Classic Scottish Murder Stories by Molly Whittington-Egan Read Free Book Online Page A

sat around the table in the parlour at about 9 o’clock on Friday evening, May 30th, 1924, presented a scene of unity: James Rae King, a chartered accountant, his wife, Agnes Scott King, and their two sons, William Laurie King, aged 22, and Alexis King, aged 16. The daily maid, Marion Armstrong, had gone home to 28 Wardlaw Place.
    Behind the faÁade, however, there had been a brew of discontent which had simmered for years. It was to do with the frustration of a lad’s true bent. Father wanted son to follow in his footsteps, but, since he was 12, William had yearned for a career in chemistry, for which he showed a natural aptitude. Indeed, a chemist friend, David Peebles, said that the boy knew more about chemistry than he did.
    Tonight, there was in progress a resolution and conciliation. At last, Father had surrendered, a bitterly disappointed man. William was to read for a degree in chemistry at Edinburgh University. It was not too late for a change of direction. After attending Daniel Stewart’s College, he had served two years ofhis apprenticeship with an outside firm of chartered accountants, but had been so unhappy there that his father had transferred his indenture to his own firm. As a sop, and a handsome one, James King had had an outhouse built for him in the back garden where he could tinker with his experiments to his heart’s content. Still he had pined, and, worse, had hesitated to tell Father that he had not even attempted his Intermediate Chartered Accountancy examination. Mother had found out.
    There are clues to indicate that Mother had not been very understanding. It had been a strict upbringing and she would not accept that William was an adult. It did not matter whether he resented her actions or not, she simply would not stop checking through his pockets. Her attitude towards the great passion in his life is evident in the telling words which she used when she found a packet of chemical substance in his pocket. ‘What trash is this you have been buying, Willie?’ she asked delicately. For some reason, too, the boys shared a bedroom, in a house which was quite spacious enough for privacy.
    His father said that he knew nothing about it, but the fact is that William had been seeing a girl named Edith Ross, cashier at a garage, Liddle and Johnston’s, Belford Road, where he had been sent to audit the firm’s books, and where Father kept his car. William had given her a ring and a wristlet watch. She denied that they were engaged. Mother might have got wind of these secret matters, even if she did not tell her husband, because she had said to Marion Armstrong, the maid, that she was going to ‘put William abroad’.
    As things stood on May 30th, all should now have been well. William had just left Father’s hated office, and the whole of the rest of his life glittered in chemical letters and formulae. He could afford to be grateful, generous and forgiving, because he had won. Unfortunately, he would have to be dependent on his family financially for some years yet. Father had been paying him a salary of £2.10s a month, and Mother gave him somepocket-money. An independent existence would come to him later than to others because of the false start which had been imposed on him. There had recently been a spot of trouble, when he had bought two cameras and had not been able to pay the account. Father had refused to help out, because he wanted to teach the lad that such things cost money.
    Alexis, still a schoolboy, had just come in from tennis that Friday evening, and he was hungry again. Mother had set out the meal and made the coffee. Alexis put sugar in all four cups – it was a co-operative enterprise – and Mother poured in the coffee. William, as his duty, cut four slices of bread and handed one each to his parents balanced on the knife. Alexis grabbed the first slice which William had cut for him on the platter. Although he was the only one who did