Great Stapleton Police Office South England 
 

The Townsend file	Tuesday, October 18th, 1993
Inspector Chapman	report N° 3

It was my task to find more against Dr Sutton and his wife. On Tuesday afternoon I went to the Suttons' house. I asked Miss Stevenson about the night when the murder had happened. And about the Suttons' alibis. She told me that the two people had not left the house. She was quite sure because the Suttons had talked rather loudly. So they had an alibi after all. But than she told me that she had heard a car starting outside the house. It had been at about half past ten.

Had somebody left the house at half past ten? Had the doctor somehow arrived at Field Lane in time to murder the Colonel on his way home? But how could he have done it? It seemed too absurd to believe.

I thought carefully again on my way from Four Winds. I had an idea. I was sure it had to be right. Yes, it was obvious: a tape recorder! I thought that it was the last missing piece of my puzzle. The Suttons had made a recording of a conversation between themselves. They had taken the tape recorder up to their bedroom on Thursday evening. They had switched it on, making sure that it was loud enough to be heard by Miss Stevenson in her room, and Dr Sutton had left the house at half past ten. His wife had probably stayed in her bedroom, so that she would be there if Miss Stevenson had wanted anything. The plan had worked. Miss Stevenson had thought that the Suttons were in their bedroom, and so the Suttons had their alibi. I hurried back to Four Winds because I had to talk with Mrs Smith, the charwoman. She told me that there was a tape recorder in the bedroom.

My case was founded on nothing more than theories. No, I didn't feel happy about it. I had no real proof that Mrs Weeks had died of arsenic poisoning, and even if she had been murdered, I still could not prove that her daughter and Dr Sutton had planned her death. And of course there was no proof at all that Dr Sutton had murdered the Colonel; even if some tape recorder was in their bedroom. No, there was nothing, no real evidence to condem Dr Sutton and his wife. And what about  the glove and the wallet? No, nothing was really clear.
 

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