by Mona Marple
“She was sleeping! I let her sleep! There was nothing else for it when she had a migraine!” Christopher argued.
“Lottie was discovered in the bath, naked and drowned. A suicide note left, and in that note, a confession. It appears that Lottie was having an affair with her brother in law, Zeb.”
Zeb at least had the decency to look sheepish. His eyes focused on a spot on the tiled floor.
“There was little sleep had by anyone that night. Christopher was heartbroken, or furious, or maybe both… understandable of course. The doctor was called and confirmed what appeared to be evident already; Lottie had drowned to death. An awful tragedy. Or so the murderer wanted us to believe.”
“I still think it was suicide,” Rose said, with a shrug. Connie glared at her.
“Now, you’ll all remember the threat to Zeb’s life. With his bare fists, Christopher attacked Zeb. It was fair to say that Christopher was a man possessed by rage, furious with his brother for the betrayal. One has to wonder how furious he would have been with his wife, if he had found her alive.”
“That’s outrageous! I was devoted to Lottie! I would have forgiven her in an instant!” Christopher blustered. His face was red.
“Nobody doubts your devotion to Lottie, Christopher. The reverse seems to be in question; not only Lottie’s affair but choosing a man so close to her husband? With Lottie, it seems perhaps that she was not ready to be tamed, although she made a fair attempt to show Christopher what he wanted to see.”
“Nonsense,” Christopher said. “She was a model wife for years. She made a mistake, that’s all. My brother has a way of charming people!”
Zeb rolled his eyes. “It takes two, Chris.”
Christopher frowned at the shortening of his name. He was not a man for casual names or casual behaviour.
“At this point we have a suicide, the discovery of an affair, a devastated and angry husband. And this is when the second death occurs. Dr Dottie Monroe, stabbed in the study as she caught up with work. Or perhaps she was just trying to escape the rest of you for a while. It was clear she didn’t want to be here, no?”
“That’s fair,” Zeb admitted with a wry smile.
“Well, she didn’t have to show her face!” Eliza exclaimed.
“Who could have wanted Dottie dead? She was an outsider, certainly. She refused to change her maiden name and wanted no part of your familial arguments. Even faced with the news of her husband’s infidelity, she reacted with a cool clinical detachment. It would be easy to watch and imagine that Zeb’s life would continue unfazed, as Zeb’s life always appeared to.”
Connie took a breath. “Did that make you angry, Christopher?”
“Of course it does! The boy wonder gets everything, the way it’s always been for his whole darn life!” Christopher exploded.
“Yes, except he lost the woman he loved the night before. He wasn’t having a physical dalliance with Lottie, he was head over heels in love with her.”
“He had no right to be!” Christopher’s voice boomed like a drum.
“You’re right, of course. You remain furious now, and that is why you killed Dottie. If Zeb planned to steal your wife, you would take his.”
“No!” Christopher argued, but the power had gone from him.
“A suicide followed by a murder committed by Christopher. This is what we are meant to believe. Let us look closer.”
23
“Things are not as they first seem. Let us take Lottie’s death. She decides to kill herself and before doing so, admits her infidelity. Why would she do that? Why would she want her husband and children to discover both her body and her lies at the same time? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Suicidal people don’t make sense, isn’t that the whole point?” Bobby asked.
“Perhaps, perhaps. And the note alone could perhaps be explained as the ramblings of a woman overcome with guilt. Except everything we know about Lottie goes against her being such a woman. In fact, I observed her and Zeb go upstairs together upon arrival, while her own husband was busy with phone calls.”
“Well did she write the note simply to rub it in? To punish Christopher for something?” Bobby suggested.
“No, not at all. Lottie did not write that note. She did not write the note because she did not kill herself. She was indeed drowned, but by someone else.”
“How can you be sure?” Rose asked.
“We have a physical clue and a psychological clue. The bathroom floor was wet – sign of a struggle. Lottie fought as her killer drowned her. We did not hear because Luke was playing guitar downstairs.”
“Sorry,” Luke offered with a wince. Daisy reached over and patted his hand.
“You have nothing to be sorry for, darling,” she reassured.
“The wet floor is the physical evidence. The psychological evidence is always more interesting to me. To investigate a crime, you have to put yourself in another person’s head. And the murderer here did not do that. They overlooked a simple fact of psychology – people do not take off their clothes in order to drown themselves. They don’t want to be discovered naked.”
“You’re telling me, with certainty, that someone in this room killed my wife?” Christopher asked. He had folded in on himself, spent of energy, his face ashen.
“Your wife was killed, certainly. And there are no shortage of people who would want her dead. Her affair was a badly kept secret. You would have the perfect motive to kill her, Christopher.”
“I…” he began, but his voice faltered. He held up his hands in defeat and shook his head.
“Eliza, you never liked her. You always feared she was taking advantage of your son, wanted his money. An affair as well would bring shame on your family.”
“I liked her about as much as I like anyone,” Eliza muttered. “If I killed everyone I didn’t like, I’d be the world’s best serial killer.”
“Dottie herself could have discovered the affair and attacked Lottie in fury.”
“She was hardly the crime of passion sort,” Rose quipped.
“And Zeb, dear Zeb, could you have wanted to silence her?” Connie asked.
“Silence her? You’ve already said I loved her, and I did. I was the one pushing for us to go public,” Zeb said.
“I don’t doubt it. But Lottie was unpredictable and selfish. She had fun with you but would never have left Christopher. Were you sick of waiting for her? Tired of being a fun distraction when you were hopelessly in love with her?”
Zeb let out a breath but didn’t dignify the question with a response.
“Many, many suspects who could have the motive to have killed Lottie. The opportunity? Everyone returned upstairs at some point or another that night. And the means? Determination and bare strength were all that were needed to drown Lottie. She would have been taken by surprise, she would have put up a sloppy fight.”
“Please!” Christopher exclaimed. “That’s my wife you’re talking about. Can you at least give her some respect?”
Connie gave a slight nod. She watched his reactions, listened to his words, as she did everyone else. She was sure she had the case solved, but the family’s reactions as she revealed more would help confirm she was right.
“It’s Dottie’s death that complicates things, first by removing an obvious suspect, and then by making it necessary to re-examine the facts. Unless Eliza saw this weekend as a chance to rid herself of all of her daughters-in-law, she seems to have little reason to want Dottie dead. Little more reason than normal, anyway.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Eliza said.
“Ah, so you did know,” Connie said.
“Know what?” Zeb asked. “What did she know?”
“In fact, in a family which gossips and celebrates each other’s downfall as much as this family does, the person least likely to be aware of the fact that Dr Dottie had begun divorce proceedings was her husband. But why did she confide in you, Eliza?”
“Mother?” Zeb asked.
/> “I was the only one who knew. She was always a backwards girl. She came to me for permission to divorce him,” Eliza said.
“And you didn’t tell us?” Bobby asked.
“Should I be scared? If this is some maniac killing the daughters-in-law, I’ll be next!” Grace exclaimed.
“No, I don’t imagine you’re in any danger. But you’re right, losing one daughter-in-law is bad luck, losing two begins to look more like a plan,” Connie said.
“Well, they’re my daughters-in-law. Are you accusing me? I’ve wished them both dead plenty of times, that’s for sure,” Eliza said.
“Let’s look at who would want them both dead? Eliza, as you say, you hate them both. Your Will, spoken about freely, only allows sons who are married to inherit. You wouldn’t have wanted Lottie to benefit from your death, that is clear. You considered her to be a gold digger, even during the many years of happiness she gave your son. But your health fails you. You are perhaps the only person here who Lottie could have fought against.”
“I’d like to have seen her try!” Eliza snapped.
“Mother!” Christopher and Zeb shouted at once.
“Perhaps. It remains, however, unlikely that you could have summoned the physical strength to drown her,” Connie said.
“So I didn’t do it?” Eliza asked.
“Please, be patient. All will be revealed in good time,” Connie said. She was beginning to enjoy explaining her deductions to them all.
“Christopher, did you kill your wife when you discovered her affair, and then kill Dottie as revenge against your brother?” She asked.
“Nonsense! I didn’t know about the affair until I read the note!” Christopher said.
“It is a curious thing, the way you guys communicate. You are all plotting for each other’s downfall. The affair was no secret, and yet nobody told Christopher. For I do believe you, that the note was how you discovered the affair. That was the exact purpose of the note, to give the murder some credibility as a suicide,” Connie said.
“How many times can I say I didn’t do it?” Christopher asked, his voice weak.
“But we return to psychology. In your fury, you attacked your brother. You reached for no weapon, you fought with your fists, and in an open room no less. Surrounded by witnesses. Those are not the actions of a calculated killer.”
Christopher sat back in the wicker chair and closed his eyes, tried to drown out the conversation.
“Now, Zeb, you were in love with Lottie. You wanted to make an honest woman of her, not realising that your own wife was already plotting to divorce you. Lottie rejected you, made it clear that she didn’t share your feelings. You were furious and you had to silence her. Having killed her, you had no distraction from the state of your marriage. With Dottie out of the picture as well, you could live a single life.”
“Why would I want to? I don’t inherit unless I’m married, remember?” Zeb asked.
“And here is where the pieces fall together. Of course, rational decisions are not what we make, especially when emotions run high. Those emotions are particularly high for you, Zeb. You are the son most in need of that inheritance. Dottie made the money, everyone knew that, and it’s precisely why she was planning the divorce in secret, in order to protect her assets from you.”
“He had plenty of time to remarry!” Bobby exclaimed. “He’s never been single more than two days in his life!”
“In normal times, he would have had plenty of time to remarry. But Eliza’s announcement changes that.”
Eliza shifted in her wheelchair.
“There was a reason you were brought here this weekend, an announcement that was to be made but was put off by Lottie’s death. You’re all keeping secrets, but perhaps the biggest is this one, and it was known only by Eliza and Dottie… or so we’re meant to believe.”
“Mother? You and her? Why on earth would you confide in Dottie?” Bobby asked, like a petulant child.
“She never confides in me!” Grace whined.
“Why go to Dottie?” Zeb asked.
“She was the only one medically qualified!” Eliza shouted. “What was I meant to do? Ask Grace to cook me a dry turkey to help me?”
“How dare you!” Grace exclaimed.
“Eliza, you told nobody else about your illness, other than your nurse of course, but someone else found out.”
“Nonsense!” Bobby exclaimed. “I found out here, like everyone else.”
“I didn’t say it was you specifically, Bobby,” Connie said with a slight smile. “But since you’ve raised the point. Grace?”
“What?” She asked, her cheeks pink.
“You told me that Bobby shared the news with you before Thanksgiving,” Connie said. Bobby glared at his wife.
“I must have been mistaken,” Grace said.
“No, you weren’t,” Connie said.
“Of course she was! She never pays attention to a thing I say!” Bobby shouted.
“You made a comment to Roo about things improving for you soon. What did you mean by that?”
Bobby gave an awkward laugh. “I’ve got no idea.”
“The truth is, you were the one who suggested that Luke go upstairs and fetch his guitar.”
“And?”
“And the guitar playing was the reason nobody heard Lottie struggle as she was killed.”
“An unfortunate idea on my part,” Bobby said.
“Sorry,” Luke muttered again.
“You went upstairs after Luke started to play,” Connie said. “That always struck me as odd. You suggested the singalong and then disappeared. You came back down in the same clothes, or so it appeared. The fact is, you always dress the same. Christopher teased you about it. You could have drowned Lottie, changed into identical clothes and returned downstairs as if nothing had happened.”
“And why would I want to?”
“Because you knew your mother was dying. You were informed of that by Hannah.”
“Hannah?” Grace asked, her eyes narrowed. “What does she have to do with any of this?”
“I won’t go into all of that,” Connie said. She eyed Lynn who gave a silent thank you. “All you need to know is that Hannah was the one who told Bobby, before Thanksgiving, that Eliza is dying.”
“Is this true?” Grace asked.
“I’ll explain everything later,” Bobby said. He tried to pat her hand but she reared away from him.
“Just tell me, have you been speaking to that woman?”
“That woman was my wife, Grace! She never did a thing wrong to you. I talk to her when I need to.”
“What could you possibly have to talk to her about?”
“This is her girl,” Eliza said. She reached for Lynn’s arm. “You’d find out soon enough. She’s named in the Will.”
“Why would Hannah’s…”
“She’s my daughter, Grace,” Bobby said. “Hannah was pregnant when I left her. I didn’t know then, I promise you.”
“And you’ve kept her secret? Invited her into this family?” Grace recoiled. She went to stand up.
“You can’t leave this room,” Connie said. Taylor moved to the doorway and blocked her exit.
Grace began to pant before dropping to the floor, where she began to sob.
“I’ll carry on,” Connie said. “It gets worse. You knew that Eliza was dying and you became obsessed with the inheritance. You hatched a plan to increase your share. You killed Lottie and made it look like a suicide. You studied her handwriting, although the fact is that Lottie hand wrote so little, nobody really knew what her writing looked like. You didn’t plan for anyone realising it was murder.”
“Nonsense,” Bobby said. He chewed on the skin around his thumb nail. “This is your theory? Don’t give up the day job!”
“You hadn’t planned to kill Dottie, had you? But when we figured out that Lottie was murdered, you decided to get rid of Dottie too. Lottie and Zeb’s affair has been a huge red herring this whole time.”
“Ridiculous!” Bobby said with a grin. He gave a good-natured laugh just as the front door burst open.
Four officers from out of town appeared and surveyed the room.
“I’m just tying things up,” Connie said. She indicated towards Bobby. “This is your man.”
Bobby scoffed but his face had been stripped of colour. “You can’t be serious! I’ve sat here and gone along with it all, but it’s gone too far now.”
“With Lottie and Dottie out of the way, you figured that you’d inherit it all. The business would be yours to run however you wanted. And you knew the weekend would be the perfect time. There’s so many grudges and arguments in this family, everyone would have a motive! In some ways, you’re off on the sidelines, away from the fallouts.”
The officers approached Bobby and cuffed him.
Grace glared at him from the floor. “I can’t believe you did this. I can’t believe you’ve been in touch with her!”
“Mother!” Rose exclaimed. “He’s being falsely accused of a double homicide!”
“He’s being falsely accused of nothing,” Grace spat. “The wet clothes are in the bottom of the wardrobe. There’s a false floor.”
“Grace!” Bobby threatened. He tried to lunge towards her but the officers restrained him.
“He told me the shower in our room had broken and gone all over him and I was stupid enough to believe him. Turns out that was the habit of my lifetime.”
“What happens now?” Bobby asked, frantic. He turned to Christopher. “You’re the lawyer! What do I do?”
“Did you kill my wife?” Christopher asked.
Bobby shook his head, but the pause was a fraction too long.
“Then you go to hell,” Christopher said.