‘Well… I’m not one of them. Me and my family… we are outsiders.’
‘Oh? Care to elaborate?’
I smoothed down my jumper and noticed the hem was a little frayed. Idly I began to tease the fibres apart. ‘None of them take us seriously. We aren’t set to inherit anything, and we won’t take part in Jeannie’s game where we prove ourselves worthy to become the next landlords of the Weiss estate. That pack of hyenas will destroy each other until only one of them is left standing. They think we’re weak, that we uselessly watch them from the sidelines, but they are wrong. We are stronger than any of them could ever be. If you gave them a thousand lifetimes, in every one they would choose wealth, status and power. And in every lifetime my family and I would choose each other.’
‘So the four of you aren’t one of them. Got it.’ He let out a deep sigh. ‘But what if this is not about the inheritance? What if this is vengeance?’
‘What could we possibly have done?’
‘Up until recently there was a member of your family convicted of negligent homicide, which, off the record, looks a lot like a cover-up for manslaughter. Maybe Quentin Weiss blames all of you for his incarceration?’
I gulped. ‘Miles and I had nothing to do with all of that… But I suppose he might not see it that way. Do you have any leads?’
‘I’m not at liberty to say.’
That means no, then, I thought fearfully.
‘So, then what happened?’ he asked, urging me to go on.
‘I heard crying, so I went to see who it was, and I saw that it was Beebee. She was on the upstairs landing doing a livestream, I don’t know whether it was Instagram or TikTok. But she was… well, in my opinion, she was fake-crying and receiving gifts. So, I went back into the room. I looked out of the window and saw the officers outside.’
He gave a small nod as if to corroborate that he had been told by his officers that I had been seen at that time.
‘And then?’ he asked.
I took a deep breath. ‘And then… I went to bed.’
‘Did you speak to Beebee?’
‘No.’
‘You must have walked past her to get to your room?’
My mouth twisted firmly shut, not wanting to open. Suddenly I thought that Jeannie was probably right, I needed Artie Peverill.
‘Should I wait for my legal counsel before we go any further?’
‘You were asked and you declined. Would you like to leave the room, Mrs Weiss? I’m not keeping you here.’
‘I er… no.’ I could kick myself. I should have refused to answer his questions, but somehow, I thought that would make me look even more guilty. I wanted them to trust me, to believe me. I didn’t want to act like a dick, like Jeannie and the rest of them.
Randolf continued probing, ‘What are you worried about, Mrs Weiss? What did you do next?’
‘I went to the kitchen. I had some food. And I went to bed via a different route.’
Randolf couldn’t hide his look of surprise. ‘And what route would that be?’
‘There’s a passage… that leads from the pantry to the hallway upstairs, near our room.’
‘I see,’ he said. ‘And do you use this passage often?’
‘No, not often. I’ve used it once before, again when the twins were doing TikToks on the landing.’
‘Why did you feel the need to avoid two teenage girls, MrsWeiss?’
‘Because they’re bloody awful—’ The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. This was going horribly. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that.’
‘Just because you think someone is awful doesn’t mean you are a cold-blooded killer. However, sneaking about via secret passages when there’s a killer in the house… that concerns me.’
