Four Red Diamonds (A Lady Marmalade Mystery Short Story Collection Book 1)

by Jason Blacker

  “So I should be taking notes, then?” asked Lilly.

  “I don’t,” said Lady Marmalade, “but the police usually do.”

  “I think I shall,” said Lilly.

  She dug into her purse and pulled out a pencil and a small notebook.

  “Okay,” she said, looking at Sir Anthony, “please carry on.”

  “That’s it my dear. That’s the story. Who did it?”

  “Who did what?” asked Jane. “Nobody’s been killed yet.”

  “I think he wants us to tell him who ate the most food,” said Ellis.

  “Oh yes,” said Anthony, “I forget to tell the murder.”

  He winked at them.

  “I told you it was a dark and stormy night and the lights were flickering on and off throughout the night. Well, it was not long after the women retired to the living room that the lady of the house keeled over dead.”

  “How awful,” said Jane.

  “Yes, indeed,” said Anthony. “Those at the scene, the women, described the lady of the house going stiff and having difficulty breathing before she fell over dead, apparently from her heart stopping. It was later confirmed that death was primarily from cardiac arrest.”

  “So she was poisoned,” said Lilly, furiously writing notes.

  “Yes, she was,” said Sir Tony. “Anyone want to take a guess at what kind of poison or which poison it was.”

  Anthony looked around and his eyes settled on Lady Marmalade. She smiled at him.

  “I don’t know my poisons that well, Sir Tony. Only that they are often used in murders, but from what you’ve said, I have no idea what type of poison it is.”

  Sir Tony looked at Ellis and his wife and then at Jane.

  “Not a bloody clue,” said Ellis. “But I’m glad we got to the good parts.”

  Lilly slapped Ellis playfully on the shoulder.

  “I’m worried about you,” she said, “and your fondness for the macabre.”

  “In all seriousness, the story I tell is a real murder. In fact if you read the paper you might have heard about this murder on the inside pages,” said Anthony.

  “Well, in that case, I’ll temper my enthusiasm,” said Ellis feeling self-conscious.

  “Nobody for guessing the poison, then?” asked Anthony, looking around the room one last time.

  “It was batrachotoxin,” said Anthony.

  “The bat did it,” said Ellis. “I win.”

  Lilly and Jane laughed at that. Sir Anthony and Lady Marmalade smiled.

  “A poisonous frog in other words?” asked Lady Marmalade.

  Anthony nodded.

  “A South American poisonous frog to be exact,” he said.

  “How on earth did you know that, Fran?” asked Jane.

  “I read an article the other day in National Geographic where they were talking about South American Indians. These Indians were called the, um, Choco Indians, from Colombia if I recall. Anyway, they use these colorful frogs to obtain a poison that they use on their darts when hunting their prey,” said Frances.

  “How ghastly, and yet, how fascinating,” said Lilly.

  “The interesting bit though, is that the amount you need to kill an average man is only about two grains of salt worth,” said Frances.

  Sir Anthony had the saltshaker in his hand and he poured a dash onto the wooden table in front of him.

  “You stole my thunder, Fran,” he said, winking at her.

  “Sorry,” she replied.

  “Not at all,” he said, “though Lady Marmalade is absolutely correct, and it’s one of the reasons I wouldn’t want her on my case if I was a murderer. Wouldn’t you say it is your breadth of knowledge that is so helpful in solving murders?”

  “I think so, but I think more importantly it is curiosity. I’m very curious about everything. Maybe because I’m bored, but if you have a breadth of curiosity and knowledge you can see possibilities that others don’t or won’t,” said Frances.

  “This dash of salt here before me,” said Anthony, pointing at the scattered white grains in front of him, “is enough to kill all of us at this table.”

  “Good Lord,” said Ellis.

  “Yes indeed,” said Anthony, “would anyone like to try some?”

  He grinned at them as Lilly leaned back in her chair.

  “This, thankfully, is only salt. Nevertheless, so little can do so much. So fragile is this fabric of life. But let me continue on with the story to give you the full picture,” said Anthony.

  Alfred came by and took some empty dishes. Lady Marmalade poked at a bit of her flummery before taking a small bite. It was mostly a lump of the whipped cream on top. Sir Anthony had practically finished his and Ellis had actually finished all of his. Then Alfred came by with the port bottle and topped up Sir Anthony and Ellis’ glasses. Lilly and Jane were still nursing theirs, as was Lady Marmalade.

  “So, as is usually done in cases of sudden death, the police were called. It was the husband of the deceased who called the police. Due to the weather he had a devil of a time getting through. He told police he only managed to reach them on the third try.”

  “Can you give us their names, Sir Anthony?” asked Lilly, “that would be awfully helpful.”

  “Yes, sorry, that would be much easier to tell, too. The deceased, or lady of the house, was Melissa Kay. Her husband’s name is Roger Kay. On this occasion, as mentioned previously, they were joined by their son, James Kay, and Melissa Kay’s sister, Ellie Gatwick. Also present was Melissa’s friend, Laura Lynch.”

  Lilly scrawled down the names in her notebook, then she took her pencil and rested it on her bottom lip as she studied her notes.

  “You know,” said Jane, “I do remember reading about this now that you mention it. But that must have been over a year ago.”

  “Almost eighteen months ago,” said Anthony. “Now be truthful, do you remember who did it and was eventually found guilty of it?”

  “No, I’m afraid I can’t recall. I just remember the name. I remember thinking at the time, and I suppose what reminded me now was her last name, Kay. Kay for some reason rhymed with gay in my mind and I remember thinking how awful to be murdered, not gay at all,” said Jane.

  “Well, if you do remember, if any of you do, then it isn’t fair that you’re allowed to guess, because, well, that’s cheating,” said Anthony.

  “Doesn’t ring a bell for me,” said Ellis.

  “Me, neither,” said Lilly.

  “I don’t recall it at all, Sir Tony,” said Frances, “was it here in the UK?”

  “No, that’s why I thought it might be a safe bet. They were a respectable, but by no means rich family who had made their way to Australia a couple of years before. That’s why her murder only drew a small bit of attention in the inside pages of the paper.”

  Lady Marmalade pushed her dessert plate forward. Lilly and Jane followed suite. Alfred, always attentive, came by and cleared the table.

  “Why don’t we all retire to the living room, to more comfortable seats to hear the rest of the tale of intrigue?” said Frances.

  They all followed Lady Marmalade into the living room where they took more comfortable seats. Lilly and Ellis took one couch, Sir Anthony and Jane took another and Lady Marmalade sat in her husband’s soft and well-worn leather armchair.

  “The police came and interviewed everyone. Melissa’s husband said he hadn’t noticed anything strange during the evening. His wife had eaten well, neither more or less than usual. She had stuck with her usual drinks. When pressed, Roger did acknowledge that she seemed a bit withdrawn. He mentioned that they had retired to the smoking room, he and his son, and the ladies had retired to the living room. He said it was about five or ten minutes later when he was called in by Ellie and saw his wife lying strangely on the floor. She wasn’t breathing, he checked and he could find no pulse. She seemed quite pale and stiff. They didn’t try to move her, though he covered her with his jacket to give her some dignity in death.”

 
“How was his emotional state?” asked Frances.

  “Ah ha, you’ve done this sort of thing before haven’t you?” asked Sir Anthony rhetorically. “The Australian lead police investigator said in his notes that Roger Kay seemed genuinely upset at his wife’s death. He kept asking why, and at one point he took to tears.”

  “What about the others? What were their responses?” asked Ellis.

  “The son said pretty much the same as his father, though there were some discrepancies. He agreed that his mother seemed withdrawn, but he said that was because they had been fighting like cats and dogs the last few months. At least whenever he was around which, granted, wasn’t more than once or twice a month.”

  “Had they fought that night?” asked Jane.

  Sir Anthony looked at her and shook his head.

  “No, the son said that he had not found them fighting that day and he had been with them the whole day. It had appeared that they had somehow managed a frosty truce. When asked by the police what his mother and father had usually fought about he said it was money. Roger Kay was upset with the allowance that his wife had put him on. You see, she had inherited a bit of money and Roger had very little of his own means. She had recently reduced his allowance from just over fifteen hundred pounds to eight hundred pounds.”

  “Why had she done that?” asked Lilly.

  “It appears, and this came out much later, that she wasn’t much of a financial wizard herself and the money would not last at their current spending rates.”

  Sir Anthony took another sip of his port. He was getting parched telling his tale of troubles.

  “What else did the son say?” asked Jane.

  “He said, much like his father had, that they had been in the smoking room only ten or so minutes before they were called out and he found his mother in much the same condition as his father had described.”

  “How was the son’s emotional state?” asked Frances.

  “You’re good, you are,” said Sir Anthony. “The son was visibly upset and in tears when the police arrived. It took a while for him to calm down before they could get much useful information out of him. At one point he went into a tirade, shouting that this was all his father’s fault. When asked by the police what he meant by that, he said that his father had killed her because he had broken her heart with his constant pestering for more money. When the police investigator asked James Kay if he thought his father could have really killed his mother, he quickly and vigorously shook his head, realizing what he had just suggested. He said he meant that his father had killed his mother metaphorically. You see at this point, nobody knew the cause of death, it might well have been a heart condition.”

  “Did James say anything else about the possibility that his father was the murderer?” asked Ellis.

  “He did say he wouldn’t believe it if it were true. He affirmed that they fought a lot but recently had seemed to have found a truce. In any event, why would he have killed her now, they had been fighting for many months, surely he would have done it earlier and not at a dinner party. In fact, James seemed to find the idea that his mother had been murdered both distasteful and improbable.”

  “What about James, is there any indication that he might have had motive?” asked Jane.

  “I like how you’re thinking,” said Lilly.

  “We’re getting to that,” said Sir Anthony. “There were two other people to be interviewed that night at the Kay residence. The deceased’s sister and the deceased’s good friend. Who would you like to hear from first?”

  “Ellie, the sister,” said Jane.

  “Agreed,” said Lilly.

  “Why not,” said Ellis.

  “Okay,” said Lady Marmalade, “I’ll go with the majority.”

  “Ellie the sister it is, then,” said Sir Anthony. “Ellie and Melissa were extremely close. They were only ten months apart in age and according to Ellie shared everything, except for boyfriends.”

  The ladies laughed.

  “Ellie said that the last words Melissa uttered were ‘I’m getting tingly and numb.’ Shortly after that, according to Ellie, Melissa got stiff, gasped for air and then fell off the couch dead. It was then that Ellie went to her sister to see if she could revive her. At first she thought that Melissa had just fainted. When shaking her didn’t revive her, that’s when she got up and ran into the smoking room to get Roger and James.”

  “What had she eaten again?” asked Ellis.

  “You mean Melissa or Ellie?” asked Tony.

  “The deceased, Melissa,” said Ellis.

  “She had only had one small chunk of cheese, which had been confirmed by Ellie. Roger asked the same question, thinking she might have choked on a cracker or something, but cheese is hard to choke on. Not impossible but rare. Ellie said that Roger had stuck his finger down her throat to see if he could dislodge the cheese. But he found nothing and by then she was already dead.”

  “So, they were thinking at this time she might have died from more natural causes?” asked Lilly.

  “Yes, you have to remember that at this time, nobody except for the murderer knew that Melissa had been murdered. And the murderer would surely play along. So everyone was thinking heart attack or choking. Roger seemed to rule out choking when he went fishing for the cheese in her throat. The autopsy revealed that her throat was clear and her heart was in fine fettle.”

  “What about the relationship between Roger and Melissa? Did Ellie have anything to say about that?” asked Jane.

  “She had a lot to say about that,” answered Sir Anthony. “She concurred with James that the relationship had been rough for quite some time, many months in fact. Ellie said that Melissa thought it had begun around the time she had to cut back on Roger’s allowance, something she felt awful about. Ellie said that Melissa was also worried about Roger’s fidelity. She felt that Roger had been seeing her good friend, Laura Lynch, on the side. Melissa had confronted Laura about this some weeks before but Laura was shocked and offended that Melissa would even suggest that. At least that is what Ellie told the police. Ellie had said that Melissa did believe her friend but at the same time continued to feel suspicious. Ellie feels that the dinner party was set up in part for Melissa to watch how Laura and Roger interacted.”

  “How did Ellie find Roger and Laura’s interaction at the dinner table?” asked Lilly.

  “Are you taking notes,” joked Ellis to his wife.

  She smiled at him.

  “Should I be?” she asked.

  “Of course not,” he said.

  “Ellie said that as much as she wanted to believe her friend, she didn’t find anything untoward between Laura and Roger at least on that occasion or any other occasion she saw them together.”

  “Were they having an affair?” asked Jane.

  “We’ll be getting to that in due time,” said Sir Anthony. “Ellie told the police that both Roger and James seemed genuinely distraught at Melissa’s death, as did Laura. At the time, Ellie was certain that death was natural, as Melissa had given no indication otherwise. Her mood, though quiet seemed normal and she didn’t complain of feeling unwell at any time during the evening.”

  Sir Anthony reached down for a piece of Stilton skewered on a toothpick. Picked it up and looked at it for a moment.

  “Is the cheese safe?” he asked, smiling broadly at Lady Marmalade.

  “Why don’t you find out,” she said cheekily.

  “I will.”

  Anthony popped it in his mouth and closed his eyes, chewing slowly.

  “Heavenly,” he said.

  Alfred came by and opened up a box of cigars, offering one to Sir Anthony.

  “Por Laranaga,” said Anthony. “A perfect match, Fran, could this evening get any better?”

  Alfred offered Sir Anthony a cigar cutter and Anthony cut his cigar. Alfred struck a long match and offered it out for Sir Anthony to light his cigar with, which he did. Alfred offered the same to Ellis and Ellis accepted.

  “Hmm, this
is a good cigar, Fran. Wouldn’t you say so Sir Anthony?” said Ellis.

  “Most definitely. One of the finest.”

  The men took a few more puffs from their cigars before Sir Anthony restarted the telling of the murder. Lilly picked up a piece of Stilton and popped it in her mouth.

  “Something else that Ellie said,” continued Anthony, “was regarding James. She told the police that the relationship between James and his mother had been strained for some time. In fact, James and his mother had been fighting like cats and dogs around the same time that Roger and Melissa had started fighting. And it was also to do with money. At the time Melissa had cut back on Roger’s allowance, she had done the same with James’ allowance. In fact, from what Ellie said, they had both been cut back to around eight hundred pounds per month from over fifteen hundred pounds before, and both of them seemed to spend money very easily, although for different reasons.”

  “What were those reasons?” asked Lilly.

  “James liked to travel a lot and Roger enjoyed the finer things in life. Expensive wines, cigars, clothes, et cetera.”

  “So he might have had a motive too, right?” asked Ellis.

  “Perhaps,” said Sir Anthony.

  “You’re not going to help, are you?” asked Ellis.

  “No, you have to determine who had motive and who might have done it. I’m only here to retell the tale and to act as an objective omniscient presence, if you will.”

  “Fair enough,” said Ellis, frowning his true feelings.

  “So far, if I’ve got this right,” said Lilly, looking at her notes, “we have possible motive for both the son and the husband. Does that sound correct?”

  Lilly looked at Sir Tony hopefully, her eyes wide in anticipation.

  “Does it?” he asked her back.

  She furrowed her brow and looked at him sternly.

  “You are awful, not even a little bit of guidance, hey?” she asked.

  Sir Anthony shook his head.

  “No, I’m afraid not,” he said. “Ask Lady Marmalade, but at a real homicide you don’t get any guidance from the murderer, if anything you are given red herrings to take you off track.”