Chapter Ten
In their small flat in Midsomer Priors, Diana was basting a half leg of lamb for their evening meal when Sam called out from the living-room, "Do you want to see the DVD I've made of the exhibition, Di?"
Diana looked at her watch and shut the oven door. "It won't take long, will it?" she asked as she reluctantly joined her partner, "Only we'll be eating in half-an-hour."
"No, pet, it won't take long. I'm really proud of it and there are some good shots of you, looking stunning."
Diana sank into the leather settee and prepared to be bored as Sam fiddled with the recorder. "There!" he said, as some jerky images of High House came on the television screen. There were then some very slow panoramic sweeping views of the village, followed by little scenes of various of the attendees, Pimms in hand. At one point the camera zoomed in on Paul and Doctor Trevor, who were having a serious discussion, unlike most of the guests, who appeared to have been slightly affected by the Pimms.
"You've got him now," the doctor was saying, just audibly. "He can't get you out. You're a sitting tenant."
"I know, I know – Sophie wants to do her macrobiotic thing so badly. But what about Rex and all his girlfriends? And then there's Julian."
The doctor took a swig of Pimms and then said, "You'll have to get rid of them first."
The camera then swung away to Julian, who appeared to be getting intimate with Delfina, still wearing her nurse's uniform.
"Sam, can you go back a bit?" asked Diana.
"Of course, pet," he said. As the scene with the doctor and Paul started to replay Diana said "Hold it right there! Freeze it!"
Mystified, Sam did as he was told.
"Where exactly is that on the disc?" she asked.
Sam pressed a button. "Twelve minutes and nine seconds," he said. "I don't see anything special there."
"Sam, could you lend me that DVD, do you think?" asked Diana, getting up. "I think it could be important."
"Of course, pet – but you haven't seen the best bit yet."
"I must see about the lamb," she said.
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"It's getting quite crowded in here, Tom," said George Bullard, whisking the sheets off the corpses of Rosamund and Florrie on their cold slabs. "Identical bruising and each with five pinpricks. But here's the interesting bit. These two definitely did die from heparin overdose, whereas that one over there –" (he waved towards Rex Hallingham) "– did not. These two did not die from food poisoning."
"They didn't have food poisoning?"
"Oh, they did, but they would have recovered from that."
"George, you make it all sound so easy," said Tom expansively.
"Always happy to oblige," said George.
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"So it must have been Julian, who killed the people who could have benefited from his father's will?" said Ben, back in the station.
Tom reclined in his chair and looked thoughtful. "I don't think it had anything to do with the will," he said quietly. "I have a theory. Do you remember that you noticed how empty Rex's bedroom looked?"
"So?" Ben shrugged.
A uniformed officer opened the door and handed Tom a thick square brown envelope. "A lady handed this in at the desk," he said. "She said she was called Diana and that you would know who she was."
Tom tore the envelope open and took out the DVD. There was also a handwritten note which simply read "See 12 mins 9 secs. Diana".
"Can we play this anywhere, Jones?"
"We can play it on the computer," said Ben, taking the disc and inserting it into the slot in the laptop on Tom's desk. After a slight whirring the machine played back the scene that Diana had viewed the day before.
"Aha!" said Ben. "So the doctor and Paul Metcalfe were plotting together."
"Can you freeze it, Jones?" Jones did so.
"But that means … if it's them, surely Julian could be next?"
"Jones, look at the screen. What do you see?" The recording had frozen on a frame of Julian, embracing Delfina.
"Well – Julian is getting friendly with the nurse. Nothing wrong in that, is there?"
"And where is his right hand?"
"In the pocket of her uniform."
"Come on Jones, I've had enough of this." Tom jumped to his feet and walked quickly out of the station. Ben followed, after hurriedly turning off the DVD drive.