A Dreadful Murder

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Book: Read A Dreadful Murder for Free Online
Authors: Minette Walters
Tags: Fiction, General, Suspense, Historical, Thrillers, Mystery & Detective
say?’
    ‘That her husband was having an affair with a woman in the village.’ Hamble shrugged at the other man’s frown. ‘No one’s been able to name her . . . It’s just gossip from the grapevine. I’m beginning to feel quite sorry for the Major-General. They all want to see him hanged.’
    ‘But why do they hate him so much?’ Warde asked, staring gloomily at his hands. ‘Has anyone given a reason for it?’
    Hamble shook his head. ‘Not really. It seems to be driven by those at the bottom. They say Mrs Luard passed the time of day with them but the Major-General doesn’t bother.’
    Taylor had focused on the motive for the murder. If he could find out why Caroline Luard had been killed, he might also find the culprit. But after several days of talking to people who had known her, he had come up with nothing. If Caroline had had any secrets in her life, none of her friends or servants knew them.
    She got on well with her husband, and he with her. She enjoyed her life, enjoyed her home, and her only tragedy was the untimely death of her younger son.
    Without a motive, Taylor turned instead to the details of the murder. He was interested in the time it had taken Caroline Luard to walk from the wicket gate to the summer house. At a very slow stroll, the journey took forty-five minutes. At the sort of pace a woman of fifty-eight might have set, it took just short of thirty.
    ‘And why is that important?’ Warde asked him.
    ‘It means there are fifteen minutes of this woman’s life that we can’t account for,’ Taylor said. ‘If she reached La Casa at three o’clock – but wasn’t killed until 3.15 – what happened in the meantime?’
    ‘Go on.’
    ‘There are several options. She met someone there by chance, had a brief chat with him, and was clubbed and shot when she turned to leave.’
    ‘But you don’t like that?’
    Taylor shook his head. ‘Her body was facing the wrong way. For the same reason, I don’t like the idea that she met someone there by prior agreement either. If the missing minutes were taken up in chat, why was she lying face down with her head pointing towards the summer house door?’
    ‘Perhaps her killer left first.’
    ‘She’d have turned to watch him go and you’d have found her on her back with a punch to the face and a bullet between the eyes.’
    ‘So what are the other options?’ Warde asked.
    Taylor ticked them off on his fingers. ‘One – she met someone on the path, decided he was harmless, and offered to show him the summer house. He stood back to let her climb the steps ahead of him and knocked her out before she reached the door. Two – she was followed from the road but didn’t realise it. For reasons of her own, she decided to inspect the summer house and was rushed from behind as soon as she stepped onto the veranda.’
    ‘And with either of those, she would have lain unconscious during the missing minutes?’
    Taylor nodded.
    ‘It wouldn’t have taken quarter of an hour to remove her glove and steal her rings.’
    ‘No,’ Taylor agreed. ‘But an argument about what to do with her might.’
    ‘Explain.’
    ‘I think there was more than one person involved in this crime.’
    * * *
    Extract from a report written by Superintendent
Albert Taylor of Scotland Yard:
    . . . In conclusion, I believe events took place as follows:
    Two or more villains were casing La Casa with a view to breaking into it. Had Mrs Luard arrived thirty minutes later, she would have found the door forced open and the interior ransacked. The aim may have been simple vandalism – to destroy something prized and owned by ‘rich people’.
    It was Mrs Luard’s misfortune to reach the clearing in front of the summer house whilst one of the culprits was on the veranda. He may have tried to dodge out of sight around the corner of the building but I believe she saw him well enough to recognise him.
    She had no reason to fear him otherwise she wouldn’t have mounted the steps.

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