Murder By Committee Read online

  Felicity sniffed. ‘Can I trust him?’

  Ellie was silent for a while, thinking. ‘He does care for you. He volunteered to take care of your mother's bills out of concern for you and not because he'd be getting anything out of it. If I were you, I'd listen to what he has to say very carefully, but not make any decisions about the future, or Arthur's businesses, for a while. Sign nothing. Make no promises. Make no decisions.’

  ‘I'd like to make reparation for the wrongs Arthur did. I suppose you'll say that I can't do that, that I might end up a bankrupt if I tried, that all sorts of people would descend on me, demanding money, and it would clean me out.’

  Here was a nice ethical dilemma. Would it be right for Felicity to divest herself of everything, in order to return money to people who'd been foolishly trusting, or looking for a quick buck … like the Meadows-Fitches? But then, what about some of the other people he'd fleeced? Some - maybe most - had been after a quick buck, and you could say that it served them right if they lost their money.

  On the other hand, while Mrs Anderson had come out of her dealings with Sir Arthur all right, many others hadn't. But would Felicity really want to make reparations in a month's or a year's time when she was on her beam ends?

  ‘Suppose you ask Thomas about that? Anyway, wouldn't it be a good idea to appoint someone to act for you in business matters? There must be someone in your circle whom you trust.’

  ‘You. Kate. Thomas. Bill.’

  Ellie lifted her hands in dismay. ‘You've only known us for a short time.’

  ‘I've watched you deal with all sorts of problems. Thomas is a shining sort of person, isn't he? And Bill is so straight. The way he talked to me, I could tell I could rely on him absolutely, but that he wouldn't mince his words if I did something stupid. I really liked Kate, too; Arthur said she's looking for a part-time job. She could deal with the City sharks for me, couldn't she?’

  A part-time job with Felicity might well solve Kate's financial problems. ‘Ask her.’

  ‘Then there's your aunt. I think she likes me. I could trust her, in a way, too. I think she'd tell me if there were a conflict of interest.’

  Silence. Ellie studied Felicity's profile, and Felicity studied the coffee dregs in her cup. ‘Hey,’ said Felicity, ‘I've just realized. I've inherited the right to half this house when you die.’

  Ellie smiled. ‘So you have. Diana tore up the cheque. I wonder what the legal position is now?’

  ‘Arthur shouldn't have tried to buy it in the first place. I'll give you the paper to burn. I'm not sure Diana had the right to sell it, anyway. I'll have to ask Bill. Do you think he'd take me on as a client, properly?’

  ‘Try him.’

  ‘I will.’ Felicity thought of something amusing. ‘Diana's going to be so mad when she finds out.’

  ‘Yes, Lady Kingsley, she will.’ Ellie grinned too.

  Felicity stirred, looking around her. ‘I have to register the death, make arrangements for the funeral. I have to go back to the house, shoot Marco out if he's still there, liaise with the police. The phone will be ringing night and day - his business “friends”, the newspapers - and I shan't know what to say. I can't bear the thought of sleeping there, ever again. I hate the place, and I want to sell it as soon as I can.’

  ‘But Felicity …’

  ‘Oh, I know lots of people would think it was heaven to own such a huge house, but it's meant nothing but drudgery and unhappiness to me. I'd much prefer something like this of yours, Ellie. So, could you bear it if I come back to sleep here at night?’

  ‘Yes, of course. But, Felicity, you shouldn't be by yourself. Haven't you any friends or family who could help?’

  ‘Mummy's friends? Or Arthur's? Arthur didn't like me to have friends, and neither did Mummy. I have to start afresh. Ellie, it's a lot to ask, I know, but I need to clear out Arthur's things, and I need company. Will you come with me? I can cook for you and you can show me how to make puff pastry and … why am I crying again?’ ‘Because,’ said Ellie. ‘Just because. By the way, it's too much trouble to make puff pastry. Buy it frozen and cheat.’

  * * *

  Felicity went to bed early that evening, and Kate came over to catch up on what had happened with Ellie. Kate agreed to help Felicity sort out her affairs, and then they got on to the subject of the poisoning of the dog, which was where everything had started. ‘Everyone kept telling me how good I was with people,’ said Ellie. ‘I shouldn't have listened. I didn't know enough about poisoners to realize where I ought to have been looking, and I didn't recognize the signs when I saw them. It's been a salutary experience and in future I must be more careful.’

  ‘You think you know who it was?’

  Ellie nodded. She gave a name and her reasons for thinking she'd identified the culprit. ‘There's no proof, though.’

  Kate thought about it, and agreed. ‘So what are you going to wear for the funeral of the late unlamented?’

  A fortnight later, Felicity was ferrying Ellie over to the private hospital in which Aunt Drusilla lay, recovering from her hip operation.

  The funeral was over and done with. Some of Arthur's colleagues had talked of a service of remembrance, but Felicity had vetoed it.

  Marco was in a bail hostel, awaiting trial on charges of criminal damage, and the police were trying to extradite Martinez from Morocco to face charges of attempted murder on Julian Talbot, who was fast recovering. Diana had sold another flat and so was reasonably secure financially, though not on speaking terms with her mother for the moment.

  Felicity's complicated affairs were being sorted out slowly but thoroughly by Kate, and Bill Weatherspoon had agreed to help too. Miss Quicke had suggested that Felicity go into deep mourning and cry whenever she was pressed to sign something she didn't fully understand. Felicity had followed these instructions to the letter. Chris Talbot had found Felicity a buyer for her big house, but she still slept at Ellie's every night.

  Ellie was planning to have her own house completely redecorated, and had ordered a new kitchen, which Felicity had helped her choose.

  Felicity was looking better groomed and beginning to smile now and again. She continued, dutifully, to visit her mother, but not as often as she had.

  She'd even talked about getting another dog soon. ‘If only we'd been able to find out who killed Rex. Poison's such a mean, cowardly trick.’

  Ellie nodded. ‘Surely that's all in the past now.’

  ‘I tell myself that, but somehow it keeps nagging at me. You don't talk about it any more. Do you think you know who it was?’

  ‘I didn't for a long time and I'm only guessing now. Kate gave me a lot of stuff on poisoners. It took me a while to read all through it and, well, it did make me think about one person in particular. I'm not saying it was her. There were so many people your husband wronged, but with a few exceptions they're all men, or people who hadn't the opportunity to deliver the pizza to your doorstep.’

  ‘Who was it?’

  Ellie was in a mood to tease. ‘Well, it wasn't your father; not his style.’

  Felicity was horrified. ‘Of course not!’ Chris Talbot had at long last persuaded her to meet him for dinner. They were not yet on easy terms, but perhaps they soon would be. Felicity had even wondered aloud if Julian would like to spend part of his convalescence down at the manor.

  ‘No, not your father,’ Ellie agreed. ‘I did wonder about Martinez or Marco for a while, but poison would never have been Marco's weapon of choice, and Martinez had more to gain by keeping your husband alive than killing him. It wasn't you-’

  Felicity gasped, ‘What?’

  ‘-because you'd never have risked the dog eating any of it,’ said Ellie, smiling at her. ‘But your mother …’

  ‘Nonsense! I was sitting with her at the home when the pizza was delivered to the house.’

  ‘I know, but I did wonder if she could have got the commodore to deliver it for her. But no,’ said Ellie. ‘She wouldn't risk your eating poison,
because you're her meal ticket. So it wasn't her. It wasn't your husband's housekeeper at the manor, either, because she's had plenty of opportunities to poison him down at the manor, and hasn't done so.’

  ‘I don't know why I haven't given her the sack,’ said Felicity. ‘Because you're sorry for her,’ said Ellie, ‘and because you need someone to look after the place until you decide whether or not you want to keep it. There were one or two other candidates. Mrs Meadows-Fitch: well, we know she took her own revenge, as did Paddy, the odd-job man - when is he coming to repaint your garage doors, by the way? Then there was the architect's wife, Mrs Anderson. She took a more than adequate revenge on your husband, and anyway, she's not the type.’

  ‘I don't know anyone who is,’ said Felicity.

  Ellie looked at her watch. ‘Look, we're a bit early. Aunt Drusilla won't want to see us till after her afternoon nap. Why don't we drive round by the park? There's this woman whom your husband was persecuting, a dried-up, secretive, poor sort of creature. The sort that might let an insult fester, brood upon it. My guess is that she fits the bill.

  ‘Mrs Alexis is the only one I talked to who was a loner, played down her hurt, and hasn't, apparently, taken any revenge. I thought at first she was too repressed to strike back, but now, I'm beginning to wonder.’

  Felicity drove them round by the park and stopped outside Mrs Alexis's house. There was a For Sale notice at the gate, windows hung wide open, the front door was off its hinges, and two workmen were piling lengths of old carpet and lino into a skip at the roadside. Their foreman was standing in the front doorway, fingering a mobile.

  Felicity was thoughtful. ‘Kate was talking to me about this house only the other day. It was rented out for years to someone who was always behindhand with the rent. There were several court orders to try to get her out, but she always managed to pay up at the last minute. Now she's gone, the builders are going to modernize it, to attract a buyer. It's a wonderful location, and there's even a garage, but just look what someone's done to the garden!’

  Ellie frowned. Was this the truth? It might be. She approached the foreman. ‘Has Mrs Alexis gone, then?’

  ‘Got eyes, haven't you?’

  Ellie nodded. Felicity went to look through the window at the front, and then disappeared into the house. Ellie followed her in and out of rooms, which seemed to be larger, brighter and more welcoming than she remembered. Felicity was inspecting the house in mounting excitement, making notes on a memo pad.

  The foreman found them upstairs. ‘Do you want to buy it, then?’

  ‘I own it,’ said Felicity, with a touch of impatience.

  Ellie asked the foreman, ‘Do you know where Mrs Alexis has gone?’

  ‘Bit of a mystery, that,’ said the foreman. ‘No forwarding address.’

  ‘There'd have been a removal van?’

  ‘Self-drive. Hired for the day. So the neighbours said. They didn't know she could drive, but apparently she could. Went off without saying goodbye. Sounds like she won't be missed.’

  Felicity led the way downstairs. ‘Ellie, this is just the sort of house I want for myself. It needs completely gutting, of course, and a larger kitchen built out at the back. The garden's nothing much at the moment, but it would give me a blank canvas, and the park's just opposite for walking a dog when I get one.’

  Ellie turned to stare at the house. What Felicity said made sense. Yes, Ellie could see Felicity happily living here, perhaps with a part-time job to keep her occupied, not because she would need it; Kate would see to that.

  Felicity was already on her mobile, making arrangements to have the house taken off the market. ‘I'll see if Roy can meet me here tomorrow to do some drawings for a new kitchen and shower room. Also that garage will have to be rebuilt; it looks as if it's falling down.’ Felicity was beginning to find her feet.

  Ellie said, ‘It doesn't worry you that the house was occupied for so many years by such a sad creature as Mrs Alexis?’

  ‘I didn't feel any of that. The house is just a shell. I felt it welcomed me. What made you think she poisoned Rex?’

  ‘I don't think she meant to do that, but she's the sort of person who might have wanted to give your husband a bellyache. She wouldn't have known about the dog.’

  ‘We should tell the police.’

  ‘Would they be interested? Rex's death was an accident, and your husband didn't die of poison. Surely the woman has been punished enough, by losing her home? And we've no proof.’

  Felicity thought about it. ‘It's hard to stop being angry. I was so angry about Rex, but maybe that was because I couldn't afford to be angry with Arthur then. I think about poor Rex now, and I still want to cry. But if Mrs Alexis wasn't able to keep up with the rent, and Arthur was urging her to get out, I suppose I can see how she could get so desperate that she might want to hurt him. The police could trace her, if they really wanted to. Couldn't they?’

  ‘Probably. But the accidental killing of a dog wouldn't be a high priority.’

  Felicity nodded agreement. ‘Right. Let's get on with our lives then, shall we? Do you think your aunt will like these lilies I've bought for her?’

  ‘She'll probably say she's seen better in a crematorium. She'll add that she's not dead yet, and has no intention of dying just to please us!’

  Felicity laughed. ‘I do enjoy visiting your aunt. I've never met anyone like her. I've been wondering, though. How do you think she'd get on with my father?’

  Ellie started to laugh. ‘A clash of giants. I suspect they'd recognize a worthy adversary, be terribly polite to one another, and afterwards, each would warn you against the other. They're both way above my head.’

  ‘Not with people, they're not,’ said Felicity. ‘You're the glue that sticks us all together.’

  ‘Oh, nonsense,’ said Ellie, and blushed.

  Clerical Crime Titles From Ostara Publishing

  C A Alington: Archdeacons Afloat 9781906288 068

  Victor Whitechurch: Crime at Diana’s Pool 9781906288 051

  D M Greenwood: Clerical Errors 9781906288 099

  D M Greenwood: Unholy Ghosts 9781906288 105

  D M Greenwood: Idol Bones 9781906288 242

  D M Greenwood: Holy Terrors 9781906288 236

  Veronica Heley: Murder by Suicide 9781906288 143

  Veronica Heley: Murder at the Altar 9781906288 136

  Veronica Heley: Murder of Innocence 9781906288 327

  Veronica Heley: Murder by Accident 9781906288 334

  Veronica Heley: Murder in the Garden 9781906288 679

  Veronica Heley: Murder By Committee 9781906288 686

  Kate Charles: Drink Deadly Wine 9781906288 112

  Kate Charles: Snares of Death 9781906288 129

  Kate Charles: Appointed to Die 9781906288 259

  Kate Charles: Dead Man Out of Mind 9781906288 266

  Kate Charles: Evil Angels Among Them 9781906288 273

  All Ostara titles can be ordered from our website

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