Story Starts Challenge - Day 6

Day 6: Reviewing the Evidence

The Scenes of Crimes Officers (SOCO) arrive at the Hall in double-quick time and start their meticulous search of the study - as there are a variety of surfaces, different fingerprint techniques are used and soon the papers and furniture, window frames and handles are all covered in a fine dust. One of the officers is concentrating on the safe and its surrounds.

SOCO: Inspector... Inspector!
DIW: Yes, Jim...
SOCO: There’s something a bit odd here, Sir... we’ve dusted everything and there appears to be only one person's prints on most of the paperwork but hardly any on the furniture, the door handles or the safe – either the room has been cleaned very recently or it has been wiped down.

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Detective Inspector Walsh and Sergeant Morris met that afternoon to report back on their meetings at the Hall and the Vicarage. Morris was able to report that the Vicar didn’t own a gun, but he did know that his Lordship owned one as he had shown it to him during one of his visits there. Apparently it had belonged to a distant relative who was in the Staffordshire Regiment. Morris had confronted the Vicar over the quote he had shown Lord and Lady Hargreaves for the repairs of the Church and he became rather red-faced and flustered saying that he must have become confused and forgotten to tell them that the quote was in fact for the two Churches. He also said that we should look more closely at the new maid, Colleen, as he thought there was something ‘not quite right’ about her sudden appearance at the Hall.

Detective Inspector Walsh told Morris about his conversations with Lady Hargreaves. He related the account of Jonty, his Ladyship’s estranged Son, and that it was He who had been staying in the holiday cottage and He whom Morris had seen disposing of the picture frames in the long grass beyond the woods. Having spoken to the Household, Walsh also recounted what he had discovered about Colleen. Her Ladyship found the references provided when she started her employment at the Hall. She had previously worked at the Bellingham Estate in Northumberland, the same area in which Jonty had grown up. Having then questioned Colleen in some detail it seems that she had left that employment as she was due to be married. After a lot of pressing, she finally admitted that she is engaged to Jonty, and that he had a plan to get enough money for them to be married. She had agreed to help him by obtaining employment with his mother at the Hall in order to give him information on the comings and goings of his Lordship and his mother and admit him to the Hall to steal one of the paintings.

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DC Lamb (DCL) entered the room.
DCL: Excuse me Sir, but I thought you’d like to know that Lady Hargreaves has just identified the body as that of Lord Hargreaves. She and the Vicar are downstairs – do you want to talk to them?
DIW: Not at the moment, Lamb – but do pass on my condolences. Oh, and show her Ladyship this photograph of the gun we found in the Sheds will you – see if she recognises it.
DCL: Yes Sir, will do!

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Later that afternoon Detective Inspector Walsh was called into the Chief’s (C) office, and asked how the case was going. He was pleased he had so much to report.

DIW: There are lots of loose ends to tie up, Ma’am, but it looks as though her Ladyship's son has been in collusion with his fiancée. Between them, they have been stealing some of the artworks from the house. From the discarded frames we suspect that they have been selling them in Fine Arts Galleries up and down the country. A couple were spotted by his Lordship at the sale at the Victoria Hotel in the village, and he got very angry. Another was found lying across the body. Lady Hargreaves clearly has some knowledge of these goings on and we suspect she may be being blackmailed by her son.
C: Hmmm! Interesting... and what about the Vicar – what’s his involvement with all this?
DIW: Well, it seems he was trying to pull a fast one to get the Hargreaves to pay for repairs to both his churches – His Lordship is legally obliged to maintain St Jude’s on the Estate, but he has no requirement to carry out any work on St Matthew's in the Village. He denies it of course and says it was simply an oversight that he presented them with a quote for repairs that covered both Churches.
C: And what about the body, Walsh? Are we looking at suicide or murder here?