The Deadly Bouquet
As we gathered I knew that I needed to take charge of the situation and not give the culprit a chance to muddy the water in people's minds. The tension of the situation manifested itself in the pounding headache that I was experiencing. I steadied my breathing and began to speak.
“There was only one person who could have pushed Cornelius out of the window, right Marcus?”
The sudden revelation sent a shock across the room. His gaze, previously fixated on me, faltered. The corner of his mouth began to curl with an emotion that I registered as somewhere between sadness and anger.
His failure to declare his innocence was all but confirmation of his guilt.
“How did you know?” he said, following the awkward pause, his voice wavering.
“When I went to the bathroom in between your room and Evelyn’s I noticed that the towels were dry. You made a point of being wet when you arrived at the greenhouse, but the bathroom that had signs of use was the one connected to your father’s study. You were also the one to charge into the door of the greenhouse, doing so with your left hand, but I noticed at dinner that you are clearly right-handed. My guess is that you did this in an attempt to disguise the cut on your left hand that was likely made by the shattered teacup. This also corresponds with the smear of blood on the banister on the balcony of Cornelius' study. You were without a doubt the one who pushed your father.”
“But the fall wasn’t what killed Cornelius, right Marcus? By the time you pushed him off the balcony he had already been poisoned.”
“Poisoned?!” exclaimed a shocked Evelyn.
“Yes, likely by the foxglove you yourself put in the wedding arrangements. His eyes were so widely dilated which immediately suggested that his death was caused by something more than just a fall.”
There was a sudden eruption of accusations being hurled at Marcus by the family.
“EVERYONE SIT DOWN!” I shouted with a ferocity that sent reverberations through the manor walls.
“BUT WHY WOULD YOU DO SUCH A THING???” Dottie exclaimed, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
After a brief silence, his eyes glued to the floor, he began to speak. “Because ... because I thought it was you! Dot, I found him slouched over in his chair foaming at the mouth next to the cup of tea that you brought him,” said Marcus.
“You thought that I murdered your father!? Are you out of your mind!?”
“I love you and I wanted to do anything I could to protect you. You’re the love of my life.”
“If you truly loved me you would believe in my innocence, not accept my guilt, Marcus.”
“Was it you, Dottie?”
“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, MARCUS!?”
“You left the greenhouse key on your bed, I saw it when I walked past your room. You had left the door open. So I tucked it under your sheets and planned to get it out later, but I was worried I would be seen doing so. You were the one who had access to the poisonous plants.”
I put my hand on her shoulder before she quickly swiped it away in a fit of rage.
“Well, who is it then if it wasn’t Dottie who really killed the old bastard?” he said.
“Who would stand to benefit the most from his death? Seemingly Dottie and Marcus as he threatened to remove them both from the will should they marry. But what if I told you there was another who benefitted from the original version of the will? At first, I thought nothing of the first comment Cornelius made to you I say as I looked at the culprit, sweat beading down their brow as they did everything in their power to not meet my gaze. But should half of his share of the company go to each of his children wouldn’t there be a new majority shareholder? One who has already voiced that he believed the company should be sold? One who had nothing in his suitcase other than a single suit that seemed far beneath someone of his means? The comment about the watch when you first arrived, while seemingly insignificant, was a way Cornelius was digging at you wasn’t it Reg? He knew about your debts and instead of helping you offered to buy your share of the company for an insultingly low price of £45 each, or about half of their market value as indicated by the receipt with the number 45 on it we found. Should half of the company be given to each of his children as was stated in the original will, Reg would have the authority to sell the company. He poisoned Cornelius using the foxglove from the wedding arrangements, not from the greenhouse as I had initially thought. Evelyn’s petty disapproval of the wedding between Dottie and her brother led her to put flowers she knew to be poisonous into the arrangements she so ‘lovingly’ made, I imagine to provide herself with a bit of amusement. Finally, with the goal of incriminating Dottie, he left the key in her room.”
“But, hold on, wasn’t Dottie the one who brought him the tea?” Evelyn said.
“Yes, tea that we know he didn’t drink and that didn’t appear to have been tampered with in any way. Charles admitted to preparing that cup of tea, but not any other, which directly contradicts the second teacup we found in his study. I imagine you had planned on removing that second teacup, had Marcus not broken it to cover up what he thought Dottie used to kill his father. Reg poisoned him earlier in the day and told Dottie that Cornelius had asked for another cup of tea while we were in the parlor this morning. Something seemed amiss to me when he went to someone other than Charles with this request; Dottie then relayed this request to Charles who prepared the tea.”
“Why, that’s right!” exclaimed Charles.
Reg sat there, silently defeated as the family understood the gravity of what he had done. The tears of his wife as the police escorted him out of the manor hours later is something that I will never forget. Needless to say, no wedding was had that day.
