Verity Sparks, Lost and Found by Susan Green

Author:Susan Green [Green, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781925081541
Publisher: Walker Books Australia
Published: 2014-03-21T16:00:00+00:00

16

THE WORST CRIME THERE IS

“Murder?” I said.

That horrible word. Cold, cruel, pitiless. The worst crime there is. I turned the photograph right side up. Lavinia Ecclethorpe looked young and innocent. Just seventeen, and with her life before her. Miss Deane and I exchanged glances. I could tell we were both thinking the same thing. Was this really the face of a murderess?

“Oh, I pray that I’m wrong!” said Mr Ross in an agonised tone. He stood up abruptly and walked to the window. I could tell that he was struggling to get his feelings under control. After a moment he turned back to us. “Let me tell you the whole story,” he said. “My younger brother Alan is … was … a medical student. Last year, Alan and I spent the summer at our holiday cottage on Mount Macedon. Life on Mount Macedon in the summertime is very informal, very friendly.” He paused, as if remembering. “It was at a garden party that Alan and I met Lavinia O’Day. She is a young widow with a five-year-old son. We met at picnics, tennis matches, rambles in the bush … In June, Alan and Lavinia became engaged. And six weeks ago, on the first day of October, he drowned.”

“A tragedy,” said Miss Deane. “But surely it could have been an accident?”

“Alan could swim like a fish.”

“Accidents do happen,” I said.

“Yes, that’s true. But Mrs O’Day’s first husband died while cleaning his gun. Her second fell downstairs and broke his neck. And now, Alan is dead as well. Oh, the coroner ruled it an accidental drowning, but …” He stopped, once again fighting his emotions. Poor man, I felt so sorry for him.

“Lavinia said she’d agreed to meet Alan by the boathouse in the early evening for a stroll. She said she fell asleep, and when she got there it was dark. She called for Alan, but couldn’t find him. She then went to the cottage. He wasn’t there, so the servants started searching for him. A little later, Mr Bobbs – that’s the caretaker – saw something in the lake.

“I came up from town as soon as I got the telegram. She was beside herself, talking wildly. I tried to comfort her, but she told me to go away. She won’t see me, she won’t talk to me.”

“So you think she was lying to the police?”

“Yes, I think she met him earlier, drugged him and pushed him in. Lavinia takes some kind of medicine for her heart. She could easily have given some to him.”

“But why? What could be her motive?” That was one thing SP and Daniel had taught me – there’s always got to be a reason for a crime.

“The last time I spoke with Alan, he seemed worried about something. He wouldn’t say what it was, only that it concerned her. He told me that her behaviour had become very strange – gentle, loving and sweet one minute, and then suddenly cold and distant. He said to me, ‘It is almost as if she is two people in one.

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