Murder for Nothing Page 23

  Jake had bailed Angelica out? And given her a ring?

  Rafael had doubts, too. ‘You mean that you and Jake—?’

  Angelica dimpled. ‘Isn’t this fun? I should take you both out for lunch, I suppose, but really, you’re both looking too sad and dreary for that. This is the happiest day of my life. I must ring my mother and tell her to get herself a decent outfit for the wedding.’

  Rafael said, ‘How did you get Jake to raid the company’s coffers for you?’

  A tiny shrug. ‘He wants me to have everything I need to make me happy. He hadn’t enough in his personal account, or not till the end of the month, and of course his father trusts him with paying certain bills.’

  ‘Not to this amount, I’m sure.’

  ‘Oh, you’re such a killjoy! I tell you, Jake can make it right at the end of the month. So stop being such a grouch and cash it. I owe you that much, don’t I?’

  ‘Yes, you do. But …’ Rafael made as if to tear the cheque in two but stopped himself and looked at Ellie. ‘What do you think, Mrs Quicke? I have a feeling Jake misused his position in the family business to pay us off.’

  Ellie was still looking at her cheque. ‘I agree. It raises some other interesting questions, doesn’t it? Angelica, I’m not accepting this cheque because, if I do, it means you’ve paid me for renting a room and that would make you a tenant. I don’t want that. I don’t want you in my house. So I’m tearing up this cheque …’ And she did so, into tiny pieces. ‘And now, once again, I’m asking you to leave my house. Go back to your mother’s. Move in with Jake if you wish.’

  Angelica pouted. ‘Oh, dear Mrs Quicke, I know you don’t mean that. And I’m far too happy to let you upset me. I suppose I did behave badly in the past, but that is all behind me and the future is golden. I know you won’t grudge me my good fortune. I want to get married from this house. Don’t you think that’s a splendid idea? We can have the reception here in the hall and eat in the dining room, spilling over into the sitting room at the back, and even into the garden if we have a marquee, which I’m not sure about, but that would be fab, wouldn’t it?’

  Ellie’s brain went into shock.

  Angelica waltzed around the hall. ‘We can have the wedding cake here at the bottom of the stairs. I shall throw my bridal bouquet into the air but not in darling Susan’s direction as I really don’t think she’s likely, being the dumpling that she is, ever to have men asking her to marry her.’

  Rafael said, ‘I wouldn’t mind.’

  Angelica couldn’t stop spinning her fantasy. ‘I shall wear a white gown with a low back and a small train. I’m thinking a sort of Grecian robe and flowers in my hair but not a veil. Veils do get in the way, don’t they?’

  Ellie grabbed at her composure and nearly missed. For two pins she would have taken hold of Angelica and shaken some sense into her. Fortunately she managed to damp down her outrage and forced herself to speak calmly. Or almost calmly. ‘Angelica, come into the sitting room. We need to talk.’

  Angelica dimpled. ‘Mrs Quicke wants to haul naughty little me over the coals for causing so much trouble, and I must take my scolding in the spirit in which it is intended, right? Oh, and darling Mrs Quicke, is that good coffee that I can smell? Would it be possible for me to have a cup? Not in a mug, but in a bone china cup and saucer. When I’m married I’m going to ban mugs in the house. Soooo ordinary.’

  She bounced into the sitting room and, confronted by the pile of Lego pieces which Evan had strewn on the floor earlier, walked carefully around them to arrange herself prettily on the settee.

  Ellie muttered to herself, ‘This has got to stop!’

  And then, I need to think.

  Giving herself time to think meant that she acceded to Angelica’s request for a cup of coffee. By the time she’d made another cafetière and carried a tray of coffee cups and saucers back into the sitting room, she knew what she should try to do.

  She poured coffee.

  Angelica was peering out of the window. ‘The lawn is big enough for a marquee, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Ellie. She took a cup over to Rafael and, as she put it on the side table, leaned over to say, ‘You’ve got one of those new phones, haven’t you? That can record conversations?’

  He nodded, narrowing his eyes, and took his phone out of his pocket.

  Ellie put a second cup down on the coffee table beside the settee. ‘Here’s your coffee, Angelica. Come and sit down. I need to ask you a few questions.’

  ‘Oh, must I?’ A pretty pout. But she did as requested.

  Ellie took her own seat, noting out of the corner of her eye that Rafael had placed his phone on a cushion beside him. Not far from Angelica.

  ‘First,’ said Ellie, ‘I need to get the timings for Saturday night straight in my mind. Angelica, you went to Lesley’s flat to start the party off. Clay was there, selling drugs—’

  ‘I didn’t know that!’ Perfect innocence shone in her blue eyes.

  ‘Oh, yes, you did. And, by the way, have you a cheque for Milos as well?’

  She smiled. A catlike, satisfied little smile. ‘Oh, no. What he did was illegal so I don’t have to pay him.’

  Ellie gaped. The stupidity of the girl made Ellie feel giddy. ‘I dare say you are correct in law, but you will have to face him sometime.’

  ‘That’s all right.’ A shining smile. ‘You can tell the police all about him. They’ll arrest him for selling drugs and put him in jail, and serve him right.’

  ‘I see what you mean,’ said Ellie, feeling rather faint. ‘But as I have no first-hand knowledge of the party, I doubt if the police will act on my say-so. You will have to tell the police yourself.’

  ‘Oh, no. I’d be much too frightened to do that!’

  Ellie took a deep breath. ‘Well, let’s leave that aside for the moment. Let’s return to the party. Everything was going well, perhaps a little too noisy, but no one had called the police yet. Jake arrived and didn’t care for what he saw. Then Kate arrived looking for Jake. You managed to prevent their meeting. You went outside with Jake, who refused to stay and drove away. Timmy Lee came out to console you. You and Timmy went off with the intention of going to a nightclub. On the way there, you changed your mind and asked Timmy to drop you off here. Have I got all that right?’

  ‘Yes, of course. I came straight back here and went to bed.’

  ‘What time would that have been?’

  A pretty shrug. ‘I’m not sure. Midnight? One o’clock?’

  ‘So when did the fight occur?’

  ‘Just before I left. Just before Jake left. Clay was bleeding. Someone had bopped him on the nose. So he thrust his bag at me and left to go to hospital.’

  ‘You forgot to put that bit in your timetable just now.’

  ‘I was so distracted, I didn’t know what I was doing.’

  ‘Other partygoers tell me there was no fight, that Clay wasn’t hit on the nose, that he didn’t bleed and wasn’t taken off to hospital.’

  ‘Really? I assure you that’s exactly what happened. How else could I have got hold of his stash?’

  ‘Indeed. And how did you get hold of Kate’s purse and jewellery?’

  Angelica hardly missed a beat. ‘Oh, Susan took that. Didn’t we find it in her rooms?’

  ‘Susan didn’t go to the party and can prove it. Also, there were two important things missing from Kate’s purse: her money and her mobile phone.’

  ‘I expect Susan has made use of them.’

  Ellie leaned forward and picked up Angelica’s brand-new handbag. Angelica made a furious swipe but missed. ‘Give me that back!’

  ‘In a minute.’ Ellie opened the bag and retrieved a pink, sparkly phone. Kate’s phone? Ellie said, ‘You gave your own phone to Rafael yesterday in part payment of your debt to him, so whose is this? It’s Kate’s, isn’t it? If I give it to the police they’ll be able to trace all the calls she made on it.’

  Angelica flapped her eyelashes as she thought how to coun
ter this. ‘Oh, well. I forgot to say that Timmy Lee came round to see me on Sunday morning, after you’d all been so terribly pious and gone to church. He asked me to look after a bag of his girlfriend’s things for him. I didn’t look inside. Why should I? I just popped it into the safest place I could think of.’

  ‘Nonsense. Your fingerprints were on that purse, or you wouldn’t have tried to stop me putting it in a plastic bag for the police to look at.’

  ‘I was just curious to see whose it was, that’s all. Was it really Kate’s? How very odd. I suppose Timmy went back to …’ Her eyes switched from side to side. ‘He must have gone back to the flat on Sunday morning for some reason. Perhaps he’d dropped his watch or something. And found Kate dead and …’ She shuddered deliciously. ‘Do you think he really might have found her dead and … and robbed her?’ Eyes enormous, mouth quivering.

  She really was some actress.

  Ellie said, ‘Timmy Lee came to see me. I couldn’t understand why at the time. Now I suppose he came to make sure that you and he were using the same script. I don’t think he trusts you, Angelica. With reason, don’t you think?’

  ‘Timmy isn’t a great friend of mine. I’ve only known him for a short time. I really don’t know whether or not I could trust him with something important.’ Huge eyes.

  ‘I don’t think you can trust him as far as you can throw him. Not when you’re going to drop him in it for murdering Kate.’

  ‘Oh, oh! How could you say that! He didn’t murder anyone!’

  That sounded like the truth. ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘Well, he said.’ A delicious little wriggle. ‘Kate was dead when he found her. He was worried that I might be involved in her death so he took her things to delay identification.’

  ‘His family aren’t going to be pleased if he’s arrested for stealing from a corpse. There is a law against doing that, you know.’

  Angelica pouted. ‘Really? Are you sure? Well, I had no idea what he was up to.’

  Rafael leaned forward. ‘Milos is looking for Clay’s body.’

  Angelica started, and her colour faded. ‘What! What did you say?’

  ‘Did you kill him? Or did Timmy Lee?’

  Angelica scrambled to her feet. ‘No, neither of us! I swear it! I swear!’

  Incredibly, it sounded like the truth.

  Rafael said, ‘Then who did?’

  ‘No one!’ She wrung her hands. ‘Oh, how could you say such a thing? I thought you were my friends! How could you even think of … Oh, Oh, Oh!’ Tears ready to fall. She began to pace up and down. ‘I’m innocent, I am! I wouldn’t hurt a fly! I didn’t kill Kate—’

  ‘No, of course you didn’t. She died of a drug which Clay had given her.’

  ‘There you are then! She did it to herself! I said so all along!’

  ‘Said to who?’

  ‘To … to Timmy, of course.’

  ‘No. You said it to Jake.’

  ‘He wasn’t there!’

  ‘Sit down again, Angelica. Let’s go through your timetable again. Jake came to the party. Kate arrived but didn’t see him. Jake left. You went off with Timmy. You were not there for the next act in the tragedy.’

  ‘Of course I wasn’t there. I’ve said so, all along. I don’t know how you can think I was responsible for anything else that happened.’

  ‘Let’s go over what we know. Kate was stranded in the garden with the party girls, Jess and Gina, the photographer Big Scotty, their driver Wilf … and Clay. And that was when the fight occurred, if you could call it that. Big Scotty dumped Clay in the pond. Gina, Big Scotty and Wilf departed. The party in the flat was winding down. Clay, Jess and Kate were left in the garden. Kate was hysterical, wanting to get Jake back. Jess also departed, leaving Kate and Clay alone. The last thing Jess saw was Kate on the phone to Jake, begging him to return.’

  ‘I have no idea what went on,’ said Angelica, listening hard. ‘I wasn’t there.’

  ‘No, you’d gone clubbing with Timmy Lee. You really had. But while you were at the club you got a phone call from Jake, who’d gone home. He’d had a hysterical phone call from Kate, saying she’d taken some drug or other, possibly intimating that she was going to commit suicide unless he got back to her. Jake thought that you, Angelica, would still be at the party, so he phoned you, not realizing you’d left straight after him. He wanted you to deal with the situation, to get Kate to hospital or whatever. He told you he was on his way back to the flat himself. You agreed to get back yourself, as quickly as you could. You asked Timmy Lee to give you a lift. The two of you got there to find Kate dying and Clay trying to resuscitate her, without success. I don’t know whether or not Kate could have been saved if you’d got her straight to hospital, but it didn’t happen.’

  ‘She was already dead. Still warm, but not breathing.’

  ‘So which of you killed Clay?’

  Angelica licked her lips. ‘No one. I went inside. I was upset. I didn’t see anything. They came and told me, afterwards, that Clay was dead.’

  ‘Was it Timmy who killed him, or Jake?’

  A toss of the head. ‘I have no idea. Neither of them. Jake wasn’t there. How could you think that I’d get mixed up in anything like that?’

  Rafael sighed. ‘It must have been Jake. He’d grown up with Kate. They’d dated for years. It was assumed by both their families that one day they’d marry. Jake wasn’t head over heels in love with Kate but he was comfortable with her. Then he met you, Angelica, and he sidelined Kate. When he heard that Kate had gone to the party looking for him, and that she was threatening to take some drug or other, he realized how much a part of his life she was. He didn’t want her to die. If he’d got there in time he might have saved her, but he didn’t. He would have felt guilt and anger. He would want to lash out at somebody.’

  ‘No, no. Jake didn’t do anything. It was Timmy!’

  ‘Why should Timmy want to do Clay an injury? He wasn’t attached to Kate in any way. All he’d done was chauffeur you around, Angelica. I think Jake did respond to Kate’s frantic telephone calls. He got back to the flat only to realize Kate had been as good as her word and had taken the drug which Clay had offered her. And died. Then, out of guilt and remembrance of all the years he and Kate had known one another, he killed Clay. How did he do it, Angelica?’

  She wailed, ‘I don’t know! I didn’t see. I went to the loo when I saw what happened to Kate. Jake said, afterwards, that he hadn’t meant it. He knocked Clay for six. Clay fell back and hit his head on the edge of the pond, and he never moved again. And none of it was my fault!’

  SEVENTEEN

  Tuesday, late morning

  ‘So, at long last, you admit that Jake was there.’

  Angelica sniffed and looked away.

  Ellie tried to work out what had happened. ‘If what you say is true, then Kate’s death was misadventure, which is why the police have closed the case except for looking for her supplier. If Jake had refrained from taking out his anger and loss on Clay but had rung the police when he saw that Kate was dead, then they would have arrested Clay for supplying the drug and Jake would have been in the clear.’

  ‘Clay would have faced a prison sentence,’ said Rafael.

  ‘True. But not perhaps a very long one. Only, Jake hit Clay and killed him. Could he be charged with murder?’

  Rafael shook his head. ‘It wasn’t murder. There was no premeditation. His action is understandable in a way. Jake lashed out at Clay in his distress, not meaning to kill him. His solicitor will probably tell him to plead that it was an accident. If the jury believe him, he might get off with a slap on the wrist. If they don’t, he’ll go down for manslaughter.’

  ‘Noooo,’ wailed Angelica. ‘He can’t go to prison. It was an accident.’

  ‘Yes, if you’d reported it to the police straight away,’ said Ellie. ‘But you didn’t. Jake and Timmy between them disposed of the body, didn’t they?’

  ‘How should I know?’

  �
��Come on, you were there. You saw everything. How did they manage it?’

  ‘I don’t know!’ Tears flowed. ‘I said they shouldn’t tell me. They took Clay off for a ride in the boot of Jake’s car.’

  ‘While you robbed Kate’s body?’

  ‘No, no! That was … you see … I wanted to keep it all a secret till I had time to think. I thought it would be a good idea if I took her things so no one would know who she was.’

  ‘You also took Clay’s stash and his money?’

  ‘Yes, but I gave half the money to—’

  ‘Timmy Lee. For his trouble. Ugh!’ Rafael looked sick.

  Ellie said, ‘How long did Jake and Timmy take to get rid of the body?’

  ‘Not long. They said they’d only had to go round the block. I don’t know what they did with the body.’

  ‘What was Clay wearing?’

  ‘How should I know? I don’t notice such things.’

  ‘Think!’

  ‘Well, I think maybe a black, zip-up hoodie over a black T-shirt. Jeans. Trainers. The usual.’

  ‘The men didn’t tell you where they’d dumped him?’

  Angelica shook her head.

  Ellie said, ‘They only went around the block? Now, where …?’

  Rafael interrupted her, addressing Angelica, ‘So that’s why Jake has given you a ring and stolen money from his firm. You’re blackmailing him into marrying you.’

  ‘No, no!’ screamed Angelica. ‘He loves me, he really does!’

  Rafael was remorseless. ‘You’ve overlooked the fact that you and Jake have saddled yourselves with an accomplice in the person of Timmy Lee. What has he asked you to do for him? He has been on to you, hasn’t he? What did he want?’

  ‘Nothing! You’re frightening me!’

  Rafael made a sound of disgust. ‘You do realize you’re going to have him on your back for evermore, bleeding you white? So, what is the price of his silence?’

  ‘Nothing! He’s been wonderful! I won’t hear a word against him. I gave him nearly all the money from Clay’s belt and he said that was enough.’

  Rafael followed this up. ‘But he came round to see Mrs Quicke to find out what she knew. He doesn’t trust you, Angelica. And quite right, too. So how are you going to keep his mouth shut in future?’