False Alarm Read online

  Table of Contents

  Further Titles by Veronica Heley from Severn House

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Further Titles by Veronica Heley from Severn House

  The Bea Abbot Agency mystery series

  FALSE CHARITY

  FALSE PICTURE

  FALSE STEP

  FALSE PRETENCES

  FALSE MONEY

  FALSE REPORT

  FALSE ALARM

  The Ellie Quicke Mysteries

  MURDER AT THE ALTAR

  MURDER BY SUICIDE

  MURDER OF INNOCENCE

  MURDER BY ACCIDENT

  MURDER IN THE GARDEN

  MURDER BY COMMITTEE

  MURDER BY BICYCLE

  MURDER OF IDENTITY

  MURDER IN HOUSE

  MURDER BY MISTAKE

  MURDER MY NEIGHBOUR

  MURDER IN MIND

  FALSE ALARM

  An Abbot Agency Mystery

  Veronica Heley

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  First published in Great Britain 2012 by

  SEVERN HOUSE PUBLISHERS LTD of

  9-15 High Street, Sutton, Surrey, England, SM1 1DF.

  First published in the USA 2013 by

  SEVERN HOUSE PUBLISHERS of

  110 East 59th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022

  eBook edition first published in 2013 by Severn House Digital

  an imprint of Severn House Publishers Limited

  Copyright © 2012 by Veronica Heley.

  The right of Veronica Heley to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & patents Act 1988.

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

  Heley, Veronica.

  False alarm. – (An Abbot Agency mystery)

  1. Abbot, Bea (Fictitious character)–Fiction. 2. Women

  private investigators–England–London–Fiction.

  3. Booby traps–Fiction. 4. Murder–Investigation–

  Fiction. 5. Detective and mystery stories.

  I. Title II. Series

  823.9'14-dc23

  ISBN-13: 978-1-78010-365-5 (epub)

  ISBN-13: 978-0-7278-8237-0 (cased)

  ISBN-13: 978-1-84751-466-0 (trade paper)

  Except where actual historical events and characters are being described for the storyline of this novel, all situations in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to living persons is purely coincidental.

  This eBook produced by

  Palimpsest Book Production Limited,

  Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland.

  ONE

  Bea Abbot ran a domestic agency which did not, repeat not, deal with murder . . . until, that is, she became involved in the affair of Lady Ossett’s divorce.

  Wednesday late afternoon

  Maggie yelled, ‘My mother is a cow!’

  Bea didn’t bother to lift her eyes from her computer. ‘What you mean is that she’s a selfish, conniving woman who has done her best to ruin your life.’

  ‘That’s what I said. My mother is a cow! I could scream!’

  Bea Abbot blinked. She’d never met Lady Ossett, but understood from Maggie that her mother was a shallow, pretty, fashionable woman who demanded lots of attention.

  Bea said, ‘Well; scream, then.’

  Maggie was a tall, well-built girl. She opened her mouth and yelled. Her lungs were healthy, her range impressive. She made, as they say, the welkin ring.

  Bea didn’t cover her ears, but she was thankful that the agency had closed for the day and her staff long since departed, or she might have had people banging on her office door, demanding to know who was being murdered.

  ‘Want to tell me about it?’

  ‘No,’ said Maggie. ‘I’m going to scream and scream till I make myself sick!’

  ‘How about breaking a plate or two? That’s supposed to do the trick equally well.’

  ‘Why not? The mood I’m in . . .’ Dressed in jeans, low boots and a violently patterned sweatshirt, Maggie set off for the stairs.

  Bea was over thirty years older, and she was wearing a slim pencil skirt and high heels. Nevertheless, she reached the first-floor kitchen just in time to see Maggie pulling the dishwasher open. ‘Not those plates, Maggie. We’ve still got a complete set. What about the ones we keep for the cat? Top cupboard by the back door.’

  Maggie screeched, but abandoned the dishwasher. She found a couple of mismatched plates in the cupboard and lifted one high above her head. ‘I would like to—’

  ‘Not that one, Maggie,’ said Bea. ‘You know Winston prefers it. Isn’t there something more suitable in the saucepan cupboard?’

  ‘What?’ Maggie hesitated, then put the plate down. ‘You’re trying to get me to be reasonable. Well, it won’t work. And don’t tell me I should talk it over with my beloved boyfriend because he is an idiot. He thinks I should love and obey my mother—’

  ‘That’s because he’s never met her,’ said Bea.

  ‘True,’ said Maggie, and broke into a harsh laugh. She repeated the word, ‘True.’ Still laughing, she pounded the worktop with her fists. Closed her eyes. Put her head down on her arms, still laughing. Crying.

  Bea pushed Maggie on to a high stool and put her arms about her. ‘There, there. There, there.’

  Presently, Maggie murmured, ‘My mother is a cow.’

  ‘I know. She is a selfish, conniving bitch.’

  Maggie sniffed. ‘I’ve never heard you use that word before.’

  ‘Not even when that new girl in the office lost our address list? Not even when the server went down last week?’

  Maggie reached blindly for a box of tissues and blew her nose. Bea put the kettle on. Quiet descended; except that this new kettle was rather noisy. Bea didn’t like noise and wondered if she should offer the kettle to Maggie to throw down the stairs into the courtyard below. Its destruction would be spectacular.

  Only, it was now five o’clock on a dark winter’s afternoon, and if you did drop anything from the balcony you probably wouldn’t see the result. Also, they didn’t have a spare kettle, so perhaps she’d better just make them some tea. Strong, with sugar. And see if there were any biscuits in the tin. Bea pushed a mug of tea at Maggie and sat down beside her.

  Maggie had coloured her short-cropped hair purple to match her eyeshadow this week, but tears had smudged her mascara so that she looked like a panda. ‘I could emigrate. There are still countries in the world where extradition treaties don’t work, aren’t there?’

  ‘Mm. Would you want to live in one of those places?’

  Maggie shook her head. ‘There’s no help for it. I’m doomed.’

  ‘Tell me about it
.’

  Maggie reached for the box of tissues again and blew her nose. Thoroughly. ‘There’s nothing anyone can do. I’ve got to go back home to look after my mother.’

  Bad news. Years of being denigrated by her mother, followed by a disastrous marriage and divorce, had left Maggie without any sense of self-worth.

  Bea remembered how shy and socially inept the girl had been when she’d first drifted into the agency. ‘I seem to remember that didn’t work too well before.’

  ‘You think I don’t know it? Listen; I had an appointment at number twenty-seven this morning, right? The client wasn’t happy with the toilet the plumber had installed, said it wasn’t the one she’d chosen. The plumber said the client needed an optician not a plumber, so I arranged to meet them both at eleven to thrash it out.’

  Maggie was making a name for herself as a project manager for building alterations. She could juggle half a dozen workmen on two sites and never let a tile fall to the ground . . . but she couldn’t cope with Lady Ossett.

  ‘Just as I reached the client’s house, there was a phone call from my mother. She was crying. She wanted me to go round there straight away, that very minute. She said it was desperately important.’ She blew her nose again. ‘I should have known better.’

  Bea pushed the tin of biscuits closer. ‘Feed your face.’

  Maggie took a biscuit. ‘I hailed a taxi. I rang the client and the plumber to explain that there was an emergency. I suggested we meet later. They were both furious. The client had been going to give me another, bigger job if I’d managed to solve the problem with the plumber, but as it is . . . Anyway, I got up to my mother’s and, wouldn’t you know, she was on the phone to a friend, complaining about the noise from somebody’s decorator or builder below, and could only spare the time to ask me to make her some tea and a sandwich. When I did, she said I’d used the wrong tea, and why wasn’t there any lemon in it, and couldn’t I cut the bread thinner?

  ‘She went from one phone call to the other, rearranging a bridge party or a drinks party or something. She had me dashing around the flat, picking things up for her, and when I said I had to leave, she said she’d been putting a brave front on for my benefit, but I must realize she was in pieces and it would be too, too selfish of me not to help her when she was in such distress.’ Maggie took another biscuit. ‘It turns out my stepfather has left her.’

  Bea counted on her fingers. ‘Is he her third?’

  ‘Fourth. Lucas. I liked him well enough, though I thought he was a fool to tie himself up with her, but . . . men see what they want to see, don’t they? A pretty face, blonde hair, a good figure, lots of caresses and baby-blue eyes? They don’t see the shrewd mind behind the blue eyes. Well, actually, I think Lucas did. She seemed to amuse him. She’s an excellent hostess and she loved being Lady Muck and living in the penthouse. I thought it might last. But he’s gone.’

  ‘She wanted reassurance from you that she was still lovable?’

  ‘She wanted me to fetch her best black from the cleaners. She had tickets for the theatre and wanted to wear that particular dress. Oh, and she wanted an escort for the evening, and why hadn’t I learned to drive yet, it was extremely thoughtless of me not to realize she was going to need someone to keep her company, though not with that make-up that makes you look like a clown, and why you wear that stupid top, I do not know, because it doesn’t give you anything in the way of a shape, dear, which you really could do with, take my word for it, and no wonder your husband decided he could do better, because honestly, dear, you don’t even try, do you?’ Silence. ‘I’m going to emigrate.’

  ‘Mm. Why has Lucas left her?’

  A shrug. ‘He says someone tried to murder him and it’s not safe for him to live there until the culprit’s been dealt with. She thinks he suspects her.’

  ‘What!’

  ‘Yes. My mouth dropped open, too. I mean, she wouldn’t. No point. There was a prenup. Lucas is no fool. She’d been married and divorced three times before, so he made sure she couldn’t claim anything from him if she decided to get rid of him, too. She has nothing to gain by trying to kill him, and a great deal to lose . . . though I suppose she could still go on calling herself Lady Ossett if he did divorce her. Or would she lose the title as well as the penthouse apartment?’

  ‘I’m not sure. What actually happened?’

  ‘Someone tied a wire across the top step of the staircase so that he’d trip over it and take a header. Which he did, apparently. He had his mobile phone on him and phoned for help. He ended up in hospital with a broken arm and bruises, and lucky to get away with that. He could easily have been killed. I understand he has numerous enemies in the world of business. Maybe he’s right, and he is in danger if he stays at the flat. I did wonder if he’d arranged the accident himself, looking for an excuse to leave her. But no; I don’t think he’d do that.’

  ‘Not his style?’

  ‘Definitely not. A quiet man, if you know what I mean, but decisive. If he’d decided to leave her anyway, he’d have said so and walked out. Which is what he did. Go, I mean. From the hospital he went to the flat his firm keeps for visiting businessmen at his office. He sent his personal assistant to pack up his belongings.’

  ‘He’s filed for divorce?’

  ‘Not yet, but I imagine he will. She’ll lose her apartment, which she probably loves more than she ever loved any of her husbands, including my own dear father, who she discarded twenty years ago, and well out of it, I say.’

  ‘Has Lucas called in the police?’

  Maggie shook her head. ‘She says not. Actually, I wish he would. There have been a couple of other incidents in the block, and I did wonder . . . but she brushed my concerns aside when I asked about them.’ A gesture of resignation. ‘She wants – no, expects – me to go back to live with her. To keep her company. To act as a daughter should when her mother is in such distress.’

  ‘To be her slave.’

  ‘Yes.’ Maggie’s shoulders sank. ‘I can’t leave her in such distress. She is distressed, you know. This is the first time one of her husbands has walked out on her, rather than the other way around. In a funny sort of way I think she really did care for Lucas, and all this froth and fury – it’s covering it up.’ She squared her shoulders. ‘I know I’ll be letting you down as well. Do you think you can find someone else to move into my flat upstairs?’

  ‘No,’ said Bea, meaning it. ‘This is your home. I know I’m not your birth mother, but you are like a daughter to me and nothing changes that. It’s your flat for as long as you want it, and it’s your office downstairs.’

  ‘Yes, but—’

  ‘Think about it, Maggie. You’ve built up your own business, you have an excellent reputation as a project manager, you get things done on time and under budget. Your order book is full for the next six months. You employ a part-time secretary and accountant. People rely on you to perform miracles in their houses, and your staff rely on you to pay their wages. You can’t throw all that away.’

  ‘I have to.’

  ‘Your mother,’ said Bea, indignation rising, ‘is a cow!’

  Maggie sketched a smile. ‘Yes. She’s a conniving, selfish woman, who had reduced me to a quivering wreck before you rescued me and gave me a home and a job and showed me I didn’t have to spend the rest of my life apologizing for my existence. But, she is my mother.’

  Bea wasn’t going to give up without a fight. ‘She’ll ditch you again, as soon as she’s captured another husband. That’s what happened before, wasn’t it? As soon as she laid eyes on number three – can’t remember his name, the one before Lucas – she wanted you out of the way and pushed you into a marriage with a total shit who was on the rebound from a failed love affair. And when that no-good creature ditched you and she thought you’d have to return home to live, she got you a job here in the agency—’

  ‘At which I was no good at all.’

  ‘No, but you soon found what you were good at, and you’ve got a
delightful, faithful boyfriend and a new circle of friends and I don’t think you should throw all that away just because she’s had a spat with her latest husband.’

  ‘I know. But I can’t refuse her.’ Maggie’s eyes flicked to and fro. ‘She expects me tomorrow morning. I’m trying to think who can take over the jobs I’ve got in hand.’

  ‘Maggie, this won’t do. You aren’t thinking straight.’

  ‘She’s frightened and all alone.’

  ‘With a dozen intimate friends to call upon.’

  ‘It’s not the same.’

  Bea knew it wasn’t. She cast her mind back over what Maggie had said. ‘Lucas says there was an attempt to kill him. Was there? Did you see the string stretched across the staircase yourself?’

  ‘No. It had gone by the time I got there.’

  ‘Did he imagine it? Did he fall down the stairs because he’d got drunk?’

  A brief smile. ‘Lucas doesn’t get drunk. If he says there was a nylon string or a wire across the stairs, then there was.’

  ‘Did your mother see it herself?’

  ‘No, she’d gone out early to a drinks party, and when she got back he’d been taken to the hospital . . . As a neighbour was only too pleased to tell her.’

  ‘What neighbour? Doesn’t your mother live in a penthouse?’

  A shrug. ‘He phoned someone else in the building, I suppose, or he wouldn’t have been able to get the front door open to let the ambulance men in.’

  ‘Your mother didn’t see any sign of a booby trap? I wonder . . .’

  Maggie stared at Bea. ‘What are you getting at?’

  ‘You said there’d been other “incidents”. What were they?’

  ‘Nothing important. Youthful mischief. Some vandalism, putting stuff through letter boxes, that sort of thing. Oh, and the old lady on the ground floor had a heart attack and died, but you can’t count that, can you?’

  ‘Yet these “incidents” were enough to make Lucas flee for his life when he himself fell victim to some kind of “prank”. If that is what it was. And your mother is frightened.’

  ‘She can’t really be frightened. No, she’s putting it on to make me feel sorry for her. She can’t stand being on her own.’