After breakfast, they walked over to the cart track that wound past the Pogs farm. Chief Muggeredge had again called on all off-duty shirriffs to find the murder weapon, and Frodo and Sam met several along the way as they searched the sides of the road as well as the farm property and outbuildings. One of the shirriffs left off his search in the underbrush and showed them the place where Eliduc had been killed.
There was little to see on the spot except for a puddle of dried blood collected in a wheel rut on the side of the road nearest to the stone wall that bounded the cow pasture. On the other side of the road ran a ragged hedge with plenty of gaps where someone might hide and wait to attack an unwary passer-by, but when Frodo examined these gaps, he found no sign that Eliduc's murderer had actually hidden in any of them. For all he knew, Eliduc and his murderer had walked this way together. The road itself was too hard and dry to show noteworthy footprints and tell just what had happened; however, Frodo noted that this hard-packed, gray dirt was different from the richer and darker soil that had been found in the wound on Eliduc's neck, and presumably on the blade of the tool that had killed him.
Next, they went to the farmhouse, where Frodo asked to speak to Petalma Pogs, who had found the body. Miss Pogs repeated the story she'd told Chief Muggeredge the night before: when she had gone out to the pasture to fetch in the stray cows at dusk, she'd seen Eliduc lying in the road and climbed the stile over the stone wall to go to him, thinking he was hurt or sick. He was lying curled on his side, his back to her. It wasn't until she had turned him over to see his cut throat and the pool of blood beneath him that she realized he was dead, certainly murdered.
"I was never so scared afore in all my life," she told Frodo. "On a farm, 'tis nothing to see cows and pigs in such a state, but I never saw another hobbit cut like that! I was sure as the one who did it was still hanging about and he'd get me next!" But she'd seen no one on her way out to the pasture, nor as she had run to Newbury afterwards.
After thanking Miss Poggs, Sam and Frodo went into Bucklebury to call on Marleduc. The young hobbit was home alone; his parents had gone out to make the necessary funeral arrangements. The Bucklebury Brandybucks had their own family vault atop the hill, and a visit to the elderly uncle currently considered the head of that branch of the family was required to have it opened.
"They'll be back soon if you've come to pay a condolence call," Marleduc said when he answered the door. "Or have you come to pursue last night's accusations, Frodo?" He looked over Frodo's shoulder at Sam, whom he had seen last night at the guardhouse, but didn't know. "Am I to be arrested?"
"No, you're not," Frodo replied. "My friend Sam is a shirriff, but not in Buckland. He's with me simply as a friend." He lay a hand on Sam's arm. "May we come in, please?"
Marleduc nodded and held open the door to let them inside. They went into the front parlor. "Eli's been laid out in the back parlor if you'd like to view him," he told them. "I know you had a good look last night, but he's been washed up since the shirriffs brought him to us this morning and put into his best suit. We put a white stock around his neck too." He flopped down to sit on the parlor sofa and gestured for his guests to have a seat. "But that's not what you've come for, is it, Frodo?"
"I've come because I want to find Eliduc's murderer--and Merimas's murderer, and the person who attacked Ilbie," Frodo answered as he sat down. "I'm certain it's all the same person, and I'm afraid we are all in danger if he isn't captured before it's too late."
"It's too late to save my brother," Marleduc said bitterly.
Sam bristled at the implied criticism of Frodo, but Frodo himself could only agree; he had felt his own inadequacies since last night. "But it isn't too late for you, Marly," he answered. "Since Eli's been killed, I am afraid for you." He could see that Marleduc looked surprised by this statement, and skeptical. "What were you and your brother up to? If you know who he was going to see yesterday-"
"I don't know anything, Frodo!" Marleduc insisted. "I wish I did. I want to find out who killed Eli even more than you do. Don't you believe that?"
"As a matter of fact, I do," Frodo answered. "That's why I'm here, Marly. I need your help. I'm truly sorry that I suspected you when Merimas was killed. It put us on the wrong footing with each other. I saw you were lying about your feelings for Celie-"
"I never said I didn't care for her," Marly said defensively, "only that it made no difference to her if I did."
"I thought that her husband's death must involve her somehow, that it had been done for her sake."
"But you don't think so anymore?"
"No. I think this has nothing to do with Celie or her old boy-friends, including you."
A glint of amusement flickered in Marleduc's eyes. "You can believe I'd kill Merimas, even that I'd hit Ilbie over the head, but not that I'd murder my brother."
"Well, yes," Frodo admitted. "I know how close you were."
"We were." Marleduc agreed.
"If you know anything at all about what your brother was up to yesterday, you may be killed just as he was, to keep the murderer's secrets safe," Frodo told him. "What was he doing out by the Pogs farm? You two were investigating for yourselves, weren't you?" He had turned the matter over in his mind during the restless hours of the night, and this was the only explanation that made sense.
Marleduc nodded. "Eli was. You had your eye so obviously on us after Ilbie was hurt, it seemed in our best interests to prove we had nothing to do with it. We thought it'd be a fine joke if we found Merimas's murderer ahead of you. At least, we wanted to find something that'd set you looking at somebody else instead of us. It was Eli's idea that he ought to find out if there was any truth behind the gossip about old Merimas and his girl-friends. He said he'd heard something interesting after you'd asked him about it, and he was going to find one of the girls Merimas was supposed to be running about with and see what tales she had to tell."
"And did he find one?" asked Frodo.
"He said he did, but he wouldn't tell me her name. When I asked, he laughed and said it would be a surprise--it would surprise you, Frodo."
"Was he going there to meet her?"
"I assume so. He was going to talk to somebody." Marleduc shook his head mournfully. "I should've gone with him. Eli would still be alive."
Emeliadoc and Sirabella returned then. While they expected condolence calls today, they were surprised to see Frodo there; Emeliadoc was especially a little wary after the conversation between Frodo and his son the night before, but the young hobbits seemed to be on better terms today.
After Frodo had introduced Sam and promised to see that Eliduc's murderer was brought to justice, there was a respectful viewing of the body, in accordance with Shire custom, then they left the grieving family.
"So Merimas was courting another girl before Celie," Frodo mused as he and Sam left Bucklebury and were walking toward Brandy Hall. "Eliduc found her. But who could she be?"
Was it Miss Pogs, or one of her sisters? Frodo had only seen the other women-folk at the farmhouse briefly, when they'd gathered in curiosity to have a peek at the visitors before Petalma had shown him into the special company parlor to talk privately; there seemed to be a large number of them, all somewhat plain, sturdy-looking farm-lasses, like Petalma herself, roughly between the ages of thirty and five-and-forty. But while he had been talking with Petalma, Sam and the shirriff had remained with the rest of the family.
He broached the idea to Sam. "What did you think of them?"
"Now, I didn't know your cousin Merimas, and I never saw a-one of those girls before today," Sam answered after giving the question careful consideration. "We only talked for a minute or two, but they seemed nice and respectable enough."
Frodo had to agree with this. "I've never heard anything objectionable about the family. Socially, the Pogs are a step or two below the usual hobbit gentry the Brandybucks choose their wives from, but it wouldn't be a scandal or disgrace if Merimas wanted to marry a well-to-do farmer's daughter. He might've preferred a wife who was practical and hard-working to one who always wanted to go to parties and dance on table-tops."
"If he jilted this other girl for Miss Celie, she might've wanted revenge," said Sam.
"True, but why would she wait 'til three and a half years later?"
Sam shrugged. "Maybe he was still seeing her, 'til more recent'n that. I'll tell you one thing, Frodo--if this Eliduc meant to go see one of them Pogs girls at the farm yesterday, he never got there. We asked 'em that, and they said No. And none of 'em went off the farm that day. They don't go out much these days except in groups on their chores, since there's a murderer about."
"But Miss Pogs went out alone last night..." Frodo wondered: Was her errand to fetch the cows an excuse? Had she arranged to meet Eliduc in a place far enough from her home that they would not be seen or overheard? Was she the girl Eliduc had been looking for, and found at last?
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