Dead Water

Dead Water
Ngaio Marsh

A quirky Roderick Alleyn mystery about faith, greed – and murder.Times are good in the Cornish village of Portcarrow, as hundreds of unfortunates flock to taste the miraculous waters of Pixie Falls.Then Miss Emily Pride inherits the celebrated land on which Portcarrow stands and wants to put an end to the villagers’ thriving trade in miracle cures, especially Miss Elspeth Costs’s gift shop.But someone puts an end to Miss Cost herself, and Miss Pride’s guardian angel, Superintendent Roderick Alleyn, finds himself on the spot in both senses of the word…

NGAIO MARSH

Dead Water

COPYRIGHT (#ud0ede4ae-c876-53ba-8e32-c1c50af5b7ea)

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

HARPER

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1973

Copyright © Ngaio Marsh Ltd 1963

Ngaio Marsh asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of these works

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library

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HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780006512493

Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2010 ISBN: 9780007344796

Version: 2016–09–08

DEDICATION (#ud0ede4ae-c876-53ba-8e32-c1c50af5b7ea)

for Alister and Doris McIntosh with love

CONTENTS

Cover (#ue34c3591-b0e3-5a98-b4e5-dd0520c59796)

Title Page (#u34e2e4f3-7f1b-5aa7-8b15-559fb23f3482)

Copyright

Dedication (#ue7b324fd-8e66-5f90-9379-e91bc267b2eb)

Cast of Characters

1. Prelude

2. Miss Emily

3. Threats

4. Fiasco

5. Holiday Task

6. Green Lady

7. The Yard

8. The Shop

9. Storm

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About the Author

Also by the Author

About the Publisher

CAST OF CHARACTERS (#ud0ede4ae-c876-53ba-8e32-c1c50af5b7ea)

CHAPTER 1 (#ud0ede4ae-c876-53ba-8e32-c1c50af5b7ea)

Prelude (#ud0ede4ae-c876-53ba-8e32-c1c50af5b7ea)

A boy stumbled up the hillside, half-blinded by tears. He fell and, for a time, choked and sobbed as he lay in the sun but presently blundered on. A lark sang overhead. Farther up the hill he could hear the multiple chatter of running water. The children down by the jetty still chanted after him:

Warty-hog, warty-hog

Put your puddies in the bog

Warty Walter, Warty Walter

Wash your warties in the water.

The spring was near the top. It began as a bubbling pool, cascaded into a miniature waterfall, dived under pebbles, earth and bracken and at last, loquacious and preoccupied, swirled mysteriously underground and was lost. Above the pool stood a boulder, flanked by briars and fern, and above that the brow of the hill and the sun in a clear sky.

He squatted near the waterfall. His legs ached and a spasm jolted his chest. He gasped for breath, beat his hands on the ground and looked at them. Warty-hog. Warts clustered all over his fingers like those black things that covered the legs of the jetty. Two of them bled where he’d cut them. The other kids were told not to touch him.

He thrust his hands under the cold pressure of the cascade. It beat and stung and numbed them, but he screwed up his blubbered eyes and forced them to stay there. Water spurted icily up his arms and into his face.