Murder Most Royal — читать онлайн бесплатно полностью

’

Philip was staring daggers at them from across the lobby of the university. She had been talking too long. ‘Did you wonder about the dogs?’ she asked, before saying goodbye.

‘Yes. Being left alone at Abbottswood.’

‘Oh, those dogs! Yes, we did. The suspiciousness of the damage they did, you mean, left to their own devices. Don’t worry, we looked into it. It was all above board.’

‘And now I must go. Thank you, Chief Constable.’

She smiled and kept her frustrations to herself.

Back at Sandringham, the news bulletins featured images of the prime minister at the White House, standing next to the new president.

The very first thing she mentioned was the state visit to London, ‘as soon as possible’. The Queen felt once again as if she was being dangled, like a treat.

She couldn’t affect what was happening in Washington at the moment, but surely she could make some progress in north Norfolk? She had ten days left and she sensed the chief constable needed as much help as she could provide, ideally without ever knowing she had given it.

It was time to talk to Rozie.

They met in the Queen’s office that evening, while the others dressed for dinner. Rozie was ostensibly giving the Boss a detailed debrief on the prime minister’s Washington visit. It might seem unnecessarily long for something one could simply watch on the news, but a handy thing about being the monarch was that one was rarely questioned about one’s need for information on international events.

‘I want you to talk to the vicar of St Agnes at Ladybridge,’ the Queen said instead.

‘You might suggest that I have a friend who is likely to be in his congregation on Sunday and would appreciate the sermon on truth and beauty that he gave when he came to West Newton.’

‘Truth and beauty, ma’am.’ Rozie nodded. She got out her personal notebook, which was disguised to look like bad poetry and song lyrics, should anyone happen to pick it up. Its key pages contained the essentials from the police reports, and the additional information she, Katie and the Queen had found.

She made a new note. ‘I assume there’s someone in particular who needs to hear it.’

‘There most certainly is. There has been an inordinate amount of lying,’ the Queen said. ‘To one’s face, by people who are dear to one, which is quite disturbing. One person has been lying consistently, although I doubt the vicar will have any effect on them. Perhaps they assumed I wouldn’t notice. But as my loft manager says, “people talk”.