A Deck Of Cards

Murder of Lord Gustav

The doorbell rang and Mrs Finny rushed to open the door. “Good evening, Mr Baker,” said Mrs Finny. Standing at the door was the well-renowned detective, Mr Ted Baker accompanied by Inspector Gerald Hastings. Mr Ted was a tall man in his 50s with well-trimmed grey hair and a big moustache. He replied,”  Good evening Mrs Finny, where’s Timothy?”. She said, “This way sir, he is waiting for you”. She took them to Mr Timothy's office.
Mr Baker is an old friend of Timothy, the eldest son of Lord Simon P Gustav. Timothy was introduced by his  father to Mr Baker during a party in Paris and has been friends since then. He has two twin brothers, Greg and George and a sister, the youngest, Lydia. Timothy helped his father in running the family business, Greg runs his own goods transportation company, George is a mystery book writer and Lydia is a high school teacher.
Mrs Finny knocks and opens the door and says, ”Sir, Mr Baker and the inspector is here”. As they enter the room, Mrs Finny leaves. Mr Timothy's office was a room with big windows and a classic teak table with one of those comfortable looking chairs, he also had a small antique collection kept in one of the corners of the room. It was now dim-lit and he was standing and looking out the window as the rain poured down. “Timothy, my friend I am sorry for your loss.” Mr Timothy turns around and walks to his table, and he looked very sad, worried and tired. He said,” My father was a good man. He was very enthusiastic, took part in everything and had good health for his age. I can’t think of anybody who can do this to him, I need your help Ted” and looks up to him.” Yes, my friend, I took the first train back as soon as I heard the news but first, let me introduce you to this young man here. He is inspector Gerald Hastings, one of the finest inspector I have seen, he will be assisting me throughout.”  And,” Hastings, this is Timothy Simon Gustav, eldest son of Lord Gustav and an old friend of mine.” Ted then looks at Timothy seriously and asks him,” Tim, can you tell me what actually happened? And...” Ted gets interrupted by hearing a scream. Ted on hearing rushes out to see what happened followed by Hastings and Timothy. At the hallway, Ted sees Lydia’s children fighting and screaming and sighs. The grandfather clock strikes 9 and three halt there, Timothy starts to narrate the evening.
“My father had arranged a dinner party today. He had invited Larry and Jo, they are the mangers of our current project, Dr Lambert, my father’s friend and Mr Paton, he was my classmate and now he is working with Greg and then everyone from our family was there. My wife Sara, Charlie my son and Susan my daughter, then Greg, George his wife Kate and his daughter Ruby and Lydia and her children Billy and Marley .”Ted interrupts and asks Timothy,” Has anyone left the house after the incident? I want to interview everyone, just ask a couple of questions.”   Timothy replies, “No, nobody has left, detective. Oh! But Charlie had left in the middle of the game, to get some air and hasn’t returned.” Hastings asked, “What game may I ask?” Timothy replies, “Ah.. bridge,” Hastings says, “Okay, so who discovered the body? Where is the body?”
Timothy replies, “ Mrs Finny saw my father lying on the floor unconscious. She then called for help, we came into the room and saw him lying down. Dr Lambert stepped ahead and checked for a pulse. There was no pulse, so I called the police and contacted you too.” Ted then says, “ Shall we go check the room then, hope the scene is not disturbed.” Timothy takes them to his father’s room on the first floor. It was cold in there, the sash windows were open and rattling and the wind was howling as it continued to rain. It was a large cosy and tidy room with a tall old arch window that opens to a balcony. Lord Gustav was lying down in supine position with a cocktail glass in his right hand near his bed. A shelf near his bed had an antique collection comprising of a dagger, devils eye, etc. There was a private bathroom attached and a dressing room. There was another door in the room and was left ajar. Hastings asks Timothy, “ Sir, where does this door lead to? Timothy replies, “ That leads to my father’s office. My father’s office has two doors, one can access from out and the from this room.” Ted walks into the office room and checks around while Hastings gets a closer look of the body and the room setting. Ted finds a deck of cards spread on the antique mahogany Chippendale desk. He turns to ask Timothy, “ Was this there before? I mean did he use to keep a deck of cards on his desk? Timothy replies, “ No, actually never.” Ted notices a pattern in arrangement of the suits. Hastings then enters the room tells Ted that, “ There is no sign of violence or struggle on the body, looks like he collapsed to the ground. I have called the medical examiner and his team to take the body and do the routine.” There’s a pause and then he continues, “ The windows were locked from the inside and there no access to his room from outside, it’s hard to reach out for the balcony. I also checked for dried mud on the carpet, there was none. But I found ace or spades in his suit's pocket also found a crowbar under his bed. Ted interrupts and says, “ Aah ! This explains many things” Ted nods and Hastings continue, “ As we know Lord Gustav was in good health, I can only think of murder and I strongly feel he was poisoned.” He stops and takes a breath. “Ben fatto Hastings !” Ted exclaims with a broad smile. “Hastings take a look this deck of cards over here” Ted says and walks around to look for more clues. Hastings notes down certain things. Timothy silently watches the two. As they step out of the room, they hear a man yelling downstairs, “ How long do I have to wait, where are those people whom Tim called?” Hearing this the trio walked to the living room. The living room was carpeted and well lit by an old fashioned rock- crystal chandelier. The atmosphere of the room was tense. All the guests were seated, except an old man with golden rim spectacles standing looking at his watch and seemed restless. In the corner of the room a beautiful woman in her mid 30s was sobbing and was comforted by another woman who looked older.
Ted introduces himself and inspector Hastings and announces, “ Good evening all, I am extremely sorry for your loss, we suspect a foul play in Lord Gustav's death. We believe he was poisoned. We need to ask couple of questions to you all. Each one of you is a suspect and .....”he gets interrupted by man with French slang, “ Umm... detective to be honest a Timothy’s young man is missing.” Ted replies, “ Oh yes, we know what about that Mr....?” The man replies , “ Dr Lambert,”
Ted continues, “Yes, Dr Lambert. And it’s going to be a long night.” He says looking at the old man who was standing. Timothy spoke in whisper to Ted , “ That’s Larry,”
They start the interrogation with Mrs Finny as she was the first one to discover the body. Inspector Hastings asks her to narrate the whole evening to him. She tells them, “Mr Greg was the first on to arrive, he went to master’s office there they seemed to have an argument about something. As I brought some tea for Mr Greg and was standing outside the door I heard master tell I will stop your dirty business. And before I could knock the door was opened and Mr Greg stormed out. So I went down and then Mr Timothy came with his family. I served them tea and went to the kitchen. Later, Mrs Lydia came along with Mr George and his family and then the others arrived after some time. Master was fond of  Lydia’s children, as soon as the children arrived I saw them run towards masters room. At half-past six, the dinner was served and later they all sat to play bridge with their glasses of the cocktail. It was like a tradition at every dinner party they would play bridge. They were all talking and seemed to have fun, but in the middle of the game, Charlie got angry and left the house in his bike. Tonight, master drank usual than usual.  I was watching them play and then I remembered I had some chores left and had to call my sister who is in London, as she wasn’t well.”  She stops and looks to them worried. Ted asks Mrs Finny, “ So Mrs Finny, when and why did you go to master’s room?” Mrs Finny replies, “ Master has a habit of drinking milk before bed. After calling my sister when I had come back to the living, Mrs Lydia told me that master has gone to his room and that he is done for the day. So around half-past eight, I went with 4 glasses of milk and some cookies to Susan's room, where Susan, Ruby, Billy and Marley were playing Monopoly. Then I went to Masters room with a glass of milk and found him lying on the floor. As soon as I saw this I called for help.”
After Mrs Finny, one by one they listened to everybody’s side of the evening. They learnt that, Greg was s the first to arrive , who seemed to have a bad argument with his father and as he goes down Timothy and his family arrives and at that time Charlie is called to the office by Lord Gustav and as Charlie leaves his eyes are filled with tears, but wipes it off once he sees his aunt Lydia. Lydia has a small chat with her father who tells her that he is going to fire Mrs Finny as she doesn’t seem to take care of the house well and almost caught her stealing the dagger from his antique collection. Also that he has warned her. I mentioned this to Mrs Finny later when I met her. Then Timothy is seen entering the office by George. As Timothy and Lord Gustav come downstairs, giving instruction to Timothy who was irritated and seemed tired of taking instructions and George steps ahead to have a word with his father, in order to ask for some money as he has not been able to write anything lately. Dr Lambert notices that the talk wasn’t pleasant by looking at their actions and expression. George tells the detective that Lydia had also asked father for money earlier, but he had refused as she was said to be misusing it. Larry, Jo and Timothy call his father aside just before the dinner to ask about increasing their share in the current project. At last, they call in Greg, as he enters the room and gets himself seated Hastings ask, “What did you and your father argue about?” Greg shrugs. He refuses any argument and tells, “he was just giving me advice on how to run a business. That’s all.” Ted tells Greg, “ Mrs Finny told us about your dirty business that your father had just learnt, we just want to hear it from you that’s all” Greg sighs and tells, “ Looks like I am busted, why does she interfere in our family matters. My father should have fired her a long time ago. Yes, I was helping Dr Lambert transport drugs illegally with the shipment I used to receive.” They ask him to leave and then Ted and Hastings begin to discuss. Ted begins, “ Let’s starts with the body, the ace of spades is known as a death card and ace is the highest suit in bridge. And Mrs Finny had told that playing bridge was like a tradition, all his children were good at it. The deck arranged on his desk had a secret message just like in mystery stories. The secret message was ' to err is human'” Hastings interrupts and asks Ted how did he know Ted replies, “ I had learnt it when I read the book “Cryptonomicon”, where they tell to use the bridge order of suits: clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. If the card is a club, it is the value shown. If the card is a diamond, it is the value plus 13. If it is a heart, it is the value plus 26. If it is a spade, it is the value plus 39.....” He stops and continues, “ I will teach you some other time, we are running out of time. So where was I? ...... Oh yes just like in mystery stories, so that makes George top of the list, but can he kill someone is a question, then Greg had a really good motive to kill and can kill someone.” Hastings interrupts and says, “Everyone in the house has a motive, Greg and Dr Lambert for illegal drugs, George and Lydia wanted money, Timothy was tired of listening to his father and wanted more share and so does Larry and Jo wanted more share and Mrs Finny was going to get fired. This is more complicated than I thought.” Ted says, “ Hastings, I feel its a teamwork, together they are like a deck of card, the unity in diversity, they all belonged to different levels of society in life and they worked together to eliminate this man.” “Why do you think so, Sir?” asked Hastings. Ted replies, “ Nobody remembers much about the game. Not one spoke about the game when we asked about the evening, everybody was busy telling what happened before that and about the layout of the room.” They then hear the sound of a bike. They step out to check whether it was Charlie. There was a young tall man, well built and he had got drenched in the rain. As the young man walks in and sees Ted and Hastings standing in the hallway, he introduces himself, “ Hi, I am Charlie and you must be the detectives. Dad had called and told about grandpa.” Ted replies, “ Yes, I am Ted baker and this is inspector Hastings, may I ask where you were?” “ I just needed to clear my head.” He replies, sneezes and continues “ Now detectives if you excuse me, I need to change into something dry before I catch a cold.” They watch him go upstairs. Ted tells Hastings, “ Let’s throw an act.” A few minutes later Hastings gathers everyone in the living room and calls Ted. Ted enters the room with Charlie. Ted says, “ Everyone, please be seated. Let us begin by saying that, teamwork is possible when there is trust, once the thread of trust is broken there are knots in the bond and that is no good. Everyone in this room, other than Charlie has a motive to kill Lord Gustav. When we talked to you all individually, one of you confessed to the crime that took place here. Charlie had known it coming and didn’t want to be a part. As he was scared and felt helpless left the scene. But to the rest of you, you worked together in this to get rid of Lord Gustav. I cannot reveal the name of who confessed. The police are waiting out for you all for the murder of Lord Simon Gustav.” Suddenly George stands up and yells at Lydia, “ aren’t you the one who told them? I had told you, Tim, we shouldn’t have counted her in”. Then everyone starts pointing finger at each other except Timothy, who knew that Ted had pulled off an act and that they ended up confessing themselves for the crime. Ted then smiles at Hastings.
Ted watches them get arrested and he tells Timothy, “ I didn’t expect this from you, my friend. You wanted it to look like you didn’t have a role in the crime and get the whole wealth, all for yourself by calling me first”