City of Silence (City of Mystery) by Wright Kim

Author:Wright, Kim [Wright, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Published: 2013-01-27T18:30:00+00:00

The Winter Palace – Guest Quarters

1:30 PM

Their search of the balcony in the west-facing corner of the ballroom had revealed little. Certainly nothing that would suggest that a woman had been killed there, even by the bloodless method of strangulation followed by a twist of the neck. They had been ready to write the entire venture off as the waste of a morning when Davy had spied a lone thread, tucked beneath a chair, its wiry texture indicating it most likely came from a rope. With it reverently folded within a piece of paper, Tom, Trevor, and Davy returned to their rooms where they sat down in straight chairs and stared at each other wordlessly.

“We’re missing quite a lot,” Trevor finally said.

“Indeed,” said Tom. “As in witnesses, suspects, a murder weapon, and a motive. Other than that we’re well on our way.”

“I would not say we’re entirely missing motive,” Davy said. “Mrs. Kirby was most certainly killed because she knew something about how or why the ballet dancers died.”

“Agreed,” said Trevor. “Something that for some reason she neglected to mention to us.”

“Oh, and we’re missing a table,” Tom said. “It feels rather strange to sit here in straight chairs without one, does it not?”

“None of the rooms in this part of the palace seem to have desks or working tables,” Davy said. “They have angels on the ceiling and flowers on the bedposts but they don’t have tables.”

“I hadn’t noticed, but you’re quite right,” said Tom, looking thoughtfully around him. “I suppose it’s because no one who has stayed in these rooms before us has ever felt the urge to do any sort of work.”

“You know when the Queen first described Mrs. Kirby to me she said the woman was a crack shot,” Trevor mused. “Certainly a unique trait in a female of her age and background, and it implies she was the owner of a pistol. Yet we found no such weapon among her things, nor did she have one with her when she died.”

“Two possibilities come to mind,” Tom said, idly slapping out a rhythm on his thighs as he talked. “The gun is still in her room and well hidden, which implies she did not perceive herself to be in danger, at least not of the type which would prompt her to carry a weapon wherever she went. Certainly not when meeting me. The other scenario is that she did have the pistol with her when she was attacked, but since she was likely jumped from behind, did not have the chance to use it. Her killer could have disarmed her after death, which leaves us with the unsettling possibility that a man who used a knife the first time, and his hands the second, now has a brand new and far more efficient toy with which to play.”

“I do wish Mrs. Kirby had been more forthcoming about what or who she was onto,” Trevor said, leaning forward onto his own thighs and frowning. “I have never

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