Murder in House Page 26

  Ellie stepped back into the shadows, allowing Ursula centre stage.

  ‘What?’ said Mr Prior. ‘How dare you! Who are you?’

  ‘I am the girl you destroyed. Ladies, gentlemen, look around you. See the pretty young men and girls, all working hard to entrap you. Some of them are under age: jail bait. I know what I’m talking about, for I was once one of them. The ploy works, doesn’t it? All the little minnows swim into the Prior net and become his puppets. Every now and then a larger fish comes along and then he needs beautiful but educated girls who are harder to come by. His eye alights on Mia, his stepdaughter, and her friend Ursula. Well, why not? They’re young, desirable and not yet touched by man.’

  Several middle-aged men who’d been cuddling young girls suddenly found they needed both hands to hold their glass. A couple of older women disentangled themselves from the Prior boys.

  ‘Ursula takes fright and runs away, which leaves Mia, poor Mia, who didn’t want to stay on at the Grand Opening because a certain councillor was making himself obnoxious to her. She’s told he’s gone and given a drink by someone she trusts, by her own stepbrother. She falls into a drugged sleep. When she comes round, she’s bleeding . . . bruised . . . bitten. She realizes she’s been raped.’ She raised her arm and pointed. ‘Hasn’t she, Councillor?’

  All eyes went to the pale-faced, sweating man. ‘No, no!’

  The stout woman who’d been standing near him whipped her head round to stare first at Ursula, and then at the councillor, who seemed to be shrinking inside his clothes.

  ‘And impregnated. Was it your baby, Councillor?’

  ‘My God! No!’

  His wife backhanded him. ‘So that’s what happened when I had flu and you came home reeking of sex! You swore you’d been with a prostitute!’

  He took a step back. ‘No, no. That is, yes, I did have her, but I didn’t hurt her, I swear I didn’t. No, how could I? She was just lying there, and I . . . well, anyone would, wouldn’t they?’ He looked around, and met only averted eyes.

  His voice rose to a shout. ‘I didn’t hurt her! I swear she was all right when I left her.’ He swung round on Anthony. ‘You were there. You told me she was ready for it. It was you! You hurt her!’

  Anthony was smoothness itself. ‘No, no. You’re mistaken. There were lots of other people there. I took you downstairs and saw you into your car, remember?’

  The camera flashed again.

  The councillor wiped his hand across his forehead. ‘Oh yes, of course you did. I could see . . . yes, other men were queuing up to take their turn after me.’

  ‘And this is how you left her!’ Ursula reversed the mask in her hand, and now they were faced with the photo of Mia’s ruined face: the puffy lips and eyes, the bruised and discoloured skin, the half-healed cuts, the badly-cut and dyed fringe of hair. ‘This is what Mia looked like, three days ago. She is now in hospital, being filled up with antibiotics for the wounds inflicted on her, which have gone septic. The DNA will tell us who fathered her child.’

  The councillor’s wife made as if to hit him again, and he made a run for the door only to be blocked by Hawk-face, who seemed to move slowly, but caught the man in a vice-like grip from which he struggled in vain to release himself. Slowly, he was bent over till his head was touching his knees. Hawk-face released his grip, and the man fell at Ursula’s feet. Weeping. ‘No, no. Not me. It’s a mistake. I’ll be ruined . . . I beg you . . .’

  Ursula ignored him. The camera flashed.

  The councillor’s wife seized him by one arm and hauled him to his feet. ‘You pitiful little worm!’ The camera was right in her face. She spoke to the room at large. ‘He’ll resign tomorrow.’ She towed him after her to the front door, which Hawk-face held open for her.

  As it closed behind them the party-goers shifted, turning to one another, shocked, bewildered. Ellie saw most set down half-empty glasses. A sign that they believed Ursula and were rejecting Mr Prior’s hospitality?

  The girl in the wheelchair sat with open mouth, stunned. DC Milburn’s mouth was also agape. DI Willis sipped her drink, her eyes going round the room, her expression guarded.

  Mr Prior tried to regain control. He raised his voice, gathering all eyes to himself. ‘I knew nothing of this. In fact, I don’t believe a word of it. The girl was a slut who—’

  ‘That’s a lie,’ said Ursula, dropping her mask, throwing back her cloak and shaking her hair loose. Taller than most people there, she dominated the room, in a short, gold sheath of a dress. ‘She was a virgin. You sacrificed her in the hopes of gaining a contract that you wouldn’t otherwise have got. After she was raped, she was brought back home to this house, to her own room, and kept here for use by her family and friends.’

  There was another gasp from the room. Anthony and Timothy exchanged glances, moved closer together. Daniel set down his tray with care, and rubbed his hand over his mouth. DI Willis half closed her eyes, assessing the situation.

  Ursula pointed to Mrs Prior. ‘You hated Mia, didn’t you? She was more beautiful than you, and kind to everyone. People loved her. You may or may not have known what was going to happen at the party, but once Mia was back in her own home, you chose to ignore what had happened. What’s more, you let her be raped again and again. And beaten. Under your own roof.’

  Mrs Prior laughed, and shook her head. She stood with feet apart, monumentally sure of herself. Diamonds glittered at her neck and ears and on each of her massive wrists. She hissed, ‘Ridiculous!’

  Ursula surveyed the room. ‘You had her,’ she said, pointing to a jolly-looking, corpulent man at Anthony’s elbow. ‘She used to call you “uncle”, didn’t she? And her stepbrothers? They took their turn too.’ The look of shock and guilt on three faces was enough to convince the most sceptical of onlookers that what she said was true.

  Flash! Flash!

  Ursula’s face twisted. ‘I had hoped that Timothy at least . . . but Mia says he was one of the most brutal of her visitors. And do you know what this prize family had arranged for Mia’s future? When she was no longer of any use to them, they were going to sell her to a pimp in the Midlands.’

  ‘You are bluffing,’ said Mrs Prior, in a deep, almost masculine voice. ‘You have no proof.’ But her hands trembled, making her diamond rings flash.

  ‘I think you’d better leave,’ said Mr Prior, pressing a handkerchief to his lips. A strand of white hair fell over his eye. Suddenly he didn’t look like Santa Claus at all. ‘Your allegations . . . ridiculous! As if I would ever have anything to do with such a thing!’

  ‘You took your turn as well, didn’t you? Two nights running. I wonder you can sleep at night, after what you’ve done.’

  ‘Nothing! I’ve done nothing.’

  ‘I realize you don’t actually get your hands dirty yourself, do you? You set up the schemes and, if anything goes wrong, you get your wife to deal with it.’ Ursula turned to Mrs Prior. ‘I thought I recognized your voice on the phone. It’s your job to frighten people into doing what your husband wants, isn’t it? First the threats, and then the hard men go in. Anthony was your right-hand man who arranged things for you. He in turn recruited needy young men and gave them their instructions. But your little empire is falling apart because this afternoon a couple of your foot soldiers went to the police and admitted attacking and robbing Mrs Belton.’

  Something like a groan went up from the party-goers, who seemed to sway backwards, moving away from their host and hostess. The girl in the wheelchair began to cry, but DC Milburn failed to notice her sister’s distress.

  DI Willis took out her mobile phone and spoke into it, in a low voice. Checking on what Ursula had said? The man known as Bullseye slid out of the room.

  Mr Prior was sweating. ‘No! I have never . . . Absolutely not!’

  ‘Mia is going to name names as soon as she leaves hospital. You understand?’

  ‘You are pathetic!’ But it was he who was pathetic, now. Trembling hands, ageing before their eyes. ‘I d
idn’t. At least . . . not till . . . no, not me!’

  ‘I suppose it would best if you pleaded guilty to rape, rather than face a murder charge.’

  A shocked murmur went round the room.

  Flash!

  Ursula was implacable. ‘Yes, murder. Your son Timothy admitted as much to Daniel Collins, my ex-fiancé.’

  Daniel’s knees gave way, and he sank to the floor, his head bowed. He muttered, ‘He was joking. I told you he was joking.’

  Flash!

  ‘Anthony killed our friend Lloyd. Worse, he destroyed Lloyd’s character, saying he’d got drunk and gone over the balcony. Lloyd hardly drank at all. Timothy told you what really happened, didn’t he, Dan? What was it? Did Lloyd see what was happening to Mia and object so strongly that Anthony ordered him to be silenced?’

  An indrawn breath. Daniel sobbed, once. ‘Yes, yes. I suppose so. Timothy said, hinted . . . I wasn’t there.’

  Everyone looked at Timothy, who passed the back of his hand over his mouth. ‘I was drunk. I didn’t know what I was doing.’

  Flash!

  Anthony alone kept his nerve. ‘Lloyd shouldn’t have made such a fuss.’

  ‘A fuss? Well, that’s for the courts to decide. As for the threats the Priors have been making –’ Ursula swept the room with her eyes – ‘how many of you would dare to oppose this man, if he said your wife and child would lose their eyesight if you didn’t give him what he wanted? That’s what a prospective investor was told this afternoon. Or if he threatened to firebomb your premises? That was the word passed to my friend’s daughter. We have taped recordings of these same threats.’

  A swirl of motion, and somebody crashed across the room, aiming directly for Ursula. Anthony, mad with fury. She didn’t flinch.

  Judo took one pace to the fore and, bending down, lifted Anthony clear off the floor, deflecting him from Ursula, and sending him skidding across the room. He crashed into a table, and lay there, groaning.

  Flash!

  Ursula turned to the corner of the room in which her date for the night stood, hardly breathing, his eyes flicking to and fro. ‘Your Highness, I regret that I may have given you the wrong impression at the party. I am not for sale.’

  He bowed his head. ‘I do not regret knowing you, Miss Ursula. It has been an education. Now, it is time for me to leave.’ Ursula stood aside as he made for the door, followed by his bodyguards, and disappeared into the night, the door shutting behind him without a sound.

  There was a general movement to follow him. No one thanked the Priors for inviting them; no one spoke to their host and hostess, making arrangements to see them again. Anthony’s friends, men and girls, left one by one, almost running to get away. Ursula ignored them as they passed in front of her.

  No one spoke to Ursula either, as she stood with her bodyguards, one on either side of her. The photographer took one last shot of her, close to. She didn’t even blink. He left too.

  Daniel got to his feet, and looked across at Ursula, hands outstretched, begging for forgiveness? She looked right through him. He made as if to speak, but decided against it. Shoulders slumped, he, too, went out into the night. He didn’t close the door properly, and it blew open again, letting in the cold night air.

  Anthony staggered to his feet holding his nose, which this time really was broken. Timothy sank into a chair, head in hands. Each member of the family stared into space, contemplating a bleak future.

  DI Willis had been listening even as she talked on her mobile phone. Now she shut it off with a click. DC Milburn’s sister asked in a low voice to be taken home, but this was no time for a policewoman to leave. ‘I’ll get a cab to take you home,’ said DC Milburn. She was staying.

  DI Willis finished her drink and set down the empty glass with precision. Looking first at Ellie and then at Ursula, she said, ‘I promise you this will not be swept under the carpet. I shall need names, statements.’

  ‘Tomorrow,’ said Ellie.

  Only then did Ursula relax. Hawk-face put his arm around her shoulders and steered her to the door. Judo collected the mask she’d dropped. Ellie led the way out to the cars, making sure to close the front door behind her. No sense in wasting heat on such a cold night.

  Judo would have opened his car door for her, but she shook her head.

  ‘Ursula will break down in a minute. I’d better go with her.’ She climbed into the back of Hawk-face’s car, and accepted the girl into her arms. Ursula hardly seemed to be breathing. And she was cold, so cold.

  Ellie chafed Ursula’s hands, murmuring ‘It’s all right, you’re a brave girl. It’s all over now.’

  NINETEEN

  Home at last. Everything seemed quiet, but there was a strange car in the driveway. Ellie saw that Hawk-face had noticed it too. He parked to one side, with Judo close behind him. Ellie helped Ursula out of the car. The girl was as stiff as a Barbie doll.

  Everything looked normal as they approached the front door, but Ellie couldn’t help remembering that Charlie had not been at the drinks party, and therefore might have been somewhere else, making mischief. She remembered Deep Throat’s last threat to make Ellie pay.

  She used her keys to let them in. Everything still seemed normal. In fact, there was a burst of laughter from the kitchen. With one arm around Ursula, Ellie followed the noise, to be confronted by as cosy a domestic scene as anyone could wish.

  Kate was breastfeeding her baby, while the toddler lay in the pushchair, fast asleep. Rose was dishing out helpings of her beef casserole, while Armand and his large colleague from school were helping themselves to mugs of tea.

  Rose, pink with pleasure, cried, ‘What goings-on! Just like the old days!’

  ‘Ah, food!’ said Judo, sliding into a chair at the table.

  ‘Come and join us!’ cried Armand. ‘The enemy came, broke in through the back door, and were conquered. They thought we’d be easy, so they’d hardly brought much of an arsenal with them. Just knuckledusters, a baseball bat and a rather wicked knife. But we were ready for them. I tripped one up, Kate swept the legs from under another who bumped his head against Rose’s frying pan, Big Man here sat on them, and after that they didn’t have such an optimistic view of life.

  ‘We tied them up and put them in the larder, thinking we could finish our supper before we rang the police, but they made so much noise we had to get rid of them first. The police thought they were a couple of ordinary burglars till they saw the arsenal of weapons they had with them. They were, as they say, known to the police already. One is called Charlie, the other was someone he recruited in a pub just for this evening’s little foray. All been tidied away now. So, how did the drinks party go?’

  ‘Very well,’ said Ellie. The girl within her arm shivered and gasped, all the stiffness leaving her body. As she sank to the floor, so Ellie found Ursula’s weight had been taken off her.

  Hawk-face lifted Ursula up. ‘Where shall I take her?’

  ‘I’ll show you.’ She led him into the sitting room, only dimly lit with sidelamps at that time of night, and pointed out the settee. He laid her down with care. Ellie took the girl in her arms, and Hawk-face left them to it.

  Ursula wept till she was too tired to cry any more.

  Rose came in with a tray of hot drinks and tiny sandwiches, saying that Denis and Diana had eaten with them earlier and now gone back to her flat, if you please, and who did they think they were, treating Ellie’s home like a boarding house.

  Ursula lifted her head, and blearily tried to smile. ‘You’ve been so good to me. If it hadn’t been for you they’d have got away with it. But what I’m going to do about Mia, I don’t know.’

  How like Ursula to think she had to shoulder her friend’s burden! Ellie passed the cup of tea to her. ‘I’ll look after Mia.’

  ‘Will you?’ Ursula seemed doubtful. ‘I’d like to, but I don’t see how I can manage it, living down in Portsmouth.’

  ‘Leave it to me,’ said Ellie, thinking that perhaps this was God’s w
ay of making sure she used more of the vacant rooms in the house. And why not, anyway? Rose would love to cosset Mia, and if the girl had some IT skills they could pay her a wage of sorts for helping Thomas now and then, or she could work for Stewart, helping tenants to downsize or whatever. Just till she was strong enough to go back to university. Surely Thomas wouldn’t object.

  ‘Try to eat.’

  Ursula took a few sips of tea, but couldn’t eat.

  Armand and Kate poked their heads around the door and said they rather thought they’d go home now, if it was all right with Ellie. Their large friend went with them, saying he’d doss down on their settee again as it was too late for him to get a train back home that night.

  Judo came in, and hovered. Ursula gave him a weak smile, and a weaker ‘Thanks’. He said he might ring her tomorrow, if she liked. She nodded, though not with any great enthusiasm.

  Midge the cat came in, sniffed at Ursula’s shoe, decided she was an all right person, and sat on a stool nearby so that she could stroke him if she felt so inclined. Which she did, eventually.

  Hawk-face appeared with another hot drink, this time for Ellie, and a hot-water bottle for Ursula’s feet. He removed himself to a chair in the shadows. Ellie considered that Hawk-face had more common sense than most.

  At last Ursula roused herself. ‘I must look terrible. So sorry. Made a complete fool of myself.’

  ‘Bed, my dear. If you can bear to sleep in your mother’s sheets.’

  ‘I’d prefer, if you don’t mind, and you’ll probably think me very silly, but I’d like to go home to the flat, to my own bed.’

  Hawk-face stood up, yawning. ‘I’ll see you home then. Sleep across your bedroom door.’

  She giggled, weakly. ‘Silly. I’d fall over you in the night, going to the bathroom.’

  ‘Any time.’ He smiled, and in smiling revealed himself to be a man of considerable charm. Which, added to his common sense, made him a rare bird in Ellie’s book. And in Ursula’s, too, it seemed.