The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Flavia fears that her father is having a heart attack, but he is just in shock. He pulls the stamp off the bird’s beak and tells Mrs. Mullet to dispose of the bird.

Flavia goes to her cavernous bedroom and ponders what frightened her father so badly. He does not fear birds or stamps. Outside her window, Flavia hears shouting in the garden. It is Dogger, her father’s “man.” Dogger started out as her father’s valet, then became chauffeur, and now serves as handyman and gardener. Dogger suffered greatly as a prisoner of war and is prone to “episodes” of agitation and hallucination. Flavia shouts encouraging words to him, but “suddenly he went limp, like a man who has been holding a live electrical wire in which the current has just been switched off” (20). Flavia brings Dogger a glass of milk, then gently jokes with him to help restore his senses.

Flavia’s father is not at lunch. Daphne sits reading as usual, while Ophelia sighs to herself. Flavia thinks Ophelia must be dreaming about Ned Cropper, who works at the town inn. Flavia notes that there is no visible sign of Ophelia’s reaction to the lipstick yet.

That night Flavia cannot sleep, disturbed by the fear on her father’s face. Flavia hears some noise downstairs and goes to investigate. She hears an angry voice coming from her father’s study and puts her ear to the door. A stranger’s voice tells Flavia’s father that he would not want others to discover him, that they are all in this together. Her father tells the stranger to get out and says that “Twining” was right, that the stranger is a despicable person. And the stranger retorts that Twining has been dead for 30 years, Flavia’s father says, “And we killed him” (25).

Flavia is shocked to hear this. She looks through the keyhole and sees that the stranger has red hair. The stranger says her father can afford the money, as he must have come into a considerable amount when Harriet died. Flavia’s father shouts at the man to get out.

Suddenly Flavia is grabbed from behind, and a voice hisses in her ear to go to bed. It is Dogger, who says this is none of her business. Flavia returns to her room and thinks about what she heard, wondering how her father could be a murderer.

Flavia goes to sleep but wakes at 3:44 a.m. She looks out her window at the garden, where Dogger has left an overturned wheelbarrow. Flavia decides to straighten things up for him, so she dresses and goes downstairs. In the kitchen, she notices a slice missing from Mrs. Mullet’s custard pie, which is curious because everyone in the family hates her custard pie.

In the garden, Flavia sees a man lying in the cucumber patch. He opens his eyes and exhales the word, “Vale.” Flavia smells a strange odor on his breath. The man then dies. Flavia watches with more interest than fear.

Flavia goes to wake her father but decides to get Dogger instead. She shows him the body in the garden. Dogger checks for a pulse, then says he must get the colonel. Flavia thinks they should phone the police, and Dogger agrees, though no one ever uses the telephone in Bucksaw, since Flavia’s father despises it. The constable asks who the deceased is, and Flavia is reluctant to say that it is the man who was in her father’s study, so she replies that she has never seen him before.

Inspector Hewitt arrives to lead the investigation and asks for Flavia’s father. She says he is indisposed and that she will show him the corpse. Detective Sergeant Woolmer and Detective Sergeant Graves accompany them to the garden and collect evidence. Inspector Hewitt asks Flavia to arrange for tea and says she should stay in the house, which greatly annoys her.

Daphne and Ophelia are at breakfast, and Flavia tells them about the body. Flavia is sure the man was poisoned. Daphne reads aloud from her murder mystery book. Flavia cannot stand to be around her sisters and goes to her laboratory, which she calls “my sanctum sanctorum” (37).

Flavia continues to think about her father and the argument she heard. She worries that her father was not at breakfast. To calm herself, she opens her Oxford English Dictionary. She looks up vale and finds the Latin definition to be “farewell; good-bye; adieu.” Flavia thinks this an odd last word to say to a stranger.

Dr. Darby, the local doctor and coroner, arrives. Inspector Hewitt tells him that the deceased is unknown, with no identification, though it appears he recently came from Norway. Dr. Darby estimates the time of death to be no later than midnight, and Flavia sucks in a breath, since she had witnessed the death only a few hours before. She runs off before she can be questioned.

Dogger is trimming roses and does not answer directly when Flavia asks about her father. Inspector Hewitt asks Flavia to answer a few questions.

Inspector Hewitt asks Flavia who she was speaking to outside, and Flavia answers that it was Dogger, explaining that Arthur Dogger is the gardener, formerly the chauffeur, and a former prisoner of war. Inspector Hewitt understands what she is saying and comments that she is a remarkable girl.

Inspector Hewitt asks if Flavia’s father still keeps a motorcar. Flavia answers that there is an old Rolls Royce Phantom in the coach house. It was her mother’s, “and it had not been driven since the day the news of her death had come to Buckshaw” (43). Flavia’s father forbids anyone to touch it, but Flavia often sits in it when she needs to be alone. One day, she spied her father weeping by himself in the car.

Inspector Hewitt asks Flavia who first discovered the body, and she pauses, unsure if it would implicate her father if she confesses that she found the body and that the man had still been alive. Finally she admits that she found the body.

Sergeant Woolmer brings Flavia’s father, who was in the coach house, to Inspector Hewitt. Flavia’s father furiously demands to know who they all are and what they are doing in his house. Inspector Hewitt tells him that a dead body was found in his garden, which stuns Flavia’s father. Flavia notices that he has no bruises or other signs of a struggle, and that Inspector Hewitt sees this also.

Inspector Hewitt asks if Flavia’s father can help identify the body, but he faintly says that he cannot deal with death. Flavia is shocked that her father, a military man, would lie. Inspector Hewitt asks Flavia’s father what he was doing for hours in the coach house, but he says that he is “not prepared” to answer that.

Mrs. Mullet comes in with refreshments. She mentions to Flavia’s father that she disposed of the dead bird. Inspector Hewitt wants to hear more about this. She says it was a jack snipe with an old Penny Black stamp stuck to its beak. She comments that it was strange because jack snipes are never seen in England until September. She is interrupted by a groan as Flavia’s father faints.

Dr. Darby revives Flavia’s father with smelling salts, and Dogger helps him to bed. As she returns to the kitchen, Mrs. Mullet asks Flavia if the pie was good. Flavia makes a noncommittal sound.

Now alone, Flavia gets her bicycle Gladys and pedals toward the nearby town of Bishop’s Lacey to investigate Twining, the name her father spoke to the deceased man.