Kith and Kill (18 page)
Authors: Rodney Hobson
Tags: #Police Procedurals, #Crime Fiction, #Thrillers & Suspense, #Thriller & Suspense, #Murder, #Mystery, #Crime
“Inspector,” she gasped as she saw who it was. “I don’t understand. We’re just having a family powwow and we certainly don’t want the police here while we’re discussing the way the police have been harassing the family and failing to protect us.”
“There’s been an important development,” Amos said simply. “As you’ve all gathered, perhaps you’d like to hear it together.”
Taken aback, Esther stood in silence for a few moments then said: “You’d better come in, then.”
By the time they were in the front room with the remains of the family, however, Esther had recovered her composure.
“Well, now you’re here, inspector,” she said, “perhaps you would enlighten us as to what you intend to do to protect what’s left of our family. You seem to have achieved precious little so far. Have you any idea who is responsible?”
This outburst was met with murmurs of approval from those present.
“Come on then, inspector, let’s have it,” Ruth taunted.
Amos’s utterly unexpected and seemingly irrelevant response stunned the room into silence.
“I heard a joke the other day,” Amos told the assembled family. He related Jason’s tale of the Methodist minister to the remaining members of the Wilson family.
DS Juliet Swift was taken aback. She had never heard Amos repeat a risqué joke.
However, Amos was relishing the moment.
“And that’s what this was all about,” he said. “Three sons who all enjoyed good educations and a great start in life but who committed sins that would have horrified their father if he had ever found out.
“Luckily for him he went to meet his Maker believing they were all as righteous as he was. He even bailed them out when they got into financial trouble through their own failings and expensive habits. And so he provided in his will for all his children equally, or at least he meant to.
“But it wasn’t fair, Mary, was it? You thought you were the one your father had overlooked, as usual. The one who didn’t get the grammar school education because she was too tied up helping her mother to run the home, the one who never left the nest, who was taken for granted.
“All the others had careers, marriages, children, their own homes. You thought they were all going to inherit and you would be left out. You, the righteous one, the one who stayed faithful to God and the religion that was so precious to your parents while your brothers deserted it.
“Ruth and Esther you could forgive. They at least came to chapel occasionally. They didn’t have the sins of your brothers.
“The murderer of Matthew and Mark had to be in the family. No-one outside could have got at both of them. And it was too much of a coincidence that Luke should die so quickly after the other two.
“The only motive there could be for the killings was to stop the undeserving brothers from taking what you thought they had no right to. You were the only one who would go on such a moral crusade.
“The trouble with those who believe they are doing God’s will is that they do it with greater zeal than ordinary mortals – great if you are doing good but calamitous when the voices in your head tell you to kill.”
Amos paused for Mary’s reaction. She sat silently with an air of resignation, looking at the floor to avoid all the eyes that were upon her.
“I don’t think you’re anything like as dull and ignorant as you liked to make out. Your family would tell you things unguardedly, not realising you were taking it all in. You did inherit the family genes after all.
“At the first meeting of the family, when you thought you were going to be destitute, you took the opportunity to steal your sister Esther’s spare car keys. You couldn’t know for sure what you would find in her vet’s bag.
“You slipped out at your father’s wake – no-one notices whether Mary is in the room or not. You probably couldn’t believe your luck when you got your hands on the ketamine and you wasted no time using it.
“You said something very curious when you discovered that it was Matthew, after all, who had been inadvertently left out of the will, not you. As it may be dawning on you, Jane’s friend Emma is a police officer. We have a tape of the proceedings at Mark’s house when he was poisoned.
“You said: ‘So it was all for nothing.’ You didn’t mean the charade over agreeing to split the estate six ways and all writing letters of agreement. You meant that it had been unnecessary to kill Matthew, the womaniser who didn’t deserve to inherit. He was the one who wasn’t named in the will and he wouldn’t have got his share anyway because Luke, the gambler, had taken a chance and was refusing to back a six-way split.
“Was it the righteous glow from punishing a sinner that egged you on to kill the other two brothers? Or was it frustration at killing Matthew for no good reason that prompted you to inflict equal retribution on Mark and Luke?
“You went down to the corner shop after you and Ruth had left Mark’s house and you bought a bottle of scotch. It was a risk, but there was just enough time to nip back and empty and refill the decanter, hoping no-one would know it had been contaminated.
“But you couldn’t be sure, as Esther would have been, how much ketamine to administer so you divided the lot between Matthew and Mark. You had to use a different method to dispose of Luke, waylaying him as he returned to his car from the bookies. ”
All eyes remained firmly fixed on Mary, who rose from her chair defiantly.
“You all thought I was the stupid one but I proved you wrong. I knew all about Matthew’s womanising, Mark’s drinking and Luke’s gambling. I saw how they were conning Dad out of his money to feed their dirty habits.
“Yes, I stole ketamine from Esther’s car. She’d talked about the drug being used on animals so I got hold of one of her car keys out of her bag like you said while everyone was arguing about the will. Yes, I got the ketamine out of her car at the funeral when everyone was shedding crocodile tears for Dad.
“It was easy to put half in Matthew’s beer afterwards and the other half in Mark’s decanter. No-one ever noticed anything I did. There was no danger of killing any other family member because Mark never offered anyone else a drink from his precious decanter.”
“But you didn’t save enough for Luke, did you?” Amos prompted Mary. “You didn’t know how much would kill.”
Mary snorted.
“Of course I didn’t save any for Luke,” she said in derision. “I was never going to get chance to spike his drink. Everyone would be more careful after Matthew and Mark and anyway Luke didn’t drink much.
“He’d been beaten up over gambling debts before. It was easy to waylay him coming back from the bookies. He always parked in the same place when he went there. The poor fool was utterly baffled when I called to him as he passed the alleyway. He came to me like a lamb to the slaughter.”
It was Esther who found her voice first.
“You killed your brothers and put the rest of the family through hell. I hope you rot in it.”
“God will forgive me,” Mary said simply.
“If it’s good enough for God, it’s good enough for me,” Amos commented. “However, a judge may take a different view.”
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