Who Killed Bob?

by Stephen Craig

  Walking to the greenhouse that Barbara had mentioned she tended, they found a variety of winter plants in bloom. The hyacinth were particularly attractive in their blue splendour and as they walked near to the back of the greenhouse, they discovered a row of celery being grown. In actual fact it was growing very well. Barbara must be very green fingered indeed. As they walked back up the along the greenhouse, Doctor Jacobs looked at the large stemmed purple-red rhubarb that was growing and remembered how his Mother used to make rhubarb crumble with custard. Amazing how this humble plant could evoke memories of a time gone before. Further behind this were other varieties of rhubarb in various colours. Some dark green, some a very pale green.

  ‘I don’t think we are going to learn too much here’ Johnson commented.

  ‘Let‘s get back, it‘s too cold anyway‘. The Doctor replied.

  Constable Peters opened the door and led the way back across the garden to the patio.

  Whilst the three men had been out in the garden they were being observed from a window inside the house. After watching them for a little while the observer went down to the study, took a key from out of their pocket and unlocked the door and went inside. Within a minute this person came back out of the room and locked the door before again returning to the window. The three men were still out in the garden. Back in the study, something was missing. Something from the desk. To somebody who cared to look they would realise that there was no longer a gun upon the desk.

  Once back in the study, Constable Peters opened the oak door and the three men went through to the sitting-room. There was a lot of information that they needed to discuss and something was troubling Doctor Jacobs. They carried on talking for a little while longer and he picked up on a comment from Peters that he had not realised rhubarb was anything other than red. The thoughts hammered in Jacobs mind:

  ‘Can I have the key to the study? There is something I need to look at’. He took the key and headed to the study leaving Inspector Johnson and Constable Peters looking bewildered.

  #

  13. Celery And Rhubarb.

  Doctor Jacobs stood silently in the study and looked around for what had been puzzling him. Something that he had heard or seen had triggered a doubt and a thought and Peters off-hand comment had put the piece into place. It was on the occasional table that had seen two vases. In actual fact two celery vases. It had not registered to him at the time when he examined the room earlier, but unless you collected them, why would you possibly have need for two celery vases? More specifically why would you have two celery vases being used for celery at the same time? How much celery could somebody eat in a single sitting? He looked again at the two Victorian cut-glass vases and admired their elegant form.

  The one on the left was filled with clear liquid and contained celery. The one on the right was different. Now under scrutiny, what had been missed before stood out. The stems in the vase were light green, almost like celery in colour, but he could now see that although they had been cut to look the same, it was in fact rhubarb. He looked closely at the liquid in the vase and could see that it had a blue tinge to it. Leaning over, he took a sniff and could smell a distinctive alcoholic scent. He stood back up and although it would need to be analysed, he was confident that there was a large quantity of antifreeze in the vase - but why?

  His mind was beginning to race. The rhubarb, the antifreeze, the electronic cigarette. They all pointed his mind into one direction but what Doctor Jacobs really needed to understand was how they were used to do it? Or was he again being pushed into a blind direction? He remembered when they had been out in the garden and looking in the garage that he had seen a bottle of antifreeze on a shelf.

  He ventured out to the garage and looked inside. Strolling over to the shelves he looked at the oil and then to the antifreeze. He picked up the bottle of blue liquid and looked at the packaging. More importantly he looked at the ingredients but he was puzzled. It wasn’t what he had expected. He looked up and saw the tin of metal cleaner and had a further thought. He looked at the ingredients of that and smiled. That made much more sense, but how? Everything was misdirection. There had been so much ‘smoke’ that he had been finding it hard to locate the ’fire’. Suddenly, the ‘smoke’ seemed to clear and he could picture it all.

  He had now constructed in his own mind exactly how he believed that Robert Blackmore had been murdered but it would be impossible to be absolutely sure without a full chemical analysis from the laboratory and time was not on their side. He was pretty sure that he could convince Inspector Johnson of his theory and they could very likely hold the suspect until the results were through. However, if he could get an admission of guilt that would save an awful lot of time. He needed to get somebody to confess in full.

  He needed to speak to Inspector Johnson.

  #

  14. So, Who Killed Bob?

  …in The Sitting Room.

  Doctor Andrew Jacobs looked around the room at the handful of people that had congregated to his summoning. Police Constable Peters stood at the solitary entrance and exit point of the room trying to act incongruous and blend his black outfit into the white of the door. With this he was having very little success. Inspector Johnson sat on a chair near to the window and the bright sun that shone in the clear sky meant that anybody that looked in his direction would be dazzled. On the other hand he could see very clearly each person in the room. He had listened to the theory put forward to him by Jacobs and he had to admit that if it was correct, it was very well thought out and he knew who he had his eyes upon.

  Roberta Blackmore, Barbara Blackmore and Bobby Blackmore all sat down trying to seem indifferent, but each extremely nervous. All of them had a motive to have killed Robert Blackmore in the form of money. Roberta may have gotten the lions share, but both Bobby and Barbara get a significant amount. They may all also have had personal reasons for wanting Bob dead.

  Doctor Jacobs walked to the middle of the room and spoke:

  ‘Robert Blackmore was killed in the early hours of this morning and whilst it is hard to be exact, I would suggest some time between eleven o’clock last night and two o’clock this morning’. He looked around the room. ‘You have all lied to me and Inspector Johnson’. He let the sentence hang in the air as the three people looked between themselves and the official figures.

  ‘You told me that nothing out of the ordinary happened last night’. He turned to Roberta Blackmore. ‘You told me you loved your husband and that you never argued, but several people mentioned that you had a heated discussion with your husband yesterday afternoon. We have one witness who said that they heard the word ‘hardly’. In fact, they probably heard ‘Harley’ as in ‘Harley Street’ where your husband had visited recently’. Roberta nodded and dropped her head:

  ‘It’s true, we had a big argument. He didn’t want…’.

  ‘Yes I know, either way, you should not keep information back from the authorities when they ask for it. It could be deemed highly suspicious’.

  Next, he looked at Bobby Blackmore:

  ‘Mr Blackmore, why did you not mention that you had been out in the early hours of this morning? Why were you carrying a sledgehammer? Could it be that it was you that destroyed the main wooden bridge’?

  Inspector Johnson frowned and looked at the man, ‘It took us ages to get here this morning having to construct a support and ropes to get through. Fortunately, there will be a new bridge built’.

  ‘And hopefully it won’t be as dangerous as the last one’. Bobby Blackmore retorted loudly, ‘For years we have had to deal with that horrendous bridge, we do not own it so we could not replace it, but the local council should have replaced it years ago. I was just trying to force them to act’.

  ‘Criminal damage’ the inspector spoke in a stern voice.

  Next, Doctor Jacobs turned to Barbara Blackmore:

  ‘Miss Blackmore, it was you that helpfully pointed us in the direction of your brother with the sledgehammer…’. Bobby lo
oked at his sister angrily. ‘…and I thank you for your guidance’ the doctor continued.

  ‘It was my duty’ said Barbara.

  ‘Your brother, Robert was a successful chemist’?

  ‘Yes, he had made a number of groundbreaking discoveries’.

  ‘And that is how he made all of his money’?

  ‘Yes’, she seemed annoyed.

  ‘You did not approve of your brother’s success’? He looked at her then continued ‘you studied chemistry too I believe? I guess that you never had your brother’s insight’.

  ‘It was my insight too’ she spoke with cool certainty.

  ‘you were his assistant’?

  ‘Assistant? I was more than that. I was a partner’.

  ‘Your name doesn’t appear to be on any of his work’?

  ‘No’ she was sharp in her response. ‘He didn’t deserve the praise he got. Much of his work I helped him with and I should have been given some credit. Some acknowledgement’.

  He turned and looked directly at Barbara Blackmore and spoke:

  ‘Yes, you had always been resentful of your brothers success. You both had a good understanding of chemistry, but it was Robert who found the success in the field. It was your brother that took several of your joint ideas and claimed sole responsibility for them’. He looked at the woman in front of him who was staring. ‘I’m positive that he made sure you were looked after financially but beneath it all you harboured a deep resentment for his success’.

  ‘This is absolute nonsense’ said Barbara.

  ‘When you found out that Robert had been diagnosed with cancer…’.

  ‘What’? Said Bobby Blackmore.

  The doctor turned to him and spoke. ’Your brother had cancer. Being a proud man it was a fact that he wanted to keep from his family and friends. He only told his wife and asked her to keep it secret’.

  ‘We argued about it’ Roberta added, ‘but he said that he didn’t want Barbara or Bobby to know about it’. The room went quiet and all eyes moved to Doctor Jacobs as he continued:

  ‘Barbara Blackmore had found out about it months ago’ he looked at her, ‘very likely she found a letter from Professor Hope when she was in his study’. He paused and looked out of the window. Then he turned back to the woman, ‘you discovered that he was having chemotherapy treatment for the cancer and realised why he had been commenting about the taste, or rather lack of taste, in his food at mealtimes. He was experiencing dysgeusia, a distortion of taste, a side-effect of his chemotherapy’.

  ‘This is a figment of your imagination’, Barbara Blackmore stood up, ‘and I don’t wish to listen to any more’. She turned to leave the room but Constable Peters stood resolutely by the door. Inspector Johnson spoke:

  ‘Please sit down Miss Blackmore’.

  Barbara Blackmore sat down and Doctor Jacobs continued:

  ‘This was the point in which the idea came together. The idea to murder your brother by slowly poisoning him’. The sentence resonated and both Roberta and Bobby Blackmore looked at Barbara who seemed to shrink into her seat.

  ‘Everything had to be constructed to cause confusion and misdirection, away from the actual cause of his death - initially a slow dosage, gradually increasing to a massive dosage. A massive intake of poison - but which one’? He looked directly at Barbara Blackmore and she smiled a little.

  ‘You have an overactive imagination, Doctor. I loved my brother’.

  ‘I don’t doubt that, but you also had an immense jealousy of his success. The success he had achieved with your help. When you realised he had cancer, you believed that he was already going to die, so you rationalised that if you killed him you wouldn’t be changing the future - but you would be able to get your revenge’. The woman squirmed a little in her seat but did not speak.

  ‘Robert was a smoker and was trying to give up. It was you who suggested that he started using an electronic cigarette for which he was happy to try. You had already put your plan into action and knew that one of the active chemicals in the cigarette was ethylene glycol’. He looked down at the woman sitting silently.

  ‘You knew how you wanted to kill him, but it wasn’t until your brother finally died. Until you found him dead in his study last night, that you came up with the elaborate plan to try and confuse anybody looking for the truth’. He walked over to the fireplace and spoke. ’The ice pick, the claw hammer, the kitchen knife, the gun. All misdirection. Even the perfume bottle contained the wrong type of poison’. Doctor Jacobs looked around the room and continued.

  ‘Even the stab wound which was inflicted post mortem, after he was already dead, was an on the spot idea. I believe that an icicle must have fallen outside and it planted an idea. It must have been tricky to grip but somehow you stabbed him with the large icicle and then pulled down the curtain and wrapped it up inside to hide any trace of a puddle of water’. Everything in the study was placed with reason. The curtain seemed out of place for being too untidy - but in reality that, like everything else, had been placed to add to the confusion’.

  ‘This is stupid’. Barbara spat out.

  Doctor Jacobs continued. ’The cotton bud in the waste bin had been used to apply prussic acid, cyanide, to the sides of his mouth. This acid left a white streak, a corrosion burn to make it look like he had drunk poison. But he had not. The open bottle of Amaretto was there, the strong smell of almonds. Everything there to try and force an idea of cyanide poisoning’.

  Doctor Jacobs stopped and looked around the room at all the people in it. Everybody was attentive. He looked back at Barbara and continued:

  ‘Even the rhubarb, which you must have known would have been discovered eventually was to draw attention. Rhubarb, or at least the leaves of Rhubarb, contain a number of poisonous substances including oxalic acid. In reality, you would need to eat a massive amount to kill a person in one go, but over time and with Robert’s lack of taste, you could add something to his food and possibly his drink’. He looked deep into her eyes and continued. ‘The rhubarb was actually soaking in antifreeze…’.

  ‘Antifreeze! Roberta gasped.

  ‘Kept in the garage’ said Bobby.

  ‘…which can contain ethylene glycol…’ he continued. ’…in large quantities and because of its sweet taste it would not be unpleasant on the pallet. This is why animals and children can die if they drink it - even in small amounts with animals’.

  Barbara was smiling a little. She thought she had him and he needed to get her back off guard. He needed to keep pushing. He looked up and continued, ’But Robert had no sense of taste and that would not need to be a consideration. I did go to the garage and looked closely at the antifreeze. It was then I realised that it was not this. The antifreeze contained propylene glycol, a less toxic substitute for ethylene glycol which does not do the same damage’. He could see that Barbara was very attentive. He needed to get her to admit something.

  ‘It was the first celery vase that did it. It was celery, not rhubarb, so that in itself did not look out in place in water. But it was not actually water in the vase. It was pure ethylene glycol. Also, an examination of the celery showed a small hole at the top, very small but slightly discoloured’. He looked directly at Barbara. It was the syringe in the bin, a syringe which you would have ready access to because of your diabetes. It had trace amounts of ethylene glycol remaining in it and would have been used to inject large amounts into the celery.

  He looked at the women sitting in front of him:

  ‘You got the ethylene glycol from Robert Blackmore’s chemical cupboard in the basement, very likely weeks ago - which was fortunate given that Roberta Blackmore pretty much destroyed all of the chemicals in there this morning’ He turned to Roberta and said ‘that was a very dangerous thing to do, apart from a risk of an explosion, you could cut yourself on glass’. He glanced down at the bandage on her hand.

  Turning back to Barbara, he spoke again:

  ‘But you were not as clever as you thought you had been.
You obviously do not have the same level of intelligence as your brother had and it is easy to see why he was able to take credit for your ideas’. he had managed to make her face turn a little red. She was getting annoyed. ‘Speaking of your mistakes, the biggest one you did was leaving your fingerprints…’

  ‘That’s rubbish, I was wearing gloves when….’ Barbara stopped in mid sentence. She was annoyed and angry.

  ‘When you injected it’ finished Doctor Jacobs.

  Barbara Blackmore slumped in her chair and reached down to her handbag. He had gotten the confession he needed. Barbara suddenly got to her feet and pulled out the gun that she had removed from the desk earlier. She pointed it to her head and looked at Roberta Blackmore:

  ‘I am so very sorry’ she said as she pulled the trigger.

  The hammer on the gun clicked, but nothing more. Inspector Johnson walked over to her and took the gun from her hands. ‘I removed the bullets from the gun this morning when I examined the room’. Then he reached into his pocket and took out his handcuffs: