A hush fell over the room as all eyes turned towards Jeremy Lee.
Chapter Fourteen
After a moment of stunned silence, the man, who was sitting on a couch next to Elizabeth and Howard, rose to his feet.
“Am I being accused of something?” he asked in his polished voice.
“The night of the party, you were in a corridor down by the front of the house,” the woman with Anna said.
The band played the first few notes of the next song and were suddenly silenced by a look from Anna. Someone giggled nervously and someone else coughed.
“Now that I think about it,” Elizabeth said. “You weren’t here with us all the time,” she said. “You were just sitting quietly and I wasn’t paying attention, but at the party, you were gone for a while.”
“I went back to my room to get some headache tablets,” Jeremy said.
“That isn’t in your statement,” Anna told him.
“It must have slipped my mind,” Jeremy replied with a shrug. “I wasn’t away from the party for long.”
“You left right after Gennifer did,” Howard said. “I remember watching you go and hoping you weren’t mad at her, too. She’d whispered something in your ear before she left and you looked upset about whatever it was.”
“It was nothing,” Jeremy said. “Just Gennifer being Gennifer.”
“But you did follow her out,” Howard insisted.
“I didn’t follow her,” Jeremy replied. “I may have left the party not long after she did, but that was just because my head was pounding and I thought I should take some tablets. If it had been any other day of the year, I would have simply gone to bed, but you can’t do that on New Year’s Eve, can you?”
“So you left the party right after Gennifer did and went straight to your room?” Anna asked.
“Yes, that’s right,” Jeremy said. “And then, after I’d taken some tablets, I came back. I may have taken a rather more circuitous route back, though. I was trying to walk off the headache before I rejoined the party. That must be where you saw me.” He addressed the last remark to the woman who was still standing next to Anna.
“Where did you see him?” Anna asked the woman.
As the woman described where she’d been, Bessie realised that the corridor the man had been coming down could only be the one that she and Doona had explored while looking for Gennifer. Bessie could see the same realisation on the inspector’s face. Could Jeremy have been the man with Gennifer in the bedroom at the end of the hall?
“The thing is, Mr. Lee, none of the wings in this house link up, aside from in the centre of the house. There isn’t any circuitous route that would have taken you from your bedroom to that particular corridor. Unless, of course, you’d been outside?”
“Of course not,” he snapped. “You’re starting to sound like you’re accusing me of something,” he added, his usual polite composure gone.
“What time did you arrive back at the party?” Anna asked him.
“I’ve no idea,” he said. “And it makes no difference, anyway. I did not kill Gennifer.”
“Maybe not,” Anna agreed. “But you may well have spent some time with her in an empty guest room.”
Several people gasped as Jeremy turned bright red.
Elizabeth chuckled. “Jeremy? I thought you were immune to Gennifer’s charms. You’re just like every other man after all.”
“I am not,” he said haughtily. “She was nothing but a cheap tramp. I would never have…” he trailed off and shook his head.
“Perhaps you’d be willing to allow us to take a DNA sample?” Anna asked. “Something that we could compare with what we found in the room in question?”
“I absolutely will not allow that,” Jeremy told her. “In fact, I don’t think I’ll answer any more questions, either. If you want to arrest me, I’ll wait for my solicitor, thank you.”
He sat back down, clearly upset. Anna smiled humourlessly. “Perhaps Elizabeth could suggest a good local advocate,” she told the man. “One of my constables will take you down to the station for questioning once we’re finished here.”
“You can’t do that,” he said, jumping back up. “Do you know who my father is?”
“No, I don’t,” Anna said calmly. “But I’ll make sure I ask you in our interview later, okay?”
“I’m not going anywhere,” the man said. “You can’t make me.”
“Actually, I can,” Anna told him. “I’d rather you cooperate, but if you don’t want to do that, I can arrest you and take you in.”
“I haven’t done anything wrong,” he shouted.
“You gave the police a false account of your activities on the night of Gennifer Carter-Maxwell’s murder,” Anna retorted. “Your lying has impeded our investigation. I have reason to believe that you’re not being totally honest about what you did during the time you were missing from the party. I believe you may have been intimate with Ms. Carter-Maxwell not long before her death. The fact that you are so loath to admit to that intimacy suggests that you might have also had a motive for murdering the woman.”
“I didn’t kill her,” Jeremy yelled. He looked around and seemed to notice for the first time that everyone in the room was watching him. “Look, let’s just go out into the corridor and chat,” he suggested to Anna. “I can clear everything up. We don’t need an audience.”
“Actually, before I take your statement, I’d like to finish the reconstruction,” Anna said. “If you didn’t kill Gennifer, someone else did.”
Jeremy glared at her. “I didn’t kill Gennifer,” he said insistently.
“Then our work here isn’t finished,” Anna said. “It’s ten to twelve. Let’s restart the reconstruction.”
The band began to play again and people began to move towards the large television again. Mary switched it on and Bessie was surprised to find that it was replaying the countdown. Someone must have videotaped it, she decided. As she headed towards her friends, she noticed Jeremy talking to John. That hadn’t happened at the party, but she didn’t interrupt.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” the young man was insisting. “I’m getting married soon. It was one last fling, if you like. You understand, but that policewoman won’t.”
John didn’t reply. After a moment, Jeremy continued. “Anyway, there’s no law against having sex with a willing woman during a party. The policewoman can’t arrest me for that, can she?”
“The inspector can arrest you for withholding vital information during a murder investigation,” John told him. “If I were you, I’d tell her absolutely everything you can remember about that night. Maybe you can help her work out who killed Gennifer, and then she might not be so unhappy with you for lying to her.”
Jeremy nodded. “That’s what I’ll do,” he said. “I’ll tell her everything.”
“Only a few days too late,” John muttered to Bessie as Jeremy walked away.
“That’s one mystery solved, anyway,” Bessie said. “Do you think he killed her, as well?”
“He’d be at the top of my suspect list now,” John replied. “But his wouldn’t be the only name on the list.”
Bessie looked around the room, trying to remember how things had looked at the party. Everything seemed just about right. She turned and watched the countdown a second time. While there were just as many horns and party poppers this time as previously, the celebration at midnight was much more subdued.
Bessie hugged John and Doona and smiled as she watched Liz and Bill greet the year with a proper kiss this time. This time Elizabeth and Howard did little more than share a perfunctory kiss and then they joined the others in their group hug. As Sarah clung to Bruce yet again, Bessie noticed Emma’s long blonde hair. There was something different tonight, she thought.
“Has anyone seen Gennifer?” Nigel demanded from the doorway. Everyone turned to look at the man who was staring angrily at Jeremy.
“You killed her, didn’t you?” Nigel demanded. “Did she laugh a
t you? Wasn’t your performance up to her standards?”
Jeremy laughed. “She didn’t have standards,” he snarled. “She slept with you, didn’t she?”
“I loved her,” Nigel said angrily. “I loved her and you killed her.”
“I didn’t do anything to hurt her,” Jeremy snapped back. “Yes, okay, I’ll admit it. I had sex with her. It was just one of those things. She’d been chasing after me for years and I just got tired of turning her down.”
“And what happened when you’d finished?” Nigel asked.
“I left,” Jeremy replied. “I wanted to get back to the party before anyone noticed that I was gone. She said she was going to have a shower and that she’d see me back at the party. We agreed to pretend that nothing had happened.”
“You’d say that now,” Nigel said. “No matter what really happened.”
“I think that’s enough,” Anna said in a no-nonsense voice. “We’re still trying to reconstruct events here. Mr. Lee, I have a number of questions for you, but they can wait until later. Let’s get back to the reconstruction for now.”
“Now is when we organised the search party,” John said. He walked past Bessie and stood near the door to the room. “I asked where George was and also asked for volunteers to help me look for Gennifer.”
“That’s when I came back in,” George piped up from behind John.
“I sent one of the staff to check Gennifer’s room,” Mary reminded everyone.
“And when she came back to say that Gennifer wasn’t there, the search party headed out to look for her,” John said.
“Right, can all of the volunteers who offered to help with the search come forward?” Anna asked.
Bessie and Doona joined the others as they made their way towards John. Bessie frowned as she looked at Emma. Something teased at her memory.
“And then we went out and the others went back to their celebrations,” John told Anna.
“Emma?” Bessie said. “You’re wearing your hair down.”
The girl looked at her, startled. “Yes, I nearly always do,” she said softly.
“But the night of the party, it was down at the beginning of the evening, but up in a clip by the end of the night,” Bessie said.
“Was it?” the girl frowned. “I don’t recall,” she said after a minute.
“I do,” John said. “Well remembered, Bessie.”
“I remember as well,” Doona chimed in. “The clip was really pretty. It was very sparkly and it looked nice against your blonde hair.”
“Thanks,” the girl blushed. “I must have pinned my hair up when I went back to my room with Nigel.”
“Nigel, do you remember her putting her hair up?” Anna asked the man.
He shook his head. “I wasn’t paying attention,” he said, staring at his hands.
“You’d just been intimate with the woman,” Anna said. “Surely, you’d notice something like what she did with her hair.”
“Maybe she did it after I left,” he said.
“According to your amended statement, you and Emma returned to the party together before you went back out to look for Gennifer,” Anna said. “Was that not the case?”
Nigel looked up and shrugged. “I don’t remember,” he said.
“Perhaps you don’t remember because it isn’t true,” Anna suggested.
“I just don’t remember,” Nigel muttered. “I was drunk.”
“Drunk enough to go to bed with a woman you’ve spent years avoiding,” Anna suggested. “Much like Mr. Lee. Of course, Mr. Lee is single. You’ve said you were in love with Ms. Carter-Maxwell.”
“I was in love with Gennifer,” he said.
“But you were still intimate with another woman,” Anna pointed out.
“No, I wasn’t,” Nigel exploded.
“Nigel,” Emma called. “Think.”
Nigel looked at her and smiled. “I know you’re trying to protect me, but I didn’t kill Gennifer. Thank you for trying to provide me with an alibi, but I can’t lie anymore. I spent most of the time after Gennifer left the party trying to find her. I walked all over this stupid house and even went outside for a while, but I couldn’t find her anywhere.”
“So you weren’t with Ms. Taylor at all?” Anna asked.
“No, I wasn’t,” he replied.
Anna nodded. “Ms. Taylor, would you like to explain where you were during Ms. Carter-Maxwell’s absence?”
Emma swallowed hard. “Me?” she asked. “Why, I was at the party for most of the time. I did go back to my room for a little while, to, um, freshen up.”
“And why did you lie about being with Mr. Hutton?” Anna asked.
“I wanted to protect him,” Emma said bitterly. “I thought he might appreciate my kindness.”
“I do,” Nigel said. “But I’m a terrible liar. It’s better the police know the truth. I know I didn’t hurt Gennifer.”
“So when did you put your hair up?” Anna asked Emma.
“When I went back to my room,” Emma told her. “I was just playing with it and threw the clip in and then decided to leave it in for a while.”
“Where is the clip now?” Anna asked.
“In my room, I suppose,” Emma answered, flushing under Anna’s watchful eye.
“I think I’d like to see it,” Anna said. “Miss Cubbon, could you join us for a moment?”
Bessie nodded and then followed the pair out of the room, nearly bursting with curiosity as to what was going to happen next. Anna and Emma walked together down a long corridor with Bessie behind them. Behind Bessie were three uniformed constables and behind them, John Rockwell followed, a serious expression on his face.
“Here we are,” Emma said after she’d let them all into her room. She stood in front of a mirror, holding up the clip that Bessie remembered from the party.
“Is that the right clip?” Anna asked Bessie.
“I believe so,” Bessie said. “I didn’t do much more than glance at it.”
Anna nodded and looked disappointed. “Let’s get back to the party, then,” she said. They turned to leave the room, but Anna held up a hand.
“Hang on a minute,” she said. “Your hair was up by this time, right? Go ahead and put it up now.”
Emma nodded and turned towards the mirror. She gathered her hair into a knot and tried to slide the clip in. Several strands of hair slipped out on either side. Emma removed the clip and tried again, but again the hair simply wouldn’t stay in place.
“It would work better if your hair was wet,” Anna commented quietly.
Emma gave her a horrified look. She turned away and then nodded. “Of course, that’s right. I forgot. I came in to, um , that is, while I was here I thought I might as well do something special with my hair, so I wet it in the sink and then twisted it up.”
“In the sink in there?” Anna asked, pointing to the door to the en-suite.
“Yes, in there,” Emma answered quickly. “I didn’t have time to redo my makeup or anything, so I just wet my hair.”
Anna nodded. She crossed the room and pushed open the door to the en-suite. “Perhaps you could demonstrate for me?” she asked the girl.
Bessie could see just enough of the room to realise that the very fancy vessel sink was far too small for anyone to get their head into.
Emma crossed the room and stopped in the doorway between the rooms. She looked at Anna and then shook her head. “I must have just used a wet comb or something,” she stammered. “I mean, I stuck my head in the shower, that’s what I did.”
“Or maybe you were caught in the rain,” Anna suggested.
“Yes, that’s it,” the girl replied. “I was caught in the rain. I went out to get some fresh air and it was raining.”
“Did you happen to see Gennifer on your walk?” Anna asked.
“No, I mean, well,” the girl looked around the room and then back at Anna. “I did see her. She was walking along and then she, well, she jumped off the cliff. I didn’t want to tell a
nyone, because I didn’t want her family to think she’d killed herself, but that’s what happened.”
“I see,” Anna said. “Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about that night?”
The girl sighed and looked down at the floor. “She had a knife in her hand and she stabbed herself before she jumped. She must have wanted to be absolutely certain that she killed herself.”
Anna nodded. “Well, that’s all very interesting,” she said briskly. “We’ll have to have the rest of this conversation at the station, however.”
“You can’t possibly be arresting me,” Emma said.
“I’m taking you to the station so that you can help us with our enquiries,” Anna told her. “There are quite a few contradictions in your version of events and I’d like to give you a chance to explain them to me.”
“I can explain everything,” the girl said.
“Excellent,” Anna replied. She had a few words with one of the uniformed men, and then two of the constables escorted Emma out of the room.
“She killed Gennifer?” Bessie asked, feeling stunned.
“It certainly seems that way,” Anna told her. “No one knew about the knife, except the person who used it.”
“And it couldn’t have happened the way she said? Gennifer couldn’t have stabbed herself and jumped?” Bessie wondered.
“Not according to the coroner,” Anna replied. “I suppose the defense will argue that it was possible, but it doesn’t seem very likely. That’s for the advocates, though. I’ve done my job.”
“She seems like the type who will fall apart under questioning,” John said. “I suspect you’ll have a confession within the hour.”
“I agree,” Anna said. “Let’s hope we’re both right.”
“She seemed like such a nice girl,” Bessie said.
“She was clever, too, providing Nigel with an alibi, which also gave her one,” John said.
“If he’d stuck to his story, you might never have caught her,” Bessie exclaimed.
“That’s what makes reconstructions like this so helpful,” Anna told her. “Even when people aren’t watching one another, they notice things, like Jeremy being in the wrong corridor and Emma’s hair clip.”
Aunt Bessie Knows (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 11) Page 22