DEADLY DECEPTIONS
Page 27
“My, my, Pauline, my girl,” I said to myself, “That’s certainly some bloody ruckus they’ve got going on up there in Cambridge, isn’t it?”
Then I smiled, took a chocolate digestive biscuit from the plate in front of me and poured myself another cup of tea.
“I wonder,” I said to myself thoughtfully, “if the paper boy would like an air pistol?” Then I smiled again. “I really can’t see me ever needing it again. After all, what on earth would an old lady like me ever need a gun like that for anyway?”
I am sure, Inspector, that you must be wondering why an old woman like me would even think of doing such a thing but somehow I have a feeling that a man like you would understand. I have followed your career for years now and I feel I know you and the kind of man you are.
It was actually done for two reasons. The first, obviously, was to avenge my brother. The second, perhaps less obvious, was to keep a promise I made to him. It may seem to be a rather frivolous reason to commit murder to you, but to me it was a matter of family honour and integrity.
A promise made is a promise kept and that’s all there was to it. The fact that, in my heart, I truly believed that Sir Alfred Allenby was responsible for the death of my brother, Parker, made my decision and task that much easier.
The letter concluded with the comment that, if the police wanted positive proof and were prepared to dig around a bit for it, the murder weapon was a German Mausser automatic pistol.
It could be found, laying somewhere in the mud and weeds, on the bottom of Little Carrington’s village duck pond.
It was signed:
Sincerely, but with no regrets,
Pauline Prentiss.
Middleton, now retired, handed the lengthy letter to Rachel, still beautiful and his partner now for several very happy years, to read. Then he poured himself a double Scotch and made a mental note to run the letter over to Detective Superintendent Bristow in Cambridge later that day, to complete the file on an unsolved and still outstanding murder case.
In his whole police career, it had been his only unsolved one, and murderer or not, he felt a wealth of genuine respect for the old lady who had pulled it all off so convincingly – and an overwhelming gratitude to her for finally sharing the details of it with him.