Susan was the only person in the room with Bradley, but could she really stab him? Or did someone else come in here and do it? If that’s the case then Susan would have seen the person. I go out to the living room. The other two couples are sitting there and King and Susan were sitting side by side on the love seat by the window, King had his arm around her, but that’s not unusual considering the circumstances, plus he is a long time friend. I go over to them. “Susan, did you see who did it?”, I ask her quietly. “No,” she answered, “I was lying down too with my eyes closed, and I heard a groan from Bradley, so I looked over at him…then I saw the knife!”

She burst into tears after saying that so I didn’t ask anymore questions right then. I asked the others if they perhaps heard someone running down the hall. Dan spoke up, “my wife and I had gone to the kitchen to get some tea when we heard the scream. We went to the hallway and did hear footsteps, but when we looked, no one was there.” “Then we heard the front door slam shut, but we didn’t see anyone go past us,” said Barbara, “so it must have been the ghost! Isn’t this just so exciting?” “I don’t really consider getting killed to be exciting,” I said, “but please remember everyone, never go anywhere alone.” Kat and the cats joined us just then.

“Perhaps some tea would be a good idea right now,” she said. And off she went to make some fresh tea. I took the cats out the front door and told them to wander all around the house, looking for anything odd, like a path perhaps leading to a hidden door, or at least some sign of people walking around outside recently. “And you two stay together as well,” I said, “don’t take chances, and don’t stay away too long.” Off they went to do their search. If someone did go out that door, he had to go somewhere close by, but where? And why kill Bradley? Kat was over comforting Susan so I took King outside on the porch to talk alone.

“I’ll be honest with you,” said King, “I love Susan, their marriage has been finished for a while, but I had nothing to do with killing Bradley.” “You certainly seem nervous since seeing Bradley dead,” I said, “and I think you know more than you are telling me. Just how involved are you in this?” He paced back and forth for a bit, but he kept silence. “Okay,” I said, “here’s another question, could Susan have killed Bradley?” “I, I, don’t really know,” he said shakily, “I do know they recently had purchased very large insurance policies, so if one of them dies, the other inherits everything, which would amount to a very large sum of money, but I don’t know how much.”

“Hmm, I think you do know,” I said, “but for now I won’t worry about that part. You do realize this is a police matter now that someone has been murdered, but for now we have to just take care of things ourselves. Anything else?” “No, no, nothing,” he said nervously. Obviously he is hiding something, but what? There is good motive for the murder, not just for Susan, but also for King. Well, it’s night and everyone is in their bedrooms, although Susan is in a different bedroom and Kat is staying with her. King is in here with me. The cats had come back but didn’t find anything unusual outside, except for a ‘fancy grave’, as they called it, out in the back yard. I will check that out in the morning.

Just then there was a knocking at the front door so King and I checked on it. It was Jennifer and Annelie, but we pretended not to know each other. They said their car broke down about 15 miles back and they were lost. They were hoping they could stay the night. I asked if they had phones with them, but they didn’t, they were on a vacation and didn’t want to take their phones along, they just wanted to enjoy themselves without distractions. They were hoping to use our phone. I told them we don’t have one either. Susan and Kat came out then and Susan said they could stay. King went back to my room while I went to take the girls to their room. Susan was still shaken up and just wanted to sleep. I left the cats to fill them in on what’s happening, then I went back to my room. King was lying on the floor…

To Be Continued.

©2021 Steve McLeod.