The Street files a complete mystery short story every
Wednesday. File 1A Death at Jago Manor
Olivia St opens the blinds of her hotel room and the sun
cascades across the floor. She pushes her blonde hair back
away from her face and watches the fishing boats and pleasure
craft swaying on the tide and pulling at their ropes strung
out along the stone walling of Saint Ives Harbour.
She has scrambled egg and smoked salmon in the large white
breakfast room of the hotel. Her waiter, Richard, is in his
20s with short dark hair and pale green eyes.
Did you grow up? In Saint Ives Richard, she says.
I was born here, my daughter's. Working down here for the
summer. At Jago Manor in the restaurant.
Do you know it? I do.
It's along at Carbis Bay. He looks serious for a moment.
Is it not very good? All right, I guess.
I know the son Daniel, same age as me.
We went to school together until his family found money from
somewhere and he was sent off to posh private school.
What did they? Do to suddenly get.
Their money, Daniel wouldn't say, but it was something his
mother did. Daria, she's called.
She was Daria Michaels. Olivia looks lost.
The actress. His eyebrows pulled together.
Sorry I haven't heard of her. She was famous around here.
She had a reality series on TV before I was born.
That's how she met Steven Jay, Girl, Local millionaire.
She was nearly bankrupt. Before he came along, I'm going
out to the Manor. After breakfast so I might see.
Them. Maybe I'll recognise her.
Olivia smiles and Richard dissolves away to the kitchen.
She tries to call Poppy, but the girl's phone goes to voicemail.
So Olivia walks in the August sunshine and turns uphill to
climb to Carbis Bay. It's only 20 minutes from the
hotel before she turns off the road and walks through a large
set of wooden gates that announce the start of the Jago
Manor estate. The driveway curves away behind
the tree line and there's no pavement, so Olivia walks up the
middle of the road. It's quiet here.
She can hear birdsong in the branches around her.
The piece is broken by the distant sound of an engine.
It's hard to tell where it's coming from, but suddenly the
car comes out of nowhere and is 20 feet ahead of her.
Olivia pushes her body into the bushes at the side and she can
feel the air billow around her as a red MX5 sports car passes
at speed. The top is down and it's gone
off down the road. As quickly as it arrived, the
driver didn't look at her or slow down for a moment, but
Olivia did get a view of the woman.
She was in her 50s and had shoulder length dark hair which
flowed out in the wind behind her.
It's another two bends of the driveway before Olivia sees Jago
Manor. It's built of pale Magnolia
sandstone with 10 enormous Georgian windows spaced evenly
across its frontage. The portico around the cream
front door must be 20 feet high. There are signs for restaurant
parking that direct cars down a track that leads to what looked
like abandoned farm buildings built of the same sandstone as
the house. Poppy is staying in staff
accommodation somewhere on the estate, but Olivia doesn't know
where. She's wondering how to find her
daughter when a man's voice tumbles in on the air.
We're not open till 11. He's a little older than the
woman in the car. He has blonde hair and torture
shell glasses, his white shirt sleeves rolled up to the elbows.
He is carrying two plastic Christmas trees in large plastic
bags, tied at the neck with wire.
Olivia takes a punt. Are you Steven Jager?
I am. Who are you?
My daughter's working here for the summer.
I've come to see her. Poppy.
She's called. I don't know the staff.
You'll need to talk to Sally. He walks away without further
words. Olivia.
Continues to wander about and she finds the restaurant, which
is in an orangery attached to the side of one wing of the
house. A harassed woman in her 30s is
opening the windows in the roof with a long pole that she whines
while she watches the glass inch open.
Are you Sally? The woman smiles.
That's me. I'm Poppy's mother.
I was. Wondering if she's about the
girls are all in the woodland accommodation, out the door down
that path she's in #6. Sally points to the woods.
The staff quarters are 10 wooden cabins set in the centre of the
trees that surround the house on this side.
There's no answer when Olivia knocks on Cabin 6, so she turns
the handle and there is her daughter, asleep in a wooden bed
built into the side of the cabin wall.
As Olivia sits down, the teenager opens her eyes and
reaches her arms out for a hug. Is it good?
Says Olivia. Her daughter's dark blonde hair
is ruffled after sleep, but her brown eyes are lively.
The other girls are great. The family's a bit odd though.
I was almost run over by A. Red sports car?
Was that Daria? Her old man's miserable, says
the girl. Either complaining or being rude
all the time. Money does that sometimes.
Olivia opens her eyes wider. There's a son.
Says Poppy, the other girl's. Working here, Fancy him.
He slept with Claire on Friday in Cabin 4.
She regrets it already, though. Does the sun work here?
No, he does nothing for a living.
Says Poppy. He just Swans about chatting up
the staff. You're all right there.
I know what that means Mum, and no, I'm not going to sleep with
him anyway. Look, I need to get up and have
a shower. I'm on shift at half 10.
While her daughter gets ready, Olivia walks out through the
woods. On the far side of the trees,
away from the house, there are fields stretching up to the top
of a small hill, then disappearing out of view as the
land rolls away S she can see birds over the land, dipping and
rising in the daylight. Olivia chooses a different route
back and skirts the greenery on her left hand side.
As she gets halfway back to the house, she can hear a voice
coming from the dense woodland and she stops.
It's a young man's voice and she can only hear one side of the
conversation because he's on the phone, he said.
He'd get the cash by tonight. There's a pause as the man
listens. There's no guarantees.
We'll have to trust him. I know, I know what he did.
To you. But this is the only way to sort
our own. I need to go.
The conversation ends and Olivia can see the vague movement of
branches as he walks away across the woodland floor.
She moves to. The edge of the trees and can
see the man is wearing a green T-shirt and trousers with the
words Dale's Gardening Services written across the back.
Olivia has coffee and. Croissant in the restaurant,
served to her by Poppy. The manager, Sally, gives
concerned looks whenever Poppy spends more than the briefest
time at her mother's table, so she leaves her daughter to work
and walks back to Saint Ives via the beach, then up along the
cliffs. Olivia spends the day going to
the Tate St. Ives art Gallery, having lunch
in a cafe on the harbourfront and reading on the beach.
Tomorrow is Poppy's day off and they plan to hire a car and
drive along the coast. It's night time when the sound
of Olivia's phone crashes through her sleeping brain.
She opens her eyes and can see only the outline of the blinds
at her hotel room windows. The phone keeps ringing and she
fumbles for a light switch, then slides her finger across the
screen to answer the call. Mum, Poppy, are you all right?
You need to come here. Something's happened.
What? Daniel, the boy, you know he's
dead. Olivia manages.
To find a cab company online and a Peugeot taxi appears at the
hotel entrance 15 minutes later after she has pulled on leggings
and a shirt. The taxi driver is a small man
in his 40s with no hair. When the car pulls away from the
curb and she tells him the destination, he looks at her in
the rear view mirror. I had that.
Dario Marco's in my cab a couple of years ago.
Snooty she was. What do you know about the son
Daniel? Says Olivia.
Hates his father. How do you know they had an
actual fight in Saint Ives? Couple of years ago.
The landlord of the duck and Sparrow called the family to get
the old man taken home because he was being rowdy had a few too
many. Says the man.
One of his women had dumped him. He's been.
With most of the. Eligible ladies in the town over
the years anyway, the boy turns up and his old man.
Ends up heading him. The boy fought back though.
I was there in the pub, saw it all.
She gives the driver a £10 note. When they arrive, the Peugeot
turns on the gravel and it's red lights Bob away down the
driveway. All of the downstairs rooms in
the house have their lights on and the front door is open.
Olivia walks straight inside. There's a maid wearing black and
white who directs Olivia to the sitting room when she says that
Poppy called her. There are three people in the
room, all of whom Olivia has seen before.
Daria Jago is sitting on the sofa in tears.
Her husband Stephen is standing over her and the manager of the
restaurant, Sally, is standing quietly watching her employers,
unsure of how to behave. You again.
Stephen calls across the room as Olivia enters.
You were here this morning. You can't just come in here when
you feel like it, you know? I'm Poppy's mother.
She called me. She feels scared.
Where is she? The girls are in the restaurant.
Says Sally quietly. Sally show the woman where the
daughter is, then she can leave. I'm a lawyer, Mr. Jaeger says
Olivia. So I'm going to.
Find out what happened here tonight for my daughter's sake,
as the police will want clarity. Sally beckons Olivia to follow
her and leads her out to the hallway, then down a passage to
the orangery. When they are alone, Stephen
sits down next to his. Wife a bloody lawyer.
Says Daria. Is she?
Going to stick her nose into our business.
I'm not calling the police. We have to call the police, my
love. No police.
They're useless. She says.
When I wanted them to do something about that awful
Lawson man, they ignored me. I had legitimate complaints.
This is different. You have to call.
Them. Our boy is dead.
Who killed him? Stephen, Answer me.
That was it you. What?
No, He looks hurt. You never liked him.
He was yours, you know. I wasn't sleeping with anyone
else. Back then, when Olivia arrives
in the restaurant, Poppy and two other girls are all sitting at
one table, their heads close as they talk in hushed tones.
Mum, mum. Poppy runs over and puts her
mouth close to her mother's ear. Someone killed him, Mum
strangled, Sally offers. To make them coffees in the
house kitchen as the restaurant machines have all been cleaned.
The woman walks off into the bowels of the building and
Olivia sits at the table with the young women.
This is Millie and Claire. Says Poppy.
This is my mum, she's a detective.
Millie is blonde with shining blue eyes and a gentle
demeanour, and Claire's dark hair touches her eyelashes when
she blinks that highlights her brown, powerful eyes.
Tell me what? Happened.
Olivia looks around at the faces.
We close at 11. Begins Poppy.
Then we have to clear the tables and set them for tomorrow
morning. Michael the Sun is often hanging
around at closing. Poppy flicks her eyes to Claire,
who looks down momentarily. I told mum about you and him.
Says Poppy to the girl. One night stand.
Says the girl. Did he want you to spend the
night together again? Says Olivia, and Claire nods.
It was cool though. I told him I wasn't interested
anymore and he seemed to accept it.
He wanted a coffee to sober up, so Millie made him one.
Didn't you, Millie? Nods without words and flicks
her eyes to Olivia. What happened then?
We'd more or less finish the tables when the dad comes
running into the restaurant. Says Poppy.
I said to you earlier, Mum, but usually he just ignores us most
of the time, but suddenly he was talking to us.
And what did he say? Olivia intentionally directs her
question at Millie to get this girl to join in the
conversation. He wanted to know where the wife
was her. Voice is light.
We hadn't seen her. Did he just leave?
Says Olivia. Sally reappears from the house
with their coffees, and Olivia notices the conversation is
suddenly becalmed. As the manager places the cups
on the table. She decides to create a
diversion from the discomfort. Can we?
Go somewhere and talk. Sally, she says, and stands up.
They take two of the cups and walk to tables outside on a
patio that runs the length of the orangery to be out of
earshot from the waitresses. What did you see?
Tonight, Olivia keeps her pace steady to put the witness at
ease. The son was hassling the
waitresses like always. One of them told him where to.
Go so he slunk away, says Sally. The girl said Mr Jago was
looking for his wife with some urgency at about. 11:30 Did you
see him? Not then.
I was helping him early with a personal issue he had.
A personal. Issue.
Would you normally help your employer with personal issues?
Sometimes. The woman's demeanour has
shifted to discomfort after her mother and Sally have left the
restaurant. Poppy can't let the questions in
her head go unanswered and she looks at Millie.
Why didn't? You say that you'd talk to the
dad just now when mum asked you. Millie shrugs.
No reason, not important. But Poppy is not stopping.
When the dad. Came in.
He didn't ask all of us about his wife, Millie, just you.
Why? Do you know them better than us?
No. The girl is getting annoyed, is
that why? The dad was suddenly more
friendly. Says Claire to Millie.
I don't know. Leave it.
Millie stands up and walks to the open door, where a cool
breeze is shuttling in from the trees outside.
Poppy follows her. Tell me.
She says more quietly. Did something happen?
She. Can see Millie's eyes are watery
now. My family hates the Jayco's.
Stephen is sitting on the sofa next to Daria as she lies with
her eyes. Closed, my love.
We have to. People like us don't have to do
anything, Stephen. She snaps back.
She doesn't open her eyes. He is silent.
After a moment, she does look at him, and her green eyes adjust
to the light after the darkness. I know An.
Inspector in the police, I can call him, he'll be discreet.
He's local in Camborne. Have you moved the body?
She says. Matter of factly.
No, of course not. We could just make him
disappear, get that young gardener chap to dispose of it
somewhere. Dale, he says, and she nods.
Why him? He's young and strong, he can
dig. It's just practical.
No, not him. She narrows her eyes.
What's wrong with him? He'd be discreet.
I know he would. How'd you know that?
She breathes out and pauses. Uh huh.
I'll. Tell you I fucked him last year
while you were away. A momentary smile captures her
face. Who should be proud that young
men want to bed your wife in her 50s?
He doesn't react because he stopped doing that after a
decade as her husband. Shall I call him?
She says. He only lives 10 minutes away.
Olivia looks at Sally, she can tell the woman is hiding
something. How long have you known them?
The Jay goes a while. You like them?
He's all right. She's difficult.
Difficult with you. Says Olivia.
You're pretty. Mr Jay Go is one of the.
Ladies, I heard. She's got a paper thin
personality, says Sally. She thinks she's still on the
telly every night, like the 90s. What about the sun?
He was like his dad, tried to control everything, only he
didn't have the personality to carry it off.
Who found the body? I did.
Says the woman. Tell me how that?
Happened. I had to.
Go and get more table linen for the morning, and all of that is
kept in a side room along the corridor to the kitchens.
Missus Sloane does all the linen and leaves it there for me to
collect. Does she?
Come in every day, does Olivia? Sally nods from the.
Town. She must be nearly 70.
She's been working here since they were married.
What happened then? I went into the linen room and
the boy was there. He still is there.
I imagine you heard them say they don't want to call the
police. He was lying on the floor, a
wire around his neck. His eyes were still open.
I went to find the Jay goes and. Says Olivia.
They weren't in the lounge or the dining room, so I started
walking back to the restaurant to ask the girls that they'd
seen him. Mr Jago came hurrying along the
corridor. I told him about his son.
He didn't react. Really.
Did he? Say anything?
Nothing, says Sally. Just walked off towards the
kitchen corridor. He didn't ask you.
Where the body was. No, sorry to ask.
This says Olivia. Did you notice what?
Kind of wire it was. It had red plastic on it, like
the stuff they used to tie up the Christmas decorations in the
house. After talking to Sally, Olivia
makes a trip to the crime scene. She is careful not to touch
anything in the linen room, but the boy's body is still there.
As Sally had described the wire around his neck.
She cheques for the signs of death.
His lips are blue and the whites of his eyes are clear.
Olivia walks back to the restaurant.
Poppy is there on her own. I was waiting for you, Mum.
The girls have gone to their cabins.
The daughter. 'S face is excited.
I spoke to Millie. She's hiding something.
She wouldn't tell me what, though.
Something about the parents. Sally found the.
Body, she told the. Father and he acted.
Like he already knew there's some piece of jigsaw missing,
isn't there Mum? Says Poppy.
Yes. Go and talk to.
Millie again. I'm going to see if the parents
will even. Have a discussion.
The two women split up and Olivia heads back to the lounge.
Mr Jago, Missus Jago. She says as she stands in the
doorway of the room. Could we talk?
I'm not sure you need to be here, missus.
Street, Olivia St, Mr Jago. As I said earlier, my daughter
has been at the. Scene of a crime and.
It's in her best interests if I can understand what has gone on.
So I can advise the police accordingly on her behalf.
We're not calling the. Police says Daria.
That's not your choice. Missus Jacob.
Can I ask why your son is dead, killed in the family home?
Don't you want to know what happened?
We don't want any publicity. It's not about your public
profile, Missus J Gay. It's about.
Bringing a killer to. Justice Have either of you seen
the? Body I have Daria doesn't need
to says. Stephen, he wasn't strangled.
Daria makes a disgusted noise with her throat, and Stephen's
voice builds in anger. We don't need to go.
Into the details the. Police will have.
To, says Olivia. I know how he died, but not who
did. It the couple look at her now,
so she continues. He was.
Poisoned, then wire was placed on the body.
To make it look. Like a strangulation, Daria lies
back on the sofa and closes her eyes.
Poppy knocks on the door to Millie's cabin.
When she goes in, the girl is in bed scrolling her phone.
Something you said earlier. Says Poppy about your.
Family hating the Jagos. Millie looks at her.
Why do they hate them? The girl.
Still holds her phone before her, as though she is tempted to
ignore the question and just keep scrolling.
What did they do? Says Poppy.
Millie closes her eyes briefly. My family owns the next farm to
the estate. So you do know the Jagos?
Only from the news. We're poor.
They don't want to know us. Did you get the job here because
you live next door? Millie takes a deep breath.
My my brother wanted to hurt them, to stop them buying our
farm. They want to build holiday
cottages all over our land. And did your brother hurt them?
He watches the girl's face. Millie is tearful now.
Did he kill Daniel? He just wanted to make him I'll.
What did he do, Millie? He's the gardener here.
He poisoned him. The blue lights from the two
police cars on the gravel in front of Jago Manor are
reflected in the windows. After Olivia speaks to the
inspector, one car is sent to the farm down the road to arrest
Dale, given the evidence that Poppy collected from his sister
Millie. Olivia watches the young man as
he is LED in through the front door in handcuffs by a large
police officer. They take him to the scene of
the crime and ask him to describe what he did that ended
the life of Daniel Jago, but there's something wrong with the
way he is acting. Olivia can see that he doesn't
seem nervous or anxious, but he's behaving more like he's
trying to remember something that he's learnt off by heart.
Dale is LED back into the sitting room and placed on one
of the antique chairs. As the inspector is checking
that his officers have got statements from everyone.
Olivia gets the chance to talk to the boy.
Have you been planning this a long time, Dale?
He grunts. I.
Heard you on the. Phone yesterday morning when I
visited to see my daughter. You were arguing with someone.
What was it about? You don't know nothing to do
with this. You've.
Said on the phone that you knew what he.
Did. Were you referring to Daniel?
Jago no. He looks over at the police as
they do their final cheques in preparation for taking him away.
Were you talking to your sister? On the phone, says Olivia.
No, Daniel used. To go to the.
Gym, the girl said. He must have been strong.
Did he put up a fight when you strangled him?
Yup. Where did you do it?
In the linen room, Yup came out behind.
Him did you and just leapt out? Yup.
The police inspector walks over to take Dale to the police
station. Inspector, could we talk
briefly? Yes, of course, Madam, as long
as it's quick. We need to get him down the
station. They walk to one side of the
room. He's not.
Your killer, but I. Do know what happened?
The headlights from his van pick out the gateway of Jago Manor as
Dale turns up the driveway and yawns.
When he got the. Call on his phone.
He was asleep on the sofa with the television still playing out
its programmes. He parks down the side of the
house and pulls on the handbrake.
He walks to the tradesman's door near the kitchens, and the
gravel crunches under his boots. He knocks on the back door, as
usual, but the kitchens are black now, so he tries the
handle. The door swings open.
Hello. His voice echoes off the walls.
He waits, but no one answers in the corridor.
A light is on in one of the side rooms and he stops when he
reaches. It I need your help, Dale.
Why is it Millie? She steps to one side and shows
him the body of Daniel Jaeger. I put weed killer in his coffee
and he stopped breathing. The Street files a complete
mystery short story every Wednesday.