Have his Carcase Part III Spoilers

Mrs Weldon continues to mourn Paul and insists that he must have murdered by Bolsheviks. She thinks this, because he was Russian. He had claimed to be from an aristocratic family who had fallen into poverty when he had to leave Russia during the Revolution. Harriet has become friendly with her, and learns that she is very well to do, and that she had intended on marriage to make a will leaving most of her property to her new husband, while not leaving so much to her son Henry. However, she has not made a Will as yet and Harriet realises that if Mrs Weldon were to die suddenly, her son as her next of kin would inherit all his mother's money...He has financial problems, and his farm is not doing well. It looks as though Weldon had a motive for murder, but Wimsey and Harriet both think that he is a stupid man who would not be able to work out such a complex plan…involving coded letters from abroad etc. Another suspect is turned up, a travelling hairdresser called Bright who has been moving around the country looking for temporary jobs. He says that he met Paul on his travels and that he sold Paul a razor that he had for his hair dressing. There are difficulties of settling the time when Alexis was murdered, even when the body turns up. Harriet remembers that when she found the body, the blood was liquid, so it is likely that he died only a short time before she found him... But she didn’t see anyone on the beach at the time. The case seems insoluble and investigating it has put a strain on Harriet’s friendship with Wimsey. She likes him but has so far been unable to get over her feeling that she does not want to marry a man she is beholden to… She and Wimsey have rowed during the investigation, but not to breaking point. Mrs Weldon is still determined to pursue the case, but then becomes friendly with another of the dancing partners at the hotel, a Frenchman called Antoine. Peter and Harriet like Antoine and feel sorry for him… but feel that as a man with little money, it is possible that he might become tempted to coax Mrs Weldon to propose marriage. They realise that if Antoine were to become Mrs Weldon’s new husband... that would provide a motive for Henry Weldon to try to kill his mother or her new admirer or both. So although they are getting fed up with the case, they want to solve it. Bunter, Peter’s valet, has been trailing Bright, and discovers that he is actually a businessman called Morecambe, who lives in London. He's not a travelling hairdresser at all. He claims that he is writing a play for his wife, a former actress, and was looking for material… but he is arrested on suspicion of murder. The policeman who has been working on the case with Wimsey is very dubious as to whether they can make the case stick. Then Wimsey and Harriet tell him that there is a reason why the young man’s blood was liquid at the time that Harriet found his body.. He has Haemophilia. Paul, a naïve and foolish young man, had believed that he was a member of the Russian Imperial family. It was this that led him to meet with the murderers on the beach... to discuss claiming his birthright. However, since his blood would not clot normally, there was no way of being clear as to the time of death. The novel ends rather abruptly with Wimsey and Harriet deciding to leave the case to the police, and leaving Wilvercombe. It is not made clear what happens to Henry Weldon, or his partners in crime, Mr and Mrs Morecambe. In another book, Harriet refers to the case and it seems as if they were all convicted, but it is left as a rather dangling and confusing ending... We never learn what happens to Mrs. Weldon who has rather been patronised by Harriet throughout the novel. It has a very convoluted plot which I find almost impossible to follow, with long rather boring scenes about code making and breaking…but it has its good moments and is important in the development of the relationship between Peter and Harriet.