Page 58 of Death at a Highland Wedding
“Do we know why Constable Ross arrested him?” Gray asks.
“That is the worst of it,” Violet says. “At least if the constable had found some evidence that seemed to indicate Archie was responsible, I would understand why he felt the need to arrest him. The constable is young and new at his job, and in his enthusiasm, he could be forgiven for making a mistake.” She glances over at us. “It was the coat.”
“The…?” Gray says.
“The coat Ezra was wearing when he died.”
“Archie’s coat?”
“Exactly. That is the proof that Archie killed him.”
“I… do not understand.”
Violet gives a humorless laugh. “No one does. Except, apparently, Constable Ross. Oh, and Edith. Edith Frye is convinced he is correct. That woman does not have the sense God gave a gnat. No, that is wrong. She has a gnat’s full measure of sense, along with the cruelty of a jackal, always sniffing about, looking for trouble, delighted when she finds it.” Violet pauses, her cheeks flushing as she glances at me. “My apologies, Miss Mitchell. That was rude and petty. I am overly distraught.”
“You are understandably distraught,” I say. “As for Mrs. Frye, I suspect that comparison does a disservice to jackals.”
She covers her mouth against a snorting laugh. “Yes, I ought not to disparage jackals. Or gnats. As for the coat, Constable Ross says that is the cause of the murder. It is a very fine coat, you see.”
“It is,” I say.
“And being a fine coat, Archie would be furious at Ezra borrowing it. Driven to a blind rage, seeing his oldest and dearest friend out for a walk, dressed inhiscoat.”
“So his theory is that Mr. Cranston killed Mr. Sinclair for wearing his coat?”
“But of course.”
It takes me a moment to find words. Then I say, “I can understand thatConstable Ross does not know Mr. Cranston, but even ifanyonewould murder a friend for borrowing a piece of clothing, what about the fact it was the middle of the night? Did Mr. Cranston wake with the dread feeling that his coat was not where it should be, thunder downstairs, find it missing, and storm out at night determined to apprehend the thief? And then happen to find him, on an estate of hundreds of acres? Realize it’s his best friend… and still kill him?”
Violet’s lips twitch. “Fiona is right, Miss Mitchell. You are a very fine detective in your own right.” She slows. “Did that sound superior of me?”
“It did not. As for being a fine detective, I’d like to think I’m growing into a decent one, but this is common sense.” I rein in my outrage and take a moment to consider it all. “Not to give Constable Ross too much credit, but I suppose, given that Mr. Sinclair was struck from the rear, he could argue that Mr. Cranston didn’t know who he was hitting.”
“Yes, I suppose we must allow that would not be as outrageous as killing his best friend over a borrowed coat. Constable Ross believes Archie wanted to go for a walk, found it missing, went out and saw a shadowy figure wearing his coat. Given Archie’s problems with the locals, he presumed it was one of them and, outraged, hit the man, intending only to injure him. To his horror, he discovered he had killed his best friend.”
She takes two more steps and then adds, “I will even credit Constable Ross’s imagination here. If the accused were not my brother, I would think it an excellent tragic tale.”
Gray says to me, “I understand that Archie may seem exactly the sort of man who would lose his temper and strike someone. But he is not.”
“Full of sound and fury,” I say.
“Signifying nothing?” Violet smiles over at me. “You know your Shakespeare.”
“I am disturbingly fond ofMacbeth,as my father always said.”
That makes her laugh. “I have heard others say it is a warning about overly ambitious women, but I have always seen it as a warning about what happens to women who have no way to exercise their ambitions, except through their husbands. As for Archie, you are both correct. In the more colloquial sense, I would say he is all bark and no bite. He has notaste for physical violence, either in a fit of temper or as a bit of masculine fun.” She glances at Gray and smiles warmly. “Hugh once said you enjoy fisticuffs, and I thought that did not suit you at all. Likewise, I believe, an aversion to it does not suit my brother.”
“Yet he is averse to it,” Gray says. “He never engaged in schoolyard rough-and-tumble.”
I step over a fallen branch. “And while the theory seems plausible on the surface, I cannot imagine anyone finding their coat gone and presuming someone broke in and stole it. Any normal person would assume they’d either misplaced it or someone borrowed it. Also, this morning, Mr. Cranston said Mr. Sinclair was in the habit of borrowing his coat. That would be his first thought if he found it missing. I’ll need to tell Constable Ross about that.” I gaze out along the road and think. “Or, no, I actually shouldn’t or he might decide Mr. Cranston was establishing an alibi.”
“Yes, I would not give his imagination any more fodder,” Violet says. “However, Fiona and I have both heard Archie grumbling at Ezra for borrowing his coat. We can tell Constable Ross that… without the grumbling part. We can establish the borrowing as normal behavior, one that did not truly bother Archie.”
“There is also the matter of the coat itself,” Gray says. “It is very distinctive. I fear it was not a coincidence that Ezra was attacked while wearing it.”
Violet shivers. “You believe my brother was the target.”
“Which means the killer would not be Archie,” Gray says. “Archie realizes he was the likely target, which may explain why he did not protest too much about being taken into custody.”
