“Why would I want to frame and kill Mr. Endecott and also frame Irene and Charles?” retorted Miss Carter in anger.
“When you stole the wills from Mr. Kerr’s briefcase, you read the clause in Lord Fitzhugh’s will. You realised that Arthur could contest the will later and so you had to frame him for the murders of Lady Fitzhugh and Hector. You were also the one to tell me about Arthur’s Indian dagger, but you later told me that you hadn’t seen the dagger when you entered Lady Fitzhugh’s room.
“That Irene was the illegitimate daughter of Lord Fitzhugh was known only to two other people besides Lady Fitzhugh. One is Charles and the other, by his own admission, is Richard Seymour – your accomplice. Richard carefully avoided mentioning it when he told me about the conversation he had overheard in the stables. I suspect that Lady Fitzhugh also requested that Slattery and you be witnesses when she mentioned that Kerr would be bringing her will and you knew the reason why.”
“That’s poppycock,” said Richard. “I’d never met Miss Carter until I started courting Pippa.”
“That’s not true. You pretended not to know her and she played her part of not liking and disapproving of you very well. It was part of the plan and it would have been easier for Lady Fitzhugh to talk to Miss Carter about you. Some ladies confide in their housekeepers, especially if they trust them and have something in common.”
“You mean to say that Pippa’s innocent after all?” asked Cora.
“Yes, Mrs. Fitzhugh. It was necessary to arrest her as part of our plan to flush out the real murderers and that’s exactly what happened. Once Pippa was accused and in prison, the real murderers had to act since she was vital to their plans.”
“How could Pippa be vital to their plans?” asked Cora.
“If you remember, when I arrested Pippa I said that she was trying to kill Hector because if he died before her then she would inherit everything.”
Cora and the elderly sisters nodded.
“Well, that was how these murders were planned. After Miss Carter read the wills, she put them back in Kerr’s briefcase while she was serving Lady Fitzhugh tea in the living room. Lady Fitzhugh and Hector definitely needed to be eliminated. Therefore, Miss Carter added extra arsenic, which she stole from the shed, into Hector’s tonic. Since arsenic is an ingredient in Fowler’s solution, the coroner would conclude that Hector died due to the chemist accidentally adding an extra dose of it. After Hector’s death, Richard would propose marriage to Pippa and would then convince her to make a will in his name as he had Pippa under his power.”
“So Hector ruined their plans?” asked Cora, stunned.
“Correct! Hector’s disobedience is what saved him. He pretended to take a spoonful of the tonic and spat it out into the sink when you were not looking. He was actually getting better by not taking the toxic tonic. Therefore, they decided that they had to get rid of him another way, and that opportunity came when Hector wanted to go riding with them.”
“What do you mean that Richard had Pippa under his power?” asked Cora.
“Hector told me that when Pippa was comforting him after his fall, he heard Richard telling Pippa to fetch help. Pippa was about to leave when Hector, who was in a semi-conscious state, gripped her hand, forcing her to stay. Richard was then forced to ride back and get help. What bothered me was why would any man ask a lady who was comforting a wounded child to go get help? Hector, being an astute child, told me that Richard was the only man who had showed interest in Pippa and that she always obeyed him because she was afraid of losing him.”
“You’re right about Hector, Detective. He’s very observant,” said Cora proudly.
“If Pippa had left Hector, Richard would’ve suffocated the boy. When help arrived, it would’ve been too late. Everyone would’ve been convinced that Hector had died due to his injuries from the accident. Once I worked that out, I eliminated Pippa from my list of suspects. If Pippa had then married Richard and made a will in his name, she would have been signing her own death warrant. Having murdered before, Richard would not have hesitated to murder Pippa in order to inherit the estate and, after inheriting, he would then have made a will making his daughter the beneficiary.”
“His daughter?” asked Cora.
“Yes, his daughter who was born in the Kimberley Concentration Camp during the Boer War.”
“Detective Carlyle, it seems to me that you have a talent for making up intriguing stories,” said Richard. “I suppose you missed your calling to be a writer of detective stories. I’m not listening to these silly accusations; I’m leaving.”
Dermot shouted as Richard got up to leave. “Constable Lyons, please bring in Mrs. Argyle and her husband.”
The door opened and Constable Lyons came in with Nancy and Gerard Argyle.
“This is Gerard Argyle and his wife, Nancy, the daughter of Richard Seymour.”
Nancy looked at Miss Carter and Richard. “Alister, Jane, what are you doing here?” The two were silent; the look of surprise and defeat were evident on their faces.
“Nancy is the main reason why all this has happened,” Dermot continued. “This estate would’ve been hers one day if their plan had succeeded.”
“How did you find her?” asked Miss Carter.
“We discovered that Bertram Kerr had gone to Scotland because Lady Fitzhugh wanted Richard investigated. My theory is that when Slattery saw Richard he found him familiar. It was only when he was writing his memoirs that he suddenly realised who Richard resembled.” Dermot held Slattery’s memoirs up and turned to the page with the drawings. “Slattery had drawn pictures of men with and without facial hair, probably to while away time. However, it suddenly struck him that Richard had facial hair and that his hair was slightly longer than usual. He probably suspected that Richard wasn’t who he said he was and that he was actually Peter De Villiers, the son of Lord Fitzhugh’s business partner.
“Mrs. Ainsworth had told me that neither Lord Fitzhugh nor Slattery had met Peter. He’d been in Germany and had only returned to fight in the Boer War. Slattery told his suspicions to Lady Fitzhugh and, since she never liked Richard, she asked Mr. Kerr to go to Argyle Castle to find out if it were true. Kerr managed to gain Lady Argyle’s trust and she showed him her engagement picture of her and a young Christiaan, who was her brother, with facial hair. Kerr, who had seen Pippa and Richard in London, found the resemblance of Christiaan to Richard striking. He forcibly took the picture and then threatened to expose Richard. A few hours before arriving back in Meadowford, Kerr made a trunk call to Lady Fitzhugh to explain that he was bringing her the proof. That is why she told Pippa to invite Richard to the party so that they could be sure. At the party that evening, Kerr told Lady Fitzhugh who Richard really was when they went to the library. He showed her the picture as proof.”
Dermot held up the picture of Lord Fitzhugh and Christiaan that he had found in the safety deposit box and a sketch of a man with facial hair.
“Here’s proof that Richard and Peter are the same person. The man in the picture is Christiaan without facial hair. I remembered Mrs. Ainsworth telling me how different Slattery looked with a moustache when I saw this picture of Lord Fitzhugh and Slattery taken in South Africa. So I had Constable Beckett, the police artist, make a sketch of Christiaan with facial hair and slightly longer hair. The resemblance is uncanny.
“Once Lady Fitzhugh and Mr. Kerr had established who Richard really was, Lady Fitzhugh told Pippa and Richard to meet her the next day. She intended to reveal Richard’s true identity to Pippa and then to threaten to disinherit her if she did not give him up.”
“Will someone please explain to me what’s going on,” said Nancy in bewilderment.
“Mrs. Argyle, Alister – or Richard as he is known to us – is
your father and Jane – Miss Carter – is your grandmother. Her real name is Rowena Naude. Before they came to Argyle Castle, they were masquerading as Ethel and David Northam. They’ve been murdering members of the Fitzhugh family and any others who got in their way so that you could inherit this place.”
Nancy looked horrified.
“What made you suspect that they were Alister and Jane?” asked Gerard.
“It was actually what you told me when I asked you why you didn’t have a butler. You said that Alister and Jane came to work at Argyle Castle when the Somme battles were taking place. Your excellent memory for details helped me solve one part of the mystery that had stymied me as to what happened to Ethel and David Northam after they were presumed dead in a car crash.”
Nancy sat on the chair next to her and covered her face.
“How did you know that she’s my daughter?” asked Richard.
“When I saw her at Argyle Castle, I felt that I had seen her somewhere before. Later, I realised that she resembled the picture of your daughter, who you told me died in the Spanish flu epidemic.”
“Who killed Bertram Kerr?” asked Gerard.
“It was Richard. Mr. Kerr used the picture he stole from Lady Argyle to blackmail Richard and to get the diamonds that once belonged to Richard’s father. After killing Kerr, Richard took the train back to London and bought the engagement ring for Pippa, claiming that he had been shopping for the ring all day.”
Richard looked stunned and Dermot continued saying that they had checked with the jewellers where he bought the ring and that he bought it after four p.m. After killing Kerr, he took the train leaving Meadowford Station at two p.m., giving him ample time to get there, buy the ring, and go to Selfridges when Pippa was about to leave work by five.
“Yes, Kerr was a greedy and unscrupulous man,” said Richard. “He first sent me an anonymous letter telling me that he knew who I really was. He then disguised his voice when he telephoned asking me to meet him at the Carlton Inn. When we met at the inn, he told me how he had forced it out of my aunt that I had the diamonds and showed me the picture of my father. I gave him the diamonds, but he still wouldn’t give me the photograph. When he turned to place the diamonds in his desk drawer, I took a thin rope from my pocket and strangled him. The diamonds fell on the floor, so I collected them and left,” said Richard.
“He was a brute and liked to dominate people,” Dermot said. “I personally witnessed that when I had lunch with him at the Meadowford Inn. You missed a diamond when you were collecting them from the floor, which gave me an inkling as to why he was murdered. I suspect that when Slattery told her Ladyship that you were probably Peter De Villiers, she went through her father’s documents and saw the letter where Christiaan wrote about sending the diamonds to a safe place. She told Mr. Kerr about the diamonds and he forced it out of Lady Argyle about you having them.”
“But Detective Carlyle, who killed Abigail and hurt Miss Carter?” asked Alice impatiently.
“That’s another mystery that troubled me because we found no trace of the man, and the truth is that he never existed. When I attended Mrs. Howard’s garden party at the vicarage, she was telling us about her classmate – Lily Anderson, who was also a student of Lady Fitzhugh – who had a habit of spinning a yarn just to get out of trouble. I realised that’s what happened in this case. Miss Carter tried to kill Abigail by pushing her down the stairs to the laundry room, to make it look like Abigail had accidently fallen. However, Abigail dropped the basket, which rolled down the stairs, and fought back, pushing Miss Carter into the wall. That’s how Miss Carter hurt her head. Despite her age, Miss Carter is a strong lady and may’ve tripped Abigail with her leg or Abigail must’ve lost her balance and fallen down the stairs, breaking her neck. Either way, Miss Carter’s plan hadn’t gone the way she intended. When Pippa and I arrived at the scene, she made up the story that an intruder attacked them and escaped through the laundry door.”
Alice stood up with rage and like a wild tigress she ran across the room to Miss Carter and grabbed at her throat. “You witch,” she screamed, “you killed our Abigail…”
The police constables sprang into action and pulled Alice away.
“Sit down, Alice, or you’ll be sent to prison,” said Inspector Enderby sternly. He then told Dermot to continue.
Dermot looked at Miss Carter. “Abigail was another person in your way and you had to get rid of her.”
“But Abigail yelled that she was being attacked and asked me to help her,” said Miss Carter.
“True, I admit that stymied me for some time. You heard her talking to me in the library when you arrived with Pippa and you questioned her later, while she was collecting the clothes to be laundered, about what she was telling me. When she disclosed what she had told me, you knew you had to get rid of her because if she said anything more it would arouse my suspicions. When she yelled ‘Help… Miss Carter… Help me,’ she was shouting for someone to help her and couldn’t understand why you were attacking her.”
Miss Carter sat stunned for a moment. “That stupid girl. When I questioned her, she told me about hearing the clock chime twice at four-thirty and how she didn’t see Pippa in front of the library door. She wanted to talk to you again and I couldn’t allow her to do that.”
“You’re very cold hearted, Miss Carter. You treated Abigail’s life like a piece of crockery that’s easily discarded. You also had no qualms about blaming Francis Abernathy for cutting the saddle strap and for killing Abigail in the suicide note. When I suggested that you must’ve been the intended victim and not Abigail, you lied about seeing someone leaving the stables while talking to Constable Barnaby. You knew from Richard that Francis was in love with Pippa and that he used to follow them at times. You used the information we gave Arthur about Francis being seen at the train station when Kerr and Abigail were killed to your own advantage.”
“I don’t understand, why kill her?” asked Alice, exasperated.
“Because of whom she didn’t see and what she heard while airing the laundry,” said Dermot. “While talking to me in the living room, Abigail refused to say anything more when she saw Miss Carter and Pippa standing at the library door. She was mistaken about Pippa being responsible for Hector’s accident. When I was interviewing Pippa after Hector’s accident, I remember Abigail came in with the tea and she heard Pippa telling me that she was outside the door at four-thirty.
“I do not contest what Pippa told me. However, I do believe that Abigail didn’t see Pippa at that time. How is that possible? One of them must have been lying, right? No! They were both telling the truth. Why would Miss Carter want Abigail to give Constable Jenkins lemonade just as she was going to air the laundry? It’s because she had to get Abigail away from the laundry yard so that she wouldn’t see Richard emerge from the woods and enter the stables to cut the saddle strap after Charles had left. It was Miss Carter who summoned Charles through the indicator board.
“Since the clock chimes every half hour, Richard moved the hands on the clock forward by nearly fifteen minutes. So when he and Constable Barnaby heard the clock chime it was actually four-fifteen. Later, I found out from Alice that Abigail had found it odd when she heard the clock in the library chime four-thirty again through the open library window while she was in the laundry yard.”
“Why would Richard do that?” asked Flora.
“To have an alibi so he could leave the manor and cut the saddle strap.”
“That’s impossible. Constable Jenkins was guarding the front door and he didn’t see anybody leave or enter,” said Cora.
“That’s true, but the reason Richard was at the window was to see when Charles left the stables. He could act only after that. You’re right that he never left the manor from the front door. How
ever, there’s another way he left without being seen.”
Dermot walked to the statue of Queen Elizabeth and pushed it hard to the right. The statue moved to reveal a low tunnel. Everyone gasped.
“The entrance is low, but the tunnel behind is high enough for people to walk normally. Richard used this tunnel, which leads to an opening in the woods, close to the stables, hidden by a slab and bushes. He cut the leather saddle strap with the knife that Miss Carter had kept on the tray for the apples. No wonder it became blunt, Alice told me that Mrs. Withers was grumbling about it later. Miss Carter deliberately suggested that Pippa and Richard have tea in the library so that Richard could then use this tunnel to go to the stables without being seen when he was alone in the library.
“Richard also used this tunnel on the night that Lady Fitzhugh was murdered. Miss Carter let him in because it can only be opened from inside. I found some oil stains from a car on a dirt road near the tunnel’s opening in the woods. Richard had parked his car there when he pretended to go back to London after the party. He also brought the rope that was used to tie Lady Fitzhugh. Miss Carter, you signalled him with the candle from the library window, which was seen by Charles when he woke up hearing the horses agitated.”
“My word! How did you find this tunnel, Detective?” asked Arthur.
“Charles told me about the horses being restless on the night of Lady Fitzhugh’s murder and I went into the woods to investigate. Strangely, the cat that Abigail used to feed led me to it and I discovered the tunnel. It was an escape route for priests when the Catholics were being persecuted during Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Mrs. Ainsworth told me that the library used to be a Catholic Chapel and that this statue was placed to fool the Queen’s soldiers that she had been accepted as the head of the new church. The tunnel was forgotten after the manor was renovated by Lord Cecil Fitzhugh in the early 1800s.”
A Bloody Hot Summer Page 22
