“Who said anything about murder?” Bethan repeated.
“I was just saying that those things are called murder holes,” the man with the guidebook said defensively. “It says here that those defending the castle could pour boiling water or large stones down them to kill the invaders below.”
“Right, well, never mind that now. Was anyone here when it happened? Did anyone see anything? If you did, I’ll need your names and we’ll want to interview you,” Bethan said.
The crowd started to speak all at once and Bethan held up her hand.
“If anybody saw anything, please go and stand over there and do not talk to each other,” she ordered, pointing a little way down the wall walk. “If you did not see anything and cannot help with our inquiry, then you are free to leave and I would ask you to do so.”
Nobody moved.
“Who was the first one here?”
The man with the guidebook raised his hand. “Right,” Bethan said. “What’s your name?”
“Huw Bowen.”
“Good. Now then, Mr. Bowen, can you tell us what you saw? Did you see someone go over the wall walk?”
“No,” Bowen replied. “But I arrived soon after it happened. I was the first one to spot the body and I raised the alarm.” Bethan noted this. “Anything else you can tell me?”
He shook his head. “I was looking for my wife. I wonder where she’s got to.”
As he spoke, police officers on the ground began erecting a screen with a roof on it around the body to hide it from public view and cordoning off the area with blue-and-white crime-scene tape.
Thirteen
“Tell me everything that happened,” Victoria said that evening, reaching for the glass of red wine Penny was holding out to her. “From the beginning and don’t leave anything out.”
At first, Victoria hadn’t been too keen on the idea of Penny’s taking off the best part of a weekday to attend the Stretch and Sketch Club Christmas party but had agreed when Penny pointed out that most of the club members were either customers or potential customers, so it would be good if she went. Victoria had then suggested that Penny take business cards with her and be sure to hand them out.
Victoria had dropped in on Penny on the pretext of a few documents that needed signing, but they both knew the papers could have waited until the next day and that the real reason for Victoria’s visit was to hear all about the events at Conwy Castle.
“Well, I didn’t really see much,” Penny replied. “I was at ground level sketching, and the other members of the group were roaming all over the castle. I have no idea where they were. In fact, some of them might even have gone home, for all I know. Anyway, a few people were wandering about, and then I saw Harry Saunders stroll past. A few minutes later Florence hurried after him, and then Mrs. Lloyd and her friend Bunny showed up, and then Mrs. Lloyd rushed after Saunders, hoping to catch him up, I think. She seemed very determined and quite agitated. I didn’t get a sense that she knew that Florence was there. And a few minutes after that, the commotion started. A scream came from somewhere”-she raised her arm and made a fluttering motion-“and then the next thing I knew, a man came running out of the Great Hall area shouting that someone had fallen. I didn’t realize until I got up there that it was Huw Bowen. Anyway, I called the police and then I climbed up the prison tower stairs.” She winced. “They were very slippery, by the way, those stairs were. I hate heights and I really had to force myself to keep going up those terrible, narrow stairs.”
After a sip of wine and a moment spent gathering her thoughts, she continued.
“Let me see. Where was I? Oh yes, and then Bethan arrived and joined us up on the wall walk and more police arrived and started taping off the scene on the ground. People had to be very careful coming down those awful stairs. So slippery. I was terrified on them. And besides, everyone was quite shaken up, as you’d imagine.”
“But you didn’t actually see anything?” Victoria asked. “You didn’t see him go over the side or anything like that?”
“No, I wasn’t anywhere near.” She shifted in her chair. “I don’t even know who it was, but I have my suspicions.”
A knock on the front door halted the conversation. As Penny went to answer it, Victoria set her wineglass down on a side table and waited. A few moments later she heard voices at the front door and Detective Chief Inspector Gareth Davies entered the room, with Penny following, holding his coat.
“Evening, Victoria. How are you?”
She smiled at him. “Good, thanks. You?”
“Fine.” He looked around a little uncertainly.
“Bethan not with you?”
Davies shook his head. “No, she’s just gone to get something to eat, but we’ll be meeting up in about, oh”-he consulted his watch-“half an hour.”
Penny draped his coat over a chair, and they sat down close to each other on the sofa.
“Can we get you anything?” Penny asked. “We’ve just opened a bottle of wine, but somehow I doubt that’s what you came for.”
“No, no wine, thanks, but it’s been a long day and I could murder a cup of coffee.”
Victoria jumped up. “I’ll get that. I know you came here to speak to Penny.”
Gareth nodded gratefully as Victoria disappeared into the kitchen, and then he called after her, “And a couple of biscuits if there are any going.”
“Right.”
“I can’t tell you very much,” Penny said, and then recounted what she had told Victoria.
“Well, it’s early days yet, of course,” Gareth replied, “and I expect it’ll get complicated, this case. Outdoor ones often do, with so many people milling about.
“And then there’s the business with the witnesses. Everyone talking to everyone else and pretty soon people don’t recall what they actually saw, they start repeating what someone else told them as the way they remember it.”
He sighed and settled back into the sofa, stretching his legs out in front of him. “Oh, yes, there have been lots of studies done on that.”
His face looked drawn and tired. The corners of his mouth were turned down, making him look older.
“You look knackered,” Penny said.
Davies nodded. “I am, a bit,” he agreed. “But it’s more than that. It’s bad enough when people die at Christmastime, but now we’ve got a major investigation to run and, frankly, the timing is terrible. If we don’t get this sorted by Christmas, I’ll have to assign young officers to this case-ask them to give up time that they should be spending at home with their wives and children.” He glanced at Penny beside him, her face glowing from an afternoon spent in the fresh air doing something she enjoyed.
“And of course, there’s my own agenda here, too. I was hoping to take some time off and that maybe we, that is, you and I, could go away somewhere nice for a few days. I’ve been on the Internet… there are hotels in Chester or Bath that do lovely Christmas breaks and I thought perhaps this would be something you’d enjoy. We’d arrive the afternoon of Christmas Eve, warm mince pies and a glass of mulled wine in front of a crackling fire…”
He stopped as Victoria entered bearing a small tray with a mug of coffee and a couple of digestive biscuits on a small, violet-patterned plate.
“I think I got the milk and sugar the way you like it.”
“If it’s warm and wet, it’ll do.” He took a grateful sip and told her it was just fine. Sensing that she had interrupted something, Victoria gave an apologetic shrug.
“It’s all right, Victoria,” Penny said. “We were just discussing Christmas, and Gareth was saying what with all this business at the castle that he might not be able to take any time off.”