Jonathan Creek- The Problems at Gallows Gate

Chapter 10

  Kitty, the sweet old lady who’d witnessed the murder, emerged from the room where the identification parade was assembled in a very tragic state.

  Her purple-gloved hands clasped a light-pink handkerchief which was all but drenched with her tears. Madeline led the old lady away to the curb outside the police station, where a young black-haired man, probably her son, picked her up and drove off.

  As he had promised earlier, Jonathan took Madeline to an electronics store, where his senses were immediately overwhelmed by an array of technology so wide that he had to sit down before they could proceed.

  Madeline had fixed her attentions on one particular computer, and they threaded their way through the crowd to get there.

  “Look at this, Jonathan!” She exclaimed, admiring its sleek surface and running her fingers over the keyboard (a welcome change to Jonathan’s prehistoric typewriter). “State-of-the-art stuff, my friend. And look!” She cried, grabbing his shirtsleeve. “It’s even got an ‘S’!”  

  “I told you to use ‘C’ instead of ‘S’ and draw in the bottom bit later!”

  “And what happens when I want to type in ‘floppy disk’ or something, and forget to add the extra part?”

  Ignoring her teasing, he settled himself down into a corner as Madeline quickly began to type her article.

   “The Case of the Inanimate Animator” in big, bold typeface was her chosen heading. It referenced Felicity's job. As her fingers lightly pecked the keys, Jonathan piped up. “I wonder why he won’t confess?”

  “Proctor?” asked Madeline, still intent on the screen. “Bit of a stupid question, isn’t it?”

  “He was seen throttling her to death through the window…” He suddenly groaned and ran his fingers through his curly hair. “There too much stuff left over that doesn’t fit! Those three tapes, stolen from Clare’s answering machine… they found the blank one inDuncan’s flat. What happened to the other two? And why were they taken?”

  “It’s a message he wanted to get back,” replied Madeline, not giving it much thought. “Probably he’d imprudently left it on himself, and it proved he was still alive.”

  “That’d explain why he went back once, but twice? Well, if the tape was blank the message had obviously either been erased or removed… what of the third tape, though? What if it was taken by someone else...?” He continued musing like this until a shop assistant, spying them, threw them both out.

  That unfortunate circumstance, though it incurred Madeline’s anger and forced them to retreat back into the car, didn’t stop Jonathan’s thoughts.

  “The most important,” he said, as they buckled on their seatbelts, “is: why did he take her stockings off?”

  Madeline looked at him and sighed. “Jonathan, don’t you think you’re getting a rather unnatural fixation with this stocking thing? Anyway, your shoelace is undone.”

  Suddenly he started up. “‘Your shoelace is undone’!” He cried, breaking into a gigantic smile. “Madeline! You’re a genius!” And he planted a huge kiss on her cheek, causing her to yell in disgust and whip out her antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizer.

  Jonathan, too excited to notice, revved the engine. “He didn’t take off her stockings!” he cried, oblivious to Madeline’s discomfort.

  “What?” she said, scrubbing furiously at her face.

  “He took her stockings off her!” He exclaimed, reversing out of the parking lot. “Same words, different meaning! Duncan took the stockings from Felicity! That’s why he’s not confessing!”

  Madeline threw up her hands in exasperation. Antibacterial wipes doused in hand sanitizer littered the area around her, and her cheek gleamed with all the scrubbing. “Jonathan, will you stop speaking Martian and tell me what the heck is going on?”

  “We’re going to go back to my place, and we’re going to go over every single little detail of what everyone said to you. Got me?” He asked, as they zoomed down the highway.

  “But why?”

  He locked eyes with her, and said, in a more serious tone than he’d used for the past minutes. “So we can find out who really murdered Felicity Vale.”

A/N: SQUEALS!! Almost finished guys! I'd like to give a huge THANK YOU to all who've followed the updates (not many, I know, but if you have I LOVE YOU BERRY MUCH)! 

Dedicated to CeceGem77. She's a new authouress, just starting out. If you could, check out her book! It's titled "Play With Me". It's a Romance/TeenFiction story. Please show your support!