First Sign of Murder #11: Love Lies Bleeding

"'Very well,' he said, and stumbled over the words. 'This--this is a most tragic business, Mrs. Love. I don't know what to say . . . my utmost sympathy . . . I'll get in touch with a doctor and with the police . . . Yes. . . Yes, of course . . . Good-bye.'

He rang off, controlling himself with difficulty, and turned to Galbraith.

'It's Love,' he said. 'Shot.'

Galbraith looked bewildered; his professional competence seemed incapable of coping with anything like this. 'Shot?' he echoed foolishly. 'You don't mean killed?'

'Yes. Killed.'

'Suicide?'

'I don't know. His wife was too upset to say very much. But in any case ---'

The telephone rang again. The headmaster took it up; listened, incredulous and appalled.

'All right,' he said at last. 'Stay there and don't touch anything. I'll make the necessary arrangements.' He replaced the receiver. 'That was Wells, speaking from Hubbard's Building. He's just found Somers in the common room . . .'

He put out one hand to brace himself against the back of a chair. His face for a moment was livid.

'Somers is dead, too,' he said. 'Shot through the eye.'"

---Love Lies Bleeding, Edmund Crispin, 1948