Murder at Grimwood Manor

Part 2

"Here she is," the undertaker said, pulling back the sheet covering Elizabeth Grimwood's face.
Apart from being deathly pale, she just looked as though she were sleeping. Nothing out of the ordinary, just as Charles had said. The detective produced the picture of Elizabeth Charles had given him and began comparing it with the woman he saw in front of him.

"Mr Smith?"
"Yes Charlotte, what is it?" He said, walking round to where she was.
"May I see that picture?" He handed it to her and she carried on inspecting the body. Her gaze went from picture to body, picture to body a few times before turning to the detective.
"I've got it. Her neck."
"What about it?"
"Look, compare her neck in the picture to now."
He looked from picture to body, and then he saw it. It was ever so slight, but there was a swelling on the side of her neck. It was so barely noticeable that the police must have missed it.
So, her death must have something to do with the swelling.
"My dear fellow, did the girl have any allergies?"
"I don't know, sir. You'd have to ask the family." The undertaker replied, covering Elizabeth's face again. He seemed to be urging them to leave.

~*~

The detective's body sat in the old musty chair in the corner of the room. His mind was elsewhere...
Woman murdered, no witnesses, no obvious cause except a slight swelling of the neck, a severe nut allergy could cause that, surely all her food would be checked if that were the case, all her meals, like roast dinner, a nice leg of lamb, crunchy potatoes...

"MR SMITH!" Charlotte shouted, shaking his shoulders.
"My apologies Charlotte, I was lost in thought. Did you find anything out from your enquiries this afternoon?"

Charlotte had been up to Grimwood Manor that afternoon and spoken to the master of the house. People tended to allow Charlotte into their homes more willingly than Mr Smith himself - despite Charlotte's attitude - so Charlotte did most of the initial enquiries. She had discovered that Elizabeth had indeed been allergic to nuts, which would have explained the swelling.

"But if that was the cause, the nuts must have been planted by someone after the food had left the kitchen. If she had a known allergy, her food would have been prepared with the utmost care," Charlotte said.
"Precisely," John replied, "I think it's time we did some investigating and interrogating, my dear."

A/N I know this is really short but I wanted to publish it so deal with it😂 Thanks for reading❤