Murder By Committee Read online

  Frank was fretful. Ellie beckoned Felicity into the living room. ‘There, there, Frank. Granny's here. Look, we have a visitor. Isn't that nice? Now we'll just find some clothes for you to wear and-’

  ‘I'm hungry!’

  Ellie had ceased to be surprised at the capacity of the young to throw up one minute and eat a hearty meal the next, but it did pose a problem.

  ‘Oh, I'm sorry,’ said Felicity, hovering. ‘I didn't realize …’

  ‘Come on in. I don't suppose you've eaten much today, have you? There are some menus by the phone in the hall. Takeaways. Chinese, Indian, pizza. Perhaps we can choose.’

  ‘McDonald's,’ said Frank, firmly. ‘I want a Big Mac and chips and Coca Cola and everything. Now!’

  Ellie blenched. Junk food had never appealed to her. Felicity, however, looked interested. ‘I haven't been to McDonald's for ever.’

  ‘Then we'll go,’ said Ellie, recognizing a majority decision. ‘I'll get Frank dressed and call a cab.’

  McDonald's was, in fact, just the sort of place to go on a dreary October evening. It was bright, cheerful, family-friendly, and clean. There was plenty there to amuse children, and the adults didn't have to eat the same food as the young ones. Felicity, in fact, ate as much - if not more - than Frank.

  ‘I ought to apologize for bursting in on you,’ said Felicity.

  Frank remarked, ‘Mummy brings me here on Saturdays. Where is she?’

  ‘Not at all,’ Ellie said to Felicity. ‘I've been thinking about you.’ And to Frank, ‘I rang your mummy and left her a message. She'll ring you as soon as she can.’

  Frank pulled a face. ‘When she's able to get out of bed.’ Was this a direct quote from something Diana had said? Felicity and Ellie exchanged startled glances.

  ‘Little pitchers,’ said Ellie to Felicity. Felicity looked puzzled, but Frank treated them to a bright, intelligent look. He said to Felicity, ‘She means I've got big ears. But I haven't. I've got nice ears.’

  ‘Of course you have, darling,’ said Ellie. Seeing his attention turned to watching a party of children nearby, she said, ‘You've lost your pretty pink blouse, Felicity? What a shame. I thought it looked nice on you.’

  Felicity was refusing to make eye contact. ‘I gave it to Mummy. She looks lovely in pink.’ She took a gulp of Coca Cola. ‘You must think me very odd, dumping myself on you like this, but you see, when I got back home - that was after I'd been to see Mummy, as I always do when Arthur's out, especially in the afternoons at weekends - anyway, there was a police car in the driveway. I expect they were looking for Marco, but I just felt I couldn't face any more hassle, so I turned my bike round and … I suppose I lost my nerve. If they were going to take him away for questioning, I didn't want to see it. I couldn't think where to go at first. Then I thought you'd all been so kind to me that afternoon …’

  Ellie guessed, ‘You went looking for Roy?’

  Felicity reddened. ‘Well, I did think he might … but he'd gone … and that big bossy woman who'd been on the flower stall directed me to your place. I'm so sorry.’

  That would have been Mrs Dawes, an avid gossip, who liked to stir things up, and who would want to hear all about it after church tomorrow.

  ‘I'm sorry I'm not Roy.’

  Felicity had a very pale, transparent skin and when she blushed, she did it properly. As the blood receded, the bruise on her cheek showed more clearly.

  Ellie said, ‘Your husband hits you, of course. He used to hit the dog too, didn't he?’

  Felicity excused him. ‘He only does it when we're stupid. Poor Rex got so nervous that he used to widdle everywhere, and naturally Arthur had to teach him to mind his manners.’

  Ellie shuddered. ‘What do you do to make him angry?’

  ‘I'm really not very clever, and I do make silly mistakes.’

  ‘So does everyone. So what?’

  Felicity wriggled. ‘Well, I'm not exactly what he thought he was getting when he married me. Not a social asset, I mean.’

  ‘Children?’

  ‘I had a miscarriage at four months, soon after we married, and since then it seems I can't. I've been to doctor after doctor, but they can't find what's wrong.’

  ‘And Arthur?’

  ‘Oh, he says it's not him. It's definitely me.’

  ‘Why don't you leave him?’ Yet Ellie thought she knew the answer.

  ‘Oh, I couldn't possibly. He loves me really, you know. Besides, I promised Mummy I'd never, ever, put her into a horrid National Health home, though really they're quite nice, because I did some voluntary work in one till Arthur said it wasn't a suitable thing for his wife to do. It's very expensive where Mummy is, but she's happy there, and I couldn't afford it if Arthur stopped my allowance.’

  Frank produced a burp loud enough to attract attention from everyone within earshot, and leaned back in his chair.

  Felicity fiddled with her last few chips, without eating any more. ‘All that stuff about my father. Did you really go to see him? Where was it? At his home? I don't understand. He doesn't give a stuff about me. Arthur has never liked him either, but it's stupid to think my husband would arrange a car accident for anyone.’

  ‘I've heard stories about your husband taking it out on people who've crossed him.’

  Felicity managed a smile. ‘When you're as successful as Arthur, people will always make up stories, try to pull you down. It's just envy.’

  Ellie changed the subject. ‘Have you ever met your half-brothers?’

  Felicity shook her head. ‘I promised Mummy I'd never have anything to do with them, and I won't.’

  Ellie tried to clean Frank up. ‘Your father still cares for you. Worries about you.’

  ‘Don't make me laugh.’ Yes, the girl was bitter. ‘He never wanted children, and as soon as I was born, he was off. He only remembers he has a daughter twice a year, for birthdays and Christmas. He promised Mummy enough money to restore the manor, but he never gave her enough. She worked so hard to keep the place going but she's never had a head for business, and no matter how much I tried to help …’

  ‘I need to go to the toilet,’ Frank announced, in a loud voice.

  ‘In a minute, dear,’ said Ellie, not wanting to interrupt Felicity. ‘I need to!’ said Frank.

  ‘Oh, dear. Well, come along, then. Felicity …?’

  Felicity blew her nose on a paper serviette. ‘I'm not going anywhere.’

  Ellie wasn't that sure that Felicity would wait, but in fact she did. Frank didn't linger too long in the loo, and she made him wash his hands and face before returning to the restaurant, where he informed them he wanted to go and play in the children's area.

  ‘Good,’ said Ellie, making sure she could see him from their table.

  Felicity had ordered some coffee, but said, ‘I've just realized I've come out without any money. I'm so ashamed, cadging off you like this.’

  ‘Think nothing of it. Tell me how you came to marry Sir Arthur. How long ago was it?’

  ‘Nearly ten years now. Mummy was feeling very down after she lost the shop up north, and thought she'd try her luck in London, so we moved down here. I got a job working on the information desk at the town hall, and found this little flat to rent, though of course it wasn't at all what she'd been used to. Poor Mummy. She did try so hard to find work, but she hadn't been trained for anything. I gave her as much as I could from my wages and she had lots of friends who invited her out, because she was so pretty, you've no idea how pretty she was, especially when she was all dressed up with her hair done nicely. One evening she met Sir Arthur at a do in town and discovered they'd lots in common …’

  ‘Such as a relationship with your father?’

  ‘I suppose so. He took one look at me and … I don't know why, because I wasn't prettily dressed or made-up or anything … but he asked me out. I didn't want to go at first, because I couldn't think what he'd see in me. Mummy insisted, saying he could do so much for us if I were nice to him, and of course I want
ed to be nice to him. Arthur was wonderful. He made me feel so … special. He took me to all sorts of places I'd never have dreamed of going to, and promised to get the manor back for Mummy. She was so happy!’

  ‘And you?’

  Felicity smiled. ‘Of course. We were married and he bought the manor, but I'm afraid I disappointed him dreadfully. He expected me to be a social asset, like Mummy. The more I tried, the more I failed him. Then I had the miscarriage, which was all my fault because I would exercise his dogs - he had two darling little spaniels at the time, and they needed a lot of walks, but it was dark and raining, and I slipped. Then Mummy had this awful accident. She'd been to a party and perhaps she'd had too much to drink. She doesn't know exactly how it happened herself, but she fell and cut herself terribly … the blood was everywhere … so she never got to move back to the manor. Arthur was forced to put her in a home because she couldn't be trusted to live on her own any more. Really, she's like a child now.’

  ‘I think,’ said Ellie gently, ‘that you've been more of a mother to her than she has to you.’

  Felicity shook her head violently, and dabbed her eyes with a paper serviette. ‘Tell me why you went to see my father. Was it at his home? Are you keeping in touch with him now?’

  Ellie craned her neck to follow young Frank as he disported himself. Would he make himself sick again, if he persisted in turning himself upside-down?

  ‘It's a complicated story and I'm not sure I understand all of it, but this is how I came into it …’ She told how Kate had asked her to visit ‘a man about a dog', and that Kate really thought Sir Arthur's life was at risk.

  Felicity's eyes grew round. The idea that her husband was in danger seemed to excite her. Poor thing, if her husband really was treating her so badly, then his death might well seem a release.

  ‘… and then the next day I was sent for to the City to meet your father, and he told me of his long-standing feud with Sir Arthur and how - forgive me - he feared you might have been used as a pawn in the game the two of them are playing.’

  ‘No! Ridiculous!’ Colour stained Felicity's cheeks.

  ‘Well, that's what your father was afraid of. He's very concerned about you, you know. You should hear his side of the story some time.’

  Felicity pushed back her chair. ‘He's a monster!’

  ‘He's worried sick that you might have poisoned your husband.’

  ‘What?’ An angry laugh.

  ‘And now his younger boy has been attacked. He might have been killed. He's got a broken leg and they fear concussion. Your father has - I think wisely - taken the rest of his family to a hotel for safety's sake.’

  ‘Well, at least he's showing some concern for his second family!’

  Ellie sighed. She thought she'd said enough. Probably more than enough. She looked around for Frank. How had it happened that she'd taken her eyes off him, when she knew his propensity for getting into trouble? She couldn't see him in the play area.

  So where had he gone? The people on the next table were collecting their children together, talking loudly, joking.

  A small girl hurtled through the tables, yelling and pointing to the play area at the back. Ellie guessed Frank was at the bottom of whatever it was. She made her way there as fast as she could. Frank was crowding a small child under a low table, laden with Lego. He was pinching her. She was weeping, crying for her mummy. Another child kept saying, ‘I told him not to!’

  Ellie plucked Frank from his victim, stood him upright. ‘Oh, Frank! How could you! Don't you realize how much you were hurting that little girl? You must say you're sorry, at once!’

  Frank kicked Ellie. It hurt. He said, ‘She hit me first.’

  ‘I never!’ cried the little girl, whose parents were now swooping upon her with cries of alarm.

  ‘I'm so sorry,’ Ellie apologized to the parents. ‘I'm afraid he's missing his mummy today. I oughtn't to have let him out of my sight.’

  ‘That's all very well,’ blustered the father, ‘but if your child has-’

  ‘Oh, leave it. Let's just get out of here.’ The mother gathered up her weeping toddler and bore her away. The father followed. ‘Frank, I could smack you!’ said Ellie.

  ‘No, you can't,’ said Frank, looking a lot older than his years. ‘'Cause a policeman will kill you if you do.’

  There was no answer to that. Ellie dragged Frank back to their table. Felicity had disappeared. Of course.

  Ellie pushed and pulled Frank into his jacket, and towed him outside, so that she could phone for a minicab to get them home.

  Felicity was waiting outside. ‘This is so embarrassing. I haven't enough money to call a cab, and I've left my bike at your place. My car's in the garage for repairs, you see.’

  Ellie was getting a strange feeling about Felicity. Why had the girl sought her out, and then clung to Ellie's side? Was it just because she didn't want to face the police, or … what else might it be? Ellie decided to test out her suspicions.

  ‘Would it be a good idea for you to stay over at my house tonight?’

  ‘You're very kind,’ said Felicity, smiling in approved Nice Girl fashion.

  ‘Not at all,’ said Ellie, thinking that she'd misread Felicity once, and might still have to adjust her opinion. ‘I could do with the company. Apart from Frank, that is. And what I'm going to do with him, I don't know.’

  ‘I want to sit in the front of the cab!’ said Frank.

  ‘No, you can't,’ said Ellie, envisaging Frank grabbing at the wheel and causing an accident.

  ‘Mummy lets me. If you don't let me, I'll make myself sick!’

  Felicity recoiled and Ellie eyed him with horror. She knew it was no idle threat. She put away her mobile. ‘If you feel like that, then we'd better walk home. It won't take us more than half an hour.’

  She caught Felicity's eye and, towing Frank, started along the pavement. Frank screamed and twisted, trying to release himself from her grasp. Ellie hung on, ignoring him. Felicity kept pace with them.

  ‘I'll be sick, I will!’ shouted Frank.

  ‘All right. If you want to be sick, just do it in the gutter. The walk home will make you feel better.’

  Frank began to weep. ‘I want my mummy.’

  ‘I expect there'll be a message from her on the answerphone by the time we get back. So don't drag your feet. One, two. One, two. Best foot forward. Do you know any good marching songs, Felicity?’

  ‘Er … no. I mean, what about “The Grand Old Duke of York”?’

  Ellie carolled,

  ‘Oh, the Grand Old Duke of York,

  He had ten thousand men,

  He marched them up to the top of the hill

  And he marched them down again.’

  Felicity joined in.

  ‘And when he was up, he was up,

  And when he was down, he was down,

  And when he was only half way up,

  He was neither up nor down.’

  Frank was furious. ‘Stop singing! I hate it.’

  ‘You hate a lot of things,’ said Ellie. ‘Which is a pity, because the world's not a bad sort of place if you approach it with a smile instead of a scowl.’

  ‘I hate you!’ He hit at her with his free hand. Since she was wearing a thick jacket, the blow didn't hurt. Except in her spirit. Her spirit quailed. However was she to deal with this angry, violent child?

  ‘Don't do that, Frank. Behave nicely, or else …’

  He jeered at her. ‘Or else? You can't do nothing to me, or my mummy'll do something dreadful to you.’

  Ellie exchanged glances with Felicity. ‘Any ideas?’ asked Ellie.

  ‘He's a brat. I'm just thinking how Arthur would deal with him.’

  Ellie smiled. Reprehensible though the thought might be, it gave her some pleasure to imagine Arthur giving young Frank a good spanking. She sighed. ‘Unfortunately, we can't. Sanctions are limited nowadays.’

  ‘I'm tired.’ Frank was dragging his feet, making them carry him along.
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  ‘What a pity,’ said Ellie. ‘We've hardly gone any distance. Of course, if you aren't going to be sick, we could get a taxi home.’

  ‘Probbly I might not be sick now.’

  ‘Good,’ said Ellie, being cheerful. She got out her mobile and asked for a minicab to pick them up.

  Felicity said, quietly, ‘Well done.’

  Equally quietly, Ellie said, ‘I may have won a battle, but I haven't won the war.’

  Twelve

  It was getting towards Frank's bedtime but since he'd had a good sleep that afternoon, it was hopeless trying to put him to bed early.

  Ellie turned on all the lights, drew the curtains, and sat Frank in front of the television, selecting a cartoon video for him to watch. She didn't approve of the violence in the cartoons, but Frank did. Ellie was too grateful for his absorption in the video to quibble about the content.

  Felicity asked if she could help to make up beds for herself and Frank, but Ellie had got into the habit of having the spare-room bed always made up ready for unexpected guests, and the little bedroom was known as Frank's room anyway.

  ‘Not to worry,’ said Ellie. ‘I'll find you a disposable toothbrush, and I've got a clean cotton nightie that might do you.’

  ‘Oh, I don't need anything like that. Just a towel and a toothbrush.’

  Ellie nodded, went upstairs to put out clean towels and check that the back bedroom was in good order. Which it was.

  Midge appeared, was fed and watered, and made himself comfortable on the warm window ledge above the central heating radiator in the hall. He seemed to be moving into his winter quarters early, but she couldn't blame him for that. She didn't particularly want to sit in the conservatory herself at the moment.

  Ellie listened to her answerphone messages while Felicity slumped into a big chair, half watching the cartoons with Frank. The girl looked as tired and dispirited as on the first occasion Ellie had met her.

  The first message was from Jean, much annoyed that Ellie had ‘skived off' early and left her and Maggie to do all the clearing up. Jean wanted to remind Ellie that she was down to do the tea and coffee after church the following morning. If it wasn't going to be too much trouble, heavily ironic!