Chapter 25 Chapter Twenty-Four

Moreau stood by the side of the car, leaning against the still-heated hood, looking up at Glenawah.Today was a bright sunny day, and the house looked less gloomy and gloomy.Gray stones glow in the sun.The solid exterior gives the house the appearance of a stubborn old man, sometimes childish, but most of the time nonchalant and benign. She has sent Leonard to ask the police officer on duty who has been here, and to check the visitation records.No matter what happened in the detective department, Leonard was always excluded, and Morrow found that he unconsciously liked the company of this newcomer, and liked this neutral feeling.She walked toward the steps, clearing her mind as she walked, letting previous impressions flood in.She needed to know about Sarah, but this woman was elusive.Bannerman has already booked a flight ticket to London for her tomorrow, and asked her to ask Sarah's bar colleagues to understand this enigmatic woman and try to get Sarah's national insurance information.She needed to know what Sarah was like.

The nurses came and went, and they kept coming in and out through the front door.None of the orderlies had keys because Kay Murray was always there to open the door for them.Kay must be working long hours every day.Moreau was glad that Kay had the key: this made the fact that the break in the kitchen window had nothing to do with Kay. As Morrow walked through the front door of the house, he heard Leonard asking if Kay Murray had come up and was told he hadn't.Moreau would have to go find her. The suitcase was gone in the dark porch, but the jacket was still there.Black porch, shoes, one standing, one down on one side.Darker vestibule, grandiose.Go up the stairs through the archway.The moment he thought of Sarah's body, Moreau shrank his neck.The dried black blood was still there, stretching from the floor to the two stair steps, as if Sarah had tried to climb into the roof to hide.

She glanced to where the taser used to be, and though she thought of the taser, she knew she was just trying to avoid seeing the stairs. The blood on the steps was still scarlet, but the blood that spilled to the side had dried to black.Two sets of footprints, one slightly larger than the other, are now in sight.The smaller footprint was closer to Sarah's head.The two sets of footprints kept approaching, the larger foot making a footprint further along the steps, away from Sarah. Moreau came back.Undoubtedly, they all passed Sarah's head, and on the first step it can be seen that the person with the smaller foot is standing there with the left foot, very close to Sarah's head.

They were stomping her with the other foot. Morrow looked at the footprints and imagined them standing there, arms down, expressionless like people waiting in line.They will be interrogated individually.They blame each other, they always do.That's okay, they'll all be convicted, but this time, if one of them says he's innocent, he's probably telling the truth. She went outside to take a breath of fresh air, and saw Leonard standing on the doorstep, "Where did Kai Morrow work yesterday?" Moreau stood breathing at the door, a lovely garden with a vast sloping clearing of white sand and stones in front of the house, a path of stepping stones that curved around the front door, and brightly colored plants bordering the garden, Pink and blue flowers, floating on the watery white marble gravel, are protected by tall fences and isolated from the view of neighbors, and bright orange flowers on trestles hide the garden.

In his written report, Leonard referred to Mrs. Telline's home as "the old Glenawale stable block".Moreau could make out a path leading to the big house, and a trodden clearing on the top of the hill to one side of the cottage. It doesn't look like a stable anymore, the surroundings are picturesque and the brand new house has just been painted.Moreau opened the door with a hinge on the top and held it.Leonard had been here before, and it would be wise to take her with him, so Lady Tyrine would know who they were without further ado. Moreau rang the doorbell. After a while, a slender woman opened the door.A very neat woman, with graying strands of blond hair, wearing baggy beige trousers and a matching stone-coloured knit jumper, a blue silk scarf loosely wrapped around her neck and tucked into the crew neck of her blouse middle.She looked at the visitor through half-moon reading glasses and recognized Leonard.

"Hello, we meet again!" Leonard promised that if a murderer appeared near the village, she would come back and inform Mrs. Thales to evacuate with her husband.Madame Thales was so eager to know what was going on that, instead of pouring a cup of tea or coffee, or offering a small plate of delicious biscuits, she sat with them in the drawing-room and asked how the investigation was going. "Have you found the suspect yet?" "No," Moreau said firmly. "We're pretty sure that whatever caused Sarah's death was personal and no one else was threatened."

"So, I don't have to worry?" "yes." "Okay." She seemed relieved to hear this, but suddenly thought of another question, "Then why are you here again?" "I'm looking for Kay Murray." Her eyes narrowed, "Kay?" "do you know her?" "Of course I do." They stared at each other for a moment.There was a bird-feeding tray hanging in the window, and a little bird was pecking at it, clicking. "Do you know Sarah?" Madame Thales did not like this conversation, and she seemed to recognize that Moreau was a different kind of police officer, not the friendly one.Tap-tap-tap.

"Sarah grew up here, of course she left at school, we didn't have much contact, but she grew up around here." "What kind of person is she?" "She is the only child in the family. She was very shy since she was a child, and she was not close to local children." "She doesn't approach herself, or does she not let her approach?" "Well, my kids have been invited up to her birthday party, but we always felt like they weren't really welcome: they were just a foil. My older son really liked Sarah and said she was funny , she played the nanny of the family, all French, and she entertained the children."

"Their family's financial situation has not been as good as it used to be lately, has it?" "Everybody's not doing as well financially these days, look at a guy like Kay Murray, I mean, people get desperate, don't they? Four kids, no husband—" Mo Luo suddenly scolded her: "Is your family's financial situation not as good as before?" Mrs. Tyrine touched the scarf around her neck, opened and closed her mouth.Tap, tap, tap, after a few more pecks, the bird by the window finally got bored, flapped its black wings, and flew away. Mrs. Tyrine took a deep breath, "We invested our savings in stocks through a brokerage company called United Global Investments, and we lost all our money."

"How much money?" Mrs. Taylor touched her neck again, "About 600,000, almost." She began to cry, but tried her best to restrain herself, her lips trembled, she took out a silk handkerchief from her sleeve, and gently wiped the corners of her eyes, for fear of messing up her makeup. Moreau might be ashamed to admit it, but she was bored by the situation.Mrs. Thalline was weeping over the money, while Glenawah's stairs were spilled with Sarah's blood, and when her sobbing died down, Moreau asked softly, "Have United Global Investments lost all their money?"

"Is that so? Where did the money go?" She asked suddenly, as if all this was too much for her to bear, and she looked at Moreau coldly, "Do you know who did it?" "Who else do you know in this village?" "Most old residents." "Are the people here fairly mixed?" "What do you mean?" "Old people, families with children?" "Yes, very mixed." "Many teenagers?" "There are some." "Do you know any homes with teenage kids?" "The Campbell family has two daughters, a 19-year-old and a 15-year-old." "No boys?" She paused, looked at Morrow, and somehow seemed to know that this was what Morrow didn't want to hear: "Kay Murray has three sons, all adolescents." "I mean people who live around here." Madame Thales began to cry again, she could not control herself. "Anyway, we're moving!" she cried, holding a handkerchief to her mouth, choking intermittently. "We're going to sell the house and go live with the kids. We've lived here for 32 years. Now I have to leave and go to the children." Feeling very sorry for her lack of compassion for Mrs. Tyrine's loss, Moreau reached out and stroked the other's arm, apologizing for the unkindness in his heart.