The Grave in the Dunes by Alex Wagner

Author:Alex Wagner [Wagner, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-10-05T04:00:00+00:00

18

“The bottle in question has been disposed of, by the way, Chief Inspector,” André added. “So we have no chance to test the contents—and unfortunately, no idea who took it away. When we came back here from the hospital earlier it was gone, even though Julia hadn’t drunk it all.”

“Has anyone from housekeeping been here to clean up in the meantime, perhaps?” asked Oskar.

I saw him press his lips together, maybe because he blamed himself for not sending an officer here to the villa in time to secure the trace evidence, right after he had learned about the attempt on Julia’s life?

What could have kept the Chief Inspector so busy all day that he’d had to leave the case to his more inexperienced assistant? And why did he look so worn out? I licked Oskar’s hand anxiously, but he withdrew it from me.

“Yes, housekeeping must have been here,” Julia confirmed. “The bed was made when I got back. But I figured that the cleaning ladies wouldn’t have thrown away a half-full bottle of orange juice. So I asked André to call housekeeping and check.”

“And were you able to find out anything?” Oskar inquired, turning back to the caregiver.

André nodded. “The women who were here today affirmed that they didn’t throw away a bottle—neither an empty one nor a full one. In fact they don’t remember there being a bottle on the nightstand at all.”

“Then it must have been removed,” Oskar said, “before the women cleaned up here. Are you sure the juice was still in place in the morning when you found Mrs. Trapp unconscious?”

“Honestly, Chief Inspector, I didn’t pay much attention to it. I thought that Julia…” His words faded away.

That she would die, he had probably wanted to say. One really couldn’t blame him for not looking at an orange juice bottle—especially since he couldn’t have known at that time that the poison, or rather the potentially lethal drug, must have been in it.

“There’s something else you should know, Chief Inspector,” André began hesitantly. He glanced at Julia. “Do you want to tell them?”

She frowned. “Well, André, really. It’s certainly not relevant, don’t you see? Tristan would never—he wouldn’t do anything to me!”

André wisely said nothing, while Oskar naturally inquired: “Anything could be important, Mrs. Trapp,” he said. “Please let us be the judge. So what actually happened?”

Julia rolled her eyes in annoyance, but then gave him the information. “Oh, last night when I came to bed, I found my orange juice bottle broken on the floor. I don’t know how it fell … but Tristan was with me for a moment then, and he offered to bring me a new bottle. We have a small supply in the fridge in the kitchen so I don’t have to keep calling room service.”

I saw how Oskar stiffened. Did he smell a clue? I would have liked to explain to him who was responsible for the broken bottle, because Pearl and I had seen the culprit in the act—the strange little boy.

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.