Excerpt from the book called The Frisby Waterless Murders
“It is, Inspector, I have just finished with Josef and Zoe, who were going to play the role of the murder victim’s aunt and uncle.”
“Were they estranged from her too?”
“No, they weren’t, but they did have some concerns, because they thought they were going to be written out of her will, due to the return of her estranged son and daughter.”
“I see, back in the real world, where did Zoe and Josef go when the smoke came in?”
“Into the kitchen along with most other people.”
“Thanks Linda – when the other PC is finished – what is his name by the way?”
“That is PC James Wang – he’s only been with the force six weeks, sir.”
“Right, when he’s finished please can you collate your statements and his and let me have them? We will have to try and figure out who moved where and when.”
“Well, good luck with that, sir, because from the statements I have taken everyone seems to be in agreement about what happened.”
“You don’t think they’ve co-ordinated their stories do you?”
PC Smythe thought for a moment before saying, “Well, some of the details are precisely the same and some differ slightly, so perhaps some people have been singing from the same hymn sheet as it were.”
“OK, Linda, well thank you for the warning. These details have been provided by the actors?”
“No, Inspector, that’s what was strange, it was the Round Table people whose stories appeared to have been agreed upon beforehand.”
Knowles looked at Linda Smythe and smiled. His thoughts were somewhat darker. Why would they do that? Round Table people surely wouldn’t do things like that? They were too respectable. It wasn’t going to be like Murder on the Orient Express – surely the Major hadn’t been the victim of multiple poisonous darts? Knowles realised he really did have to see Dr Crabtree and quickly for his own sanity.
=========
Barnes and Knowles arrived back at Scoresby station having travelled from Flixton in near silence. Knowles had read the notes from the interviews he’d done and wondered how the murderer had planned his/her attack and whether the smoke entering the carriage had been intended. It was possible that the smoke had upset the plans as aiming might have been more difficult, but the point was the Major would have been seated for longer than anyone else due to his leg injury. The people would have been rushing by – not noticing the immobile man in their midst.
Julian Worker Fiction Writing 