Here Comes a Chopper (33 page)
Read Here Comes a Chopper Online
Authors: Gladys Mitchell
‘But—it was so horribly scientific.’
‘I know. I’m teaching the kids. I think I’ll teach you. It’s really quite handy to know how to make a proper mess of people.’
She managed to laugh. They walked on again.
‘How do you think old Bob will take it?’ asked Roger, at the end of half a mile.
‘Take what?’ But a tell-tale flush completely gave her away.
‘Us, chump. Now I’ve got a house, what’s stopping us? You’re not going to back out now, are you?’
‘I wouldn’t know.’
‘Good enough.’ They walked on amid the gold-green gloom of the hazels. Suddenly Dorothy said:
‘I thought you were a poet. I hoped you were.’
‘Oh, I am … Oh, I see! Well, this is too serious for poetry—my kind of poetry, anyway.’
‘Is it? That’s rather a pity.’
‘I’m sorry. What can we do? Hullo! Who’s coming now?’ They looked back across the open stretch of the Common. The thunder of hoofs came nearer, and into the space before them swept a horseman. It was the child, George, riding like a Centaur, boy and beast all one. To add to the illusion, the great horse was barebacked except for the boy, and the boy was bare to the waist. His carriage and poise were god-like, and his hair was blown in a breeze of his own creating.
Dorothy gave a slight sigh.
‘There you are, then,’ said Roger. ‘There’s the omen. Eros on the wings of the wind.’ He turned and took her in his arms. ‘But it isn’t
my
poetry we need.’
‘Whose, then?’ She freed herself. Roger kept one arm about her, still faced her, smoothed her cut cheek with a long, strong thumb, leaned forward and kissed her and said:
‘But Harry Lingfield, who thought so, is to die,’ she said, soberly, giving the statement all its due.
‘Yes, but he had his fun.’
‘Killing people, and being hunted and afraid, and perhaps hungry? And not getting what he wanted in the end?’
‘Life’s like that. Our generation ought to know it.’
‘I don’t want my children to know it.’
‘You wanted poetry, and see where it’s led us!’
‘I know. Do you still—like—Claudia Denbies?’
‘In a way, yes, I do.’ He did not hesitate. Dorothy did not hesitate, either. She gave him a long look and then put her hands on his shoulders.
MARGERY ALLINGHAM
Mystery Mile
Police at the Funeral
Sweet Danger
Flowers for the Judge
The Case of the Late Pig
The Fashion in Shrouds
Traitor’s Purse
Coroner’s Pidgin
More Work for the Undertaker
The Tiger in the Smoke
The Beckoning Lady
Hide My Eyes
The China Governess
The Mind Readers
Cargo of Eagles
E. F. BENSON
The Blotting Book
The Luck of the Vails
NICHOLAS BLAKE
A Question of Proof
Thou Shell of Death
There’s Trouble Brewing
The Beast Must Die
The Smiler With the Knife
Malice in Wonderland
The Case of the Abominable Snowman
Minute for Murder
Head of a Traveller
The Dreadful Hollow
The Whisper in the Gloom
End of Chapter
The Widow’s Cruise
The Worm of Death
The Sad Variety
The Morning After Death
EDMUND CRISPIN
Buried for Pleasure
The Case of the Gilded Fly
Holy Disorders
Love Lies Bleeding
The Moving Toyshop
Swan Song
A. A. MILNE
The Red House Mystery
GLADYS MITCHELL
Speedy Death
The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop
The Longer Bodies
The Saltmarsh Murders
Death at the Opera
The Devil at Saxon Wall
Dead Men’s Morris
Come Away, Death
St Peter’s Finger
Brazen Tongue
Hangman’s Curfew
When Last I Died
Laurels Are Poison
Here Comes a Chopper
Death and the Maiden
Tom Brown’s Body
Groaning Spinney
The Devil’s Elbow
The Echoing Strangers
Watson’s Choice
The Twenty-Third Man
Spotted Hemlock
My Bones Will Keep
Three Quick and Five Dead
Dance to Your Daddy
A Hearse on May-Day
Late, Late in the Evening
Fault in the Structure
Nest of Vipers
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Version 1.0
Epub ISBN 9781448161249
Published by Vintage 2013
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Copyright © The Executors of the Estate of Gladys Mitchell 1946
Gladys Mitchell has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work
First published in Great Britain by Michael Joseph in 1946
Vintage
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ISBN 9780099582243