The Footsteps That Stopped: a Chief Inspector Pointer Mystery

When the body of Mrs. Tangye was found sitting beside her tea-table with her service revolver, a souvenir of her days as an officer in the Waacs during the war, lying on the floor next to her and a bullet wound to the heart the initial assumption was that it was a case of an accident or suicide. There were no signs of a struggle or foul-play. Mrs. Tangye had been a strong willed woman more than capable of defending herself. And the fact was, she had acted in the days leading up to her death in a manner consistent with someone straightening up her affairs. But Chief Inspector Pointer was not so sure that Mrs. Tangye had died by her own hand, whether intentionally or by accident. There were several aspects of the case that troubled him, not least of which were the footsteps in the garden heard through the pantry window by the maid, footsteps that stopped when a light was turned on.