Lips White As Snow

7-If In Doubt, Stake It Out.

"Well, this just got every single shade of crazy" Edmund commented to Hawes, as they leant on the gate to the nature reserve while paramedics and policemen once again swarmed the premises.

"On the contrary" Hawes replied curtly.

"You are kidding" Edmund sighed. "This doesn't fit, does it?"

"Naturally" Hawes replied. "Well, most of it."

Edmund's eyebrow shot up.

"Most of it?"

Hawes rolled her eyes.

"The man you found, he died of cardiac arrest. Standard side effect of a overdose of cocaine. The little girl, too, was vomiting and shaking-and her little heart was beating far too fast. She's clearly overdosed too. Why and how though... That's the question."

"Right" Edmund sighed, having been outsmarted again.

"There's also the fact" Hawes carried on regardless "that this poor sod is probably not only Mr. Strange, I presume though I don't know, but is certainly also our mystery waiter. Which really ties up all the possible loose ends apart from the obvious. How it was done."

"And why the girl" Edmund added. Hawes's nostril flickered.

"That too."

At that point, Officer Verma came up behind them, holding a wallet in a plastic evidence bag.

"The man's been identified, sir, ma'am" she declared smartly. "A Mr. J. Strange."

Hawes's smug smirk made Edmund want to wipe it off her face.

"Thank you" the D.I replied curtly. She beckoned to Edmund, and they wandered further away from the scene.

"I have a feeling we are being watched" Hawes then murmured quietly. "Someone here is keeping an awfully close eye on us, and for good reason. However, we still need to get back down that shaft. I've had an idea..."

"What does it entail, may I enquire?" Edmund asked tiredly. Hawes sighed.

"The house, where Larcombe lived. It wasn't a house. Nobody has lived in that place for years. Again, I'd stake your life on it."

"Thank you" Edmund retorted sarcastically.

"Meaning, of course, that it is very likely that that house was just used for stashing stuff" Hawes continued. Edmund looked blankly at her. She groaned.

"The fact that the remains of the body were discovered over the trapdoor means that it would be impossible for a potential killer to murder the man, hide him under the floorboards, make some attempt to embalm him, and then escape down the trapdoor whilst nailing the floorboards down as he goes. Meaning that for the killing to go unnoticed for so long, the murderer would most likely have been seen by someone leaving the house, and that person if they so exist wouldn't have thought twice about it. Which leaves two potential suspects, as only two people ever came and went to that house daily."

"...Mrs. Tooke, and Johnny Strange?" Edmund agreed, catching on a little. "But if it was Strange, then why did he lead us straight to it?"

"Exactly" Hawes nodded.

"So Mrs. Tooke murdered her father?"

"Indeed. Quite probably, anyway. I've got no proof as of yet, but I suspect as much. Dear Lord. She really isn't the most imaginative of souls, is she?"

Edmund took a step back and re-evaluated his entire existence.

"You just solved a murder" he spluttered. "In, like, an hour..."