Hello, and welcome to my 2022 A to Z Challenge! For a detailed explanation of my theme this year, see my theme reveal. But basically, I am exploring classic mystery novel murder motives, by making up a victim (Sir Adam Bracegirdle Clutterbuck) and then coming up with 26 characters who wanted to kill him. It is part genre exploration and part world-building exercise.
Today’s potential murderer is Cecil. Cecil and Sir Adam are old friends… and new enemies.
***
Cecil and Sir Adam grew up together. Friends since infancy, they went to the same schools as children, and attended Oxford at the same time. After that, they fell somewhat out of touch for a few years, after their marriages, but Cecil’s wife died in childbirth, and Sir Adam, seeing that his old friend was shattered by his loss, let him have a cottage on the estate at a peppercorn rent.
At first, it was fun to have his old friend Cecil around the neighborhood. But then Sir Adam started to take himself terribly seriously, and Cecil never quite adapted to the new tone. Cecil kept thinking of Sir Adam as his old, fun-loving, devil-may-care self. He could never take seriously Sir Adam’s increasingly strident hints that Sir Adam was now, in his own view at least, an important and substantial man, who should be treated accordingly. Sir Adam, at first a regular visitor at Cecil’s cottage, stopped coming quite so often. Then he stopped coming at all.
Cecil has been at the cottage for twenty years now. He has never openly quarreled with Sir Adam, but there is a bitterness now about Cecil’s reminiscences, when he talks to people about the old days, when he and Sir Adam were great friends.
And he talks about those old days a lot. Because Cecil, always a bit of a tippler, has lately become quite a heavy drinker. In his cups, Cecil is very candid (and rather rude) about Sir Adam. Sir Adam As He Was, vs. Sir Adam As He Is Today, is Cecil’s only topic, after about the fifth pint.
And then Sir Adam, though not a frequent visitor at the local pub, did just pop in for a drink at the end of a hot and dusty tramp. And he heard his old friend Cecil, talking about him. In fact, he caught the tail-end of Cecil’s most popular performance, in which he exactly mimics the voice and mannerisms of Sir Adam in his most pompous mode.
The next day, Sir Adam evicted Cecil. “You can have a month, as per your lease. Then—get out!” Sir Adam told him.
Cecil was stunned. He loved his cottage, which he’d practically forgotten didn’t technically belong to him. He tried apologizing—in fact, he felt sort of mean, when he realized that, after all, he’d been living on Sir Adam all the while he’d been insulting him. Pompous ass or no, it struck Cecil as not the right thing to do. But against the iron barrier of Sir Adam’s offended dignity, Cecil’s apologies were of no avail.
Unknown to Cecil, there is another reason besides offended dignity that Sir Adam wants to eject him from the neighborhood. Because Sir Adam has been getting poison-pen letters lately. Wrongly, he believes that they come from Cecil.
For Cecil, then, Sir Adam’s death happened at just the right time. Because under Sir Adam’s will (which he was planning to change but hadn’t yet gotten around to), the cottage is now Cecil’s, along with a modest sum of money.
Yes, it is really an awfully good thing for Cecil, that Sir Adam is dead.
But did he kill Sir Adam to bring this to pass?
***
And that is it for Cecil! The old friend who is now a dangerous embarrassment is a character I have seen before in classic mystery novels, though I guess he is more likely to be the murder victim than the murderer. And I know I’ve read a couple of stories in which someone is suspected of committing murder to keep possession of a beloved cottage.
What do you think of Cecil? Murderer, or red herring? Also, would he make a good second victim? How would Cecil’s murder change the story?
Red herring I think. Definitely a convenient death for Cecil though.
I agree, he probably didn’t do it. But yes, very convenient. Which could be made to look extremely suspicious in a story.
If Cecil now feels guilty for having badmouthed Sir Adam, it’s hard to believe he could survive the guilt of having murdered him. At the same time, the real murderer would want him to survive because his motive to keep the cottage would be strong, especially if Sir Adam had told other people about evicting Cecil.
Ooh, good! So Cecil provides an excellent cover for the actual killer. I like that. And it would be interesting to know if Sir Adam told other people about evicting Cecil. I bet Bruce, as Sir Adam’s secretary, would know…
Ah, but have you really told us everything? Are you sure Cecil didn’t get his life in the cottage through blackmailing Sir Adam? Are you sure Lady Annabelle wasn’t using the cottage to conduct affairs? With or without Cecil? Are you sure the cottage doesn’t have treasure buried in the basement or a mad first wife imprisoned in the attic? Because I agree with Sue that if badmouthing one’s old school chums isn’t the done thing, presumably murdering them is right out. So perhaps there is more going on…
I like all of your suggestions, and I wish I’d thought of some of them. I am especially attracted by the idea of treasure in the basement. Is that really why Sir Adam wants Cecil out of the cottage? Because he has just figured out that the long-lost family jewels (possibly hidden at the time of the English Civil War, and subsequently lost to history save as a family legend) are buried in the cottage basement or garden or somewhere? Yes. I now actively wish I’d thought of this. Maybe I’ll try to work it in somewhere. Hm…
Cecil sounds a bit lonely, poor chap. I mean it’s not good to say bad things about people, but he had been rather abandoned. Sir Adam sounds like a bit of a stick in the mud.
He doesn’t sound the type to murder over a cottage, I’m sure if he’d just stayed put they could have worked it out. But he is a def character who knows lots, some of which he’s probably not supposed to. He strikes me that he could be a bit like the Major in A Caribbean Mystery (TV since I have not read the book) – murdered because if what’s in his head.
Tasha
Tasha’s Thinkings: YouTube – What They Don’t Tell You (and free fiction)
I agree that Cecil sounds lonely. Actually, in the original draft, he was lonelier, but I decided I was piling it on too much (really, a dead wife is enough–need I invent and then bump off a beloved dog as well? It seemed a bit excessive).
The Major! The “want to see a picture of a murderer?” character!! Yes, that is exactly the way in which Cecil could end up as a second victim. Especially because, like the Major, he is given to over-confidential yarning about the past. What a fascinating parallel.
Is the TV version good? I’ve seen lots of Poirot, and I’ve listened to Miss Marple BBC radio shows, but I have only tried a few Miss Marple TV adaptations, and I found them disappointing. But I may have just seen bad examples. Or not been in the mood. Always an important consideration.
Naaaahhhh. I don’t think Cecil is a murderer. He’s just a… errr… lucky man.
@JazzFeathers
The Old Shelter – Enter the New Woman
Ha, I think I agree. There are quite a lot of oddly lucky people, in this mystery.