Simran Sahu

Crime

3  

Simran Sahu

Crime

Camilla Byers: The Case Of Laura Churchill

Camilla Byers: The Case Of Laura Churchill

7 mins
267


I was frustrated and my throat was dry. A sip of water was all I needed.

 ‘Why do you think it’s a murder?’ I asked for the millionth time. 

‘Because there are signs of a murder. A broken chair. Bruises on her body and a vase which had shattered into a million pieces.’ she answered.

I was in Brick lane investigating a suicide attempt. I am Augustine Wellbourgh, the assistant of the famous detective, Camilla Byers. She is a well-known detective of England. She is a clever, skillful, and enthralling, well-planned woman. She investigates all the mishappenings which occur in England. The case we were investigating now had been reported by Mr. Churchill. His daughter, Laura, had been found hanging in her room in the Churchill manor a few hours ago. Nobody knew what had caused Laura to take such a huge step.

‘She was to be married in a few weeks time. Her groom, Darcy, had loved her a lot. They both were so excited. She couldn’t have done that.’ said Rebecca Churchill, Laura’s elder sister. 

‘We never know what she must have been going through.’ said Mr. Churchill.

Camilla twitched her eyebrows. She felt something was wrong. I knew that she was about to interrogate someone.

‘Was Laura in your father’s bad books?’ Camilla asked Rebecca.

‘Are you saying my father killed Laura?’

‘I am not saying. If you won’t let me do my job, I won’t be able to find the culprit.’

‘Father didn’t want Laura to marry Darcy. You see he is a handsome young man but he doesn’t have a nice pay. Father wanted both of us to marry rich men and live up to our family’s standards.’

Camilla had the same mysterious smile on her face. We went to interrogate the neighbours. The Neighbours said that Laura was a very nice young lady but was ill-treated by her father who thought that Laura shouldn’t be marrying Darcy.

‘But he wouldn’t have killed laura. Laura was his younger daughter and also the one whom he admired.’ The neighbours added.

We went back to the Churchill manor and interrogated the Craigs. The Craige family had been taking care of the Churchill Manor when the Churchills weren’t at home. Mrs. Craige who took responsibility for the kitchen duties did all her chores sincerely. She loved Laura like her own daughter. This had made Rebecca a bit jealous. Mr. Craige did his duties effortlessly. 

We were about to exit the scene when Mr. Darcy entered the room. He had pale blue eyes and sandy hair. He had a stern expression on his face. He looked at Laura’s body and shook his head. He came towards us calmly. 

‘I knew her very well and she would never do this. She was about to be married. It’s a murder and I’m sure of it.’ Mr. Darcy said to Camilla.

‘We aren’t here to listen to your opinions. We solve our cases based on our wits.’ Camilla said.

‘You had to meet Laura this afternoon, right?’ I asked.

‘Yes. We had to discuss some plans for the wedding. 

‘You can go now. We shall see you tomorrow.’ said Camilla.

‘I have one more thing to say.’ Mr. Darcy said.

He took us to a corner of the room. 

‘Mr. Churchill wasn’t happy with Laura because she was marrying me. You see I loved her with my whole heart but Mr. Churchill wanted her to marry someone who was well off economically.’ Mr. Darcy said with a sigh.

Everyone left Laura’s room to have a cup of tea in the hall. Camilla said that she would be joining them in a couple of minutes. 

She wanted to have a look around in the room. I went through Laura’s table but found nothing. Camilla searched her bed but found nothing. That day when I went home, I found a note on my table which said: “Stop investigating this case”. I wasn’t scared though. I showed the note to Camilla the next day. The same mysterious smile returned to her face when she read the note. 

‘That’s the case almost solved’,she announced.

‘How do you know?’

‘The murder must be done by one of the family members or by the ones who were here in this room the previous day. Which is why they are aware of our progress and are troubled that we might solve the case almost immediately.’

‘Clever !’,  I exclaimed.

We went to interrogate Rebecca’s friends. They said Rebecca never bad-mouthed her sister but was jealous of the fact that Laura was the first one to marry.

‘What do you mean?’, I asked.


One of them replied, ‘ According to the Churchill family traditions, The elder daughter should be the first one to be married and the younger daughter should be married after her. But Laura was the first one who was getting married. Mr. Churchill never believed those traditions. But Rebecca was well aware of the fact that it displeased the others.’

We went to see the staff of Mr. Darcy’s office. Instead of the staff, we saw Margaret Darcy, Mr. Darcy’s sister waiting for us.

‘George (Mr. Darcy) doesn’t like Laura as much he says. He doesn’t have good pay which is why he married Laura so that he could borrow some money from Mr.Churchill.’

I was shocked. This case was shaping up to be more complicated than we imagined. Camilla thought that Mr. Darcy wouldn’t have killed Laura unless he was offered a huge amount of money.

 Laura’s best friend Susan turns up. She said that Laura had found out the truth about Mr. Darcy. She had told Mr. Churchill about it but he refused to believe her. Laura was very unhappy and had almost decided to run away. Susan went away. 

Camilla said, ‘ Churchill was respected by the community and he wouldn't want to lose the respect. Even if he had killed Laura he would have hidden the evidence very carefully so that no one would know that he is the culprit.'

But all the evidence was clearly visible. A broken chair, bruises on laura's body, the transfer of money to Churchill's account. Churchill must have known that Susan could have told everything. So he could have killed Susan but Susan was alive. Camilla asked Susan about Laura's relationship with her sister.  Susan replied that Laura was very kind to her sister who in turn was also kind but Rebecca was jealous of her sister only because her sister was to be married earlier than her. Camilla said that if Rebecca was kind to her sister why would she kill her because of such a small reason. 

We met Laura’s therapist the next day. The therapist, Dr.Brenner said that Laura had to be worried about a lot of things. Firstly her mother,Mrs Churchill, had died when Laura was only eight. She was very unhappy after that and always kept to herself. She never shared her feelings with anyone.

She was very unhappy with the way her father treated her. She couldn't control herself when she found out the truth about Darcy. She was unhappy because her sister was mad at her because of such a small reason. She couldn't control herself and always would cry in front of the therapist. 

 In the end, we found out that Laura must have killed herself because she trusted no one anymore and was unhappy by the way she had been treated. 

Laura had broken a vase and a chair and had written a note saying I hate you to everyone. She had made bruises on her body to make it look like a murder.

 It was nothing but a simple suicide attempt planned in a complicated way.


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