Chapter 40: Penhale Makes An Arrest

Thursday Morning

P.C. Joseph Penhale was very happy.

In the short time he had been in Portwenn he'd already seen more action than in a year in any previous posting. Suspected poisonings, a drone attack, a masked ball gone awry, a sunken shipwreck, and the revelation of a dramatic suicide. Sure it was disappointing that he lacked the evidence to arrest Agnes Daniels for aiding the suicide, but that was all forgotten once he had the opportunity to take fingerprints.

He had taken the fizzy drink can to his office, where he pulled out his fingerprint kit and blew the thin layer of dust off the top, and donned some latex gloves. Carefully he had dusted for prints, following the correct procedure he had learned at the academy, and was thrilled to see what appeared to be some pretty clear examples of all five fingers from the suspect's right hand. It was textbook! He had repackaged the can in the evidence bag and driven all the way to Chief Inspector Jackson in Delabole to deliver it personally.

It took a day to get the results back. He'd spent the time catching up on paperwork and working on his weight training. He could bench press 68 kilograms now and was proud of it. Since his divorce from Maggie became official six months ago, he wanted to look good for the ladies. He was excited to hear Louisa Glasson was without husband or children. The gossip mill said she was spending time with Jago Powell lately but they were old friends so it was natural. Soon the movie would wrap up production, Jago would go back to his glamorous life in Hollywood, and then maybe the village school head would be interested in spending time with another old friend, like maybe the village constable who was newly reassigned to his hometown.

It was worth the wait for the fingerprints. It was gratifying to know he would soon have an answer to the strange attack at the cottage. Penhale was not a brave man but he desperately wanted to be. He didn't like feeling exposed in wide open spaces or worrying about falling asleep while driving but the thing that scared him most of all was for others to think he was not fit to wear the uniform of an officer of the law. Whenever the insecurity gnawed at him he took to the weightlifting bench and worked harder than ever at it.

Chief Inspector Jackson called him personally to tell him the news: The two prints found on the drone and handgun were indeed a match with Loveday Wenn's prints from the can. Penhale could hardly wait to ring his new friend.

"Hey Doc, love your rhyming answer phone message. Really lightens up your image. We got a match on the fingerprints, thanks to your sensitive nose. You really sniffed out the culprit in the case, ha ha. We're moving in to arrest the perp now and we'll be interrogating her this afternoon. Thought you'd want to know, if you have any questions you'd like to ask her."

Penhale was all set to drive out to Wenn Hall and arrest Mrs. Wenn. When he stepped out the front door of the police station he was almost disappointed to see her just a short distance down the street about to go into the grocer's with her husband. It was pouring down rain and they were shaking out their umbrellas in the doorway when he confronted them.

"Loveday Wenn. I have a warrant for your arrest on charges of attempted murder, possession of a dangerous weapon, and disrupting the peace."

"See here, why are harassing my wife?" Mr. Wenn demanded. "This is absurd!"

Penhale became aware that people were stopping to stare in the street at what must have been a strange spectacle of him accosting a mousy-looking young woman like she was a dangerous criminal. Nevertheless, he stood his ground. After all, she was a dangerous criminal!

"You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention, when questioned, something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence."

"It's all right Michael, I… I can explain," Mrs. Wenn said. Penhale took out his handcuffs and she looked pale, like she was going to faint. "There's no need, I'll come quietly. Let's get out of the rain."

At the station, Mrs. Wenn sat resigned as Penhale started up a digital recorder for the interrogation, with Mr. Wenn, and the newly arrived Doc in attendance.

"So what gave me away?" Mrs. Wenn said. "It was the vaping wasn't it. Michael's right, it's a bad habit but I can't help it when I get nervous. I don't suppose I can have a few puffs right now. No? All right."

"Why did you attack us? Where did you get the gun? How did you learn to fly a drone like that?" Penhale started in. The Doc motioned for him to restrain himself.

"Why don't you start at the beginning?" the Doc said. "What were you doing at Mrs. Daniels's cottage in the first place?"

She hesitated and seemed to be gathering her thoughts. "So, you already know that I haven't been entirely honest about having been in Cornwall before. I did live here for a while when I was a teenager."

"That's really a private matter between me and my wife," Mr. Wenn insisted.

"It's all right darling, I want to tell the whole story. I lived with my old Gran in Newquay, but I have more family near Portwenn. I used to ride my old scooter here to visit my Uncle Andy at Larkspur Cottage. He used to fix bikes and tinker with all sorts of things and he taught me how to weld so I could help him work on his sculptures. I like that sort of thing, Gran always said it wasn't suitable for a girl but I've always been good at working with my hands. He had model trains too and when drones came out he bought some and showed me how to fly them. The gun was his dad's, my granddad's. Uncle Andy had the idea to attach it to the quad copter and set it up so he could fire it remotely. Maybe it wasn't too sensible but he never meant to hurt anybody."

"But you meant to hurt somebody, namely us!" Penhale exclaimed.

"Um, well, I just wanted to scare you away. I didn't think the gun would even still fire after all this time. You see, I rode my new Vespa there and let myself in. I had it parked around back. I knew Uncle Andy used to keep a spare key under a rock in the garden and it was still there. I got scared when you two showed up. I thought maybe you had a warrant to search the place and you'd catch me there. The drone was just sitting on a table. I turned it on, I was amazed the battery was still charged. I didn't even think about what I was doing I just wanted to chase you both away so I could escape."

"Hm. The question is what were you doing there in the first place?" the Doc demanded.

"Lovie," Mr. Wenn was puzzled. "Larkspur Cottage belonged to the late Andy Daniels. If he was your uncle, that means…"

She sighed. "Yeah, Mrs. Daniels is my auntie, Aunt Agnes. She's only called Mrs. because she's a housekeeper, she was never married," she explained to Penhale.

"We've never been fond of each other, all right," Mrs. Wenn continued. "She and my mum never got along. When I showed up at Wenn Hall married to Michael Aunt Agnes threatened to expose that I had… well set my sights on him. She called me a stalker, and worse, horrible names. I wasn't honest with you Michael. It's true, I knew from when I was a teenager and I took the house tour you were fascinated by Ancient Egypt so I studied up on it and got a job at the museum. I kept thinking maybe you'd come by there someday, I just couldn't believe it when you actually did show up. I purposely went out of my way to chat you up, but you know I really did get to be interested in Egypt, I wasn't faking that to impress you. And I really do love you. Everybody said horrible things about you murdering your first wife, so you must know what it's like to have people gossiping, saying mean things about you."

She smiled. "At least now we know Rachel really is dead and that means we really are married," she added triumphantly.

Mr. Wenn took her hand. "And I never misrepresented my situation to you. There was never any doubt in my mind that Rachel must have been dead. She was an expert sailor. I knew whatever happened that night must have been deliberate on her part. I just had no way of knowing what had happened exactly."

"This is all very well but you haven't answered my question," the Doc interrupted. "What were you doing at the cottage? And why didn't you want us to know you were there?"

To be continued…

Note: 68 kilograms means Penhale can bench press about 150 pounds. He does look good with his shirt off.