Died in the Wool Trivia Quiz

Answer: An enemy agent may be involved

Alleyn is in New Zealand continuing his espionage investigation during World War II. Although he has met Flossie Rubrick previous to her murder and he declined to dine at Mt. Moon with her, Alleyn is only interested in rumors that her death may be connected to enemy agents. Flossie's nephew, Douglas Grace, insists there is an enemy agent at large so Alleyn goes and investigates. Since Flossie was an MP interested in wartime enemies, the possibility she was killed by a foreign enemy cannot be ruled out.

Answer: A clip

Flossie had two large diamond clips on her coat on the evening before she disappeared. Douglas noticed one of the clips was missing and Flossie sent him and the others to search for it while she practiced her speech in the wool shed. The clip was later found that night by Flossie's husband Arthur in the zinnia bed. This was the last time anyone claimed to have seen Flossie alive.

Answer: Markins

Douglas and Fabian Losse were working on a fuse to aid the Allied Forces during the war. Information of this fuse had been collected by an enemy agent, although it is unknown how much was known or how far this information went before Allies put a stop to it. Douglas strongly suspected Markins, the manservant, of being an enemy agent who stole the information. Douglas found pieces of a photograph in Markins' things which he believed to be photos of the fuse. In addition, Markins had expensive photographic equipment a servant would not be able to afford.

However, Alleyn knows Markins is not an enemy agent, because he is secretly with British Intelligence and is also working to hunt down enemy infiltrators.

Answer: She disapproved of him wanting to marry Ursula

Ursula Harme was Flossie's ward and Fabian was a distant relative. She disapproved of Fabian's courting of Ursula and his ultimate proposal because Flossie thought Fabian was after Ursula's money. While Flossie did not outright forbid the union, she let her feelings known. She also implied she would prefer her nephew Douglas to marry Ursula instead.

Answer: Arthur Rubrick

Flossie's secretary Terrence Lynne fell in love with her employer's husband, Arthur Rubrick. Flossie found out about this when Arthur was sick with heart trouble and Terry cared for him. Although Flossie never said anything directly about it, she worked her schedule around so Terry and Arthur rarely saw each other and did everything she could to keep Terry away from her husband. Alleyn suspect this may be a motive for either Terry or Arthur to kill Flossie.

However, the two never married because Arthur died shortly after Flossie disappeared but before her body was discovered.

Answer: To return stolen whiskey

Cliff Johns was the son of a man who worked in Flossie's sheep fields, whom Flossie took an interest in. Cliff was interested in music and, although his parents were from a working-class background and suspicious of such things, they let Flossie fund his schooling at music and arts school. However, Flossie became very controlling which Cliff did not appreciate. Flossie would also hold her sponsorship over Cliff and embarrass him when she visited him at school.

When the war broke out, Cliff left school (much to Flossie's dismay) to work in the sheep shed. On the night before she was murdered, Flossie caught Cliff in the whiskey cellar holding a bottle of rare, expensive whiskey and accused him of stealing it. Cliff told Alleyn that he was not stealing the whiskey but refused to say what he was doing in the whiskey cellar. Alleyn tricks Albie Black, a supervisor in the fields, into confessing that he stole the whiskey and Cliff was merely returning it so Albie didn't get into trouble. Alleyn suspects that Albie must holding some secret of Cliff's since Cliff refused to incriminate Albie.

Answer: Communism

While at school, Cliff Johns became a communist, possibly as a result of Flossie's bossy nature. Flossie was an MP and strongly opposed communism and took Cliff's new political affiliation as a personal slight against her. Cliff and Flossie fought over it and Flossie told Cliff he was unappreciative of her attention and money. Cliff admits he turned to communism when he realized that Flossie was essentially buying him by sending him off to music school and then taking the credit for his accomplishments. Cliff and Flossie never spoke again after their fight except for their night she caught him in the whiskey cellar.

Answer: No one

While everyone was searching for Flossie's diamond clip at Mt. Moon, the workers were away at a party. Cliff Johns, however, remained and was allegedly playing the piano in the workers' annex. This provided his alibi as the playing never ceased and only Cliff could play that well. Flossie disappeared from the wool shed during this time.

However, Alleyn deduced that Cliff wasn't actually playing the piano at this time. Instead, he put the wireless' volume up to the highest and left the annex.

This gave the appearance that he was still playing the piano. In reality, Cliff saw Flossie head to the wool shed and followed her. He hoped to apologize for his actions but when he arrived, he found Flossie dead. He panicked and said nothing even when her body didn't turn up for weeks and months and a search party was launched. Albie Black saw Cliff around the wool shed which led to their deal.

Answer: Candle

Since Flossie was murdered when it was dark out, Alleyn suspected the killer needed a source of light. A flashlight/torch would be too unwieldy and so bright that it might draw attention. After one of the workmen mentions he yelled at a sheep handler for not replacing the candles on the night of Flossie's murder, Alleyn suspected a candle was used.

The murderer would have left fingerprints on a hot wax candle and those fingerprints would have remained eighteen months later. Luckily for Alleyn he never has to sift through a year and a half of sheep droppings under the floorboards to look for the candle, since new evidence presented itself.

Answer: Douglas Grace

Douglas Grace was actually the enemy agent who leaked information about his own fuse to the enemies. Flossie suspected there was an enemy agent at large at Mt. Moon and when Douglas insisted it was Markins, Flossie began to suspect him. Douglas deliberately removed Flossie's diamond clip from her jacket and then organized the search party. When Flossie went to practice her speech at the wool shed, Douglas followed her under the guise of retrieving flashlights. He killed his aunt in the wool shed and then returned to the search party. The party retired hours later when the diamond clip was found and Douglas returned to the wool shed and stuffed Flossie's body into the press.

Alleyn experimented with the diamond clip and learned it was actually very easy to spot in the zinnia bed even in the pitch black of night, so it was clear the clip was stolen. When he learned Arthur Rubrick found the clip in an area he had already searched soon after Douglas was in the area, Alleyn knew Douglas killed Flossie.