It was so silent they all could hear the faint wheeze of the Earl’s breath. Then Fina sensed a shift of energy in the room. There was an air of prurient – no, salacious – interest that hung in the ether.
Ruby said, “That seems plausible, and from what we know of Leslie’s behaviour, it certainly seems in keeping with his character. I must say I had no idea it went that far, however. Let us leave this aside for a moment and continue on with the recounting of events. We know that anyone in the house could have committed the second murder. During the course of the day, anyone could have entered Leslie’s bathroom and inserted the poison in the tooth powder or the toothbrush. Remember, we did not know at this point that the method of delivering the poison was through the tooth powder, so Leslie would have had no reason to be wary of brushing his teeth.”
Then Ruby pulled the locket and broken chain out of her blue clutch on the mantel. “We have one other item relevant to the murders,” she said, holding it aloft so everyone could see.
Charles chimed in. “Miss Badarur and I found that locket with the broken chain on Leslie’s body after the murder was committed.”
“The locket is empty, but it is engraved, as you can see,” Ruby said, pointing to the centre of the locket, “with a large letter C.” She then passed the necklace to Charles who proceeded to hand it around the group.
“Shouldn’t we have left it alone for fingerprinting by the police?” asked the Earl.
“Yes, we thought of that, but when Charles removed the locket from the pocket of Leslie’s dinner jacket, he had already placed his hand around it, thus removing the possibility of useful fingerprints… Beyond that,” said Ruby in a low voice, “I hope we won’t need to rely on the police for a confession.” She hurried on before anyone could object to her statement. “As this appears to be a woman’s necklace, we assumed that the C must refer to the initials of a woman. Though having a name that begins with the letter C is hardly damning evidence, it is suggestive.”
“So, out with it, Ruby,” said Cyril impatiently.
Ignoring him, she continued. “Besides the obvious Lady Charlotte, the Countess’ middle name is Christine and Julia’s is Cicely.”
“So what?” said Julia. “It doesn’t prove a bloody thing, sweetie.”
Ruby nodded. “As I said, it is merely suggestive. It is peculiar that Leslie would have this in his dinner jacket pocket. It may be completely unrelated, nevertheless it is an important clue to consider.” She cleared her throat and continued. “So far, we have two murders and one physical assault on my dear friend, Fina. Next, we come to the re-enactment. Edgar suffered a concussion to the head—”
“I did not suffer a concussion, Miss Dove. Someone hit me on the head with murderous intent,” said Edgar in a burst of anger.
“Quite right. This assault was rather convenient – and I use that word in a purposeful manner – in that it allowed us to narrow down the list of suspects. When I thought back to the wide-open field of opportunity for committing these crimes, I thought this attack on you to be most intriguing. The other crimes were committed so that suspicion was cast on everyone. I thought this was quite ingenious from the murderer’s perspective. We often read about so-and-so having been framed for a crime. That seems to be often the case – the murderer tries to frame a particular individual for a crime.”
“But that is a risky strategy,” said Fina.
“Exactly, Fina,” said Ruby. “It is much easier to hide in a crowd than point the finger at someone, because so often it is easier to trace who is instigating the finger pointing. No, it is ingenious precisely because everyone is suspected, and therefore no one can be responsible! That is why this attack on Edgar struck me as odd. It seemed a deliberate attempt to narrow the field of suspects to just a few people: Cyril, Charlotte and Julia.”
Ian interjected, “Are you saying that the attack on Edgar was unrelated? Or not committed by the murderer? Does that mean we have two mad people plus this apparent mystery green man?”
“Ah yes, the madman. I will come to that in a moment. As for the attack on Edgar, I do believe it is connected to the murder, but was not committed by the murderer themselves.”
“Do you mean an accomplice?” spluttered the Earl.
“Perhaps. But I’m thinking more along the line of someone who wants to protect the murderer,” replied Ruby.
The Earl stared at her, dumbfounded. “I confess I am becoming more confused than enlightened, Miss Dove.”
Ruby smiled. “I know. I want to lay out all the possibilities so we can arrive at a crystal clear conclusion. Now, let’s assume for the moment that the attack on Edgar was committed to narrow the list of suspects. We have yet another diversionary attempt with the citing of this supposed madman on the loose in Pauncefort Hall.”
Lady Charlotte and the Countess began to speak at once. Charlotte let her aunt proceed. “But Charlotte saw the madman, and I have evidence that he tried to get into my room!” the Countess shrieked.
“I understand, Lady Snittlegarth, but that was a ruse as well,” Ruby said in a calm and steady voice. “Both the attack on Edgar and the sighting of the rather convenient madman were diversions from the murders. However, let’s return to these events later – otherwise we’ll be distracted from the truth of this affair itself. Let’s review the reasons why the murders might have been committed. Fina, would you be so good as to help me with this portion? I should say at the outset that we’ll come to our own reasons at the end. Don’t worry, I shall leave out nothing.” She motioned to Fina.
Fina cleared her throat and pulled out her notebook. Reading aloud in a rather wooden tone to begin, she soon found her rhythm. “Cyril Lighton. Professor at Oxford. Friend and mentor to Edgar. Leftist political beliefs. In line to be the recipient of prestigious new professorship endowed by Granville. Granville, an active Fascist, threatened to withdraw funds for the professorship once he found out someone holding leftist political beliefs would be the recipient of the professorship. Political beliefs alone could have been the motive, but I think we all agree that is a little weak. But certainly people have killed for less than a prestigious named professorship at Oxford. Cyril is one of the few people who could conceivably have committed all of the crimes – including the somewhat dubious assault against Edgar—”
Cyril’s face screwed up in a little red clutch of skin. “We’ve been through all this before. Nothing new here.”
“Yes, that’s true, Professor Lighton, but that doesn’t change the facts,” said Ruby. She turned her head away from Cyril to indicate the transition to the next suspect.
Fina continued. “Ian Clavering. Successful producer. Invited by Granville to discuss prospects of funding productions. Ian knew Granville was set to come into a great deal of money, so he was priming him for this venture. Ian also has a relationship with Julia, so he may have sought revenge on her behalf.”
Ian said coolly, “Though chivalry isn’t dead, I would never commit that type of murder. My motive would have to be much stronger.”
“Yes, indeed, Ian,” said Ruby, almost faltering.
Fina continued. “Next we have Gayatri Badarur. Student of medicine at Oxford. Her younger sister, Sajida, is visiting from India. Both sisters had the chance to commit the crime, assuming the assault on Edgar was a separate incident. Sajida wished to take revenge on Leslie Dashwood – we do not know if Gayatri knew or did not know about Leslie’s crimes – we only have her verbal assurances of this. If they were in it together, perhaps even with Julia, then this could become a three-person crime.
“In any case, there’s also the matter of Lavington’s plantation holdings in Assam. We discovered this connection after finding a report in Edgar’s room that related to Dulcet & Sons. They have plantations in Assam, an area presided over by the Badarurs, which Lavington’s have their eye on. It would be an evil day for Nowgong if the purchase of those plantations went through, and I believe Edgar – and the Badarur sisters – were well aware of that.”
“Good God – have you been searching our rooms?” the Earl interjected.
“All will be explained in due course, Lord Snittlegarth. Please let’s continue on this thread at the moment.”
Looking somewhat mollified, the Earl sat back and waved his hand to continue.
“Thank you, Fina and Ruby. I will explain it myself, if you don’t mind,” said Gayatri, sitting fully erect with her hands placed delicately in her lap. Fina nodded her assent.
Gayatri proceeded to recount the same story she had shared with Ruby and Fina earlier in the library.
In wrapping up her explanation, she said, “However, as I explained to Fina and Ruby when they questioned us earlier about this, we did not come here this weekend seeking revenge – at least not for this reason,” Gayatri said, looking pointedly at her sister. “Moreover, neither my sister nor I have the physical urge to violence. If we did actually feel that inclination, I assure you we have enough connections that we could hire someone to carry out an assassination, if necessary.”
Fina happened to glance over at Charles, whose face indicated he found this assertion plausible. Scanning the rest of the room, Fina could see that most of the company appeared to be placated by this explanation.
Fina could tell from Ruby’s body language that it was time for her to continue. “Moving forward, we come to Julia Aston. Actress and socialite. Friend of Ian Clavering. Also Ruby’s client this weekend. Had the opportunity to commit both murders, as well as the assaults on Fina and Edgar. We explored Julia’s feelings regarding Leslie Dashwood earlier.”
Julia sniffed, in a highly theatrical manner. “Leslie was a rotter, I’ll give you that. But that doesn’t make me a murderer, darling.”
“What about the poison Charles found in the back of your wardrobe, Julia?” asked Fina, hoping to catch her off guard.
Julia glared at Charles. He shrugged his shoulders in return.
“I, I, didn’t do it,” stammered the normally silver-tongued Julia.
“Well?” said Cyril.
Ruby held up her hand as if in explanation. “I believe Julia hid the poison to protect someone. It was Ian, wasn’t it?”
Julia nodded miserably. Ian’s eyes goggled. He looked at her as if he had seen her for the first time.
With her head buried in her hands, she said, “I thought Ian had done it, so I hid the poison in the back of my wardrobe. You see, I heard about the locket – and knew that Ian kept his mother’s locket with him – her name was Cynthia.”
“That’s true, but I still have my mother’s locket… but how did you come into possession of the poison?” asked Ian.
“I found it on your nightstand when I went in to search for the locket. I panicked and hid it in my wardrobe,” she replied.
Ian gulped. “I swear, I swear…”
“I know you didn’t do it, Ian,” said Ruby, gently.
“But you just heard that Julia found the poison in his room!” screeched Cyril.
“Yes, but someone else put it there to incriminate him,” she replied.
Scanning the room, Fina saw that no one moved. Not even a facial muscle.
Ruby continued. “Before we move on to members of the family, let us discuss the members of the staff. Though any member of the staff had the chance to commit these crimes, everyone has been in service at Pauncefort for many years. The question we have to ask ourselves, then, is, why now? There seems to be no easy answer to this. There has not been any major family revelation – at least not publicly to the staff – and the family is here quite often so opportunities would abound. Moreover, the dreadful weather has made this the worst possible weekend to commit a murder: there’s only a small pool of suspects. Much better to wait when the crimes could be blamed on an outside interloper.”
Ruby paused. “The one exception to this is Charles Frett.”
Fina noticed Grimston’s lips purse, almost imperceptibly.
“When Charles drove us to Pauncefort from the station, Fina and I both noticed that he had a particular reaction to the fact we were both at Oxford. Charles’ manner and speech patterns seemed to indicate that he might have been at a place such as Oxford at one time – or at least prepared to go to Oxford. This, coupled with the fact that he has been employed at Pauncefort for just ten months, made us suspicious. When we pressed him about his life story, we found out that he had indeed been on the verge of going to Oxford. His chance had been taken away from him, however, by a prison sentence given by none other than Justice Henry Sykes-Duckworth, father of Charlotte, Edgar and Granville,” said Ruby.
By this time, Charles’ face was quite red. He said nothing.
“Charles did divulge that he took the job with the intention of seeking revenge on Henry Sykes-Duckworth. However, he found that he liked the work here and that his will to actually do anything – at least in a physical sense – had been sapped,” said Ruby.
“It’s true,” said Charles. “I actually found that although I was still bitter about losing my place at Oxford, the work here suited me quite well. Besides this, killing Granville would have only lost me a job since he had threatened to sell Pauncefort once he had his inheritance.”
The Earl and his wife traded uneasy glances. Charlotte, too, seemed to become even more guarded in her manner. Only the guests – Cyril, Julia, Ian and the Badarurs – showed any sign of surprise.
“And it is that last point – about inheritances – that brings us to discussing the motives of the family,” said Ruby.