Spyglass Mysteries: #1 Death At The Merryworth Manor

Chapter 14: Tracks In The Mud

                                                                                Chapter 14:

                                                                          Tracks In The Mud

Friday, May 24th

12:00 pm. Early Afternoon

I walked out the front door, remembering the muddy shoe prints on the rug. The same prints were on the walkway out front. I scanned over them before calling Keith over. He stumbled off the bottom step from standing all morning. I pointed down on the pathway ahead of me.

"Keith, can you tell me if they found any other muddy shoes from last night that matches any of the guest from the party?" I said.

"I'll sent a message over to the radio," said Keith, running back to the patrol car.

I bent down to the level of the shoe prints. The footprints were paced like a runners'. Someone was rushing out of the house. The question is why? Keith returned carrying a ruler as well as a camera. He took a photo of the size of the feet and rushed back to the patrol car. Walking carefully, not to smug the prints, I followed close behind the prints. After looking closely, I could make out two different prints. One being fast paced and the other almost looking like they were standing under the window and walking away. They rounded the front corner of the house. Each step drawing closer to the next, then, slowing down at the edge of the pathway, near the back porch. They soon began to walk off into the grass. I pictured how badly the rain was pouring down. It must have been havoc to see the cement path. Lucky the shoe prints were in good condition after the storm. I soon lost them as they headed over to the work shed out back. I stood up and glazed over the whole backyard. It was merely fenced off by a large hedge and a small stream that ran on the edge of the yard. I peeked through the shed. If I remember correctly, Arthur went to get Stephen that night. So it would be likely that these foot prints are in fact Arthur's. But, who's were the other. I could see Logan on the far end of the table on the back wall. Tools hanging on the wall above it. Stephen paced back and forth, placing bags of fertilizer on the table. I crept over to the door, cracking it open enough to hear them, but without being seen. Logan laughed before they returned to the conversation.

"Ha ha... yeah, always happens to me. I tell you, when something break down. It only takes one to say, hey can you fix that?" said Logan.

"To think I've been doing this for years. Thats' the first time I had to go in the basement and repair that fuse," said Stephen.

"Interesting! Why's that?" asked Logan.

"That Butler, Arthur, never lets me enter the house. He always thinks I'll get something dirty. You know that white carpet in the walkway."

"Yeah."

"I still haven't heard the end of it. I was inside the house, trying to find Arthur. You see, when the power went out. I went to the um... guard house. I figured the power line would fall when that rain dug through the ground around the telephone pole. I kept telling Mr. Grace the line to the house needed fixed."

"Now, you say the line to the house, you mean, the line-"

"Enters through the roof over there. The electricity in that house is awful. That fuse box in the basement, you could plug in a small radio and it would blow a fuse."

"And Mr. Wills never planned to fix it?"

"Nah... he plans to move out the house before next spring. He's giving the house to my family."

"Really?! That's extremely generous for an employer."

"Well, hes' treated my wife and I very graciously."