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John Christmann 1/23/2014 The Red House Mystery Theory

The most likely killer is Cayley, Marks cousin and right hand man. Cayley displayed odd behavior since chapter four when he took Antony on a long, convoluted way to the room where the murder happened. Furthermore, in chapter three, Cayley somehow things it was Mark who was shot, even though he was nowhere near the shooting, according to him. This is enough to cast suspicion onto Cayley, especially when we add the fact that he took far too much interest in whether or not the keys are in the inside or outside locks on the doors in the house, which indicates a possible lie in his story about hearing a bang and banging on the locked office door, when in old houses with individual locks on interior doors, the usual thing is to keep the locks on the outside of the doors in case a break-in happens inside one of those rooms through a window. Another piece of evidence that casts suspicion on Cayley is Bills description of their relationship (Cayley and Mark). In chapter seven, Bill says that Cayley was always too busy to live a life of his own because Mark always kept him busy, and only seemed happy when he was ordering Cayley around. This prevented Cayley from courting a pretty girl at Jallands that he otherwise would have attempted to court. While this does not provide definitive reason to believe that Cayley is the killer, his strained relationship with Mark is hinted at in the text, while nobody elses interpersonal relationships are discussed in this manner, in relation to the murder. So, this leads to more suspicion. The suspicion is solidified in chapter nine when Cayley sends off the guests far too quickly after the murder, which is suspicious because they cannot be cross-examined now. For example, Mrs. Norris knew about the secret tunnel, which is something that is clearly related to the murder. Finally, when Cayley ordered the pond drained in chapter twelve, and there was nothing there until he dropped Marks clothes in there, my theory

was complete. My theory is that Cayley used the secret passage to move about the estate quietly when he was carrying out the murder of Marks brother, who in the first chapter is described as a lay-about who begs for money and is considered dangerous. Mark probably wanted his brother dead for some reason related to either embarrassing his family, or possibly related to theft or extortion on the brothers part. Mark used his controlling relationship with Cayley, his right hand man, to manipulate Cayley into doing his dirty work for him. The passage helped Cayley go from the scene of the murder back to the library without anybody inside the house noticing. So, Cayley and Mark seem to both be accomplices to the murder, but Cayley pulled the trigger.