Murder With Mercy Read online

  Ellie couldn’t think what to do. If she got Evan to ditch the drink, what was to stop the woman from trying again later?

  Rosemary began to weep. ‘Oh, this is so awful! I can’t bear it.’

  ‘Oh, for heavens’ …!’ said Evan, and made as if to drink up.

  Ellie said, ‘Anita!’

  Evan paused with the glass at his lips.

  Ellie said, ‘Rosemary, it was you who helped Anita to die, wasn’t it?’

  Rosemary sought in her pockets for a hankie and used it. Her words were indistinct. ‘What if I did? It’s no crime to run an errand for an old friend.’

  Evan’s jaw dropped. ‘It was you who gave her the extra tablets?’

  Rosemary tossed her head. ‘She asked me to help her, and I did. She took the pills as and when she wanted to.’

  Evan looked at the glass in his hand, his eyes wide.

  ‘Petra,’ said Ellie, disinterring the name from her memory banks. ‘She blamed a cousin for supplying her aunt with the pills that killed her. Was that you, as well?’

  ‘Petra?’ Rosemary began to rock to and fro, clutching her handbag. ‘Nasty little girl. Never liked her. Her aunt used to work for me; we’ve always kept in touch.’

  ‘Was it you who gave Petra’s aunt a Prada handbag?’

  ‘Why not? She kept it for best, only used it at Christmas time. Petra is a nasty, snivelling brat. Always looking for handouts. Deserved what she got.’

  Evan met Ellie’s eyes. Did she look as appalled as he did?

  Ellie said, in a soft voice, ‘Did you hurt Petra? How?’

  A toss of the head. ‘She tripped and fell over.’

  ‘How many people have you helped to die, Rosemary?’

  ‘I don’t know, do I? I’m never there when they do whatever it is that they want to do.’

  Evan was fascinated. ‘Rosemary, what’s in the drink you’ve given me?’

  ‘The usual. It’s the very last of the sleeping pills. I’ve been so careful, eking them out, and yours are the last, the very last. You said you wanted to die, and I trusted you. What are old friends for but helping you out? And now, you’ve made a fool of me and I wish I were dead!’

  ‘Here, then,’ said Evan, passing his drink over to her.

  ‘No!’ cried Ellie.

  Rosemary, gasping, laughing, still with tears on her cheeks, took the glass and tipped it into her mouth. She gagged once but continued to drink, even licking out the last drop.

  ‘You see,’ said Evan, half daring and half regretting his impulse. ‘There was nothing wrong with the drink.’

  Ellie withdrew her mobile from her handbag. ‘She needs pumping out. I’ll dial for an ambulance.’

  ‘No, no!’ said Rosemary, mopping herself up, blowing her nose. Laughing gently. ‘How I’ve fooled you! Did you really think there was something nasty in the whisky? Of course there wasn’t. There was nothing in it but a calming powder I got from the alternative medicine shop. It would have done Evan good, and it certainly won’t harm me. Dear me, Evan! Don’t look so distressed. I’m perfectly all right and, goodness me, will you look at the time? I’d best be on my way.’

  Ellie wasn’t sure what to think, but tried one last word. ‘Why did you wear a brown handbag with your navy coat?’

  ‘Why ever not?’ Rosemary stood up, with some difficulty heaving herself out of the soft cushions of the settee. ‘My best black coat’s at the cleaners and my black handbag’s still wet from the gin and …’ Her voice trailed away.

  ‘Gin?’

  ‘Petra got gin all over it and maybe some blood.’ She stopped short. Blinked. ‘I suppose you’ll need to tell someone that she’s dead. It’s not going to make any difference to me now, is it? I really must be going.’ She made her way out through the few remaining guests in the main room.

  ‘Do you think she really …?’ said Evan.

  Ellie dialled Lesley Milburn’s number and for once was connected straight away. ‘Lesley, I’ve just learned who’s been providing people who want to die with extra pills. She also says she killed that girl who’s been making such a nuisance of herself over her aunt’s death. Petra. Is Petra really dead, or is this woman imagining it? She’s called Rosemary something. A doctor’s widow. She’s on her way home now from the wake at Freddie’s house, and I think she’s taken enough sleeping pills to kill her. I’ll hand you on to someone who can give you her full name and where she lives.’

  She passed her phone to Evan, just as Marcia double-barrelled hove into sight, with one arm around Diana, who looked ghastly.

  Ellie didn’t exactly shoot to her feet, but did manage to pull herself out of the cushions.

  ‘Her contractions are coming every five minutes,’ said Marcia. ‘I think it’s time to go to the hospital. I’ll drive you, if you like.’

  Evan stood up.

  Evan …

  stood …

  … up.

  He handed the mobile phone back to Ellie and did his imitation of the crocodile’s smile. ‘Well, on with the game.’

  ‘You’ve been practising!’ said Ellie.

  Marcia laughed. ‘Every minute he could.’

  ‘What a lovely surprise,’ muttered Diana, not smiling at all. ‘But if you don’t mind …’

  Rosemary was forgotten.

  Marcia and Ellie sat side by side in the waiting room of the maternity unit, making small talk.

  Marcia said, ‘I challenged him to a game of chair-bound golf, and of course he couldn’t stand being beaten by a woman so he soon forgot he couldn’t stand. At first he was wobbly on his feet. He didn’t want to let anyone know he was getting better until he could walk properly. So we practised in secret. Diana probably suspected but went along with his little game.’

  Ellie didn’t think Diana had known. Diana wasn’t very observant. ‘Marcia, you’re a gem. They should put up a statue to you somewhere.’

  Marcia waved the compliment away but looked pleased. ‘Men never think things through. He’s left his wheelchair in Freddie’s house, and I suppose I’ll have to retrieve it for him tomorrow. And what about Diana’s maternity case? Where is that, do you suppose?’

  Ellie switched her eyes away from the door. The waiting seemed to go on for ever. ‘Are you going to work your magic on Freddie next?’

  ‘Too soft a target. I was at school with his sister, older than me but a legend for bullying even in those days. Going on past behaviour, she’ll boss him about till one day he cracks and throws her out. After that, he’ll start living again.’

  Evan staggered in on uncertain legs. Grinning. ‘Congratulations are in order. A fine boy. Perfect, they say. Diana’s being cleaned up and will have a rest. They’ll be home tomorrow, if all is well.’

  Monday evening

  The house seemed peaceful, after the uproar of the party at Freddie’s. Ellie relaxed. What a day it had been! First the confrontation with Edwina, then the wake at Freddie’s, and to cap all, Diana going into labour.

  She shed her coat and the phone rang.

  Lesley Milburn. ‘Ellie, you there for a change? This friend of yours, Rosemary something. I arrived to find she’d collapsed in the street outside her house. A neighbour had just called an ambulance. I followed them to the hospital, who want to know what she’s taken before they pump her out.’

  ‘Sleeping pills, probably. In whisky. Will she make it?’

  ‘Possibly. She understood I was with the police, and she pressed a diary and a dry-cleaner’s ticket on me. Have you any idea what that’s about?’

  ‘Well, if she did kill Petra – can you check? – there may be some blood on a black coat, the one she was wearing at the time, and which she’s taken to be dry-cleaned.’

  ‘I’ll have someone collect it. The doctors are going to work on her now. If she makes it … but at her age …’

  ‘Would you want her to make it?’

  ‘That’s not the point. If she’s been helping other people to die, and if she really has killed Petra, she�
�s got to answer for it. I’ll see if I can get her to talk later. Must go, the nurse is calling me.’

  Ellie returned the phone to its rest. The matter was out of her hands now, and if Rosemary died, then God and not man would be Rosemary’s judge.

  Rose must be having her afternoon nap, as she hadn’t appeared in the hall. She could wait.

  Ellie went upstairs to tell Thomas what had been happening. He laid aside his iPad to listen, and when she’d finished, he said, ‘Well done all round. I think I’ll get up for a bit, later.’

  Up in the top flat, Ellie found Vera making sure Mikey did his homework. Vera said she’d rung the school and told them he’d be back tomorrow and that she’d go in to explain what had been happening as soon as she could.

  Ellie rushed downstairs on hearing Rose scream. Midge had brought a field mouse into the kitchen. Alive. Rose caught it in a tumbler and threw it back into the garden. Midge was furious. Hadn’t he just given her the best possible present? He stalked off to find Mikey.

  Ellie sat down for a nice cup of tea to tell Rose all about everything, but in the middle of telling her about Evan, she remembered that ages ago – was it only last week? – she’d been potting up some bulbs for the winter. Where had they gone? Had Rose seen them?

  ‘I put them in the big cupboard in the hall, out of the way. I meant to tell you but I forgot. I think one of them has started to grow already. So what’s your new grandson like? Does he have a full head of hair, or is he as bald as a billiard ball?’

  Monday evening

  As Ellie arrived at the maternity unit with Diana’s suitcase – retrieved from Freddie’s house – she could hear a baby wailing.

  Not a weakly cry. A full-blooded you’ll-be-sorry-if-you-don’t-feed-me-NOW! sort of cry. This was a baby determined to get his own way and prepared to give the world hell if it didn’t oblige immediately. Ellie supposed that wasn’t surprising, given the genes he’d inherited.

  Diana was glaring into space. ‘Can’t you make him stop? He’s driving me crazy.’

  ‘That’s what babies do when they’re hungry. Where’s Evan?’

  ‘Gone to the golf club to celebrate.’

  ‘That’s what men do. Your job is to feed the baby.’

  ‘That’s what the nurses say. But I didn’t feed my first, and I’m not ruining my figure by feeding this one, either. I asked the nurse to bring him a bottle but so far there’s no sign of it.’

  Ellie picked the baby up, tugged Diana’s gown out of the way, and guided him on to his mother’s breast. He didn’t need showing what to do. The howling ceased.

  Suck, suck. The top of his little head pulsed with the rhythm of his feeding.

  Diana looked horrified. ‘What!’ And then, ‘What the …’ Her arms closed round her son. ‘What a strange sensation.’ She smiled, actually smiled.

  ‘Enjoy,’ said Ellie, and sat down to watch Diana bond with her son.