Excerpt from the book called The Frisby Waterless Murders
“Just checking, part of my job etcetera.”
“Understood, Inspector, what you were doing there was the equivalent of me moving the pram from the tracks.”
“I suppose so, Barry. Anyway, I will leave you to it.”
Knowles stood up and left the father and son talking about the 3:30pm race at Kempton Park. He wondered why Barry Kenyon had made his astute observation like that; he obviously understood police procedures much better than most suspects. Perhaps Barry was trying to impress him and indicate he wasn’t involved in the murder? Knowles looked around and saw that Barnes, Linda Smythe, and the the other PC were still interviewing. He decided to ask whether anyone was waiting to be interviewed and found himself talking to one of the actors, Desmond Stellen, who belonged to the Little Flixton Players.
“Mr Stellen…”
“Oh please, Inspector Knowles call me Desmond or Dessie.”
“I won’t call you Dessie because to me, as a keen horse racing fan, Dessie will always mean Desert Orchid that wonderful race horse who won the Gold Cup in 1989.”
“So Desmond then, Inspector?”
“Certainly, Desmond, now you were sitting in Seat 10 weren’t you? You spilled your drink by the looks of the carpet?”
“Yes. That happened when the smoke came in through the window. I knocked over the cup in my haste to get some fresh air.”
“Did you have a good view of the Major during the journey?”
“He was in my line of sight, but I was concentrating on my wife Marie. We were going to be acting the parts of the policeman and the murderess, you see.”
“So you were going to be investigating the murder committed by your wife?”
“We were acting though, Inspector Knowles, acting means forgetting your relationships in real life and subsuming yourself into the role.”
“At the very end, what happens – do you go round the punters and ask them who dunnit? Gather everyone together as happens in Agatha Christie mysteries?”
“Normally, although this time it was going to be slightly different; they were going to write down their murderer suspect and then three reasons why the murderer gave themselves away. These answers were going to be read out when the train arrived at the station. We had to make sure everyone had something to write with and a few pieces of paper.”
Julian Worker Fiction Writing 