She Was Murdered at Mortenson High
A Mystery Story:
Suspects:
Edward Farnham
Bray Carter
Brook Tyne
Faith Gorman
About the charcters:
Edward Farnham. 27, courting Brook Tyne. Studying PhD in English at Mortenson University
Bray Carter, 14, pupil at Mortenson High. Son of a teacher and a nurse
Brook Tyne, 20, studying part time at school, working part time at gas station
Faith Gorman, 47, teacher at Mortnenson High, step mother to Edward Farnham
At the end of October, the residents of a small village in the State of Kankunga would always be readying themselves for the local events surrounding Hallowe'en. It was their favourite time of year, bigger than Christmas for some of the village residents. This year was different. Let me tell you how:
How cold a day it was at Hallowe'en but never quite as cold as this night. There were almost no children wandering the streets playing trick or treat. The streets were eerie and empty, a few children were gathered around in costumes but there was an air of discomfort all around them and, indeed, the entire village, and the children seemed too frightened to knock on the doors of even their own neighbours for the treats they would normally expect. This was very unusual for the small village of Mortenson. As the children usually felt perfectly safe because Mortenson was the kind of place where everyone knew everyone else and they all felt safe in each other's company but when I tell you what had happened the night before, you might understand why the village was so quiet that night.
Someone had been seen wandering about the village, hiding and masked underneath a large dark raincoat. No one had seen this person's face and everyone had assumed it was someone new to the village. It was so dark and the face was completely covered by the hood of the coat. The figure stood still whenever someone looked their way. This person had been seen a number of times by some of the villagers just before the villagers began calling in all of their children when they heard the news about the murder of another villager.
The unfortunate victim was a Mrs. Geraldine Farnham, leaving behind her ex-husband, Baron Bernard Mortenson, a leading benefactor of Mortenson's education and founder of Mortenson University, and their children, 27 year old university student, Edward and 3 year old twins, James and Victoria, without a mother. She had also been excited about the news that she was about to be a grandmother as her son's girlfriend had recently found that she was pregnant. This was not such good news in the eyes of Baron Farnham nor his new wife, Faith Gorman but Mrs. Farnham had already begun making baby clothes for her unborn grandchild.
Mrs. Farnham had been beaten to death with a hammer and she must have put up a fight because there was evidence of, what you might consider, a cat fight with another person. This evidence being that someone elses skin and hair folicles had been found underneath her nails and around scratchmarks to her face.
Such an unusual occurrence for such an otherwise peaceful place, not a single one of the residnent villagers of Mortenson could believe that another villager would have committed the crime. They had all assumed that a new person had visited but the police had only arrested villagers as suspects.
The news of his mother's tragic demise was taken by Mrs. Farnham's son, Edward, as he stepped off a plane returning from his trip to Europe where he had been honing his skills in teaching English as a second language in European countries. Edward had the daunting task of passing on this information to his father who, in turn, had to attempt to explain it to 3 year old twins.
All of the children had chosen to stay with their father upon their parent's divorce and had become step-children to Faith Gorman who was much disliked by their own mother. Their had recently been rumours that Bernard and Geraldine were rekindling their relationship.
The village had only around ten permanent residents and, as the police did not believe that anyone from outside the village had been present, this made the villagers very uncomfortable to know that there had been someone in their midst all along who could be capable of such an atrocity.
The murder had occurred in the early hours of the morning and Edward had gone firstly to see his father and immediately after to tell his girlfriend who worked long hours at the all night gas station just outside the village.
The murder had happened close to the local school, Mortenson High School, and this led the police to suspect the groundskeeper. Upon questioning, Jeff Bails, groundskeeper at Mortenson High School, stated that he had seen several children lingering about the school grounds in the early morning hours and had had to chase them off. He could only assume that they either saw something or one of them was the culprit. Some of the children were questioned and it was realised that Geraldine had made a few enemies of her ex-pupils when she had decided to leave the school and hand over her post as teacher and was replaced by Faith Gorman, whom the children described as an evil, selfish bully who did not really like the children at all.
Geraldine had previously built up a rapport with most of the children and was particularly fond of a 14 year old boy called Bray Carter. He had been tested for learning difficulties and ostracised for his behaviour by other teachers. Geraldine had realised that the boy was simply lacking attention. Once she left, he could not get this attention from the new teacher and had to resume fighting for it.
Earlier that day, it was discovered that Faith had asked the groundskeeper if she could borrow some tools, which she said would be prepared along with children's costumes for a Hallowe'en event. Bray had borrowed some of the tools to help his father with a project that night but the rest were left inside the school. Jeff should have collected them but, once he had chased off the children, he had noticed some of his tools were missing as he cleared up, his wife shouting at him to come inside.
The sounds of children asking "trick or treat" had become a distant echo that night. Geraldine Farnham had been so well-liked and now so many people had a motive for her murder her husbands new wife, her son and his girlfriend who were set to inherit a significant sum, and her pupil whom she had simply abandoned but still no one believed that any one of them were capable of such a heinous act.
Culprit: Faith Gorman
Clues:
Edward Farnham had been on a plane at the time.
Jeff Bails had been chasing school pupils who could verify that he did not commit the crime.
Brook had been at work at the all-night gas station outside the village
Faith had borrowed tools which had then gone missing and the murder weapon was a hammer
Nail varnish was found under victim's nails, therefore the likely suspect was female.
While Bray had borrowed tools, he had been working on a project with his father.