Ten Years Ago

Chapter 2 : The Retired Lawyer

'I got your message , Lavingham . I hope this is worth my time , and I hope you know what you're doing .'said Mr.Hugh Jefferson, a retired lawyer . He was an acquaintance, whom Lavingham had solved a case for , four years ago . He was the lawyer who succeeded in proving Julian Brown guilty of the crime.
'I do , sir . I have a client who seeks my help . I must do all I can to help her , and for that I need your precious time and help .'said Lavingham .
'Granted . I'll always have time for you . You're a fascinating person.'
'Thank you , sir .'
'What case do you want to know about?'
'The Brown case , sir .'
'The Brown case ! One of my great successes. Oh , but I didn't really enjoy it . The poor boy killed himself . Well , it was in London . Belgravia , I think . The owners , a Mr and Mrs.Whittekar had adopted the Brown children . The eldest Brown child , Lucinda Brown was around twenty . The second one , Julian was uh...eighteen ? Nineteen? Of that sort . Anyway the thing is , the youngest child , Sarah , was only ten years old. Poor child . Lost both her siblings.
There were five suspects to the murder of Lucinda Brown . Julian , the foster parents , a maid , who was called Wendy , and a cook , Altheda Thompson . The police also questioned his friend , oh , I've forgotten her name . She wasn't of much use to them .
But I felt very bad for Sarah Brown . She went to her aunt's , but they were very distant relatives. She had no family left . Julian was old enough to make a will , and he did . He mentioned that Sarah must go to their Aunt's in Chicago .
The day was the fifth of May . The body was discovered at around five thirty , by Julian . She was poisoned with arsenic . The poison was obtained from a small conservatory in the garage , which belonged to Mr.Whittekar . He was a chemist . The fingerprints found on it were only of Julian's , hence he must have been guilty . The doctor's report said that Lucinda had probably swallowed about two-hundred mgs of it . But the most bewildering part was that she was poisoned, and was also shot at the right temple of her head . Everyone in the house, at around twenty-five past five , heard the shot. The thing is , it looked as if she'd commited suicide . But the evidence of the arsenic proved it was murder . Don't ask me how, you know .
Well , after it was proved that it was murder , we checked Lucinda's will and she'd left the lion's share to Julian and Sarah , but she'd inherit only when she would marry or at the age of twenty . The Brown children were actually very rich , for their parents had left them that money. Their real parents, were some sort of secret agents working for British intelligence. They were killed in a car accident.
So , Julian had the perfect motive to kill his sister . For her money .'
'But wasn't it true that the Brown children were devoted to one another? Why should Julian want Lucinda's money if she could give him anything he wanted ?'
'Well , Julian was a young man . Nineteen or so . He would want freedom to use his money anywhere he wants , anyhow . He was a very naughty young man. So , for the freedom and sovereignty over money , he'd want to kill his sister .'
'I see . That's what you think anyway.'
'Why ? What d'you think ?'
'Well , I can't think when I'm in such a place. I'm solving the case . My client , however , thinks that Julian was innocent of the crime.'
The retired lawyer laughed . Lavingham was deeply annoyed.
'Well , your client's assuredly wrong ! Julian was the only person among the other suspects to have a motive to kill Lucinda. And the facts tell us so . His fingerprints were on the arsenic bottle , he knew his sister had a gun , and at the time he had no alibi .'
'Well , who knows ? Maybe the others just concealed their motives . Anyway , just tell me what all happened that day .'
'Alright then . In the morning, the family , except for Julian were sitting in the drawing room, talking about Sarah's future. They wanted to send her to some boarding school in France . This was about ten in the morning that day . Julian joined them fifteen minutes later . They discussed for an hour more after Julian arrived. More of like , argued. The Whittekars didn't want little Sarah to go to that school , but Lucinda insisted and somehow even got Julian on her side .
Well , then Lucinda had spent the rest of her life in her study . She ordered lunch to her study . The maid brought it to her at around two-thirty or so . The Whittekars did mention that Lucinda did have her meals late . Except for her breakfast . She had her lunch and was working on some documents and she had a glass of water that was brought by the maid , and that contained the poison. She drank it , and as I told you , at about twenty five past five ,a gunshot was heard . What actually confused the doctors was that before Lucinda was shot , was she alive or dead ? She had already consumed the poison .'
'Hmm . That's a turning point . But can you tell me about Julian Brown ?'
'Well , what I remember was that he was a dark , handsome young man with a plain face . But he was a very stylish man , and had long and bushy hair .'
'Forgive me , dear sir , I meant his personality.'
'Hmm . That's hard . He was devoted to his sisters . Loved them as if he couldn't love anybody else , yes , I had noticed that . He seemed a good lad , that is to say , he didn't look the type to murder anyone. Also , he had this - exceptional beauty in him...that one couldn't help but notice . He could get anyone to like him . He was very likable , yes . I felt really bad for him...he didn't deserve death...that he didn't kill his sister...'