The Necklace

"Lydia Bowman, I'm arresting you for the attempted murder of your husband Peter Henry Thomas. 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."

Actually I very much doubted Lydia had pulled the trigger herself. Charging her with the crime was risky ruse to play, but I thought that it might work. I was lucky and Lydia cracked almost instantly.

"No, I didn't shoot him, it was..."

"It was whom, Lydia? William Bowman?" I suggested.

"Yes, it was William's idea. I think he murdered his wife as well."

I didn't expect the implication that Bowman had possibly killed his wife, but logically it did make sense.

"I see, but to make it look like a mugging he had to steal the briefcase and it wasn't until later that you discovered that your diamonds were in it as well."

"Yes. I had no idea Peter had them with him, or why."

"Neither of you knew that Peter had been to collect the jewellery that morning, did you? You never even knew that your daughter had damaged the clasp. Peter thought he'd sneak it in for repaired without you ever realizing that your daughter had damaged it."

"No, Bill found the jewellery case later, when he went to put a brick into the briefcase to weight it down. He was going to throw it in the river."

"And he couldn't bring himself to throw thirty thousand pounds away."

"I wouldn't let him!"

"Do you know what William Bowman did with the gun?"

"No, I have no idea. Although..."

"Although what Lydia?"

"Bill's got a storage unit somewhere. It's not registered in his own name, and he pays the rent in cash. I have no idea what he keeps in there."

Whether we will find the gun in that storage unit is anybodies guess. But I'm pretty sure we'll get a conviction on the second Mrs Bowman's confession anyway.

Life goes on.

TWT