A Study in Murder (Victorian Book Club Mystery 1)

“Yes. We’re fine.” Amy walked to Lacey and gave her a hug. “Thank you.”

Detective Carson smirked at Amy and placed his hands on his hips. “More trouble, Lady Amy?”

Amy waved in Mrs. Miles’s direction. “We have your murderer, Detective.”

Marsh squatted in front of the woman. “I believe you are Mrs. Miles?”

She nodded.

The detectives glanced at each other. They appeared to be just as surprised to see Mrs. Miles as Amy had been. The woman had certainly fooled everyone.

“You want to tell us what happened?” Carson turned to Amy.

She took a deep breath. “Mrs. Miles arrived at my house, unannounced and uninvited, with a gun—”

“Pardon the interruption, but when someone shows up with a gun, they are generally uninvited,” Marsh said.

She nodded. “Understood. Mrs. Miles said she intended to kill me because she thought I was getting too close to identifying her.” She mumbled the last few words.

Detective Carson cocked his ear in her direction, a smirk on his face. “What was that last part? I’m afraid I missed it.”

She straightened and looked him in the eye. “She thought I”—she waved between herself and William—“we, were getting too close.”

When the detective said nothing in return, she added, “Very well, you were correct.”

“Go on.”

“William arrived—”

“Of course.”

“—and disarmed her. She then admitted to us that she killed my fiancé—”

“Ex-fiancé,” Detective Carson, Detective Marsh, William, Lacey, and Mrs. Miles all said at the same time. Stevens shouted it from the entrance hall.

She nodded. “Just so.” She returned her regard to Detective Carson, waiting for the lecture she knew he was itching to deliver.

Instead he said, “Where is the gun?”

William crossed the room and withdrew it from the drawer. “I’ve disengaged it.” He handed it to Detective Carson, who checked it and slid it into his pocket.

Detective Marsh rose and grasped Mrs. Miles’s elbow to help her stand. “Put your hands behind your back, please.”

Now entirely complacent, she did as the detective asked, and he fastened the handcuffs on her.

As the detectives and Mrs. Miles left the room, Detective Carson stopped and turned to Amy. “We will need you at the police station as soon as possible to give a full accounting of what went on here.”

William jumped in. “Will tomorrow morning be sufficient? I believe Lady Amy could use a break from all this.”

Carson snorted and followed the other two out of the room.

* * *

A couple of hours later, after a few brandies that had Amy feeling quite mellow, she and William continued to sit and discuss the events of the afternoon.

“What do you make of Sir Holstein’s digestion issues?” Amy asked as she eyed the half-empty bottle of brandy, wondering if she dared take another glass. She’d never had this much hard spirits in her life.

William shrugged. “It is possible he ingested some bad food, and not necessarily at the Carlisle house. I also can’t help but wonder if Lady Carlisle knew about Mrs. Miles’s involvement in St. Vincent’s death and wanted to spare the woman by removing Sir Holstein from the investigation. I did say theirs was a strange relationship.”