Page 83 of Death at a Highland Wedding
Then I continue questioning Cranston as he eats, stopping only when Ross decides visiting hours are over. I’ve learned enough, and if we have more questions, Fiona sweetly requested permission to bring more food for both of them. A bachelor can never turn down free food, especially when it is excellent.
We return to the estate after that. Visiting Nora’s family will need to wait until we’ve had time to prepare. I also have to discuss that with McCreadie. If there’s any way he can be present for the interview, that’s best, but I’m not sure it’s feasible.
By the time we return to the house, it’s mid-evening. I start by comparing the fingerprints to the ones I’ve lifted from the shillelagh. As expected, Cranston’s prints match the one I found the most of. Because it’s his shillelagh. That doesn’t help. I have two other prints, but we’ve decided not to get exemplars from anyone else until we have a suspect. Everyone in this house could have handled it—from Mrs. Hall to the maids to the guests. Handling it for cleaning or just taking a closer look.When we have a suspect, then we’ll want to know whether their prints match the two unidentified ones.
I walk the gardens with Gray and McCreadie to explain what I got from Cranston. Then I tell them what he said about Nora.
“As leads go,” McCreadie says, “I am not certain how useful this one is.”
“In regards to Ezra’s death, you mean.”
He nods as we turn a corner. “Naturally, if Müller molested the child, Archie must know so he can sack him. However, the stronger lead would be that Archie molested the girl and someone tried to kill him for it. That is not impossible. It is, however, unlikely.”
“Given the timing of Archie’s visits and the fact he had no contact with the villagers. Nora wouldn’t have been wandering around the grounds in March, when Archie says it was a bog. Also, he spoke of her as a child, and I didn’t pick up any sense that he was dissembling.”
“Archie is terrible at dissembling,” McCreadie says. “He does not have the temperament for it.” He looks at Gray for confirmation and Gray, walking silently behind us, nods.
I say, “If Müller assaulted Nora, it seems a stretch to attack Archie because he’s Müller’s employer.”
“Could the killer have mistaken Ezra for Müller?” Gray says.
I look back at him. “Good question.”
McCreadie nods slowly. “We keep presuming the killer thought Ezra was Archie, but that is purely based on the coat. Müller is also of a similar size and more likely to be wandering the grounds at night.”
“Only those who know Archie would recognize the coat,” I say. “And it’s very clear he wasn’t socializing with the locals.”
“Yet the shillelagh indicates the killer had knowledge of and access to the house.”
I tell them what Cranston said about briefly employing Lenore Hall.
“I did not know that,” McCreadie says. “So she spent time in the house after Archie bought it.”
“When the shillelaghs were on display,” I say. “We definitely need to speak to Lenore and Gavin.”
“That will not be easy,” McCreadie says darkly. “It appears they have gone to visit their grandmother in Dundee.”
“What?” I say, stopping and turning to face him.
“We learned of it this evening,” McCreadie says.
I wince. “That’s my fault, isn’t it? For telling Mrs. Hall that you’d like to speak to them as potential witnesses.”
“No. They left early today, without their mother’s knowledge.”
I curse under my breath. “I should have moved faster. They were the obvious suspects for the dead deer, which made them witnesses.”
“To a murder that was not ours to investigate,” Gray says. “This has been a tangled mess, and it is no one’s fault but that constable’s.”
When we don’t answer, Gray presses on, “Hugh, you had no authority to investigate until Archie was arrested, and even then, you have only a moral authority. You cannot even openly investigate, for fear the local constable will retaliate. It is ridiculous and unconscionable, but it is the restriction you must work under, which means you and Mallory cannot blame yourselves for not interviewing witnesses who seem to have left before Ezra’s body was discovered.”
“How far is Dundee?” I ask. “I know it’s an hour or two by car, but I’m afraid to ask what that means here.”
“It is nearly as far as returning to Edinburgh,” McCreadie says. “If we decide that we absolutely must speak to them to solve the case, we shall do it, but not until then.”
Because it would take at least two days from the investigation. One day to travel there and question the Halls and another to return after Folly rested overnight.
“The alternative,” McCreadie continues, “is that one of us goes to speak to them while the others remain here investigating. But if I were to go—which would be most feasible, as Mallory cannot go alone—I would not know what you had uncovered in the meantime.”
