The teacher in the tree

That Saturday Jack was taking Judith on a romantic picnic to Hadleigh Castle. He had packed a basket, the weather was nice and the Castle's grounds would be absolutely lovely.
He picked her up at 9 with a bunch of red and white roses which she received happily. The car ride was silent as they both enjoyed the scenery and each other's company. They arrived at about 9:30 so the place was still deserted.
They headed to the tower, when they got there Jack twirled Judith in the air happily, suddenly she stopped laughing so he set her down. The moment she touched the ground, she spun and screamed, which made Jack spin quickly to find what had frightened his girl. Lying there was the body of a well known teacher from the area, Mary Lauren O'Reilly. Jack called the police while Judith took a closer look. The woman was middle-aged with long blond hair and blue eyes. Judith didn't touch the body even though she wanted too. The open eyes and general colour were enough to know that the woman had been dead for a while. Plus, lying on her belly, face to the side, and with a piece of wood protruding from her mid-torso, this looked like a crime scene.
Judith stood next to Jack as the first sirens were heard. She told Jack what she thought and pointed out the stick that seemed to have impaled the woman. The officer that arrived first on scene, a PC Nichols led them toward what had been the kitchen of Hadleigh Castle back in the 13th Century. There, they sat on the rocks and told PC Nichols everything that had happened from the moment they arrived. They agreed to meet at the station two hours later. Judith's curiosity was spiked and decided to talk to someone who had known Miss O'Reilly. School was closed, but she knew where the principal lived and decided to pay her a visit before going to the police station.
Mrs. Webb was a woman in her sixties with silver hair tied up in a pony tail. She opened the door and invited the couple in, she had known Judith since her high-school years. Judith did not want to tell Mrs. Webb about the death so she just said she was planning on an article about outstanding women in the community and Miss O'Reilly was a perfect candidate, Mrs. Webb agreed.
As Jack was driving towards the station an hour later, Judith was reading her notes. Miss O'Reilly had been a lonely woman, she had moved to England leaving her son in Ireland, he was now living in Uruguay with his wife and children. She had no friends since she was always working, whether at school teaching and caring for the children or at home planning lesson after lesson. She never went out and seemed to like nothing but teaching. Lately she had seemed even more introverted than usual, almost sad and had been talking about early retirement.
Jack parked the car a few yards away from the station and touched Judith's arm, she closed her notebook and took it with her to show it to the police. PC Nichols was waiting for them with Inspector Nigel, they went into the interview room where they were forced to tell the whole story again, but this time Judith added what she had discovered about the victim. Both policemen listened to her and took careful notes.
Judith asked PC Nichols if he had any news from the coroner, but there wasn't any. She decided to go visit Madeleine West, her best friend and Doctor to see what she thought of the whole thing. Jack would be happy to spend some time with Kevin, Maddie's son, maybe play some soccer or have any other kind of fun. Isabelle, Maddie's sister opened the door with a huge smile, she had always admired her older sister's best friend and got completely excited every time she saw Judith. Kevin ran straight into Jack laughing, he wanted to go for a bike ride with Jack. Judith nodded and both boys left with Isabelle tagging along.
Judith explained the whole situation to Maddie, who smiled as she made coffee and thought about it all. There had to be an explanation for this whole thing, since no trees grew inside the tower and Mary O'Reilly had been killed with a tree branch or root. They chatted for a while until Izzie and the boys came back with fish and chips so they all had lunch together. After that, they decided to go to Hadleigh to look for any further clues.
Obviously they couldn't set foot in the Tower grounds due to the crime scene tape, but they could look around. Izzie took the teenage boy to the Farm to see the animals. Kevin was much more excited about the crime scene than the animals but he went anyway. Maddie, Judith and Jack began walking around separately, a few minutes later, Jack called Judith and Maddie, he had found a blood trail that led to the tower. They followed the trail to the edge of the Castle's grounds and down the side of the path, there was a strange looking tree and it seemed to have a broken branch at mid-height. Jack reminded Judith that the branch had entered Mary's body from the front, since she was lying on her chest and the branch didn't seem broken there, just sharp-tipped.
Judith saw something at the top of the tree, a few broken branches and something else she couldn't quite identify. She phoned PC Nichols and asked him to come over, she explained everything and went home with her friends and family, since she shouldn't be investigating a police crime.
They left and went back to Maddie's home, where they had tea until Izzie arrived back with Kevin, who was overly excited, they'd seen an officer climbing a ladder towards the top of the tree and that everyone seemed very excited about this discovery.
Judith called PC Nichols and left a message asking for him to call her as soon as there was news. They waited anxiously, but no calls came in. A few hours later, Jack suggested they went back to his flat for dinner, Judith agreed and they drove in silence again, but this time they were both thinking about the events of the day. Judith was thinking about what she'd seen on the tree and some other things and upon reaching Jack's flat and while he was cooking, she called PC Nichols one last time.
"I know what happened" she said as soon as he answered the phone
"Miss Hale? Is that you? Do you know what time it is?" the man answered.
"I know how Mary O'Reilly died! It wasn't murder!" she said excitedly.
"OK, tell me your version of the story" he said flatly.
"I have been reading this book, about thrill-seekers, people who look for danger to feel something, usually these people are workaholics, lonely and seemingly detached, unemotional to the rest of the world. These people seek for thrills to feel something, to feel fear or excitement..." she paused to breathe.
"And you think Miss O'Reilly was like that?" PC Nichols asked.
"She was climbing that horrible tree with thin branches, I saw the scarf and her handbag up on the tree, that's what I saw, she had tied the scarf around her waist to come down, but being silk the knot slipped and the branch broke, with such bad luck she fell on a lower thicker branch that punched through her before snapping..."Judith was almost out of breath from speaking so fast.
"Keep going..." PC Nichols said with a smile in his voice.
"She was still alive when she hit the ground so she dragged herself to the tower, seeking shelter from the cold night, probably planning to call for help on her mobile, but it had been left in her handbag at the top of the tree, and so she died there, all alone, cold and in pain." Judith felt tears rolling down her face, she was sad for this poor woman.
"You are probably right, Ms. Hale. But we don't know how she felt or what she thought, and we will probably never know" PC Nichols replied in a solemn tone of voice.
Judy put the phone away. As she turned around, Jack was waiting for her with open arms, ready to hold her tight while she cried.
A while later, they sat to have dinner.
"Judith, I need to ask you something" He said.
Judith distractedly replied "OK"
"Will you make me the happiest man in the world and marry me?" he asked kneeling in front of her,
Judith looked at him astonished "Yes, of course, yes!"
Jack pulled a ring out of his pocket and slid it onto her finger. They both said "I love you" at the same time and kissed.

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