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“Why? Why would you do this?” Clementine whispered tearfully.
Moss crossed the room to stand beside Clementine in a silent display of support, but he didn’t attempt to touch her or hold her. Instead, he gave her a few moments to absorb what she was seeing.
Elaine glared spitefully at her. “God, you utter fool.”
“She hates you,” Moss assured Clementine. “That is the only reason why she should use your name to murder people. If any of her notes were found before she could retrieve them then you would get the blame for her crimes.”
“You were very clever,” the Captain. “Did you not think about what this would mean for your family? Your father is the local farmer who has delivered milk to the locals for years. Nobody is going to want to trust anything he delivers once they hear about this. Did you not once consider the impact your crimes would have on your own family, much less the families of the victims?”
“She is a callous murderer, so no. They don’t stop to consider anybody but themselves. It is my experience that heinous criminals like her only think of themselves, and satisfying their need to kill,” Billsdon informed them.
“Why? Why would you hate me? What have I ever done to you?”
Clementine wanted to cry. She wanted to laugh and demand they all stop messing about, but she knew, deep in her heart, that at some point a part of her had suspected Elaine all along.
“You couldn’t hide your hatred of me at the end, could you? Only this afternoon, when we met on the street and at the grocer’s shop, you couldn’t even pretend to be nice. You were cold, and demanding, and so spiteful. I should have known it was you all along. God, what a fool. How could I have missed it? You were certainly quick enough to take over the Chair’s seat, weren’t you? Were you so eager to be Chair of the Committee to prove to everyone how wonderful you are? Are you so hateful that you were prepared to kill the committee members who objected to you taking over?”
“I don’t think it was that, my dear,” Cameron countered. “I think she is jealous. All the people you speak with and were friendly with barely had anything to do with her. Elaine was liked well enough, but nobody considered her anything more than the farmer’s daughter. You, however, are one of the villagers because you live here.”
Moss nodded. He threw Clementine a sympathetic look. “I am afraid that when Elaine tried to get you to take tea with her, she fully intended to claim you as her next victim. It is why she was so annoyed that you didn’t find the time to go. So, she tried to kill another victim.”
“She tried to kill me because I was the last person you were seen out with,” the Captain added.
“No, you weren’t. I was with Moss after you,” Clementine informed him.
“Yes, but she had already tried to kill me, but failed and couldn’t try again because she couldn’t leave me another cake. Nobody would fall for that ruse twice. I don’t expect she thought I would eat it. I am sure she had far more sinister intentions for me, which is why she tried to lure me into the woods. Of course, that failed too when she realised that I had a gun.”
“So, she settled on trying to kill me instead.” The Captain slumped into a chair before the fire, as if his legs couldn’t hold him up any longer.
“The Captain is also someone also likes you,” Cameron offered.
“I don’t really know Elaine,” the Captain confirmed.
“Because Elaine wanted to claim another victim, she decided to murder the Captain because he was someone else who had been recently seen out and about with you. It helped her make you look guilty, Clementine,” Billsdon added.
“Why?” Clementine’s voice broke. She swallowed harshly and forced herself not to cry just yet. She wanted answers.
“But how did you bake so many cakes and your family not taste them, or suspect anything odd was going on?” Cameron interrupted.
Clementine sighed heavily. “Her mother is making cakes for the cake stall. I wonder if she has made several fruit cakes but not realised that they are missing yet.”
“We can find out,” Billsdon assured her.
“She could pick the mushrooms in the woods she likes to use. Folcor Woods, is it?” Moss asked of Clementine.
Clementine nodded. “I am sure if we go through there, we will find a few without too much rummaging.”
“You don’t know what you are talking about. I was just here to, to-” Elaine looked frantically around the kitchen. “-speak to the Captain.”
“Which is why you just found him face down in the garden yet stepped over him like it was an ordinary position to find him in. You did nothing to help him or alert anybody to the fact that he needed a doctor,” Moss snorted. He folded his arms and lifted a cold brow in Elaine’s direction. “So, you pretended to be Clementine’s friend but got jealous of her being friends with people who wouldn’t give you the time of day. Because you couldn’t hide your contempt, you decided to kill the people she spoke to, using fruit cake poised with highly toxic mushrooms, which were all baked in your mother’s kitchen for the Autumn Fair.”
“Stopping the fair would mean that her mother probably wouldn
’t notice the cakes were missing for several weeks more yet.”
“Several weeks?” Cameron looked shocked.
“It is fruit cake. Laced with good brandy, it will last for a long time,” Clementine shrugged.
