The Dead Songbird (The Northminster Mysteries) by Harriet Smart Page A

found Mr Barnes? Anything that struck you as unusual? I suppose you got up there regularly. You give the boys lessons there sometimes?”
    “Yes.”
    “And that was why you were going there that day?”
    “No, I went to practice. It is a good organ.”
    “Without anyone to blow for you?”
    “No, old Walt would have been along presently. I was expecting him. He has very little to do and I can usually get him to come and blow for me as and when I need him.”
    “And you asked him yesterday?”
    “Yes, I suppose I did.”
    “But he did not arrive.”
    “He did. I turned him away when I got downstairs again. After I had locked up. Why?”
    “I just want to know exactly when and how it all happened, Mr Watkins.”
    “Surely that hardly matters; what matters it who put poor Barnes there in the first place, and in that terrible condition.”
    “You may not know it, Mr Watkins, but it happens often enough that the person raising the alarm on a murder, is the person responsible for the crime.”
    “What are you alleging, sir?”
    “Nothing, I am only explaining my method. I must know all your movements so I may eliminate you.”
    “Yes, yes, of course,” he said, quickly. Giles wondered if he detected nervousness in his voice.

Chapter Twelve
    Josiah Harrison was employed as a clerk by Archibald Carr and Sons, one of the largest cloth merchants in the city, so Giles headed to their premises in Greyfriars Street. It was one of several opulent new buildings that had recently been put up in the street. The rest of the street was a building site, as the other merchant enterprises of Northminster were in the process of rebuilding their premises, anxious to keep up with their neighbours. What it would look like when it was all done, Giles could not imagine. At present the new buildings seemed too tall for the street, which was not a wide one, while the variety of fanciful architectural styles and the great expanses of glistening plate glass windows seemed at odds with each other. It was a battle between the quaint and old, and the braggardly new.
    Carr and Sons had gone for a tapestry of red and purple brick, with bright white stone dressings, and the impressive entrance took Giles into a show room, furnished with shining counters and all lit brilliantly by gas. A clerk ran up to meet him.
    “I am looking for Mr Josiah Harrison,” he said.
    “He’s not here this morning, sir,” said the clerk. “Least I don’t think so.” He glanced round towards a more senior clerk who stood at counter nearby, and seemed to be in charge of the room.
    “No, he is not,” said the senior man, with some annoyance.
    “And he did not send word he would be absent?” Giles said.
    “No,” said the senior man, taking in Giles’ uniform. “He may of course deign to show himself in due course, but I don’t expect you’ll want to wait that long, sir.”
    “He is often late?”
    “More often than not,” said the senior clerk. “It is a wonder he has a place. It is only to please Mrs Carr that he is kept on.”
    “Your employer’s wife?” said Giles.
    The clerk nodded and then straightened at the sound of footsteps behind them. Giles turned and found himself facing Mr Carr, with whom he had a slight acquaintance.
    “Major Vernon?” said Carr. “What brings you here?”
    “I came to speak to Josiah Harrison. In connection with a case.”
    “Who is not here, sir,” chimed in the senior clerk. “Again.”
    Carr frowned. “Perhaps you’d like a glass of wine, sir,” he said to Giles, and indicated his office door.
    “I have been too tolerant with that young man,” Carr said, once they were inside. He poured out the sherry. “I have known for some time that I have made a misjudgement, and now you are here. What was it you wanted with him, Major Vernon? What has he done? Nothing I trust that will bring this firm into disrepute.”
    “I wish to talk to him about a friend of his who has died in odd circumstances.”
    “That