what weapon was used.”
“That still grates with me that we couldn’t find it.”
“Lord Osborne is a different kettle of fish. He could be very unpleasant if he so wished. The daughter is fanatically devoted to her mother and hates her father with a vengeance. I’m only presenting these facts for consideration. The daughter might kill to prevent her mother’s past reaching her stepfather’s ears. Mother might kill for the same reason. Father might kill to prevent the ‘ scandal ’ coming out. You and I both know that more murders have been committed for respectability than one would believe possible! The Osborne’s are ‘nice people.’”
DI Silver nodded and then said. “If – I say if – there is anything in this Oxmarket Sunday Echo business, then the Osborne’s are clearly the best bet.”
“Exactly. The only other person in Oxmarket Aspal who would fit in age is Kristen Braun is Lorraine Terret. There are two arguments against Lorraine Terret, as Kristen Braun, having killed Faith Roberts. First, she suffers from arthritis and spends most of time in a wheel-chair -”
“In a detective novel,” DI Silver said enviously, “that wheel-chair business would be a ruse.”
“Secondly,” I continued. “Lorraine Terret seems dogmatic and forceful, more inclined to bully than coax.”
“Lorraine Terret is not impossible but highly unlikely,” DI Silver conceded. “What about Kay Kempster?”
“No one in Oxmarket Aspal is the right age.”
“Unless she’s had plastic surgery.”
“There are three women of thirty-odd. There is Chloe Bird. There is Keldine Hogg and there is Helena Brooks-Nunn. That is to say, any one of these could be Jo Pedder or alternatively Kristen Braun’ daughter as far as age goes.”
“And as far as possibility goes?”
I sighed. “Kristen Braun’ daughter may be tall or short, dark or fair – we have no guide to what she looks like. We have considered Chloe Bird in that role. Now for the other two. First of all I will tell you this: Keldine Hogg is scared of something.”
“Afraid of you?”
“Possibly.”
“That might be significant,” DI Silver said slowly. “You’re suggesting that Keldine Hogg might be Kristen Myer’s daughter or Jo Pedder. Is she fair or dark?”
“Fair.”
“Jo Pedder was a fair-haired child.”
“Helena Brooks-Nunn is also fair-haired. Expensively made up with remarkable wide-open dark-blue eyes.”
“Now, John,” DI Silver shook his head at me smiling. “I’ll tell, Kimberley.”
“She knows what I’m like,” I laughed in return and gently with my forefinger, I tapped the photograph of the child Jo Pedder in her thick spectacles.
“So that’s what you think? Jo Pedder?”
“No, I am only suggesting what might be. At the time Faith Roberts died Helena Brooks-Nunn was not yet Mrs Brooks-Nunn. She was a young widow, very badly off, living in a rented cottage. She was engaged to be married to the richest man in the area. A man with political ambitions and full of his own self-importance. If Richard Brooks-Nunn had found out that he was about to marry, say, a child who had obtained a notoriety by killing her aunt, or alternatively the daughter of Michael Porter, one of the most notorious murderers from this area. You would say perhaps if he was in love then the answer
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