Echoes Of A Fatal Past: The Clock House Mysteries 6 by Louise Allen

Author:Louise Allen [Allen, Louise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-08-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

‘You want to make this more complicated?’ Matthew asked. ‘It is bad enough having at least three sets of motives, but involving more than one person in the actual murder is unlikely, surely? The three possible groups would have no common cause.’

‘Well, what if Spencer got in and struck Antonia in his anger over his ruined reputation?’ I suggested. ‘He may not have meant to kill her, merely pay her back by hurting or frightening her. But she collapses, dead, and he panics, gets out, leaving her where she lies.’

‘A hard swipe with a poker to the neck doesn’t sound like an accident to me, or a punishment that went too far,’ Frank said.

I waved that objection away. ‘All right, he meant to kill her. Then either one of the Rankin lot, or Earle, get in, find the body, search the house and decide it might be a good idea if her death seems to be an accident, so they arrange her at the foot of the stairs. That accounts for the livor mortis having time to form.’

‘Who eats the dinner?’ Jon asked.

‘I’d forgotten that. It sounds more like Earle than one of the Rankins or Sir Richmond. Earle’s clearly more of a natural villain and he’d be much cooler about finding a dead body, I imagine. He pours himself a drink and has something to eat while he plans, then searches, finds nothing but the address of Antonia’s previous lodgings, arranges the body and leaves. Next, he heads off to Tunbridge Wells to search whatever has been left there.’

‘That does seem to cover everything,’ Matthew said slowly as he picked up the To Do list. ‘According to this we need to check local livery stables for a horse or carriage left by a redheaded man on the Saturday, discover just what the Gostwick-Rankin objection to Earle was and track down the vicar who married Antonia and Earle in Aylesbury.’

‘And I’ll see if I can get a better description of the man in the alleyway from Miss Postlethwaite,’ Jon said. ‘Although by now she’s decided that this harmless stranger was actually a killer red in both hair and hands, so goodness knows what she’ll come up with. Horns and cloven hooves, probably.’

‘I’ll see what I can discover at the livery stables and the inns,’ Matthew said. ‘And I’ll see if anyone recalls carriages or a horse left overnight somewhere strange. He might have been calm enough to spend the night. If Spencer was here at all.’

‘That leaves the vicar and the Rankins,’ I said. ‘We had better treat the Rankins like a social call, don’t you think?’

‘That’s you and Matthew then,’ Frank said. ‘I’ll tackle the vicar on the grounds that as Antonia’s man of law I’ve a right to ask. I’ll go tomorrow morning.’

‘I’ll come with you,’ Lilith said, a little pink in the cheeks. ‘If Mr – If Matthew will permit me the time off.’

‘Yes, of course,’ he said. ‘It seems we have a plan.’

‘Will everyone be staying for luncheon?’ Lilith asked, slipping back into housekeeper mode.

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