"Is anyone here yet?" I asked, for the umpteenth time, as I hurried down the stairs.
"No" the doctor sighed again.
"Alice? Any sign?" I yelled down to the kitchen.
"They've just disappeared, Miss Allie!" Alice called back from the laundry.
"I thought they would have" I smiled.
"Do yer know where they are?" Alice asked.
"I can take a guess" I said slowly. "Although I don't actually know."
"I thought you knew everything" the doctor remarked placidly.
"I do" I replied. "This, however, is proof. There's a difference."
"Barnes is here" the doctor reported. I hurried to open the door.
"Have you really got it?" Barnes asked excitedly, as he strode through the door.
"I believe so" I replied, as we went to the sitting room to wait.
"Do you have any proof?"
"Some" I replied, a little uncertainly. Barnes tutted.
"You'd better hope it pays off."
"I hope it does too" I agreed.
"They're coming" the doctor called from the hall. Barnes wished me good luck, before heading out back into the hall, where Fisher was standing. The doctor came in, and we sat down, I in the chair by the fire and he by the sofa.
"Are you sure about this, Miss Winter?" the doctor asked.
"Yes" I said, taking a deep breath, as I heard the front door opening, and Lady Morris's angry voice.
"What is the meaning of this?"
"My apologies, ma'am but the case has been solved, and I would be most obliged if you would wait in the sitting room" Barnes snapped back. Lady Morris strode in, followed by everyone else, and I felt a jangle of nerves. I had proof. I had proof.
"This is highly inappropriate, Chief Inspector!" Lady Morris was still complaining.
"My apologies, ma'am" I said, standing up as everyone sat down. "It's me you should be complaining to. I solved the case today at the funeral, and I intend to tell everyone about what really happened on Saturday here, now. Unless anyone has any problems with that?" I asked craftily. That last comment hadn't really been necessary, but I intended to make everyone squirm.
"I think telling us now would be the best option" Barnes advised.
"I think so, too" I smiled. "I mean, the only reason that Harvey was killed was because he knew too much."
That caused a ripple of uncertainty around the room. I settled them down.
"The events over the last couple of days are like a ball of knitting wool, left in a sewing bag for too long. A huge, complicated mess, but a mess that is all carefully interlinked" I began.
"So Harvey's death was linked with the death of Lord Morris?" Mr. Ellis asked.
"Exactly" I smiled. " But let's start from the beginning. You see, the reason that Lord Morris had to die was very similar to a plot in a book I'm reading. He didn't not do it."
"Didn't not do what?" Knight asked.
"Miss Winter, you're not making sense" the doctor sighed.
"Give me a minute" I said. "You see, there was someone in this house who wanted Lord Morris to change his will. They wanted more of his estate and money. Saturday was when Lord Morris finally gave in. He wrote a new will, on that Saturday afternoon, which left Harvey out and gave his share to our murderer, and got Mr. Knight and Alice to sign for it, am I right?"
"How did…" Knight started.
"Questions at the end!" I snapped, possibly a little sharply, before carrying on. "That was about one forty five, and they finished talking at five past two, when I saw Knight coming out of the study. Alice must have left beforehand or maybe after. Now then" I smiled "Our murderer had already arranged to meet Lord Morris in the summerhouse at about half past two, and he must have been going out to meet them when he passed me in the hall, and we had the most strange of conversations. Do you know what he said to me? He asked me whether I would hurt another person to please someone I loved. I replied with the fact that hurting one person might weigh too heavily on my conscience." I looked around the room. I had everyone's attention fully now, and I could see the cheeks of one person growing paler by the second. I might actually be right!
"At the time, I had no idea what he was talking about. Now, I do. Lord Morris was having doubts. Doubts about whether hat he was doing was really the right thing. I gave him the answer that made him destroy the new will in the fire in his study."
"Lord Morris destroyed his own will?" Newham asked, amazed.
"Precisely" I nodded. "But, that isn't even the start of it. The murderer and Lord Morris weren't the only people to have arranged to meet in the summerhouse on Saturday. There was another pair who had arranged to meet much earlier. Harvey was one of them. The other was-"
"Me" Mrs. Ellis interrupted, standing up.
"Would you care to tell this bit of the story?" I asked her. She nodded, and I sat back down on the arm of my chair as she began to speak.
"For those of you who don't know" she started "Simon Harvey had been blackmailing me for a few months now, with some photographs of me with another man before I was married. We had agreed to meet in the summerhouse to discuss money. He taunted me with the photographs, and I managed to pull a corner off one of them, but nothing else. We separated about two o'clock."
There was a stunned silence, to which Knight murmured
"I would never have known."
"Moving on" I said, standing back up. "You all already know how the murderer got the knife, I think I explained that quite clearly a few days ago, and that Harvey must have lost his cufflink while he was taunting Mrs. Ellis, which we all found later in the summerhouse. What we didn't know was that he went back to look for it at half past two."
"So he saw the murderer with Lord Morris in the summerhouse!" Newham exclaimed from his chair.
"Exactly" I nodded.
"So that was why he had to die!" Barnes said, in hushed tones. I nodded.
"But who was it?" Knight asked.
"Well, let's consider the criteria" I said. "Our murderer has to be someone who would benefit from Lord Morris's death, and has to be someone who Lord Morris cared about very much. His wife, perhaps?" I asked, turning to face Lady Morris. She looked shocked.
"You can't really think I murdered my own husband?" she exclaimed.
"Besides, she has an alibi!" Mr. Ellis added. "She was with me in here at half past two on Saturday! The mantel clock said so!"
"Does anybody have a watch?" I asked. I had to keep my head.
"Yes, I do!" Mr. Ellis said angrily, rising.
"Go and put it next to the mantel clock, and read off the times from both" I ordered smoothly. Mr. Ellis glowered at me, before striding over to the mantelpiece, and pulling out his watch. His face changed.
"They're fifteen minutes apart!" he whispered.
"Exactly" I said calmly. "The mantel clock was set fifteen minutes slow deliberately, to give Lady Morris an alibi. It was the first big mistake. It wasn't put back."
Mr. Ellis walked back over to his seat, sitting down with a bit of a thud.
"Why would she kill her husband if she knew the will had been burnt?" Knight asked.
"She didn't" I replied instantly. "She only knew that he had planned to make the will that day. She didn't factor in me changing his mind."
"So, hold on a second" Barnes interrupted. "Lady…"
"Will you not say that!" Lady Morris snapped. "I didn't kill him, and I wouldn't. Miss Winter, you have it wrong."
"Fine" Barnes sighed. "Our murderer persuades Lord Morris to change his will, leaving Harvey out, and then kills him, without knowing the will has been burnt."
"Right" I nodded. "But, our murderer is seen, as the lieutenant says, by Harvey when he returns for his cufflink. And Harvey, being the blackmailer he was, decided to blackmail the murderer. The murderer has no choice but to strike again, and kill him by the arsenic in his coffee. The shooting star is seen, the coffee is poisoned, and it's as easy as that."
"How do you know all of this?" Mrs. Ellis asked.
"I listen, I watch, I remember, and I think" I sighed. "Let me get back to my point."
"Wait" Lady Morris said, a little tightly. "I couldn't have killed Harvey; I was closest to the window when we were all looking out. You all saw me."
I turned and smiled sweetly at her.
"You're right. You couldn't have. But, what you could do was create the distraction for your accomplice to kill Harvey."
"So there wasn't a shooting star at all, then? It was all a distraction?" the doctor asked. I nodded.
"That's right. Lady Morris causes the distraction, and her accomplice poisons the coffee."
"Who is this accomplice of mine, then?" Lady Morris asked. I smiled.
"I can find that out very quickly. Fisher, have those bank details come back yet?"
Fisher got to his feet, a little shakily.
"Y-yes, they, er have. But I'm afraid they're, er, probably not what you wanted. Although there are two large sums of money gone into Harvey's account in the last few days, er, nobody's drawn out any large amounts of money, other than, er, Mrs. Ellis, for at least a year."
"So it's all absolute nonsense!" Lady Morris said. "I only hope you're sorry for all the trouble you've caused, Miss Winter!"
"On the contrary" I smiled. "That, I have to say, was a long shot that paid off quite spectacularly." I added, rather smugly.
"But nobody's paid out any money!" Mrs. Ellis protested.
"Exactly" I said. "That shows me precisely who the accomplice is. He is, quite simply, the only person in this house that could have possibly fiddled with anyone's bank details. The faithful secretary."
Knight started in his chair.
"Me?" he asked. I nodded.
"Yes."
Knight stared open mouthed from me to Lady Morris.
"What reason would I have to help her?" he asked.
"Well" I said calmly. "Wouldn't we all just love to know that!"
"So you don't know?" Dr Scott asked.
"I told you, Doctor, I know everything" I sighed.
"So what reason would he have, in this fantasy dream of yours?" Lady Morris asked. She was keeping her features incredibly calm, and it unnerved me a little.
"He is Kitten's real father and your former husband, and I believe, unless I am very much mistaken, that you two are really still in love" I announced, keeping my eyes firmly fixed on her. She showed, for the first time, some uncertainty.
"You can't prove that, Miss Winter" she said quietly.
"I can try" I replied. "Kitten has your green eyes and Knight's black hair. I heard a conversation between Knight and Lord Morris in the study about a time when he caught you together. You met Lord Morris at a dinner party while you were still married to Knight, you probably hatched your plan then, you would divorce, he would take a post with Lord Morris as a secretary or the like, you would become Lady Morris, then your husband would die, leaving everything to you and Kitten, and you would be free to re-marry Knight and you could all live happily on someone else's money. Harvey's arrival did throw a spanner in your plans, though, didn't it? Killing him was an added bonus wasn't it? Tell me I'm wrong!" I demanded.
"This is all just speculation!" Lady Morris complained.
"A-actually, it isn't" Fisher piped up again. "Miss Winter asked me to enquire about this supposed marriage, and they found a certificate for Isabella Knowles and Frederick Knight, dated ten years ago. They found another for the divorce of the same people."
I folded my arms and glared. Lady Morris shuffled uncertainly, and so did Knight, sitting on the sofa next to her.
"Alright. We were married. But this doesn't prove that we had anything to do with the murders"
Lady Morris admitted.
"Actually…" I interrupted.
"Oh, what now!" Knight spat.
"I've been talking to Alice the maid" I said. "She says that the white gloves that Lady Morris was wearing on Saturday never came through the wash. Bloodstains are so very difficult to get out of white gloves, aren't they, ma'am?" I asked Lady Morris, who didn't speak.
"Shall I ask the police to look through your room?" I asked again. Lady Morris's head snapped up, and her eyes glittered menacingly.
"I…take that as a no, then" I stammered, backing away. "Oh, and something else you can check while you're up there, Barnes, the pockets of Mr. Knight's dinner jacket, for traces of arsenic. Alice says it hasn't been washed yet."
Barnes sent Fisher and six policemen out of the room, and we could hear their feet tramping up the stairs. I stared at Knight and Lady Morris from behind my chair. By the expression on Lady Morris's face, I was glad looks couldn't kill. All I needed to do was get them to slip up, somehow, and I thought I knew how.
"It was very clever, ma'am, I have to say" I praised, not coming out from behind my chair. "Getting the knife from the kitchen and all. Why did you drop it out if your own window, though? If you hadn't, I probably wouldn't have caught on."
"I still don't know what you're talking about" Lady Morris said, shaking her head. "Besides" she added. "How could anyone have known that the servants were going to be in the pantry for the day, therefore knowing that the knife could be taken, that's what I'd like to know."
"I don't think anyone mentioned that, ma'am" I said bluntly.
"Don't be a fool, girl! Of course they did!" Lady Morris blustered, her voice sounding rather high.
"Nobody did" Newham backed me up. "The only people there in the kitchen when we found out about the knife was me, Harvey, Miss Winter, Geraldine, Alice, the Chief Inspector and the Deputy Inspector, and I'm pretty sure nobody said anything about the servants being in the pantry."
Lady Morris sighed, and looked despondently at Knight.
"They've got us" she whispered. "I don't believe it."
At that point, Fisher came back in, holding a pair of white gloves, stained pink.
"You nearly had the blood off them" I commented to Lady Morris, who glowered at me.
"T-there was arsenic in the jacket pocket, as well" Fisher stammered. "Also..." he trailed off, looking a little confused. "We found two spoons, a frying pan, a teapot and four saucers in the dresser."
"Excellent. Geraldine will be wondering where they went" I smiled.
"That wraps up proceedings rather nicely" Barnes remarked, signaling for Lady Morris and Knight to be handcuffed.
"All the same, it's rather hard to believe" Mr. Ellis commented.
"The proof's all there" I reminded him.
"One thing I think you've missed, though" the doctor said. "What was the piece of white thread from?"
"Oh, did I miss that bit?" I asked, biting my lip. "Sorry, I'll explain. "Fisher, can you pass me the right glove?"
Fisher threw it to me, and I caught it. Putting my hand inside, and shuddering a little, I showed everyone a place where the thread had been pulled out.
"When Lady Morris raised her hand with the knife in it, she caught her glove on the thorns of one of the rose plants in the summerhouse, tearing a piece of the thread out" I explained, quickly taking the glove off again, and throwing it back to Fisher, as he and Barnes took Knight and Lady Morris out of the room and to the police cart.
"That was a rather ghastly end to the day" Reverend Carrington remarked.
"I know" I sighed. Now it was all over, I felt a little empty inside.
"Miss Winter, how did you know all those things?" Kitten asked, running over to me, his aunt in tow.
"I listen, I watch, I remember, and I think" I said again.
"What's going to happen to Kitten now?" the doctor asked.
"He'll probably live with me until he's old enough to inherit this place" Kitten's aunt smiled.
"What about the rest of us?" Mr. Ellis asked.
"You will go home, the Reverend will go back to London, the Lieutenant will go back to the hospital, the doctor will go back home too, and I'll go back to Paddington and live with Isabel for a while" I sighed.
"You did very well, today, Allie" Mrs. Ellis smiled, patting me on the shoulder. "Maybe one day we'll meet again."
"Maybe" I nodded sadly, as she and her husband left the room.
"You're a real fighter, aren't you, Miss Winter?" the Reverend praised, coming up and shaking my hand. "Fighters always fight on." He followed the Ellises out.
"Well, Miss Winter, it's been a pleasure" Dr Scott smiled, standing up and shaking my hand. "Although you did sound completely mad for most of the investigation, you pulled it off."
I laughed.
"Thank you for your words of support" I joked, and he laughed too, walking to the door. He was just about to leave when Barnes poked his head back through the door.
"Miss Winter, can I have a word?" he asked.
"Yes, of course" I smiled, coming out of the sitting room with the doctor, and crossing the hall to where Barnes was now standing.
"I need to know how to contact you if I ever need your help again" the Chief Inspector said briskly. I was momentarily stunned.
"Oh. Alright then" I nodded. "I'll probably go back to living with Isabel, and she lives at number 15A, Praed Street, Paddington. Is that enough?"
Barnes nodded.
"Until next time, then, Miss Winter" he smiled.
"Do you think there will be an next time?" I couldn't help but ask.
"I think that there will" Barnes replied, before turning swiftly and walking out the front door, and climbing into the cart. I watched from the door as it drove away down the drive.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
I shut my eyes.
"I would have, really, I would. It's just the doctor had the means to get me back here, so I could answer my last few questions."
"You could have been patient, and not raced away the second you had the answer."
"Are you criticizing me?" I asked indignantly, still not turning around.
"Perhaps I am. You didn't have to sit through that service. It was dull as old bones."
I laughed, and turned around, as I realized Newham was just pulling my leg.
"You did very well today" Newham carried on. "I have to say, I got some of it, but not all of it like you did."
"Which bits did you get?" I asked.
"Well" Newham smiled. "I noticed the clock, but didn't realize what it meant. I knew Knight was involved because of what Alice said to you. As I remember, she only said that he told her not to tell anyone, and it was you that mentioned Lord Morris, and she just went along with what you said."
"Yes" I sighed. "If I had handled that differently, maybe it would have come out a lot quicker."
"Don't blame yourself. The truth's out now, and that's the main thing" Newham smiled, as we climbed the stairs to get changed and pack our things.
"I won't be a minute" Newham said, as we parted in the hall. I shut my bedroom door behind me, and leant up against it, a beaming smile all over my face. I had solved it! And solved it correctly! And Barnes was going to keep in touch so there might be more cases in the future! I felt so happy I could burst, and I almost didn't want to pack up my things. Unpicking my hair, and changing into my blue gingham dress, I packed as quickly as I could, but had to stop as I heard a knock at my door.
"It's just me, Miss Allie" Alice called.
"Come in, Alice!" I called back, and she scuttled in.
"Jus' wanted ter say, well done" she smiled, as she finished packing my case for me. "Although, I don't know what I'm going ter do now."
"You'll find another job soon enough." I smiled, as she handed me my suitcase.
"Are you ready? Newham asked, looking through the door. He had got changed as well, and was carrying a suitcase almost bigger than mine, it looked.
"Yes" I smiled, following him out into the hall. We walked down the stairs in silence, but when we reached the door, Newham turned to me.
"I guess this is goodbye" he sighed.
"I guess it is" I replied, looking at the two carts waiting in the drive. The doctor was already sitting in one, and the other one was empty, going to the train station.
"I'll miss you."
"I'll miss you too."
Newham stepped back, kissed my hand and went to sit in the cart with the doctor. I climbed into the other, and Jenkins the gardener and also cart driver cracked the whip, and we rolled along down the drive. I looked over my shoulder and waved until the other cart was out of sight.