The Untimely Death Box Set

by James Kipling

  “Of course,” said Chloe, giving her a huge smile.

  “So have you sorted out that business with the gun?” asked Frank.

  “We’re just going to forget about that,” said Chloe, moving her hand in such a way that it resembled her shoving something out of the way, like a person.

  Finally, we arrived at the first floor.

  “You can go on ahead and catch up with the others if you like,” said Chloe. “They’re not that far ahead—I can see them from here.”

  Reluctantly, I agreed to catch up with the others, although I was not too quick to do so. By the time I got to the second floor I was completely exhausted, which was worrying for a woman my age. I was devastated when I saw there was a long line for refreshments.

  “Oh, there you are, honey,” my mother said, saving the day by handing me a bottle of water, for which I was unreasonably grateful.

  I went over to the ledge, where I stood next to Stephanie and Brendan.

  “Lovely, isn’t it?” said Stephanie.

  “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” was my reply, and it truly was. I walked around the second floor, taking a few pictures.

  After having finished with the photos, I went back to check the line for refreshments, to see if it had gone down—I was quite hungry. Unfortunately, it was still busy. I decided to explore the tower a little more. I saw that Veronica was not with Christopher, although that was not a surprise. He was on his own, off where no one else was, taking photos. Veronica was also on her own, but on a different side of the tower.

  All of a sudden, I heard Stephanie scream.

  “Oh my God!” she cried.

  Brendan, Alan and Shona surrounded her, confused by her hysterical outburst, with no apparent problem in sight.

  “What’s the matter?” said Alan.

  “I dropped my ice cream over the ledge!” she cried. “And now it’s going to hit someone!”

  “Oh my God!” cried Shona.

  “Someone down there is going to get the fright of their life!”

  Stephanie then proceeded to break down. I thought it was a bit too dramatic, but then again, I had seen Stephanie being overly dramatic before.

  Suddenly, I had another fright when I heard a loud bang! A gunshot.

  It came from the other side of the tower, and when we all got there, we were astounded to see that Christopher Dewell had been shot in the head!

  “He’s dead!” screamed Veronica.

  I knew that it was true. Now everyone, including Chloe and the Miltons, was surrounding Christopher’s dead body. Just then, another shot was heard, but this time, it came from the other side of the tower. We all ran over there, and saw that no one was there.

  “I can’t believe this has happened!” screamed Chloe.

  Doreen Milton fainted.

  Stephanie continued to cry, this time collapsing on the floor and shaking on the ground like a baby. Veronica just stood there, looking over a ledge of the tower. I could not make out what she was feeling, but one thing was for certain—the person who killed Christopher was someone staying in the very same hotel we were at. Every other person on that floor at the time of the shooting and every other person who currently surrounded Christopher’s dead body—all happened to be with an Asian tour group. None of them would have known him, and therefore, the person who killed Christopher had to be someone I had met the day before at the hotel. Now I knew that even though I’d come to Paris to get crime solving out of my mind, it appeared I was going to be right in the middle of solving another baffling mystery.

  Chapter 31

  As we were descending the tower, Chloe announced that she was taking everyone back to the hotel immediately. While we were waiting for the bus, something happened that astounded even me—Veronica was crying hysterically! She collapsed on to the floor and started to sob, holding her head in her hands and shouting, “I can’t believe this has happened! Why did you take the man I love?”

  By now there were police cars everywhere, and officers running around, trying to establish what had happened. Even though I had no official role, I still felt it my duty to investigate for a number of reasons. Firstly, the suspects would feel more comfortable talking to me since I had already met and conversed with them. Secondly, I felt that I had a head start because I knew a lot about each person already—certainly more than a detective that was just getting assigned—plus I had witnessed the events of the day. This murder had been planned, so I needed to think back to see how everyone had been behaving this morning. However, there was one other reason—I felt that I needed to solve this murder in order to redeem myself from the previous investigation. If I solved this murder, I would feel more confident going back to work after this trip, so I made it my own personal goal to solve the crime.

  And so, I resolved that my investigation would begin once we arrived back at the hotel. I was a bit surprised at first that the local police were willing to let us be taken back to the hotel, until I realized the authorities may have been more concerned with getting things wrapped up on the scene and restoring the iconic Eiffel Tower to the tourist destination that it was. Plenty of time to interview witnesses in a far less conspicuous location.

  On the way back, everyone on the bus was talking about the murder and who could have done it, knowing full well that the person who did it was on board the bus. I just sat there, thinking. Perhaps this person intended to murder two different people, and only hit Christopher? At this moment in time, that seemed like a distinct possibility.

  We arrived back at the hotel, which was as stunning as ever. In some ways, it was as if we had returned and nothing exciting had happened that day. For my first step, I decided to interview the Sandersons, since they were closest to me, and for some reason I was interested in talking to them anyway.

  “Hello,” I said, approaching them both feeling a little shy about approaching them, which was not my normal experience when beginning interviews.

  “Are you investigating the murder?” asked Shona.

  That question was interesting to me, but I quickly forgot about it and moved on.

  “Yes, actually. I am beginning an investigation while I wait for my French colleagues to arrive. I’d like to ask you just a couple of questions for now about the murder that happened today,” I replied.

  “Are you a good detective?” asked Alan.

  Here again, a rather unusual thing to say.

  “I’ll be the one asking the questions, if you don’t mind, Alan,” I replied.

  He apologized, and I resumed my task as planned.

  “So, where exactly were you when the first shot was heard?”

  Shona decided to answer that question.

  “Both of us were standing together, seeing to Stephanie. She was in such a state, poor thing!”

  “Yes, I was there, too.”

  “So, that proves we didn’t do it!”

  “Not exactly!” I said.

  “How?” said Shona, looking confused. “You saw us when the shot was heard!”

  “I saw you when the first shot was heard,” I replied, “but not the second shot. I’m not accusing you of anything, but I have to remain completely objective. Either one of you could have pulled a gun out and fired at someone else while we were distracted by the sight of Christopher on the ground. It looks like this could be a conspiracy, but I am not sure yet.”

  Both Alan and Shona seemed quite disappointed that they were not given alibis.

  “So what was the point in asking us that question when you already knew the answer?” said Alan.

  “I wanted to see your reaction,” was my reply. “There is another thing I would like to speak to you about.”

  “I think I know where this is going...” said Alan.

  “Yes,” I replied. “Well, last night, I did indeed hear a woman kissing Christopher, and I overheard you two arguing about it, so I am assuming that it was you.”

  Sh
ona looked very ashamed of herself.

  “It was only a fling,” she said.

  I felt rather upset for them. Ten years of marriage had been thrown away on a stupid whim. If that was true it was a real shame. I decided to end the chat right there and move on to Stephanie and Brendan.

  Like the Sandersons, I asked them where they were at the time of the first shot, and Stephanie replied, “Well, you saw me. I was on the other side of the tower. I was crying on the ledge over my stupid ice cream. It seems so silly now.”

  Brendan said, “I was seeing to Stephanie. You saw me, didn’t you?”

  “Yes,” I replied.

  “Then why are you asking us these questions?”

  “I wanted to see your reaction,” was my reply, for the second time.

  I knew that I was finished there, because Brendan and Stephanie had no apparent motive to murder Christopher.

  After having interviewed those four suspects, I came to some sort of conclusion. Although I knew everything that was going to be said, that interview helped me—those four suspects looked rather calm and collected. That was quite strange in any case, and although it was not impossible for a murderer to act in that way, it was fairly uncommon for witnesses in such close proximity to a sudden and violent crime to be so calm. Particularly for Stephanie, who had gone to pieces over dropping her ice cream, only moments before the first shot rang out.

  I decided to focus on the first shot for now. Although I had seen Alan, Brendan and Shona just before the shot was fired, it did not exclude them from the investigation, because they actually could have fired the first shot, due to the unique structure of the Eiffel Tower. The only person who couldn’t possibly have fired the first shot was Stephanie, because I saw her hands at the time, so it wasn’t her. I decided that it was probably not Alan, Brendan or Shona, either, because when it happened, they were still right behind me—talking—and the shot seemed to come from more of a distance, which would exclude each of them. That left me with four possible shooters: Chloe, Veronica, Frank or Doreen, and those were the four people I was going to interview now. Now, I was getting to the real detective work.

  Chapter 32

  Veronica seemed to be calmer now, so I decided to interview her next. When I saw her, she seemed to be lost in the surroundings—she was sitting in the red seating area outside, sipping a glass of ‘Death in the Afternoon,’ which made me slightly confused and worried. Just yesterday, she had said that she did not like that drink, so it made me even more interested in talking to her. Turns out, she was quite insane, at least in my mind.

  “Hello, Veronica,” I said, slowly approaching her like a mouse approaching a lion.

  “Come to interview me, to play detective then, have you?” she said, not even looking at me when she said it.

  “Yes,” I replied. “You’re alright with that, aren’t you?”

  “Well, I’d best get this over with, so I can enjoy the rest of my vacation,” she replied, still not looking at me.

  That shocked me. What she had just said there showed no sympathy, concern or loss whatsoever.

  “I’m sorry, do you remember what happened today?” I asked her, somewhat tentatively wondering if she was on the verge of a breakdown, or had already had way too much to drink.

  “Yes. My husband was murdered. Next question?” was Veronica’s reply.

  “You don’t seem to care,” I said, diving right into the investigation.

  “Well, my husband was a horrible man. I’m actually glad he’s dead,” she said, still gazing at the distant countryside.

  “That makes me suspicious, you know,” I added.

  “I don’t care if you think I did it or not. You have no authority to be questioning any of us anyway. I did not shoot Christopher, so I have nothing to worry about.”

  “You might know that, but I don’t, so I still need to speak to you,” I said, getting rather frustrated with this mad woman. “I need to establish exactly where you were at the time of the first shot.”

  “I was standing on one side of the tower, looking out of it. That’s what you do when you go up the Eiffel Tower, isn’t it?” she said, getting more and more arrogant by the minute.

  “Did anyone see you at this time?”

  “No. Nobody likes me. I tried socializing with the rest of them earlier on, but it didn’t work out well. I don’t mix with people, and they don’t mix with me, so no. Nobody else was on that side of the tower at the time of the shooting.”

  “And what side of the tower was this?”

  “Well, it was directly opposite the bunch of you when that stupid girl screamed about dropping her ice cream, so it was at a right angle to Christopher. It’s funny, isn’t it? The four sides of the tower symbolize society. The side that I was on represents the lonely old women, the side that Christopher was on represents the lonely old men, the side that all of you were on represents the happy people without a care in the world, and the other side represents the rest of us.”

  That made me think… my parents were on ‘the other side.’ I wondered what she meant by that. Perhaps she was being cryptic.

  “You didn’t see the Miltons, or Chloe?” I asked her.

  “No. I am assuming they were on the other side.”

  That assumption was for me to make. I left it there, since at this stage in the investigation, I had nothing else to ask her. She took one big gulp out of her glass, finishing it off, and then went and dived into the swimming pool, creating one big splash.

  I then found the Miltons. I was somewhat looking forward to talking with them—they seemed like such a nice couple.

  “Hello, dear,” said Doreen, as I approached them. “How’s the investigation coming along?”

  “I’m just establishing exactly where everyone was at the time of the shooting,” I said.

  “Terrible business, isn’t it?” said Frank, looking rather intrigued by the whole thing.

  “Yes. So, would you mind telling me where the pair of you were when you heard the first shot?” I asked them.

  “Well,” said Doreen, “we had just gotten to the top of the last flight of stairs, and Chloe offered us a drink. She had several bottles, just in case anyone wanted any. She had forgotten to tell all of us about it.”

  I sighed in my head. Silly Chloe, I thought.

  “Anyway,” Doreen continued, “we accepted her offer of a drink, so there was no need to stand in the long line. We walked around for about thirty seconds, and then we heard a woman screaming. I think it was that young Stephanie. Anyway, we looked around the corner to see what was going on, and that was when we heard the shot, so we rushed over to the opposite side of the tower, and there he was—dead as a doornail!”

  “Did you see Chloe, by any chance, when the shot was fired?” I asked them both.

  Both of them replied by shaking their heads.

  “We didn’t see her when the shot was fired, but she was definitely with us when it was fired. She was standing next to us. One second later, we saw her rush over there with us.”

  “That’s interesting,” I said, nodding my head slightly.

  “So, did you know the Wilsons well?” I asked them.

  Again, both Frank and Doreen shook their heads. “We only met them yesterday,” he said. “And I hope we don’t see that woman again! She sounds insane!”

  “You’re not the only one who thinks that,” I laughed.

  I stopped the interview there, because I was quite eager to move on to Chloe. Now she was a woman who interested me—she seemed perfectly capable of committing a murder, and she certainly had the motive and opportunity, so she was probably at the top of my list of suspects. It would not be fair to assume that she was indeed the murderer, because I had no proof of that, but something about her just struck me as odd.

  I found her, and, as usual, she was rushed off her feet.

  “Hello,” Chloe said. “Are you any closer to finding the person who did this gh
astly thing?”

  “I’m taking baby steps,” I said, careful not to give any information away. “I need to talk to you next, actually.”

  “Alright,” replied Chloe, “but please make it quick. I have a business to run.”

  “So, where were you standing at the time of the first shooting?” I asked her.

  “Well, I was on the opposite side of the tower from Christopher,” was her quick reply.

  “Did anyone else see you there?”

  “No. I don’t think so, anyway. Everyone was too busy with the distraction of the shooting, including me. I can’t really remember much of it, actually.” As she was speaking, Chloe was writing things down, doing calculations on a piece of paper.

  “Did you see anything that we can regard as suspicious?”

  “No,” said Chloe, who only seemed half-interested by what I had to say.

  “Did you see the Miltons when you heard the shot?”

  “No...wait. Yes, I did. I was with them, and they were standing right next to me, so they could not have done it. Anyway, they wouldn’t do such a thing anyway.”

  “I think it’s fair to say you had it in for Veronica and Christopher?”

  Chloe just looked at me.

  “I did not do this, you know,” said Chloe.

  “I am not assuming anything at the moment,” I said, trying to reassure her, “but it seems that you are one of the few who don’t have a valid alibi.”

  “What? There were plenty of people on the same side as me! How could I have done it when everyone was surrounding me?!”

  “The same way in which the person with the gun placed it under my seat while I, and everyone else, was distracted. I am not saying you are the murderer, and I am not accusing you of anything, but I cannot rule you out!”

  “So, who do you think did it, then?” Chloe asked, apparently much calmer now.

  “I don’t know for certain, like I just said,” I replied.

  “Well, if there is anything...”

  “Yeah. I’ll ask.”

  “And don’t forget to enjoy your vacation!” Chloe said, with that exaggerated smile. “You have to remember, you’re still on holiday. You need to relax!”