01 - Murder at Ashgrove House (28 page)

‘Well that’s the last of them, Lane,’ said Deacon as the sergeant closed
the library door behind Edith’s retreating form. ‘It must be one of them, but
which one, that’s the question.’

‘My money’s on the butler, sir,’ grinned Lane, ‘you know what they always
say about the butler having done it and in this case I could quite see it
happening. Lady Withers relies on him enormously, you know, for the smooth running
of Ashgrove. I imagine Stafford’s just the sort of chap to do away with a
troublesome guest if he thought it was in the best interests of the household.’

‘Agreed,’ said Deacon getting up and walking to one of the bookshelves to
study a book, which he took out and examined before putting it back, ‘but I
think if that fine fellow were to commit a murder, he’d do it in a quiet and
discreet manner so that no-one would even realise that a murder had been
committed. I certainly don’t think he would consider it fitting to shoot one
guest in front of another one.’ 

‘Well, who do you think did do it, sir?’

‘I’d like us to go through each suspect to see if we can determine motive
and opportunity. I have to say that at first glance it looks to me that while
no-one appears to have much of an alibi, everyone apart from Miss Simpson seems
to have had ample opportunity both to carry out the murder and to return the
gun to the study unobserved.’ The inspector wandered over to the French
windows. ‘Have you noticed, Sergeant, that there is a terrace running along the
entire perimeter of the house outside and that all the key rooms in question
downstairs, by which I mean the downstairs rooms which our suspects claim to
have been in, the drawing room, study and this room, the library, all have
French windows leading directly out onto the terrace.’

‘I see what you’re getting at. No-one had to use the hall to get outside
or come in, where they might have been observed by the servants or other guests
coming down the stairs or crossing to use the lavatory or the like.’

‘Exactly, Lane. Now, with that in mind, let’s go through the suspects one
by one shall we. Before we start, I assume no little, eagle-eyed housemaid just
happened to be looking out of the window at a crucial time and happened to see
one of the household or guests on the terrace, did they? Or perhaps one of the
lady’s maids returned to a bedroom quicker than expected by the occupant and
found it empty?’

‘I’m afraid not, sir. They were all much too busy trying to keep on top
of everything. The servants were severely understaffed, you see, on account of
a lot of the guests having been unexpected and them not having had time to get
in extra help. Plus, I understand Lady Belvedere was very demanding, which put
even more pressure on them. She insisted that everything be just so and if it
wasn’t then everyone tended to get it in the neck, so to speak, including Lady
Withers. Apparently she was always on edge when her sister came to visit,
dropped things and knocked things off tables even more often than she was apt
to do.’

‘I expect her fear of displeasing her sister stemmed from childhood.
Right, let’s start with Miss Simpson, shall we? I think we can discount her
fairly easily, don’t you, for the reasons we talked about before. She had no
opportunity to return the weapon to the study before the housemaid decided to
dust the gun cabinet and found the lock forced. So, unless she had an
accomplice, she can’t be our murderer.’

‘Could she and young Lord Sedgwick be in it together, do you think?’
enquired the sergeant, rather doubtfully.

‘I don’t think so, Lane. They only met for the first time the day before
yesterday and, although it appears from all accounts to have been love at first
sight, it’s quite a step from that to getting into cahoots together to commit a
murder, especially when the victim is the mother of one of them.’

‘I agree, sir,’ said the sergeant, looking relieved. ‘I wouldn’t like to
think that little Miss Simpson was involved in this
business.’         

‘Right, who’s next? Shall we go on to Sir William? He doesn’t appear to
have thought much of his sister-in-law, although I can’t see that he disliked
her enough to go so far as to kill her. We need to remember, Sergeant, that if
we are to believe what Miss Simpson says, there’s a possibility Lady Belvedere
wasn’t the intended victim, the girl was.’

‘I can’t see what motive Sir William can possibly have had to kill Miss
Simpson, can you, sir?’

‘No, although I suppose it’s possible that she may have seen or overheard
something that he doesn’t want his wife to find out. He had opportunity, of
course. By his own account he was the only one in the drawing room at the time,
he could easily have gone out of the French windows across the gardens into the
wood and he’d know the places to hide. Also, we mustn’t forget that he had
breakfast with Miss Simpson. Like as not he heard Crimms telling her Lady
Belvedere was ready for their walk.’

‘Then there’s Lady Withers, sir. I really don’t think she’s all there no
matter what you say about her being shrewd and putting on an act. She strikes
me as just the sort of woman who might take it in her head to kill her sister,
and we know she didn’t like her much.’

‘I think I’d need a better motive for her, Sergeant. And as to a motive for
wanting Miss Simpson dead, I can’t imagine unless she was desperate to prevent
her from marrying her nephew, but like as not, she would probably have assumed
that her sister would be successful in persuading Miss Simpson to pack up and
leave. Still, she had opportunity. She could have slipped out onto the landing
and down the stairs unobserved, if she was careful, popped out onto the terrace
by the study, having picked up the gun on route, and gone off into the woods.
She knew about the walk because, as she told us herself, she overheard Lady
Belvedere talking about it the evening before and, like her husband, she knew
the places to hide. And then she could have slipped back into the house via the
study and stopped off to put the gun back into the cabinet, and no-one would
have been any the wiser.’

‘We’ve been assuming that the lock to the gun cabinet was broken either
late last night when everyone had gone to bed or else in the early hours of
this morning. I assume though, sir, that there’s no reason why the lock
couldn’t have been broken just before the murder took place?’

‘I don’t think it was, Lane, it would have been a noisy business breaking
that lock. I doubt that the murderer would have chanced it, there’d have been
too much risk of being overheard by the servants who’d have been clearing the
breakfast things away. Besides, for all the murderer knew, it might have taken
quite a while to break the lock and he wouldn’t have wanted to be any longer
than necessary in the study, for fear of getting caught.’

‘What about the earl, sir? I said as before that the spouse of the victim
is the most likely culprit and he wasn’t that fond of her, was he? He said as
much himself, he did.’

‘You’re right, Lane,’ agreed Deacon, ‘but my problem is that I can’t see
a strong enough motive. Yes, we know they didn’t get on insomuch as they hadn’t
much in common, but by all accounts they were both perfectly happy living
separate lives. And it’s not as if we’ve got any evidence of there being
another woman in the offing. Still, Lord Belvedere did have opportunity. We
know he breakfasted earlier than everyone else, and that he’d already gone to
work in the library before Miss Simpson had come down to breakfast. While she
and Sir William were breakfasting, he could have slipped out of the library
French windows and gone along to the study and climbed in those ones and picked
up the gun before climbing back out again and setting off across the gardens.
If you think about it, he could have made sure that the windows to the study were
open earlier at the same time that he broke the lock.’

‘That would have meant that he’d have been waiting in the woods for them
to appear, sir,’ reasoned Lane, ‘rather than creeping up on them once they were
already there.’

‘It would,’ agreed the inspector, ‘and there’s no reason I can see why it
couldn’t have happened like that. Now, if we look at what possible motive he
could have had for wanting to do away with Miss Simpson, I think we need only
to argue that he wasn’t as indifferent to the possibility of his son marrying
her as he purports to be. Whatever he says, I imagine that he’d prefer that his
son marry another member of the aristocracy or at least someone with money or
similar social standing.’

‘In which case, our little Miss Simpson certainly wouldn’t fit the bill,’
said Lane, sadly.

‘I’m afraid not. Now, let’s move on to Lord Sedgwick, shall we? Well, it
seems to me that his motive for wanting his mother dead is obvious, as we’ve
said before, especially if we’re to believe Lord Sneddon that he told him Lady
Belvedere indicated that she would not be adverse to his ruining Miss Simpson.
That, coupled with only finding out about the walk this morning, would probably
be sufficient for a lovesick young man like Lord Sedgwick to act impulsively
and recklessly. And, what is more, if we are to take Lord Sneddon’s word, he
did indeed drop tools, so to speak, and dash out in pursuit of his mother and
Miss Simpson with a view to putting a stop to his mother’s scheming.’

‘He wouldn’t have had a motive for wanting Miss Simpson dead though,’
said the sergeant. 

‘No. I can’t say that I can think of one offhand,’ agreed Deacon. ‘Now,
let’s get on to someone far more interesting, Lord Sneddon. I don’t think
either of us would lose too much sleep if we were to discover that he was the
murderer. He thinks he has implicated Lord Sedgwick by saying that he dashed
off in pursuit of his mother, but one could just as easily argue that it leaves
him without an alibi for the time of the murder. What’s to say that Lord Sedgwick
didn’t just go to his room to try and work out a strategy for thwarting his
mother’s attempts to get rid of Miss Simpson? In which case, the way would be
left open for Lord Sneddon to follow Lady Belvedere and Miss Simpson into the
woods and we both know that he had motives aplenty for wanting to cause both of
them harm.’

‘We definitely do. I say, sir, something’s just occurred to me. What do
you say to our Lord Sneddon intending to kill both women, but that he lost his
nerve after having shot only one of them? Miss Simpson was probably screaming
her heart out and his first instinct must have been to get as far away from the
woods as possible before someone came to her assistance, as they did.’

‘That certainly is a possibility worth considering, Lane. We know that
Lord Sneddon was for all intents and purposes being blackmailed by the
countess. Even though he argues that they were both after the same thing, his
marriage to Lady Lavinia, Sneddon does not strike me as a man that would put up
with being blackmailed. He probably reckoned that things could only get worse
once he had married Lavinia. We both know his type. He’s the sort of young man
who will gamble away any money he has and no doubt would be looking to Lady
Belvedere to give him additional hand outs from time to time to ensure that her
daughter did not end up destitute, and we know she was the sort of woman who
would apply conditions to such hand outs.

‘He probably thought it made sense to get her out of the picture sooner rather
than later. For all we know, he may never have had any intention of stopping
his pursuit of young servant girls either before or after he was married, and
was afraid that Lady Belvedere would decide that he was not a suitable suitor
for her daughter after all and would take steps to prevent the marriage.’

‘What about his motive for doing away with Miss Simpson? Do you really
think, sir, that he’s the sort of man who would try to kill her just because
she had spurned his advances?’

‘Yes, I do, Lane, I think he’s exactly the sort of man to do that.’ A
grim expression crossed the inspector’s face. ‘Remember he was the duke’s
youngest son. Under normal circumstances he would never have inherited the
dukedom because he had two older brothers in line before him. But this blessed
war we’ve had has changed so many lives and expectations. He has unexpectedly
benefited from the fortunes of war but is probably ill prepared to take on what
he will inherit. Can you see him taking an interest in his estates, let alone
managing them? No, I think he will be interested only in the income that they
generate, not on the people who work on them and are dependent on him for their
livelihoods.

‘But it means that he is now finding that rich aristocratic young women
who would previously have had their eyes firmly on his eldest brother have now
diverted their attentions to him because of his improved prospects. And,
whatever you and I may think of him, he is young and good looking and I have no
doubt that he can turn on the charm when it suits him. But it won’t be lost on
him that he is where he is by default, and he is bound to feel a little
insecure. So when a person like Miss Simpson, who he will regard very much his
social inferior, makes it clear that she prefers his young friend to him, I can
quite see him getting into a rage and deciding to teach her a lesson.’

‘Even so, sir –.’

‘Yes, I know, it does sound a little far-fetched even to me, Lane,’
agreed Deacon, ‘but it is a motive of sorts. Now, who have we got left? Ah, yes,
the beautiful Lady Lavinia and neurotic Mrs Torrington. Let’s start with the
daughter of the deceased, shall we?’

‘No love lost between her and her mother,’ said Lane, ‘still, I suppose
she may have had second thoughts about Sneddon, I mean let’s face it, who
wouldn’t? Her mother might have been having none of it. Perhaps she was trying
to force her into the marriage. As to why she would want to kill Miss Simpson,
well, perhaps she was just jealous. With her looks, money and social position,
I’m sure she’s used to all eyes being on her. She may have resented Sneddon’s
interest in her friend, or been afraid that Miss Simpson would become her
sister-in-law, she might certainly have baulked at that, sir, being from the
wrong class and everything. Of course, she didn’t know that her brother would
be here, but even so, I’m sure it upset her seeing Miss Simpson and Lord
Sedgwick getting on so well. I bet she expected Miss Simpson’s undivided
attention during the stay.’