Murder for Nothing Read online

  Contents

  Cover

  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

  Further Titles by Veronica Heley from Severn House

  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

  MURDER WITH MERCY

  MURDER IN TIME

  MURDER BY SUSPICION

  MURDER IN STYLE

  MURDER FOR NOTHING

  The Bea Abbot Agency Mysteries

  FALSE CHARITY

  FALSE PICTURE

  FALSE STEP

  FALSE PRETENCES

  FALSE MONEY

  FALSE REPORT

  FALSE ALARM

  FALSE DIAMOND

  FALSE IMPRESSION

  FALSE WALL

  FALSE FIRE

  MURDER FOR NOTHING

  An Ellie Quicke 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 and the USA 2017 by

  SEVERN HOUSE PUBLISHERS LTD of

  19 Cedar Road, Sutton, Surrey, England, SM2 5DA.

  This eBook edition first published in 2017 by Severn House Digital

  an imprint of Severn House Publishers Limited

  Trade paperback edition first published

  in Great Britain and the USA 2017 by

  SEVERN HOUSE PUBLISHERS LTD

  Copyright © 2017 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

  A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

  ISBN-13: 978-0-7278-8727-6 (cased)

  ISBN-13: 978-1-84751-843-9 (trade paper)

  ISBN-13: 978-1-78010-903-9 (e-book)

  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

  No good deed goes unpunished.

  Ellie Quicke, happily married and the head of a charitable trust fund, believed in helping people in trouble. And none of her good deeds had returned to bite her until she took in a weeping girl who needed somewhere to stay. The consequences were mayhem and moneylending. Oh, and murder, of course.

  Monday morning

  Ellie’s three-year-old grandson had inherited his mother Diana’s determination, demanding his granny’s attention with the relentlessness of a road drill. ‘Biccy, biccy, biccy! I want biccy!’

  The two agency cleaners were amused but they were poised to leave, having completed their weekly assault on the house. ‘Bye, Mrs Quicke!’ they said.

  Ellie chased her grandson down the corridor and into the kitchen, calling out, ‘See you next week!’ to the cleaners as she went. Evan wasn’t supposed to have a biscuit till lunchtime, and there was another hour to go. She managed to catch him and turn him away from the cupboards as the phone rang in the hall.

  ‘Biccy!’

  ‘Come on, lovey, let’s get the phone first.’ He’d dropped his favourite soft toy on the floor. She picked it up and thrust it at him, which almost diverted him from his pursuit for food, and did soften his next demand.

  ‘Biccy, Granny?’ Ellie walked him back to the hall to answer the phone. It didn’t do to leave him alone or he’d have the contents of the biscuit tin on the floor. She usually closed the doors to all the ground-floor rooms before he arrived but sometimes the cleaners left a door open as they moved through the house, and then Evan would get in and create chaos. Tidying up after him could take hours.

  As Ellie went to pick up the phone, he slipped out of her grasp. Horrors! He’d spotted Midge, the cat, who’d been having a nap on the hall chair. If he tried to tease Midge, if he went for the cat’s tail … ‘No, Evan, no!’

  A thin scream announced that she was too late.

  She swooped on Evan who, yelling fit to bring the roof down, slid out from between her arms and crumpled to the floor. Bother!

  The phone continued to ring … and now the doorbell ditto … and the clock struck eleven.

  Ellie opened her mouth to call on her husband for assistance, and then shut it again. He’d been called away on some emergency or other, hadn’t he? Oh, dear.

  With some difficulty, she managed to pick Evan up off the floor … phew! He was getting heavy and she wasn’t getting any younger. Blood shot from his finger where Midge had scratched him and tears pearled on his fat cheeks. He bawled his grief into her ear, half deafening her. Where was his soft toy? He’d dropped it somewhere …

  The phone continued to ring. As did the doorbell.

  The only way to stop Evan was to distract him with a biscuit, even if it wasn’t time for him to have a snack yet. But the biscuit tin was in the kitchen and the phone was ringing.

  Balancing Evan on her hip, Ellie reached for the phone. ‘Yes …?’

  A tinny voice, which Ellie could hardly hear.

  She said, ‘Who? Can you speak up, please?’

  ‘Ellie, are you in? Could I …? May we …? I need to …’

  Ellie concentrated. The racket that Evan was making! ‘Lesley? Is that you?’ Lesley, her friend from the police, was on honeymoon, wasn’t she? Not due back till the end of the week.

  Evan turned puce with rage. His lung capacity was formidable. Ellie didn’t normally like offering a bribe, but … ‘Evan, would you like a biscuit?’ That did it. He stopped mid-yell. Ellie returned to the phone. ‘Lesley, is that you?’

  ‘It’s me,’ said Lesley. ‘I can’t believe it! They say it’s murder!’

  Evan threw himself backwards. Ellie staggered but managed to hang on to him … just. She said into the phone, ‘Hold on! I’ll be back in a minute!’ She dropped the receiver and rushed through into the kitchen, where she found the biscuit tin and, one-handed, managed to open it. Evan grabbed two biscuits, one in each hand. His colour was miraculously restored to normal as Ellie bore him back to the phone in the hall, where she set him down on the floor to pick up the receiver again.

  The doorbell continued to ring.
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  Could she reach the front door while she was on the phone? No. ‘Lesley, sorry about that. Are you still there? Where are you?’

  Lesley and her husband were supposed to be camping somewhere in the north of England, weren’t they?

  ‘I’m really sorry to disturb you, Ellie,’ said the voice with a crackle in it. Lesley must be on her mobile phone. Was the battery running out? ‘May I … may we … come round? Now?’

  Ellie said, ‘Yes, of course, but … Lesley, what’s wrong?’

  ‘Be with you in a minute.’ Tension twanged over the line. Lesley cut the call.

  Someone was still beating out a rhythm on the front doorbell. Ellie crashed the phone down and hastened to open the door. It was half past eleven in the morning. A parcel delivery?

  No. It was her young house guest, Angelica, who had begged for a room for a few days till she could sort herself out, and who had outstayed her welcome in spades. Angelica had described herself as a party girl. Unfortunately that description had proved to be nothing but the truth, as she had twice got Ellie out of bed to answer the door at three in the morning, saying she’d forgotten her key.

  Today, Angelica was laden with shopping bags and was wearing a blindingly white smile. ‘I’ve forgotten my key again. Silly me!’

  Angelica was a true blonde with a peaches-and-cream complexion and green eyes set below dark eyebrows. She imagined her astonishing good looks would take her to the heights of a modelling career but did nothing to make her dreams come true. Also, she ignored all the rules a house guest normally observed. She played loud music at unsocial hours, expected to be fed at Ellie’s expense but left junk food containers around, had failed to offer Ellie any money for rent and hadn’t lifted a finger to help in the house. Ellie felt that the sooner the girl left, the better.

  Now Angelica swept past Ellie into the hall. ‘Can you pay the taxi for me? I’m right out of change.’

  ‘What!’ said Ellie, torn between wanting to box the girl’s ears and amusement.

  ‘You’re a doll!’ Angelica batted her eyelashes at Ellie and made for the stairs.

  Outside in the drive, someone shouted, ‘Oi! Who’s paying!’ It was the taxi driver, who’d descended from his cab in search of his fare.

  Ellie sang out, ‘Hold on a mo!’ Where had she left her purse?

  Evan wandered back into the hall, having raided the biscuit tin – again! He wouldn’t be able to manage his lunch, would he? But for the moment, he was Sunny Jim in person.

  Ellie said, ‘Evan, have you seen my handbag?’

  ‘Why?’ Evan’s response to all questions was to ask this.

  ‘Because Angelica is in trouble and I’m trying to help her.’ Not that Evan would care about that. Ellie pounced on her handbag, which had landed on the floor by the clock for some reason. Also at the foot of the clock was Evan’s favourite toy, a pink velvet Hippo. Ellie picked it up and gave it to him to tuck under his arm.

  Sorting out some money for the taxi driver, Ellie decided that she really must have a word with Miss Angelica. The thing was, where else was the girl to go? Apparently she’d quarrelled with her mother, who had turned her out some months ago. After that, she’d moved in with Ellie’s friend Lesley and her fiancé until, just before their wedding, Angelica had been thrown out of there as well.

  The reasons were understandable. Angelica was a spoiled brat who could wind her dear cousin Andy round her little finger. He indulged her as everyone in that family seemed to have done, until Lesley had put her foot down and shot the girl out, which didn’t surprise Ellie one bit. What surprised Ellie was that Lesley had put up with the girl’s behaviour for as long as she had.

  Ellie promised herself a reckoning with Miss Angelica, soon. And she would get a receipt from the taxi driver to present to the girl.

  At that moment, Midge the cat made a mistake. He leaped down from the high ledge on which he’d taken refuge out of Evan’s reach and sped across the hall with the intention of going upstairs to spend some downtime on Ellie’s bed … and Evan spotted him.

  Dropping Hippo, Evan lunged for the cat. Ellie was just a fraction too slow, but she did manage to grab him from behind and lift him into her arms. He jackknifed in them and shouted, ‘No! Down!’

  Midge laid back his ears and streaked up the stairs.

  Evan wriggled out of Ellie’s arms, half fell and half jumped to the floor and set off after Midge. Fortunately or otherwise, he tripped over his own feet and landed on his face, losing the remains of his biscuit. Ellie cringed as Evan drew breath, ready to let out one of his ear-splitting yells.

  She scooped him up … oh, her back! And staggered out of the house to pay the taxi driver, who was fuming at the delay. Evan kicked and yelled.

  ‘Got a good set of lungs on him!’ said the taxi driver as he cleaned Ellie out of cash and wrote her a receipt.

  He was no sooner out of the drive than another car drove in. ‘Thank God,’ said Ellie as her daughter Diana erupted from the car. Diana was dressed all in black, and was in a matching black mood.

  ‘What’s the matter, poppet?’ Diana didn’t wait for an answer but plucked Evan from Ellie’s hold, at which he sat up in her arms and smiled. The little … rogue!

  Diana said, ‘What have you been doing to him? And what’s that? Have you been feeding him biscuits at this time of day?’

  Ellie took a deep breath and prepared to defend herself but Diana wasn’t listening.

  ‘Well, I would have thought you could have looked after him better, what with you having nothing else to do all day …!’ Diana inserted Even into the baby seat in the back of her car and buckled him in with a jerky movement. ‘I need to get back.’

  ‘Wait!’ Ellie scrambled back to fetch Hippo, without whom Evan refused to go to sleep. She dusted him down and rushed back to the car as Diana was getting herself back into the driver’s seat.

  Diana said, ‘Same time tomorrow, right?’ and turned the key in the ignition.

  Ellie wanted to say that she didn’t think she could look after Evan properly any more. He was exhausting. But, before she could do so, Diana was gone in a swirl of dust, honking as another car tried to enter the driveway. Diana made the other car wait. Of course.

  The other car inched its way into the drive and parked. Badly.

  Ellie’s friend, Lesley Milburn, was driving, with her very new husband in the passenger seat.

  Without waiting for his wife, Andy erupted on to the driveway in a flurry of bad language. Ginger hair, rugby-playing build, wearing holiday gear of a black T-shirt and jogging trousers. A charging bull of a man in a shocking temper. He bellowed, ‘Where are you hiding her, then?’

  ‘What?’ said Ellie. ‘Who?’ She went round the car to reach Lesley, who hadn’t moved from her seat. ‘My dear, whatever’s happened? Come on in.’

  Andy set off for the house, yelling, ‘That bitch, Susan! Where is she? I’m going to wring her—’

  Ellie blinked. Susan was Lesley’s niece, a stocky, ginger-haired, dependable girl in her twenties who was training to be a chef. When she’d first started her training – long before Angelica had turned up – Susan had lodged temporarily with Lesley and Andy. She’d left because the flat really wasn’t suitable for three people, but she’d been such an easy person to have around that Lesley had asked if Ellie could give the girl a room in her house.

  Susan had proved to be an ideal tenant for Ellie, renting the flat at the top of Ellie’s house and becoming a valued member of the household. She didn’t just observe the house rules, she paid her rent on time and sometimes cooked for the family. So what did Andy want with Susan?

  Ellie opened the driver’s door to help Lesley out, but her friend didn’t seem to know how to move.

  Lesley said, ‘Susan and murder. It doesn’t sound right, does it?’

  ‘What?’ Susan and murder?

  No, it certainly didn’t sound right. Lesley didn’t sound right, either. Or look it. Her colour was bad, more green than
peach, and she made no move to leave the car. Ellie wasn’t sure she could lift Lesley out of the car, and would have called out to Andy for help if he hadn’t already disappeared into the house.

  Lesley lifted a tired face to Ellie. A tear leaked from the corner of one eye. ‘Oh, Ellie! I don’t know what to do.’

  ‘First things first. Let’s get you out of there.’ Ellie half pulled and half steered Lesley out of the car and steadied her, making sure she could balance on her own two feet. ‘Can you walk?’

  They could hear the bull roaring inside the house. ‘Susan! Get the hell down here! Now!’

  Ellie was puzzled. ‘What does he want with Susan? She’s at college, as usual.’

  Lesley shook her head. ‘It’s not murder. It can’t be.’

  Ellie forbore to question Lesley further as she looked on the verge of passing out. Lesley was some thirty years younger than Ellie, but she wobbled across the drive and into the hall like an old woman.

  Andy and Lesley were supposed to be on honeymoon. Obviously something had happened to disrupt their plans. But not murder! No way!

  From the first floor came the sound of doors slamming as Andy explored, shouting, ‘Susan! Where the devil are you hiding!’ Music assaulted their ears as he opened another door.

  A girl screamed. Angelica? ‘Andy, do you mind!’ Followed by laughter. Angelica obviously didn’t really object to Andy bursting in on her. Had she been trying on some of the garments she’d just bought?

  ‘Oh, sorry, Angel.’ He moderated his voice. ‘Where’s Susan, then?’

  Giggle, giggle. ‘How should I know?’

  Actually, Susan and Angelica had never got on. Angelica wasn’t kind to anyone whose unfashionable curves attracted attention.

  Angelica squealed, ‘Andy, please! Can’t you see I’m changing?’

  ‘Oh. Well. Sorry.’ He shut her door.

  Ellie called up the stairs, ‘Andy, Susan isn’t home yet.’

  Either Andy hadn’t heard her or he’d chosen to ignore what Ellie said, for he continued to throw open doors along the corridor.

  Ellie shrugged and helped Lesley through the hall and into the sitting room at the back. ‘Let’s get you comfortable.’