Unnatural Ends by Christopher Huang

Author:Christopher Huang [Huang, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inkshares
Published: 2023-06-01T19:29:16+00:00

“It was Oglander!” Roger Linwood shouted as soon as Mowbray and Alan Linwood encountered him in the great hall. He was pacing agitatedly across the flagstones, clenching and unclenching his fists as though he wanted to strike someone down, while Miss Morgan stood helplessly off to one side. “Alan, listen to this: I spoke to Oglander Sr., and he told me that the real James Oglander Jr. died in the War. The man who came to the funeral and read us Father’s will was an imposter—and I’m quite sure that’s not the end of it. Oglander Sr.’s description of Major Buchanan sounds a lot more like him than what I got from Captain Amberley.”

“That makes no sense,” his brother said, echoing Mowbray’s own incredulity. “Why would anyone impersonate a lawyer just to read us Father’s will? I mean, we’d have heard about it eventually, whatever happened.”

“How would I know?” Roger Linwood’s gaze settled on Mowbray, and he snapped, “Mowbray! What have you found out about Major Buchanan?”

Precious little. The man’s trail disappeared after having spent a night in Malton and purchased a train ticket to Linwood Hollow. Mowbray growled, “I should remind you, Mr. Linwood, that I don’t exist to jump at your beck and call.”

“Of course, of course.” Roger Linwood turned away and resumed his pacing. No apology, Mowbray noticed; Sir Lawrence had been the same way. It fell to Miss Morgan to do the apologising for him—or, at least, to shoot him an apologetic look. Whatever her aversion to the police, Roger’s temper had quite overcome it.

Alan Linwood, meanwhile, looked as though he could use a second round of scotch right now. “Hang on. Did you say that Mr. Oglander Sr. met someone claiming to be Major Buchanan?”

Roger Linwood halted before his brother had quite finished speaking. “Father’s will!” he exclaimed, and turned to run out of the house.

Mowbray had no choice but to follow.

They found Roger Linwood in Sir Lawrence’s study, pulling the drawers out of the desk and upending their contents onto the floor.

“Roger!” Miss Morgan exclaimed.

“Make yourselves useful,” Roger Linwood snapped. “Look through these papers. Is Father’s will among them? Father should have a copy of his own will, don’t you think? If it isn’t here, then the will our Oglander imposter was reading must have been it—he was rubbing our noses in it, showing us how clever he was. And maybe it was a stupid thing to do, but I don’t care. I don’t care if he actually had a strong and compelling reason to do what he did. The fact that he had that document at all is proof that he’d been in here before. He killed Father and that’s the only way he could have got his hands on the will.”

“You go too fast,” Alan Linwood murmured, but obligingly knelt down to search the papers with his brother.

Mowbray did not join them. Roger Linwood, in his frenzy, seemed to have forgotten that he’d already searched those drawers for Sir Lawrence’s will, back when this whole travesty first started.

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