The Affair of the Mutilated Mink by James Anderson

6th January 1981

My dear Fiona,

Well, you were quite right – after the success of his book about our first murder Mr Anderson has written a sequel about our second. Well it is an extraordinary story!

Pa was besotted with the cinema back  then. I can picture him now, fencing with Merryweather, pretending to be Erroll Flynn or Rex Ransom.  So, as you can imagine, when Cyrus P Haggermeir asked to look over the house with a view to making a film with Rex Ransom himself Pa was in seventh heaven.

They brought along  the writer – Arlington Gilbert. Well I think he invited himself really. Such a rude man! 

Ma’s cousin, who she hadn’t seen for years,  turned up that weekend with her husband in tow. And I’d already invited Paul Carter and Hugh Quartus – well I was trying to decide which of them to marry. Those were the days!

And that wasn’t all. The legendary Laura Lorenzo arrived, claiming she’d been invited to join the film. Well we hadn’t invited her and nor had the film people. We should recognised the signs after what happened before, but we didn’t think that the same country house could have two murders!

I remember the night it happened very clearly. Pa usually judged the annual village talent contest, but that year he asked Mr Ransom to take over. Most of us went along and, as you can imagine, the filmstar in our midst caused quite a stir.

Ma had to stay home with those who didn’t want to come along. Which was lucky because the woman who was booked to catalogue the library turned up two weeks early. Hmm!

We ran out of petrol on the way back and I was stranded while Paul went to fill a can. Fortunately Hugh turned up to rescue us, but he and Paul fell ot then and I got caught in the middle and socked on the jaw. I don’t remember much after that!

The next thing I do remember was being back at the house. Seeing the body. Seeing a figure holding a gun.

We had Scotland Yard out this time. You remember the famous 3 As I’m sure –  Appleby, Alleyn and Allgood – we got Allgood.

He had a lot of questions to answer. Why was Laura Lorenzo there? Who put the motorbike in the picture gallery? Why was the mink mutilated? And whodunnit?

There was an awful lot going on. It turned out that almost everyone had a secret agenda – except me!

Mr Allgood nearly got there, but it was our local man, Chief Inspector Wilkins, who closed the case. I was astounded, but it all made sense when he explained it.

Mr Anderson has done a very good job again. Well we provided him with some great material! But you can read it for yourself – I’ve been given some complimentary copies and I’ll hold on to one for you.

So next time you come up to town we’ll have lunch, catch up on the gossip, and you’ll have something good to read on the train home!

My love to you all,

Gerry x x x

p.s. I wonder what Mr Anderson will make of our third murder!