Murder at Winterbrook

6. Unanswered Questions

          It was night o'clock at night and I invited Kingsley, Mort and Blake in my house situated in the neighbouring town of Winterbrook, Evangeline Town, Clementine Street.

My sister, Lucy, welcomed the three warmly along with a sweet smile as she loved to have a guest at our place. She offered them her rough-surfaced circular-shaped biscuits filled with chocolate chips along with nice hot cups of coffee, steam streaming up of them, carrying the delicious aroma along with it.

"Scrumptious!" Blake would rate it as a first-class and five-stars cup of coffee.

"Well, Mr Blake." Lucy launched herself with her thousands of questions that were surfing in her mind which I was not expecting from her, "How are things proceeding with the case?"

"Well, to tell the truth, things are rather progressing with great interesting things," Blake replied imperturbably, making himself comfortable on the armchair and crumping another biscuit.

"I would like to ask you, how you play the game of mystery with if you see what mean, how do you deal with the mystery?" Lucy said, detailing each word to be clearer.

"Well, simply by doing my guesswork, by guesstimate." Blake paused for a moment or two, looking at the uptight faces around him then recommenced, "I ask myself questions and work out the possibilities that it contains along with the suspects and tell myself, for example, if it is really possible for that person to do that. You know, regarding the abilities and possibilities of the person, because, you know, people or not trustworthy but 'evil-worthy' nowadays. I study the person closely and... I am not going to reveal all my secrets, now."

"Hmm! Really impressive!" I blurted out, nodding my head with endorsement about the subject because it was indeed the truth that's why I ask myself why does Blake always have suspicious eyes and always stay agile and vigilant like this, like a...

"Indeed, the true character of a hawk." I thought or... said... oh no, I blurted it out.

"I am hawk-nosed, I am hawk-eyed, I am a hawk that sees its hidden preys," Blake said, sipping in a mouthful of the cup of coffee.

"Wow, elegantly said," Kingsley said, sounding quite impressed and was nearly going to clap his hands but did not dare to when he spotted the sharp look of Blake.

"Frankly said." Blake corrected then jumping on the opportunity to move to another subject, "Let's talk about the Murder at Winterbrook."

"Ah! It's really a mysterious murder!" Lucy exclaimed out with a mix of both interest and dullness, "It's quite a bulky case."

"Well said!" Blake declared, along with a slightly Scottish-like accent, "Quite bulky case, but, if we remove all the belongings it becomes light in weight!"

"Meaning?" Kingsley asked, frowning.

"Let's all of us work out the abilities and possibilities." Blake began, "Let's start with the unanswered questions. Mrs Russel, we have already spotted the bruises on his neck and shoulder when we came to interview her, why? Mr Gerome, a sad-looking and stressful person and always timid is it because of something concerning the murder? Mr Danny, a jubilant-looking middle-aged man who was a close friend to Mr Edgar, quite normal-looking, but, when he informed me about the car being broken already two days ago since he met Mr Edgar who told him about it. Now, what Mr Danny said to me was quite surprising to me and made me realise that the letter was nothing more than a trap to distract me from going off-subject. But the question the most pending at this moment is, 'Is the Woman in Red have some relation with this case..."

"It is!" Kingsley said, interrupting Blake to go any further, "I forgot to tell you about it. Another car was found in the wood a little deeper in the right near the body, stuck between two trunks of trees. And the woman was identified. Her name's Clara Rose and we saw her along with Mr Edgar on the camera, getting into a restaurant. When they got out, they drove through the direction of the wood also. They may be friends, I think so."

Blake drew his eyebrows together bringing it into a frown, in the process of thinking about something... something really important. He thought and thought deeply like that for some minutes and then opening his eyes broadly.

"Good gracious, that you told it to me!" Blake exclaimed, getting off the armchair at once and walking to the door, wearing his coat that was hooked on the coatrack, "Mort come with me!"

"But where are we going?" Mort interrogated, utterly bewildered by this sudden happening.

"But we can go too, Kingsley and I!" I said.

"No, you stay here. We're coming back at about five minutes." Blake announced, turning the handle, and opening the door along with the dark sky of the night appearing in the background.

"But tell us at least, where are we going!?" Mort said, standing on his feet and approaching Blake.

"We're going back to the wood." Blake told, already making a step further out of the house, "Can we have the car?"

"Of course, here are the keys," I said, sliding off the keys from my breast-pocket and throwing it to Blake who caught it in a matter of milliseconds.

He turned his face to the puzzled expression of Mort and said, "Let's go, Mort!"