A Meditation On Murder

As Richard finished writing his notes up, it was fortunate that he couldn’t see the sceptical looks that passed between Dwayne and Camille behind his back.

‘Very good,’ Richard finally said, looking at the board. ‘Yes. That’s a start. Have you got the witness statements?’ he asked Camille.

‘Of course, sir,’ she said.

As Camille hunted for the statements among the slick of other casework on her desk, Richard marvelled once again at how he managed to work so effectively with a partner who was so very disorganised. Her desk alone was enough to send him into conniptions with its mess of paperwork, files, bits of old orange peel and desiccated tubs of make-up that she’d leave the lids off and then lose interest in entirely. Richard’s desk, on the other hand, was of course neat and tidy; his in tray empty, his out tray just as empty. There was no pending tray. As far as Richard was concerned, pending trays were for wimps.

‘Got them!’

Camille triumphantly held up a manila folder containing the witness statements.

‘Yes. Well done, Camille.’

‘What do you mean by that?’ Camille asked, picking up on her boss’s tone.

‘Only that it shouldn’t be such an achievement to find the witness statements to a murder case.’

‘I knew where they were.’

‘Self-evidently you didn’t.’

Camille pointedly opened the buff folder by way of a reply, and, as she gave her verbal report, Richard wrote up his version of what Camille was saying on the whiteboard.

‘Okay … as for witnesses, first we’ve got Rianka Kennedy of course. And it’s basically what she’d already told us: she sat down on the verandah to do some sewing at about 7.30am, and no one other than Aslan and the five known witnesses went into the Meditation Space before 8am. She then saw no one else enter or leave the building, and the only person who was even remotely nearby was Dominic De Vere, the handyman. But Rianka said that although Dominic had a history of arguments with the deceased, he was definitely outside the Meditation Space when the screaming started.’

Dwayne said, ‘And if he was outside, he can’t be our killer.’

‘Quite so,’ Richard agreed. ‘Then what about our actual suspects? The people who were inside the locked room with the victim. What did you make of them all, Camille?’

Camille fanned out the witness statements so she could see them all. ‘So first we’ve got Saskia Filbee,’ she said. ‘I thought she was the classic innocent bystander. Shocked, but willing to help.’

‘I’d agree. That’s what I thought of her, too.’

‘And then we’ve got the husband and wife, Paul and Ann Sellars. And they’re an odd couple, aren’t they?’

‘Go on,’ Richard said.

‘Because she’s kind of crazy. I had an aunt like that. You know, larger than life. Talked too much. But it was because she never married and she had to keep noisy or she’d notice there wasn’t much going on in her life.’

‘You think Ann’s unhappy?’ Dwayne asked.

‘I don’t know. But she definitely talked too much. You know?’

‘Maybe she’s feeling guilty?’ Dwayne offered.

‘Maybe,’ Camille conceded, though she wasn’t too sure.

‘Then what about Paul?’ Richard asked.

‘He’s so sure of himself. And in control. Isn’t he?’ Camille said, and Richard couldn’t help but smile as this tallied with his impression of Paul as well. ‘And patronising. I got the distinct impression he didn’t take me seriously because I was a woman.’

‘Then what of Ben Jenkins?’

‘I don’t know,’ Camille said. ‘He was happy to give his statement, but there was something about him I couldn’t quite pin down.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘He was helpful enough, but I felt he was being careful. Like he’d had a brush with the law in the past.’

‘That’s exactly it!’ Richard said, delighted. He’d been unable to place Ben’s manner himself, but Camille was right. When Richard talked to Ben it was as though Ben knew he had to be guarded around policemen.

Richard turned to Dwayne.

‘Dwayne? According to his registration document, Ben Jenkins lives in Portugal. When you do your background checks, see if he’s ever had a run-in with the authorities, would you? Not necessarily criminal. He’s a property developer there, it could be financial. Or legal. Or maybe he was investigated by the tax office. Or by the government’s Planning Department. But Camille’s right, the man was too canny for someone giving evidence for the first time.’

Dwayne looked puzzled.

‘Problem?’ Richard asked.

‘Sure. I’ll do all that, but I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Chief, but we’ve got the killer in our cells. She’s already confessed to the murder.’

‘I know, Dwayne, but it doesn’t mean we should believe her.’

Dwayne looked at his boss. ‘You don’t think we should believe criminals when they confess to their crimes?’

Before Richard could answer, there was the thump of footsteps on the verandah and everyone turned to see Fidel enter the station, his hands holding a manila file full of statements.

He was hot and he was very, very bothered.

‘Ah, Fidel. How were the other hotel guests?’

Fidel dumped the notes onto his desk before responding.

‘Confused. Panicked. Shocked. And all I got from them was a whole heap of nothing.’

‘Well, let’s see about that.’

‘I’m telling you, sir, I spoke to thirty-seven different guests and they’re all saying the same thing. Aslan was kind, quiet—a “man of peace” a few of them said.’ Fidel spread out his notes on his desk and read out a few choice quotations. ‘‘‘He was the person I aspire to be.” “He’s the reason I come to this Retreat year after year.” “He had a soul of pure gold.” I’m telling you, sir, they all think he was some kind of a saint.’

‘Then how come he ended up getting knifed to death?’

‘Not one of them has the first idea. But a couple of people did say something interesting.’

‘Oh?’

‘They said the only person at The Retreat who didn’t seem to like Aslan was Dominic, the handyman. Dominic would apparently make comments. He thought Aslan didn’t live in the real world.’

‘Which would be interesting,’ Richard said, ‘except for the fact that he wasn’t in the Meditation Space when the murder was carried out, so I don’t think we can consider him a suspect. Did you get anything that suggested that anyone inside the locked room with the victim at the time of the murder had a grievance with him at all?’