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I“S t. Mary Mead¹, you say?” Chief-Inspector Craddock looked up sharply.
The assistant commissioner² was a little surprised.
“Yes,” he said, “St. Mary Mead. Why? Does it—”
“Nothing really,” said Dermot Craddock.
“It’s quite a small place, I understand,” went on the other. “Though of course there’s a great deal of buildingdevelopment going on there now. Practically all the way from St. Mary Mead to Much Benham, I understand.
Hellingforth Studios,” he added, “are on the other side of St. Mary Mead, towards Market Basing.” He was stilllooking slightly inquiring. Dermot Craddock felt that he should perhaps explain.
“I know someone living there,” he said. “At St. Mary Mead. An old lady. A very old lady by now. Perhaps she’sdead, I don’t know. But if not—”
The assistant commissioner took his subordinate’s point, or at any rate he thought he did.
“Yes,” he said, “it would give you an ‘in’ in a way. One needs a bit of local gossip. The whole thing is a curiousbusiness.”
“The County have called us in?” Dermot asked.
“Yes. I’ve got the chief constable’s letter here. They don’t seem to feel that it’s necessarily a local affair. Thelargest house in the neighbourhood, Gossington Hall, was recently sold as a residence for Marina Gregg, the film star,and her husband. They’re shooting a film at their new studios, at Hellingforth, in which she is starring. A fête was heldin the grounds in aid of the St. John Ambulance. The dead woman—her name is Mrs. Heather Badcock—was the localsecretary of this and had done most of the administrative³ work for the fête. She seems to have been a competent,sensible person, well liked locally.”
“One of those bossy⁴ women?” suggested Craddock.
“Very possibly,” said the assistant commissioner. “Still in my experience, bossy women seldom get themselvesmurdered. I can’t think why not. When you come to think of it, it’s rather a pity. There was a record attendance at thefête, it seems, good weather, everything running to plan. Marina Gregg and her husband held a kind of small privatereception in Gossington Hall. About thirty or forty people attended this. The local notables, various people connectedwith the St. John Ambulance Association, several friends of Marina Gregg herself, and a few people connected withthe studios. All very peaceful, nice and happy. But, fantastically and improbably, Heather Badcock was poisonedthere.”

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