Move Your Blooming Corpse by D. E. Ireland Page B

pitchfork’s handle. Otherwise, we won’t be able to prove Hewitt used it.”
    Pickering nodded. “How do they go about checking for prints?”
    Jack leaned forward eagerly to explain. Eliza could see that Sybil was enchanted with him. That pleased her. They would be a good match. She wanted Jack to be happy and hoped Sybil would be, too, given the many hours his bride would spend waiting for him to come home.
    â€œThe latest magnifying glasses have become indispensable in our work,” Jack said. “Especially since Sir Edward Henry’s system proved more reliable a decade ago.”
    Higgins and Pickering asked other questions, but Eliza grew bored with all this talk of murder, fingerprints, and women’s suffrage.
    â€œâ€”no question he has a long-standing aversion to suffragettes.”
    â€œWho’s this?” Eliza asked Sybil.
    â€œJonathon Turnbull. He’s quite a character.”
    â€œI met him at Ascot. He’s one of the Donegal Dancer’s owners. I hated him on sight. Why do you think he’s a character?”
    â€œHe’s one of the strongest opponents to women’s suffrage,” Sybil explained. “Mr. Turnbull hires thugs to cause trouble at our events.”
    â€œHow do you know so much about him?” Eliza asked.
    â€œI’m friends with Ruth Lowell, who used to be a Women’s Freedom League member. She quit after her marriage to Reverend Henry Lowell, but over the last few years she became involved with the WSPU. The militant faction.”
    â€œMilitant? Has she been arrested?”
    â€œMany times. Earlier this year, Ruth was arrested for destruction of property after the suffragettes smashed shop windows. She carried a ball-peen hammer, but claimed she hadn’t meant to throw it.”
    Colonel Pickering clucked his disapproval. “Did it hit anyone?”
    â€œDiana Price.”
    Eliza and Higgins looked at each other in surprise. “That’s interesting,” he said.
    Sybil sighed. “I suspect Ruth knew that Diana was in the shop, but she won’t admit it. Anyway, Ruth threw the hammer and hit her in the shoulder. It was only a glancing blow, but Diana swore she aimed for her face.”
    â€œBlimey,” Eliza said. “Do you think Ruth meant to hit her?”
    â€œI do. And not only because of Diana’s opposition to the cause.” Sybil glanced at Jack. “We haven’t had much of a chance to talk since before Ascot, or else I would have told you about Ruth and what she did to Diana.”
    Jack looked puzzled. “Why should I care about Ruth Lowell?”
    â€œBecause Ruth is Rachel Turnbull’s sister.”

 
    FIVE
    Eliza fanned the latest fashion magazines in a half-circle on her bedroom carpet. With the Henley Regatta the following week, she had to go clothes shopping. She needed two more outfits for the regatta; as Freddy’s sweetheart, it was her duty to wear the blue and white colors of the London Rowing Club. How dreadful if they’d been the green and purple racing silks of her father’s horse.
    Last week she had bought a white lawn blouse and slim blue walking skirt from Selfridges. During that same visit to the Oxford Street department store, she’d also purchased the loveliest white cotton dress trimmed in a blue silk that matched the LRC blue perfectly. However, that still left two more outfits to assemble for the four-day event. Her straw hat with the blue organza band would match everything. Still, she could afford to buy another. How wonderful being able to purchase a fancy wardrobe with her own money. For too long Eliza had depended on the generosity of Colonel Pickering, who looked on her as a daughter. But since this past spring, her teaching fees, coupled with her winnings at Ascot, had allowed Eliza to buy her own wardrobe.
    She flipped open the July issue of Vogue . Yes, a new hat was a good idea. After all, she didn’t want