Premeditated Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Author:Elizabeth C. Bunce
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2020-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Motive, Means, and Opportunity

A suspect must have the motive, the means, and the opportunity to commit the offense. Did he have a reason to kill? Did he have access to the murder weapon and the skill to use it? And was he in the right place at the right time?

—H. M. Hardcastle, Principles of Detection

The morbid curiosity about what was happening in that dining room, among Father, Aunt Helena, and Priscilla, felt like ants crawling under my petticoats. I’d stationed myself at the top of the stairs, straining to hear, but could make out nothing useful. Peony perched beside me, serenading the dinner party with an undulating song of woe and betrayal. I thought she was spectacular.

Until Cook stepped into the foyer (dressed tonight as a butler). “The master requests that the cat be removed,” she intoned.

“No,” said Peony.

I gave a sigh and untwined my legs from the balusters. “Yes, ma’am.” I scooped up Peony, who responded with one parting utterance shrill enough to break wineglasses, and carried her into the dark schoolroom. The curtains were still open, and I noticed lights on across the way at Redgraves. Some lights were normal, even with Priscilla over here; no one wanted to come home to an absolutely dark house. But these lights were upstairs, in empty bedrooms, not down in the main areas of the house.

And the lights shouldn’t move. As I watched, one set of windows went dark. A moment later, the adjacent room brightened as someone turned up the gas. I chewed on my thumbnail, trying to decide what to do.

I had three options, two of which were sensible.

One: Notify Miss Judson.

Two: Alert the diners downstairs, one of whom would certainly be concerned by nefarious goings-on at Redgraves. But to whom I owed no duty of care.

Three: Investigate on my own.

Dear Reader, I will allow you to Deduce what choice I made.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I tightened my bootlaces, checked that my skirt hems weren’t likely to be stepped upon, and loaded up my bag. Onto my head went my deerstalker cap. Last, I opened the cabinet and retrieved the key with the fleur-de-lis handle. Peony, watching my preparations, almost gave me away. She twined about my ankles, complaining, and ignored all my admonitions to shush.

“Do you want to come?”

“Yes,” she replied, and trotted out of the schoolroom, down the back stairs, to the scullery door. Thus we prepared to commit the most egregious transgression of which a Young Lady of Quality is capable. I was about to Go Outside Alone After Dark.

Dear Reader, surely I need not enumerate the dangers posed by my present course of action; they are drilled into every girl from the cradle, by every possible means. I knew all about Spring-Heel’d Jack, the fiend who stalked the pages of the penny dreadfuls. Not to mention Jack the Ripper, the fiend who’d stalked the real-life streets of London only a few years ago. There were body snatchers and burkers;* press-gangs waiting

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.