False fire Read online

  ‘Do you know the content of your father’s will?’

  ‘What? Do I …? Well, naturally. Not in detail, of course, but Dad always used to say we should all update every year, especially me, travelling around, as you know. And insurances, of course. I expect the insurance people will take some chivvying, seeing as the family home is in such a valuable position. Best to sell for redevelopment, block of luxury flats. I can move those, I know just the right developer, must get on to it tomorrow.’

  ‘And the business?’ Bea removed the pan of potatoes from the hob, drained off the water, added flour and some powdered mustard, replaced the lid and shook the pan hard.

  ‘Oh. Well. There’ll have to be an extraordinary general meeting. Naturally, I will be appointed MD in Dad’s place. Better the devil you know, eh?’ An empty laugh. ‘Poor old Steve will have to arrange everything. Don’t envy him. I’ll have to give him my dates. Paris next week, then Berlin, and then Hong Kong again. Busy, busy.’

  Bea tipped the floured potatoes into a baking tin which was fizzing with melted fat, and shoved it in the oven.

  ‘Smells delicious,’ said Gideon. ‘Will there be enough for a tiny one?’

  He meant himself? ‘I don’t think so,’ said Bea. ‘We’ve got a full house tonight. Now, Bernice, when you’ve got the biscuits all lined up with a layer of cream between them, you cover the lot with the rest of the cream, leaving not a gap behind. Then we put it in the fridge. The cream softens the ginger biscuits into a cake texture. We sprinkle the top with crystallized ginger just before serving and we cut slices on a slant so we get a sort of roulade of ginger and cream. Oh, and watch out for the cat. He thinks I only get cream out of the fridge for him.’

  Gideon’s hand hovered over the bowl, and he treated Bernice to a hundred-watt smile. ‘You’ll let me lick out the bowl?’

  ‘It’s not for you. It’s for Teddy,’ said Bernice, enclosing the bowl with her arm.

  ‘Who’s Teddy? Do I know him?’

  Sensing confrontation, Bea heard the doorbell with some relief. ‘That will either be William with Alicia, or Steve with Mel.’

  She opened the door and let William in. He was carrying a rather damp child, whose eyes were puffy from weeping. His were not much better.

  Behind him came Hari, moving like a shadow into the hall.

  There was the sound of a slap and Bernice cried out, ‘Get off!’

  FIFTEEN

  Sunday late afternoon

  William hadn’t heard Bernice’s cry. He thrust Alicia into Bea’s arms, saying, ‘I’m afraid we both got wet. I’m all right but Lissy stepped in a puddle and got soaked.’

  Bea cuddled Alicia, who was, indeed, wet and bedraggled. She said, ‘There, there. We’ll soon have you cleaned up and into fresh things. Hari …’ She gestured with a sideways movement of her head. ‘Kitchen. The other child. She’s called Bernice.’

  She was about to close the door when Mel and Steve spurted out of a taxi and rushed up the steps to the house. They hadn’t an umbrella, either, but they were not as wet as William and Alicia.

  Bea said, ‘Welcome back, children. Supper’s on. Gideon’s here, but he’s not staying.’

  William, relieved of Alicia, gave Steve a hug. ‘My dear boy!’

  Steve, eyes closed, returned the embrace. The two men patted one another on their backs.

  Alicia said, in a tiny voice, ‘I did get a bit wet, I’m afraid.’

  Mel took one look at Alicia and said, ‘Oh, you poor little thing. Come upstairs with me, and we’ll get you cleaned up.’

  Steve released William. He held out his arms to Alicia and whispered, ‘Lissy. So sorry.’ He held up his tablet, and mimed writing on it, making everyone smile. Good for Steve! He lifted Alicia from Bea’s arms, but it was Mel who kissed the child.

  Bea thought, Man, woman, child. There is true love there. How sweet. And with any luck, a happy ending, too. How very fortunate they were that Mel was the girl they’d chosen to help out this weekend.

  William shook out his jacket, saying, ‘Lissy didn’t take it well. Such a terrible shock, on top of everything else. At least Daphne’s end was peaceful. She’d been upset by a visitor earlier, hadn’t wanted any lunch. She settled down for a nap, drifted off to sleep and her heart gave out. She’s never been strong, you know. It’s a weakness in that family.’

  Bea took William’s jacket off him and spread it over a radiator to dry.

  ‘Who was the visitor?’

  ‘Her brother, Gideon.’

  ‘You’re squelching, William. Go upstairs, find wherever it is you’ve left your clothes, have a shower, rub yourself down and change into some dry things.’

  ‘I’m all right.’

  Men do hate to be told to look after themselves, don’t they? Bea said, ‘Move it. Now. Or else you’ll be going down with something and I’ll have to nurse you. And I warn you, I’m a very bad nurse!’

  ‘Not till you tell me—’

  ‘All right. Quick update. Steve went back home, got the info about the electricians and Mrs Frost’s details. Then he went on to his office with Mel to start telling people about Josh dying. He lost his voice when he heard the news about Daphne. Gideon admits that he told his father Daphne was in hospital and that their house was on fire. He also admits that he told Daphne that her father had died, and that their house was in ruins. He rationalizes his actions by saying they were both fretting for information. How to murder your father and sister in one easy lesson.’

  William gave a long, long sigh. ‘I did wonder. Don’t tell Steve.’

  ‘Steve knows. Alaric and Ninette came looking for Alicia and threatened me when they found she was not here. I asked them to leave. They wouldn’t go, so I pulled a knife on them. I suspect they’ll sue me for assault.’

  He blinked. ‘Did you really pull a knife on them?’

  ‘Ninette suggested taking Bernice as a hostage for Alicia’s return, and they burned a hole in Teddy … which …’ She gulped, and snatched at self-control. Just about made it. ‘Now, upstairs and change.’

  Surprisingly, he went.

  Bea went into the kitchen. There was no sign of Gideon but Bernice was sitting on Hari’s knee while they took turns to lick the bowl of cream out. Bernice was looking a bit frayed around the edges. Her eyes were diamond bright and her plaits were unravelling, but she was talking a blue streak … ‘and then I woke up and it was all dark and Faye was trying to find her pearls by the light of her phone, and we only had Lissy’s for a light and my phone was …’ A shrug. ‘I’m not sure. It went. But Uncle William, he’s not a real uncle to me but he’s a lot better than one of Lissy’s. One of hers is a real Wicked Uncle, though the other is all right if a bit soft. Anyway, Uncle William got us new phones, so that’s all right.’

  Bea put the kettle on. ‘So, Bernice; what made you shout out just now?’

  Bernice gave her a look of limpid innocence. ‘I thought Winston was going to jump on to the table, so I banged the table top and my bang was just near Gideon’s hand, and he might have thought I meant it for him.’

  ‘And where is Winston?’

  Again that look of innocence. ‘He must have slipped out through the cat flap while I wasn’t looking.’

  Bea tried not to laugh. ‘What have you done with our pudding, and where is Gideon?’

  ‘The ginger cake is in the fridge and the Wicked Uncle’s gone into the sitting room for “a bit of peace and quiet”, he says. If you ask me, he’s a waste of space.’

  ‘You called him a “piss artist”.’

  ‘Mm,’ said Bernice, pleased with herself. ‘Is Lissy all right? I saw she was back.’

  ‘She’s being cleaned up and changed. She’ll be safe with Steve and Mel – and Hari.’

  ‘Mm,’ said Bernice, in tones of doubt. ‘Now, if Lissy goes one way and I go another, which of us is Hari going to look after?’

  ‘You choose,’ said Bea, testing chicken joints which she’d taken out of the freezer, to see i
f they’d defrosted enough to put in the oven.

  Bernice thought about it. Eventually she said, ‘I think Hari should go with Lissy, because I can look after myself better than she can.’

  ‘Which is the right answer,’ said William, who arrived at that moment, his hair still damp. He was wearing a tracksuit and trainers which made him look larger than ever. And even more formidable. Did he work out at the gym? He didn’t look the type, but maybe his looks were misleading.

  Bea said, ‘William, this is Hari, who is a trained bodyguard and is going to help us keep the children safe. Hari, this is Lord Morton, who is Alicia’s grandfather and has her wellbeing always in mind. William, could you do with a cuppa to warm you up?’

  William said, ‘I’d kill for one. Shall I make it?’ He didn’t wait for permission but switched the kettle on. ‘Now … Hari, is it? How much do you know and how much do you need to know? And your bill comes to me, right?’

  Hari said, ‘That’s for Mrs Abbot to say. I understand there was a fire. Were you there? Tell me about it.’

  William told, while making himself the longed-for cuppa.

  Bea, listening in case he left anything important out, popped the chicken quarters into the oven with a couple of onions. By the time she’d started on peeling the parsnips, William was on his second cuppa, Hari was frowning in concentration, and Bernice had relaxed, muscle by muscle. Her eyes closed, and opened at half-mast. Closed and … fell shut.

  Bea said, ‘Shall I lay her down on the settee next door for a nap?’

  Hari shook his head. ‘She feels safe in my arms. Let her be.’ He muted his voice to a murmur. ‘Mrs Abbot, what do you make of it all?’

  Bea also kept her voice down. She finished the parsnips and put them in a pan of cold water, salted them and set them on the hob. ‘I’m not sure. There were several people at the dinner party who had reason to wish Alicia harm. First: Ninette and Alaric. Ninette intends to marry Alaric, but I’m told he’s not well off and he might be looking for another rich wife to replace the one he’s just lost. Also, he’d be better off if he didn’t have to pay towards the child’s school fees. I’m not sure that that’s a strong enough motive for murder.’

  Hari thought about it. Shrugged.

  Bea continued, ‘Second: Giorgio might feel Daphne would have more money to spend on him if Alicia were out of the picture. You could make out a case that any one of them might have paid an electrician to sabotage proceedings … but I don’t think they did. I don’t think anyone at the table had advance warning that all hell was about to be let loose. I didn’t notice any tension at the table. Did you, William? Was anyone looking at their watch to check that the fireworks were going to go off as planned?’

  William took his time over his second cuppa. ‘No,’ he said, eventually. ‘I didn’t notice anything like that. No one was on edge.’

  Hari said, ‘They could be good actors?’

  Both Bea and William shook their heads.

  Bea said, ‘Alaric looked sleepy. Ninette kept darting looks at Faye, whom she assumed, probably correctly, was the type to make a play for any man under sixty. Faye was texting Gideon, who was amusing himself by texting back. Giorgio only thought of how many calories he was eating. The children had had a lot of expensive presents and were over-excited but beginning to droop with tiredness.’

  ‘Josh,’ said William, ‘was enjoying being host and grandfather on a family occasion. It wasn’t often he could get all his children under his roof. He doted on Alicia, which is why he wanted to celebrate her birthday in style. He ignored Ninette to talk to Alicia.’

  ‘Steve,’ said Bea, ‘was resigned to going along with the family party. Daphne was a drama queen, showing off her toy boy, shaking her pretty head to settle her hair about her shoulders, admiring the rings on her fingers. Leon was bored, yes. He gets asked to back lame horses all the time, and Daphne was just one more in a long line of people who’ve tried it on him. He would have seen through Giorgio at a glance. Which left me, also slightly bored but willing to put up with it because it was great to see the children being showered with attention … and you, William …?’

  ‘Like Leon, I was fighting off Daphne’s invitations to take Giorgio to my heart. I can’t remember anyone showing signs of tension till the first firework went off.’

  Bernice was totally relaxed in Hari’s arms. Hari said, ‘This is a bright one. Did she see anything?’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ said Bea. ‘We’ll ask her when she wakes up.’

  William said, ‘But if no one at the dinner party organized the fireworks …? Bea, you must be mistaken. And, in any case, who else would wish to harm the children? Yes, it looks as if an electrician were involved in some way because of the use of timers … but why would an outside workman do such a thing?’

  ‘I don’t think it’s the sort of simple situation where you have a murderer aiming to kill someone. In fact, the deaths of Josh, Daphne and Mrs Frost were neither planned nor intended. They were accidents along the way. Manslaughter, to be accurate.’

  ‘Agreed.’

  ‘What I think is that several people played a part in creating a situation which was taken advantage of by someone else. For instance, let’s take a look at Gideon’s part in this affair. He didn’t set out to murder his father and his sister, but he fed them information which, for their own good, had been withheld by Steve and William … and which killed them. You can argue that Gideon broke the news to them with malice aforethought, but I don’t think that’s strictly the case. He couldn’t know for sure that the news would give his father another heart attack, although he must have realized there was a risk of it doing so. He couldn’t know that his news would distress Daphne enough to kill her, but … well, ditto. You could call it manslaughter, I suppose, but no one is ever going to be able to prove it, and he will probably never even be questioned by the police about it.’

  ‘You’re right,’ said William, sighing. ‘For as long as I’ve known him, Gideon’s sailed close to the wind, and got away with it. He must think he’s invincible. So you think someone else should bear responsibility for the fire?’

  ‘I’d have to question them all to be sure, but I’m beginning to think the sequence of events was as follows: Josh was informed that the kitchen lights needed rewiring and asked around for the name of an electrician. Quite innocently. Someone comes up with a name, and again, it could have been a referral without any ulterior motive. The electrician’s probably kosher, too. The firm sends someone in to do a survey, he says the whole house really ought to be rewired and reports back to Josh, who doesn’t want the upheaval and says the electricians should just do the downstairs circuit. That in itself is quite a big job, which will be done over a number of days and probably involve two men at a time. Mrs Frost arranges for the rewiring to be done.

  ‘Now you know what workmen on a sizeable job are like. They come and go, probably at odd hours because they’re fitting it in along with other jobs they’re doing. They turn up at the door and are let in, and then they leave and perhaps the next day a different man turns up, or the first one turns up with another man in tow. No one really looks at them, not even Mrs Frost, who probably keeps an eye on their comings and goings, gives them mugs of tea and biscuits, but wouldn’t question it if two men turned up one day, and a third the next.

  ‘Meanwhile Josh plans a birthday party for the girls, who pester him for fireworks. He turns them down. Everyone hears that the girls want fireworks. Someone – and it’s not necessarily anyone who had dealings with the electricians – buys a box of indoor fireworks for them.’

  William said, ‘I can confirm that there was no gift tag on the box. The children say they had no idea who had given them the indoor fireworks.’

  ‘Which could mean either that the tag was removed, or that it never had one. The fireworks might have been an innocent gift from someone, which was later tampered with by someone else. Or the villain of the piece might have planted the box of fireworks amon
g the children’s presents with the timer already in it. If the latter, then it presupposes that he or she knew the children had been asking for fireworks … which means they had the information from a close member of the family. Do you follow my thinking?’

  ‘Someone in the family leaked information to someone employed by the electricians?’

  ‘Or to someone who could pass themselves off as an electrician, infiltrate the household and set up the timers and flares just before the party began. And I mean, that very afternoon. Mrs Frost would have drawn the curtains in the dining room at dusk, which would have been, what, about four o’clock? Not much later. She would have noticed a timer and flare if it had been placed there earlier, wouldn’t she?’

  Silence while they absorbed this.

  William said, ‘You’re thinking that the firework behind the curtain in the dining room was meant to disrupt, but it wasn’t a serious attempt to burn the house down. Likewise, the timer on the landing upstairs. It caused a distraction, but if Mrs Frost hadn’t tripped and broken her leg, it probably wouldn’t have set the house alight. But the timer in the box of fireworks … that’s a different matter.’

  Bea said, ‘Perhaps, perhaps not. The indoor fireworks might not have been taken upstairs by the children that day, but left in the sitting room overnight. It might well have exploded in the sitting room and, if we’d all been in the dining room when it happened, then we might not have known about it until the fire had gained a hold … in which case the target could have been any or all of us.’

  An indrawn breath. William hadn’t thought of that before.

  Bea said, ‘I think we need to ask the children if anyone suggested they take the box upstairs with them.’