The murder

"So tell me exactly what happened?"

"It was the night of Lord Satan's 60th Birthday, the house was full of guests.

My daughter - Kalicia, who had just turned eight was sent to bed at a half-past nine.

After my wife had put her to bed she passed a certain Eustace Puck and Lady B-----d talking by the stairs opposite my daughters room, she told them not to talk to loudly and disturb Kalicia.

By all accounts Eustace Puck and Lady B-----d remained by the stairs talking until atleast half-past eleven.

At about a quarter to twelve, my wife put her head around the door to check on our daughter only to discover that she was gone, GONE Mr Dupont, disappeared from a crowded building without being seen by anyone!"

"I can guarantee she was seen by someone..."

"Are you calling me a liar!?"

"No, mon ami, pray carry on"

"I do apologise... A search was organised, the party, the servants and most of the village searching until six o'clock in the morning when an old well on the grounds of the Abbey was dredged and the body of my daughter was found and all around her poor neck were terrible purple and black bruises.

The police turned up soon after and are maintaining that she must have sneaked out and have fallen down the well by mistake!"

"But what about the bruises?"

"They say she had got them earlier while playing."

"What a perfectly ridiculous assessment!"

"Ridiculous! SCANDALOUS! USESLESS! CULPABLE! DAMNABLE!!"

"Well, Sir Lucifer, there is now only one possible course of action; we must go at once to Evil Abbey... "