Murder for Nothing Read online

  Andy’s heavy footsteps continued overhead. A moment later, they heard him pounding up the second flight of stairs to Susan’s flat on the attic floor. ‘Susan! I know you’re in there!’

  Ellie helped Lesley on to the settee. ‘Cup of tea, right? And then you can tell me all about it.’ She reflected that it must be something fairly dramatic to have brought the newlyweds back home early. Murder? No, come off it! And Lesley had said it wasn’t murder. And anyway, why was Andy in search of Susan?

  Ellie would have released her hold on her friend in order to get her some tea, but Lesley clutched her hand.

  ‘Ellie, I’m destroyed.’

  Ellie listened to what Lesley was saying without words. Lesley felt she was destroyed. Why and how? Ellie said gently, ‘Tell me.’

  ‘The flat. Wrecked. Burgled. We can’t stay there.’ A tear welled up in each eye.

  Ellie shook her head in silent sympathy. A burglary? Bad news.

  The bull thundered down the stairs and burst into the room. ‘You’re hiding her from me and I won’t have it. Where have you put her? I’m going to twist her neck round till her eyes pop out of—’

  Ellie put as much authority into her voice as she could. ‘Andy, stop! I told you, Susan’s not here. She’s never home at this time of day.’

  ‘What!’ His colour was bad. Was he going to have a heart attack? He confronted Ellie, nose to nose. ‘So where is she?’

  Ellie refused to give way. ‘You know where she is. She’s at college.’

  ‘But the police must have been round here, looking for her. You’d better come up with some answers, right?’

  ‘What?’ Ellie tried to get through to him. ‘I haven’t seen any police. I’ve been in all morning, babysitting my grandson. Susan is not here. She’s at college. You know that perfectly well. She goes every day. Why would they be looking for her, anyway?’

  He didn’t shift. ‘She’s your responsibility. You’d better produce her, right?’

  Lesley made a small sound. She was clearly distressed, and so pale that Ellie wondered if she were going to faint.

  Lesley tried to speak. ‘I’m sure it wasn’t—’

  ‘Yes, it was. Of course it was. Deceitful bitch! I never took to her.’

  Lesley lifted a hand to her head. ‘You were fine about her moving in with us for a while. She paid her way which helped us to save, and I really don’t think—’

  ‘That’s your trouble, Lesley,’ said the bull. ‘You don’t think!’

  Ellie could hardly credit what she heard. How rude! How insensitive! What was the matter with the man? For two pins she’d give him a piece of her mind. He should be looking after Lesley instead of shouting at her. Ellie didn’t like his tone and, come to think of it, she’d never really taken to him, either.

  But she swallowed the sharp words that had risen to her tongue. It wasn’t up to her to intervene between a newly-married couple. Something had clearly upset them, something about the flat. First things first. ‘Exactly what has happened?’

  Lesley’s pallor had taken on a Halloween-green tinge. Was she going to be sick?

  Um, yes. Lesley made a convulsive movement out of her seat, and Ellie helped her out of the sitting room and down the corridor into the kitchen. Lesley vanished into the toilet, and yes, she was comprehensively sick.

  Ellie put the kettle on, trying to take in the situation. Andy was the deputy head of a primary school, keen on sport and flexing his muscles. Lesley was an old friend of Ellie’s, climbing the ladder in the police force. They’d got married ten, no, eleven days ago.

  They were not acting like newlyweds.

  No, they weren’t, were they? Some people said the first year of married life was the hardest as each had to adapt to the other. Usually there was enough love between the couple to see them through the rough patches. What had gone wrong here?

  Well, for one thing, Ellie had always wondered whether or not the two were a good match. Lesley had a stressful job in the police and liked to unwind when off-duty by going to the pub or meeting up with friends. He, on the other hand, was something of a fitness fanatic, ultra-neat and tidy in the house. He’d reached the position of deputy head in a primary school in double-quick time, but had so far failed to land a headship. Plus, his temper was uncertain.

  One week before the wedding, Lesley had almost called the whole thing off but gone through with it in the end. But now, less than a fortnight later, she was clearly unwell and he was criticizing her in front of other people.

  Ellie busied herself with picking up the biscuit tin, which had ended up on the floor, with broken pieces of biscuit strewn around. She thought that Lesley would tell her what had happened in a minute. What should they have for lunch? A sandwich of some sort. Perhaps some home-made soup? More importantly, what would they have for supper tonight? Was this one of the nights when Susan had planned to cook for them? Ellie couldn’t remember.

  She couldn’t stop thinking of what Lesley had said: ‘I’m destroyed.’

  Ellie wondered if the girl had meant not only that her flat had been wrecked but had also realized she’d made a horrible mistake in marrying Andy …? Which Ellie would understand.

  It was not a good situation for Lesley to be in.

  Lesley had a flat on the ground floor of an old house up by the church, which she’d been sharing with Andy for some six months or so. If they had been burgled … but Lesley had said something about murder. Surely that wasn’t right.

  Ellie checked the fridge. Sliced ham and tomatoes would do for lunch, but what did they have which they could eat tonight? Um. Not much.

  Andy charged into the kitchen, mobile phone in hand. ‘Give me Susan’s phone number. I want her back here, now!’

  Ellie disliked confrontation and her first reaction was to do as she was bidden, but no, she didn’t like being ordered about and she decided to sidestep his demand. ‘Your wife is not well. Wouldn’t you like to see to her first?’

  ‘This is all her fault! You do realize, don’t you, that everything is on my computer? I told her, “I need to take it with me.” She said I’d relax better without it and she took it out of the car and put it back in the flat. Can you believe it! And now, where do you think it is? Down the pawn shop? Sold on through someone in the pub?’

  That was bad news indeed. Ellie said, ‘What exactly has happened?’

  He strode around, waving his mobile phone. ‘The flat’s been wrecked! It’s uninhabitable! Everything of value has gone. It looks as if there was an illegal party there and, to make matters worse, there’s a dead girl in the garden!’

  TWO

  Monday at noon

  Ellie gaped. ‘A dead girl in your garden? You mean … murdered?’

  ‘I assume so. She’s just been dumped there, like so much rubbish.’

  ‘Who was she?’

  ‘How should I know? A party girl, I suppose.’

  ‘You didn’t know her?’

  ‘What! Me? No, of course not.’

  ‘Did you see the body?’

  ‘They showed me photos. Ugh. They said she’d been a pretty girl. Lots of red hair. I didn’t know her from Adam, and neither did Lesley.’

  A key turned in the lock of the front door, and someone called out, ‘Hello, I’m home!’

  ‘Susan!’ Andy’s colour rose. He thumped the table. ‘Where have you been?’

  ‘What?’ Susan appeared in the doorway. Andy might have a rugby player’s build but Susan was also solidly built. She was not conventionally pretty and never bothered with make-up, but her frontage was fabulous and nowadays she did wear low-cut T-shirts to show off her assets.

  ‘Where have I been?’ Susan dumped some bags of food on the table. ‘We had a couple of hours off so I went shopping for tonight’s supper. I heard of this new deli, thought I’d check it out. Salad, cheese, pâté, ham. What’s up, Andy? I thought you weren’t due back till the weekend. Where’s Lesley?’

  ‘I’m here.’ Lesley appeared, looking fr
ail. ‘Sorry, everyone. Sorry, Andy.’ She sank into a chair as if it were too much trouble to stand.

  Andy blared at Susan. ‘So why aren’t you under arrest?’

  Susan opened her very blue eyes wide. She decided he was joking. She laughed. ‘What? What for?’ She began to put her purchases in the fridge. ‘The deli is something else. Three shelves of cheeses, right? Some even I’d never heard of.’

  Ellie said, ‘Let’s all calm down. Andy, sit down. Start from the beginning. You and Lesley went off up north. You were called back because burglars got into your flat while you were away, right?’

  ‘Not burglars, no. At least …’ He gestured widely. ‘All I know is that the people in the flat above us were also away this last weekend. They got back late last night, looked out of their sitting-room window when they went to draw the curtains and saw something odd – not in their part of the garden, in ours. They went down to investigate and found a girl lying there, dead. Can you believe it! In the bushes! And that’s all Lesley’s fault, too.’

  Lesley put her head in her hands as Andy ploughed on. ‘I told her, I said we want a low-maintenance garden. She should have ripped all those plants out. What do we want with a lot of shrubs and flowers? But she always found some reason why … And now look what’s happened! A girl, dumped in the bushes. No identification; nothing.’

  ‘That’s terrible,’ said Ellie.

  ‘Not half as bad as what they found in our place. The entrance to our flat is round the side of the house, so our neighbours hadn’t noticed that anything was wrong at first. But when they went down to the garden they found our front door open, lights left on and a trail of destruction. Oh, God! Water leaking from a smashed toilet, the gas still burning! The place wrecked! Everything! The fridge and the freezer left open, the telly tipped on to its back, my laptop, and hers, of course, all gone! Plus most of our wedding presents.’

  Lesley covered her mouth with her hands, trying not to choke … or to vomit? She waved her hand and rushed off back to the toilet.

  Ellie waited to see if Andy would follow his wife but he didn’t. Perhaps he knew she’d prefer to be sick by herself? She said, ‘So it wasn’t just a burglary, then?’

  ‘The police think it was an illegal rave. The flat upstairs hadn’t been touched. Our neighbours hadn’t been so stupid as to leave a key with anyone else, had they! Anyway, when they found the body they phoned the police, who phoned us. We were way out in the sticks and didn’t get the message at first. And when we did, we had to drive back through the night, only to find …’ He raised his fists in the air.

  ‘Why do the police think it was a party?’

  ‘Noise. They asked the neighbours. There’d been complaints over the weekend. Comings and goings. Susan had advertised a party on the Internet and they went to town on it, didn’t they?’

  ‘What? Don’t be ridiculous,’ said Susan.

  Ellie shook her head. ‘No, Susan wouldn’t do that.’

  ‘Of course she would. Anything for money. She had the key, hadn’t she? And why my dear wife thought it was a good idea to entrust the key to our place to you, you lump of lard, I do not know!’

  Susan reddened and looked as if she were about to slosh Andy, so Ellie said, ‘That’s very rude, Andy. And not true, either.’ Susan was a well-built girl with an impressive bosom, but she was not a lump of lard.

  Andy wasn’t to be diverted. ‘It’s all of a piece! Lesley has no sense at all! Fancy giving the key to a college student! I told her, “You do realize your folly has invalidated our insurance!”’

  ‘But I didn’t!’ gasped Susan. ‘I wouldn’t! Honest!’

  Lesley fumbled her way back into the kitchen and dropped into a chair. She looked so pale that Ellie was alarmed.

  Andy, however, was focused on Susan. ‘You had a key!’

  ‘Well, yes, I did. Lesley asked me to look in and see if her pot plants needed a drop of water midweek and I’d planned to go tomorrow, but—’

  ‘Then you advertised a rave party on—’

  ‘No. Never!’

  Lesley shook her head. ‘No, Andy. I’m sure she didn’t.’

  Someone sang out from the hall, ‘I’m just off. Might be back late. Don’t worry if I am. I found my spare key, so I can let myself in.’ The front door opened and shut behind the girl.

  ‘Angelica!’ said Ellie, understanding that someone other than Susan might well have been responsible for holding a party in her cousin’s flat.

  Lesley echoed, ‘Angelica, of course. Andy, you gave Angelica a key?’

  ‘No, I—’

  ‘But she had one when she was living with you, didn’t she?’ said Ellie. ‘Did she give it back to you when you threw her out? She does tend to mislay keys. She’s done it here, too. Perhaps she had a copy made when she was living with you and kept it when she left?’

  ‘What!’ Colour flared in Andy’s cheeks. ‘How dare you! Just because she’s young and beautiful, you’ve got a downer on her! I’ve heard that people who are past it can be jealous of the young, but this … this takes the biscuit!’

  Lesley protested, ‘Andy, please!’

  Ellie didn’t want a shouting match so tried not to react to his offensive language. Yes, she had been knocked off balance by his insinuation that she was ‘past it’, particularly since life with her dear husband Thomas was full of interest and that included time out in the bedroom. She told herself that she was a grown woman and perfectly able to deal with a short-sighted and delusional idiot like Andy.

  She tried for the voice of reason. ‘Your cousin Angelica is short of money. She has no job. She complains she hasn’t a penny to fly with and yet she’s been out on yet another shopping spree today. So I ask you again, did she return her key when she left your place?’

  ‘What are you suggesting? That’s slander!’

  ‘No worse than you suggesting that Susan made wrongful use of her key.’

  ‘Angelica would never do that to me. She would never let our flat be wrecked!’

  ‘I don’t suppose it ever entered her mind that it might happen,’ said Ellie. ‘But she’s not exactly Brain of Britain, is she?’

  Andy reddened. ‘How dare you talk like that about my cousin!’

  ‘If she advertised a party on the Internet, a lot of uninvited guests might well turn up and she’d be unable to control what happened.’

  He wasn’t entertaining that thought for a second. Also, he knew that the best form of defence is attack. He turned on Ellie. ‘You only say that because you are a jealous, spiteful old woman who has long since lost any appeal she might have had to men!’

  Lesley groaned but, before Ellie could tell him to mind his language, Susan fired up. ‘How dare you! Mrs Quicke is the kindest, nicest, most generous … Oh, I could do you an injury if it weren’t beneath me to do so!’

  ‘Please!’ Lesley’s voice shook. ‘Andy, you don’t mean it. Ellie really is not … I’m so sorry, everyone. I don’t know what’s the matter with me.’

  Ellie examined a thought which had been hovering at the back of her mind. Was Lesley pregnant? Was she suffering from morning sickness?

  Andy either hadn’t guessed or was in denial. ‘For heaven’s sake, Les! Pull yourself together. You got us into this mess and you’ll have to deal with it.’

  Lesley closed her eyes and quivered.

  Ellie put her hand on Lesley’s shoulder. ‘You are on leave, aren’t you? Then let your colleagues at the police deal with it. I assume you’ve been called back to give them a statement about what you know?’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ said Andy, flinging himself into another chair. ‘Fancy being dragged back from honeymoon for this! They asked me to provide a list of everything that’s been stolen. I can tell you, that’s going to take for ever because all the wedding presents went as well. We hadn’t even unwrapped some of them. Worse still, I shall have to get another computer first thing, and who’s going to pay for that, I ask you!’

  Lesley said, ‘I’
ve been meaning to tell you that—’

  Andy overrode her. ‘Everything is on it! My whole life! Wrecked!’

  Ellie said, ‘Andy, Lesley doesn’t look too good to me. Who’s her doctor? Is she with the practice in the Avenue?’

  He blustered. ‘There’s nothing wrong with her, just a spot of travel sickness. I told her, she should pull herself together. She brought all this on herself. She said she’d take care of everything, that we could leave the flat just as it was. And look what happens!’

  Ellie said, ‘Lesley, shall I give your doctor a ring?’

  Lesley shook her head. She ran her tongue over dry lips. ‘No, no.’ She even tried to smile. ‘Just some water, please?’

  ‘My dear, of course.’ Ellie got a glass of water for her friend as the front doorbell rang.

  Ellie looked at Susan, who said, ‘I’ll get it, shall I?’ And disappeared while Ellie gave Lesley the water.

  Ellie was worried. She put her hand on her friend’s forehead to check that she wasn’t running a temperature, which she wasn’t.

  Susan returned, looking somewhat flushed. She said, ‘This is Rafael.’ Someone she knew?

  A stranger. Tall, dark and handsome wasn’t sufficient to describe him, though he was all of those. What else? An impression of old money and a sense of entitlement, but a sardonic twist to the mouth hinted that he didn’t take himself seriously. If it wasn’t a pejorative term nowadays, you’d say he was a gentleman. But that wasn’t all of it, either.

  Late twenties, maybe? Tall and willowy, he moved with grace. Dark-skinned enough to be of Mediterranean origin. Longish dark hair; thin eyebrows which had possibly been attended to by a beautician. Clean-shaven and lightly scented. Lips on the thin side? Eyes, brown. Contact lenses?

  Clothes, all black; a soft-as-air leather jacket over a silk shirt, and trousers which had been made for him. An expensive package.

  Attractive? Oh, yes.

  Trustworthy? Mm, possibly not.

  Susan was unusually brusque. ‘Rafael says he was supposed to meet up with Angelica this morning but she didn’t show up. He’s come round to see if she’s all right.’