Unnatural Death Part II

 Peter and Parker discover a connection with a lady living in London, Mrs Forrest - and they suspect that she may have given a five-pound note to Bertha Gotobed.. so they question her.  She has a satisfactory explanation, but Peter still continues to believe that Mary Whittaker may have killed Miss Dawson and that she may be responsible for the death of Bertha.

Parker is not convinced, as the autopsy on Bertha shows a heart failure after  a heavy meal.  her body was found in Epping Forest, and it seems to be a natural death.  However, Peter points out that she was alone, and the food she had with her was quite expensive food, not the sort of picnic that would be brought by a waitress. 

Peter advises Evelyn, Bertha's sister, to leave the UK as soon as possible as he is not sure that she is safe. He thinks that there was something funny about the Will, which was never made, and he tries to find the solicitor who worked for Miss Dawson but finds that the man has retired to Italy. 

Miss Climpson finds that Miss Dawson had a West Indian relative, a black clergyman called Hallelujah Dawson.. and that he came to her house one day and had lunch.  Peter finds the man who is now living at a mission in the East end, and wonders if he could be a rival heir to Miss Whittaker.  He meets him and realises that the Rev Mr Dawson is a gentle naive soul, who did contact Miss Dawson, because he was in poor circumstances. He was descended from Simon Dawson, a relative of Agatha's, who went abroad in the previous century to escape from some trouble at home.  He ended up in the West indies, took a new name and managed to buy a small sugar plantation.  Hallelujah found some old papers which told him that the real family name was Dawson, and that he had cousins living in England.  But he then found that old Simon had taken his grandmother as a mistress but deceived her into thinking that they were legally married.... so his descent is illegitimate, and he could not be a rival heir. 

He tells Peter and Parker that Agatha was not prejudiced at all and was very kind to him and that hearing that he was not well off, the sugar plantation having failed, she made him an allowance and told him that Mary would continue to remember him after she was gone.  However, Mary did not do so but he has been managing to live modestly in the East End. 

Peter and Parker dont know what to make of all this, since Hallelujah cannot be an heir, and Mary has inherited Miss Dawson's fortune so she had no motive to murder her.  The only thing they can think of was that Miss Dawson might have tried to will the money to someone else but given her dislike of the idea of making a will, that seems unlikely.