A Christmas Murder: An Eliza Thomson Investigates Murder Mystery

by VL McBeath

  “No, I don’t suppose it would, unless Mrs Appleton was the killer… Not that I’m saying she is, I could be mistaken. Perhaps it was Mrs Appleton I heard falling. That might make more sense.”

  Eliza nodded. “Yes, it would. I must admit, I didn’t notice anything, but I was one of the furthest away.”

  “Can I say something?” Mrs Reed had more colour in her cheeks as she leaned forward in her seat. “Mrs Appleton said she was the murderer in the game and if she was, she tapped me on the shoulder no more than five seconds before I heard her fall.”

  “Did you hear her trip or just her shout when she fell?”

  “There was a rustle of material as Mr McRae mentioned, but Mrs Appleton hadn’t touched my shoulder by then. It must have been about half a minute later that she tripped over the body.”

  “All right, that’s interesting. So, I’d suggest that if we’re looking at such a time lag between Rosamund falling and Connie tripping over her, then anyone in the room could be our killer. There would be time for everyone to move away.”

  “Even your father,” Mr Reed snapped. “Maybe there’s a reason he was so keen to leave.”

  Eliza pulled herself up to her full height. “That’s nonsense. Archie, tell him.”

  When Archie appeared preoccupied with Connie’s wrist, Mr Reed continued. “If it’s nonsense, where is he? He should be back by now.”

  “He’s gone to the station to report a murder, not the theft of a piece of ribbon. These things take time.”

  “Well, may we sit down while we wait?” Mr Reed studied his empty glass. “And get another drink? We’ve been through enough without you playing detective as well. I’m sure it can wait until tomorrow.”

  “So, the murderer has a chance to abscond?” Eliza glared at him, but her attention was distracted when the door opened and Mr Bell rejoined them.

  Eliza gave Mr Reed a smug grin. “Oh good, you’re here … don’t you have the police with you?”

  “No.” Mr Bell’s shoulders sagged. “The station was busy and with it being Sunday the sergeant said he couldn’t spare anyone.”

  “You did tell him it was a murder investigation?”

  “Yes, of course I did, but he wouldn’t budge until more of his men were back from their beats. He said he’d call as soon as he could.”

  Eliza closed her eyes and tried to relax her shoulders. “Very well. In the interests of time, I suggest we get down as many facts as we can so that once the sergeant arrives, we can pass him the information and go home. Let me get my notepad and we’ll start.”

  Chapter Six

  Eliza took several minutes to compose herself before she was ready to call a halt to the murmuring in the room. She was about to stand up when Archie appeared by her side.

  “Are you sure you’re up to this? I’ll help if you want me to.”

  Eliza gave him a faint smile. “I’ll be fine. I was just thinking, but I suppose we’d better get on with it.”

  Archie put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t dismiss me so quickly. I fear you’ll have trouble with some of them. They’re not expecting to be questioned by a woman. Maybe if I sat with you…”

  Eliza got to her feet, the smile disappearing from her face. “Thank you, but it’s about time they got used to it. Not that I don’t want you to sit with me, but you have to let me do the talking.”

  “Do I ever do anything else?”

  The lines on Eliza’s face softened. “It has been known, but I’ll say no more about it if you get everyone sitting down. I think we’d better stay around the fire, away from the body. Here, I found this; it might help.”

  Eliza handed him a small hand bell she’d found on one of the occasional tables.

  “I’m not using that!” Archie refused to take it from her and instead clapped his hands together. “Can I have everyone’s attention, please? If you could all take a seat around the fire, we’ll try to get this over and done with as soon as possible.”

  With further grumbling, everyone wandered to the far end of the room and found a seat.

  Eliza stood by the fireplace as she waited for them. “Right, thank you. I’m afraid this isn’t going to be easy, but we need to find out who took the life of dear Rosamund. The biggest question I have, and it must be troubling you too, is who would want Rosamund dead? I only met her earlier today but from what I saw and what you’ve told me, she was very popular. Not the sort of person you’d expect to make enemies. Can anyone think of a reason why someone would want to kill her?” When the room remained silent, Eliza turned to Mr Cranford. “What about you, sir? As the victim’s husband have you any ideas?”

  Mr Cranford’s watery eyes stared blankly at her. “Me? Well, no, I can’t say I have.”

  Eliza glanced at Betty, wondering if perhaps she knew any better, but when Betty did nothing but stare at the carpet, Eliza turned back to Mr Cranford. “Do you know if she’d upset anyone recently?”

  “Rosamund upset someone?” Mr Cranford gave an involuntary laugh. “No, of course not. She was such a delight…”

  “What about you, Betty? You and Rosamund were very close I believe.”

  Betty didn’t look up. “We were when she wanted to be. What good is she to me now? She knew I couldn’t manage without her and yet she does this…”

  Eliza’s mouth dropped open, and she glanced at Archie before she continued. “You can’t think she did this on purpose?”

  “Well, she only has herself to blame. She was the one who insisted we play this silly game. I told her it wasn’t necessary, but she loved being the centre of attention.”

  “And so she’d mentioned it in advance?”

  Betty’s head shot up. “No. I found out about it at the same time as you, but I told her what I thought. I said you’d all prefer to go home. If she’d listened to me…”

  Eliza paused. “All right, let’s consider that for a moment. Had Rosamund told anyone she was planning a game of Murder in the Dark today? Mr Cranford, had she mentioned it to you?”

  The expression on Mr Cranford’s face didn’t change as he stared blankly at Eliza. “I hadn’t seen much of her…”

  “She hadn’t said anything in the days leading up to the luncheon? She must have spoken to you about Christmas.”

  Mr Cranford shook his head. “No…”

  “Mr Cranford’s been very busy at work lately,” Betty said. “He and Rosamund hadn’t spoken properly for weeks. That’s right, isn’t it, Mr Cranford?”

  This time he nodded. “Yes.”

  Eliza turned back to Betty. “And so you saw more of Rosamund than anyone else and yet she hadn’t told you of her plans?”

  “I’ve already told you.”

  Eliza sighed. “All right, so we’ve established that everyone was fond of Rosamund, nobody knew about the game until we were finishing luncheon and everyone in the room had the opportunity to wield the knife. That doesn’t give us much to go on.”

  “I think we should check everyone for signs of blood,” Mr Reed said. “Whoever stabbed poor Rosamund must have some on their hands or clothes.”

  Archie stretched out his hands for everyone to see. “We could, but to be honest there wasn’t much. The killer plunged the knife in in such a way that there was very little blood. I imagine Mrs Appleton will have some on her because she probably knocked the handle, but other than that you can see by the wound, there’s not a lot of blood.”

  Eliza sensed the tension in the room rising again. “Why don’t we check, anyway? It can’t do any harm.”

  With Archie tasked with examining the clothes and hands of the men, Eliza ran her eyes over the ladies.

  “Check handkerchiefs too,” Eliza said. “If anyone had blood on their hands, that would be an obvious place to wipe it. Now, let me look at you, Connie. Oh dear, what’s that?” She pointed to a wet patch on Connie’s navy skirt. “It’s a good job your skirt’s dark…

  “It’s ruined!”

  “Don’t be silly. I don’t suppose it w
ill stain. A good scrub should get it out; the skirt’s new, isn’t it?”

  Connie sniffed. “It was, but I won’t be wearing it again. Even if there’s no mark, I’ll know…”

  “She can’t go washing it, anyway. The police need it as evidence.” Betty studied the skirt. “If you ask me, that’s not the mark of someone who fell onto some blood, it looks more like the blood has dripped onto them.”

  “Nonsense,” Eliza said. “You can tell it’s been smudged. Now, what about you?”

  “I don’t have anything on me.” Betty’s light grey skirt appeared pristine even as Eliza straightened out the folds.

  “No, that looks clear.” After checking Betty’s hands and handkerchief, Eliza moved to Mrs Reed.

  “Now then, Mrs Reed, there’s no need to be nervous.”

  “It wasn’t me though, honestly, I couldn’t say how this got here.”

  Eliza stared down at the right-hand side of Mrs Reed’s emerald green skirt.

  “Blood!”

  “I didn’t do it.” Mrs Reed’s voice was an octave higher than it had been moments earlier. “I only noticed it when you started to talk about it.”

  Eliza indicated to Archie to come and check the mark for himself.

  “It looks like something that was covered in blood has been wiped onto your skirt. Can I see your hands?”

  Mrs Reed’s hands shook as she held them out for the doctor.

  “What’s going on here?” Mr Reed jostled Eliza out of the way.

  “We’re not sure yet.” Archie indicated that Mrs Reed could put her hands back on her lap. “Your wife has blood on her skirt and we can’t say how it got there. Her hands are clean enough, which suggests that someone else wiped it onto her. Mrs Reed, do you remember feeling anyone brushing against you?”

  “Well … n-no. Nobody except Mrs Appleton when she pretended to murder me.”

  “Me!” Connie instinctively held out her hands. “It wasn’t me; I don’t have any marks on my hands. Eliza, you’ve already seen them …. and Dr Thomson has.”

  “Calm down.” Eliza put a hand on Connie’s arm. “If you were our pretend murderer, I presume you touched Mrs Reed’s shoulder before you fell.”

  Connie visibly relaxed. “Yes, I did … of course I did.”

  Archie crouched down beside Mrs Reed. “Please think, do you remember anyone touching you after we heard Mrs Appleton fall?”

  “I-I couldn’t say, but I don’t think so. As you know, I was sitting down when the lights came on and then, well, once I saw Rosamund, I fainted. When I recovered, Mr Bell was with me.”

  “I knew he had something to do with it,” Mr Reed said.

  Mr Bell jumped to his feet. “Don’t go blaming me.”

  “Well, who else is there to blame?”

  Archie stood between the two men. “Mr Bell has no blood on his hands or clothes.”

  “But he went out, didn’t he? He could have washed his hands easily enough.”

  “If I’d have been the murderer, do you think I’d have come back?”

  “Exactly!” Eliza said. “Father was watching over your wife, not setting her up for murder.”

  Mr Reed’s eyes glinted as he stared at Connie. “But your friend wasn’t. She was in the chair next to my wife; I saw her myself.”

  Betty glared at Eliza. “Of course. Isn’t it obvious? Your friend murdered my dear Rosamund and when she found the blood on her, she wiped it on poor Mrs Reed, hoping that no one was looking.”

  “No, that’s not true…” Connie’s eyes were moist as she stared at Eliza. “Why would I? Eliza, you always say that people need a motive as well as the opportunity. I had no reason to want Rosamund dead.”

  “You were jealous of her.” There was venom in Betty’s voice. “She was so nice, and you hated her for it.”

  “That’s enough, Mrs McRae.” Archie stepped between her and Connie. “Mr McRae, could you come and sit with your wife, please? I think things are getting a little out of hand and we all need to calm down.”

  Mr McRae’s face was unreadable as Eliza stepped back and allowed him to take the seat beside Betty.

  “Let me see if I can get us all a nice cup of tea…” Eliza turned on her heel and hurried to the door.

  “And some more brandy,” Mr Reed called after her.

  Before she could cross the room, there was a knock at the front door. She hurried into the hallway to see a short, stocky man, with a large handlebar moustache, step into the house. His navy blue uniform with three stripes on the arm confirmed he was from the police. Thank goodness for that.

  “Good evening, Sergeant. Thank you for coming.” She headed down the hall with a polite smile fixed on her lips. “Forgive me for being forward but we’ve been waiting for you. My name’s Mrs Thomson, and I’ve already started the questioning, but things are getting rather tense…”

  “You have?” The sergeant took a step back.

  “Now, don’t be like that, Sergeant. I can assure you, I’ve plenty of experience. Shall I update you on what we’ve found out so far?”

  “If you don’t mind, the first thing I want to do is find out what’s been going on. Who’s the man of the house here?”

  “Well, that would be Mr Cranford, but he’s in no fit state to give you all the details.”

  “I’ll be the judge of that, thank you. If you could just take me to him, that will be all.”

  “Y-yes, of course, but may I suggest that if you have any questions, you ask me?”

  “I’ll do no such thing.” The sergeant set off down the hall causing Eliza to scurry after him. As soon as he stepped into the drawing room he stopped abruptly, his eyes fixed on the shape under the sheet.

  “I’m afraid that’s poor Mrs Cranford,” Eliza said. “We left her there so you could study the scene yourself.”

  “Yes, quite.” He glanced at the body before striding to the far end of the room. “Which of you gentlemen is Mr Cranford?”

  Mr Cranford stood up and offered the sergeant his hand. “Good evening, Sergeant…”

  “Dixon, sir. Sergeant Dixon. I’m sorry to hear about your wife, but I’ll need to ask you about the events of this afternoon. Is there somewhere quiet we can go?”

  “Well, yes, but you might be better speaking to the others first.”

  “In good time, sir. The first thing is to speak to you and get a doctor here to give us more details about the death.”

  Archie stood up and offered his hand to the sergeant. “Good evening, Sergeant. I’m Dr Thomson.”

  “Dr Thomson?”

  A faint smile crossed Archie’s lips. “Yes, I see you’ve already met my wife.”

  The sergeant glanced at Eliza. “Yes, indeed.”

  “Don’t worry, she’s quite respectable. I can vouch for her.”

  Eliza opened her mouth to respond when a raised eyebrow from Archie forced her to close it again.

  “I’ve already examined the body and can tell you the victim was stabbed with what I believe to be a fruit knife,” Archie said. “There was very little visible blood, but I suspect the patient had internal bleeding and died of shock. We’ll need a post-mortem to confirm that obviously.”

  “Were you summoned to the house to treat the patient?”

  “No, in actual fact we were guests for luncheon and were here when the murder took place.”

  “Now, sir, let’s not be hasty,” Sergeant Dixon said. “We don’t know it was murder.”

  Eliza gasped as she stepped between the sergeant and her husband. “What else could it be when there’s a corpse with a knife in its chest? It was hardly an accident.”

  The sergeant held up his hand. “Mrs Thomson, as I told you, this is police business now. I need to talk to Mr Cranford first and then I’ll speak to Dr Thomson. I don’t want to jump to any conclusions.”

  “We’ve already been through that while we waited for you. If you’d just let me tell you what we know…”

  The sergeant turned his back on Eliza as
he focussed on Mr Cranford. “Is there another room we may use, sir, somewhere we won’t be disturbed?”

  “Well, yes, the morning room isn’t being used. Follow me.”

  As the two of them left the room, Eliza bristled under the sergeant’s glare. He could do that all he liked. He’d soon realise he needed her help if he wanted to get this case solved before Christmas.

  Chapter Seven

  As soon as Mr Cranford led the sergeant from the room Eliza and Connie moved from the fireside to sit on a settee closer to the door. Within seconds Archie and Mr Bell joined them.

  “What a to-do this is,” Mr Bell said. “I wouldn’t like to be the police trying to sort this one out. We’re all friends here, I can’t imagine why anyone would have harmed poor Mrs Cranford.”

  “Is that what you’ll say to Sergeant Dixon?” Eliza asked.

  “Probably. What else can I say? I didn’t see or hear anything.”

  “What about you, Archie? What will you tell the sergeant?”

  Archie shrugged. “Nothing you don’t know already. That Mrs Cranford was still alive when we found her but died shortly afterwards. I’ll show him the body and the murder weapon.”

  “Yes, I suppose you’ll have to … although don’t be surprised if he decides she accidentally fell on the knife.”

  “Don’t be like that, he hasn’t seen the injury yet.”

  “Well, he shouldn’t jump to conclusions then. At the very least, he could have taken our word for it.”

  “Don’t take it personally.” Archie patted Eliza on the back of a hand. “He will by the time I’ve finished with him.”

  Eliza nodded. “Good. I imagine he’ll ask you about the time of the stabbing. What will you say?”

  Archie puffed out his cheeks. “It could have been any time after the lights were switched off. Did anyone notice what time that was?”

  “It was half past three when we came back in here,” Connie said. “We then spent quite a while talking about the rules of the game and dealing the cards. It was probably at least quarter to four, I would say.”

  “I wouldn’t argue with that,” Eliza said. “She must have been stabbed shortly after the lights went out, because we didn’t play for long. And then at best I imagine she only lived two or three minutes after she was attacked.”