Thursday 21 April 2016

Murder Most Foul! - R is for Regroup - Cozy Mystery #AtoZChallenge 2016


Welcome to my contribution to the A to Z Challenge. My theme this year is Murder Most Foul, which, for you, my blog visitors, means that you will be sharing in The Case of the Cursed House, or rather the bare bones of it. 

Everyday, I will be revealing more about my developing Cozy Mystery: descriptions of scenes; character details; locations; clues to the mystery. And, at the end of each post, you will have the chance to vote on whodunnit. So, without further ado, on with the case...

Previous parts:


Story Notes Additional Details

When Barnwell and Williams return from Trenterden, they meet up with Aisha for lunch in their cars in the car park and to go over their findings ready for the afternoon.

KW - I have the report through from the SOCOs, the bottles of refills from the shop have no trace of poison, but the ones they picked up from all over Court House have random amounts of poison in some of them. The only fingerprints they found were Bill Whethers, so our poisoner is careful.
MB - It's pretty clear that Bill Whethers had a change of heart about this whole development thing, but that not everyone knew about it yet, so we still have a pretty open field.
AK - there is still Fred Walker to talk to.
KW - Dave Fincher's also a possible if he was more jealous than his wife is suggesting, but he's off at some local hunt event catering it until late this evening.
MB - Jon Lee has 20 million motives for killing Bill.
AK - but he was clearly upset about Bill's death and he's looking for the new will.
KW - or so he says!
MB - Bethany Mortby and our sociable vicar, Sally, both had regular access to Court House, ample opportunity to poison the bottles, but there's no motive there as far as I can tell.
  Any luck on finding any sources of arsenic yet?
KW - ::shakes his head:: although, given all the old cupboards around here, there's plenty of places to look.
AK - Lady Emma is also a possible candidate for Bill's philandering according to Debbie Fincher.
MB - Yes, we need to talk to Emma again.
KW - Not sure about Dr Elves either, he's a nervous type, I think he would have been frightened by his own shadow this morning.
MB - Guilty nervous, or scared nervous?
KW - couldn't tell, but he's pretty bothered about Whethers' death and when he found out we're investigating murder, he didn't want to believe it.
MB - well maybe he's upset about getting caught, we need to look more closely at that survey of his. And then there's Lord Michael - he would not have liked Whethers' change of heart. We need to speak with him again and get the truth about that argument in the pub, it's looking more and more likely it was about Whethers' dropping his objections to the development.






Aisha Kakkar
Age: 23
Gender: female
Ethnicity Code: M3
Job: Police Constable - Weald & Marsh Liaison Officer - an officer working with local communities, especially villages, in the Weald of Kent and Romney Marsh areas. Her mum and step mum knew Lady Emma when she was an art student.

DCI Mags Barnwell
Age: 44
Gender: female
Ethnicity Code: W1
Job: Detective Chief Inspector Kent Constabulary Serious Crime Office

DS Kevin Williams
Age: 27
Gender: male
Ethnicity Code: W1
Job: Detective Sergeant Kent Constabulary Serious Crime Office
Other info: DCI Barnwell's bag man.

William (Bill) Whethers
Age: 36
Gender: male
Ethnicity Code: W1
Job: horror author
Other info: he opposes a new housing development providing affordable housing to local people. As well as an environmental survey, was also using the private access road to Court Farm, which he part owned, as leverage in the issue of the affordable house. he's a drunk. Suspected of taking part in black masses by Alice Rigden and half the village.
He had a smoking pouch that he carried around with his refills and e-cigarette in it. He sometimes left it lying around, but mostly he kept it in his pocket.
Bill had a fight with Andrew Parthing about the environmental survey. But according to Andrew, Bill came to see him the day of his death and promised to withdraw all his objections and help the affordable housing project along. This was not confirmed by his solicitor, but Bill did want to talk to the solicitor about his objection to the access road being made into a public highway just before his death.
Bill left everything to Jon Lee in his will. However, he did say he was writing a new will.
Death: broken neck from falling down stairs, but was being poisoned by his e-cigarette with arsenic, and it was convulsions that caused him to fall down the stairs. He was dying of lung cancer.

Jonathan (Jon) Lee
Age: 36
Gender: male
Ethnicity Code: O1
Job: literary agent
Other info: best friend to Bill Whethers; found Bill's body; didn't tell the police he had a fight with Bill the night before Bill died. Was in love with Bill. He appears not to have known that Bill had cancer. Bill left his estate to Jon and Jon knew this.
Jon is looking for the new will, he says to do right by Bill.

Debbie Fincher
Age: 41
Gender: female
Ethnicity Code: W1
Job: publican of the Ewe and Lamb
Other info: married to Dave Fincher.
Had a one-night stand with Bill Whethers. She does not think her husband has it in him to kill.

Dave Fincher
Age: 43
Gender: male
Ethnicity Code: W1
Job: publican of the Ewe and Lamb
Other info: married to Debbie Fincher. Knew about Debbie's one-night stand with Bill Whethers. Enjoyed barring Bill from the pub, but that bar never lasted.

Lord Michael, Earl of Oxen
Age: 48
Gender: male
Ethnicity Code: W1
Job: Lord of the Manor
Other info: He has been friends with Bill Whethers since Bill moved into the village, but they had a fight the night before Bill's death. Plays golf with Bill Whethers. According to Andrew Parthing, Michael wanted to buy back Court Farm for the manor.

Lady Emma, Countess of Oxen
Age: 43
Gender: female
Ethnicity Code: W1
Job: Lady of the Manor
Other info: married to Lord Michael; plays tennis with Bill Whethers. Village rumours says that Bill Whethers had eyes for her.



Dr Elves
Age: 29
Gender: male
Ethnicity Code: W1
Job: Environment Scientist
Other info: he is performing the analysis of the Court Farm yard to see if it is appropriate for development; the village thinks he is 'in' with those who oppose the affordable housing development. He says he is impartial, but he has possible grounds for making the site one of Special Scientific Interest, which would mean the affordable housing could not go ahead.

Bill Whether's and Jon Lee's Wills
Bill's will is a ratty old piece of paper with a note on it, leaving everything to Jon Lee. It was written 16 years ago and is signed and witnessed.
Bill said he was making a new will.
Bill Whether's estate was worth 15 to 20 million pounds.
Jon has a similar will. They were both written at university, leaving everything to each other.

Poison
The refills for Bill's e-cigarettes that he had around the house were variously poisoned with arsenic. The refills from the shop had no sign of poison.


And now it's time to vote again - just take a punt - who do you think killed Bill Whethers (and yes, every character is listed - you never know ;P)?


Who dunnit?

Aisha Kakkar
Debbie Fincher
Dave Fincher
Jonathan Lee
Janice Walker
Lorri Walker
Hal Walker
Fred Walker
Alice Rigden
DS Kevin Williams
DCI Mags Barnwell
Lord Michael, Earl of Oxen
Lady Emma, Countess of Oxen
Dr Elves
Rev Sally Tawks
Bethany Mortby
Lady Elizabeth Ryeman
Vic Walker
Andrew Parthing
None of the above, we haven't met them yet
Don't be silly, I don't know enough yet!
created here

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13 comments:

  1. Even though I vote every post. I have no idea! None! Good job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lol this has just reminded me HOW many suspects there still are, more confused :) but highly entertained... I'm so busy with the day job and having been away for Flame Off but making sure I keep up with this mystery!

    Mars xx
    @TrollbeadBlog from
    Curling Stones for Lego People

    ReplyDelete
  3. p.s. are we looking for just one murderer or more than one??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I suggested that near the beginning of the investigation. Not sure is that was dismissed...

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    2. I'm not saying how many murderers there are :)

      Delete
    3. Well we wouldn't expect you to spoil the surprise! So many possibilities, delicious!

      Mars xx

      Delete
  4. I aeree, I think the morder has to do with Bill ' s change of heart about the development, but the situation might look blurry because of personal motives interwoven.

    Maybe more than a person had reasons for killing Bill. Maybe even more than one person tried to Kill Bill, but only one succeeded

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OO - I like your thinking, but I'm not gonna say ;P

      Delete
  5. I was just reading your description of how he died and it's so deliciously complex - death due to a broken neck, but being poisoned and already dying from lung cancer. I wonder what they'll find when they do a thorough search in all of those cupboards.

    Cheers - Ellen | http://thecynicalsailor.blogspot.com/2016/04/r-is-for-raft-up-nancy-drew.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, I couldn't have just a simple straightforward death, I watch far too much CSI for that ;P

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  6. I really dropped the ball on this one... even though it is very intriguing! I might just come back after the end of April to read it through in one go :)

    @TarkabarkaHolgy from
    The Multicolored Diary
    MopDog

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for dropping by again - I'm glad you find it intriguing. It will be interesting to see what you think of the whole thing in one go if you do pop by after the end in comparison to an episodic read :)

      Delete

Thanks for stopping by - I'd love to hear from you. :)