Part 7 (1/2)
”What's this?” he asked of his wife.
”The scone recipe. If we're sending some home with Jackson tonight, you'd better get baking.”
”A note.” Jackson mused after Marjorie had recounted the previous night's dinner and the subsequent meeting with her father-in-law.
”And all it said was 'The day of reckoning is nigh?'” Nettles confirmed.
”Yes. Typed in all capital letters,” Marjorie described. ”In fact, if you want to see it, it's probably in Mr. Ashcroft's jacket pocket. That's where he put it after he showed it to me.”
Jackson nodded to Nettles. ”Go check for the note, eh?”
The inspector obediently left the room.
”And because of this note, Mr. Ashcroft believed his life was in danger,” Jackson summarized. ”So instead of calling the police, he changed his will, and consulted you.”
”That's right,” Marjorie corroborated. ”In hindsight, I wish he had called the police, but Mr. Ashcroft wasn't the type to ask for help. Indeed, I think he wanted to use the situation to his own advantage.”
”So, because of this meeting, you were the last person to see Mr. Ashcroft alive,” Jackson a.s.serted.
”No, the last person to see Mr. Ashcroft alive was his killer,” Marjorie corrected. ”I was simply the last person to leave the dining room following that fiasco of a dinner.”
”What time was that?”
”When I left the dining room? Oh, about eight-thirty.”
Jackson took notes in a small black book. ”Where did you go from there?”
”I went outside to look for my husband.”
”You didn't know where he was?”
Marjorie silently debated whether or not she should mention Creighton's argument with his father. She had already told Jackson that her father-in-law had had words with every member of the household, but she had failed to impart the sheer magnitude of Creighton's anger.
After a few moments' hesitation, she concluded that it was better that Jackson hear the story directly from her than from the likes of Griselda or, heaven forbid, Ca.s.sandra. ”Creighton and my father-in-law got into a bit of a row last night.”
”Bad?” Jackson asked.
Marjorie nodded.
”Did it come to blows?”
”No, but it might have. Selina-”
”The housekeeper,” Jackson verified.
”Yes, the housekeeper. Selina stepped in and told Creighton to go outside and cool off. Clear his head. I was about to follow when my father-in-law called me back.”
”Why was your husband so angry? Because he had been cut from the will?”
The question sent Marjorie into a tailspin. If she told Jackson that Creighton was now the sole inheritor of his father's estate, it would cast suspicion in his direction. No, she decided. They'll find the new will and discover the truth soon enough. Until then, it's best to let Jackson think I know nothing about it.
”Mr. Ashcroft never revealed the ident.i.ty of his solitary heir; therefore, it was premature for anyone to be upset about having been 'cut.' No, Creighton was infuriated by his father's machinations. It was apparent the old man was taking perverse pleasure in deriding his dinner guests. He enjoyed making them miserable.”
”Sounds like the life of the party,” Jackson commented. ”So when you left the dining room to look for your husband, where did you go?”
”I went outside through the back door. It's the exit closest to the dining room, so it seemed logical that Creighton may have gone that way. But he wasn't there. I even checked all the outbuildings and the grounds: no one.”
”No one as in no Creighton, or-?”
”No one as in n.o.body. So I came back inside and gave a quick peek in the kitchen and dining room. Again, there was no one,” Marjorie stated.
”Your father-in-law was no longer in the dining room?”
”I didn't see him, no ...”
”Go on,” Jackson prodded.
”After the dining room and kitchen I decided to go upstairs. Edward, my brother-in-law, and his wife, Prudence, were in their room. I could hear them talking through the closed door as I pa.s.sed on the way to our bedroom, which is next to theirs.”
”What were they talking about?”
Marjorie took a deep breath; as much as she liked Pru, she knew the conversation might be valuable to the case. ”They were talking about what had transpired during dinner. Prudence was telling Edward that something needed to be done about Mr. Ashcroft.”
”Is that how she phrased it? That 'something needed to be done?'”
”No,” Marjorie denied as the words came flooding back into her memory. ”She said that she wanted him out of their lives forever. At which point, Edward promised that he would take care of him. Those were the exact words he used: 'take care of him.' Prudence responded by saying that if he didn't, she would.” Marjorie frowned. ”That was all I heard.”
”I see,” Jackson remarked. ”Where did you go then?”
”Into our bedroom. Creighton wasn't there, but I got the idea to check the verandah. That's when I saw Ca.s.sandra. She was on the verandah, but closer to the other end of the house. It was a full moon so I could see her clearly. She looked very different from when she was in the study and the dining room. Something about her was harder ... colder. And, I know this sounds silly, but she kicked the cat.”
Jackson stared at her. ”Beg pardon?”
”The cat I was talking about earlier, well it approached Ca.s.sandra and she kicked it. She had no reason for doing so; the cat wasn't harming anyone. And she-she seemed to smile afterwards. It was very disturbing.” Marjorie punctuated the statement with a long pause. ”After I s.n.a.t.c.hed up the cat, I went back downstairs. It must have been past nine o'clock by the time, because it was completely dark. I noticed a light coming in from the office; it was Mr. Miller.”
”Did Mr. Miller appear angry?” Jackson quizzed.
”No, not at all,” she replied. ”If anything, he seemed to be relieved. And after seeing how my father-in-law treated him, I can't say I blame him. He was readying his list of references to put in the post. He and I spoke for a brief while-chit-chat really-before I went outside again, this time to the front of the house.”
”Where you finally found Creighton?” Jackson a.s.sumed.
”Not before finding Griselda. She was sitting on the steps, crying her eyes out. I nearly fell over her. But I didn't, instead I helped her up and she, and her overnight bag, got into the speedster and set off to spend the night in Hamilton.”
”What time did she get back?”
”That's an excellent question,” Marjorie noted. ”The next time I saw her was this morning, in the dining room, after Selina's screaming had garnered the attention of the entire household. Unlike the rest of us, however, she came in from outside. Looked like she had been sunning herself.”
”Hmm. And, finally, where did you find Creighton?”
”Took us long enough didn't it?” Marjorie smiled. ”He was on the front lawn cooling off, as Selina suggested. I sat with him and we talked for a while. Then we came inside to raid the pantry. We hadn't eaten any dinner-no one had. Creighton grabbed a bottle of wine; I found some cheese and fruit. We took them back to the front lawn, ate, drank, and watched the stars. It was going on eleven when we got back to our room.”