Murder at the Manor
View this post on Hive: Murder at the Manor
5 years ago in #busy by molometer (69)
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Mrs Valerie Marks did it. The clue is that she likes to bake and there were baked oats beside his body. I haven't figured out the motive, but suspect it is financial. 🤔
Thanks for starting this tale off in an appropriately dark way!
Haha, O crumbs! 😂 Motive?
His wife found out that he was in cahoots with the Nettles real estate lady and had spent all their money on a house to lure in the pro Cricket player. Can you tell I really don't have a clue?
😂 Interesting theory Mel but...
😋
I figured he was not allowing her in because he was doing some shady dealings!
Clue Gordon Marks was manipulating Alison Nettles.
He was hiding her tax liabilities in return for her...shall we say. Affections! Amongst other things she could help him with.
hello @molometer - I am sorry, and not claiming exclusive use of the tag here, but #tellastorytome is a writing contest I run. I didn't think your post was an entry as i didn't fit the rest of the contest, i wasn't sure if you hadn't realized it was a contest tag, or were looking a tag of your own to link a few stories together with, but I just thought I better let you know :)
Although that said, very happy to have got the notification for this. I have some ideas as to who might have been the killer, but will have to get thinking and come back to you to make my guess!
Hi @calluna, sorry for the mixup. I'll have to take a look at your contest and see what it is all about.
The tags were changed a few months ago and it is difficult to know who initiated what tag. Thanks for letting me know that you use the tag for your contest.
You are more than welcome to put your sleuthing skills to the test. Looking forward to your guess.
Edit. I just took a look at the prompt and criteria on the bananafish blog. Are you bananafish?
So I suppose at a stretch this qualifies as it is a horror (murder) set in a manor house in a forest :-)
I am part of the bananafish team, but I ran the contest on my account for most of last year. I realized your post yesterday wasn't an entry as there are loads of photos, and I have a fairly strict one photo per entry rule - just cos it is a writing contest. I did wonder when I saw the forest, but figured you probably hadn't intended it as an entry as it didn't really fit the rest of the prompt.
The deadline was the end of the day yesterday, but at a stretch, and without the photos, this post could maybe have counted, but there is no visit to a forest so maybe a little grey. The tag has just always been how I monitor the entries, it was a surprise to see something not related pop up, but really i should count myself lucky to run it so long and not have it happen sooner. That said, we are at part two of this round now, chose your favorite story to win and would love to see you there <3
I shall get my best detective hat out this weekend, and see if I can identify the evidence and come to the right conclusion! Don't wana jump the gun and get it wrong for over enthusiasm ;)
Haha jump the gun by all means. I'll take a look at the current round and criteria and see if I can come up with something.
I don't do fiction generally which is something I need to work on. This could be the start of something interesting. :-)
ohhh i totally forgot to come back to this, sorry dude!
I'm pleased that you came back at all. Even if it was just to say.
I've never called a dude before! I like it. 😘😂
LoL I have sort of a huge headache now...😃 Had to translate the whole in french but have to confess I am lost ...
Is it a coincidence that Mr Jones is allergic to nettles and the name of Mrs Nettles ? 😃
One question, maybe no importance but : Is the partner of Holwes from who he is separed a man or a woman ? Funny that the english language does'nt allow to make the difference, whereas in french you know if it is a man or a woman by using the related gender possessive pronoun 😃
and it definitely is suspect to me that the spouse Valerie has made no transactions on the account since 1998, likewise the trace of oats do not play in her favor indeed..😊
did we find some oats in his throat ? I suspect he could have been asphyxiated by feeding him oatmeal bread in his mouth 😄
as I'm not sure to understand well, can you confirm that there are two cricket teams, each one belonging to a pub ? and which team is the one which Robert was eligible to play , due to his house buying ?
What is the missing item of the bag ?
At least, what year is it ?
If all these questions are silly and of no importance, please tell me because I am kinda obsessed now ...LoL
Valerie Marks is the murderer.
You said Mr Jones had a relationship with Mrs Marks "a long time ago" and that someone lied.
Maybe Mr Jones lied about his medical condition and the 3 year old is his. He has been paying alimony for the child into a separate bank account from his illicit drug earnings hence Mrs Marks has not used the joint account since 1998.
However, I'm not sure I would class 3 years as a "long time ago" in the context of the story. Maybe the 7 year old is his and the fling was just before Mrs Marks got married.
Not sure what the motive would be though.
I think she attacked her husband with the trophy and then grabbed the jock strap form JH's bag and strangled him with it. She hit him in the groin because she'd found out about the affair.
Maybe she was in love with RH but couldn't be with him because GM said if she left she wouldn't be able to see her kids. So she was furious when she found out he was having an affair.
But this doesn't tie in the money from the house sale, tax evasion etc. Hmmmm.
Also, I'm wondering who RH is separated from and whom GJ divorced.
What if GJ divorced Alison Nettles and she returned to her maiden name and that is why he was spying on her? And the complaints against him were because he was stalking her?
Grrrrr. I so wish I'd seen this post when it first came out. 😢
I don't want to be told the answer. I want to work it out for myself!
I need to get on with some other stuff. Maybe something else will come to me while I'm otherwise engaged. 😁
Congratulations Gillian. You got the murderer and the motive. It was Mrs Valerie Marks.
I'm going to post the answers now as you have provided both answers to the question of who done it and why.
Well done @gillianpearce
Ha, ha, ha. Well that's exciting @molometer. Thank you.
Sounds like I was over complicating it a bit then. It was ever thus! 😢 😂
Thanks for a really fun competition. 😍
The financial complications were all red herrings. Evil genius 😈 😂
The real motive was revenge.
Ockham's razor.
So Geofrey killed him out of rage for winning underhandedly but knew the oat cakes would make it look like it was his wife.
Haha! It's a twisted tale of deception and betrayal.
I don't have any idea who dunit!
Clue Geoffrey used to have a 'thing' with Valerie many years ago. Geoffrey used his stalking skills to spy on Gordon and Alison having a fling in a local hotel. He told Valarie what he had seen!
And when he disparaged her tea and cakes she confronted him and clubbed him repeatedly with his trophy.
O Mel you are so close it's painful. 😉 Not quite in the bag...yet.
So am I right that it was his wife?
Yes.
Howdy sir molometer! great story and mystery here. It had to be the lady who owes all the taxes if he was going to be put in charge of the tax authority.
Thanks @janton for your assessment of the facts of the case.
She was actually being blackmailed by the tax inspector (the victim) and also having an affair with him.
She certainly had a motive but did she do it?
Full disclosure is just 24 hours away.
So far no one has got both the murderer and the motive. Some people have half of the answers. 😈
It's still 5 steem up for grabs.
howdy today sir molometer! wow that's a tough one! lol.
I got no clue but it's sure going to be interesting to hear the explanation.
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