Tuppence (The Tipton Hollow 3)

“What are you doing here?” She threw Mark a dour look. He hovered beside the door. The pursing of his lips the only expression of apology she was likely to get.

“Are you all right?” Isaac murmured, mentally wincing at how foolish a question that was.

Tuppence blinked at him. “No, I am not all right. How can I be all right?”

“I know you didn’t do it.” Isaac ignored Mark’s discrete cough. “We are going to prove your innocence.”

Tuppence’s heart began to pound. She shifted and sat a little straighter, not daring to believe that he meant it. Isaac sat tentatively beside her, half expecting her to order him to leave. When she didn’t, he gently slid a thumb down her pale cheek. “God, you look exhausted.”

Tuppence’s view of him suddenly blurred as tears stung her eyes. She had no idea that her tears had overspilled and were flowing steadily down her cheeks until Isaac pressed a handkerchief to her cheek and cupped her face with a loving hand.

“It will be all right. I will get you out of here,” he promised tenderly.

“How? How can you get me out of here?” Tuppence demanded. “They – he – thinks I killed him.” She nodded toward Mark who muttered a curse.

“I can’t state whether I think you did it or not, but Isaac knows what I personally think,” Mark warned. “Look, I am going to give you two a few minutes alone. I will be back in a little while.” As he locked the cell door, Mark threw a warning look at the Duty Sergeant, and muttered that Isaac and Tuppence were discussing legal representation and weren’t to be disturbed, before returning to his office.

On his way, he was waylaid by his assistant, Detective Calger, who had the Coroner’s report in his hands. “I can’t wait to read that,” Mark growled, snatching the file off him. In the mood he was in now, he almost relished the contents. Whatever they contained, he had to try to use them to prove Tuppence’s innocence one way or the other.

“She didn’t do it,” Calger announced without preamble. “There is no way she could have stabbed him.” He slumped into the chair opposite Mark’s desk and sat perfectly still while he watched Mark read the report.

“Eight times?”

“It was a frenzied attack,” Edward snorted. “With an eight-inch blade. It was shoved so forcibly into the man that it has left a grove in the bone of the man’s spine and back of his ribs. No woman as slender, and short, as Tuppence is could do it. Further, there is a knife wound to Lewis’s upper right shoulder which is far too high for someone like Tuppence to cause. The angle of the cut faces downward, so it was made by someone who was taller than Mr Lewis. The killer stabbed downwards, at an angle, something that is impossible for a person of Tuppence’s size to do. Mr Lewis is taller than Tuppence by two inches. There is no way Tuppence could physically stab him at height even in the middle of a muddy field while struggling with the man.”

“Someone else did it.” After an initial moment of jubilation, Mark’s immediate suspicions turned to Angus Richmond. He had only ever seen the man once but knew he was well over six feet in height and as strong as an ox.

“Find out who Richmond has on his staff, and if any of them are taller than Lewis. But be discrete about it. I don’t want Richmond getting any hint that we are investigating him,” Mark murmured.

“Do you think he had something to do with it?”

“He wants land, Edward, and has been to see Tuppence recently and threatened her when she refused to sell her farm to him. Further, he warned her to ‘brace herself’, and then this happens. It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together.” Mark slapped the file closed.

“You know that if you question him, he is likely to deny it, don’t you?”

“I know but we have to look at facts. The facts of this case are that it doesn’t look like Tuppence is the killer. I know her on a personal level because she has been my wife’s friend for years. She isn’t the kind of person to do something like this,” Mark warned.

“So, we are looking at Richmond first?”

“No. We are looking at Richmond, and possibly someone else, but who that third person might be and why they would kill Mr Lewis we need to find out.”

“We have to go to Lewis’s farm to see if there is any paperwork in the house from Richmond, don’t we?”

Mark nodded.

“Was he married?”

“His wife died last year,” Mark replied absently.

“I’ll set to work then,” Edward announced with his normal cheery air of capability. He launched to his feet but hesitated when Mark didn’t immediately follow. “Are you not coming?”

“I have to wait here for a few minutes. You make a start on Richmond and his staff. I am going to have a look around Hilltop Farm, but not yet. You go, I will talk to you later.”

“What are you going to do about Tuppence?” Edward asked. “I mean, if you let her walk free, the locals will challenge her, and the killer will know that he has failed to set her up to take the blame for his crime.”

“She can’t stay in a cell for a crime we know she didn’t commit,” Mark growled.

“What do you intend to do then?” Edward prompted. “She needs protecting. I mean, the body was on her land. Who is to say that the killer didn’t intend to target her and killed the wrong person?”