Murder in Time Page 15

  He gave her a real, wide, enjoyment-filled smile. And nodded.

  She said, ‘Well, that’s a relief. When I thought I was up against you, I got quite worried.’

  He actually laughed as he ushered her out of the building. Once in the open air, he said, ‘How far have you got in finding the doctor’s killer?’

  ‘Not far enough. The police still think it was someone from the drugs’ world. Will you try to neutralize Abdi?’

  ‘I’m sure you’re perfectly capable of doing that. As you say, your best bet is to find the real killer. My car’s nearby. May I give you a lift somewhere?’

  She shook her head. That interview had taken it out of her. Her legs were going to start wobbling any moment now.

  He said, ‘You remind me of my mother, a formidable woman. You’re going to go on searching for the killer, aren’t you?’

  She stiffened her knees. ‘I hope so.’

  ‘It won’t do you any good. You should let sleeping dogs die.’

  He ducked his head, turned and left her.

  Ellie staggered along towards the nearest coffee shop. She wanted to find a dark corner and cry her eyes out. She was so ashamed of herself. Fancy gatecrashing someone’s office like that! And tearing them off a strip! All right, they’d deserved it, but she could have been more tactful. More diplomatic.

  She needed the loo. She needed someone to pick her up and give her a cuddle, and tell her, ‘There, there! It’s all right!’

  It definitely was not all right.

  The coffee shop was soulless, one of a chain. The loos would be clean, but the coffee would be mediocre. It was too bright for her, and the seating looked uncomfortable. She walked on.

  She told herself she hadn’t done any good at all by confronting Dick’s accomplice. She ought to have left well alone.

  Those two men had had to live with what they’d done for all these years … and that must be their punishment. Leave well alone, Ellie. You’ve only made things worse with your interference.

  The second coffee shop she came to was dark and welcoming. And had a loo at the back. Hooray.

  She was shaking.

  She’d learned something, of course. Simon was someone to be reckoned with. He might even make a half decent Member of Parliament, from what she’d seen of him. He knew how to hold his tongue. Oh dear! She ought never to have gone to see them. Simon had said she ought to let sleeping dogs lie, and he was probably right.

  She ordered a cappuccino and a large iced bun. She needed carbohydrates.

  Let sleeping dogs lie.

  Well, she would have done just that, if Abdi hadn’t thrown a spanner in the works!

  All these platitudes …

  Hold on a minute. Simon hadn’t said, ‘Let sleeping dogs lie.’ He’d said, ‘Let sleeping dogs die.’

  A slip of the tongue, of course. Except that men like Simon didn’t make casual slips of the tongue. He’d meant to say ‘die’ and not ‘lie’.

  Which didn’t make any sense at all.

  She finished off the bun. She decided that even though it would spoil her supper, she needed chocolate. But if she bought one of those delicious-looking chocolate twists, she’d probably be unable to finish it.

  ELEVEN

  Thursday evening

  Ellie couldn’t remember what they’d planned for supper, so bought some ready-prepared meals on the way home, thinking that she was falling down on her job at home, as well as being a conspicuous failure as a detective.

  It was just as well she’d thought to bring some food in, as she found Rose drifting around the kitchen with a tea towel in her hand, looking vague, and there was nothing prepared to go on or in the oven.

  Rose said, ‘Something’s up with Vera. She came in with a big envelope stuffed with papers and told Mikey they were eating upstairs. Looked official, that envelope. Solicitors and stuff. You think Abdi’s on the warpath again?’

  ‘Hope not. Is Thomas home?’

  ‘I think so. He asked where you were a moment ago, and I said I didn’t know.’

  Ellie went to find him. He was in the library, working, but turned off his computer when he saw her.

  ‘Ah,’ he said, noting her worried air, ‘so what have you been up to?’

  ‘What have you?’

  ‘Praying. Sorted it out. I’ve handed the whole mess over to Him to deal with. No need for any further action.’

  ‘Sometimes it’s necessary to do more than just pray.’

  His eyes narrowed. ‘You’ve been up to something? I said, it’s not necessary—’

  ‘Sometimes it is.’

  He exhaled. He was not pleased with her. ‘What have you done?’

  She wanted to cry. He had never, ever, before criticized her for trying to help someone in distress. Granted, she didn’t think she’d done much good by her interference that day, but her intentions had been of the best. ‘I went to see Dick Prentice, the man who spread that rumour about you. I think I scotched it. At least, it’s difficult to stop a rumour like that once it’s been started, but I think, I hope … He used a woman he knows to … And now she knows he used her, and I don’t think that’s going to go down well.’

  He was still frowning. She half put out her hand to touch him. She wanted him to hug her and assure her that he loved her and approved of everything she’d done. And he wasn’t going to do it.

  She looked down at her fingers, lacing them together. ‘Simon Trubody was visiting him. He’s formidable. You won’t find him doing something as silly as slandering you. He thinks we can deal with Abdi without any trouble, although I don’t see how we can. He also said, “Let sleeping dogs die.”’

  ‘The quote is: “Let sleeping dogs lie.”’ Correcting her.

  ‘I know that, and so does he. He said die. He was trying to tell me something.’

  Thomas wasn’t wearing that. ‘I expect you misheard.’

  Ellie twisted her fingers together. Thomas was angry with her. It was horrid. She sniffed, hard, for she didn’t have a hanky. ‘Supper in ten minutes.’

  He nodded. He wouldn’t be very pleased with a bought-in meal, either. Oh dear.

  He got up and put his arm around her. ‘My dear, I’m sorry. I wasn’t being very understanding, was I? You were worried and wanted to help, as you always do when you see someone in trouble. Possibly, it wasn’t the wisest thing to do, but I’m touched that you made the effort.’

  He was being condescending, and that hurt almost as much as his sharper tone, earlier.

  She said, ‘I thought that if I confronted them with what I knew, they’d understand how stupid it was to try to get at you that way.’

  ‘Yes, yes. I suppose it gave you a clearer picture of what I’m up against.’

  ‘What we’re up against.’

  He huffed out a laugh. ‘Yes, you’re right, Ellie. What affects you, affects me. And vice versa. Supper, you said?’ He really didn’t think she’d done the right thing, did he?

  Oh well. She’d tried.

  Supper was OK-ish. Thomas ate what he was given and refrained from criticism. He made some coffee afterwards and carried it through to the sitting room, just as Vera appeared with Mikey in tow.

  Vera looked wild of eye, but was dressed as neatly as ever and seemed to be in command of herself. Mikey looked bored. He seemed more interested in stroking Midge, who was strung over his shoulders, than in attending to business.

  Vera said, ‘Have you a minute?’ She spread some papers out on a coffee table. ‘This stuff came through today from Abdi’s solicitor. He’s giving me a deadline. Either I hand Mikey over tomorrow, or he tells the police I killed Dr McKenzie. I’ve talked this over with Mikey, but I don’t want him to make up his mind about anything till we’ve consulted you, too.’

  Thomas said, with caution, ‘Isn’t Dan coming round tonight?’

  ‘I told him not to. This is family business.’ Then she blushed and said, awkwardly, ‘I promised to ring him later.’ She picked up a sheet of headed pap
er with a cheque attached. ‘From Abdi. A cheque for twenty-four thousand pounds. In consideration of the money I’ve spent on Mikey to date. He suggests I use it to give me “a fresh start” somewhere outside London, where house prices are lower.’

  She picked up a different wodge of paper. ‘A receipt for the cheque. A form which releases me from making any claims upon Mikey, or even approaching him, in future. He’s given Mikey a different name, too, but we’ll disregard that for the moment. In consideration of accepting the above, I am supposed to deliver Mikey to an address in Bayswater tomorrow, after which he’ll be flown off to meet his grandparents and the rest of his family. Abdi writes that there is no need for Mikey to take anything with him, except the clothes he stands up in. A suite of rooms has been prepared for him, and he has been registered for a new school. A boarding school.’

  She took a deep breath, dropped those forms, and picked up another. ‘This is a report from Abdi’s private detective, to say that he has a witness to my killing Dr McKenzie. The alleged witness statement is not included. The solicitor says that Abdi will bury the report and the witness statement provided I accept his terms. He suggests that I get the Reverend Thomas and Mrs Quicke to sign as witnesses to my signatures.’ She sat back. ‘I think that’s it.’

  Ellie looked at Thomas, who looked at Mikey. ‘What do you think, Mikey? You must have wondered about your father’s family?’

  A shrug. ‘It’s all about him, isn’t it? Not about me. I like me as I am.’

  Thomas stroked his beard. ‘He’s offering you a life of ease.’

  Mikey grimaced. ‘He’s a cheapskate.’

  Ellie blinked. ‘Offering twenty-four thousand?’

  ‘I expect to earn more than that in the first year after I leave university. I’ve done the maths, which I suspect he hasn’t. It’s two thousand for every year of my life so far, and that is thirty-eight pounds and almost fifty pence per week. Peanuts. And him a millionaire.’

  Ellie was intrigued. ‘Is he a millionaire?’

  ‘I googled him. The family’s into oil and shipping and the manufacture of arms.’

  Vera rubbed her eyes. ‘I keep telling Mikey that if he wants to go, I won’t try to stop him.’

  ‘Baked beans,’ said Mikey, as if that were the clincher.

  Vera smiled, palely. ‘He means that in the old days the money had usually run out by the end of the week, and we used to have baked beans for supper. He means that Abdi ought to have helped us then. But, as I keep saying to Mikey, he didn’t know about us before, and he is trying to make up for it now. Or rather, he did know but –’ she rubbed her temples – ‘well … you understand what I mean.’

  ‘He thinks he can buy me, and he can’t,’ said Mikey. ‘For one thing, I’m worth more than he’s offered. And we won’t even discuss the blackmail because it makes me want to puke.’

  ‘He’s offering you a ready-made family.’

  A shrug. ‘If they’re all like him …!’

  Thomas said, ‘Mikey, don’t close out all your options without thinking it through. He is your father. You don’t have to go to live with him, but you could spend some time with him, get to know him. Perhaps you could meet your family on neutral ground and make up your own mind about them. There could be advantages for you in the future. Holidays abroad, foreign travel, money to spend. Why not?’

  ‘He doesn’t want “to get to know me”. He wants to own me. Like a racing car, or a dog or a gold ring. “This is my son.” He doesn’t know what I’m like. He’s even given me another name. I’m me, and I’m staying me.’ Mikey formed his hand into a gun and spat out, ‘Bang, bang! You’re dead!’

  ‘Pride, Mikey!’ warned Thomas.

  ‘Yes, I am proud of being me,’ said Mikey. ‘I’m proud of Mum, too. We’re not asking for handouts. We can make our own way in the world. “Conkers!” to him.’

  Ellie hesitated. She wanted to cheer Mikey on but, like Thomas, she didn’t think it right for him to cut his father out of his life if there were any possibility of forming a better relationship. ‘If your father had come looking for you, saying he was sorry for what he’d done, and asking to make it up to you …?’

  ‘He’s not doing that. He doesn’t understand the word “sorry”. Instead, he’s trying to blackmail us.’

  Thomas said, ‘Vera, we’ve heard what your son thinks. How do you view this offer?’

  Vera bit her lip. ‘I’ve tried to make myself believe Mikey would have a better life if he went to live with his father. If he wanted to go then I’d wave him goodbye and try to get on with things. Yes, Mikey’s in a good school now, but maybe he could be in an even better one, and of course it’s tempting to think he could have every IT gadget under the sun, and never have to worry about making his shoes last another month. It would be good for him to have the rough and tumble of a family around him, because he’s developing into a loner.

  ‘But it worries me that Abdi hasn’t made any effort to understand what Mikey is like. He’s my son and I love him, but he’s not perfect. He thinks for himself and doesn’t listen to advice, so he sometimes makes mistakes. You know what he can be like when he’s crossed. He pulls the shutters down and goes his own way. He’s obstinate and, well, bloody-minded sometimes. You’re right: he is proud, and he can be a little so-and-so when he can’t get his own way. So what would happen if Abdi caught Mikey in one of his moods? Mikey’s only twelve, and he’s not fully grown yet. I’m afraid Abdi might use physical force. It’s no good saying you’re not allowed to beat a child, because he’s from a different culture, and I don’t think that would weigh with him at all. If he were to beat Mikey … I can’t bear the thought of it!’

  Silence.

  Mikey said, ‘Cool, cool! Icy cool. My mama is my papa, too. And I’ve got homework to do.’ He walked out of the room with the cat still across his shoulders.

  Vera picked up the papers. ‘All right. I’ll tell Abdi to get lost. He can’t really mean to carry out his threat to frame me for murder. I mean, that’s so ridiculous it’s unbelievable.’

  Ellie wasn’t so sure about that. She thought Abdi meant exactly what he said, and that if he didn’t get his own way, he would go to the police with his so-called witness statement. But how to stop him? ‘Leave those papers with us for the moment, will you? I’d like to show them to Gunnar tomorrow.’

  ‘Oh? Yes. All right. I’m going to return Abdi’s cheque to him tonight, with a note saying that we’re not interested. I’ll sleep better once I’ve done that.’ She swept out, too.

  Thomas said, ‘That wasn’t quite the judgement of Solomon, but very near. It was the right decision.’

  ‘Yes, but I think I’m going to have to do some more interfering, to find out who really did kill the doctor. That is, if you don’t mind, Thomas?’

  He sighed and smiled, both at once. ‘Can I stop you, once you’ve got the bit between your teeth?’ A gesture of resignation. ‘All right. Who are you going to attack next?’

  ‘Not “attack”. Talk to. I think we ought to go back to the beginning. I can’t think that there were three totally unrelated incidents that night: the gatecrashers, the rape and the murder.’

  He was surprised. ‘What could possibly link them, other than that fool Prentice taking a date-rape drug to the party?’

  ‘The police didn’t find a connection. Logic says that maybe there isn’t one. But I’ve a feeling that there is.’

  ‘Have you heard anything to confirm your theory?’

  ‘Well, there was a ruckus with a neighbour over a hedge or a fence or something, but it fizzled out after the doctor died. Then an old friend said I should look for the lady. “Cherchez la femme.” But she’s drifting in and out of Alzheimer’s: my friend, I mean. So I really shouldn’t take any notice.’

  He stared at her. ‘“Look for the lady”? What lady?’

  ‘I think she meant the doctor’s wife.’

  ‘What has she got to do with anything?’

  ‘I don’t k
now. I just feel that something is not quite, I don’t know … it’s as if a picture has been pushed out of the straight. Skewed. I’ve been told different stories—’

  ‘That’s just it, Ellie. If you ask four witnesses to an accident what they’ve seen, you’ll get four different stories. That’s what’s happening here. It doesn’t mean that they’re not telling the truth as they see it.’

  ‘I know that. But still … I could bear to know a little more about Mrs McKenzie.’

  He patted her knee. ‘Light of my life, I fear I was less than gracious earlier when you leapt to my defence, but I do worry about you, you know. You go striding out into the badlands without any backup. I didn’t know where you were today, or who you were with. Suppose you’d stirred up someone who has already killed and would have no compunction about killing again? Promise me you’ll tell me where you’re going and who you’re going to see in future.’

  ‘That’s sensible.’ She crossed her fingers in her lap. ‘But, if something comes up while—’

  ‘Then you ring me before you go off on your new tack. Promise?’

  She nodded. ‘Of course.’ And meant it. At the time.

  Later that evening, she was clearing up in the kitchen when Vera reappeared. The girl didn’t possess any expensive clothes, and she hadn’t made the mistake of showing too much cleavage, or wearing jeans so tight that she could hardly move. But this was a sleek version of their everyday Vera, with hair shining and smooth, loose around her shoulders. There was even a touch of rose on her cheeks and lips. From excitement or make-up?

  ‘Dan insists on taking me round to drop that cheque in to Abdi’s place. I asked Mikey if he’d like to come, too, but he said “no”. I won’t be late.’

  The doorbell rang. ‘That’ll be him.’