‘Now that my father’s killer is eliminated…’ This must mean that Ingrid believed Mike Davies had killed her father (had Mike killed her father?). So she must have avenged her father’s death… but in the letter she does not necessarily admit that she killed Mike Davies, did she?
Darrell slowly walks over to the desk. Ingrid’s computer has gone to sleep but the printer is still turned on. He puts on a pair of gloves and presses a random key on the keyboard. The laptop screen comes to life to reveal an open word processing document. The text cursor is blinking next to the end of the typed note, next to the words ‘SINCERELY, INGRID BAUER.’
Darrell opens the top drawer of the desk and spots a notebook. He picks up the notebook and flips to the last handwritten entry. Skimming the previous entries, common phrases jump out: ‘The British government is to blame’ and ‘the MI6 killed my father’…
♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠
When she hears the phone ringing, Diane quickly runs inside from the backyard, where she and Constable Shannon Toft are playing catch with Rufus.
“Hello?!”
“Diane, quick, turn on BBC Radio 4!” shouts Albert over the phone.
Diane knows her friend and if he is taking the time to call her to tell her to listen to something on the radio, there must be a good reason. Without hanging up, she runs over to the radio that is sitting on the kitchen counter – it’s already tuned to BBC Radio 4.
“ACCORDING TO A PRESS RELEASE PROVIDED BY JULIE PETRIE OF COPSE PUBLISHERS, THE FICTION BOOK THAT HER COMPANY WILL PUBLISH NEXT MONTH IS INSPIRED BY MIKE DAVIES’ TIME WITH THE SECRET INTELLIGENCE SERVICE. PETRIE SUGGESTS THAT THE DEATH OF DAVIES MAY BE CONNECTED TO HIS BOOK; SHE ALSO STATES THAT INGRID BAUER, DECEASED, WHOSE BODY WAS FOUND THIS MORNING, ALSO HAD A CONNECTION TO DETAILS IN DAVIES’ STORY. POLICE HAVE NOT YET REVEALED THE CAUSE OF BAUER’S DEATH, ALTHOUGH A WITNESS, WHO HAS ASKED NOT TO BE NAMED, SAYS BAUER TOOK HER OWN LIFE… IN OTHER NEWS…”
“Oh my goodness! Ingrid Bauer is dead!?” Diane gasps.
“So it is your friend Mike they are talking about then?” Albert asks with an empathetic tone.
“Yes… thank you for calling Albert. I had no idea of this latest development.”
“Diane, are you quite alright?”
“I’ve had a constable here with me overnight, so I’m being protected, but I don’t think I’m in the line of fire,” Diane says, mustering a little laugh.
“See you tomorrow?”
“Yes, tomorrow Albert, although I haven’t gotten much writing done to share with you,” says Diane.
“My dear, you and you alone are more than enough to make an old man like me happy,” Albert chuckles.
When the two friends hang up, Diane calls Rufus in for his supper. Constable Toft follows the dog inside. Her smile quickly morphs into a look of concern when she sees Diane’s overwhelmed expression.
Before the constable has time to ask Diane what’s wrong, there’s a knock at the door. Diane starts to go towards it, but is quickly stopped by Constable Toft who insists on answering it instead.
To both Diane and Constable Toft’s relief, it is Inspector Darrell Crothers standing on the other side of the front door. He thanks the constable for pulling the overtime and sends her home, but not before Diane insists the officer take home some muffins just baked that morning.
When Diane and Darrell are each settled on the couch with a glass of wine in hand, she tells him about what she heard on the radio.
“I heard the same story on another station while driving here,” says Darrell. “And the superintendent says it’s on the tele too. By nightfall, all of the UK will be aware of Mike Davies and Ingrid Bauer and MI6’s cover-up.”
“Julie Petrie really wants to milk these tragedies as much as she can all in the name of book sales, although I’m proud of my friend, Mike, and his book,” says Diane. “But I still can’t believe Julie Petrie went to the press so quickly after Ingrid Bauer took her own life.”
“If she did take her own life,” says Darrell quietly.
“You don’t think it’s a suicide?”
Darrell says that they still do not have the full medical examiner’s report, and he isn’t completely convinced that MI6 might not have something to do with her death. The suicide note had been typed, and it was not even signed, so anyone could have written it. Plus he had seen several people go in and out of Ingrid Bauer’s building throughout the night. While none of them stood out, who knows if one of them shot Ingrid?
“The one advantage of Julie Petrie going public,” Darrell says, “is that your life is no longer in danger. What Mike wrote about, about his and MI6’s time during the fall of the Berlin Wall, is no longer a secret.”
Darrell’s mobile rings. He looks and sees that it is Dr. Jackson who is calling. He, again, through more coaxing and promises of breakfasts along with packed lunches, had convinced the medical examiner to do one ‘last’ favour and go to Birmingham to examine the body of Ingrid Bauer. Dr. Jackson says he isn’t finished with the examination yet, but wanted to let Darrell know that no gunshot residue was found on Ingrid’s hands.
As the doctor explains though, this does not rule out suicide. Apparently, those who fire a gun do not necessarily test positive for GSR in one hundred percent of cases. And unfortunately, Dr. Jackson discovered that before he arrived in Birmingham, fingernail scrapings were mistakenly taken before GSR samples were gathered. This means if Ingrid Bauer did have gunshot residue on her hands, it could have been wiped away.
When he hangs up the phone with the medical examiner, Darrell tells Diane the latest development.
“So let’s imagine Ingrid Bauer did not kill herself… do we then think MI6 did?” Diane posits.
“At least a part of me imagines they could be responsible,” says Darrell.
“Did you ever find any evidence on the rock that was found at Lundy, the possible murder weapon that killed Mike?” asks Diane.
“We confirmed the hair and blood to be Mike’s, but we found no fingerprints and no DNA belonging to anybody else,” Darrell explains.
“So who had a greater motive to kill Mike? Ingrid with her anger, or the MI6 and their need for discretion?” says Diane.
“We might never know,” says Darrell.
Diane changes the subject and tells Darrell her plans on how to pay tribute to her friend. She has already started working on a eulogy to read at his funeral. She wants to remind everyone of his loyalty and his desire for transparency and justice for all.
Since Mike had requested that he be cremated when he died, Diane came up with an idea. She is going to arrange for some of their mutual friends to take a bit of his ashes with them on their travels. His dream had been to sail around the world on his yacht, so at least this way he would still get to cover a lot of distance and be brought to various parts of the world.
“We should say a toast for your friend,” says Darrell, raising his glass.
Diane smiles and says, “Keep them straight, Mike!”
He may have risked his life writing this last book, Diane thinks, but he did it because he really did believe in justice for all.
♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠
In Mauerpark in Berlin, a young teen is juggling a football masterfully with his feet. Fully focused on the ball, he rams right into someone and falls to the ground. Disoriented for just a moment, the boy reopens his eyes to see the person who he must have collided into already a number of strides away. He watches after the person who is clothed in a dark hood and long coat. The teen stands up and finds himself following behind at a safe distance. He’s not sure why he’s following, but feels compelled to do so.
After about five minutes of walking, the teen sees the person stop and stand very still next to a remaining piece of the former Berlin Wall. The person kneels and slowly puts something down on the ground. After a long pause, the person continues on his or her way.
The teen, now very curious, quickly walks to the spot next to the graffitied
section of wall where the person had paused. The teen is too young to remember the Berlin Wall properly, but has been told by his parents of the city’s former state of division.
The boy picks up the item off the ground that the hooded person had left behind. The teen can immediately tell by its shape and its passport-sized photo that it is an identification card. He knows enough English to be able to read at the top of the ID:
“SECRET INTELLIGENCE SERVICE – MICHAEL DAVIES.”
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Don't forget to grab your free copy of Penelope Sotheby's first novella Murder At The Inn while you still can.
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Other Books By This Author
Murder on the Village Green
Murder in the Neighbourhood
Murder in Bermuda
Murder in the Bahamas
Murder in Jamaica
Murder in Barbados
Murder in Aruba
About The Author
For many, the thought of childhood conjures images of hopscotch games in quiet neighbourhoods, and sticky visits to the local sweet shop. For Penelope Sotheby, childhood meant bathing in Bermuda, jiving in Jamaica and exploring a string of strange and exotic British territories with her nomadic family. New friends would come and go, but her constant companion was an old, battered collection of Agatha Christie novels that filled her hours with intrigue and wonder.
Penelope would go on to read every single one of Christie’s sixty-six novels—multiple times—and so was born a love of suspense than can be found in Sotheby’s own works today.
In 2011 the author debuted with “Murder at the Inn”, a whodunit novella set on Graham Island off the West Coast of Canada. After receiving positive acclaim, Sotheby went on to write the series “Murder in Paradise”; five novels following the antics of a wedding planner navigating nuptials (and crime scenes) in the tropical locations of Sotheby’s formative years.
An avid gardener, proud mother, and passionate host of Murder Mystery weekends, Sotheby can often be found at her large oak table, gleefully plotting the demise of her friends, tricky twists and grand reveals.
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Each of our novellas range around 20,000 words each and are perfect for short afternoon reads. Most of the stories published through Fantastic Fiction are escapist fiction and allow readers to indulge in their imagination through well written, powerful and descriptive stories.
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Murder on a Yacht: A Diane Dimbleby Cozy Mystery Page 7
