Chapter 14 – The Revelation

By the end of the day the research was complete and newly found evidence had been sent to the lab on Guadeloupe. The following afternoon the analysis was complete and the relevant artefacts returned. All the suspects had been summoned to the community centre where they were greeted once again by the police team. Fidel and Dwayne brought Patrick into the centre in handcuffs while J P and Florence escorted Gemma. Jack carried a box containing all the evidence that was going to demonstrate who killed Heather Munro. Hervey and Claire had puzzled looks on their faces when they noticed George was missing.

'That's not all of us' stated Hervey.

'Yes it is' Jack filled them in. 'George was in fact Detective Sergeant Fidel Best here who was on Sainte-Marie undercover investigating another crime'

'Ah, involving these people?' Claire stated the obvious as Patrick and Gemma were handcuffed to chairs.

'I can't discuss it I'm afraid' Fidel ended the discussion as Jack placed his box on a table.

'Alright, without further ado, I am going to reveal to you who murdered Heather Munro' Jack got down to business and all the suspects looked up nervously while the Detectives and Officers stood to the side. 'This was a difficult case. It was staged to look like a tragic accident whereby Mrs Munro had tripped and hit her head resulting in a fatal concussion. However, it was very obvious as soon as we examined the body that there was more to the story than that and it has been confirmed that Heather was in fact poisoned with carbolic acid before being hit over the head to hasten her death. Once the method was established we moved on to finding out who had done this and why. The most likely suspects appeared at first to be you two, Patrick and Gemma Buchanan, as you had admitted to knowing the victim personally and it turned out that your relationship had not been a friendly one. Heather was aware that you had been claiming other peoples' songs as your own and defrauding concert goers so you had a clear motive as your careers would likely be over if you were found out. Furthermore, our undercover detective had observed suspicious behaviour on the evening of the murder, in particular you, Gemma, not being seated and on your phone around the murder as you said you were'.

'But we really didn't do it! We may be fraudsters but not murderers!' protested Gemma. Jack ignored her and turned to Claire.

'But then we found some information that led us to suspect it could have been you, Claire'. Claire sat up and froze in fear at this. 'We learned that you had ambitions as a singer or actor and are bitterly jealous of those who have made it in the music business and resent having to be the barmaid. That may be circumstantial, however it turned out that your fingerprints were the last to appear on the CD player that was used to blast out music at a level that would supposedly drown out the sound of the victim screaming. And on top of that you were the one to find the body. Could you have had some margin of opportunity?' Claire gaped in horror. 'And finally, we found your latest staff appraisal on Herve's computer which suggested you have aggressive tendencies at work. That does not look good!'

'Please, you have to believe me. I would never do a thing like this!' Claire begged on the verge of tears.

'And lastly Herve, the respectable Arts Manager who did not have any apparent motive, the only notable points in your case appeared to be the fact that you forgot you had invited Heather Munro to come and perform in Sainte-Marie rather than the singer making contact with you, and the fact that you opened the community centre much earlier than usual and were reported to have been behaving in a more controlling manner than usual. That could be described as suspicious'

'But as I said, I deal with so many performers that I simply forgot what had happened in this case. And as for opening early, that was due to the fact we were having a very special guest from abroad that we had to impress!' Herve shrugged off the points raised, confidently assuming he was clear of any further suspicion.

'But it was you, wasn't it, Herve!'

'What!' Herve stood up and screamed in Jack's face. 'How could it have possibly been me?! I didn't even know her!'

'No, but you knew about her, didn't you?' Jack took on an assertive posture to counter Herve's.

'What do you mean?!'

'You know fine well what I mean. You are the nephew of Jacques Etienne, the sixties politician who opposed the progress made by Prime Minister Jeanne Richard and victimised her. My officers did some research and confirmed your relationship and also discovered that your Uncle's party sold a lot of spin to the islanders that is believed by many to this day, making Jacques seem like the innocent party and enhancing your family's reputation. But our victim, Heather Munro, an outsider, did her own research, just like we did, and discovered what really happened and wrote a song about it, which she sang at her concert on Saturday night'

Herve laughed 'Very good, Detective Inspector, but why would I invite her here to sing that song, a song full of lies, by the way, when it was bound to get more islanders against my Uncle?!'

'Well, that's just it, isn't it? You lured her here in order to murder her before she spread her song full of lies any further. This was a pre-meditated murder!'

'OK I suppose I have a motive, but how does that make me different from these other suspects? You don't have any evidence that it was me who did it and not one of the others!'

'Oh yes we do' Jack walked over to his box and took out the waste disposal bag that Dwayne and J P had found during their harbour search. 'You appeared to be in luck when known enemies of Mrs Munro appeared on the island at the time of the murder as it was likely we would suspect them. Too bad that their criminal behaviour caused us to do a search of all the boats in the harbour and caused us to find this bag which I believe you will recognise?'

'I have never seen it before' insisted Herve.

'Oh really? Then why did the owner of the boat that you paid to dispose of it give your name when Detective Sergeant Cassell and I gave him an ultimatum yesterday? You see, this murder was very well thought out. Before you knew you had the Buchanans to blame you had decided to frame Claire here for Heather's murder' Claire gasped once again, having thought she had heard the worst already.

'You went to your office at the end of the concert, supposedly to count takings and ticket stubs, but what you really did was firstly use this to turn up the music' Jack took the remote control out of the waste bag. J P?'

The young officer took the remote control and went through to Herve's office, and when he got there he went to a small window that overlooked the hall and pressed a button which turned the CD player on. Music began to play and J P turned it up louder to demonstrate what had happened.

'You asked Claire to put the music on earlier in the evening as you knew her fingerprints would then be found on the main CD controls. You then left your office when nobody was looking and went to the dressing room with a complimentary glass of champagne for Mrs Munro which you had added a high dose of medical carbolic acid to. The first aid kit, Dwayne?'

Dwayne opened the first aid kit that was on the wall at the back of the room and took out the offending bottle. Jack picked up the broken champagne flute.

'She drank from this and started to feel unwell. After vomiting you hit her on the head with this to finish the job' Jack produced the rolling pin. 'You did well adding different colours of paint to make it look like it was used for painting but the red paint is in fact blood, Heather Munro's blood. You then moved the body so that it would look like a pathetic attempt by a naïve young person to make a poisoning look like a tragic accident. But all three artefacts here have been tested by our lab and contain your finger prints, Herve Richard. You are therefore under arrest for the murder of Heather Munro. Take him away!'

'You have no idea!' Herve shouted as he was handcuffed by J P. 'What it is like to be related to someone in public office and have them disgraced. I couldn't let it happen to my family…'

'Come on now!' Jack helped J P to escort Herve to the Defender while Fidel, Dwayne and Florence attended to Patrick and Gemma.

Once outside, Claire looked on as all the others prepared to leave. Fidel come over to speak to her.

'What do you think you will do now?'

'I don't know. But I don't think I can work here anymore'

'I understand. You know, if you want to get away from Sainte-Marie, there are a lot of venues on St Lucia needing a helping hand, and there is also a very good arts school there if you wanted to get some better singing or acting lessons'

'Thank you, I will think about that'

'Get in touch with the St Lucia police if I can be of any help'

'That you, you are very kind'

'Well, all the best'

'Goodbye'