Magpie Murders

Chubb brought Johnny Whitehead to the police station to question him, along with Atticus, James, and Gemma. Gemma is upset and defensive, and she seems to be trying to protect her husband. Johnny says that Brent came in to sell him an old roman belt buckle, and that’s where he got the money to treat himself at the pub. Although Chubb tries to rile him up, Johnny insists that he wasn’t involved in any thefts or murders. Gemma is upset with Johnny for not sharing the whole truth with her, and she asks him “how he could lie” to her about the belt buckle and his visit to London (141).

The team goes to Brent’s house to see if he has any of the stolen items from Magnus’s house. Brent says that he found the belt buckle on the lawn and sold it to Johnny. They take him back to Pye Hall and he shows them the spot where he found it. Atticus suggests that they should send divers to the lake for more clues and that the lake might reveal “the true reason why Pye Hall was burgled on the same evening as Mary Blakiston’s funeral” (144). Atticus asks Brent to show them to the door used during the burglary.