“Why didn’t you tell us this before?” I asked, unable to hide my irritation.
Mavis had the decency to look ashamed. “I didn’t want to get Isabel in trouble, but now I know who really killed Clarissa.” She leaned forward in her chair and looked at each of us in turn. “Violet Greer is your killer, I’m sure of it.”
I stifled a snort and turned it into a cough. Mac put his hand on my leg to steady me and probably to keep from laughing himself. It took him a moment to speak.
“Why do you think that Violet is the killer?” Mac asked.
“I know it will be hard for you to hear.” She looked at me. “She’s your aunt, after all.” She turned to Mac. “And a good friend of your mother’s. But that woman is not to be trusted.” Mavis held her finger up in such a likeness to Vi, I wondered for a moment if these two were punking us.
“Okay, let’s stick to the evidence you have against her,” Mac said and this time he did pull out his notebook, I assumed for show.
“She’s been sneaking around the castle ever since Clarissa died, acting very suspicious if you ask me.” Mavis held up one finger. “She didn’t like Clarissa because Clarissa had made fun of her pet-psychic business and the knitters in general—which annoyed all of us, but only Vi had a murderous gleam in her eyes.”
“So, your evidence is that Vi had a murderous gleam and she’s been sneaking around?” Mac asked.
I thought that if that were enough to arrest Vi, we would have been visiting her in prison on a weekly basis.
“And I saw her steal that cable needle.” Mavis nodded and sat back in her chair, having given us the clincher.
“Cable needle?” Mac said.
“Jessica told us that Isabel’s fancy new cable needle was found at the crime scene—I saw Violet slip it into her bag on Thursday afternoon.”
I wondered what Vi would have to say for herself. The sad part is I didn’t doubt she had taken the needle. She probably wanted to sneak it up to her room to conduct some sort of knit-swatch experiment. She must have returned it at some point or someone took it from her.
“Tell me about seeing Isabel,” Mac said. He casually slipped his notebook back in his pocket as if the Isabel information wasn’t worth writing down.
Mavis flapped her hand as if waving away an annoying bug. “Oh, that was nothing. I talked to Isabel about it.” Mavis’s mouth pulled into a frown. “She wasn’t pleased when I told her I was going to discuss this with you, but you need all the facts, and not telling you was wearing me down. She accused me of being a traitor.” Mavis huffed and took a moment to breathe heavily in indignation.
Mac and I waited for her to continue.
“She said she made a mistake and went the wrong way. She never went up to the room—I just saw her coming back out. That’s what she told me and I believe her.”
“Mrs. Poulson,” Mac said, “this has been very helpful and I’m grateful you came forward with your information. I would just like to say, that if you are ever in a position to be questioned by the police in the future, it would be best to tell your whole story up front.”
Mavis’s face fell from a broad smile to a contrite countenance. She nodded.
“So, will you arrest Violet?” Mavis asked. “It would be really nice if she wasn’t snooping around the castle the whole time we’re stuck here. Where will you keep her imprisoned while we wait for the police to arrive?”
“Unfortunately, we’ll need to gather some more information before we can make an arrest,” Mac said. “But you’ve given us something to think about.” He stuck out his hand and Mavis grasped it eagerly.
She showed us to the door and as I passed into the hall, she put a hand on my arm. “I’m so sorry to have to be the bearer of such distressing news. You have certainly shown grace and poise under these difficult circumstances.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Poulson,” I said. “I try to remain professional in these situations.”
36
“I think I should go talk to Kirk about this,” Mac said, and patted the notebook through his sweater.
“I’ll work on finding the key to the lockbox,” I said.
“How are you going to do that?” Mac asked. “Is this another pendulum thing? Are you going to get your aunt involved?”
“No! I’m not even going to tell her about the box,” I said. I didn’t add that I had to keep the information from her or risk losing a bet.
Mac lowered his voice and said, “Are you going to do that finding thing you do?”
I stopped in the middle of the hall. “What are you talking about?”