“No time to discuss it.” Morrie ducked under the police tape and headed straight to the window. “Check by the fireplace. Maybe there’s something we missed.”
Wait, you just said you loved me and now you’re back on the murder case? What evenareyou?
Unfortunately, as mean as he was, Morrie was also right. We didn’t have time to deal with his revelation now. My head filled with clouds and happiness, but I tried to rein it in and focus. I cast a glance over my shoulder. Seeing no one there, I ducked under the police tape, my heart in my throat. I made my way to the gilded fireplace and bent down to inspect the marble. Jo had taken the chair and rug as evidence, and the floor had been scrubbed until it shone. I couldn’t see anything that would give us new information.
“As I suspected,” Morrie said from behind me.
“What?” I rushed over to look.
“Last night at the ball, you opened the window to let Quoth in. He couldn’t open the latch from the outside.” Morrie showed me the window. “The same is true here. There’s no way an opportunistic killer could have opened this window if it was locked, because it opens outward, and the latch is on the inside.”
Oh, shite.“Perhaps he forced it in some way?”
“There are no signs of forced entry.” Morrie pointed to the smooth edge of the frame. “We’d see damage here if the killer used a tool to gain access. Now, there’s a chance of course that Hathaway himself opened the window, but as a good friend once said, ‘when you’ve eliminated the impossible, what remains, however improbable, must be the truth’. I’m suggesting it’s impossible for our killer to have accessed this room from the outside on his or her own.”
“How did the police not notice that?” I asked.
“The world is full of obvious things which nobody ever observes,” Morrie grinned. “Besides, they were distracted. Cynthia gave them the run of the dessert buffet.”
“How soon you’ve switched to cliches.”
“What can I say? We’re pressed for time. I’ll think of a wittier retort and get back to you,” Morrie paced across the floor. “We know from Jo that the professor had been dead for at least two hours before you found him, which meant he was killed near the beginning of the ball. This gave everyone a chance to wander through the antechamber and see him in the chair, very much alive. All the killer had to do was leave the ball, go into the antechamber, drive the sword into his heart, change their clothes or clean their shoes somehow, and return to the ball.”
“That could be Gerald… but then why would he go outside? Lydia and her snogging partner both saw him. Gerald wouldn’t have been able to get in the window unless it was already open.”
“Exactly.” Morrie wagged a finger in the air. “I suppose he could have had an accomplice who opened the window, but that’s starting to sound unnecessarily complicated. This puts us back at square one. Anyone at the ball could have killed Hathaway. Our key to solving this is Alice. Whoever killed her did it to shut her up. That much is evident.”
“Agreed. But how do we find out who it was? Quoth didn’t see anything.”
“We need to look at Alice’s bedroom,” Morrie said. “She’ll have files on the story she’s working on – notes, maybe a laptop. If I could get access to her phone, so much the better, but it’s probably on her body—Oh, shite. Here comes the cavalry.”
I followed where he was looking. Through the window, Inspector Hayes strode toward the house. He pointed at me, jerking his thumb to indicate we were to get outside.
“So much for that. We’re not going to be able to get to Alice’s room before the police,” I said.
“We’re not, but somebody is.” Morrie stuck his head out the window. “Oh, birdie?”
“Croak!” Quoth fluttered down on the windowsill.
“Care to do a little reconnoiter for us?”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ipeered past Hayes’ face at the imposing hall, shivering even under both Morrie’s and Heathcliff’s topcoats.Where’s Quoth? He should be gone from the room by now.Hayes was still yelling at us about disturbing the crime scene and how we weren’t cops and we needed to leave them to do their jobs. I nodded in all the right places and Morrie poured on the charm and eventually Hayes calmed his tirade and started to question us about finding Alice’s body.
I was describing the conversation Alice and I had behind the parterre when Quoth fluttered down and landed on my shoulder. Hayes regarded the bird with a bemused expression. “Is that the same raven that lives at the shop?”
“No. That’s his cousin,” Heathcliff said without a smile.
“I see.” Hayes shut his pad. “Thank you for speaking with us, Ms. Wilde, Mr. Earnshaw, Mr. Moriarty. Please don’t leave the village, as we may need to ask you more questions.”
I frowned at Morrie. I knew what Hayes was really saying. We found the body, and then he’d caught us mucking about on the primary scene. And Heathcliff had dark skin, which automatically made him a suspect. We were on Hayes’ list – maybe not top of the list, but definitely there.
Jo emerged from the trees just as Hayes dismissed me. She gave instructions to the SOCO team to remove the body and take samples from the snow and surrounding plants. As she peeled off her PPE, I wrapped my arms around her.
“I’m so sorry. I know you were friends with Alice.”
Jo shook her head. “Not close friends, but still, it’s sad. Alice was a talented writer with a desire to do good in the world. All that’s left now is to find out who did this to her and get the justice for her in death she never had in life.”
