Murder at Melrose Court_A 1920s Country House Murder by Karen Menuhin

Author:Karen Menuhin [Menuhin, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-03T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

I deviated from my course in search of coffee in the kitchens and my dog, who greeted me enthusiastically but was still reluctant to leave the warmth of the stove. Armed with a large cup of steaming brew and a couple of biscuits in my pocket, I headed back to HQ. In my notebook against the question mark about the time of death, I wrote the words five forty-five p.m.

So the killer had struck as the gong was being sounded and then calmly came downstairs to join us – or had they? No, they hadn’t, because someone had let Mr Fogg out of my rooms and stolen my pistol. Wait. They must have taken the pistol earlier in the day because the Countess was shot on the sound of the gong and I was still in my rooms then and had been for a good hour or more.

I had seen the gun that morning when I opened the drawer searching for my book mark – it could have been taken any time after that. My mind suddenly started racing around in a frenzy of questions, so I made myself sit down and write proper notes just as Inspector Swift did when he was detecting. Next to the question ‘What time was the pistol stolen?’, I placed a large question mark.

The hour of Fogg’s liberation was easier to determine – after five forty-five and before six o’clock. Assuming the killer wasn’t in cahoots with anyone, they would have shot the Countess as the gong sounded, rushed up here to my rooms, let the dog loose, and then dashed back to wherever they came from. Then they would have descended the main staircase to join everyone in the hall before six o’clock, armed now only with their gifts. And all this would have had to be done without being seen by a soul.

The servants' staircase was the only answer. The murderer would have used it safe in the knowledge that all the servants were elsewhere. Plus the back stairs were fitted with doors, making them easy to hide behind and close off. This would be how they forced Fogg to take the main passageways, through which he’d soon come searching for me.

I must say I was beginning to form a degree of respect for the blighter because the whole plan seemed very intelligent (on which point alone I questioned the likelihood of Peregrine Kingsley being the murderer). However, he remained top of my list, with Uncle at the bottom and Edgar just above him, and then Cooper because he’d been ringing the gong. I now placed Gertrude above Cooper, because having had quite a long talk with her, I didn’t think she seemed the type.

Coffee and biscuits finished, I set off for a jaunt up and down the back stairs, where I encountered Cooper coming up.

‘Greetings, Cooper,’ I said gaily, ‘can’t stop, I’m timing myself.’

‘Yes, sir. Good day, sir,’ he replied, stepping smartly out of my way.

‘I am following in the footsteps of a masterly murderer.

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