Good day, madam," Max greeted.
The plump woman sat down without replying. She was shivering in an apparent apprehension. Soon she broke into tears.
"Oh God, I'm so scared," she cried out. "It's such a bad and gruesome affair I can't make head and tail of it. Oh!"
"I don't understand," the perplexed detective asked. "What do you mean, madam?"
I'm sorry I don't know what's happening to me." She took a handkerchief and sniffled into it. "I must be losing my head."
"Can you calm down a bit let's go over this from the start?"
"Why, yes, I guess I can do that." She wiped her face and then she appeared calmer that a moment ago.
"You are Beatrice by name?"
The poor liitle old woman affirmed with a nod.
"When did you come into the service of the deceased?"
She thought for a moment with a distant look in her eyes. "Oh besides the driver, Mr. Hutton, I came into this house before everyone else. Say, it's been eight years now. Oh how time flies."
"Before coming to this house, have you ever met with the deceased?"
She shook her head. "It was the same day he saw me hawking food on the roadside, oh the Lord bless his good soul, that he took me into his service."
"So,what do you know about him?"
"Oh dear, you should have seen how much of a gentleman he was. How nice he treated us. He never scolds, never complains about what we do, he gives us freedom and pays us well. He was good, almost too good to be true, if I may add. My, it's true the saying, 'the good ones never last.' She was almost sobbing again.
'Almost too good to be true.' It reverberated in Max ears. "Did he display any odd behaviour or any habit at all worthy of note?"
"Well, he was quiet as he was nice. No, pride was far from his countenance. He often keeps to himself and retires to his room after dinner. He doesn't have a lot of friends over, save for one or two visitors who come to discuss business. Oh yes, he keep late nights too and when I bring him coffee at night, he likes receiving fresh air by opening the window instead of putting on the air conditioner."
"You brought him Coffee last night?"
"I did."
"Oh, and then you poisoned it."
"By God, I swear I would never commit such a despicable and vile act. By the way, he was stabbed surely, not poisoned?"
Max was listening attentively while jotting down salient points. Then he asked the woman to recount all that had happened since the day Jason returned from school.
She recounted everything just as Max had heard previously up to the point of the row between Jason and his late father. Then the woman began to shiver in her chair.
"You know those horror movies you watch where you hear creepy noises and you don't know what produces them?"
she had her head bent to the left and was staring at the floor as she spoke.
"So it was. I had gone to his study to give him his coffee. He was in a very bad mood apparently as a result of the clash with his son. I left and went to my room. I felt sorry for the man and his son. I'm never comfortable when two people in my fancy are quarrelling.
"Soon he called for his coffee. About five minutes later I got it ready for him. He was in his study then. You could already tell that it was going to rain heavily soon due to the thunder and lightening. I went back to my room. I couldn't sleep. It started raining heavily soon after. The whooshing sound of the wind became scary like never before. Even the chirping of the crickets and squacking of frogs spoke bad omen. I had switched off the light in my room. I had heard a sound, like a thud. I couldn't make exactly from whence it had come. It felt... Like a vibration along the walls. I could feel it in my room. And then it sounded like the clanging of metal, you know. And at the same--I don't even know. I'm just confused. It must have been the wind causing things to hit each other.
"Then all was quiet save for the sound of the rain. I think I must have heard a door open. Oh if only I had come out then. But it felt so surreal, like I was still asleep, perhaps I was dreaming? I was so scared. I felt something bad was about to happen but it must have been the wailings of a frightened and weak woman." She was speaking frantically now. "I must have fallen asleep. Oh no no, it cannot be!" she put her forehead on her hands and wept.
"What cannot be?" the detective who had been quietly listening attentively asked.
"No it just doesn't make sense. it doesn't feel right. it must have been all a dream. But then it couldn't have been a dream. They say you can never tell exactly what the time is in a dream. Oh my!"
"What exactly are you talking about? Pray, be more elaborate."
"Yes, yes. I will for the love of Justice. I must have slept for quite a while. Then I woke up and it wasn't raining anymore. I was less scared now. I checked the time and it was 3:17am. My instincts were uneasy and so I decided to look out my door and along the passage." She hid her face and wept again.
"What did you see when you looked out? Max asked.
"It was him. He was coming out of Mr. Murvelli's room. It was quite dark and so he couldn't have seen me as I peered out of my door with only my head out. But I saw his outline in the dark. He walked out of Murvelli's room and towards his. It was Jason!"
Max was transfixed. All this time he had made a conviction and a theory within his mind about the crime, only for this theory to be dashed against the wall. He stood up and paced about with a finger to his chin, deep in thought.
"What's the position of your room, Madam Beatrice?" He finally asked.
The woman was quick to reply. "As you must have noticed, there are seven rooms in this passage. Four on the left, three on the right. The third one on the right belongs to Mr. Murvelli and it is larger than the rest. When you walk into the passage, Mine is the first on the right. The second which is unoccupied for some time, is between mine and Mr. Murvelli's."
"And Jason's is the fourth and last on the left, correct?"
"It is so, sir."
"That means anybody coming from the late man's room must walk diagonally to the right when approaching Jason's room."
Beatrice nodded in agreement. She was clearly much calmer now.
"The outline of the person you saw in the dark, did you see it enter Jason's room?"
Beatrice wrinkled her forehead and thought. "Now you asked, I really don't know. Seeing somebody walking in the dark at that unsocial hour gave me the creeps and I quickly withdrew into my room and shut the door. I saw him walk towards his door, that is Jason's door, and since I didn't know what had happened then I didn't think much about it until this morning when the atrocity was discovered."
Since Jason's room was the last on that side, then there was no other destination for anyone walking in that direction. This Max knew. If it wasn't Jason, then who else could it have been? Max admitted in his mind that there was hardly any other explanation.
"Did you see him open the door of his room before you withdrew?" Max inquired.
"Uhm, well it was so dark I couldn't really make out if his door was open but I think I saw him reach out a hand for the door knob. It's all so vague now. Like I said, I didn't think it was of importance at the time. I didn't wait for him to enter his room and so I withdrew and ran to my bed and slept."
Beatrice coughed. "Oh my, I think I'm coming down with the flu. This whole affair makes me sick already."
"Are you very sure that it was Jason?"
"Oh by God, what do you expect me to think?" the frantic woman cried. "It was dark and all I saw was an outline of someone who I think must have been Jason as he was leaving Murvelli's room and going to Jason's room. Oh no I feel so sick." She held her hands upon her head and wept. It was quite dramatic to the detective.
Max watched her for some time, giving her time to comport herself.
"When you brought Murvelli his coffee last night, did you notice if his window was open as usual?"
"Why, of course it was shut. I don't know if he had locked it but I guess so. It was already getting real cold and windy due to the impending storm."
"Very good. Do you have knowledge concerning a bottle of his which he drinks every night?"
"No sir. About that, I admit I have no idea."
"Thank you so much madam Beatrice you've been most helpful. If there's anything else I'll need of you I'll let you know. You can take your leave now."
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Hello everyone out there who's reading this story. I know it's been a while I posted. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Do show some love by voting and commenting. Thanks