The body was found shortly after 4:30 P.M. Death was placed at sometime between 10:30 A.M. and 3:30 P.M.
A number of witnesses have placed Miss Hardy at or close to the murder scene during the relevant period.
Motive:
Under questioning from detectives, Miss Hardy had denied any past problems with the murder victim. It later emerged that she had had a clandestine sexual relationship with the victim while she was at school. This has been confirmed by the victim’s widow, Mrs. Laura Rees. There is credible evidence that Miss Hardy had threatened to publicly accuse the victim. There are further credible testimonies from friends and neighbors as to the state of mind of the accused. Medical evidence showed that she had recently been under treatment for mental health issues. Miss Hardy made no mention of this when questioned by police about her state of health.
Forensic evidence:
Forensic examination suggested that the murder occurred where the body was found. Forensic examination also found numerous traces of blood on the accused’s clothing, hands, under fingernails.
The contention of the police is that as a result of her sense of victimhood, Miss Hardy returned to Okeham with the intention of revenging herself on Stuart Rees. As witnesses will show, she approached him on numerous occasions, threatened him, lured him to her house and murdered him. Her plan to dispose of the body was only thwarted when Mr. Andrew Kane discovered the body.
Miss Hardy’s guilt is suggested by forensic evidence, her own statements in the presence of witnesses and clear motive, which she has lied about and obscured.
Tabitha read this statement over and over again. She wrote in her notebook “between 10:40 A.M. and about 3:30 P.M.” but her hand was trembling so much that the figures were barely legible.
She read the page once again. It all looked bad, so bad that she couldn’t even think of what to write a note about. There was so much. She decided to start with a list of all the bad things.
Motive
She had a motive to kill Rees, she had apparently lied to cover it up and nobody else seemed to have any motive at all.
Location
The body had been found on her property. Who else would or could have killed the man in her house? It might have looked a bit better if she had found the body and reported it to the police. But Andy had found it. So it looked as if she had been interrupted before she could get rid of the body.
Witnesses
Tabitha had felt that one of the good parts of her life in Okeham was that she was basically invisible. It was as if there was a silent agreement that if she didn’t bother anyone else, then they wouldn’t bother her. It was a simple life. Working, swimming, walking. Once a day she would go to the shop and get a newspaper. It was another of the weird things she did. Who spends money on a newspaper? But she liked it. She liked the feel of it. She liked to do the crossword, or fail to do it. She nodded at people, sometimes even exchanged a muttered word. But there were witnesses who were giving evidence that she had actually threatened Stuart.
Forensics
That felt like the most obviously bad. She had his blood on her. She had his blood under her fingernails and God knows where else.
It was the most obviously bad but it was the easiest to explain away, wasn’t it? She had followed Andy and the two of them had struggled with the body. Andy had got Stuart’s blood on him as well. That was where the blood on her clothes came from. Or plausibly could have come from.
But the problem wasn’t any individual detail. It was the whole story. Everything fitted together and the only plausible explanation was that Tabitha had killed Stuart Rees. There were two ways of looking at it and both were terrible: everything pointed to her and nothing pointed to anyone else.
She sucked on the end of the pen and realized she was sucking on the wrong end. She rubbed her mouth with the back of her hand and looked at it. It was blue. Her mouth must be blue as well.
What she needed to do now was to go through everything. All the photographs; all the statements. She needed to construct a timeline. She needed to know who the witnesses were, what they’d said about her.
But it would take time. She needed time and quiet. Just then, as she turned to the first sheet of the pile and started reading, she heard the librarian say that it was time to go and then she heard a voice shouting and realized that the voice was hers.
The expression on Deborah Cole’s face when she saw Tabitha was not so much anger—although there was anger as well—but weariness.
“I need a room,” said Tabitha.
“What?”
“If I’m going to be working on my case, I’m going to need a quiet, secure space, some kind of office where I can read and not be interrupted and chucked out and where I can have access to documents.”
“Stop,” said Cole. “Stop right now. You don’t seem to understand the situation. This is not some kind of negotiation. You were brought here for causing a disturbance. Again. Access to the library is a privilege. If you can’t behave appropriately, then you will lose that privilege. I don’t know what this talk of an office is.” She held up her right hand with her thumb and forefinger almost touching. “I am this close to giving you a week in solitary confinement. With no books and no papers. That might give you time to reflect on your behavior.”
“That’s not going to happen,” said Tabitha.
There was a pause. Cole looked at the wardens standing on either side of Tabitha. She had an expression of disbelief.
“What did you say?”
“I’m looking at my case. In a few months I’m going to be on trial for murder. If I can’t look
