margdean at erols.com>