The Case of the Patriarch by Amelia Littlewood

Author:Amelia Littlewood [Littlewood, Amelia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Detective, elizabeth bennet, Amazon, Crime Fiction, Crime, pride and prejudice, sherlock holmes, Jane Austen
Publisher: Cyanide Publishing
Published: 2018-04-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five:

A Near Miss

This case was frustrating me no end. There was so little physical evidence! I felt as though the murderer was laughing at me.

Well, I had allowed myself to be fooled once, by Miss Adler. While she may be excused, I could not allow myself to be so fooled again. I would find out who this murderer was and I would bring them to justice.

Lt. Crawley came up to me as I returned to the house, deep in thought. “Miss Bennet,” he said, “I’ve conducted the interviews at your behest. I’ve written everything down here in my notebook, if you wish to take a look.”

“Yes, I would. Thank you kindly, Lt. Crawley.”

I had just taken the notebook from him when there was a crash and an almighty scream.

Then I heard a cry of “Julia!”

I dashed into the house, Lt. Crawley on my heels.

There, at the foot of the stairs, was Julia Grant. She was lying on top of a great pile of laundry, holding her ankle. “Oh,” she said, gasping in pain. “Oh, it’s quite—it’s quite broken, I should think.”

Earnest was kneeling beside her, his face white with worry. “How in the world did you manage to fall down the stairs, darling?” he asked, the endearment slipping out in front of others due to his distress.

I turned and looked up the stairs. It was faint, but I thought I could see…

I went up the stairs and there it was—a string, tied across the top stair by use of a nail. “She tripped over this,” I said, indicating it.

“Thank goodness for the laundry,” Louisa said. “I had just set it down for but a moment. If it hadn’t been resting at the bottom of the stairs… to cushion the fall…”

It was a sobering thought. The great pile of laundry was undoubtedly bedsheets, and a great deal of them due to everyone staying in the house. They had saved Miss Grant’s life.

“I should like to speak to Miss Grant, if I may,” I said. “And if someone would fetch a doctor?”

“I shall,” Peter said, hurrying out.

We helped Miss Grant into the sitting room, where I insisted on everyone leaving. Lt. Crawley did not seem happy with this. No doubt he thought us equal partners in the investigation now.

Once we were alone, I turned to Miss Grant. “Julia—if I may call you so?”

She nodded.

“Julia, someone put that there deliberately to try and kill you.” I knelt at her feet. “You must tell me the truth about what happened yesterday. There is something you haven’t told me, something dangerous to the murderer.”

As she sat there, I thought back to what it could have been. What had she seen that I had not?

I put myself back in the moment of the scream. I was in the dining room, just exiting… I ran down the hall, past the four statues…

No, wait.

There were only three statues when Mr. Lawton had boasted of them to me earlier. How could there have been four?

I looked at Julia and I remembered what she had been wearing when we had all entered the study.

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