"Where were you?" interrogated Percy, ten minutes after Sigerson had found his way back. "We were just discussing about the suspects—"
"I can help narrow down your list of suspects; I know how the murders were carried out. The only problem now is not who to catch but how to catch them…"
"We're still unsure of what you're talking about," replied Percy, who was just as confused as the inspector.
"Yes, let me explain. The culprit is a man about my height, who wears glasses and is quite familiar with this farm."
"How can you be sure of that?"
Percy looked stunned, while the inspector was clearly sceptical, not believing a single word spoken.
"First," explained Sigerson, "the height. See over here? The lengths between the footprints match mine, and they never grow larger or smaller, I can conclude that these strides were made without difficulty. Since the height of a man can be measured somewhat accurately from the length of his stride, we can assume that our culprit is around my height."
"What about the glasses? How can you be certain of those?"
"Let me tell you how the crime took place; everything will fit into place afterwards. The culprit came to the cottage to kill one person only, elderly Mr Wycloff. After he poisons him, the culprit stashes the body away neatly behind the bales of hay. Then, after a certain amount of time passes, an unexpected event occurs: the other three inhabitants of the cottage arrive. Jeremiah Wycloff, who stumbles upon this scene in the barn, is swiftly killed, since he became a witness and most likely saw the culprit's identity. This explains why the times of death were different, as well as the drastic change in the method of murder.
While this murder was being carried out, the women in the cottage were poisoned by accident. If you run a test on the wet dish on the drying rack in the cottage, it'll come back as positive with arsenic or some other poison. The culprit left some of the poisoned food on the table when he went to hide the body, then accidentally killed the rest of the family.
If you need to know how I found out, the rats scurrying around the cottage avoided the dish although they had no problems with approaching the others. The wet dish indicates that it had been cleaned not too long before we arrived. This, combined with the broken vase and wet rug, shows us that the murderer came into this house again after the death of Mr Wycloff, which happened much earlier."
"How do you know they weren't killed before Jeremiah Wycloff was?"
"If he were still alive, he would have run for help. Anyways, it's certain that Jeremiah was unable to notice that they were being poisoned since he would've taken action, so there's your answer."
"None of this explains how you know the culprit wore glasses," said Percy, throwing a casual questioning glance at the detective.
"The glasses…" continued Sigerson, "When you arrived at this barn and took out the bodies, was anything strange about them, inspector? Wasn't Jonah Wycloff's body neatly arranged and hidden, while the others messily stashed in?"
"Yes, it was. How did you even know, sir?"
"Mr Wycloff was killed just as the culprit had planned— that was when he still had his glasses. During his struggle with Jeremiah Wycloff—"
Sigerson gestured at the displaced mud and bloody puddles.
"—something was picked up. I believe that the missing object is a pair of glasses. If you come with me, I can show you more evidence."
He led them to the hidden path he had found earlier. Bringing their attention to a dirty but vague handprint on the fence, he said, "There are handprints on this fence, indicating that somebody, namely the culprit, used it as a handrail. Since the gap between the fences is rather large, why would anyone need support to help them? They evidently couldn't see very well and had to hold onto something. If you have doubts as to whether or not this handprint belonged to the culprit, look at the footprint down here. It matches the ones near the barn."
"Couldn't the culprit have been old or injured?"
"Highly unlikely. No elderly person could have strided like that or emerge from a struggle without injury. As to the possibility of an injury after the struggle, the footprints along this path also disprove that. They are equally spaced apart, showing that the one that created the footprints had no difficulty in walking."
Percy fell silent again, unable to find any faults in Sigerson's reasoning.
"If we keep going, you will be able to see the river along this path."
Soft trickling noises came out from behind some bushes not too far from them. The river, much calmer than Sigerson had seen it, was now visible to them all.
"As you can see, the river current flows in that direction—"
The detective pointed in the direction the frothing river was flowing.
"—which is exactly why you were able to find the jacket. In other words, the culprit ran along this path, threw away his soiled clothes, and departed."
They had reached the end of the path. All three of them pushed past the bushes and stepped out onto the rocky lane. The sun had remained in its highest position in the sky for some time now, so Sigerson knew that evening would come soon. He hurried over to some of the rocks and pointed out the strange dents on and around them.
"After losing his glasses, the culprit travelled along that path and made it here. The rocks here frequently made him stumble, hence the marks. Why would he stumble so many times? He has severe myopia, which makes smaller objects, like these rocks, seem blurry and unclear."
"There's no doubt you must have hit the nail on the head, sir," praised the inspector, relieved that the amount of work he had to do was greatly reduced. Walking back up to the cottage with the inspector and Percy, Sigerson wondered whether the crime really was connected to Blight in any way. There didn't seem to be any reason for Blight to kill him; Mr Wycloff had lived a very quiet life with his family and rarely left the town. The murders also seemed too… messy. Poisoning seemed careful enough, but the other three were too impulsive, unlike his other crimes.
"Still, we don't know who to arrest," sighed Percy, giving Sigerson a look as if expecting him to reveal the culprit's location.
"We know enough to be able to trap him," said Sigerson. "There hasn't been much time for the culprit to get away. Besides—"
He went into one of the bedrooms, pulled out a pair of similar shoes, and presented them to the inspector.
"—he left behind a valuable clue for us. I noticed that the pair of footprints leading away from here didn't match exactly. Before he fled from the scene, the culprit switched his own bloodied pair of shoes for these ones, and since he couldn't see very well, confused these two very similar shoes as a pair. If you look at the soles of the shoes, you can tell that they don't match up exactly."
"And how are we meant to use this to help us catch the culprit, sir?" asked the inspector, unable to think of anything. "The footprints won't get us very far; in fact, he might have already switched out of them."
"First," said Sigerson, talking to them like a general preparing his troops for battle, "we have to consider the two possibilities and plan for both. Can we return to the station?"
"Is there anything wrong, sir?" asked the inspector nervously.
"In order to catch the culprit, I'll need you and your men to cooperate with me."
"And the crime scene, sir?"
"It is no longer needed. We should now focus our efforts on arresting the culprit."
When the inspector turned away from them, Percy pulled Sigerson to the side and said quietly, "There was something else you forgot to mention. How did you know the culprit was familiar with this farm?"
"If he could not even see the rocks at his feet, how else could he have spotted that hidden path? The footprints showed that the culprit walked straight to the fence and moved sideways along it until he came to the opening. Why would the culprit go to the fence instead of seeking an exit? He already knew it was there and probably visited the farm several times before."
The inspector jogged back up to them and said, "A cart is ready, sir."
As the horses trotted away, pulling the cart, the cottage in the distance grew smaller and smaller until it disappeared completely from their view.
—
Back at the tiny police station, a dull brick building with a faded wooden sign over the entrance, everyone was restless; after all, nothing like this had ever happened before in their little town. When the inspector returned with Sigerson and Percy, everyone gathered around him, waiting to be instructed. The inspector turned to Sigerson and allowed him to give the orders.
We know that the culprit has severe near-sightedness and previously wore a pair of mismatched shoes. Before planning a trap, I need to know whether he's still in the area; two hours would have been more than enough time for the culprit to escape. I could ask Evie to help me gain data at the same time, which would significantly speed up the process…
Snapping back to reality, he immediately sent out constables to prevent people from leaving the village, watching both the train station and the roads. Sigerson, remembering the layout of the town and its position in the forest, knew that it would be near impossible for anyone to escape on foot with such hostile terrain in the town's vicinity.
Soon, information flowed back to him through the police. No one fitting Sigerson's description had departed on the few trains during the entire day nor was anyone seen passing on the roads leading away from the village. Moreover, Evelyn's report sent him vital information: a man named Brook Erwin was known to have visited the Wycloffs for many years and coincidentally matched Sigerson's description of height and glasses.
If he lost his only way of seeing clearly and hobbled back here, where would he go? The inn, of course, since he has no friends or family to stay here with. The inn would be much easier for him to locate without attracting much attention because of its loud noise and prominent position in the town. I guess I'll check there next then… Just you wait…