It was a dark and windswept night with rain pattering on the window as we sat down to dinner after a lovely evening walk around the grounds of Hartsfield Manor.
Murder at the Manor
We were just tucking into a delicious spicy tomato soup with granary bread rolls when a ghost dressed in full cricket whites wafted into the dining hall and introduced himself as Mr Gordon Marks. He told us he had been Murdered!
The crime scene
Location. Oakley’s Cricket Ground.
The victim was found at 1700 hours by his teammates lying face down on the floor of the men’s changing room.
Early indications show that the victim had severe wounds both to the back of the head, neck and groin area. He had signs of petechial haemorrhaging
The recently won cricket trophy was laying on the floor near the victim and had a severe dent in it.
Scattered around the victim were a variety of sport equipment including helmets, pads, boxes and cricket bats etc. The forensics team found traces of baked oats on the floor near the victim.
The police had held 3 suspects for questioning and released without suspicion Mr Robert Howles.
Forensic map of the crime scene
The victim
Gordon told us that he has been the captain of the Oakley’s pub cricket team since 1996 and that he was well thought of in the village and that he was honoured to be in a management position for Her Majesty’s Inspector of Taxes.
Married in 1995 with 3 children (3,5,7) he was very involved with the local community and had been a judge in both last years Cacti competition and the Whack a Rat at the Green Village Pageant.
Gordon was proud to have engaged the services of Mr Robert Howles a former professional English cricketer to join the local team as an ‘enthusiastic amateur’.
Gordon was overjoyed with the winning result of that day’s cricket test as it was the only time since he became captain in 1996 that the team had won. Unfortunately, it was also the day of his murder!
Related witness
Mr Robert Holwes a professional cricketer had recently been the subject of tabloid exposure due to his financial situation. He had been stopped by immigration officials in 2001 on suspected trafficking charges. All of the charges were dropped. He is separated from his partner.
The suspects
Mrs Valerie Marks
The widow of the deceased is a stay at home mum. She has no obvious skills but is a keen baker and a member of several social clubs in the village including the women’s royal voluntary society (WRVS) and the amateur dramatic society.
Valerie is also a keen dominoes player and a well-liked member of the community. She attends church regularly.
The Marks joint bank account details show that Valerie has made no transactions on the account since 1998.
Mr Geoffrey Jones
Divorced with no children due to an unknown medical condition he is the long standing captain of the Red Lions pub cricket team but has had some disciplinary issues and several complaints made against him over the years.
These complaints have largely been ignored as Geoffrey has managed to win every cricket match for the pub, for over ten years.
Geoffrey is the legal owner of Licensed Firearms and director of ‘Operation Target’ a local outdoor pursuits and corporate team building company
Geoffrey is an ex member of the territorial army (TA) and is trained in camouflage and stalking techniques but does suffer from an allergic reaction to nettles for which he takes prescription drugs which can make him drowsy.
His kit bag has been taken as evidence as an item has been claimed to be missing from the bag.
Ms. Alison Nettles
Alison is a team player. A very ambitious, young (40+) free and single graduate from Cambridge University (1991) Alison is the sole key holder to the pavilion where the murder took place. She has no children and is the manager of ‘Green and Pleasant Land’ an estate agency (realtor) in the village high street.
Alison recently sold No 13 Simpletons Lane to Mr Robert Howles which meant that he was eligible to play for the local pub cricket team.
Since the death of Mr Marks. Alison has become of interest to the Inland Revenue Service and is currently under investigation relating to £76,000 ($100,000) of hidden and unpaid taxes. (all evidence pending revue)
So, there you have it. All of the evidence that you need to find the murderer. You can ask me questions if you wish about the various suspects relationships with each other to test your suspicions.
So, who done it?
Over to you and as if you needed further incentive to crack this case. I’m offering 5 steem (pegged to today’s price* $0.37) to the first person to identify the killer.
The winner, if there is one will be announced in 7 days time in a summing up post. Assuming no one gets the right answer the most plausible answer will win the prize.
Your answer must include the motive for the murder.
*The last time I did this kind of prize post it cost me $50 as the price of steem shot up that week to over $10 per steem. Happy days lol
Mrs Valerie Marks did it. The clue is that she likes to bake and there were baked oats beside his body. I haven't figured out the motive, but suspect it is financial. 🤔
Thanks for starting this tale off in an appropriately dark way!
Haha, O crumbs! 😂 Motive?
His wife found out that he was in cahoots with the Nettles real estate lady and had spent all their money on a house to lure in the pro Cricket player. Can you tell I really don't have a clue?
😂 Interesting theory Mel but...
😋
I figured he was not allowing her in because he was doing some shady dealings!
Clue Gordon Marks was manipulating Alison Nettles.
He was hiding her tax liabilities in return for her...shall we say. Affections! Amongst other things she could help him with.
hello @molometer - I am sorry, and not claiming exclusive use of the tag here, but #tellastorytome is a writing contest I run. I didn't think your post was an entry as i didn't fit the rest of the contest, i wasn't sure if you hadn't realized it was a contest tag, or were looking a tag of your own to link a few stories together with, but I just thought I better let you know :)
Although that said, very happy to have got the notification for this. I have some ideas as to who might have been the killer, but will have to get thinking and come back to you to make my guess!
Hi @calluna, sorry for the mixup. I'll have to take a look at your contest and see what it is all about.
The tags were changed a few months ago and it is difficult to know who initiated what tag. Thanks for letting me know that you use the tag for your contest.
You are more than welcome to put your sleuthing skills to the test. Looking forward to your guess.
Edit. I just took a look at the prompt and criteria on the bananafish blog. Are you bananafish?
So I suppose at a stretch this qualifies as it is a horror (murder) set in a manor house in a forest :-)
I am part of the bananafish team, but I ran the contest on my account for most of last year. I realized your post yesterday wasn't an entry as there are loads of photos, and I have a fairly strict one photo per entry rule - just cos it is a writing contest. I did wonder when I saw the forest, but figured you probably hadn't intended it as an entry as it didn't really fit the rest of the prompt.
The deadline was the end of the day yesterday, but at a stretch, and without the photos, this post could maybe have counted, but there is no visit to a forest so maybe a little grey. The tag has just always been how I monitor the entries, it was a surprise to see something not related pop up, but really i should count myself lucky to run it so long and not have it happen sooner. That said, we are at part two of this round now, chose your favorite story to win and would love to see you there <3
I shall get my best detective hat out this weekend, and see if I can identify the evidence and come to the right conclusion! Don't wana jump the gun and get it wrong for over enthusiasm ;)
Haha jump the gun by all means. I'll take a look at the current round and criteria and see if I can come up with something.
I don't do fiction generally which is something I need to work on. This could be the start of something interesting. :-)
ohhh i totally forgot to come back to this, sorry dude!
I'm pleased that you came back at all. Even if it was just to say.
I've never called a dude before! I like it. 😘😂
LoL I have sort of a huge headache now...😃 Had to translate the whole in french but have to confess I am lost ...
Is it a coincidence that Mr Jones is allergic to nettles and the name of Mrs Nettles ? 😃
One question, maybe no importance but : Is the partner of Holwes from who he is separed a man or a woman ? Funny that the english language does'nt allow to make the difference, whereas in french you know if it is a man or a woman by using the related gender possessive pronoun 😃
and it definitely is suspect to me that the spouse Valerie has made no transactions on the account since 1998, likewise the trace of oats do not play in her favor indeed..😊
did we find some oats in his throat ? I suspect he could have been asphyxiated by feeding him oatmeal bread in his mouth 😄
as I'm not sure to understand well, can you confirm that there are two cricket teams, each one belonging to a pub ? and which team is the one which Robert was eligible to play , due to his house buying ?
What is the missing item of the bag ?
At least, what year is it ?
If all these questions are silly and of no importance, please tell me because I am kinda obsessed now ...LoL
Valerie Marks is the murderer.
You said Mr Jones had a relationship with Mrs Marks "a long time ago" and that someone lied.
Maybe Mr Jones lied about his medical condition and the 3 year old is his. He has been paying alimony for the child into a separate bank account from his illicit drug earnings hence Mrs Marks has not used the joint account since 1998.
However, I'm not sure I would class 3 years as a "long time ago" in the context of the story. Maybe the 7 year old is his and the fling was just before Mrs Marks got married.
Not sure what the motive would be though.
I think she attacked her husband with the trophy and then grabbed the jock strap form JH's bag and strangled him with it. She hit him in the groin because she'd found out about the affair.
Maybe she was in love with RH but couldn't be with him because GM said if she left she wouldn't be able to see her kids. So she was furious when she found out he was having an affair.
But this doesn't tie in the money from the house sale, tax evasion etc. Hmmmm.
Also, I'm wondering who RH is separated from and whom GJ divorced.
What if GJ divorced Alison Nettles and she returned to her maiden name and that is why he was spying on her? And the complaints against him were because he was stalking her?
Grrrrr. I so wish I'd seen this post when it first came out. 😢
I don't want to be told the answer. I want to work it out for myself!
I need to get on with some other stuff. Maybe something else will come to me while I'm otherwise engaged. 😁
Congratulations Gillian. You got the murderer and the motive. It was Mrs Valerie Marks.
I'm going to post the answers now as you have provided both answers to the question of who done it and why.
Well done @gillianpearce
Ha, ha, ha. Well that's exciting @molometer. Thank you.
Sounds like I was over complicating it a bit then. It was ever thus! 😢 😂
Thanks for a really fun competition. 😍
The financial complications were all red herrings. Evil genius 😈 😂
The real motive was revenge.
Ockham's razor. 😋
So Geofrey killed him out of rage for winning underhandedly but knew the oat cakes would make it look like it was his wife.
Haha! It's a twisted tale of deception and betrayal.
I don't have any idea who dunit!
Clue Geoffrey used to have a 'thing' with Valerie many years ago. Geoffrey used his stalking skills to spy on Gordon and Alison having a fling in a local hotel. He told Valarie what he had seen!
And when he disparaged her tea and cakes she confronted him and clubbed him repeatedly with his trophy.
O Mel you are so close it's painful. 😉 Not quite in the bag...yet.
So am I right that it was his wife?
Yes.
Howdy sir molometer! great story and mystery here. It had to be the lady who owes all the taxes if he was going to be put in charge of the tax authority.
Thanks @janton for your assessment of the facts of the case.
She was actually being blackmailed by the tax inspector (the victim) and also having an affair with him.
She certainly had a motive but did she do it?
Full disclosure is just 24 hours away.
So far no one has got both the murderer and the motive. Some people have half of the answers. 😈
It's still 5 steem up for grabs.
howdy today sir molometer! wow that's a tough one! lol.
I got no clue but it's sure going to be interesting to hear the explanation.
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