Murder In Law Read online

  Lesley said, ‘His DNA was found at Evan’s house following the burglary. There might be some perfectly good reason why, of course. Can you remember his name?’

  Coralie’s eyes were huge. She shook her head. ‘Never knew him to speak to. That lot, they all had names taken from the telly. Ask the head.’

  ‘What about his friends? You say he was in a gang?’

  ‘Dunno. Not a solid group. Sort of shifted around, if I remember right.’

  She screwed up her eyes, trying to remember. ‘They said one of them carried a knife.’ She shuddered.

  ‘Have you seen them since you left school?’

  ‘Don’t think so. Thing is, we had this mantra: never meet their eyes. Never stand in their way. That’s how you keep out of trouble.’

  ‘But you’d have heard if they were banged up for anything?’

  ‘I think,’ Coralie said doubtfully, ‘someone said they hung about in the multistorey car park at the back of the shopping centre, kicking balls about, probably dealing.’ Jenny was squirming so Coralie swept her off to the toilet, closely followed by young Evan.

  Lesley said, ‘That’s all very interesting. Now, if Lucia’s signed her statement, I’ll drop her at the abbey on my way to interview my young laddie’s mother.’

  ‘Remind Lucia,’ said Susan, ‘to be back before ten or to phone us if she’s going to stay over with a friend.’

  ‘Will do.’ Lesley swept out, taking Lucia and her DC with her.

  Susan didn’t notice till Lesley had gone but another hand-delivered card was lying on the doormat. This time it was an invitation for Susan and Rafael to bring the children for tea and play at the Fun Factory about a mile away. Susan had heard of it. There was a sort of warehouse with activities for children, attached to a tearoom. Diana had chosen a good place to meet. Anonymous.

  Susan took the card through to Rafael to show him. He said, ‘Lesley didn’t see this?’

  ‘No. Should I call her back and tell her?’

  Rafael thought about that. ‘Diana may or may not have a bolthole down by the river, but I’m thinking she’s much closer to hand because …’

  ‘She’s keeping an eye on the children.’ Susan picked Fifi up and took her to the French windows. Rain spat at the glass. She could see where Evan and Jenny had beaten down the long grass, chasing one another around. Oh dear, the garden looked so unkempt. She really must get on to the gardener.

  It had been Ellie’s decision not to divide the garden into two – at least for the time being – so that there’d be plenty of room for her grandchildren and Fifi to run round and play. The high brick wall around it was masked by shrubs and some mature trees. Susan couldn’t see even the roofs of the surrounding houses from where she stood, but she knew that if she climbed to the top of her house she could look over the wall into the grounds of the hotel in the next road.

  Today it was too chilly to sit outside, but on a warm day some of the older, wealthy businessmen and women who frequented the hotel might be seen on the patio, taking their ease in chairs under bright umbrellas.

  Rafael said, ‘You think that Diana might well have gone to ground at the hotel? I wonder what name she’s using.’

  Susan said, ‘Ellie always said Diana was a good mother. I wasn’t sure I agreed with her, but from the evidence of the cards and what little Evan tells me, I think she really does care about the children. She must be worried sick, knowing she’s a person of interest and not having a secure base anywhere.’

  Rafael checked that the French windows were properly shut and locked. ‘She may be at the hotel temporarily, but I’m sure she does have a bolthole somewhere else. It will be a love nest, not big enough to take the children as well.’

  Susan said, ‘Coralie’s off this afternoon and so is Lucia. Do we accept Diana’s invitation? It would reassure her that the children are all right.’

  Rafael barked out a laugh. ‘Don’t expect her to be grateful. Remember she will always be the self-centred, difficult woman we’ve always loved to hate. She sacked Lucia on the flimsiest of grounds—’

  ‘Oh, come on! I’d have sacked her myself. Lucia did not look after the children properly.’

  ‘She also accused Marcy of theft to make her keep her mouth shut. Diana is not a nice woman. I doubt if she will thank us for taking her children in and I’d lay odds she’s only summoned us to meet her because she wants something. Any takers?’

  Susan shook her head. No takers.

  Sunday afternoon

  WELCOME TO THE FUN FACTORY

  The slogan was painted in huge letters across the wall of the building, but at the door it was made clear that children would not be allowed in without a responsible adult to look after them. In other words, if your child has an accident, we are not responsible. The entrance fee was not cheap but the place was well filled with families escaping from the drizzle outside.

  The walls had been painted with bright colours, lively music was being pumped out though a speaker system and a small cafe area, decorated with fairy lights, twinkled a welcome.

  Susan had taken Fifi to the children’s playground in the park regularly, but the child’s eyes were wide with wonder as she took in the slides and bouncy castles, the area for riding pedal cars and the rainbow heaps of balls to have fun with. ‘Down!’ she commanded, trying to escape from her buggy.

  Evan and Jenny had been there before. Evan dumped his scooter and Hippo on Susan and headed for the bright red pedal cars, while Jenny tugged Rafael towards the slides.

  ‘You’re ten minutes late!’ A sharp voice. Diana.

  Susan freed Fifi from her harness and called out, ‘Evan! Jenny! Look who’s here!’

  Evan froze on the point of getting into one of the cars. He cast a longing look back at the car, but he did run back to embrace his mother’s leg and hide his face in her skirt. Yes, he was happy to see her.

  Jenny was at the top of the slide, with Rafael waiting to catch her. ‘Mummy! Look at me!’ She slipped down in a flurry of arms and legs, to be rescued and set on her feet by Rafael … upon which she ran round to try the slide again. Jenny wasn’t stopping her fun to greet her mother. No way!

  Diana stooped to give Evan a hug and then pushed him away. ‘Have you been a good boy? Go and play on the cars now.’ So he did.

  Fifi managed to wriggle her way out of Susan’s arms and, once on the floor and hanging on to Susan’s denim skirt with one hand, tugged her along to the glassed-in enclosure which held the brightly coloured balls. Susan said, ‘Will you keep an eye on Evan, Diana?’

  ‘He knows what he’s doing. I want to talk to you and Rafael.’

  Susan remembered Rafael saying that there would be no thanks for taking the children but hope springs eternal, et cetera, and she had hoped for at least some acknowledgement of what they’d done. ‘You want to take the children back with you now, or this evening?’

  ‘What! No, of course not! I shall have to leave them with you for the time being.’

  Susan switched to Plan B. ‘If we are to keep the children for a while, perhaps we should have something in writing from you to show Social Services? We’ve had trouble fending them off as it is.’

  ‘Very well. I’ll send you something, and I’ll ring the nursery tomorrow to say you’ll be bringing Evan in the morning and collecting him at lunchtime. They like to have it all noted down. I think Jenny should start there, too. Have you managed to get her potty-trained yet? I know Lucia was unable to manage it but she was so inefficient …’ A shrug. ‘A good thing she’s gone.’

  Susan held her tongue. Poor Lucia. Yes, she wasn’t much good, but she hadn’t deserved to be thrown out on the street like that.

  Susan said, ‘I have my hands full already, with Fifi’ – who was almost horizontal, trying to pull Susan towards the bouncy ball area – ‘and the house move. We’re employing a local girl on a temporary basis to help out. How much longer do you expect us to keep the children?’

  Diana looked away. ‘I ha
ve no idea. Circumstances …’ She waved the circumstances away. ‘About the nursery, they’ll want paying for the term. They’ve been on to me about it, but at the moment … Would you sort that for me? I’ll repay you later, of course.’

  Ugh. Now we’re stuck with paying her bills, too. And we’ll never see a penny in return.

  Susan finally gave in to Fifi’s tugging. She lifted the child into the heaps of shifting balls and held her there. Fifi kicked and waved her arms, sending the plastic globes high and wide. Fifi loved it. She crowed with pleasure. Susan’s back began to ache and she had to lift her baby out to ease the pain.

  Fifi fought to be put into the pen again. Her little chin was firm. Her eyes flashed fire. She was going to scream the place down in a minute.

  Susan offered Fifi to Diana. ‘Can you hold her a moment?’

  Diana hissed her displeasure but took the baby in her arms.

  Susan straightened up, rubbing her back. She was interested to see that Fifi took her time to work out if she liked Diana or not. Her nostrils whiffled. Fifi judged people by many criteria. Sometimes just by their smell.

  Diana held the baby awkwardly at first, but then shifted her into the crook of her arm. She looked down into Fifi’s eyes, and Fifi looked up at her.

  One intelligent woman sizing up another.

  Fifi’s eyes flicked to her mother, and then back to Diana.

  Diana’s mouth curved into a smile. ‘Nice little thing, isn’t she? Very bright.’

  Fifi blinked. She didn’t scream but held out her arms to her mother to take her back. Judgement had been suspended.

  Susan thought that was interesting. Perhaps there was some good in Diana, somewhere?

  Susan laid down the terms of engagement. ‘Let us have your new phone number, in case of emergencies.’

  ‘So that you can give it to the police? No.’

  Susan shrugged. ‘You must understand that we need to be able to contact you in case of emergencies. As for the police, I don’t understand why you want to avoid them. You didn’t instigate the burglary at your house.’

  ‘I’m not hiding from the police. Let’s go and sit down. I need to put you and Rafael in the picture.’

  The children were duly rounded up, given their choice of foods to eat – at which Susan started to worry about too much salt in the food on offer – and the adults ordered burgers and tea. Fifi sat on Susan’s knee to eat a bit of this and that and had her first experience of drinking through a straw. The other two gobbled up everything in sight and ran off to play again. Rafael turned his chair so that he could keep an eye on them.

  Diana took one sip of tea and one nibble of her burger and set them aside as inedible and undrinkable. She said, ‘I suppose you think it was a bit “off” for me to have an affair with Keith Cottrell. It didn’t affect my fondness for my husband, or how much it hurt to see such a strong man reduced to living in a wheelchair. Spending a few hours with Keith every now and then was a safety valve, something we both needed.’

  ‘It was that way for Keith, too?’

  ‘His wife’s a cold fish and older than him. There were no children. We weren’t hurting anyone.’

  ‘Evan didn’t object?’

  ‘He may have suspected but he took care not to know. Cynthia knew but she didn’t care so long as we observed the decencies. Right at the end, she did start to make noises about how long Keith thought it was going to go on, but she did nothing about it till Evan died.’

  I wonder if that’s quite true. Cynthia told me she’d discussed the matter with Evan the night he died. She said they’d discussed divorce and/or cracking the whip to end the affair. Both Evan and Cynthia had seemed to think they only had to shout ‘Stop!’ and the liaison would end. I wonder if it would have been that simple.

  Diana said, ‘I realized the situation would change as soon as Evan died. I got in touch with Keith. We both knew it was the end of the affair because he’d never leave his wife. He has far too much to lose. The problem was that … that …’

  Rafael helped her out. ‘You had managed to get something incriminating on him, something which you’d stashed in the safe at home?’

  Diana reddened. ‘It wasn’t like that. Yes, there were some documents which refer to a venture which Keith and I had been discussing, nothing to do with the Cottrells. He didn’t want to leave the paperwork lying around so I was holding it for the time being.’

  Susan and Rafael exchanged glances.

  What venture? Something which Diana and Keith had cooked up between them? Something to make them a little money on the side? A scam of some sort? Were those the documents which Lesley had mentioned finding in the safe? What would Lesley make of them?

  Rafael said, ‘You were setting up some kind of … business project … with Keith. His wife didn’t know about it. Was it legal?’

  ‘Yes, of course.’ Diana was Mistress Indignation herself!

  Was she lying? Yes. Diana had always been into dicey deals. Ellie had said that everything her daughter touched turned to fools’ gold, and that she lost money quicker than she earned it.

  Diana said, ‘I know it would have been sensible to have destroyed the papers when I found Evan lying on the floor, but I didn’t think of anything but that he was still alive. I think – I hope – he knew I was there, holding his hand.’

  Momentarily she sagged in her chair. Then she straightened her back. ‘There’s nothing incriminating in those papers but Keith didn’t want his wife to get hold of them. Now they’re in the hands of the police and, well, it might look bad for him if the police chose to make them public. And quite unnecessary. The best thing to do for everyone concerned is for you to ask the police to let me have the papers back. They’ve nothing to do with my husband’s death, but they could make trouble for Keith. I’d be grateful.’

  She didn’t sound grateful. She made it sound reasonable, which it wasn’t.

  Susan said, ‘You know better than to ask us to interfere with evidence. So what is it you really want us to do?’

  ‘Well, for a start, you can withdraw your absurd claim for assault. No one who knows Keith could possibly think he’d harm a woman and it adds to the stress he’s under.’

  Susan said, ‘You should see the photographs of what he did to me.’

  Diana swallowed. She abandoned a lost cause and instead tried to put on a wounded, innocent expression. She said, ‘I thought you’d be more understanding. I’m in shock. Penniless, homeless, and dreading that my children might be taken from me.’

  Three choruses of hearts and flowers. Remember how Diana treated Lucia and Marcy! Remember how she’s dumped her children on us!

  Diana tried another sip of tea and set the cup aside once more. She probably only enjoyed dragon’s milk or viper’s serum. She said, ‘Well, the other thing is that, as you can see, I have a cash flow problem. Evan left a little life insurance and not much else. He put the estate agency in my name some time ago but under present conditions, it’s hardly making ends meet. As we were renting our house, the agency is my only asset. I need a fresh start, to move away to a different neighbourhood. I have to find somewhere to live which is big enough for me, the children, and some live-in staff. Renting is a mug’s game and there’s not enough in the kitty to buy. You follow?’

  Rafael and Susan did.

  ‘I expected my mother to help, but she’s being most unhelpful. She says she won’t be back for a week or ten days and referred me to you, Rafael, to deal with any problems that might turn up before then. The thing is that the Cottrells have offered to buy my agency at a knock-down price, but if I accept I wouldn’t have enough to buy a decent place hereabouts and I’d have lost any means of supporting myself and the children.’

  Rafael said, ‘Why would the Cottrells offer to buy you out?’

  Diana twisted her hands in her lap. ‘It’s not Keith. No, it’s Cynthia. She wants her pound of flesh. She went to her father, who’s a right old tyrant straight out of Mafialand, and it’s he
who’s calling the shots now. He’s offering to buy the agency on condition that I hand over the handwritten notes that Keith and I made about a possible project. He wants them so that he has something to hold over Keith. And, he wants me to get out of Keith’s life. He wrapped it up nicely, suggesting I could make a clean start with the money, buy a nice house in a cheaper area, find another job. He made it clear that he wanted me out of the area. He said’ – she winced – ‘what lovely children I had and how proud I must be of their good looks. His meaning was clear. He has a certain reputation. I am not easily intimidated, but …’

  Was that true, or had she added the threat to get Susan and Rafael on her side? Susan shivered, imagining an attack on Evan or, worse, on Fifi!

  Rafael put his hand on Susan’s and held it. Susan calmed down. Rafael wouldn’t let anything happen to Fifi.

  Diana said, ‘I’m not afraid of the police. They can’t charge me with anything, but Cynthia’s father is another matter. I’ve stopped using my smartphone so that he can’t track me down. I’ve put my car in one garage and I’m renting a runabout from another. I’m sleeping in a different place every night. Keith can’t help me. I tried my mother, naturally, but she doesn’t seem to understand how real the danger is. I’ve tried to be patient, telling myself that she’s out of touch, and that if she only realized … So I’m asking you to explain everything to her.

  ‘I’m not asking for the moon; just a decent place for me and the kids to live. I know the trust has properties all over London. I realize that Evan was behind with the rent, but if my mother would guarantee say, three months occupancy free, that would allow me enough time to get back on my feet. I could look around for a better offer for the agency and set up somewhere else, perhaps in North London? It would solve all my problems. My mother wouldn’t want her grandchildren put out on the street, would she?’

  ‘Emotional blackmail,’ said Rafael, in a soft voice. ‘It won’t work, Diana. As for asking the trust to help you out, I’d be against letting you move into any of our properties unless you could convince me you’d be able to pay three months in advance plus the money you owe for back rent of the big house. What about the money you got from pawning Evan’s ring?’