Murder at Midnight by C. S. Challinor Page A

sluggish. I wish now I hadn’t drunk so much whisky.”
    “You and me both. Aspirin?”
    “Whatever’s going,” Alistair said gratefully, accepting a mug of coffee from Helen, who always seemed to remember how much cream and sugar everyone took. He palmed the aspirin Rex offered. “Thanks. Hopefully, this will prevent a hangover headache. Look, you don’t suspect John, do you?” he asked standing awkwardly by the kitchen table.
    “No particular reason to at this point,” Rex hedged.
    “Right. Because he could never do anything like this. For goodness sake, he’s in the business of saving lives, not taking them.”
    This was not a convincing argument in Rex’s book, since he had prosecuted several cases in his career where doctors, nurses, and hospital orderlies had finished off a patient for a variety of reasons. In many instances, it wasn’t even personal. They had believed they were pursuing a sacred mission, or else had a God complex, or suffered from Munchausen by Proxy. A sad case, which Rex had tried with ambivalence, involved a medical practitioner who had performed euthanasia on a cancer-ridden patient in the last throes of agony. Rex rubbed his tired eyes to dispel the memory of the dignified and unrepentant doctor.
    “Are you okay, sweetheart?” Helen asked, rubbing his shoulder blades.
    “Aye, I was just having morbid thoughts. Look, Alistair, in the interest of diligence and impartiality, we need to suspect everyone equally for the time being.”
    “Even Julie?” Alistair demanded, clearly upset that John was not being removed from the suspects list.
    “Even Julie,” Rex said before Helen could comment. “Fair’s fair. However, it’s highly unlikely Julie is involved. She doesn’t have any connection to these people, except Drew Harper. This is only her second visit to Scotland in recent years. Plus, her attention has been focused all night on Drew that I can see. On that point, I don’t see how he could have made a move without her noticing.”
    “Unless they were in on the murders together … Look, would she even say anything if she saw Drew up to no good?” Alistair asked tellingly. It was clear he had noticed her infatuation with the house agent. “Aside from overreacting when he went over to chat with Zoe?”
    “Alistair,” Helen exclaimed in a chiding voice. “Please. If Julie saw Drew blow a dart into one or other of the Frasers, or both, I do believe she would have said something! She may be besotted but she’s not a fool. I’ve known her for six years and we’re very close,” she finished off firmly.
    “I take your point, Helen. I’m just saying that suggesting John is capable of murder is as ludicrous as accusing your friend Julie.”
    “Nobody’s suggesting anything of the sort,” Rex placated his friend. “And you haven’t known John as long as Helen has known Julie.”
    Alistair stood cradling his mug of coffee, staring into it. “Aye, but I know him in every sense. When you’re that close to someone, you learn what they’re capable of. And of murder, he isn’t.”
    Well, they did say love was blind, Rex reflected. Was it worth reminding his legal colleague of family witnesses who had sworn on the bible that the defendant couldn’t have committed whatever gruesome crime he or she was accused of, only for a guilty verdict to be returned? Probably not. “Be that as it may, let’s assume, for the sake of thoroughness, that John and Julie are as potentially guilty as anyone else.”
    “Fine,” Alistair said curtly.
    Helen kept her mouth firmly shut.
    “Now, one of us needs to be in there keeping watch. In fact, you both go and find out from Julie and John, respectively, if anyone left the room in our absence.”
    “What are you going to do, Rex?” Helen asked on her way out of the kitchen with a tray laden with cups, sugar and cream, having refused his help. Alistair followed with the coffee pot.
    “Make a call.”
    Rex dialed the number of Chief