Thank you all for getting so involved with this post. It was a lot of fun to do and some of you were so close to cracking the case wide open almost from the get go.
@barbara-orenya took a systematic approach to the case and asked almost all of the right questions while others had a wild stab in the dark and actually hit the target but missed the motive.
Let me explain how the murder came about and how and why it took place.
Gordon (the victim) on the surface at least was a stand-up guy in the community but in reality, he was a manipulative and evil character.
As a tax inspector Gordon had access to and knowledge of several people in the village who had serious tax problems.
Miss Alison Nettles
In this case Miss Alison Nettles a local estate agent owed over £76,000 - $$100.000 in unpaid taxes and in return for Gordon hiding her files was able to get away without paying those taxes.
Gordon exploited Alison’s dilemma by coercing her into an affair with him and also to give a favorable deal on a house in the village (No 13 Simpletons Lane)
Since the death of Gordon. Miss Alison Nettles has become of interest to the tax office… again!
Mr Robert Howles
Mr Robert Howles although not a suspect in the murder was also under investigation by the tax office for illegal trafficking which Gordon knew about (the tax man always wants his cut) and forced Robert to move into the village so that he could play for the Oakley’s cricket team where Gordon was the captain.
Mrs Valerie Marks (the wife) and Geoffrey Jones
Gordon’s wife Mrs Valerie Marks was a quiet and humble woman on the surface but had a steamy relationship with Geoffrey Jones in the past. Geoffrey, the army trained camouflage and stalking expert had crept up and discovered Gordon and Alison in the throes of passion and immediately ran back and told Gordon’s wife Valerie what he had seen and heard.
Police alerted to the murder
The Murder
The murder took place in this sequence.
Mrs Valerie Marks brought her husband Gordon tea and oat cakes to celebrate his first and only victory in the cricket match. Gordon rudely told her that he hated her cooking and that oatcakes were not good enough to celebrate such a massive victory.
Valerie was so upset that she threw the oatcakes at Gordon and then stormed out of the room crying profusely.
As Valerie was leaving enter Miss Alison Marks who confronted Gordon about her tax liabilities. She told him that as far as she was concerned, she had done what he had wanted and that now she wanted to be let out of her obligations to Gordon and to the tax office.
Gordon laughed and flatly refused stating that he quite enjoyed their little amorous sessions twice a week and that they would continue otherwise her tax files would suddenly appear again and she would be responsible for paying the debts.
Alison became very angry and kicked him in the groin thereby damaging the family jewels and then left and was very angry, leaving Gordon doubled up in pain. Alison felt trapped.
As Alison left, Geoffrey arrived to have a word with Gordon about the nature of the win and said he felt that Gordon had cheated by using a professional cricketer to win the match.
Gordon who had a long competitive battle with Geoffrey scoffed and said all that mattered was that he had won finally. Geoffrey picked up the trophy and said ‘You don’t deserve this’ and turned to walk out with the trophy.
Gordon was incensed and grabbed Geoffrey from behind and made a grab for the trophy. As Geoffrey (using his army training) span around. He raised the trophy and smashed it against Gordon's head knocking him unconscious.
Feeling very guilty for what he had just done Geoffrey threw the trophy down on the floor and ran out of the building to find Valerie to tell her what he had done. Geoffrey thought that he had killed Gordon.
Valerie went to the room and found Gordon staggering to his feet in a dazed state. Valerie slipped a pair of sexy silk knickers from her pocket and slung them around Gordon's neck and strangled him until he felt limp and dead on the floor.
You see Valerie was not so meek as everyone around her had thought and as history tells us.
>Hell, hath no fury like a woman scorned
The old blue lamp
The first person to correctly identify the murderer was @melinda010100 who properly identified the murderer as Mrs Valerie Marks. The wife of the victim.
Melinda guessed the murderer within a couple of hours of the post going live but Melinda didn’t get the real motive and picked up on a few red herrings. The real motive was revenge for the betrayal by her husband.
The other suspects had good reason to want Gordon dead. Money and pride but only Valerie had the anger of rejection and the need for revenge.
The winner of the 5 steem is @gillianpearce
Gillian came up with the winning answers with just 2 hours to go before the post closed. Gillian you are a super sleuth.
Congratulations Gillian. You got the murderer and the motive. It was Mrs Valerie Marks.
She was furious when she found out he was having an affair. You have provided both answers to the question of who done it and why.
Thank you all for taking part in this little murder. I do hope you enjoyed it.
Haha...congrats @gillianpearce ! ^_^ And well done @molometer, this was intriguing ! 😊
You were very good with your questioning Babs, I thought you would get the answers for sure. And well done for battling with the English language.
Thank you so much @molometer. I really enjoyed my sleuthing. It was a really fun contest! 😁
I'm glad you cracked the case in record time. Have you ever thought of a career in the law? 😋
I liked the mind map you created to see the connections but your intuition was right all along.
Simple solutions are usually correct as opposed to more complex ones.
Yep that seems to be the case but I still haven't learned not to overcomplicate things! 😂
You solved the puzzle which was amazing and fast. Your intuition is spot on. Did you get the 5 steem OK? It looked like it went through from my side?
I did @molometer and thank you again for the win. Hope you're having a fun Bank Holiday weekend. 😍
Just got back from a lovely birthday lunch in London. It was fab.
Glad you got the transfer ok time to snooze. Nite nite ⌛
haha! great job sir molometer and it makes perfect sense after you explained it, well done and kudos to @gillianpearce, wow!
Very impressive indeed.
@gillianpearce has super sleuthing skills. I was impressed by the speed in which she solved the murder.
yes sir, I think I saw the day that she commented and said she didn't have time to solve it and you told her she had a few hours left and then on the winner post I was shocked to see it was her! lol. That's amazing!
She is super organised. Did you see the mind map Gillian made? Epic!
The mind map? No sir, where is that at?
Here it is. I had to hunt it down as it was on this 19 hours to go post
Ingenius method to use.
lol! oh my gosh! That's mind-blowing, that takes a very special talent to do and especially in such a short time, what great analytical skills! Thanks so much for finding this sir molometer!
I figured it was all of them but I came late to the table. Congratulation @gillianpearce:)
They all had their reasons for wanting him dead but only one had a compelling motive. 😱
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