A Merry Little Murder: A 1920s Historical Mystery (Penelope Banks Murder Mysteries Book 15) by Colette Clark

Author:Colette Clark [Clark, Colette]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-12-09T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

Despite the excitement of discovering misadventure in the apartment across the street, Penelope had managed a long sleep. It was the Sunday Morning before Christmas. Naturally, both Jane and Cousin Cordelia were in attendance at their respective churches, as were most fair-weather members of the flock in New York City. She had even given Beatrice the morning off to attend.

Although she usually enjoyed Christmas service, for once, Penelope was glad to have an excuse not to go. She had far too much on her mind.

Her suspicions about Alasdair McClendon had panned out, but had resulted in so many more questions.

What had he been doing in the boiler room?

Who had he been in an altercation with?

Was the push accidental, spontaneous in the heat of the moment, or deliberate?

Why had the killer removed his body?

Further, where was the butler?

That last little snag only had the wheels in her head spinning. In any mystery novel, it would be cliché for the denouement to reveal that the butler was the killer. However, his absence couldn’t go unnoticed, particularly since he had left Bess in the dark. It was rather negligent of him.

Then again, Mr. McClendon’s family had plenty of opportunity to do the deed the night of the party. They had seemed rather heated, and more importantly, urgently in search of something when Penelope had last seen them through the windows.

She got out of bed and wandered over to observe her neighbors. By now, most people in the building would have known a crime had taken place, if only because of the police going from apartment to apartment to question everyone. If there was any indication that it had caused dismay, it wasn’t evident from what she could see.

The top-floor apartment was still empty. There was now an eeriness to it that unsettled Penelope. What had taken place after she’d fallen asleep? Was Bess still there, perhaps hunkered in her own quarters?

The temporary curtains of the apartment below that were closed. There would be no work done that day of all days, even with a strict deadline. Sunday was a day of rest.

The bedroom curtains of the apartment below were also closed. The ones for the living room stood open, but there was no couple in sight. Perhaps they were in church as well. A sardonic smile came to Penelope’s face thinking about the couple’s more recent shenanigans.

As for the apartment below that, Richard had learned more about the party that had taken place. It had been hosted by the only son of the couple who was soon to take up residence there, Scotty Abernathy. His parents were away in Cuba for the holidays before finally moving in. That explained the candles, as the electricity hadn’t even been turned on.

Naturally, the party attendees had been primary suspects, though without any obvious motives. Sneaking into a party hardly warranted murder. However, it could have led to an altercation that became physical and ended in an accidental death. The clash of wild youths and their crotchety elders was a tale as old as time.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.