Page 17 of Death on a Scottish Train

“Will it?” he asked.

“Yes. We only have to find out who at the party ordered bee venom. I bet Henry could figure that out somehow using the computer.”

“Except, we dinnae know for certain the murderer was at the party.”

He wasn’t wrong. “I forgot. You’re right. He could have been poisoned before he ever walked into the train station, and become disoriented after applying the lip balm, perhaps one too many times. ButI still stand by the fact it looked like he was stuffed into that cupboard. I suppose he could have done it to himself if he was out of his mind. There were no contusions on the body, which I admit would be strange if someone put him in there.” I snapped my fingers. “Unless he was already dead. Those bruises might not show up as clearly.”

“Do you need to head back to your office?” Ewan asked. “I’m going to meet Henry at the victim’s home. Do you want to go with me?”

I stopped. It was so unusual for him to ask me to help. Usually, I had to beg to be included.

“What’s going on?”

He paused with me on the sidewalk. “What do you mean?”

“You never let me be involved in the active investigation. I usually have to figure things out on my own.”

“Well, I decided that perhaps it is best to involve you so that you don’t find yourself in a predicament like the last few cases.”

“None of that was my fault,” I said. That sounded weak even to me. I wasn’t great about keeping my nose out of police business, and my life had been threatened more than once. While trying to investigate on my own, I sometimes found myself in jeopardy.

As one does.

“Where is his house?”

“Up the mountain. Once we finish up there, we’ll head to his office.”

It was my day off, but I had nothing better to do. Besides, it beat trying to find a way to sneak in on my own later. Easier to walk through the front door with Ewan.

“OK, I’m in.”

A half-hour later, we were in a neighborhood near the big library in the middle of town. There were rows of small brownstone houses on a tree-lined street. The main street in downtown Sea Isle was only a few blocks away, along with the train station. So, the victim had most likely walked there.

Our small town had CCTV cameras along the main avenues. And I was curious about something.

“Did you see him walking to the station on CCTV?” I asked as we climbed the steps.

“He walked there alone,” he said. “From what we could tell on the cameras he came from the direction of his home. His executive assistant said he’d left work early to go change into his costume for the evening. So, that checked out on the timeline.”

“OK. I guess it was too much to ask that the killer might have been walking with him forcing him to use lip balm.”

He chuckled.

One of Ewan’s officers stood by the door and nodded as we went by. Henry was in the main living area searching through bookshelves.

“Find anything?” Ewan asked.

“No sir. Nothing out of the ordinary. I have bagged and tagged the lip balms we found. I also found some shaving items and lotions we took into evidence.”

“Good. Let’s have those tested by the Doc and Abigail. Take them down when we’re finished here.”

“Yes, sir.”

I pulled a pair of gloves from my bag and headed for the bathroom. Even though it sounded as if Henry had done a thorough job, I wanted to double-check. The accountant wasn’t one of my patients. I was curious if he had any prescriptions.

As I passed by the kitchen, it was noticeably tidy. All the rooms were quite stark and clean. I wondered if perhaps Jacks had OCD. Nothing in the home appeared out of place.

The bathroom was no exception. I wondered if he kept it this way or if he had a housekeeper, who cleaned for him.