Chapter Twelve #2
‘He was killed in here this time, right?’ said JB.
Lady Hardcastle knelt to examine the body. ‘Hard to say. There’s no blood on the floor, but once again the weapon pierced the heart. No pulse, no bleeding.’
‘Sure, that’s what you said. I remember. So either he came in here and met the killer, or he was in here and the killer came in and found him. But why was he in here?’
Lady Hardcastle paused before shaking her head. ‘We might never know.’
I was glad she didn’t mention her facetious Dotty speculation, but it was clearly on both our minds.
‘When did he die?’ asked JB. ‘Can you tell?’
Lady Hardcastle continued her examination. ‘The large muscles are loose.’ She gently flexed his arm. ‘So rigor mortis hasn’t fully set in yet. But look here at his mouth and jaw. You see the stiffness starting to set in? Rigor begins in those small muscles so I’d say he died about two hours ago.’
‘Give or take . . . ?’
‘Actually, this time I’m a little more certain.
Again, it’s not an exact science and all bodies differ to some extent, but one would expect to see this sort of reaction only after about two hours in normal conditions.
It’s too short a time for there to be too much variation.
’ She looked at her watch. ‘So I’d say he was murdered at about four this afternoon. ’
‘So where was everyone at four?’ he asked.
‘That, my dear JB, is what we must fathom out.’
‘OK. I’m going to go back and get everyone to return to their rooms. I’ll have Crawford make up another bed for the Bridgewaters and move their baggage – they can’t stay here. We’ll serve a light supper in the rooms.’
‘Why?’ I asked.
‘I want to know where everyone is. One of those guys is a killer and I don’t want them wandering about at night. Crawford and I will keep an eye on things and make sure they all stay put. You two are free to go wherever you want, of course – I want you to solve this.’
‘As you wish, dear,’ said Lady Hardcastle. ‘Will you put him in the storeroom with Everett?’
‘It’s good and cold out there. It’ll keep him better till the boat arrives Tuesday.’
Lady Hardcastle and I retired to my room.
We could have sat in her room as usual but I decided that if we were going to eat a carpet picnic, or whatever ‘light supper’ Peggy prepared, I’d rather not risk food poisoning by eating amid the Hardcastle mess and chaos.
Obviously I could have tidied up for her, but I was on holiday so that wasn’t going to happen.
She was standing by the window, peering out into the darkness. ‘I’ve no idea how we’re going to get through tomorrow now the cat’s out of the bag.’
‘Are you looking to see if we could swim ashore and leave them to it?’
‘I can’t deny it; the thought has crossed my mind. Although, in my version, you swam ashore and came back in a boat to pick me up.’
‘Naturally – a lady shouldn’t have to exert herself unnecessarily. But since that’s not going to happen – I don’t have my bathing suit, for one thing – what’s going on and what are we going to do about it?’
‘What’s going on is that jewels are missing and two men have been murdered, one of whom was my favoured suspect for the first murder, if not the thefts.
The murder weapons were both readily accessible but we’ve almost no one else whom we think might have committed the first murder who also had the time to do it. ’
I thought for a moment. ‘Then let’s ignore the first murder and the theft and concentrate on the second. You say it happened at four o’clock.’
‘I say that, yes, but I’m still nowhere near as certain as I made out. There are so many variables in the calculation that it’s impossible to say with quite that much accuracy. But we have to start somewhere, so four it is.’
‘Right. So where were we at four?’
‘In the sitting room, I think. If I’m right, we left Sidwell-Plant in the drawing room at around three and made our way downstairs. Patience was coming out as we went in.’
‘Because she didn’t like the atmosphere,’ I said. ‘Inside, the Bridgewaters were with Clarice and we sat with Wilson and Lily. There was no sign of JB.’
She was making notes. ‘Not until around five. But I’m jumping ahead. Bridgewater finished his joke and then left for parts unknown.’
‘He did. Then Wilson and Lily went for a “walk” around the island and we heard them leave through the kitchen.’
She looked up from her notebook. ‘And we went into the library after that. We were there for ages, but I fancy we’d have heard Dotty and Clarice passing by – dear Dotty’s not the quietest of the guests.’
‘We were playing cards for ages, then everyone joined us – starting, as you said, with JB at about five. I’d say that by a quarter past, everyone was there, including the canoodlers.’
She totted up the names she’d been listing. ‘So four of them are accounted for, while JB, Patience and Bridgewater all had plenty of time to kill Sidwell-Plant.’
‘As did the Crawfords,’ I said.
‘Ah, yes. The smugglers.’
‘Or the thieves. What were they talking about when we overheard them this morning? Peg thought they’d left something behind, and it could have been the smuggling, but it could just as easily have been a bit of tea-leavery.
If JB hasn’t been paying them, they might have to resort to more drastic measures. ’
‘And it might give either of them a motive for doing away with Everett and Sidwell-Plant if they thought they were on to them.’
‘Exactly. And what about JB, Patience or Bridgewater?’
‘I should think those three all have a decent motive, too. Bridgewater was afraid Sidwell-Plant was about to expose his embezzlement. Patience wants to marry her doctor and live happily ever after, but Sidwell-Plant wouldn’t divorce her.’
‘And JB?’ I said. ‘What motive does he have? I mean, if he’s not paying the Crawfords, that might mean he’s short of funds, but that would only give him a motive for stealing the jewels.’
‘Ah, you have me there, tiny servant – apart from covering up the putative jewel theft there doesn’t seem to be any reason for JB to kill Sidwell-Plant. Unless he just doesn’t like accountants.’
‘There’d be no accountants left if people who didn’t like them started bumping them off. I suppose he could be protecting Patience.’
‘Actually, yes,’ she said. ‘And he could have been protecting Clarice, as well, by bumping off Everett. But he had no opportunity for either murder. Bridgewater, on the other hand . . .’ She riffled through her notebook.
‘Did he have an opportunity to kill Everett? Let me see . . . No, he was in the library when Everett was killed. At least we believed so when we talked about it before.’
There was a knock at the door and I answered it to find Crawford outside with a trolley.
‘Good evenin’, miss, is Lady Hardcastle in there with you?’
‘She is indeed. Is that our supper?’
‘It is. I knocked on her door but she weren’t there so I thought to myself, I thought, “I bet she’s in with Miss Armstrong.” And there you both is. Can I bring it in?’
I stood aside and gestured towards the desk by the window.
‘’T’i’n’t nothing special. A cold collation and some bread.
Fresh-made piccalilli. Apples. A pork pie.
’ He was pointing as he listed the items on the trays.
‘Peg made some Scotch eggs, an’ all. I does love Peg’s Scotch eggs so I says, “You put some of your Scotch eggs on there, my darlin’, and they’ll be happy as a dog with two tails.
” And there’s wine and a couple of bottles of cider.
And some fresh water. If you wants anything else, you just ring. ’
We both thanked him and he bustled out to make the rest of his deliveries.
‘I’m glad Peggy was asked to prepare a small supper,’ said Lady Hardcastle. ‘What are we going to do with this lot?’
‘I suggest setting the trays down on the rug, sitting on the floor and stuffing ourselves stupid.’
‘You’ve had worse ideas. Wine or cider?’
‘?Por qué no los dos?’
‘Why not both, indeed? I like the way you think, young Flossie. You pour and I’ll start shovelling things on to plates.’
We tried our best to forget about murder and theft and spent a pleasant evening putting the world to rights.
Lady Hardcastle left before ten and I retired straight away.