Priory of Death: 16

I called the police at once, and the bodies were taken away. I remained hidden in the gatehouse while this happened. Then, when the coast was clear, I returned to the mansion.
The guests were all subdued. I didn't blame them. Two murders in one night was heavy going out in the country.
"Well, you found Mr. Hamilton," Victoria groaned. "And poor Connie!"
"Why did she go out?" I asked.
"I don't know! She was terribly mysterious about it."
"It looks like she found the killer moving the body, and he killed her."
It had taken a lot of strength to smash in Connie's skull. But then Victoria was a sporty girl, and Duncan Campbell was a huge bear of a man. And I didn't know what the weapon had been - the police hadn't found it.
"How long was she out for?"
"About half an hour."
"And the cause of death for Mr. Hamilton was similar - someone smashed his skull." I sighed. "All right. I'll go to bed and I'll be fresh and ready to think in the morning."
In fact I had no intention of going to sleep early. I just wanted to wait until all the guests were in bed before I made an inspection of the tunnels under the Priory with Emily.
The Outsider was lying on my bed when I entered. The bag of food I'd bought at Marks and Spencer's in Ayr (I had to find a sponsor) was open, and Emily was half-way through a large pork pie.
"Outsider!"
"Sorry. I got hungry." she apologised. That was easy for her to say, she'd just eaten my supper.
"Emily Fairbairn, I wanted to eat that."
"You can have the rest," she offered. I thought about it, and decided that I wanted to do just that. Emily handed it over.
"So, what did the police say?" I asked.
"Oh, they took witness statements from everyone. Scruff said she found the body, then she went straight to bed. Who do you think did it?"
"I don't know. You?"
"No. But you knew Connie."
"She must have found out something about the Priory... the Pit! Emily, we have to go down the Pit and investigate."
"I don't like the idea..."
"There's two of us. And this time we're suspecting something evil will happen."
"Okay," Emily agreed. "I'll clean my crossbow."
I thought that was an excellent idea.
We waited until everyone had gone to bed, and then the pair of us, a figure in grey and an indistinct black smoky form, sallied forth into the moonlit gardens for a closer look at the Devil's pit.
I pulled a high-powered torch from my belt as we stepped into the tunnels. Emily led the way, crossbow held ready.
But no attack came. At last we stood at the entrance to the pit. I unlocked the door and shone my torch inside.
Everything looked just as it had before, except...
I jumped down into the pit and pulled off a glove. kneeling on the floor I tried the patch of dark red with one finger. It was cold and congealed, but it was definitely blood. And there, on the floor, were the scattered pearls of Connie's necklace.