Friday, 12 June 2026

In the village of Oakvale-On-Roe – (006) Murder Comes to Oakvale

 

The village of Oakvale-On-Roe is in the north of the relatively small English county of Downshire, situated between the old market Town of Nettlebridge, and their more affluent neighbour Roespring, and in the affluent Shepherds Row area of the village was the 8 bedroom home of Dominic Mackay in which he now lived alone since his estranged wife Aurora and his son and daughter, Sebastian and Camilia left, and divorce proceedings had begun.

He did however have a live in housekeeper, Kitty Shepherd and a secretary, Erin Hope, who worked in the house Monday to Friday and occasionally on a Saturday when the need arose, and as a result of the divorce, Solicitor Addison Smillie was also a regular visitor to the house, as he was having her draw up a new will disinheriting his soon to be ex-wife and his selfish self-obsessed son and daughter.

However, one Monday afternoon at the beginning of August when he had failed to appear for lunch his housekeeper Kitty Shepherd found him dead in his bed with his throat cut. 

 

PC Ross Grant was the first on scene as he lived on a farm close to the village, and he was a congregant at St Nicholas Church.

He made all the appropriate calls to get things rolling and managed the scene until Detective Inspector Steve Cutler and Detective Sergeant Steph Baldwin arrived from Nettlebridge.

DI Steve Cutler had just turned forty and had been widowed five years earlier and his short sandy hair was greying at the temples, and there was sadness in his blue eyes, losing his wife almost broke him and he hadn’t had a relationship since.

But he didn’t want for offers, standing six feet tall, athletically built, a few pounds over his perfect weight, but it was clear he still kept himself fit.

“Who found the body?” DI Cutler asked as they stood in the dead man’s bedroom watching the SOCO’s doing their thing.

“The housekeeper, Mrs Shepherd” PC Grant replied “She’s in the kitchen, with the Curate, Toby Bishop”

“I’ll go and get her statement,” Steph Baldwin said “I know them both”

“Ok” the Inspector agreed

No comments:

Post a Comment