WENDY DUNBAR, THE MAIN SUSPECT

WENDY DUNBAR, THE MAIN SUSPECT

Wendy Dunbar woke up that December morning, covered by blood, in her bedroom of the hotel where she had spent the night in Bournemouth. She had met Steve Yates seven weeks before and they had begun an extramarital relationship. Now, that winter morning, she had discovered his corpse beside her and she didn’t know how to carry that happening.

She was the DCI Arthur Buchanan’s wife and also the mother of those beautiful, sweetie and happy fraternal twins named Oscar and Serena Buchanan. For this reason she had to think a lot about what to do before calling the police which arrived quickly led by the Southernshire Police DI Jasmine Tomkins, who had been a Special Agent in the California Bureau of Investigation before becoming the new DCI Alan Bakewell’s right-hand woman.

The problems hadn't finished for her given that they just started: first of all the scientist police found her fingerprints in the assumed murder weapon, in second place his death had happened around midnight, in third place the security cameras had filmed her committing the crime, and the last evidence they had against her was a witness who had testified that Steve Yates had argued with Wendy Dunbar during the dinner and that Mr. Yates had decided to go upstairs to the bedroom without finishing the dessert.

Jasmine Tomkins decided to arrest her to interrogate Wendy in the police station. She also confiscated her police badge and handcuffed her to prevent an escape of her prisoner. Wendy phoned his lawyer Samuel McBeth who advised her to ask if her husband could carry on the case despite the Northernshire Police hadn’t jurisdiction in the Southernshire county.

When Arthur knew about his wife’s affair with Steve Yates he accepted to help her despite the fact that he would divorce from Wendy after finishing to solve the case. He would help his wife only for his children. Arthur took the first train to Bournemouth that afternoon and he met with Alan Bakewell in the railway station.

“Hi, Alan! This is my Detective Sergeant Peter Shankland, my right-hand man, and I am Arthur, Wendy Dunbar’s husband!” he said when he saw Bakewell waiting for them on the platform. “What’s about the case and the victim?” he also asked him while he was taking his luggage to the taxi that Alan had paid for them.

For Alan the case was easy to solve: they had a lot of evidence which demonstrated the guilt of Wendy Dunbar. Nevertheless, for Arthur, that case was not easy as it was seeming to be. They had only one thing clear: the victim was a poet who was forty years old and whose name was Steve Yates. He was employed also by the Secret Intelligence Service as an agent.

Steve Yates was also married to Mary Faber, a novelist from the north of England whose parents had founded a press named Faber & Yates Editors. She had arrived there when she had received the news about Steve’s death. She seemed extremely sad for her husband’s death despite knowing about his affair with Mrs. Buchanan.

Arthur supposed that Mary Faber had murdered her husband because she had known about Steve Yates affair with Wendy before the news of his death and now she was playing to avoid the suppositions of the police and that she had planned the killing to incriminate Wendy of the murder.

In that hotel were lodging Gerard Hayes, a fifty six years old man who was the owner of a Bank in Ireland, Olivia Caldwell, a lady who was the same age of Gerard Hayes and the owner of a Bank in England, and Phil Kearns, an owner of a hotel in Cork, Ireland who was dealing with Ollie Dashwood the purchasing of his hotel, too. Phil Kearns was thirty five and Ollie Dashwood was sixty three.

The witness who had testified against Wendy Dunbar was Ollie Dashwood’s bellboy named Daniel Wadlow, who was forty years old as Steve Yates and Mary Faber. Those who had an alibi for the time of the crime were Mary Faber, Ollie Dashwood and Gerard Hayes. So Arthur decided to interrogate Olivia Caldwell, Phil Kearns and Daniel Wadlow again whilst Peter Shankland was interrogating Wendy Dunbar and Alan Bakewell was helping his subordinates to find the murder weapon.

Later on, when the forensic surgeon report arrived and Arthur discovered that Steve Yates had been poisoned with cyanide, all the investigation changed and he thought that at midnight, knowing that he had been poisoned, Steve Yates had taken his handgun and he had shot himself provoking his death to not to live an agonizing death. For this reason the forensic surgeon had also found a bullet inside his heart. But why did the security cameras filmed Wendy committing the crime?

As he had a friend in the Secret Intelligence Service he phoned him to ask about the missions they were carrying out. Darren Albert Bancroft agreed with Arthur Walter Buchanan that the following day they would meet in London to have a coffee and talk about it calmly. After the dinner they went to sleep.

At midnight a yell awakened Arthur who walked to Phil Kearns bedroom. He knocked the door and as noone opened it he knocked down the door and he found Phil Kearns corpse lying on his bed. Then the bellboy arrived to know what had happened and Arthur ordered him to call the law enforcement whereas he was looking for the murder weapon.

That time, when the forensic surgeon told him that for the scars he had deduced a fight between the killer and the victim and that the killer had stabbed Phil Kearns, Arthur ordered his companions to find a knife or something similar covered by blood hidden in any place of the hotel.

Now Ollie Dashwood seemed to be suspicious of the crime. Arthur wished to talk to him whilst Peter was looking in the Steve Yates bank account if Steve finances were in the red. He discovered that the poet had asked for a loan to Caldwell Bank some weeks before and as he couldn’t pay the debt, his house had been seized.

When Arthur knew that he decided to interrogate Olivia also. However, another scream they heard and when they arrived at Olivia’s bedroom, they found Mary Faber beside her corpse. Arthur ordered to arrest Mary for Olivia’s death and he took a taxi to the railway station to take a train to London.

Darren said Arthur hello when he saw him getting out of the train. As the rain began to fall, Darren opened his umbrella while Arthur asked for a taxi to go to the city centre. A taxi stopped and took them to a café near King’s Cross. They paid the fare to the taxi driver and they got into the coffee shop.

“Well. First of all, happy birthday, Darren. I remember when we were students at Saint Andrew’s School and we finished the classes before the Christmas holidays celebrating our birthdays that were both nearer. I celebrated on the 22nd and you celebrated on the 23rd!” said Arthur. “Now, why have you wished to meet with me in person?” Arthur asked.

“Because we think that someone in the Secret Intelligence Service is also working for the Russians. And as you told me that Steve Yates, one of my fellows, has been killed in an hotel in Bournemouth and I sent him to investigate there because we suppose that the Russians have established their base of operations in the Southernshire county, I think that the crime has been committed by a Russian spy!” he answered, eating a biscuit.

“What’s the operation about?” Arthur asked again when he received the forensic surgeon report in his phone and he opened it to know the cause of Olivia’s death. He discovered that someone had choked her in a fight too, because her body was covered by lots of scars on her wrists, neck and legs.

“Traffic of biological weapons and illegal immigrants, most of them prisoners of war, between the Govern of the UK and the Kremlin!” Darren said. “Yeah! Our spies are trying to stop it because we think that someone in the Govern of the UK is an accomplice of the Russians who is working without the permission of the Prime Minister in this traffic to begin the third world war, committing mass attacks in every part of the UK!” he added.

Darren gave Arthur the names of his subordinate agents too. One of them turned out to be familiar for him: Daniel Wadlow’s name. Arthur thanked Darren for the information and he came back to Bournemouth where he met with Alan to tell him what he had discovered.

Alan released Wendy when she affirmed that Steve had ordered her to shoot him because he had been poisoned with cyanide and she also helped them with the operation to arrest Daniel Wadlow. When he was arrested and Arthur interrogated him telling that they had discovered all the truth, Daniel confessed his guilt and accused Ollie Dashwood to be at the back of all the deaths, that he only had done the dirty job as a simple pawn.

“Three months before, when I lost my job, I found one as a bellboy in this hotel. Ollie Dashwood employed me. One night I found him speaking by phone to someone. I heard all the conversation!” he said and he put a sound recording where Ollie was talking in Russian with a possible Russian spy. “Unfortunately he saw me and he promised me that if I worked for him, I would never be in danger and he would never kill me. I accepted. Afterwards, three months passed, Steve Yates arrived at the hotel asking for a bedroom. He was accompanied by Wendy Dunbar!” he added.

Wendy came into the room and she continued with the interrogation supervised by Arthur, Alan and Peter. Daniel asked for a cup of tea and to see Mary for the last time before finishing his statement. They discovered later on that Mary and Daniel were lovers, that they had begun an affair when Mary had discovered that Steve was meeting with Wendy.

“Ollie began to plan how to kill Steve. He told me that Steve was an MI6 spy and that he had orders from his supervisors to murder him!” Daniel continued. “Then, when the other guests arrived we carried on the plan where I had to do the dirty job. Before committing the first crime we looked for the state of Steve Yates finances with the help of Mary Faber, who didn’t know our plan, to incriminate Olivia but Olivia saw how I put the cyanide inside Steve’s cup of coffee and I had to murder her also to prevent her report to the police about what I did. I told it to Ollie and he decided to kill Phil Kearns too!” Daniel finished his statement.

When Daniel and Ollie were judged and jailed, Arthur and Wendy came back to North Shields with Peter, where they were living for that epoch, and Arthur get divorced from Wendy. Soon after his divorce the Parliament of the United Kingdom approved the new Law-enforcement Act which disolved Northernshire Police and Southernshire Police, so that Arthur came back to Scotland to be again a Detective Chief Inspector in the Police Scotland. Six months later, after meeting often with Jasmine Tomkins, Arthur got engaged with DI Tomkins. The sun was lighting up again in his life.

THE MYSTERIOUS SUITCASE OF NORTHALLERTON RAILWAY STATION

 

THE MYSTERIOUS SUITCASE 

OF NORTHALLERTON RAILWAY STATION

Peter Shankland, a young Detective Sergeant, had arrived at Northallerton to be the new Northernshire Police Detective Sergeant and become Arthur Buchanan’s right-hand man. A year ago he had to solve the kidnap of his sister Belinda, which had finished in a tragedy because Belinda turned out to be the guilty of a murder happened six years before her kidnap, in London, and ended up to be arrested by her brother before closing the case.

For that epoch, Arthur Buchanan was investigating a serial murder of eight people in the county. For this reason, when his Detective Sergeant was murdered, Peter Shankland was sent to replace him. He had taken the first train to Northallerton, at eight o'clock, that winter morning and when he got off the carriage, his new boss was waiting for him on the platform. Peter said hello to him, while he saw a mysterious suitcase left, and they got out of the station to take a taxi towards the scene of the ninth crime.

The coroner had discovered inside the victim’s body some hemlock remnants and fight marks on its arms. She had established that he had been killed around midnight. Peter observed that had missed an object. He supposed that the murderer had stolen it. Probably either his suitcase, because he was a French guy who was spending his summer vacations in that hotel, or his purse, because he had no money. He opted for the first thought, so he asked the bellboy if he had perceived something strange when he had found the corpse. The bellboy confirmed his suspicion.

When Peter Shankland told the Chief Inspector Buchanan this, Arthur ordered him to look for it. He went out of that three-story old building, the typical British white walls detached country house, turned into hotel, surrounded, left, right and centre, by vineyards, and he moved toward the Northallerton railway station, where he had seen the mysterious luggage when he had arrived in the Northernshire county town. As the suitcase had vanished he had to ask the stationmaster where the valise was. He answered that a man had taken it to put it away in his locker. Then, they opened the locker but they only found a piece of paper with a postal address on it.

The Sergeant went out of the station again and he moved to that address. Arthur phoned him during the journey to tell him that the murdered Sergeant was looking into a case of money laundering where the French guy was one of the scapegoats who wished to report their commanders for that felony in order to their abuse on his mates and on him.

When he knew that, he supposed that the guy who had left the luggage in his locker was also involved. Before arriving at the address he was going to, he found the luggage abandoned in a ditch beside the road. Then, Peter opened it and he discovered, covered by money, another victim but that time the killer had decided to become into a butcher because the murderer had spent some time quartering the victim’s body before locking him up in the suitcase.

Because of his physical appearance they gathered that he was from Germany. They also discovered in the police database his name and his birthplace: he was born in Munich and his name was Achim Elsholtz. In his phone they also saw a suspicious contact whose name was Jean-Luc Mendy and who was from France. Jean-Luc was the same age as the murdered French guy, so they thought that Jean-Luc and he were the same person.

With those discoveries, the night falled and Arthur came back to his house. Wendy Dunbar was eating a sandwich whilst she was working in a case she was investigating. She said hello to her husband and they talked about the work day during the dinner. When Wendy Dunbar told him that her case was about money laundering and she uttered Achim Elsholtz and Jean-Luc Mendy’s names, Arthur wished to know who was her suspect. She answered they were looking for Kevin Smith, who they thought was the culprit.

“Thank you, Wendy!” said Arthur excitedly and he kissed his wife. “I think I have solved the case!” he added, and he looked for his German colleague’s phone number in his diary. His name was Adolf Sigmund Boxberg and he was the Detective First Chief Inspector in the Bavarian State Police Criminal Office.

Nevertheless, the following day, when Agatha Ainsworth’s butler discovered her corpse in the living room and he phoned Arthur, his fortune dissipated. Agatha Ainsworth was a County councillor and she also was Frank Upshaw’s wife. She brought forth Matthew Johnson’s cases of corruption, so the County Council’s chief executive reputation had decreased and he would probably lose the majority of the Conservative Party in the County Council in the next local elections.

For this reason, when Arthur knew that, he had to interrogate Matthew Johnson and Frank Upshaw in his office. Both suspects denied their tie in with the serial murders but they affirmed that Kevin Smith, Marcus Thatcher and Charles McDonald were involved in a case of money laundering.

Mr. Thatcher, a 45 years old man, was a Modern History professor in Northernshire University. Charles McDonald was a rich businessman established in London who had found some years ago a clothes enterprise which had opened recently some shops in other countries such as France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, etc. He was 55 years old and he had divorced his wife five years before.

The last guy, Kevin Smith, was a young postman who was living in North Shields but working in Northallerton. He was in love with Agatha Ainsworth and he also was Charles McDonald’s best friend. He had some treatments with him and he had been arrested a lot of times because he was involved in drug trafficking and money laundering cases.

During their discoveries the pathologist phoned them to tell that Achim Elsholtz had been poisoned also with hemlock by the murderer. The crime scene investigators had found the murder weapon of the second murder. The fingerprints belonged to Kevin Smith so Arthur and Peter went to Kevin Smith’s house, in the North Shields northern outskirts.

As long as they went to North Shields, Wendy Dunbar decided to interview Marcus Thatcher. Arthur also had requested John Makgill for his help and this one went to ask some questions to Charles McDonald. Marcus had no alibi whereas Charles McDonald was in Paris, during the night of the first crime, with his lover.

They arrived and parked their patrol car in front of Kevin’s house under the shade of one of his garden trees. They got out of the car and Peter knocked on the door. As anyone didn't open, Arthur counted to three and Peter knocked down the doorway. They also yelled Kevin’s name but no one answered again to their call.

Armed with their handguns, being on alert to any suspicious noise, DS Shankland went up the stairs to the second floor and DCI Buchanan searched on the ground floor and the basement for any proof of Kevin Smith’s guilt. Although they didn’t find something to demonstrate his guilt, Arthur found a piece of paper with an address written on it.

DCI Buchanan decided to go there whilst DS Shankland came back to the police station for lunch. By his surprise, when Arthur arrived at that place, he discovered Kevin Smith’s corpse quartered and covered also by money. Moreover, the banknotes were counterfeit. In order to its appearance, it had been printed some days before.

The murder weapon had disappeared so they couldn’t do anything to get the murderer’s fingerprints. Their computer technician canvassed his phone and his computer and she found a phone number in his contacts list with Marcus Thatcher’s name. They also discovered that Marcus had been the last person who had phoned Kevin before his death.

Wendy arrested Marcus as the main suspect of their case and Arthur interrogated him with Peter Shankland’s help. Mr. Thatcher asked for a lawyer and during the wait they put Marcus under arrest. However, John Makgill phoned Arthur to tell him that the public prosecutor’s office was investigating Charles McDonald’s business due to tax evasion.

Then, Arthur contacted with his friend Adolf to know more about Achim Elsholtz business and this one told him that Achim was one of Charles McDonald’s right-hand men in Germany detained to be guilt of money laundering, tax evasion and drug trafficking, but due to lack of proof the judge released him and he moved to the UK leaving behind his charges.

He decided to free Marcus and travel to London to ask Mr. McDonald some questions. His assistant told the policemen that Charles had bought a passage for the London - Paris flight of that afternoon, so Arthur thought that Charles wanted to escape from the country and from justice. Scotland Yard Detective Superintendent John Makgill, with Charles McDonald’s arrest warrant in his hands, ordered all the British Transport Police officers to police all the international airports from the State, to arrest Sir Charles if they saw him taking a plane. In the end a policewoman in civilian clothes found him crossing a security control and handcuffed him.

“We have an amount of proof which demonstrate your guilt of these horrible serial murders. Why did you order Kevin to do it?” asked Peter in the interrogation room. “And why did you kill Kevin Smith also?”, he added while the face of the murderer turned pale thinking for a little bit that he would spend the rest of his life jailed.

“I… I don’t know why I did it!” he yelled. “My wife abandoned me five years ago. My valued business bankrupted, so I began to traffic drugs and to launder the money I made with that business. I met Achim and Jean-Luc in a disco and I decided to employ them as my right-hand men. Until one year ago, they helped me, but when Achim faced justice, they decided to leave the business and report me to the police.”, Charles continued.

When Charles knew that, he planned with his nephew Kevin Smith, Achim and Jean-Luc’s murders and, to hide it, they decided to do a serial killing. Kevin was agreed with Charles until the Detective Sergeant murder. When Charles ordered him to do it, Kevin rejected it so Charles took Kevin’s murder weapon and when he murdered Achim and his nephew, he decided to quarter their bodies with Kevin’s weapon after he had put himself his gloves before taking Kevin’s dagger.

After Charles McDonald’s statement Arthur closed him in a cell and he celebrated the victory with his comrades. Then he said John Makgill goodbye and with Peter and Wendy, came back to Northernshire where his son Cedric was waiting for him to know how the resolution of the case was.

TO MY GODDESS

 TO MY GODDESS

I want to touch your hands,
As I am caressing the strings of my lyre,
As I am now playing the piano for you.
I want to give you my heart
To feel your beat as I am hearing
The ocean waves.
I'll build a castle for us
To be your Prince Charming;
Today we'll be the comets we used to see,
I will give you a jasmine,
To flow as the love flows in the river,
To sail as the vessel sails through the sea,
To be an eagle, to be a falcon,
Flying to the land of hope and dreams.

*This poem it's dedicated to my bestie Jasmine Tom, for her 21st birthday.

ODE TO MY GRANDMOTHER

 ODE TO MY GRANDMOTHER

You'll be a leaf today,

When the doors of the paradise will be open for you.

You'll meet the birds,

You'll meet the water,

You'll be the wind I am feeling now in my heart,

You'll be the wind I am feeling now in my hands.

I will weep your death,

But the angels,

But the music,

But the stars,

But the poetry,

Will be with me.

You'll be with me tomorrow,

Neither the hell nor the storm

Will make me sink,

Cause you'll be my lighthouse,

Cause you'll be a comet

Lighting up the sky.

*This poem it's dedicated to my last grandmother who died on April the 6th 2022.

THE WIZARD OF WORDS

THE WIZARD OF WORDS

The melody is playing,

While the clouds are raining,

And the wizard makes into love,

The hell of their life,

The hatred of the demon,

While the sun is lightning up again,

The path to the peace,

The journey to freedom.

He is playing the guitar,

As the angel plays the lyre,

To convert into stone,

The King Lear, the liar.

He is making into roses,

The guns, the thistles, the venoms,

Cause he is Merlin, the boss wizard,

Cause he is Bruce, the hero,

The wonderful musician.

*This poem it's dedicated to Bruce Springsteen, my favorite singer songwriter, the best musician I've ever met.

REBIRTH

 REBIRTH

My body has been consumed by the fire,

But God has given to me his wings,

To fly again when the night will be with me.

Today I am a black hole,

But I will be a new star tomorrow.

Yesterday I was a deadly flower,

Now I am an olive tree,

Cause I have raised from the ashes

And today I am the sea waves,

Cause I am feeling again the love,

And tomorrow I will be

Your phoenix, your eagle,

Your bird.

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 Cedric, who was five years old. For Cedric, 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 22nd 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, Cedric 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 Cedric. 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 Cedric, who was asleep with chloroform inside a pet carrier. Arthur detained Brian and with his son Cedric 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.