MURDER AT LIDDEL WATER
A farmer had discovered
the corpse of his wife at Liddel Water, among Scotland and England,
between Dumfries and Galloway and Cumbria counties. Mr. and Mrs.
Buchanan had a son in common named Harry, who was five years old. For
Harry, Sir Arthur Walter Buchanan, the Police Scotland Detective Chief
Inspector would solve his wife's murder even if he had to break the Law
or if he had to do something else much more important but worse such as
killing someone to avenge it.
Arthur
Buchanan was married to Jane Agnew, the new manager of Sir Joseph Agnew
& Co., an enterprise focused on making ready meals. He was twenty
five; he was born in Glasgow, on December the 21st 1996, in a noble
family from the Scottish highlands but he lived most of his childhood
and youth in Cambusmore, Stirling. When he began his career as a
policeman serving the Police Scotland, he moved to Galloway where he met
Jane Agnew and Wendy Dunbar. He fell in love with Jane Agnew and Wendy
Dunbar loved him until the day she would get Arthur, despite his
relationship with Jane.
He
was tall and hefty. His hair was curly and dark chestnut and his eyes
were dark chestnut too. He had a beard and a french moustache and he
liked to dress well; if it was possible, to dress as the men of the
Victorian epoch. His parents were Sir George Buchanan and Madam Louella
Matheson; they were the owners of a pub in Stirling and the landlords of
some properties in Stirlingshire, Dunbartonshire and Renfrewshire
counties.
Despite
the body being between Scotland and England, the investigating judge
who was responsible for that case decided to request the Northernshire
Police Detective Chief Inspector, Sir John Makgill, to look into the
case. So that, Sir Arthur Buchanan offered his help to John Makgill who
accepted it given that the forensic surgeon had discovered, because of
the scars in the victim's body, that the guilty of the murder was a
serial killer.
A
witness of the murder described the guilty as a young adult male, who
maybe was thirty years old, whose hair was black and whose eyes were
green. He was trim, robust and strong, so the Chief Inspector Sir Arthur
Buchanan supposed that the victim, his wife Jane Agnew, had fought her
killer before passing away. Nevertheless, the witness stated that he had
heard three gunshots prior to the discovery.
Her
name was Anne Cameron and she was Jane Agnew's assistant. She was
twenty three years old and she was employed by Jane Agnew when she
became manager of her father's enterprise. "Mrs. Buchanan ordered me to
bring her here cause she had a meeting with someone.", said Miss.
Cameron. "I remained inside the car when the murder had happened. As it
was dark, I couldn't see anything!", Anne added.
John
Makgill and Arthur Buchanan came back to the police station while a
police officer took a statement to Miss. Cameron. They looked for
information about the prior deaths in the old files and they discovered
that the killer only murdered blonde and young women. For this reason
John Makgill gathered that the murderer had a problem with a blonde and
young woman in his youth.
He
asked Arthur about which and how were Jane Agnew's friends and if he
could describe them. He told his companion that four of them were young
and attractive men who often went out and got themselves drunk after the
workday, and that one of them was his wife's age. His wife and this one
were fellow students in their youth. The rest of Jane Agnew's friends
were blonde and young women, as their only witness, Miss. Cameron.
The
Chief Inspector Makgill decided to interview Mrs. Buchanan's friends
whereas the Chief Inspector Arthur Buchanan was interrogating his
father-in-law about the corporate finance of his firm and also about his
daughter's finances. According to Thomas Agnew's statement, his firm
earnings had increased twenty percent every year since the last two
decades and his daughter's finances were quite similar to his
enterprise. Nonetheless, when they questioned again Miss. Cameron
affirmed that her boss, Jane Agnew, had financial issues and that she
had decided to ask for a loan to one of her friends, James Campbell, who
was the owner of a bank in Scotland.
Arthur
Buchanan left his son in charge of his father-in-law and took the train
to Edinburgh in Carlisle railway station at five p.m. He promised his
friend that he would tell him what he had discovered after the meeting
with James Campbell in Scotland. Before taking the train he had bought
the newspaper to be informed about the latest events and he had
discovered that another blonde and young woman had been killed in
Dumfries and Galloway.
He
phoned her companion Wendy Dunbar, the Police Scotland Detective
Inspector, to get information about the killing but she could only tell
him that the victim maybe was a Thomas Agnew employee. She was maybe the
head of the marketing and design department of his enterprise and she
maybe had an extramarital relationship with Sir James Campbell, the guy
who would interview the following day.
The
train arrived at Edinburgh Waverley Station at half past six p.m.
Arthur Buchanan took his luggage and went out of the railway station
where he took a taxi to go to St. Christopher's Inn where he would spend
the night. He showered himself and later on he came down to the dining
room to eat something for dinner. During the meal a police officer came
into the dining hall and he told him that Mr. Campbell had been killed
in his office that afternoon.
He
followed the policeman, leaving the hotel at eight p.m, and they
arrived at the crime scene thirty minutes later. He found Mr. Campbell's
secretary, whose name was Samantha Chisholm, with the murder weapon in
her right hand weeping his boss death. Arthur asked her why she had
killed him but she didn't answer. Then he asked the forensic surgeon how
the victim was killed and he told him that Mr. Campbell had been
poisoned: they had discovered cyanide remainders in his cup of tea, so
Arthur gathered that Miss. Chisholm had found Mr. Campbell was sleeping
and she had decided to stab him. For this reason the secretary had the
murder weapon in her right hand.
Sir
John Makgill had interrogated three of Jane Agnew's friends. All three
had enough reasons to have killed Mrs. Buchanan. However they had an
alibi for the time of the killing. Miss. Cameron and the fourth one
didn't have enough reasons to do it but they hadn't an alibi, so Sir
John Makgill decided to interview Mrs. Buchanan's blonde and young women
friends. For some reason he supposed that the culprit was a woman. All
the blonde and young women could be interviewed except one of them, the
victim published in the newspaper that afternoon.
"Paul
Crawford, did you murder Jane Agnew?" asked John Makgill. "You have no
alibi and maybe you are lying to us. Maybe Miss. Cameron and you decided
to kill Jane Agnew to get her fortune and become managers of her firm.
Did you murder her with Miss. Cameron's help?", Makgill added.
"I
won't tell you nothing without the presence of my lawyer, Mr. Chief
Inspector!", Paul Crawford answered. "As I have told you, I haven't
seen Jane Agnew for a while. We were only classmates during High
School!", Crawford exclaimed, so John Makgill showed him some photos
they had of his meeting with Jane, but Paul didn't reply then. "I won't
tell you nothing without the presence of my lawyer!", Mr. Crawford said
again one more time.
Seeing
that he couldn't interrogate Mr. Campbell's secretary, Arthur Buchanan
decided to look into his wife's phone calls list which phone numbers she
had phoned the day of her murder. He discovered that Thomas Agnew's
phone number was in the phone calls list. He ordered Wendy Dunbar to ask
Thomas Agnew some questions but when she arrived at Agnew's manor,
Harry Buchanan and this one weren't in the building. She told Arthur
what had happened and he came back to Carlisle.
While
Arthur Buchanan was looking for his father-in-law and his son, John
Makgill and Wendy Dunbar came into Mr. Agnew's house. They discovered
Thomas Agnew's corpse in the basement, so they imagined that the man who
Arthur Buchanan was looking for, was a Thomas Agnew enemy or maybe he
was Thomas Agnew's twin brother. The Detective Chief Inspector Buchanan
remembered something that his wife had told him some years before and he
confirmed John Makgill and Wendy Dunbar's second assumption.
Thomas
Agnew's twin brother, whose name was Brian Agnew, had to inherit their
father's business as it was ordered in his first testament but a month
before his death decided to give his business to Thomas Agnew who
finally inherited the enterprise according to Sir Joseph Agnew's lawyer.
Seeing that, Brian Agnew disappeared and he moved to Ireland to plan
Thomas Agnew's murder. Before that time, in his youth, he had a lot of
problems with blonde and young women of his age who were finally killed
by Brian.
Brian Agnew
came back to Scotland to request his twin brother for a job. Given that
Thomas Agnew was retired and his daughter Jane was the new firm
manager, he decided to ask her niece for a job. She rejected it. Then he
began to threaten her and asked her for money also, anonymously. During
that period he murdered Thomas Agnew and he impersonated his twin
brother.
Brian
phoned his niece, and making her believe that he was her father Thomas,
he met with her that evening to kill her too. Previously he got
information about her finances and tried to convince James Campbell to
blackmail her with his help. As James Campbell refused to do it, Brian
Agnew decided to poison him also, after killing his niece.
Moreover,
during that period also, Brian Agnew had met a blonde and young woman
in the hotel he was lodged in Dumfries, who became the love of his life,
but when she rejected his hand, to avenge this rejection, he murdered
her; he had a lots of love rejections by blonde and young women in his
youth and he couldn't forgive her it, so before the day he poisoned
James Campbell, he took his dagger, he carved up and he buried her.
Someone saw Brian Agnew doing it and the authorities were informed.
All
the evidence they had pointed to Brian Agnew, so Arthur Buchanan and
John Makgill ordered their policemen to look for his tasks of that day
in his diary. They discovered a few minutes later that he wished to
visit the Scottish highlands with his grandnephew Harry. They also found
out that his dagger had vanished, that there were neither groceries in
the refrigerator nor clothes in his cupboard, so Wendy assumed that
Brian Agnew was trying to break out from the country.
She
told Arthur Buchanan it and with his buddies he took the train to
Glasgow Queen Street and there, another to Mallaig railway station.
They saw him taking a boat in the harbour with Harry, who was asleep
with chloroform inside a pet carrier. Arthur detained Brian and with his
son Harry and their prisoner they came back to Carlisle by plane where
Brian Agnew admitted his guilt.
"I
did it. I murdered my twin brother Thomas, my niece Jane Agnew and his
banker Sir James Campbell!", Brian Agnew said. "I employed her assistant
to murder her. She agreed to do it because Jane Agnew mistreated her
and she paid her a negligible wage. It's true she had a debt with James
Campbell but he loved her. For this reason he rejected my offer!", the
serial killer added. "I admit also I killed that blonde and young woman
in Dumfries because she rejected my hand, as I did with the other blonde
and young women of my age in my youth!", he finished his admission.
They
verified what Brian had told them and they arrested Anne Cameron too.
After Brian Agnew's trial, Arthur Buchanan and Wendy Dunbar became a
couple and they moved to Northallerton where he replaced the
Northernshire Police Detective Chief Inspector, whereas Sir John Makgill
realised his dream and became the new Metropolitan Police Service
Detective Superintendent and married with Samantha Chisholm, Sir James
Campbell's secretary.