Chameleons and a Corpse

by Ruby Loren

  “Did you change the CD when you turned on the sound system?”

  “Nope,” Auryn said. “That’s why I’m not deaf in one ear. Timmy or Scarlett must have liked listening to Tay Tay at full volume. I silently raised an eyebrow at Auryn’s use of slang. He was definitely a closet Swifty.

  “Huh! And it’s just Taylor Swift on the CD?”

  Auryn held up a jewel case for the album the song had come from.

  I felt my forehead crease as I frowned at the memory of Andy Wright describing his almost-visit to the house on the morning of Timmy’s death. He’d claimed he’d heard the dog barking and then some shouting - but maybe it had just been the style of singing on the classic rock songs he’d heard. From that description, I couldn’t be sure that it had been classic rock that Andy had heard - but he certainly hadn’t been describing Taylor Swift. Had he been lying? I wondered. I couldn’t think of a single reason why he would lie about the sort of music that was playing. Otherwise, why mention it at all?

  Auryn shot me a questioning look but I shook my head. I thought it was strange, but I had no idea what it meant.

  Back upstairs, I continued my inspection of the polaroids and discovered that amongst the close ups there were also some handy full body shots. I sighed when I recognised Annabelle Wright and Officer Kelly Lane. I’d worried that Officer Kelly might be closer to the case than she should be, and now I had my proof.

  I put the photos to one side and resolved to tidy the rest of the room whilst I thought about what to do with my discovery. I was examining an exceedingly tacky pair of fluffy handcuffs and a pair of bunny girl ears - that I just couldn’t imagine Scarlett wearing - when the decision was taken from me.

  “Police! You’re trespassing on private property!”

  I turned around and saw my own look of surprise and recognition reflected on Officer Kelly Lane’s face.

  I took a quick step to the side, so that the pile of polaroids I’d placed on the dresser remained hidden for now. “I’m here with Auryn. We’ve got permission from Scarlett Marsden. I have a key!” I showed her.

  Officer Kelly’s shoulders relaxed. “Sorry about that. One of the neighbours reported seeing you go into the house. They can’t have recognised you.”

  “I don’t suppose they saw anything on the day of the murder?”

  “No… it’s funny really. They probably never paid their neighbours any mind until now. Nothing like a murder to spark interest in the comings and goings of the people who live near you.”

  I nodded my agreement, but my mind was elsewhere. I’d locked the front door behind me when we’d gone into the house. It wasn’t the sort of thing I was in the habit of doing, but there’d been a voice in my head that whispered if the Marsdens or anyone else came back, at least Auryn would see them coming if they had to walk all the way around the back. The police had announced the house was no longer a crime scene, so they would have surely handed back any keys giving them access. But Officer Kelly had got in.

  My uncertainty must have shown on my face.

  “I didn't kill him,” she said, and then walked over and sat down on the bed. “I thought I loved him. Things actually ended between us a short while ago. That’s why I thought I’d be fine to work on the case. I thought it was just a matter of being professional, but I’ve bungled it, haven’t I? Coming in here with a key I’m not supposed to have.” She looked down at the floor. I wondered if she was being completely truthful about the status of her and Timmy’s fling - her actions hinted that it was far from over - but I could appreciate that she was trying to behave in a responsible manner.

  “I’m glad you’re here. I need some professional advice…” I said, walking over to the dresser and picking up the stack of photos. “I’m afraid you’re in here.” I handed them over.

  Officer Kelly flicked through them without a word.

  “The only other person I recognise is Annabelle Wright, and I happen to know she has an airtight alibi.”

  I sat down on the bed next to her. “I suppose there’s not a lot more you can get from the photos then, unless anyone recognises any of the closeups, but you can’t exactly flash them around town. And anyway, if you knew you were in one of the photos but couldn’t possibly be recognised, you wouldn’t be too fussed, would you? I mean… you wouldn’t murder someone over it.”

  Officer Kelly shrugged. “Timmy Marsden might have threatened to use them as blackmail. Or maybe he sent a more recognisable photo to one of his fling’s partners, and the partner was none too happy about it.” She frowned. “What about that club he was supposed to be joining?”

  “They would not be thrilled to find out about this. The Lords of the Downs is supposed to be made up of respectable and upstanding gentlemen. Although, that’s not to say one of them didn’t kill him. Maybe someone really didn’t want him to join the club.”

  “That seems a bit excessive.”

  I shrugged. I thought the whole concept behind the club was fairly ridiculous, but that didn’t mean the members felt the same way.

  “Why do you think he kept all this?” I asked, hoping for some insight from someone who’d been with Timmy.

  “Trophies, I suppose. That’s usually the reason. I, er… actually wasn’t expecting to find anyone in the house when I came in and heard the music. There never was a tip off,” she confessed.

  I nodded understandingly. Officer Kelly had been here to search, along with the rest of them. Annabelle Wright may have an airtight alibi for the murder, but if Officer Kelly had a key to the house I was willing to bet that as Timmy’s then-current fling, Annabelle would have her own, too. She’d wanted her pictures back.

  “So, what should we do about the photos?” I asked.

  “I don’t think there’s anything to be learned from them,” the police officer said with a sigh. “Unless you think I had something to do with it, in which case, I would understand if you handed over the photo of me.” She was serious when she said it, but her eyes told me just how pained she felt about the idea of her colleagues seeing her at her most vulnerable.

  “No, we’ll destroy them.” I could be making a mistake, but if my gut feeling that she was innocent proved correct and I handed those photos in, it would condemn her to ridicule at the very least, and at the most, it could ruin her career. I wasn’t willing to do that to another person, especially when I saw nothing to suggest that they were guilty, beyond some sordid snapshots.

  “Thank you,” the police officer said, looking relieved. “I’ll help you tidy up. Just in case there is something useful in here.”

  “Didn’t the police look up here?” I asked.

  “Sure, but there was no reason to believe there was anything hidden, so it wasn’t done with a fine tooth comb. We’re trained to look at what’s in front of us and make an assessment.”

  “Well, Timmy was pretty good at hiding stuff,” I allowed. The wallet had been taped to the back of a drawer and the handcuffs and bunny ears had been concealed inside an interior pocket of an ancient waterproof coat.

  “Let’s see if there’s anything else to find…”

  We tidied and we found a few more things. There was another stack of photos behind a different drawer - this time featuring men - and I acknowledged that I’d known less about the Marsdens’ relationship than I’d ever realised. Now I knew more than I wanted. There’d also been a couple of items that looked like they’d belonged to women other than Scarlett - including an old gym membership card made out for Shona Pleasant. I’d raised an eyebrow at that one.

  After some brief consideration, those photos went in the trash, too. I was left with an image of Detective Treesden I knew would scar my mind forever. It was a good thing he was now retired. I doubted I’d be able to look him in the eye again!

  Aside from that, there’d been a photo of a fully-clothed woman, hidden behind the picture framed on the wall of the bedroom. The trouble that had been taken to conceal it made me think it was important, but I had no idea why. All t
hat was written on the back was the name ‘Thea Oatway’. That was one photo Officer Kelly and I decided to keep, as it could be something important.

  “I haven’t found anything that relates to Will and Lizzie Marsden,” I said when we’d finished the room. Auryn had popped up from the kitchen to bring me tea and then come back with another cup when he’d realised we had company, but he hadn’t shouted that he’d found anything either.

  “Perhaps it was the photo of this woman that they were after,” Officer Kelly mused.

  “It hardly seems worth turning the house upside down for. Not when we can’t make head nor tail of it!”

  “Maybe they thought Timmy had something but really he didn’t. Or maybe someone got there first.”

  I considered both options but was no closer to working out the truth.

  “He was going to help me with my career, you know,” Officer Kelly shared right before we walked out of the now-tidy bedroom.

  “How?”

  “His family is old and well respected in these parts. You know how it is… old money and old school rules, especially in a rural area like the one we live in. He promised me he’d put a word in the right ears when he could.” Her smile faded a little. “It’s always nice to think you’ll be getting a leg up, but I’ll achieve the same with hard work. I know I will.”

  “Of course you will,” I reassured her, hoping it was the truth. It was news to me that Timmy Marsden had any kind of contacts or leverage, but perhaps he’d believed it would change once he was a member of The Lords of the Downs. More worryingly, perhaps he was right. My opinion of the men-only club was sinking ever lower.

  “Find anything?” Auryn asked when we came downstairs.

  I exchanged a look with Officer Kelly.

  “Probably nothing that will help the case,” she said, tactfully.

  Auryn saw the bin liner in my hand but made no comment.

  “Nothing down here apart from an ocean of wasted dog food. We should have brought Rameses here with us so it wouldn’t all go to waste. We’re going to have to pick up some fresh stuff on the way home. On the plus side, I’ve got the size, shape, and even the taste ingrained in my mind, so there’s no way we’ll get the wrong stuff.” When I raised an eyebrow at him he shook his head. “Don’t ask.”

  We all had another cup of tea. For a time, we drank in silence, each mulling over our separate thoughts. I was reflecting that a man had died, right by the glass doors just a couple of metres away from us, and thus far, no one had been brought to justice for committing that crime.

  “Gosh, that’s hideous!” Officer Kelly suddenly announced, breaking the silence.

  I followed her line of sight to the stag’s head, mounted on the wall.

  “Did Timmy like to hunt?” I asked Auryn, well aware of the preferred pastimes of many of his old school friends. I was no vegetarian, and I heartily approved of sustainable game hunting, as those animals sure as heck had better lives than chickens kept in crates, but I did abhor killing for the sake of killing, or any form of bloodsport.

  “No, that was never Timmy’s bag. He used to like riding when we were at school, but he always claimed he was a pacifist. His older brother Will was a bit of a crack-shot. I don’t know if he still hunts, but I’d wager that stag was either courtesy of him or their father. I couldn’t say which,” Auryn said.

  “You think it might be from Will?” I stood up and walked up to the mounted head. I hadn’t considered it before because it was just something that people who were friends with Auryn seemed to possess. I’d even once jokingly asked him if there was a shop that specialised in selling decapitated animal heads, regardless of whether or not you’d personally killed them. The house where Auryn and I lived had had its fair share of morbid trophies when I’d moved in. They were now all in the attic, where they’d remain forever more. Just because I approved of sustainable hunting didn’t mean I approved of showing off grisly remains after the event.

  I made to lift the heavy mount off the wall and found Auryn by my side. Any other time, I’d probably have protested that I could do it by myself. I wasn’t that small. But something about the stag intrigued me.

  “That antler’s a bit wobbly,” I muttered and gave it a yank. It came clean off, and it was with mixed dread and elation that I realised there was something rolled up inside of the antler.

  I pulled it out and unrolled the sheaf of paper.

  Last Will and Testament of Timothy Robert Marsden

  I lowered the papers for a moment. I had no idea if Timmy had another will somewhere else, but this one was dated a couple of weeks prior to his death. In fact, if memory served, it would have been written and signed the day before the barbecue, where Timmy had allegedly drunkenly boasted that his family’s money was going to go to a deserving cause.

  I was about to find out what that cause was.

  I walked back over to the kitchen counter and unfolded the papers where they could all see. Below the initial heading that I’d already read, a letter had been stapled. I read it and realised that it was a contract of agreement for putting a child up for adoption. The name of the child listed was Sally Marsden. I sucked in a breath when I read the last name. Had Timmy fathered a child no one knew about and then persuaded the mother to give it away? I read down the letter, hoping to see the names of the mother and father listed somewhere.

  “Oh… oh no… Timmy, you didn’t!” Auryn said, having read the names at the same time as I had. Timmy’s name was listed as the father and his signature was below it releasing the child. The name printed next to his was Elizabeth Field.

  I looked at Auryn for confirmation.

  “I’m not sure,” he confessed. “All I know is that Will and Lizzie met because Lizzie was friends with Timmy through riding. Somehow, she met Will through him. Years later, they ended up married. I’ve no idea what happened in-between. Timmy said he was quitting riding as soon as he went on his gap year, which turned into gap years. After that, he met Scarlett at a party, funded her startup idea, and the rest is history. At least - that last part is the story he shared with me when we reconnected after all these years.”

  “Do you really think it might be possible that Elizabeth Field and Lizzie Marsden could be one and the same?” I asked.

  Auryn screwed up his face. “When we were still studying, Timmy used to boast about all of the girls he met through his fancy riding events that he went to - especially women older than we were. I thought he was just saying it to impress us, but it looks like there was some truth to it.” He pointed to the date on the adoption form. “Timmy would have been in sixth form.”

  “Too young to look after a baby,” I acknowledged. It was clear that the mother had hardly been ready for it either.

  “There are a lot of years I can’t account for,” Auryn said. He’d been out of contact with his friends for a long time, and I knew that Timmy had gone travelling for years on and off. What if Timmy and Lizzie had met up for old time’s sake and she’d hit it off with his brother, only to end up married to him? I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to set themselves up like that, knowing they had a deep dark family secret that could potentially ruin everything if it had ever been found out.

  “Let’s say Timmy and Lizzie really do have that kind of past together… Will was here helping to search. It does rather suggest that this is exactly what it looks like, but it also suggests that Will knows about it.”

  “Or, he just knows something about it. Lizzie might not have told him the whole truth,” Auryn said.

  “And perhaps Lizzie wanted it to stay that way… but Timmy wouldn’t keep his mouth shut,” I finished.

  “Or maybe Will did find out very recently and decided to take a little revenge on his brother,” Auryn jumped in.

  “Well! It’s like being in a room with two criminal masterminds,” Officer Kelly piped up. I turned to look and discovered that, although she’d said it in joking tones, she looked pretty disturbed.

  “Let’s loo
k through the rest of the will. Perhaps that will tell us something more.”

  By the end of it, I was no more sure of anything than I had been at the start. What Jon had claimed Timmy had spouted at the barbecue had obviously had some basis in the truth. Timmy had bequeathed a sizeable sum of money to Sally Marsden to be kept in trust for her until she was twenty one. I would imagine that as she’d been signed away for adoption, it was a pretty irregular request, but the document looked official and a lawyer’s headed paper had been used - although it wasn’t a firm I recognised.

  I thought back to the day of the murder when Auryn and I had come to find out why Timmy hadn’t turned up at the meeting. The door had been unlocked when we’d arrived and I knew Will and Lizzie didn’t have a key. Had Timmy let them in, only to be betrayed? But that didn’t mesh with the way we’d found his body. I was still completely clueless.

  “It looks like rain.”

  I raised my head from the legal documents and saw that Auryn was looking outside of the glass doors. He’d left them open to let in cool air because the day had been a muggy one. Now I watched as fat splashes of rain started to fall on the patio, just as Auryn had said.

  “Ethan’s still out in his hot tub. I guess he’s already wet,” my fiancé said with a shrug. He turned back and noticed we were both watching him with curiosity. “What?”

  “Nothing, it’s just… this is quite the bombshell,” I told him.

  “I know that, but that’s what the police are for.” He smiled and inclined his head in Officer Kelly’s direction.

  “Of course,” I said, handing the documents over to Officer Kelly. “Don’t forget the photo…” I looked at the picture and the name on the back. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was the child’s adopted mother? It would make sense…

  “I’m sure this will be an excellent lead. I’ll pass on to Detective Gregory just how helpful you both were,” Officer Kelly assured us, reverting to her professional persona.