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It took us a while to locate Sophia, but she was hanging out at my bookshop, as it so happened, chatting with Eddie.
Alistair and I approached her.
“Sophia, can we talk a bit, it’s important.”
She eyed us warily and glanced at Eddie. Classic damsel-in-distress move.
“What’s this about?” he asked.
“Now, please. Follow us,” Alistair said.
“Okay, sure.” She followed me as I made it through the door marked ‘private.’ I stopped and turned around. “You’re Carl’s daughter.”
She glanced from me to Alistair, then nodded. “Yeah.”
“And the reason you kept this from the police during a murder investigation is...?” Alistair asked.
“It was personal,” she said. “I didn’t want anybody to look at me differently or talk about Carl differently. I know he wasn’t perfect.”
“How come you don’t have his name?” Alistair asked.
“Because he paid your mother to abort you, didn’t he?” I said.
She looked away and closed her eyes for a second. “Yes. But she didn’t. She raised me. She’s a great mum.”
“But you still wanted to find your father. He is your father, after all. Only you didn’t want him to know, did you? That’s why you coloured your hair.”
She touched it. “Yes, well, the copper hair does stand out a bit. I didn’t expect him to recognise my last name, I’m not sure he even knew my mum’s surname. But still, it was disappointing when he didn’t recognise me at all.”
“But he knew. He knew when you started bleeding, because Von Willebrand’s disease is hereditary. And he still didn’t want anything to do with you. That’s why he paid you off. And that’s why you killed him,” I said.
She gasped at this. “I swear I didn’t kill him. I mean, I was disappointed. I was looking forward to working with him, learning from him, but again, I knew what he was like. I had expected it.”
“You met him at the church, though. Didn’t you?” Alistair asked.
“No, I was with Eddie. He said he’d wanted me to meet him at the church around midnight, but I decided not to go after I had such fun with Eddie. But Carl and I had fought before that. When he said he wanted to meet me, he also let me know that he knew. It was obvious he wasn’t thrilled, and I figured he’d tell me to leave him alone, which I would have done. I have my pride.”
She looked at Alistair. “Am I under arrest?”
“I want you to come to the station with me and make a formal statement.”
She nodded.
“I’ll tell Eddie,” I said. Though not while he was in the shop.
Alistair gave me a nod. “I’ll contact you later.” They left through the back.
I sat down on the stairs and sighed. I was so sure that she’d killed him.
“What if she has?” Detective Black said. “Or, what if she’s the one being set up now?”
“Not helping,” I groaned.
Still, it didn’t make sense that Carl got hold of Sophia’s unfinished manuscript and then hid it in the Pembroke library, which meant that it had to be important.
I went up to my flat and grabbed my laptop, which was still on my bed. If I skimmed it, I could finish it quickly and maybe realise why it mattered.
I’d reached chapter seven when Eddie came into my bedroom.
“It’s my break. What happened with Sophia?” he asked.
“Right. Sorry I didn’t tell you, but the bookshop wasn’t the place. Although, knowing Castlefield, people will find out soon enough.”
“Find out what?” He sat down on the bed next to me.
“Sophia is Carl’s daughter. I was sure she’d killed him, but she says she didn’t. Alistair is interviewing her now.”
“She’s Carl’s daughter? Are you serious? I would have never guessed that.”
“Yes, she says she didn’t want people to treat her differently after he died. And Carl didn’t realise it until she had her bloody nose. They both have Von Willebrand’s disease, and it’s hereditary. It means that blood doesn’t clot properly, and you bruise easily.”
“Wow. So, she hadn’t told Carl either?”
“Nope. And that’s why I thought he had asked for the briefcase. To pay her off, get rid of her.”
“But she couldn’t have done it. She was with me, remember? We were both out like a light after that pizza.”
I bit my lip. “And she couldn’t have sneaked out?”
“You know I’m a light sleeper. Once, I woke up because someone burped outside. The window hadn’t even been open.”
I chuckled, then turned serious. “I feel like I’ve been running around in circles.”
“It’s not your problem. You’re not a detective, and you don’t have to solve this.”
That’s where he was wrong. I had to solve this. If I gave up, the killer would win. And that meant he could kill again. Instead of saying any of that, I just smiled.
After Eddie left, I continued reading. I wasn’t sure if it would lead to anything, but I simply had to try.
“What’s happening so far?” Detective Black asked.
“A woman becomes friends with a man that she clearly knows, but he doesn’t recognise her. She wants to keep it that way. She then convinces the man to pretend to be murdered so she can solve the murder in the company of a detective and reveal they’re smarter than he is. The detective is an old school friend of the man, and he’s eager to show him up.”
Detective Black didn’t say anything. He paced around instead.
When I reached the part of the fake murder, I made myself a sandwich. I checked my watch. Would Alistair be hungry? Did he make his own lunch or would he go out and buy some in the village? Had Sophia been let go already?
I devoured my sandwich, then made a new one for Alistair. I took the bus to the police station and asked for him.
“He won’t be a moment,” a constable with braces said.
I waited by the counter until he showed, but he looked right past me. I followed his gaze. Kelly was there.
She looked pale and was sweating.
“Kelly, are you okay?” I asked.
She only had eyes for Alistair and ignored me completely. “I want to confess to the murder of Carl Scranton,” she said.
––––––––
ALISTAIR ARRESTED HER on the spot, and I was left behind, baffled. I was too curious to go home and carry on as if nothing had happened. I had invested so much time and energy that I needed to know. I sat down in the waiting area as my mind went through what could have happened. My thoughts were all tangled, and I ended up eating Alistair’s sandwich. Accidentally.
“Why would she confess now?” asked Detective Black.
She’d seemed ready to share the reason for her argument with Sophia with the police. Perhaps she had been ready to come clean then, and we were simply sidetracked by Sophia’s connection to Carl. Although it was an important sidetrack.
Did this mean that the fight was related to the murder? I couldn’t help but wonder. Had Sophia been there? Had they done it together? Or did Sophia have nothing to do with the murder?
My mind went back to the manuscript. I promised myself I would wait an hour and then go back to read it all.
I waited a full two minutes before I left.
When I got to the flat, I continued reading and this time didn’t stop until I was finished. The big twist in the story was that the man who was to pretend to get murdered actually got murdered. It stopped at the reveal of the killer’s identity. It hadn’t been written. At least, not in this version. At the park Sophia had said she was pretty much done. But even without the ending, I couldn’t see why this had been important to Carl.
Just then someone came up the stairs. I left my bedroom to see who it was.
“Hey,” Alistair said.
“Hey,” I said.
A moment later we were in the kitchen where I’d made him a sandwich and a cool glass of lemonade.
“I’ve got to say that I’m glad this case is finally over,” Alistair said and took a bite of his cheese sandwich.
“So, it really is her then? Kelly is the killer?” I asked.
“Yes, she met Carl at the church to give him a piece of her mind. Then he tried to bribe her to leave her alone, and she lost it.”
“Why would he bribe her if he was using her to give him a place to stay?”
“She was kicking up a storm, apparently. They’d had a few fights because she’d been standing up to him. She was becoming a nuisance.”
“But then why did she leave the murder weapon at the antique shop? And why with Wendy’s hair? How had she even gotten it?”
“She freaked out afterwards and decided to blame it on someone else. She found the hair on his sleeve and put it there. Didn’t even know who it belonged to.”
“But why didn’t she leave the hair on his body? Or leave the murder weapon behind?”
Alistair shrugged. “I don’t know. She said she wasn’t thinking straight.”
Everything about this seemed to me as if the killer had been thinking straight. It was actually very calculated. But perhaps I was wrong.
“Hm.”
Alistair grinned. “It really is over. She has an answer for everything. The reason she came forward now was because Sophia was questioned. She didn’t want her to take the blame. She knew they were related. That’s what the fight had been about. She had wanted Sophia to tell Carl the truth, but Sophia was worried he might reject her. She wanted to spend time with him, learn from him. Perhaps also make a profit by working together, I don’t know.”
“And after he died?” I asked.
“Sophia said that it made it less real if she just pretended not to be related. She also didn’t want people to make a fuss.”
“Eddie said he hadn’t a clue, and he’s been spending a lot of time with her. Don’t you think it’s odd that she showed no signs of grief at all?” I asked.
“She probably did, but in private. One thing you can never predict is how someone will grieve. It’s very personal.”
“Yes, I suppose it is. Thanks for coming to tell me.”
“Hey, if I’d known you would feed me, I would have come sooner.”
“I brought you a sandwich at the station, but then I got so anxious waiting that I ate it.” I smiled apologetically.
He laughed. “Well, thanks for making it up to me.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I guess this means I’m not your Watson anymore.”
“No, I guess not.” I smiled sadly.
“Regular friends it is then. And hopefully no more murders.”
“Are you sure you want to wish that? You’d be out of a job.”
“True, but in an ideal world I wouldn’t have one. I’d simply resort to solving crimes in novels.”
“I’d be happy to make them extra challenging for you then.”
He smiled. “Thank you.”
––––––––
“SO THE CASE IS CLOSED,” Eleanor said the next morning.
Last night the book club women, and the rest of the village, had heard the news. They also congratulated me, even though I’d assured them I had very little to do with the wrap-up.
“How do you feel about it?” Eleanor asked.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t sit right with me.”
She laughed.
“What?”
“Are you sure you’re not saying that because you don’t want this case to be over?”
“Why would I not want this case to be over? I love mysteries, but not that much.”
She gave me a knowing smile. “But you do love spending time with Alistair.”
I bit my lip. “I mean, I do, but that wouldn’t be a reason to want to look into a murder investigation any longer than necessary.”
“If you say so,” she said with a giggle.
Was she right? Was that really the reason?
“Don’t doubt yourself,” Detective Black said. “You should trust your instincts more.”
“Did you know that Alistair is the opening act for the talent show this afternoon?” Eleanor said.
“He is? Is he doing magic tricks?”
“Yes,” she exclaimed. “How did you know that?”
“Well, it’s either that or knitting,” I said.
“He knits as well? My, he really is a man of many talents, isn’t he?”
“Yep.”
“And handsome.”
“Yep.”
“And why are you not together again?” she asked.
“It’s complicated.”
“Dear girl, in my experience, love is never complicated. People are.”