Anthem for Doomed Youth: A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery (Daisy Dalrymple Mysteries, 19) - Softcover

Dunn, Carola

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1250002575 ISBN 13: 9781250002570

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2012

Synopsis

In the Spring of 1926, the corpses of three men are found in shallow graves off the beaten path in Epping Forest outside of London―each shot through the heart and bearing no identification. DCI Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard, the lead detective, is immediately given two urgent orders by his supervisor at the Yard: solve the murders quickly and keep his wife, the Honourable Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher, away from the case! Thankfully, Daisy's off visiting their daughter at school. But when a teacher is found dead, Daisy is once again in the thick of it. As Daisy tries to solve one murder, Alec discovers that the three victims in his case were in the same Army company during World War I, that their murders are likely related to specific events that unfolded during that tragic conflict, and that, unless the killer is revealed and stopped, those three might only be the beginning.

About this title

About the Author:

CAROLA DUNN is the author of many mysteries featuring Daisy Dalrymple, including Sheer Folly, Gone West and Heirs to the Body, as well as numerous historical novels. Born and raised in England, she lives in Eugene, Oregon.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

ONE
 

“Ring a ring o’ roses,” sang Daisy for the fifth time. “A pocket full of posies. Atishoo, atishoo, we all fall down.” She subsided thankfully into the rocking chair while Oliver and Miranda flung themselves on the floor and rolled around squealing. Actually, Oliver had anticipated the dénouement as usual and dropped at the first “atishoo.”
“Now that’s enough of that, twins,” said Nurse severely. “I’m afraid we’re getting a little overexcited, Mummy. It’ll end in tears, you mark my words.”
“Now that they’re so active, they need the exercise, and it’s rained too hard to go out in the garden for days.”
“Not proper June weather at all!” She sounded as if it was Daisy’s fault.
Nana, who was even more apt to get overexcited than the toddlers and had had to be tied to a table-leg, whined mournfully.
“Nana play,” Miranda commanded, going over to the little dog and hugging her. Nana frantically licked her face.
“Now come away at once, Miss Miranda! You’ll get germs.”
“Nonsense,” said Daisy. “I was kissed by dogs every day of my childhood and here I am, healthy as a horse.” She looked round as the door opened. “What is it, Elsie?”
The parlourmaid bobbed a sketchy curtsy. “It’s Sergeant Tring on the telephone, madam. The master would like a word with you.”
“Thank you. I’ll come down. I’ll be back in a minute, babies.”
“Mama go,” Miranda observed dispassionately.
“Mama!” her brother shrieked.
“I’ll be right back, Oliver. I’ve got to go and talk to Daddy.”
“Dada!” Oliver rushed after her and had to be detached from her leg by Bertha, the nurserymaid.
Hastily closing the door, Daisy heard Nurse Gilpin mutter, “I knew it. It never does to spoil them.”
She hurried downstairs, filled with foreboding. When Alec rang up in the middle of the day, it invariably meant a disruption of their plans. Not that plans were ever anything but tentative when one’s husband was a detective chief inspector at Scotland Yard, liable to be called to the outer reaches of the kingdom at a moment’s notice.
She picked up the “daffodil” stand, sat down on the chair by the hall table, and put the receiver to her ear. “Tom?”
“Afternoon, Mrs. Fletcher. How’s my godson?”
“Screaming for Dada. Healthy lungs! But I assume he won’t be seeing him for a while?”
“The chief’ll have to tell you about that. Can you hold on half a mo, please, he’s on another telephone.”
“Of course. How is Mrs. Tring?”
“Blooming.” DS Tring adored his wife, a large woman though not as large as Tom. That didn’t stop his having a wonderful way with female servants when he needed to extract information. “And Miss Miranda?”
“Likewise. Her vocabulary grows by leaps and bounds. Not quite up to yours yet.”
“I’ll have to look to my laurels.”
Daisy pictured his luxuriant moustache twitching as he grinned. “Belinda’s pretty good, too. It’s her school sports day on Saturday. Oh no, don’t tell me—”
“There’s no way of knowing, Mrs. Fletcher. Here’s the chief.”
“Alec? Darling, you’re not going to miss Bel’s sports day, are you?”
“I hope not. If we haven’t made an arrest by then, I might be able to sneak away for the afternoon. Epping can’t be more than forty miles from Saffron Walden.”
“You’re only going to Epping? I was afraid it might be Northumberland.”
“You always are, love. I can’t think why.”
“Because it’s so far away. But Epping—You’ll come home for the night, then?”
“Yes, but don’t wait dinner for me.”
“Don’t half the murderers in London bury bodies in Epping Forest?”
“It’s often been considered a convenient spot.” Alec sounded amused.
“If that’s where you’re going, don’t forget to take Wellington boots. It’s still belting down.”
“The forecast’s for a clearing trend tonight. Let’s hope they’re right for once.”
Daisy jumped to the obvious conclusion. “So you are going to dig up a body in Epping Forest?”
“Three of them. For a start. I’m only telling you because there’s no conceivable way you can get yourself mixed up in this case.”
“Of course not! But do be careful, darling. I’d hate for the fourth body to be you.”
“No fear of that, love. I must run.”
“Should I tell Mrs. Dobson to leave something out for you?”
“No, I’ll pick up a bite to eat somewhere. Coming, Tom!” He said good-bye and rang off.
Daisy hung up. Three bodies! Assuming they had all been killed by the same person—a madman? Or perhaps a member of an East End gang? There would be a lot of pressure on the police to arrest someone before another murder followed. Not that Alec didn’t always clear up his cases as quickly as possible.
Still, today was Wednesday. It didn’t seem likely that he would be finished by Saturday, or even free to take an afternoon off. Poor Belinda! Though happy at school, she was so looking forward to seeing them. She would have to make do with her stepmother. Luckily she was used to Daddy disappearing at unpredictable intervals. She had been a detective’s daughter much longer than Daisy had been a detective’s wife. The twins had yet to learn.
But if Daisy had married a man considered suitable by her mother, the Dowager Lady Dalrymple, no doubt he would have gone off huntin’, shootin’, and fishin’ all over the country, and spent much of the rest of his time stridin’ across his acres taking potshots at rabbits and pigeons.
She went back to the nursery. The twins rushed to her, jabbering. They really needed more exercise, but a glance at the window showed no sign of the promised clearing. A nice noisy game would do. One look at Nurse Gilpin’s face told her that was a battle she didn’t want to fight.
“We’ll play something quieter now. Bertha, would you untie Nana, please?”
“Yes’m.” The nurserymaid went to help Miranda, who got there first.
Daisy sat cross-legged on the floor, to Mrs. Gilpin’s manifest disapproval—but then, she disapproved of practically everything Daisy did in her nursery. “Oliver, come and sit with Mummy.”
Oliver promptly scrambled up into the rocking chair and sat there looking pleased with himself, babbling nonsense syllables. But when both Miranda and Nana sat neatly and expectantly on the floor in front of Daisy, he clambered down and joined them.
“Clap handies all together,” warbled Daisy, suiting action to the words. “Clap hands away. This is the way we exercise upon a rainy day.”
*   *   *
Escaping central London just before the start of the rush-hour, the police car crossed the industrial wasteland of the Lea Valley, bleaker than ever in still-pouring rain. The contrast with the lush green of Epping Forest was startling. The rain brightened the varied shades of the fresh foliage and washed the dust and soot of the nearby city off the grass.
The driver was a uniformed constable, PC Stock, a pal of Ernie Piper’s. A Londoner, he knew the lanes, footpaths, and bridle paths of the Forest like the back of his hand, according to Piper. He had grown up in Walthamstow and misspent many happy hours of his youth playing truant in the woods and streams.
Alec had no intention of wandering about in the rain looking for the informal burial ground. The Essex detective from whom he was taking over the case, disgruntled no doubt, had given the vaguest of directions: “Broad Wood, towards the middle, you can’t miss it.” Broad Wood appeared on the map to cover nearly two hundred acres, with no defined boundaries. With Stock’s assistance, they had a better chance of finding the right spot without fighting through thickets of brambles and hawthorn and holly on the way.
Tom, sitting next to Alec in the back seat, said with a gusty sigh, “Me and the missus used to come out here weekends and bank holidays when we were courting.”
“Not in weather like this, I bet, Sarge,” said Piper from the front seat.
“It was always sunny back then, lad.”
“Back before the Ice Age, that’d be?”
“Don’t you let the missus hear you say that if you ever want to taste her steak and kidney pud again!”
“Oh, Sarge, please, Sarge, you’re not going to tell on me, are you?”
“Watch it, laddie. Too cheeky by half, you are.”
He was lucky to have a team so well attuned to each other, Alec thought. Besides being pleasant to work with, it made them work together more efficiently. Ernie Piper, neat in his blue serge, was shaping up nicely and might be encouraged to take his sergeant’s exams soon. Tring, an awe-inspiring mountain in tan and yellow checks, didn’t aspire to rise above his present rank. He was extremely good at what he did but not sufficiently imaginative to take the lead in a major case.
And it sounded as if they had a major case on their hands. Three bodies—though as yet he had no reason to believe they were associated in anything but proximity.
Stock turned into a narrow lane, not much more than a cart-track, no different, as far as Alec could tell from half a dozen they had passed. It was gravelled but not paved, with grass growing ...

About this edition

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1250002575
• ISBN 13: 9781250002570
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288