Murder In Law Read online

  Rafael put his arm around her. ‘You’re worn out. Why don’t you go on up? I’ll tidy up down here and come up in a minute. I’d thought of having a cuddle …?’ He read her expression correctly, and continued, ‘But perhaps not tonight. Who knows when the children will need us in the night?’

  Sunday morning

  Well, they did have a more peaceful night. Rafael only had to get up once to the Cuckoo, and Susan slept solidly through till Fifi woke and cried for her at half past six. Susan changed the baby and took her into bed with them to doze off for another hour. And yes, she knew you weren’t supposed to do that, but honestly! Their bed was enormous and if they drew back the curtains Fifi would lie beside them and happily watch the tops of the trees waving in the breeze in the garden outside.

  Little Evan slept right through with no more bad dreams, and he didn’t wet the bed.

  Fifi insisted on wobbling along the corridor upstairs by herself, but did allow Susan to carry her down the stairs. Susan added childproof stair gates to her mental list of what they needed to get. And a helmet for Evan, on scooter or bike.

  Coralie had announced her intention of turning up at half past seven in the morning and did so. Hurray for Coralie! She told Susan that her parents wanted her back that afternoon for a family ‘do’ but she’d stay till one, if that was all right with Susan, which it most definitely was.

  But, oh, how was Susan going to manage that afternoon? She told herself Coralie deserved some time off and there were plenty of women who had to look after three young children at any one time. Susan would learn how to do it. Of course she would.

  Coralie helped Susan sort the children’s breakfast out, and then took them off – with Fifi teetering along beside her – into the garden to run about and work off some energy.

  Rafael excused himself from clearing up the breakfast things by saying he wanted to ring Lesley and leave her a message about the links to the Cottrells which he’d uncovered the night before. He went off to his study to do so, which reminded Susan that, what with one thing and another and looking after the children, she hadn’t reported Cynthia’s visit to Lesley, and then there was the information Little Evan had given her about the night his father was killed. Oughtn’t the police to hear about that?

  Well, yes and no. Rafael would tell Lesley about Cynthia’s involvement in the affair, Evan couldn’t identify anyone, and it would probably be very bad for his psyche to remind him of that terrible event, so … let it lie.

  Lucia drifted in, saying it was her day off and she was going to Mass that morning and would like another advance on her wages so she could go out with a friend afterwards.

  That went down like a lead balloon with Susan as it meant she’d have no help at all with the children that afternoon. She tried bargaining with Lucia, who turned stubborn and accused Susan of wanting to keep her as a wage slave!

  Fortunately Rafael emerged from his study at that point to tell Lucia she couldn’t go anywhere as Lesley wanted to see her again.

  ‘It’s Sunday! I must go to church.’

  ‘Lesley said it wouldn’t take long.’

  ‘Then you must give me money for taxi to church, and for collection and for meeting my friend after for a meal.’

  Rafael shrugged. ‘We’ll ask Lesley what the position is.’

  Lucia flounced off, declining to soil her fingers by helping Susan put the dishes into the dishwasher, which thankfully was now working properly.

  As Lucia went up the stairs, Susan heard her talking on her phone, complaining how badly she was being treated.

  Rafael said, as Lucia slammed the door of her room above, ‘Can we get her famous friend to put her up? She’s no help to you, is she?’

  ‘Agreed. What about asking if Coralie can stay on? She says she wants to leave school and she was thinking of training as a nanny, anyway.’

  ‘Her parents may want her to stay on at school, and she isn’t a trained nanny yet. But yes, I’ll have words, see what we can work out.’

  Down the hall came the patter of tiny feet. Fifi had escaped from Coralie and was aiming for her daddy, only she didn’t quite make it. She slipped and toppled over untidily … but Rafael managed to get to her in time. Fifi crowed with delight and beat at her father’s shoulder. Rafael crowed back and then, still holding her, he got out his smartphone. ‘How many childproof gates do we need? I must measure up.’

  Coralie appeared, panting. ‘Sorry, she got away from me.’ She checked that Fifi was all right and disappeared back into the garden just as the doorbell rang.

  And there was Lesley, accompanied by a second no-nonsense, solid policewoman in plain clothes. Another detective constable?

  Lesley was also on her phone, saying, ‘Yes, yes. I’ll be … No, not long.’ She clicked off.

  Susan took one look at Lesley and inhaled sharply. Lesley had lost her ‘edge’. Lesley had had a bad night, or a quarrel with that egotistic husband of hers? Or both. Yes, both. Best not to notice.

  ‘You want Lucia?’ said Susan. ‘Take her with our blessing.’

  Lucia called down from above. ‘Is Lesley come? Tell her I am worked like a slave and they must put me in four-star hotel!’

  Lesley raised her eyebrows at Susan, who shrugged and suggested coffee.

  Lesley said, ‘No time.’ She called up the stairs, ‘Just a few more questions, Lucia. Won’t take a minute.’

  Lucia took her time descending. She was already wearing her jacket and had put on some make-up. ‘I am late for church. I go to Mass at the abbey.’

  Susan took Fifi from Rafael, as she was fussing to be let down. Once Fifi was on the floor, she held on to Susan’s hand to look around, observing the world from a different angle.

  Lesley said, ‘All right, Lucia. I’ll see that you get a lift in a minute.’

  That didn’t suit Lucia. ‘You pay for taxi to church, right?’

  Lesley’s expression said, Fat chance! She took Lucia into the kitchen, gestured to her to sit and took some photographs out of her bag. ‘I want you to think back to that last morning before you were let go. You took the children to the nursery and were walking back to the house with Jenny in the pushchair, when you saw your employer get out of a car in the road ahead. I have four photos here to show you. Do you recognize the man you saw?’

  Lesley laid down the photographs one after the other. Susan picked Fifi up and looked at the photographs, too. Number three in line was Keith Cottrell. Susan watched Lucia focusing on the photographs.

  The girl kept her face expressionless and pushed the photos away from her. She sat back in her chair, teasing out her hair, eyes sliding left and right. She’d recognized someone, yes. But didn’t want to play ball?’ She said, ‘I not sure. I see for one minute only.’

  Lesley was not amused. ‘I’m not playing games. Did you, or did you not recognize that man from one of these photographs?’

  ‘You treat me bad. You want I be snake in grass, you treat me better. A four-star hotel, and more money. I am not something from the bottom of your shoe. I am worth more.’

  ‘You are worth …!’ Lesley stopped, took a deep breath, and made herself relax. ‘The man you saw may have been responsible for the attack on your employer. If we fail to identify him, then he will be at liberty to commit other crimes.

  ‘Perhaps you think that such a man might pay you to keep your mouth shut about seeing him that morning? That’s called blackmail and it is a criminal offence. I would soon hear about it if you tried that, and would have to place you under arrest, which means you would not be going home for the foreseeable future. Also, if you try to protect a guilty man he might well come looking for you, not to give you money but to silence you for good. Remember this: Evan ended up dead. Do you want to end up the same way?’

  Sulkily, Lucia pushed one photograph out of the pile and put her finger on it. ‘That is the man I saw.’

  Susan, still holding on to Fifi, nodded. ‘That’s Keith Cottrell, the man who was here yesterday, lo
oking for Diana.’

  ‘Good,’ said Lesley, producing another photograph from her bag. ‘Now, Lucia, you know that Evan was attacked by some people looking for your employer’s safe. You know that he fought back. Forensics have discovered DNA from blood and hairs left behind by two of the intruders, one of whom was already in the system. It is possible you may have seen him hanging around the house before the attack. I want you to look at his photograph and tell me if you’ve seen him before.’

  The photograph was of an awkward-looking, raw-boned youth. Close-cut, fairish hair, nondescript coloured eyes fringed with almost-invisible lashes, large nose, poor complexion. He was wearing a hooded T-shirt which was none too clean.

  Lucia looked at it. She shook her head. ‘No.’

  ‘He was one of the men who attacked and killed Evan. His DNA was in the system because he’d been in and out of trouble since he was ten. You’ve never come across him?’

  Lucia lifted her upper lip in a sneer. ‘He look stupid, no?’

  Lesley turned to Susan. ‘Have you ever seen this lad before?’

  Susan studied the mugshot. ‘Don’t think so.’ Of course, if he’d been hanging around a street corner with a group of other youths, she might not have noticed him. She could imagine what the boy was like: single parent, absentee father, low IQ, dropped out of school and joined whatever gang would accept him. A follower, not a leader.

  Just as Lucia was a follower and not a leader.

  She passed the photo to Rafael who was, fortunately, off his phone for the moment. Rafael scrutinized the photo and shook his head. ‘Local lad?’

  ‘Lived in a tower block where Social Services dump people. He was found in an alley behind the shops this morning. Dead. Knife wounds. It was probably some gang-related activity which put him there, but it’s a pity because if he’d lived we’d have been able to question him about Evan’s death.’

  Lucia wasn’t interested. ‘You take drugs, then you die.’ She got to her feet. ‘I need money for taxi and church and for meal with my friend. I need key for front door, because I am with my friend till late.’

  Susan said, ‘I don’t think we’ve got a spare set, have we, Rafael? What time do you think you’ll be back, Lucia? One of us will wait up for you if you can’t make it by ten.’

  Lucia didn’t like that. ‘I am not child, told what time to go to bed.’

  Lesley wasn’t amused. ‘If you can’t get back by ten, you must phone and tell Susan you can’t make it and get one of your friends to put you up for the night. Now, sit down again and give your statement to my DS. I’ll drop you off at the abbey afterwards. Meanwhile … Susan, a word?’

  Lesley led the way into the sitting room, leaving her police sergeant with Lucia.

  Rafael followed them, taking Fifi off Susan, and dumping her in her playpen. He said, ‘You’ve arrested Diana?’

  ‘We’re looking for her. Any ideas?’

  Rafael glanced at Susan and looked away. ‘You think she’s on the run because she’s afraid she’ll be accused of planning her husband’s murder?’

  ‘We need to question her further, to eliminate her from our enquiries.’

  Rafael said, ‘I believe you can find people’s location by tracing their smartphones. Ah, you’ve tried that and haven’t found her, which means she’s stopped using that phone. But she’ll need to keep in touch with people somehow, so she’s probably bought herself a cheap Pay As You Go phone which you can’t track.’

  Lesley shrugged. ‘Been there. Done that. Any other ideas?’

  ‘Susan and I thought she might have lifted the keys to one of the empty properties she’s trying to sell, and moved in there but … No, you’ve checked that no keys are missing, haven’t you? What about her bank account?’

  Lesley allowed herself a small smile and shook her head.

  Rafael narrowed his eyes. ‘Of course you’ve already checked that, too. Diana knows you can trace where she’s been from the use she makes of her bank card and there’s been no activity on it? Hm. Well, either she withdrew a large sum of money in cash on the day Evan was killed, and is living off that or … No, she’s set up another bank account with a different bank? Yes, of course that’s just what she’d do. I’ll bet she had one set up somewhere else, ages ago. Her own private account. She would have been squirrelling away what she could lay her hands on, money from kickbacks and what she got from pawning Evan’s ring. She was making herself a rainy day fund.’

  Lesley’s mouth tightened. ‘You know her much better than I do. We’ll check that. Any other inspirations?’

  Rafael shrugged. ‘Why do you want her? You know she’s got a foolproof alibi for the night Evan was attacked. What’s more, she had no reason to wish a dying man dead.’

  Lesley said, ‘She lied to us, and I want to know why. Also, it occurs to me that if Evan had discovered she was having it off with Keith Cottrell, he might well have threatened to make her life miserable and she might have launched a pre-emptive strike to shut him up.’

  Rafael was sceptical. ‘She hadn’t time to organize anything. Evan didn’t investigate her laptop till after she’d left that evening.’

  ‘So why did she lie to us? I agree it’s more likely that it was Keith Cottrell who got someone to burgle the safe to recover whatever it was she’d got on him. We’ve managed to get into her laptop and there’s evidence there to show that they were having an affair. Arrangements for meetings, and so on.’

  Susan said, ‘Yes, but Cynthia didn’t want a divorce any more than Evan would. Rafael did tell you about her calling on me, didn’t he?’ She repeated the gist of what the woman had said the previous day, concluding with: ‘Cynthia Cottrell was very sure that Keith would toe the line in future. She wasn’t going to divorce him, not she! She did say she and Evan had discussed the matter on the evening before he died, and that they were going to take action to end the affair, but neither wanted a divorce.

  ‘Evan certainly wouldn’t have wanted one. Yes, he might have wanted to lash out, to scream and shout at her, and maybe even threaten this and that. But when he’d calmed down, practical considerations would have told him it wasn’t in his best interests to divorce the woman who kept the agency and his house and the children going, not to mention looking after him in his increasing frailty. He certainly didn’t need to set up a burglary of his own house because he could access the safe any time he wanted. Couldn’t he?

  THIRTEEN

  Sunday noon and afternoon

  Rafael said, ‘I keep wondering what is in that safe? You’ve cracked the laptop and got confirmation that Keith and Diana were having an affair, but there’s nothing to say either party was anxious to get a divorce. Right? Now, as to the safe. Let me guess, you found the usual stuff: passports, marriage certificates, some family jewellery, and they don’t take you any further than the emails have done. And what else?’

  Lesley almost laughed. And then shook her head. ‘I can’t say, yet. We’re going through the contents of the safe now. There’s some business papers which might be interesting but nothing to show where Diana might be hiding. I’m beginning to wonder if she has more papers in a bank vault somewhere.’

  Rafael said, ‘There’s no bills for council tax or services paid for on another property somewhere? No? Which means that Keith was being careful not to let her hold them for him. There must be records somewhere of his bolthole, somewhere which has not gone through the books. Keith’s in the building trade, isn’t he? Couldn’t he have kept a small furnished show flat for himself after the rest of the houses in his housing development had been sold off?’

  ‘No, Rafael,’ said Susan. ‘If I read her correctly, I think it’s her bolthole, not his. She wouldn’t leave expensive shoes and toiletries in a love nest provided by Keith or any other man, in case they were used by someone else. Lesley, I’d look at recent contracts covering a small, central property rented out through her agency. A studio flat, perhaps? Something in one of the new builds down by the river? Or on the
canal? Pricey, minimalist, and with a cleaning contract with an agency.’

  Rafael nodded. ‘Makes sense.’

  Lesley said, ‘I suppose it wouldn’t do any harm to look. You will be amused to hear that when I went over to see Mr Cottrell, he refused to speak to me unless I had a warrant for his arrest, and even then he’d say nothing unless his solicitor were present. I mentioned that we’d had a complaint of assault and he just laughed and said it was always a certain type of woman who screamed “rape” when they’d been accused of having done something naughty!’

  Susan closed her eyes and told herself to count down from ten. No, from a hundred. And made it to ninety …

  Rafael put his hand over hers. ‘Lesley, you’re not letting him get away with that, are you?’

  ‘No. We’re getting a warrant and I’ll tackle him again tomorrow.’

  Coralie shot in from the garden through the French windows, carrying Jenny and leading Evan by the hand. ‘It’s started to rain. Potty time before milk and biscuits.’

  ‘One moment.’ Lesley stopped Coralie in mid-stride. ‘I’ve got a couple of photos I’m showing everyone. Do you recognize one of these men?’ She fanned out the photographs which included Keith Cottrell.

  Coralie studied them with care, despite Jenny fidgeting in her arms. ‘No. Sorry. Don’t think so.’

  ‘And this one?’ The youth whose DNA had been found at the house.

  ‘Mm. No … at least, sort of. Maybe it’s just the sort of person … I remember someone like that at school, three years ahead? It looks like him, but I can’t be certain. There was a whole group of them, always in trouble. To be avoided at all costs. The police were often at school wanting to question them about this and that. Vandalism, mostly, I think. They thought it was dead funny to tip the rubbish bins over or trip up the dinner ladies. They were suspended from school. Or maybe they just dropped out. What’s this one done?’