Not Quite a Murder by Liz Turner

Author:Liz Turner
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2020-06-08T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

A Family Affair

“You seem even more annoyingly cheerful than usual,” Banks groaned as he endured another round of Lily’s humming through her blood test examination.

“Oh.” Lily smiled sheepishly. “I didn’t realize it. Sorry.”

Banks peered over the edge of his medical mask. “What are you working on?”

“I’ve just finished, actually. Let me give you a rundown of my findings. I matched the nail polish shavings to the exact same color and type Mrs. Radley was wearing. Have a look,” Lily shifted out of the way so that Banks could use her microscope.

“Good work.” He nodded slowly. “Is she definitely our attacker then?”

“The evidence points that way. And it’s not just the nail polish—the strand of hair we found is a match to the DNA swab Garcia sent down from Mrs. Radley.”

“Mrs. Radley was at the hospital visiting her husband earlier that day though, so she could easily claim the evidence is simply circumstantial,” Banks reasoned, ever expanding the limits of Lily’s brain.

“I thought you would point that out,” Lily said with a cheeky smile. “So, I also ran the prints from the window ledge in Doug’s room with those that they sent down from Mrs. Radley. It’s definitely her.”

“Excellent work, Lily.” Banks gave her a rare smile, but there was still a twinkle in his eye suggesting her cross-examination wasn’t entirely over yet. “I’m impressed you thought to cover all possible avenues, but perhaps Mrs. Radley simply opened a window while she was visiting her husband.”

Lily grinned. “I thought of that too. However, the quality of the attacker’s prints was still fresh, suggesting they were less than an hour old when we lifted them. Had they been laid there earlier, the prints would have collected dust and other dirt, which weren’t visible when I lifted them.”

“But –”

Lily held up her hand and Banks paused obediently, his eyebrows raising in surprise at her boldness. “Let me finish. I also went back to the hospital and lifted prints off the outside of the window which proves without a doubt that Mrs. Radley entered and exited the room through that window. And before you come up with any other crazy theories rationalizing that it wasn’t her,” Lily continued, slightly running out of breath in her attempt to out-speak Banks, “we also found her shoe prints in the dirt outside the window—a match to Mrs. Radley’s size.”

Banks folded his arms and looked down on her with one eyebrow still raised. “I suppose you’re feeling pretty smug right now?”

Lily shook her head. “Not really. You taught me to consider all angles, so that’s what I’ve tried to do.”

“Well, as usual, you did a better job than I would’ve,” Banks finally conceded. “There’s something that I would like to discuss with you later, if you’d be willing to meet with me…”

“Uh…” Lily hesitated, uncertain of Banks’s intentions. “Of course.”

“So, if all the evidence points to Mrs. Radley as being our attacker, then have you put all of your findings together in a report for your detectives, waiting patiently upstairs, with a riled-up Mrs.

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