Murder at Locke Abbey (23 page)

Black fixed him a drink as he took a seat.

“Doctor, can you tell me your conclusions on Mrs Garwood’s death?”

“Of course. I brought my notes with me.” He took
out a small notebook and flicked through the pages. “Here we go. She had a blood stain of six and a quarter inches in diameter and her wound was five inches deep. It did not appear to have severed any major vessels however, and I estimate the volume of blood lost was less than would be drawn during a bloodletting.”

“And your cause of death?

“The inquest returned an open verdict.”

“So
is it your opinion that the stab wound didn’t kill her?”

“It contributed to her death but no,
it was not a fatal wound.”

“So what are you saying?” Mr Garwood demanded. “That the
ghost strangled her first? Lord, give me strength.”

“Actually, I believe the cause of her death was poisoning, or to be more accurate, an overdose of opium.”

Mr Garwood began laughing but there was a rather hysterical edge to it. “Suicide! I should have known.” He took a large swig of his drink.

“No, not suicide, her
elixir was tampered with.”

Mr Garwood choked on his drink
, coughing and spluttering in a very ungentlemanly manner. When his spasms subsided, he wiped his lips with his handkerchief, muttering “What ludicrousness is this now?”

“
You probably got the idea from Mrs Cole and it seemed perfect; if you kill her with no visible signs of violence, the chances of it being deemed a murder are very slim. We found a bottle of Rousseau's Laudanum in your room, Mr Garwood, which is one of the strongest laudanum recipes on the market.

“Your wife was taking
Le Mort's Elixir for a summer cold and I smelled the contents of the bottle while in her room. I noticed that it was a lot more palatable then the Le Mort's Elixir I was given as a child, lacking the overpowering liquorice and aniseed scent I remember. Mr Black kindly provided me with another bottle, which is kept to treat various ailments, and it does have the pungent scent I remember from childhood. To be sure, I dabbed a touch of both onto different areas of my tongue, suffice to say, Mrs Garwood’s bottle was far more effective, so much so that I have not yet regained the sensation on that part of my tongue.”

Mr Garwood
wiped his top lip with a handkerchief. “Prove it.”

“I’m sure we can test her bottle of
Le Mort's Elixir before the trial but for this evening, I don’t need to prove it,” she asserted. “Mr Black?”

He approached carrying a silver tray, a serviette covering the contents.
Black removed the cover with a flourish, revealing a bottle of Le Mort's Elixir and Mrs Garwood’s measuring spoon.

“This is your wife’s elixir. If you are certain that you did not add strong laudanum to it, I invite you to take the recommended dose, two teaspoons. Of course, if this is mostly
Rousseau's Laudanum, then two teaspoons could be lethal, especially to someone of your wife’s slight build. You are larger however, so you might be lucky and it will only leave you unconscious for a few hours.”

“I’ve had enough of your childish prattle!” Mr Garwood walked towards the door but Lord Copley moved to block him. Cole joined him. They were soon joined by Lord Small
, Lord Reynolds and Lord Grady.

“If she is wrong, Mr Garwood, then why not prove
her wrong and take two teaspoons of your wife’s tincture.” Lord Grady asked.

“How do I know she has
n’t tampered with it, added grains of opium or something?”

“Good God, man, what would she have to gain by doing that?” Lord Small added.

“No, I will not be a party to this foolishness any longer, let me through.” Garwood insisted.

“Sit down, Sir,” Lord Grady ordered. “The local constables are here to arrest you and Mrs Cole.”

“On whose authority?”

“On my authority. I am a magistrate, Sir, and unlike
Lord McAllister, I believe in justice rather than avoiding scandal. Now, be seated, or be taken into custody immediately.”

“Fine!” he topped his glass up and slumped down into his chair.

The gentlemen remained standing, although they separated a little, standing like sentries around the room. Cole came to stand behind Thea’s chair, worried that Mr Garwood might snap and lunge at her.

“What I would like explained, is who stabbed her. Right now, this all sounds like some elaborate excuse because no one can explain who stabbed her.”

“That’s easy to explain, Mr Garwood.” Thea said. “I realised what had happened while watching the play earlier.”

“Then by all means, do enlighten us.” Garwood’s voice was dripping with sarcasm.

“After taking her tincture, your wife continued writing a letter she had started to a friend of hers. She began to feel the effects of an opium overdose, namely symptoms such as drowsiness, weakness, cold, clammy skin, and shallow breathing, and she knew that something was wrong and surmised that you had killed her. She got a new sheet of paper to write your name but was unable to write properly, the drug was overcoming her with frightening speed and she realised that if she succumbed to its effects before raising the alarm, people would not know what had happened.

“
Her eyes alighted on the paper cutter and she picked it up. Perhaps the drug was making her confused but I think more likely, she intended to try and stab herself. She headed towards the doorway but her equilibrium was off, she pulled the papers and inkwell off the desk, she knocked into the table, causing the vase to fall, then she fell to the ground, the weight of her fall forcing the paper cutter into her flesh. Thankfully, she was probably beyond feeling pain by then. You may have killed her, Mr Garwood, but her determination that you not get away with it means that she beat you, she found a way to let everyone know that her death was unnatural and now, you will hang for what you did.”

“So the maid
, the Potter girl, discovered what Garwood had done and was attempting to blackmail him?” Lord Small asked.

“I don’t believe she knew about the murder, only a fool would blackmail a murderer, but she did know about the affair. With his wife so recently dead and Mr Cole so close to death, he decided that
discretion was the better part of valour. He agreed to pay her but never actually intended to and on the night they were to rendezvous, he planned to kill her instead. I dare say he planned something far cleaner, probably strangulation but Mary had a lot of defensive wounds. She put up far more of a fight than you thought, didn’t she, Mr Garwood? It enraged you. Then you heard a scream from upstairs and realised that the house wasn’t as asleep as you thought. You panicked and grabbed the closest thing to hand, the poker, and proceeded to bludgeon her to death.”

“So I kill
her and just leave her body to be found?”

“I’m sure you intended a clean death and to dispose of the body, but the sighting of the
ghost entering the woods put paid to that idea. With the house waking up, then footsteps coming in this direction having heard Mary’s cry as you killed her, you had no choice but to leave her and run to wash and change, hoping you wouldn’t be missed.”

“Pure s
peculation,” Garwood muttered.

“Perhaps, but I believe we have enough to convict you, especially once the contents of your wife’s elixir are analysed.”

“So what was the ghost that was seen in the grounds that night?” Lord Small asked.

Cole stiffened, hoping that Thea wouldn’t tell him
that they suspected it was his own daughter, running into the woods to meet Michael Reynolds.

“It was a servant,” Thea
lied. “Cole actually realised what had happened.”

“She was meeting a man from the village,” Cole added. “If you don’t mind, I would rather not give the name as it was told to me in the strictest confidence.”

“Of course,” Lord Grady agreed. “You may be required to give it at trial but we shall see.”

“It was his idea!” Mrs Cole suddenly cried. “He
made me poison Beau so we could finally be together!”

“What! She’s lying!” Garwood answered.

“He seduced me and made me love him and promised that if I did as he said, he would look after me.”

“Shut up, you stupid fool!”

“No! He killed the maid too, because she was blackmailing him, she overheard us talking and threatened to tell Beau that my daughters aren’t his! He did it all!”

Cole stiffened as he realised what Thea had t
ried to hide from them, that his half-sisters weren’t his kin.

“Is this true?” Lord Small demanded of Garwood.

“NO! Absolutely not!”

“It’s all him! He told me to marry
Beau, even introduced us. Everything was his idea and he made me poison Beau or he would ruin me. I didn’t want to. I’m so sorry.” Selena began sobbing, real tears this time.

“You witch!” Garwood hurled back. “She is the one who said we had to marry rich people
, she’s the one who killed that maid and put the poison in my wife’s tonic. She’s obsessed with me and always has been! None of this was my idea and I
did not
introduce her to Mr Cole. Nor did I tell her to kill him. She is the one who gave
me
the idea to kill-” He suddenly stopped, realising what he had said thanks to his inebriated state.

“That sounds rather like a confession to me,”
Lord Small noted.

“Agreed,” Lord Grady answered him. “Now all we need to know is
, which of them is telling the truth?”

“Does it matter? They’ll both hang.”

Selena sobbed harder at Small’s words.

“I prefer to have the whole truth, when possible.”

Cole looked down to Thea, who was chewing on her thumb nail.

“Hey,” he whispered, putting his hand on her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

Thea shook her head so he nodded, encouraging her to say what she was hiding. “It’s all right.”

“
I… As far as I can tell, Mrs Cole is telling the truth,” Thea admitted and although her voice was soft, everyone in the vicinity heard (and the few who didn’t were soon told). Getting up from her chair, Thea made her way behind it, her eyes begging Cole to understand her deception.

He put a reassuring arm around her shoulders and nodded that he understood.

“Father found the blackmail letter during his search of Mr Garwood’s room. Mary stated that she knew the truth about Maria and Sylvia’s parentage and would tell the Master unless Mr Garwood left one hundred pounds in the green parlour, which she would collect later.” Thea looked to Garwood. “Instead, he waited there to ambush and kill her.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Lord Grady asked.

“I didn’t want the children growing up with the stigma of having two murderous parents.” She looked back to Cole. “I intended to tell you when we were alone, and let you decide what to do with the letter.”

She looked terribly worried about h
is reaction but honestly, he had suspected the truth himself so of all the shocks he’d had recently, this was one of the lesser ones. Tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, he smiled.

“I would prefer they didn’t have that burden but then again, the truth
always comes out eventually. It’s better to live with an uncomfortable truth, than a damaging lie.”

“You won’t…
?”

“No,” he assured her.
“We can discuss the specifics at some other time, but I’ll never abandon them.”

In truth, he wondered if he could adopt them. With both parents dead, it surely wouldn’t be difficult to become their guardian, he was only worried that Thea might balk at the idea of a readymade family and two children. He hoped not, he thought she was better than that, but he worried
nonetheless.

“Well, I would say that was a good night’s work,” Lord Grady answered, turning to his daughter. “My dear, I should escort these two to the jail with the constables, will you be all right if I ask Mrs Small to keep an eye on you?”

“I’ll be fine, Daddy,” Miss Eleanor smiled.

He looked to Mrs Small. “I’m afraid I may be late returning.”

“It’s no problem, Sir. She can sleep in my bed with me, there’s room enough for two, or if she would prefer, I’m sure a cot can be brought into the girl’s bedroom.”

Lord Grady looked to Black, who nodded his as
sent.

“Then I shall leave the choice to
you, my dear Eleanor.”

“And if nobody minds, I think I would like to turn in for the night,” Cole said, hoping Thea would agree.

“Yes.”

“Of course not,” Lord Small assured him.

“With your permission, I’ll take care of your guests,” Lord Reynolds offered. As their closest neighbour, he had a better knowledge of the Abbey than most of the guests.

“Thank you, Sir. Please feel free to spend the night if that is more convenient for you.”