Moonflower Murders

by Anthony Horowitz

  I took another sip of water. Over the edge of the glass, Andreas caught my eye. He gave me a nod of encouragement. I had told him all of this on the way down from Norfolk and he knew what was coming next.

  ‘There was something else that Stefan said,’ I continued. ‘It made no sense at the time but I looked it up afterwards and it confirmed what I had suspected all along. Once again it relates to you, Aiden, and you’re not going to like it, but I wonder if you know anyway?’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Aiden looked at me with poison in his eyes.

  ‘Stefan was saying how much he hated England, but then he added: “I could kill myself tomorrow and I would except for the one brightness in my life, the one dawn that gives me hope.” I wondered what he meant. At the same time, talking to him face-to-face, I knew he reminded me of someone.’ I couldn’t dress it up any more. I had to come out with it. ‘He’s Roxana’s father.’

  ‘No!’ A tortured cry from Aiden. He half rose from his chair and Andreas also got up, ready to protect me if he had to. On the other side of the room, Locke didn’t even move.

  ‘It’s a wicked lie. There’s no truth in it.’ Eloise took his hand.

  ‘How dare you—!’ Lawrence was spluttering, wanting to throw me out. But he didn’t because he knew I was right.

  ‘Aiden is fair-haired. Cecily was blonde. Roxana has black hair and she’s the spitting image of her father. Aiden told me that Cecily chose the name and I think she did so quite deliberately. She knew who the father was. Roxana is a very popular name in Romania. It means “brightness” or “dawn”.’ I went on quickly, wanting to get this part of it over with. ‘This is what happened. Lisa fired Stefan when he refused to have sex with her. And then she discovered that he was having sex with her sister, the same sister, incidentally, who had scarred her as a child. How did she feel about that? Wouldn’t it be a great revenge on both of them to kill a complete stranger and frame Stefan so that he went to prison for life? If Lisa had been in her office, she could easily have heard the phone call that Cecily made to the South of France. That’s what I’ve been thinking for a long time now. I was convinced that Lisa was behind both the crimes.’

  ‘Then you don’t know anything!’ Lisa snarled. ‘I didn’t kill anyone.’

  ‘I think we’ve all had quite enough,’ Lawrence said. ‘Detective Superintendent Locke, are you going to let her go on like this?’

  Andreas cut in before he could reply. ‘Susan knows who killed Frank Parris,’ he said. He could have been a teacher once again, talking to a classroom full of boys. ‘If you sit down and let her finish, she’s going to tell you.’

  The five of them – Lawrence and Pauline, Lisa, Aiden and Eloise, looked to each other. It was Aiden who made the decision for them. He sat down again. ‘Go on, then,’ he said. ‘But maybe you can get to the point. I think we’ve all had enough of this . . . speculation.’

  For someone who had just been told that his daughter had been fathered by another man, he was surprisingly calm. But then I was sure he had always known.

  ‘It all begins with the book,’ I said. ‘Atticus Pünd Takes the Case. That’s what this has all been about. Cecily saw something in it and that’s why she had to disappear. The letter to Stefan that I mentioned just now – she wrote it after she had read the book.’

  ‘Did she tell him what she’d seen?’ Pauline asked.

  ‘Unfortunately not. She did say that she had always suspected who had killed Frank Parris, but it had been proved to her on the very first page. The question is, what page was she referring to? I assumed she meant the first page of Chapter One, but there’s nothing there. So maybe it was the author biography or the reviews or the chapter headings. I looked at them all. But actually, it was much simpler than that. It was the dedication. “For Frank and Leo: in remembrance”.

  ‘Why did Alan write that? Was it because they were both dead? Or could it actually mean something quite different? Frank, of course, was dead. But maybe Leo wasn’t and Alan was telling him that he remembered, that he knew who he was. Maybe it wasn’t a dedication at all. Maybe it was actually a warning.’

  I let this sink in. Then I continued.

  ‘I never met Cecily and I wish I’d known her better because I’ve come to realise that her character is the key to everything that happened. When was she born, by the way? I’d imagine that it was sometime in November or December.’

  ‘It was November the twenty-fifth,’ Lawrence said. Then he added: ‘How did you know?’

  ‘That would make her a Sagittarius,’ I said. ‘And of course, astrology was very important to her. That was something that was impressed on me from the very start. Aiden told me that she started every day by reading her horoscope, but it was more than that. On the day of her wedding it told her to prepare for ups and downs and instead of just dismissing it with a smile or pretending she hadn’t read it, she became very upset. When she went down the aisle, she was wearing an astrological necklace. I’ve seen the photograph: three stars and an arrow. Sagittarius. We stopped in a pub on the way down from Norfolk – the Plough and Stars – and it was the name that made me realise what had been staring me in the face all along. Astrology pretty much defined Cecily’s life. Even her dog, Bear, was named after a constellation.’

  Hearing its name mentioned, the dog thumped its tail once, lazily, against the floor.

  ‘But it goes further than that,’ I went on. ‘In his long email to me, Lawrence mentioned that Cecily was first drawn to Aiden because they were “compatible”. That’s a word you often find in astrological charts. He actually met Cecily on his birthday, when he was showing her round a flat, and we know that was the start of August 2005, which would make Aiden . . .’

  ‘ . . . a Leo.’ Andreas completed the sentence.

  ‘Cecily would have known that Leo and Sagittarius go together very well. They’re both fire signs: they share the same values, the same emotions; they come together in security and trust. At least, that was what she believed. And of course, she would have been assured by the tattoo that Aiden has on his shoulder. Lionel told me that it is a cosmic snake, a big circle with a tail. But actually what she saw is a symbol – some people call it the glyph – that is used to represent Leo.’

  ‘I’m Leo,’ Aiden said. ‘She was Sagittarius. We suited each other. What’s the big deal?’

  ‘You knew Frank Parris.’

  ‘I’d never met him before in my life.’

  ‘That’s not true. You claimed you were working as an estate agent in London, but even Lawrence was surprised how well you’d managed to do for yourself. You were in your twenties so how could you possibly have made enough money to get yourself a place on the Edgware Road? You had to be making money some other way. And here’s another thing. When I asked a friend of mine who knows about these things, he was surprised that a twenty-something rent boy was able to work out of an expensive flat in Mayfair. He couldn’t possibly afford it. But suppose he had the keys to an unoccupied flat as part of his job? Suppose he worked as—’

  ‘You’re wrong,’ Aiden cut in before I could finish.

  I ignored him. ‘Let’s go back to Frank’s arrival at Branlow Hall. He doesn’t like his room and you get sent in to sort it out. You meet and suddenly he’s your best friend. I’ve listened to the recording of Cecily’s interview and even she thought he was being too friendly. She said he was “all over” Aiden. Of course he was! He’d slept with you – quite a few times! And when he said goodbye, he folded his hands around yours. I remember that detail. It struck me as very strange.’

  ‘He was a creep.’

  ‘Cecily thought he was playing with you in some way. That he was sneering at you. And then there was that business with The Marriage of Figaro. He said it was his favourite opera, that it had a great story and that he was looking forward to seeing it at Snape Maltings. Except it was all lies. It wasn’t actually on. What was that all about?’

  ‘I’ve got no idea.’

 
‘That doesn’t matter, Aiden, because I think I have. What is the story of The Marriage of Figaro? It’s about a pervy nobleman, the Count Almaviva. He’s in love with Susanna, his wife’s maid, but she’s about to marry Figaro. So on the actual night of the wedding, the Count tries to use his “droit de seigneur”, which gives him the right to take Susanna to bed with him.

  ‘I learned a bit about Frank Parris when I was in London. He enjoyed sex games that included submission and humiliation. In a way, he saw himself as a bit of a Count Almaviva. Let’s imagine that he came to Branlow Hall and bumped into a rent boy he knew from years back. He’d often paid Leo for sex. But now Leo’s come up in the world. He’s about to get married into a nice family with a nice job waiting for him on a plate. What will Lawrence and Pauline say if they discover the truth about their new son-in-law? Frank has got Leo exactly where he wants him and a delicious idea comes into his mind. He will exercise his droit de seigneur. He will fuck the groom on his wedding night.

  ‘I think that when he put his hands round Aiden’s, he was passing him a duplicate of his room key. By then the two of them had come to an agreement. It probably gave him a real kick giving Aiden his room key right in front of the woman he was about to marry.’

  ‘You’re making this all up,’ Aiden said. ‘This is all lies.’

  ‘Well, let’s see what happens next. Let’s imagine that you’ve decided that you’re not going to play along with what Frank has demanded. Instead, you’re going to get rid of this sick pervert once and for all. And you’ve got the perfect fall guy to take the blame.

  ‘You go to the party which Lawrence and Pauline have thrown for the staff. Cecily was taking sleeping pills – diazepam – and it would have been easy for you to steal a few of them and spike Stefan’s drink. When he went to bed that night, he was drugged, not drunk. The following morning he was bleary-eyed. He would have slept through anything.

  ‘Cecily had also taken a pill and she was asleep when you crept out for your midnight assignation. It was important to you that Stefan should be seen entering room twelve, but you had it all arranged. You collected the toolbox from the maintenance shed and put on a beanie just like his. You went in through the front door and took the lift up to the second floor. Derek Endicott was sitting in the reception area down below. How were you going to get him upstairs to see you?

  ‘The answer was Bear, the dog. My guess is that you used the Irish brooch that sits on the table beside the basket.’ I had it in my handbag and took it out, then unclasped the needle, which was about two inches long. I placed it on the table in front of Locke. ‘When this is all over, maybe you should have it analysed, Detective Chief Superintendent. There should still be traces of Bear’s blood. I think Aiden jabbed it into him and that’s why he barked.’

  I turned back to Aiden.

  ‘So, Derek comes up to see what’s wrong. He’s kneeling to examine the dog and you flit past, going along the corridor towards room twelve. It’s dark up there. He barely has time to see anything: just the beanie and the workbox. Of course, he assumes it’s Stefan. Even so, he goes across to the corridor to see but by the time he gets there – only a few seconds – the man has disappeared. What does that tell us? Derek doesn’t hear anybody knock. He doesn’t hear voices. No explanations or greetings or anything like that. Frank might have propped the door open using a waste-paper basket or something, but I think that’s unlikely. Part of the fun was Leo letting himself in and of course he has a key.

  ‘You’re in room twelve. Frank is waiting for you. You wait until Derek has gone back downstairs. And then you take out the hammer and beat Frank to death so violently that come the next day, he will be unrecognisable. There was a lot of anger in this murder. I knew that from the start. And you had every reason to be angry.

  ‘But the night wasn’t over yet. You took money from Frank Parris’s wallet and you also needed some of his blood to sprinkle onto the bedclothes and the shower in Stefan’s room. I think that’s why you stole Lawrence’s fountain pen, which had never been used and which wouldn’t contaminate the blood sample. You used the reservoir to suck some of Frank’s blood into the pen and then you took it, along with the money, to the stable block. There was a duplicate key in Lisa’s office and it would have been simple for you to get hold of it too. Stefan wouldn’t wake up. He was still drugged, sound asleep. He didn’t hear the door open. He didn’t see you hide the money and spray a few drops of Frank’s blood. After that, you got rid of the pen and went back to bed.

  ‘Let’s not forget the “Do Not Disturb” sign. You had killed Frank because he threatened your marriage to Cecily. It was essential to you that the marriage went ahead. That’s why you put the sign on the door after the murder. Presumably, you got Stefan’s fingerprints onto it while he was asleep. And then sometime after the service and before the big party, you must have taken it down again. Why did you do that, Aiden?’

  ‘I’m not answering any of your questions.’

  ‘Well maybe it was because you didn’t want to go on the honeymoon. After all, you didn’t love Cecily. I don’t think you even liked her. My guess is that you married her for the money and the security and the life of a country squire. Maybe it even gave you a kick, ruining her big day.

  ‘And you almost got away with it. Except that a few weeks after the murder a writer turned up at the hotel looking for a story and it was your bad luck that he found you.

  ‘Alan Conway recognised you too, didn’t he? That’s why you were reluctant to talk to him. I’ve listened to the tape he made when he was talking to Pauline and what’s the first thing he says when he sees you? “We’ve already met.” At that moment, everything makes sense for Alan. He knows who the killer is and in his own way he’s taunting you just like Frank did a few weeks before. Of course, you have to try to cover yourself. “Yes. I was in reception when you arrived,” you explain, for the benefit of Pauline. But then what does he say a few moments later? “Please, call me Alan.” And you reply: “I’m not playing this game.” Because that’s what it is, isn’t it? An unpleasant game. You both knew the truth. You’d met over dinner in London . . . and Frank Parris was at the table too!

  ‘Nothing happens now for eight years. Alan has disappeared and you probably heave a sigh of relief when you hear he’s dead. Maybe you’ve glanced at what he’s written, but on the face of it Atticus Pünd Takes the Case has got nothing to do with Branlow Hall. You think you’ve got away with it.’

  I took another sip of water. Everyone in the room was silent, watching me, waiting for me to continue. Only one of them – Locke – was sitting there with his eyes fixed on Aiden, realising what he had done and perhaps even what it might mean for his future career.

  I put down the water. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Andreas give me a smile of encouragement. I went on.

  ‘Then Cecily reads the book.

  ‘Let me go back to what I know of her character. Lawrence told me that she was too good-natured, too trusting, the sort who believes the best in everyone. He was talking about her relationship with Stefan but he could just as well have been referring to her relationship with you. Melissa Conway even compared her to Dora in David Copperfield. I think Cecily went into her marriage with the same innocence. She had no idea what she was getting into.

  ‘But she found out soon enough. I don’t know what it must have been like living with you, Aiden, but she must have known you weren’t quite the Prince Charming of her dreams. Even in the early days when you were engaged, you obviously weren’t up to much in the bed department because she was having to satisfy her needs with Stefan. And later on? Women are intuitive. We sort of get the idea when we’re married to a homicidal maniac.

  ‘But even if she suspected that you killed Frank Parris she still had no evidence – mainly because you had no reason to. You’d never even met him. So what happens when she opens the book and she sees the dedication – “For Frank and Leo”? If Aiden is Leo than suddenly everything that happened during
Frank’s visit – his strange behaviour, his lies – makes some sort of sense. And let’s not forget that’s exactly what you were to her. The beloved Leo to her Sagittarius.’

  ‘Aren’t you forgetting something?’ Aiden looked at me defiantly. ‘I was the one who gave her the book. I read it before she did. I told you that.’

  ‘That’s what you said to me, Aiden. That’s what you wanted me to think because it made you look innocent. The book identified the true killer of Frank Parris, so whoever the killer was, he’d be the last person to let Cecily see the book.

  ‘But the truth is, by the time I arrived at the hotel, you hadn’t even read it; at least not all of it. Of course, you wanted to. You had to know what was in it – what Cecily had seen. But you had difficulty getting hold of a copy because, as it happened, there had been a major glitch at the distribution centre in Didcot. I actually met the publisher and he told me that nobody had been able to get hold of Atticus Pünd Takes the Case for about two months. The copy that you showed me was brand new and my guess was that it had only arrived a day or so before I did and you’d only just started it. When I asked you if you’d enjoyed it, you described it as twisty and said the ending had a sucker punch. But those weren’t your words.’ I picked up the paperback and handed it to Lawrence. ‘If you look at the reviews that are printed at the beginning, you’ll see that the Observer described it as twisty and the author Peter James said it had a sucker punch. I used to meet a lot of people in publishing who did the same. They pretended they’d read the book when in fact all they’d done was glance at the crits.’ I glared at Aiden. ‘You’d got as far as page 20. That’s where Algernon turns up. You didn’t have a clue what happened next.’

  ‘Where is Cecily?’ Locke hadn’t spoken until now. Finally, he got to his feet, choosing this moment to take charge.

  Aiden didn’t reply, so I did. ‘I think he killed her.’ I glanced at Lawrence and Pauline. ‘I’m sorry. You have to ask yourself why Cecily made the call from her office in the hotel rather than from home – but of course she didn’t want to be anywhere near Aiden. Unfortunately, Eloise overheard her and I suppose she told him.’ I glanced at her. ‘Did you?’