The girl had suddenly become evasive and shifted from foot to foot and looked at the floor.
She kept on commanding the girl to tell her about the police until she threatened to fire the girl that the girl shyly looked up and stuttered, “ M-m-m-mister Tom said he that he has already taken care of it.”
This made Anne so mad, that this mere servant girl, who she didn’t even know, had the gall not to answer a direct question from her mistress. She shook the bell so violently that the household must have thought that the house was about to fall down. But she didn’t care; all she wanted to do was talk to Tom and maybe get rid of this ignorant girl whom she now believed was stupid enough to be from the highlands of the country.
In a few moments Miriam, the head servant, had come running breathlessly into the room. Anne told her to fetch Mister Tom right away. When Anne was again considering shaking the bell till it shook right off (and also the girl’ head!!!!), in came Tom, her husband of ten years, coolly and calmly as a cucumber. This behaviour shocked and unnerved Anne quite badly because she had never seen him so cool, calm and collective as in their ten long years of marriage, so much so that she was dumbfounded for a little while until she finally caught herself.
” Darling, it’s so good to see up again, you do know that you have been unconscious for three days don’t you?” he smiled, “are you feeling bett…” “Tom first of all who is this girl and secondly what business about the police?!”
“Calm down darling, this is Karen, she is to be your new servant…” “What happened to Agnes, Tom? Where is she? Get Agnes for me now!” Tom then turned his back to her and said, “Agnes is dead.”
“Let me explain to you what we know so far Anne.” “Three days ago Agnes went for a walk along the beach in the evening as the sun was about to set. Since she had already served you tea I told that it was all right for her to go,” he sighed. “That is a decision I regret deeply right now.” “As far as we know you got out of bed sometime in the night and also went for a walk…”I went for fresh air,” she interjected stoically. “All right you went for fresh air when it was discovered that you were missing there was a search, but the only thing found was your expensive diamond necklace and earrings that your mother left for you. But your ring was missing. We thought it strange that you would go for a walk with them, and since Agnes had not come back either, we were extremely worried that you might have been drowned, or maybe lying injured somewhere. So I sent out some of our fishermen to look for you both.”
“In the morning you were found almost dead on the seashore, but Agnes was still nowhere to be seen. “She was later found at sea, with a wooden dagger in her chest and your emerald ring in still clutched in her right hand.”
“ What about my gold and silver broaches and necklaces and bangles!”
He turned to face her once more and said, “they are all missing.” She looked up at him questioningly and said, “What about the police? What did they want? What did your say to them?”
“I told them because of your ill health you couldn’t possibly speak to them at that time. “Wait a minute, what did the police want with me? Get to the point!” ”OK, ok!!! The police have come to suspect you as the murderer but it’s purely based on circumstantial evidence.” “What do you mean by that, it sounds as though you believed I would do anything to hurt poor Agnes?” “All right love, it’s ok.”
Later on in the evening, Anne went back down to the wind-tossed sea that she believed had caused her misfortunes and tat the sea and her husband murdered her. Her husband was just a debt stricken man with a wife that inherited a lot of money. His plan was to get rid of her and her nosy servant and set them up for their own murders. With all the money he gained from her, he could start over his life with his mistress the lovely redhead, Karen. The only hitch in that plan was that Karen saw an opportunity to become a very rich lady for herself and her boyfriend who just happened to be visiting her at the time of the murders and was also an expert wood carver.
David Springer, 30/04/07, Page
