The Cherry Tree Lane Mystery

Chapter 29

Lunch was strained. Mary wished she was a good actress, but she never had been able to even lie convincingly. Alex looked at her oddly several times during the meal. Even commenting once. "You're very quiet Mary. Are you feeling alright?"

"I feel a bit nauseous. Maybe I ate something dodgy at morning tea." She wasn't lying exactly, she was feeling nauseous.

"You do look very pale." He seemed to have accepted it. Looking at his watch he seemed to make up his mind that this was as good as an excuse to hurry up the children and pack them off to the train station with Mary.

The train ride home was uneventful, the children had full tummies and they fell asleep. Home again Mary ushered the children into the house and put "Wall-E" on for them to watch.

She looked at the clock, 3pm. If the diary was here at the house she was going to use this time to find it before Cleo arrived home. She went to the kitchen and put some flour into a cup. Carrying it carefully up the stairs to Cleo and Alex's room, she nudged the door open and walked into the wardrobe. She gathered up a small handful of flour. She had heard of this trick before to find out how to discover the password of a safe but had never needed it before. She blew a little flower onto the number pad and sure enough some of the flour adhered to the oils that had been left behind on the numbers 3...5...6...8. Mary tried the combination but the safe wouldn't open. She tried again with 5...3...6...8.Still nothing. She prayed for inspiration 3...5...8...6. And the safe clicked open.

Mary felt inordinately proud of her detective work until she realized that the diary wasn't inside. Frustrated she slammed the door of the safe shut. She needed the diary, it was firm evidence of her theory that Alex and Susan were responsible for Elena's demise.

Mary cleaned up the evidence that she'd been tampering with the safe and then she walked back downstairs. She found the children still cuddled up on the sofa and glued to the screen. They hadn't even noticed that she'd left the room. She reached for her phone and sent Remy a text to tell him she was back and that she needed to speak to him urgently. Perhaps he would have some idea of what to do.

"I went to the Alex's office today and while I was there I figured it out,"

"Figured it out?"

"I'm sorry Remy. I think Alex is in on the death of both Elena and Samantha,"

"Just a few days ago you thought it was Jim,"

"I know,"

"Every time you come back to the village you have a new suspect,"

"To be fair I've only been away twice,"

"And both time with a new suspect,"

"Yes,"

"Why do you think Alex was involved?"

"In brief. I think that Alex offered Elena a lump sum for being a surrogate for hire. The baby she was pregnant with was going to be sold. It is illegal and it was unwise of Elena to get involved. Her family back in Romania is poor and she was desperate to get her hands on some cash."

"Okay. Why did she die?

"This is hypothetical. I believe that she found out that the baby had Down Syndrome. The test results would have been reviewed by Susan, Alex and the client."

"Samantha Barrett" He guessed.

"Yes. I think so too. When they saw that there was a problem with the baby, they demanded that Elena terminate the pregnancy."