Chapter 12
The Death Window Moves
The greenhouse timer was not fast. It was twelve minutes slow.
June had compared it to the church bell remembered by Elsie, but the bell mechanism had been repaired that morning and struck early during its test. Asha obtained the engineer's log.
Every photograph shifted.
Mabel left the potting room before Arthur took the altered capsule. Her missing twelve minutes vanished. Thomas, Beatrice and Owen now occupied the true window.
"I was at the pharmacy," Owen said.
His till log agreed. His own camera did not; the feed had frozen on one frame for fourteen minutes.
Asha arrested him for tampering with evidence and suspicion of unlawful supply.
Mabel struck the police-car window with both palms. "He did not kill Arthur."
Owen sat rigid in the back seat, staring ahead.
June wanted to promise a correction. Instead she checked the anonymous photograph. Its metadata had been stripped, but the timer's glass reflected a narrow figure holding a phone.
Not Beatrice. Not Thomas. Too young.
Elsie had photographed the clock and warned June anonymously.
When June called, the number went to voicemail. Elsie's mother said she had gone to meet Councillor Cole about the scholarship.
The council offices had closed an hour earlier.