The Ashburton Murder Mystery - Poisonous Intentions
A quiet village surrounded by fields and countryside serenity.. What could go wrong?
Chapter 1 - Tea At Sandra's
It was another beautiful morning in Ashburton. The church bells were ringing, and the birds were humming their famous Ashburton song 🎵
Sandra, a long-term local, was preparing for Margaret to pop round for cake and morning tea.
(Twinings, of course — not that cheap tea rubbish.)
The cakes were, naturally, from Briar Bakery, 9 West St, Ashburton, Newton Abbot TQ13 7DT.
The finest cakes in Ashburton.
After all, Sandra had to keep up appearances.
Ah — the doorbell.
Margaret had arrived.
And she arrived to a spread fit for a queen.
The tea was divine, and the conversation aimed — as always — at discussing local affairs in a most owned sense.
From the conservatory window, Sandra spotted a man walking towards her front door.
“Who’s this?” said Sandra.
Margaret peered over her cup and squinted.
“Oh, he looks very well dressed... he’s probably a salesman.”
Chapter 2 - Utter Nonsence
The well-dressed gentleman began knocking at the door — quite loudly, too. Rather brutal and rude, thought Sandra. Still, off she went to answer it.
He introduced himself.
“Detective Peter. Devon and Cornwall Constabulary.”
“Well then, Peter, what can I do for you?” said Sandra, raising an eyebrow.
“May I come in?” he asked.
She agreed — but insisted he remove his shoes. No mud was allowed inside her property. Not even detective mud.
They sat down. Margaret poured the tea.
“So,” Margaret asked, “to what do we owe the pleasure of your visit, Detective?”
He cleared his throat. “Your neighbour, Betty. I’m afraid she’s been found dead. I’m just here to see if there’s anything… untoward.”
Margaret laughed. “Betty was eighty-four! Like the rest of us oldies, death is not murder — it’s something we’re all waiting for.”
He looked up from his notepad and smiled politely. “Perhaps. But still, did she have any underlying health issues?”
Sandra scoffed. “She was eighty-four. She had every known disease in the medical dictionary. Honestly, Peter.”
And that was that. He finished his tea, stood up, and off he went — shoes back on, of course.
Chapter 3 - A Vile Truth Discovered
The following morning, Betty was on the local BBC regional news.
Not in remembrance — no, not in the usual “fondly missed” tone — but in something far deeper, and frightfully worrying.
An autopsy had revealed Betty had been poisoned.
Whether by fault or by design, no one could yet say. But one thing was certain: in the quiet village of Ashburton, this was a tragedy like no other. The sort of thing you read about in books, not in the Parish newsletter.
Sandra stood frozen in her kitchen. The kettle whistled, forgotten.
At almost the exact same moment, Margaret picked up the phone.
They called each other immediately.
There was no small talk this time.
Just one shared thought:
“Poisoned?”
Chapter 4 - Village Paranoia
The days that followed were not quite the same in Ashburton.
Eyes lingered longer than usual on familiar faces. Conversations became brief, careful, trimmed of detail — as though every word risked implication.
People who had known each other for decades now crossed the road rather than pass too closely.
A quiet, creeping suspicion had settled over the village — a fog of doubt that no one could shake.
The unspoken question hung in the air:
Could there be a murderer among them?
Chapter 5 - The Nosey Neighbours
Margaret and Sandra had decided — quite unanimously — that something needed doing. And if no one else would investigate, then naturally, they would.
It was only perfect timing, then, when they spotted Peter walking along Ashburton High Street, looking rather serious with a takeaway coffee in hand.
“Peter!” Sandra called out.
He turned, a little startled.
“We need to talk to you,” said Margaret, marching up beside her. “We’re ever so worried about what’s happened, and we’d like to help, if we can. We don’t think we were terribly helpful the first time we spoke.”
Peter paused for a moment, then gave a courteous nod. “I appreciate that. At this stage, though, it’s still quite a mystery. No one seems to have disliked Betty. No enemies. No arguments. Nothing out of place.”
He sipped his coffee.
“Perhaps it was nothing more than an accident,” he continued. “There are still a few final checks to complete, but from what we’ve seen so far… it could well be an innocent mistake.”
Sandra and Margaret exchanged a look.
But neither of them believed in innocent mistakes.
Chapter 6 - A Less Than Convenient Ending
With Sandra and Margaret having just about interrogated everyone in the village — in their own whimsical way (interrogation via publicly pointing out one's faults, naturally) — Ashburton seemed to settle once more.
Betty was, after all, elderly. Perhaps she'd taken the wrong tablet, or confused ingredients as the old sometimes do. The village fĂŞtes resumed, people smiled in the bakery queue again, and life began to trust itself.
But one fine morning, no more than two weeks later, a headline pierced the comfort of the countryside.
> BREAKING – Local Woman Found Dead in Bovey Tracey.
Just outside Newton Abbot, another elderly woman. Poison suspected.
Was this merely coincidence…
Or could Devon have a murderer on its hands?
To be continued…
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