False fire Page 10

  Frowning, the girl looked at her watch. ‘Yes and no. I have to call in on an elderly lady who lives in a flat up the road to give her her lunch. She’s scared of the microwave so I have to do it for her. Her carer doesn’t work at weekends, and if I don’t go in she’ll never think to get anything for herself. I could be back within the hour, if that’s any good?’

  Bea accepted with pleasure. ‘Bless you, my dear. Yes. Come back as soon as you can. Meanwhile …’

  As Mel collected her cleaning gear, there was a knock on the bedroom door and there was Betty from the agency, looking apologetic but gesturing to her watch. ‘Super-nanny is here. She says she’s not accustomed to being kept waiting!’

  ‘Two minutes.’ Bea checked her appearance in the mirror and realized her top was stained beyond redemption. She stripped it off, not caring whether William caught sight of her bra or not, and fished a silky, sea-green top with a cross-over bodice out of the cupboard. Her diamond earrings were … in her ears. Good. No time to bother with anything else. Off we go.

  What to do with Bernice? Bea tapped William on his arm. He was in mid phone call, but this was an emergency. ‘William, I have to see someone in the agency. Could you wrap Bernice in my duvet and carry her down there for me? She can have a nap on my sofa while I see a client.’

  He put away his phone to scoop up child and duvet and follow her. ‘I’ve been on to my housekeeper to let her know what’s happening. It’s too far off the beaten track for Alicia to get there easily, but … just in case. Gideon doesn’t have Ninette’s number. Steve’s given me the gigolo’s, only he’s not answering. Steve is desperately trying to find somewhere for Daphne to go and he doesn’t need this … Another fifteen minutes and I’m phoning the police.’

  Fifteen minutes? Mm. This was cutting it fine. So William had a house out of town? With housekeeper? Down the stairs they went, Bea leading the way. Betty briefed Bea as they went.

  ‘Super-nanny was five minutes early, declined a cuppa, said that she never used “foreign facilities” and wiped her finger – yes, she really did – across my desk to see if there were any dust on it!’

  Bea was caught up by the giggles. ‘“Foreign facilities?” Does she carry a pack of bacterial wipes around with her? No, I shouldn’t laugh. She’s probably got the right idea. Some of the “foreign facilities” I have known would frighten a health inspector into fits.’

  ‘Yes, but ours are spotless.’ Betty held the door open for Bea to enter the office. ‘I could look after the child for you, if you like? Where’s Mel?’

  ‘Running an errand. Leave the child with me till Mel gets back. I’ll tell you why later …’ Bea swept into her office to greet her visitor, with William at her heels, carrying the child.

  Bea greeted super-nanny – a middle-aged dumpling in dowdy clothes – with a smile. ‘I do apologize. A domestic crisis. Come into my office. Yes, William, you may leave the child on the settee here. She’ll be safe with me for a while. Thank you. You get back to your phone calls.’

  Bea took the file which Betty was holding out to her and switched on her computer. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that Bernice was perched on the edge of the sofa, looking uncomfortable. So why hadn’t she nestled down in the duvet? She was hugging Teddy, eyes on the floor between her shoes.

  However, super-nanny was making herself very much at home. With a frown at everything in sight.

  Bea opened the folder. Excellent references, super-nanny had been with Lady This and before with Dame That.

  What was wrong with Bernice now?

  A second look at super-nanny had told Bea she’d been right to wonder whether or not this woman was going to fit the criteria for their agency. If you described her as ‘jolly’, you’d want to add ‘Roger’ as in ‘Jolly Roger’. Too wide a smile, lacking warmth. Too bulbous an eye, lacking joy. The hands were pudgy and strong; good for slapping children’s legs. The body was heavy – not good for running after nimble infants.

  Bea thought, Oh dear. She looked over at Bernice, who hadn’t moved. Ah. Bea told herself she’d been slow on the uptake. ‘Bernice, do you want to take Teddy to the toilet?’

  Affirmative.

  Bea led Bernice to the door, and pointed to the far end of the main office. ‘The loo’s by the door to the steps that go up to the street. Can you see? Take your time. Make sure Teddy washes his hands afterwards. And then perhaps he might like something to eat? A biscuit, perhaps? Betty will give him one if you ask nicely.’

  The child set off to the loo and Bea returned to her desk. ‘I do apologize. Her little brother’s gone down with chickenpox and—’

  Super-nanny recoiled. ‘You have exposed me to chickenpox?’

  ‘No, of course not,’ said Bea. ‘The child hasn’t been exposed to it, either, which is why I’m looking after her for a while. Now, I see that your last position was—’

  ‘Well! You might have warned me. And you allow her to cuddle that dirty old teddy bear? Harbouring who knows how many germs?’

  ‘The child has been through a lot recently. The teddy bear seems to comfort her.’

  A snort. ‘My children are not allowed insanitary toys. I only permit soft toys which can be put in the washing machine every other day. Life is not a bed of roses, and the sooner children accept that and conform to what society expects of them, the better.’

  Bea told herself not to grind her teeth. ‘You think it’s a good idea to instil discipline into children from an early age?’

  ‘Naturally. No little liars or thieves in my families.’

  Bea held back a sigh. ‘In my experience children do lie now and then. To get themselves out of trouble or to help a friend.’

  ‘It is an error commonly found among parents who have not had the benefit of proper training themselves,’ said super-nanny with a supercilious smile, ‘to allow their children to transgress without correction. Needless to say, that is never the case with a child placed in my care.’

  ‘You put them on the naughty step?’

  ‘I find shutting them in a quiet, dark place is more efficacious. A short, sharp shock works wonders and we do not have to repeat the action.’ Super-nanny gathered herself together. ‘That child is a liar. I smelled it on her as soon as she came in.’

  Bea nodded. The woman had had many years of experience of working with children, and yes, she would have recognized Bernice’s trick of sliding her eyes down and away. ‘I think you are right.’

  ‘Yet you do not see fit to interrogate and punish her? A hidden lie will fester in her mind. If she thinks she’s lied to you and got away with it, she will do it again. You are going to let her walk down the primrose path to perdition?’

  Bea’s lips twitched. ‘I know why she lied. She will tell me all about it in her own good time.’

  The woman stood up. ‘Chickenpox. Dust on the desk. And you have no appreciation of how to bring up a child in the way they should go. I am not willing to allow my name to go on to your agency books.’

  ‘I understand. Let me show you out.’

  By the time the woman’s stout legs had disappeared up the outside stairs to the street, Bernice had left the loo, and Betty was giving her a biscuit from the office tin.

  Bernice lifted her head and met Bea’s eyes. A look full of intelligence and knowledge. Bea sighed. Yes, Bernice had lied, by default if not directly.

  Betty looked at the clock and began to bustle around, shutting everything down for the weekend. ‘All right if we go now, Mrs Abbot? There’s nothing that can’t wait till Monday. I’ve switched the phones over to voicemail.’

  The second Saturday girl was already packing up for the day.

  ‘Have a good weekend.’

  Back in Bea’s office, Bernice snuggled down on the sofa while Bea checked her emails … nothing much to worry about there. Then Mel returned, bumping down the steps from the street with a bag of children’s games.

  ‘I thought we might play Ludo or Snap or something. I told the old lad
y that I visit about the little girl who’s all alone this weekend and she said to borrow her grandchildren’s toys for the afternoon. Isn’t that good of her?’ Mel would enjoy it, too.

  ‘Splendid,’ said Bea.

  Someone was banging on the front door and ringing the doorbell. Someone in a hurry. Someone in a temper? Now who, oh who, could that be? Not the police. The hour wasn’t up yet. So, someone looking for Bernice … or for Alicia?

  Bea made sure she had her smartphone on her, and climbed the stairs to the front door.

  EIGHT

  Surprise! Ninette, freshly curled and scented from the salon. In a tearing temper. Close behind her came the seal-smooth head of her fiancé, or whatever he was – the current-but-soon-to-be-divorced husband of Daphne.

  Ninette had a voice like a parrot. ‘Where is she! What have you done with her!’

  Bea blinked. ‘Who? Bernice? But—’

  ‘Not Bernice, you stupid creature! The runaway! What have you done with her?’

  Ninette thrust past Bea into the living room, shoving aside a chair which had got in her way.

  ‘What …?’ William, frozen to the spot, still on his phone. There was no one else in the room.

  Ninette screamed, shrill as a dentist’s drill. ‘Where have you put her?’

  Bea crossed her arms. ‘Well, good afternoon, Ninette. Nice to see you. And Alaric, isn’t it? I don’t remember inviting you but—’

  Ninette shook her finger an inch from Bea’s nose. ‘Come off it! You don’t fool me!’

  ‘Ninette!’ Alaric took her by the shoulders, and turned her away from Bea. ‘Darling, not so fast!’

  Ninette gave a little scream, and stamped her foot. Yes, she really did! Out of the corner of her eye, Bea saw William shut off his phone and put it away. Bea put her smartphone down on the occasional table nearby.

  Ninette twisted out of Alaric’s hands. ‘We’ll have the law on you, you … you thief!’

  Bea raised one eyebrow. ‘What is it I’m supposed to have stolen?’ As if she didn’t know.

  Alaric pushed Ninette down on to a chair. ‘My apologies, Mrs Abbot. I had inadvertently switched my phone to voicemail and have only just heard from the school that my daughter has gone missing. Naturally I am most concerned to find her before anything, well, untoward … you understand?’

  Bea raised the other eyebrow. ‘Are you referring to Alicia, whom you removed from this household this morning?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Ninette tried to struggle out of the chair. Alaric pushed her back down again. ‘Quiet, Ninette. The thing is, Mrs Abbot, that the child got some silly idea in her head, you know what young girls can be. Perhaps she’s been influenced by her young friend, who should never have been allowed to … the thing is, the child seems to have run away.’

  ‘After you delivered her back into the hands of the staff at the boarding school? How on earth could they let that happen?’

  A tinge of colour. ‘We think she must have slipped out somehow—’

  ‘But once you had handed the girl over to the staff, it is their responsibility to look after the girl. You did hand her over, didn’t you?’

  ‘Of course.’ A full-frontal lie. Wide brown eyes. A look of five-star sincerity. As false as a toupee. Alaric was accustomed to lying, wasn’t he?

  Ninette, however, was so aerated she couldn’t keep her mouth shut. ‘She only had to cross the drive, for heaven’s sake. She’s done it a dozen times before.’

  ‘Do I understand,’ said Bea, ‘that you didn’t actually deliver her to the school authorities? You left her outside? In the drive?’

  ‘She was in sight of the front door.’

  ‘Oh dear. How remiss of you. I do hope nothing tragic has happened to her, a small child, all alone and friendless, abandoned in the middle of the—’

  ‘Abandoned? Nonsense. We saw her enter the school.’ He glanced down at Ninette, skewering her to the chair with his eyes. ‘Didn’t we?’

  ‘Oh. Yes. Of course.’ Ninette was rapidly calming down. She looked around her, taking note of the furniture and furnishings, using the calculator behind her eyes to tot up how much Bea might be worth. Slightly impressed.

  Bea noted that William had gone to stand at the back window, overlooking the garden. He was leaving this to her to deal with, wasn’t he? And so she would.

  She said, ‘So you left the child there, in the school drive, without actually handing her over to anyone at the school, and then you returned to London. You had an appointment to have your hair done, Ninette? Is that right?’

  ‘We’ve dropped her off there a hundred times without—’

  ‘And Alaric … where did you go? When we heard the child was missing, we tried to contact you before we alerted the police, but you were unavailable.’

  ‘I called into the gym for a coffee, and they have a policy of turning off mobiles … if it’s any business of yours, which it is not. But there’s no need for the police. None. I suggest you produce the child, and we say no more about it.’

  ‘You think I am harbouring the child? How? Did I hire a helicopter and follow you all the way to the school – I have no idea where it is, by the way – hover overhead till we saw you abandon the child, scoop her up off the ground and tear back here to drop her … where? In my back garden? In a local park?’

  ‘You have her, we’re sure of that.’

  ‘I assure you we haven’t seen hair nor hide of her since the moment you took her away this morning.’

  ‘I don’t believe you.’ Alaric’s eyes were hot. ‘Hand her over, and we’ll say no more.’

  Bea held up her hands. ‘You think I’ve kidnapped the girl? Why on earth would I do that? I met her for the first time last night. Out of the goodness of my heart I allowed her to sleep here when her home was burnt out. I fed her and bought her clothes to wear, only to have you remove her without so much as saying “thank you” for all the time and trouble I’ve taken. The more I think about it, the worse your behaviour becomes. How dare you force your way in and accuse me of kidnapping the girl, when it is clear that you have been remiss in abandoning her in the middle of the countryside, or wherever her school is.’

  Alaric tried on a smile. Not a good effort. ‘I … we apologize for disturbing you. As you say, we are worried sick about the girl, for if she isn’t here, then where is she?’

  ‘That’s your problem, not mine. We said we’d inform the police if she didn’t turn up within the hour. There’s five minutes left. If you don’t know where she is, and I certainly don’t, then in five minutes’ time we will be ringing them. They will no doubt put out an All Points—’

  Alaric was beginning to sweat. ‘No police. We have to find her. I’m worried sick, thinking what might happen to her, out there, all by herself. You must understand; we were sure she’d come here.’

  ‘Why on earth should you think that? What can I say to convince you? Do you want to search the place?’ Fingers crossed.

  Ninette said, ‘Yes!’ She exchanged looks with Alaric, who nodded. ‘That is, if you don’t mind.’

  ‘Mind?’ Bea raised her eyes upwards. ‘Of course I mind. But … well, let’s get it over with. Follow me. Yes, I’m coming with you. I don’t want my home disturbed more than is absolutely necessary.’ She palmed her smartphone and led the way. ‘We’ll start downstairs, in the agency rooms. I’ll put on the light; it gets dark so early these winter afternoons, doesn’t it? Through this door here, and into the main office. My staff only work Saturday mornings at the moment, and they’ve gone for the day. Come along, come along.’

  With Ninette and Alaric at her heels, Bea threw open the doors into the loo and the tiny kitchen. ‘The usual facilities. Our cleaner comes first thing in the mornings, Monday to Friday, but never on Saturday, so please excuse the mess. This is the main office, as you can see. Lights … more lights. And now we’re going into the small side office … no one there, as you can see. It’s not much used. The girls prefer all to be in the
same room. That door there … you’d better look, I suppose. The stationery cupboard. The shelves are too close together for a child to hide in, but our cat – yes, do be careful, he’s renowned for tripping people up – likes to hide in there during thunderstorms and firework displays. Yes, you’ve seen enough there? Good. And this is my office, which has French windows leading on to the garden. And here you see Mel, who is looking after Bernice for—’

  Bernice was sitting on the settee with Teddy beside her, playing chess with Mel. Or, since Mel was agonizing over the board, it was possible that Bernice was teaching Mel how to play chess, rather than the other way round?

  Ninette leapt upon the child. ‘You wicked girl! What have you done with Alicia?’

  Mel, alarmed, shot to her feet, scattering chess pieces.

  Bernice gasped, and struggled to free herself.

  Ninette had the child by her shoulders, shaking her.

  ‘Enough!’ said Bea, full voice, holding her smartphone up to record the moment.

  Ninette took no notice. Between her teeth, she said, ‘Tell me, you little toad!’

  Bea said to Alaric, ‘If you don’t get Ninette to let go, I’ll call the police!’

  Alaric put his arms round Ninette. ‘Let her go!’

  ‘What! But she knows …!’

  Mel snatched the child from Ninette’s arms, and carried her to the far side of the room. Bernice’s face was without colour. She stared at Ninette. Then at Alaric. Then at Bea. Did her lips twitch? No.

  Bea had to hand it to the child. Bernice knew exactly how to behave. She buried her head in Mel’s shoulder.

  Bea found her heart was thudding. ‘You … you …! Alaric, I think you’d better remove your fiancée before I have the law on her. No, wait!’ Though they hadn’t moved. ‘You asked to see over the house, and I’m determined that you shall look into every room, and every cupboard. And then I’m going to make you sign a statement to the effect that the girl is not here, and if you ever, ever try this on again …!’

  Ninette stamped her foot so hard that Bea thought it might go through the floor. Bea could see the woman wanted to scream with rage. Alaric’s hand on her arm kept her from erupting, but Bea was in no doubt that Ninette still thought Bernice knew what had happened to Alicia.