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locked.”
    “Absurd as it may be,” the inspector assured her, “it still happened. The victim was a middle-aged woman. She had nothing on her person to identify her. Is anyone from your household missing?”
    “No.” Mrs. Prosper shook her head. “Everyone’s here.”
    “Are you quite certain about that, ma’am?” Barnes asked. “This is a big house. Have you seen all your staff?”
    Annabelle Prosper raised one delicately arched eyebrow. “I’m quite sure, Constable. In my husband’s absence, I preside over morning prayers. I assure you, the entire staff was present.”
    “We weren’t doubting your word, ma’am,” Witherspoon interjected hastily.
    “Annabelle, I’ve heard there are some policemen here…Oh, goodness, it’s true, then.” A short, dark-haired rather plump woman of middle years hurried into the drawing room.
    “Really, Marlena, must you be so precipitous?” Annabelle shot the woman a disapproving frown.
    The woman ignored her and advanced toward the two men. “Hello, I’m Marlena McCabe, Mrs. Prosper’s sister-in-law.”
    Witherspoon and Barnes both got to their feet. He looked pointedly at Mrs. Prosper, who rather grudgingly introduced the two policemen. “We were just having a word with Mrs. Prosper,” he explained after the pleasantries had been exchanged.
    “About the murder in the garden?” Marlena said eagerly.
    “How did you know about that, ma’am?” Barnes asked.
    She laughed. “Really, Constable, did you think you’d be able to keep it a secret? There’s police all over the square. I heard it from Maggie, our tweeny, and she got it from Colonel Bartell’s scullery maid. Is it true that a woman’s been stabbed and her head cut off?”
    “Marlena!” Annabelle Prosper snapped. “Must you be so…so…”
    “No one got their head cut off, ma’am,” Witherspoon said quickly. “But we did find the body of a woman. That’s why we’re here. We’re trying to determine who she might be.”
    “How exciting,” Marlena flopped down next to her sister-in-law. “Maybe I can be of some help.”
    “You don’t know anything,” Mrs. Prosper chided. “Honestly, Marlena, you ought to be be ashamed of yourself. You mustn’t interfere with an official police inquiry simply because you find it exciting.”
    “I do too know something,” she replied, glaring at her sister-in-law. She looked at the policemen. “Was the woman quite tall, wearing a plain hat and a blue traveling dress?”
    Witherspoon and Barnes straightened to attention. “She was,” the inspector said. “Do you know her? Can you tell us who she is?”
    “Well, no, not exactly,” she replied. “But I can tell you when she arrived at the square. I saw her getting out of a hansom about five this morning.”
    “You saw her?” Barnes prompted.
    “From the front hall,” Marlena explained. “I’d come downstairs to get a glass of water. No one was up at that hour, of course, and it was very quiet. I heard a carriage come into the square—they make a terrible racket, you see. It’s the horses’ hooves on those cobblestones on the north side.”
    “You’re digressing, Marlena,” Mrs. Prosper said. Now, she too looked interested. “Do go on.”
    “Well.” Marlena nodded importantly. “As I said, I heard a carriage come in. Of course, I thought it might be Eldon back from Scotland…”
    “Eldon’s not due until this evening,” Mrs. Prosper interrupted.
    “Yes, I know that. But he does hate being away from home, and I thought he might have come back early, you see.” She paused for breath. “As I was saying, I heard the carriage and, thinking it might be Eldon, I went to that window.” She pointed toward the end of the room facing the square, “and had a look. But it wasn’t Eldon, it was this woman. She got out of a hansom right in front of Mr. Tavistock’s house. Of course, that’s right next door.”
    “Did you see her go into the garden?” Witherspoon asked.
    She shook her