Murder in Time Page 20

  ‘The attack on your integrity? The idea that you would have abused a young girl?’

  ‘I thought I was immune to such lies. I thought I rested secure in God’s love. And now I discover I’m as fearful as anyone else. It’s a salutary lesson.’

  ‘I can’t abandon Vera.’

  ‘No. We can’t abandon her.’

  Silence.

  Ellie said, ‘Give us a cuddle.’

  One thing led to another, and that was that for the evening.

  Saturday morning

  Thomas sang in the shower, ‘Morning has broken …’

  A nice, bright morning. Ellie hummed along with Thomas.

  Breakfast for three; Thomas, Ellie and Rose. No school for Mikey, no college for Vera. They were probably having a good lie-in. It was nice and peaceful.

  The front doorbell. Diana with Evan. Diana was frowning, impatient, wanting to get on with the day’s tasks. Evan was grizzling. Oh dear.

  Diana hauled in a bag of his toys. ‘And please, Mother, don’t take him out in his buggy again. I don’t know what you did with it yesterday, but I’d be ashamed to be seen out with it now. It looks like something that’s been used to carry the coal home in. I’ll have to get a new one, as soon as I have a minute.’

  And she was gone.

  Ellie looked at Evan, and Evan looked back. He lifted his arms towards her and smiled. The dear little thing! She picked him up and walked around with him in her arms. Now if only she could work out how to get him a dummy without Diana knowing …

  She couldn’t ask Thomas to get a pacifier as he’d gone straight to his study and proposed to work all morning. She herself couldn’t leave the house unless she took the baby with her – which Diana had forbidden her to do. Rose hadn’t been out of the house for months. Vera and Mikey …? If they weren’t too busy about their own affairs this weekend?

  The phone rang, and she answered it, not bothering to put Evan back in his buggy.

  ‘Ellie? Lesley Milburn here.’ Her friend, the policewoman.

  ‘You have news for us? Is Thomas supposed to have been raping half the congregation?’

  ‘No.’ Half a laugh. ‘I know it’s Saturday. Are you going to be in? Can I drop round in a little while?’

  ‘It will be a pleasure, especially if you can buy a couple of nice juicy-looking dummies for me. My grandson is here, and there’s times I can’t do anything with him, but my daughter doesn’t want him to have a dummy.’

  Lesley was acquainted with Diana. ‘Of course. Do they come in different sizes? I’ll ask. See you about ten?’

  Ellie wanted to say, ‘Can you give me hint what this is about?’ But Lesley had cut the connection.

  The doorbell rang.

  Abdi. Coldly furious. ‘Where are they? I wish to speak to them, now!’

  ‘Of course.’ Ellie was meekness itself. Mikey had recently hung a cowbell outside the door to their flat, connected by a cord to a tassel dangling in the hall near the telephone.

  Ellie tugged on this and, when the door to the flat above opened, called up that Abdi was here to see them.

  Perhaps they were expecting him? They certainly came down promptly.

  By this time, Abdi was striding around the sitting room, stoking up his temper.

  ‘Coffee?’ asked Ellie. She seated herself in her high-backed chair and settled Evan on her knee. She wondered if they’d need Thomas, but decided not to disturb him unless it became absolutely essential to do so.

  Abdi spat out something which Ellie interpreted as: ‘Grrr!’

  Vera and Mikey sat on the settee. Vera had made no particular concessions to femininity that morning. She had her hair tied back and was wearing a white blouse over jeans. She looked what she was: a healthy, strong woman who, with a little care and attention, could blossom into beauty.

  Mikey was wearing a clean white shirt over dark school trousers. He looked meek, mild and about six years of age.

  Ellie invited Abdi to speak. ‘Do begin.’

  Almost, he was thrown off his stride, but quickly remembered the speech he’d been preparing. ‘I have never been so insulted in my life! Here I am, prepared to welcome my son into our family, to shower him with gifts, to remove him from an unsuitable environment and give him a first-class education, and what happens? All my generosity is thrown back in my face.’ He paused to take breath.

  Neither Vera nor Mikey appeared particularly impressed.

  Abdi pointed, not at Mikey, but at Ellie. ‘As for you … I am holding you personally responsible for the damage you caused to my house!’

  FOURTEEN

  ‘Me?’ Ellie tried not to laugh. ‘You think I wrecked your house?’

  ‘Who else?’

  Mikey put up his hand, as if in class. ‘It was me, sir.’

  ‘What! Nonsense. A boy of your age? No, it is clear to me that it was Mrs Quicke, and—’

  ‘Well, I was there,’ said Ellie, ‘so I suppose that makes me partly responsible. But you really can’t go round kidnapping people and locking them up without expecting them to retaliate.’

  ‘I was taking charge of my son, who doesn’t seem to realize who he’s dealing with.’

  Mikey seemed to shrink in his seat. Vera put her arm about his shoulders.

  Abdi flung himself into a chair and wiped his brow. ‘The fire damage! The sprinkler system! The windows! The alarms! The explanations to the police, and to my father! It’s actually his house, or rather, it used to be, and he’s furious, says he’s flying in to—’

  Ellie said, ‘Did the police find a stranger on the premises?’

  ‘What! There was no stranger, and you know it. My cars … they’ll all have to go for body shop repairs, the cost …! I’ve had to hire another car to take me around. I couldn’t be seen in something which looks as if it’s been involved in an accident. And the garage doors need realigning. What did you use on them, Mrs Quicke?’

  Ellie shook her head and smiled. Evan was gurgling something, trying to put his fist in his mouth. The little love!

  Mikey said, in a small voice, ‘Has the ceiling come down yet?’

  ‘What!’

  ‘Oh,’ said Mikey, casting down his eyes. ‘It hasn’t, then.’

  ‘What ceiling?’ He turned on Ellie. ‘What’s he talking about?’

  Mikey said, ‘You made me mad. I did warn you.’

  ‘What!!?’

  Mikey explained. ‘I put the plugs in the bath and washbasin and turned on the taps. Once the water saturates the floor, it will seep through to the ceiling of the room below and bring it down.’

  Ellie smiled. So that’s what he’d been up to in the bathroom! She said, ‘Abdi, I suggest you phone one of your men and get them to investigate.’

  ‘What!!!?’

  ‘You’ll have a stroke, if you’re not careful,’ said Ellie. ‘You kidnapped us. We asked nicely if we might go, and you refused. Mikey warned you he’d retaliate. Why are you so surprised?’

  ‘He’s a child! Children don’t go around wrecking houses.’ But he got out his mobile and jabbed at buttons. ‘Hello? Hello …?’ He broke into a torrent of language, cut off the person he’d been speaking to, and shut off his phone. For once he appeared uncertain of himself.

  ‘Mikey’s twelve years old,’ said Ellie, ‘and more than a match for you.’

  Abdi changed tactics. ‘You keep out of this, old woman. This is between me and her,’ he said, indicating Vera. He inched his chair towards the settee. Damping down his anger, he spoke directly to Vera. ‘I have tried to do this the civilized way. If you can’t see that, then—’

  Vera said, ‘I understand what you want, and the answer is “no”.’

  With an effort, he said, ‘No, you don’t understand. A woman of your limited education! The law is on my side, and if you refuse to cooperate, then I’ll have you dragged through the mud in every tabloid in the country, because you are clearly unfit to look after a child.’

  ‘If you do that,’ said Vera, pale but
firm, ‘then I’ll have to have you charged with rape and kidnapping.’

  ‘What rape? Ridiculous! You were lying there, waiting for us …’

  ‘Not so,’ said Vera, flinching. ‘I was drugged and raped. There are witnesses.’

  ‘The drug-dealers? That trash?’ He snorted.

  ‘A doctor and her brother. A man who works for the council and a respected retailer. Yes, they would prefer the events of that night not to be brought up now, but they will testify, all right.’

  Ellie crossed her fingers and hoped that Vera was crossing hers, too.

  Abdi stared at Vera in amazement. ‘You can’t be serious!’

  ‘Very.’

  Mikey sighed. ‘Look, it’s quite simple. I’ve made up my mind that I don’t want to go and live with you, and that’s that.’

  Abdi gaped. ‘You’re only a child. You’ll learn to like it quickly enough.’

  Ellie said, ‘You’ve underestimated the boy all along. You’re very alike, you two, although neither of you may wish to admit it. A softer approach to Mikey might have worked, Abdi, although I’m not sure that it would. But he could never bear to be imprisoned, as you—’

  ‘Imprisoned?’ Abdi yelped. ‘Didn’t I tell the servants to let you have whatever you asked for?’

  ‘Except for freedom? I wonder how you imagined you’d carry a boy on to a plane if he didn’t want to go?’

  ‘He’s only a child! He doesn’t realize—’

  ‘Yes, I do,’ said Mikey. ‘It was I who set the fire and started the alarms. I who made the water overflow in the bathroom, and it was I who destroyed your laptop and glued up the power points—’

  ‘What, what!’ Agitated. Evidently, Abdi hadn’t discovered the power points had been tampered with. He drew out his mobile phone again, but didn’t use it.

  ‘It was me,’ repeated Mikey. ‘Go away and leave us alone.’

  Vera smiled. ‘Abdi, if you’re thinking of charging him with malicious damage, I don’t think you’d succeed. After all, as you say, he’s only a child.’

  Abdi gave a strangled shriek. He threw up his arms and stamped around the room. Finally, breathing hard, he stood over Vera. ‘I didn’t want to do this, but you give me no alternative. Tomorrow morning I’m going to let the police have a witness statement identifying you as the doctor’s killer. And when you’ve been locked up for life, I’ll take the boy.’ He paused, waiting for a reaction.

  Vera shrugged. ‘If you try to do that I will retaliate, charging you with rape.’

  Mikey stood up. ‘I’m bored. I’m going back upstairs.’ The cat met him in the doorway, and they went off together.

  ‘Come back here!’ Abdi might as well have whispered, for all the notice Mikey took.

  ‘Badly behaved …! I’ll teach him to ignore me …!’

  Ellie put Evan over her shoulder. ‘Well, Abdi, if you’d like to come back in about an hour’s time, I have a detective constable coming to see me. Perhaps you’d like to give your statement to her? It might save you a trip.’

  ‘What? I don’t believe you. I’m calling your bluff, right now!’

  ‘No bluff,’ said Vera. ‘It’s true I didn’t want the rape to come out in court, but if it’s a question of Mikey’s future, then of course I’ll do it. And, by the way, Mrs Quicke asked her solicitor about your approach to me and, if you take us to court, he’s prepared to fight you all the way.’

  ‘I’m going to make you pay for this!’

  Vera shrugged. ‘It’s a free country. Except for rapists and kidnappers. Shall I see you out?’

  Later on Saturday morning

  The doorbell rang. Ellie picked up Evan and hastened to let DC Lesley Milburn in. She’d rocked Evan for what seemed like hours. She’d walked him around the house in the buggy. She’d changed him twice, she’d offered him food and drink, but still he would not settle. He was clearly worn out, but still wailing in misery. Was he teething? She’d rubbed the recommended tincture on his gums, so far to no avail.

  Lesley stepped into the hall, holding out a chemist’s packet.

  ‘You managed to get a dummy? Oh, thank goodness. He’s such an unhappy little boy today.’

  Between them, they fought the dummy out of its plastic packaging. Lesley said, ‘They call them “binkies” in the States. I couldn’t think what my American friends were on about. I don’t approve of them, mind you.’

  ‘Neither do I,’ said Ellie, thrusting it into Evan’s mouth. ‘In principle, I think one should try to do without.’ She spoke in hushed tones.

  As did Lesley. ‘Bad for his new teeth. They may grow in crooked.’

  ‘I absolutely agree with you. It is not good for them. I see this one says it’s orthodontically correct. Or whatever.’

  Evan sucked the dummy. Spat it out.

  Ellie darted into the kitchen, smeared some juice on to the dummy, and presented it to Evan again. This time, he sucked. Frowned. Sucked some more. Relaxed.

  Hardly daring to hope the dummy was producing the desired effect, Ellie laid him down in his buggy and strapped him in. He continued to suck. His arms went above his head.

  ‘I think he’s supposed to sleep on his side or his front,’ said Ellie, ‘but whatever way you put him down, he turns till he’s asleep on his back.’

  Lesley, too, spoke in hushed tones. ‘It’s done the trick.’

  Greatly relieved, Ellie straightened up. ‘Coffee? And you have some news for me?’

  Lesley grinned. ‘Pain before pleasure. I have a picture to show you.’

  Ellie pushed Evan in his buggy into the sitting room. His mouth moved rhythmically around the dummy. He wasn’t asleep, but at least he was not screaming his head off. ‘Show me.’

  Lesley said, ‘Because my boss was so anxious for me to follow up on the non-story that Thomas had been abusing a young girl, I was positively encouraged to access the security footage from the camera at the front of the police station.’ She produced a printout. ‘Ta-da! Is this the face of someone who has cause to be annoyed with Thomas?’

  Ellie looked. A frizzled perm, a pudgy face, a shapeless cardigan over a flowered top. ‘Oh, yes. Well, it’s no more than I suspected. What a silly creature he is. No, not “silly”, but positively evil. He deserves whatever is coming to him.’

  Lesley was amused. ‘Yes? Who do you …?’

  ‘Hush a minute,’ said Ellie. ‘I’m trying to think. If he did this, and that followed … It’s like trying to do a jigsaw with some bits fitting and others not. I wonder if …? That would make sense, which it didn’t before.’

  Lesley clicked her fingers. ‘Ellie Quicke, come back to me. You know this woman?’

  ‘Yes. Well, not to say know. I’ve met her and I know who she is, though I can’t for the moment recall her surname. No, I don’t think he used it. Poor creature, she believed everything he said, and she was distressed to find him a liar. Well, she’ll know better in future. He’s divorced, isn’t he?’

  ‘Ellie?’

  ‘She’s called Maureen and works for him in the accounts department at the council.’

  ‘Maureen what?’

  ‘Dunno. He didn’t use her surname.’ She stared into space.

  ‘Ellie!’

  ‘Oh, sorry. Yes. Lesley, I’m going to have to start a long way back. In fact, when I talked to Dan first, I said I wanted him to start at the beginning and he said … Oh!’ She stared off into the distance again.

  ‘Ellie!’

  Ellie shook herself back to the present. ‘Just speculating. I’ll have to give that a lot more thought, although I suppose Sam might—’

  ‘Who is “Sam”?’

  ‘Ah. Yes. Well, he’s Dan McKenzie’s cousin, and he doesn’t want to be involved in any of this, and I can’t really blame him; can you?’

  ‘Ellie …!’

  ‘Right. Of course. To start somewhere in the middle, and without going into unnecessary detail, which I assure you we don’t have to talk about now, unless of course Abdi does
fulfil his promise and gets Vera charged with murder—’

  Lesley leaned over and put her hand on Ellie’s arm. ‘Pretend I’m an alien and you’re explaining how to make a cup of tea.’

  ‘I have to decide how much to tell you, and it’s difficult. I don’t think I need to protect this particular man … No, I don’t. He deserves whatever he gets. Lesley, all that you need to know now is that that woman works for the council in the accounts department. She’s some kind of assistant or perhaps a colleague of a middle-ranking man called Dick Prentice. Richard Prentice. He looks rather like a slug and leaves a slimy trail wherever he goes. He told this woman that Thomas was a bad man and asked her to get the police suspicious of him. She believed him and did exactly what he asked her to do. I told him to make her retract her allegations, though I don’t know whether he will or not. At this very moment, I don’t suppose she knows who or what to believe. If you got to her before he’s had another “go” at her, she might well tell you all about it. I don’t know her surname, but if you show this picture at the reception desk, I expect they can tell you.’

  ‘Richard Prentice? The name doesn’t ring a bell. Why should he have it in for Thomas?’

  ‘Ah, well. He doesn’t. He’s got it in for me, because I’ve been enquiring into the doctor’s death.’

  ‘And what did he have to do with that?’

  ‘Nothing. As far as I know. At least … no, that’s what I’ve got to think a bit more about. Dick Prentice was at the party at the doctor’s house that evening, and I believe he was the one who started the train of events which ended with murder.’ Ellie wasn’t going to bring Vera into this unless she had to.

  ‘You mean, because of the gatecrashers?’

  ‘It bothered me that the gang had chosen to gatecrash that particular party. I mean, why choose that house and that night out of all the houses in Ealing? But now, it’s obvious. Someone who’d been invited to the party had his eye on a particular girl who wouldn’t give him the time of day. He decided to buy a date-rape drug to take with him. Apparently, everyone at that school knew where drugs were to be found, though none of those I’ve interviewed were taking them. At least, that’s what they’ve told me.’