MURDER AT LIDDEL WATER

 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.