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Murder at the Lake
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Murder at the LakeA serialised murder mystery byJack Benjamin(a Sr. Constable Thompson mystery)
Part 5
Previously:d Hargreave collapsed and died at a Canada Day party at his cottage. His first and second wives were on the scene, as were his two sons, his mother and many other people. His current girlfriend, Lily, was with him, but she disappeared, only returning a few days later as Officer Nick Thompson, the investigator, was looking through Hargreave’s medicine cabinet. Lily admitted to having stabbed Hargreave at the end of episode 4.
“You stabbed him? When?” Thompson asked
“Just after lunch,” Lily Boutillier replied calmly, “I poked a skewer in the back of his leg. It wasn’t a such a big deal, but he bled like crazy.”
“I think we’d better go to the station, Miss Boutillier, I’ll need to get a proper statement from you.”
“Is that necessary, do you think, Officer Thompson? We stopped the bleeding after a while, and he was fine. Everybody was there. I didn’t kill him, he died much later.”
“And you were with him when he died?”
“No, I was with someone else at the time.”
“Someone else?”
“If you must know, I was in a guest cabin with John Morton. He was an associate of Ed’s, and has become a friend to me. We were having coffee, and I was telling him I wanted to leave. Then there was all this screaming and John went to find out what had happened. He came back and said Ed had collapsed and died. I told him I wanted to leave right away. I didn’t want to talk to anyone or see anyone at all. I also didn’t want to answer any questions about fighting with Ed earlier in the day. So John drove me to Toronto.
“You didn’t even bother to pick up your things, like your purse?” Thompson asked.
“I didn’t want to go back to the house, I was too upset, and everyone was so drunk. I had to get away. Understand?”
“And this John Morton, do you have his phone number?”
“416-922-5555”
“So you left; you never saw Ed Hargreave’s body?”
Just then, Officer Pupillo came forward.
“Excuse me, Miss Boutillier, I’ve got to talk to Officer Pupillo for a second.”
Thompson walked to the door with Pupillo. “Check out her alibi,” he said, “and find out about Hargreave’s finances if you can. Then bring his ex-wife, the second one, back here.”
Pupillo nodded and then left
“So, Miss Boutilier, when did you last see Mr. Hargreave?” Thompson said, returning to Lily.
“The last time I saw Ed was about 2:30 in the afternoon. I helped bandage him up after I cut him with the skewer, then I left the house and went for a walk. When I came back I went into John’s cabin, where I stayed until I left.”
“Why was it you who bandaged him up? I mean, if someone stabbed me I don’t think I would get them to bandage me up,” Thompson asked
“Well, his mother and son Bob started to work on him, but they made a mess of it and he asked me to take over.”
“Who else was there when you stabbed him?”
“Well, his sour-faced first wife was there during lunch, his two sons, and then his second wife arrived. That’s when I snapped,” Lily said.
“Why?”
“Because I realised then that he had been leading me on all the time. He knew he had no money - he knew all along his luck had run out. He just wanted to show his two exes that he could get another woman. It least that was how I saw it at that moment. We were having brochettes for lunch, I had a skewer, so I drove it into him. It wasn’t something I normally do, but I had to do something.”
“What did his ex-wives do?” Thompson asked
“The first one looked like she was ready to faint, and the second one laughed. Anyway the son and mother began putting on ointments and potions, and all he did was keep bleeding. So I got a bandage and tied his leg up tight. Finally it stopped bleeding.”
“And no one called the police.”
“No, he didn’t say anything about it, and I don’t think any of them cared about him that much. He was not a nice man.”
Just then, Bob and Ed Hargreave arrived. Bob, a large man in his late 30’s, was wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, and Ed, a thinner, balder man, was wearing pants and a short sleeved shirt. They were both breathing heavily, as if they had been running.
“I guess the rat came back,” Bob said, glaring at Lily. “How does it feel to be a killer, Madame Boutileer?”
“Come on, Bob, you know he was alive when I left him,” Lily replied.
“And then he died a few hours later of a heart attack. Funny coincidence, wasn’t it,” Bob said, his hostility towards Lily seeming to grow with each passing second.
Ed stepped in between Bob and Lily and nudged Bob away, whispering, “Take it easy, Bob, I’ll handle this.”
“Officer, what is this woman doing here? She’s upsetting my brother, my mother and my daughter,” he said pointing over to a couch across the room where Mrs. Hargreave and her granddaughter were sitting. Mrs. Hargreave was looking over at them over her knitting and the girl was watching TV. “Can’t you take her somewhere else. This is a very emotional time for the family, as I’m sure you understand.”
“I understand, Mr. Hargreave. Miss Boutillier, maybe you would like to pack your bags and we can talk elsewhere. I think I’d better get a statement from you at the station. While I’m here, is it all right if I ask a few questions of the three of you, since I have all of you here. It will help me to wrap things up, and I won’t have to trouble any of you again. I think my investigation is coming to its conclusion.”
“So, my father died of a heart attack?” Ed Hargeave asked, in a flat voice
“Yes, he did, certainly he did. But it was induced.”
“Induced, by what?” Ed said, suddenly anxious.
“And by whom” Thompson said quietly, although he could see that everyone in the room was now staring at him. Lily had stopped climbing the stairs and was staring down at him. Mrs. Hargreave had put down her needles; even the granddaughter had turned her head away from the TV and was looking his way. The two Hargreave sons suddenly looked very nervous as well.
The door opened and Constable Pupillo came in with Elaine Parkinson, the dead man’s estranged wife. Pupillo walked right over to Thompson.
“John Morton confirmed her story. And Hargreave had a $5 million insurance policy, but I don’t know who the beneficiaries were,” she whispered to Thompson.
“Ah, the gang’s all here,” said Thompson loudly, turning to the Hargreave clan. “Let’s all sit down. If we work at this, we can solve the whole case before the funeral. Wouldn’t that be nice for all of us? At least one of you murdered Ed Hargreave, and I’d like to take that person with me when I leave today.”
“Why do you think it was one of us?” said Bob Hargreave.
“Or all of you together. You all lied about seeing Lily standing over the body, when she wasn’t there. I have a few theories about why that happened, but I’d like to hear some of your explanations. Why don’t we start with you, Ed. You seem to be in control, why did you lie about seeing Lily leaning over your father when he died?”
Ed Hargreave turned red and sat slowly down in a chair by the dining room table.
“It’s not what you think,” he said softly.
(next week - the startling conclusion to Murder at the Lake)
