Ronald Torbay had an unusual narrow straight mouth, dark hair and blue eyes.
Ronald had married his third wife. Each of his three marriages had followed the same pattern. He used a false name and went to a place where nobody knew him. There, he found a middle-aged, unattractive woman with money and no family. They married, and made a will. All his wives had been shy, and after preparing a plan, he killed her.
His first wife had had the “accident” in the bathroom of the house. The police hadn’t found anything wrong. The only person who was interested was a young reporter. He wrote about the death and the funeral.
Ronald’s second wife had given him a little more trouble because she wasn’t completely alone in the world; she had a brother. And he questioned Ronald about the money in the funeral. There had been a court case, but Ronald won it.
Four years later, with a new name and in another place, he had found his third wife.
Edyth was sitting alone and sad in a restaurant. Ronald saw her and he knew she was rich because she had a valuable ring. They talked and a week later, she was in love with him.
Edyth was a stranger in that place because after teaching in a girls’ school, she had gone with her sick father to look after him. He died and now, she was alone with a lot of money.
Some weeks after Ronald had met her, they married. The same day they married, they made the will and moved into a house.
Edyth was a cheerful, sensible person, but it was very stupid of her to believe that a man would fall in love with her at first sight.
Two things made Ronald start preparing a plan for her “future”, as he called it. One was that she refused to talk about money and the second one was that she had asked him where he worked and Ronald had said that he worked in a company, and now she wanted to visit it!
So Ronald decided that it was time to act. He went to the bathroom and began to run water in the bath. The bathroom was the only room they had painted. He had one it himself. In the bathroom, there was a cheap electric heater. There was no electric point in the bathroom, but he was able to connect it just outside the room.
He turned on the heater and then he went out of the room and turned off the electricity. (With a cloth over his hand, so that he wouldn’t leave fingerprints.)
Then, he put the heater in the hot water, and suddenly, he saw Edyth only two metres away, standing on a ladder. Then, he spoke to her and asked what she was doing. Edyth was surprised and she nearly fell off the ladder. She said she was just clearing the dead leaves from the roof. And Ronald told her to go to the bathroom because he had prepared a bath for her. And she agreed.
Ronald poured a liquid into the bath: it was the bubbles. And the heater couldn’t be seen. Then Edyth went to the bathroom and locked the door.
Ronald went to the dinning room and asked Edyth how the bath was. She said she had just got in.
Ronald had the cloth over his hand and he waited for a minute, and then he turned on the electricity. There was a small explosion and Ronald went to the bathroom and called for Edyth. But there was no sound.
Then, he had to prepare the second stage. The body didn’t have to be discovered too soon. He had made the same mistake with his second wife’s death. And the police asked him why he had worried so soon. So Ronald decided to wait 30 minutes before he started screaming and calling a neighbour.
Ronald wanted to do something. He went to Edythe’s writing-case, where she had all her private papers. He never tried to open it, because it would have frightened Edyth.
Ronald opened it and he found out that Edyth had taken almost all the money she had in her saving account! Then he found a letter written by Edyth, for him. It had been written two days ago and it said that…
When Ronald had asked her to make the will so quickly, she began to worry and when he started making changes in the bathroom, she had gone to the police.
The neighbours next door weren’t a husband and wife, but a police inspector and a policewoman. The policewoman had shown Edyth two old newspapers about women who had died in the bathroom only some weeks after their marriage. There were photos of the funeral and Edyth could recognize Ronald. The photos were given to the police inspector by Ronald’s second wife’s brother. The police had decided that Edyth had to wait until Ronald made his plan and SHE had to play her part. She was going to be in the kitchen next door, and she could escape by using the ladder on the roof.
Ronald couldn’t believe what he had read. And then, suddenly, he heard the back door open and heavy footsteps rushed to the stairs towards him.
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