Murder of Innocence Read online

  As she let herself in, she heard Frank wailing. Oh dear. ‘What’s happened?’ The living room had been wrecked. Cushions were on the floor, chairs overturned, magazines torn and scattered, china ornaments from the mantelpiece shattered.

  Betty was crying, too. She was holding little Frank in her arms, jiggling him up and down, trying to soothe him. It looked as if she were in need of soothing as well. Ellie dropped her handbag and put her arms round Betty, who turned her face into Ellie’s shoulder and howled. As did little Frank.

  ‘Hush, shush, my dear. It’s all right.’

  ‘It isn’t! Oh, do be quiet, Frank!’

  ‘There, there. Let’s sit down in comfort.’ Ellie let go of Betty long enough to replace the cushions on the settee and urge her to sit down. But where was Tod? ‘Tod …?’

  ‘I don’t know where he’s gone,’ sobbed Betty, trying to reach for her handkerchief and at the same time calm Frank. ‘He got this envelope through the door, tore it open and went mad. I’d just got Frank up from his nap and he was crotchety and the next thing I knew Tod was trashing the place and then … and then Tod ran out of the back door and I tried to run after him, but Frank started crying really hard and Tod went down the garden path and I didn’t know what to do.’

  ‘Shush, dear. You did the right thing. You looked after Frank. There, now.’

  Betty’s sobs were subsiding but she was shivering. Ellie took off her own jacket and put it round Betty’s shoulders. Frank was wailing, his right cheek bright red. Teething. As if they didn’t have enough to cope with. Ellie took him from Betty and joggled him in her arms, trying to assess the damage in the room.

  There were torn pieces of paper everywhere. Mostly glossy paper from magazines.

  Betty struggled to her feet. She was still shaking but enough in control now to try to help Frank. She scrabbled in her big tote bag, produced some soothing gel and managed to smooth some on to Frank’s gums while Ellie fought to hold him still. The relief was instantaneous. Frank stopped wailing.

  Silence.

  Betty smiled through her tears. Sought for a tissue and mopped Frank up. And then herself. Ellie lowered herself on to the settee with Frank, who started playing with the gold chain she wore round her neck. Who’s a lovely little boy, then …?

  Betty looked around her and winced. ‘I’m so sorry. I let you down. Tod was fine at first. He was on his computer for a while. Then he came down and played with Frank. We had lunch, and then … he’s so big! I’m not used to handling boys that big. Almost as tall as I am. I must admit, I was frightened.’

  Ellie hadn’t thought of it that way but of course Betty couldn’t be expected to look after a half-grown lad like Tod. Ellie blamed herself. Mrs Coppola had asked Ellie to look after Tod and she’d agreed to do so. That ought to have been her first priority, but she had ducked out of it. She ought to have cancelled the lunch with Diana, no matter how important it seemed at the time.

  Betty sniffed. ‘Where do you think he’s gone?’

  ‘My shed, probably. Or else he’ll be annoying the central-heating engineers working at my place. I don’t think he’ll go far.’

  ‘You didn’t see him. He was in a terrible state, shouting, swearing, smashing …’

  ‘I’ll go and look for him in a minute, when I’m sure you’re all right.’

  Betty blew her nose again. She was not a pretty girl, too plump, too badly dressed, mousy hair drawn back in an elastic band, nondescript skin. But she looked kind and kids adored her. Even now Frank was abandoning Ellie to move on to Betty’s lap.

  ‘I’m all right now,’ said Betty, trying to smile. ‘Stupid me. Can’t even look after two kids at once, right? I knew he’d been hurt bad. I told him, you go back to school looking like that, and everyone’ll think you tried to give yourself a Beckham. He laughed. He was just fine … I blame myself. I wasn’t quick enough. The envelope came through the door and I never thought. I said, “Will you get it?” and he did.

  ‘You know when they fall and hurt themselves? If they yell straight away, there’s nothing much wrong, usually. But if there’s a horrible silence for a coupla seconds, you know something really awful’s happened, that they’ve hurt themselves bad. Well, it was like that. I was just getting Frank up from his rest on the settee here and I thought, Tod’s been quiet too long. Then all hell broke loose.

  ‘I’d got Frank in my arms luckily. Tod came in, tearing up this envelope. Then he took a swipe at the pushchair, which was in his way. That went over. Then the cushions flew off the settee and the magazines and then he swept all the china bits and pieces off the mantel … and he stamped and tore and shouted …

  ‘I didn’t know what to do. I was frightened he’d start on me next. Frank was upset. I needed to put him down to try to calm Tod but I couldn’t, with the pushchair on its side. So I got behind the settee and sort of crouched down and the next thing Tod tore out to the kitchen and down the garden. Then you came.’

  Ellie patted her shoulder. ‘I couldn’t have done any better if I’d been here. Whatever it was that upset him … you think the pieces are by the door here?’

  ‘I suppose so.’

  ‘Well, I’ll look for them later. The first thing is to call a taxi to take you home. Then I’ll go and look for Tod. Right?’

  Betty shook herself. ‘I need to know he’s all right. I’d never forgive myself, otherwise. You go and look for him. I’ll stay here. Perhaps he’ll come back of his own accord.’

  ‘Are you sure? Because if I can’t find him …’

  ‘We’ve got to phone the police.’

  Ellie picked her way through the mess that Tod had made in the living room. Nothing had been disturbed in the kitchen. The back door was open. She went down the steps into the garden, which was mostly under concrete and very dull indeed. She knew Tod hated it. There was no garden shed here. Nowhere for him to hide.

  At the bottom there was a gate – broken – leading into the alley which divided the bottom of the gardens from the church grounds. Ellie lifted her eyes to the church. The sun had come out and lit up the spire with its gilded weathervane on top.

  Ellie thought, Dear Lord, what a mess I’ve made of things. Please, please, don’t let anything else bad happen to Tod.

  Three houses along she turned into her own garden through a gate which was trim and neat. The shed door stood open but there was no Tod inside.

  Jimbo and his mate were still entertaining the neighbourhood with a selection of pop music, courtesy of their transistor radio. And whistling along to it. Perhaps a third person was joining in?

  Ellie found Jimbo showing Tod how to use a spirit level.

  ‘Getting on nicely now we’ve some help,’ said Jimbo, grinning.

  Ellie’s first impulse was to smack Tod round the head or put him over her knee. She felt she could understand parents who went over the top and hit their children. He was ignoring her.

  ‘Fine,’ she said. ‘But Tod’s got some clearing up to do at home today. Come on, Tod. Betty’s got to get off home with little Frank.’

  Judging by the mutinous set of his shoulders, Ellie suspected he might not obey her, but he did. Slowly. She didn’t speak to him on the way back and he didn’t say anything, either.

  In Ellie’s absence, Betty had righted the furniture and found a plastic bag to stuff all the torn magazines in. She was now on her hands and knees with a dustpan and brush, sweeping up the fragments of china.

  Tod walked past her without a word, went through the hall and upstairs to his room, where he banged the door shut on the world.

  Betty pointed. ‘I left the pieces of the envelope where they were. I didn’t touch them. Fingerprints, maybe?’

  Ellie bent over them. If you made a sort of jigsaw puzzle out of the pieces, they looked as if they might make up into a plain white envelope, such as you could buy anywhere. Although it had been torn across, someone had written TOD on it in capital letters. There didn’t seem to be any enclosure. Nothing. Except, possib
ly …

  Betty and Ellie bent lower.

  A book of second-class stamps, unused. It had been crumpled up, but was still identifiable.

  Stamps. Oh dear, oh dear.

  Eleven

  Betty was puzzled.‘Someone sent him some stamps?’ Frank managed to tumble off the settee and set up a roar. This upset Betty all over again. ‘Oh, my little pet, I should never have left you on your own. Who’s Betty’s brave little man, then?’ She picked him up and gave him a cuddle. ‘I’m afraid,’ said Ellie, ‘that this is a message for Tod to keep quiet about what’s happened. We have to get the police on this. Can you hold Frank for a few minutes?’

  ‘Yes, but it’s getting late. I have to pick my kids up from school soon and …’

  ‘I know. Put him in his pushchair. You get off and I’ll cope here.’

  ‘If you’re sure?’

  Ellie paid Betty for the extra trouble and added a tenner for good measure. There was no sound from Tod upstairs.

  Detective Sergeant Willis was not at the police station, but a voice at the other end of the phone took a message and said she’d be along straight away.

  Ellie looked around. Apart from the magazines and the china, the room now looked much as it should. There wasn’t anything she could do about replacing the china. Ellie rather hoped Mrs Coppola wouldn’t expect her to pay for it, but … sigh … she probably would. After all, Ellie had been left in charge of Tod and had opted out. Very bad.

  Ellie went upstairs, tapped on Tod’s door and went in. He was playing a game on his new computer and didn’t turn round.

  ‘Tod, I’ve called the police, told them what’s happened. This is all to do with someone who sold you stamps, isn’t it?’

  Tod didn’t move as much as a muscle.

  ‘Was it a warning to you to say nothing?’

  No reaction.

  Ellie was getting angry.‘Well, all I can say is, I hope your mother doesn’t hock your new computer, to pay for the things you’ve broken.’

  He reached for something to throw at her, so she made herself scarce.

  This is hopeless, she told herself. I’m no good at this. I’m getting upset when I should be calm. I’m not qualified to deal with a boy in such a state. I don’t know whether I’m doing or saying the right things or making matters worse. We can’t go on like this and I’ll tell Mrs Coppola so.

  She went downstairs and tried to raise her dear friend Liz, the counsellor, on the phone. Predictably, Liz was out.

  ‘I could weep,’ said Ellie. So made herself a cup of tea instead.

  Jimbo came to the door, saying he was off now, but would be back tomorrow early and would then want to drain the tank so would she make sure she’d got the kettle filled and the washing-up done before he started.

  Detective Sergeant Willis arrived, looking harassed. Her hair was loose around her shoulders and her eyebrows needed plucking, but she was as businesslike as ever. ‘I tried your house but no one was there. In future if you call the police don’t waste our time trying to guess where we might find you, but please tell us exactly where you are. You reported a brick through the window?’

  Ellie swallowed a disclaimer. She was sure she’d told the policeman on the phone that she was at Mrs Coppola’s, and it wasn’t her fault if the message hadn’t been passed on. But it was childish to play the game of You did, I didn’t, under the circumstances.

  ‘Come in. I’ve got the brick still and the curtains are ruined, but I had to get someone to replace the glass. I expect the damage was done by someone who disapproves of my taking Gus in. However, you’re one incident behind the times.’

  As Ellie let the policewoman into the house, another car drew up and Mrs Coppola got out of the passenger seat, making kiss-kiss noises to the driver. When she saw the policewoman Mrs Coppola screamed, ‘Oh, no!’ which brought the driver out of his car, too.

  ‘What’s happened? My baby, where’s my baby?’

  Some baby! ‘He’s all right now,’ Ellie said. ‘He just threw a wobbly and beat the place up a bit.’

  ‘What’s that?’ said the driver. No tie, black suit, sharp haircut. The office Romeo?

  ‘What? How? My precious little china figurines …!’

  Mrs Coppola clasped her hands together in anguish and closed her eyes, while her friend put his arm about her and said, ‘There, now, Luce.’

  Ellie told them what had happened. She didn’t try to disguise the fact that she’d left Tod with someone else that afternoon.

  ‘You did … what?’ shrieked Mrs Coppola.

  ‘I’m sorry. I had an important appointment and I found a trustworthy person to look after him during that time – whom I paid out of my own purse.’

  Mrs Coppola flounced. ‘You can afford it.’

  Ellie wasn’t going to be drawn on that. ‘I got back to find the place wrecked and Betty in tears. Tod had run off but I got him back and he’s upstairs playing with his new computer again. He won’t talk. Betty righted the furniture and put the torn magazines into that plastic bag over there. She left the envelope – the message – whatever it is, on the floor for you to see.’

  Mrs Coppola stirred the fragments with the point of her shoe.

  ‘Don’t do that,’ said the policewoman. ‘Evidence.’ She got down on her hands and knees and with tweezers carefully put the torn scraps into a plastic bag. ‘I’d better take the bag of magazines, too. There may be something that’s been overlooked. Some written message, perhaps.’

  ‘The message was the book of stamps,’ said Ellie.

  Mrs Coppola pounced on it. ‘That’s mine. I’ve been looking everywhere for it.’

  ‘I think it came in the envelope,’ said Ellie. ‘Look how it’s twisted and torn. Tod did that.’

  ‘Nonsense, it’s mine,’ said Mrs Coppola, putting it in her handbag.

  Ellie said, ‘Are you sure? I thought it was a message, especially since he’s dumped his collection of stamps.’

  ‘I put them in the bin this morning,’ said Mrs Coppola, defiantly. ‘The dustmen will have collected them by now.’ She picked up a tiny fragment of china which Betty had overlooked and broke into noisy tears. ‘My little shepherdess? I got her on holiday in the Lakes.’ She turned on Ellie. ‘This is all your fault! If you’d looked after him properly, none of this would have happened.’

  ‘I don’t think I could have stopped it …’

  The man puffed out his chest. ‘You should sue her, Luce.’

  A mean look came into Mrs Coppola’s eyes. ‘Yes, I will. I’ll take you for every penny I can. Oh, my lovely collection, my pride and joy!’

  The policewoman raised her eyebrows. ‘Apparently it was your son who—’

  ‘She was supposed to be looking after him, wasn’t she?’

  Ellie sighed. Once she might have let all this pass, but she was beginning to learn that if you didn’t fight back when you were down and out, you didn’t get helped back on to your feet.You got your ribs kicked in, instead.

  She said, ‘As you will have noticed, your central heating’s working again. It was only the pump that needed to be replaced. I’ll send you the bill for that when I get it. As for the new computer that was delivered to Tod today, please regard that as a gift from me to him. I don’t want anything for that, nor for his new clothes, nor payment for the time that Betty kindly gave to look after him, nor for feeding him this last couple of days. And now, I must be going.’

  ‘Good riddance!’ cried Mrs Coppola and threw the fragment of china at Ellie’s retreating back.

  Ellie thought, There’s no point my throwing it back. I shall rise above it. I’ve had more than enough excitement for one day. As she turned to leave the room, the policewoman followed her. ‘Betty’s address …?’

  Ellie gave it. And then, ‘I think I’m right about the stamps, you know. I’ve got the name of a man who might know people in this area who collect stamps.’

  The detective sergeant dismissed the information with a wave of her hand.
‘We’re following a different line of enquiry now and hope to have some news soon. I’m sorry about the brick … the patrol car kept an eye out afterwards, but didn’t see anyone.’ She hesitated. ‘You and Mrs Coppola …?’

  ‘Don’t get on. I think she resents it that Tod spends so much time at my house. Or rather, used to spend so much time at my house. He’s changed.’

  Mrs Coppola came out to the hall and yelled up the stairs, ‘Tod, the police are here. You’re wanted.’ She touched the radiator. ‘Far too hot. Burning gas. What my bill will be like …!’

  Ellie closed her eyes for a minute. No, she was too tired to fight any more.

  She went out into the drizzling rain. Would the sun never give them a chance this spring? She remembered the brick through her window and her nerve almost failed her. Suppose the brick had been thrown at her? A full head of hair would be no protection. Suppose someone had thrown another brick, perhaps through her bedroom window, while she was out? She slept in the bedroom overlooking the road, and a brick thrown through that window might well land on her in bed and …

  Roy was sitting in his car outside her house. He got out when he saw her coming. She felt intense relief, even joy, at seeing him. Now she needn’t go into her house alone.

  ‘Ellie, my dear. Sorry, I was locked into a meeting when you rang. Are you all right? Have you any plans for the evening? I’ve got some good news to share with you.’

  ‘Lovely to see you, Roy.’ She allowed him to kiss her cheek and put his arm around her for a moment, although she was thinking all the while that if the neighbours saw, they wouldn’t half talk. ‘Yes, it’s been a busy day. Come on in for a moment.’

  Then she remembered her lodger and called out, ‘Hello? I’m home. Gus? Are you there?’ He was lurking in the kitchen, looking somehow rather grubbier than he had been. He didn’t reply to her greeting but slunk out of the door into the conservatory when she came in. Yes, he did slink. Furtive, very.

  She thought of going after him, reassuring him that she wasn’t going to turn him out in spite of the brick. She tried to put herself into his shoes. He must feel hunted. Afraid. She didn’t know how to deal with the situation. She thought, I’d better do some praying about it, get some guidance, but not now. Now I’ve got to talk to Roy.