[MaC] A pause in the music

[Mel Mason]

>
> Marion had come up next to him and looked almost as
> white-faced
> as he did, though this was not the first murder
> scene she had
> ever viewed.
>
> "But how could he..." she whispered, "...sit here
> playing ... and
> not see it, till now?"
>

"In the dark, you mean?" asked Tabitha, appearing in
the doorway. "I should imagine it would be more
difficult to see it than not. He was probably paying
more attention to his music than his surroundings,
anyway." She moved towards the settee, where Lady
Pamela was attempting to find a pulse, and looked at
Nola Diamond with the detached expression of someone
who had seen far too many dead bodies in her life.

"Yes," said Oswald, "that would work if she was strangled before he came 
here and started playing.  But she wasn't.  I remembered her saying 
something rude about Fitzroy after Barowenski had left the room."

Phillip, swirling his half-filled glass absently, stared at the body, though
he was careful not to touch anything. "It looks--" His voice rasped; he
cleared his throat and began again, looking slightly abashed. "It looks as
though she was strangled *with* something, not bare-handed. Does anyone see
anything here that might have been the, er, murder weapon?" He looked around
the room as if uncertain of what he was searching for, then his gaze fell on
the piano. "Piano wire, perhaps?"

"It can't have been that," Marion said almost too quickly.  "He
was playing ... surely he would have noticed sooner if one was
missing?"

"I suppose...unless there were spares kept somewhere? I don't know if that's
the sort of thing one keeps..."

"I doubt if the average home player does," said Oswald thoughtfully.  "But a 
professional pianist ... that would be a different matter, I would think. 
We'll have to ask Barowenski."

He frowned.  "Someone needs to question him - two people for preference. 
And someone needs to go down and inform the wardens and the UXB team what 
has happened here."