Murder in House Page 6

  The woman bridled with importance. ‘I’m a speech therapist. Mustn’t risk passing on germs.’

  Ellie blew her nose again. ‘Ursula didn’t go straight back. My husband found her in St Mary’s Church—’

  ‘My daughter doesn’t go to church. Hasn’t been to church since she was in the Brownies.’

  ‘I daresay, but let me tell you what happened.’ Ellie told the story as she knew it. Mrs Belton sat very still, surprise and some disbelief showing. Even anger. When Ellie came to Ursula’s saying, ‘A broken engagement, a murder and a disappearance,’ Mrs Belton shook her head. ‘What absolute nonsense! What on earth’s got into the girl?’

  Ellie said, ‘Let me tell you what happened when I visited Daniel today.’ At the end of her recital, she took the ring in its plastic bag out of her coin purse and laid it on the coffee table in front of her.

  Mrs Belton looked shocked. ‘Oh no! Oh, how could she!’ She stood up with a jerk, to twitch net curtains at the windows into more even folds. The nets were fresh and very white. The room overlooked the road. ‘I can’t believe it. They’ve been engaged for years. They bought that ring on a day outing to Brighton when they’d just left school. Ursula paid for it with some birthday money her grandfather had given her. Far too young, of course, but Daniel’s a nice boy, and I was glad to see her settled. So . . . why? After all these years?’

  ‘I think something happened at a party they were both at in the new year.’

  Mrs Belton stared. ‘What do you mean, “something happened”?’ Her eyes shifted and she frowned. ‘You mean, the accident? Well, that happened after she left the party. She left early to fly off to America. I should explain that her father and I divorced when she was little; he went back to America and married again. They have two little boys, but he’s always kept in touch. He paid for her ticket to go over there for a visit in the new year. Naturally she didn’t want to leave me alone, but I’d got a bit of leave coming so went to stay with my sister in Leeds and we had a good time until I started to get a sore throat. I got back just before Ursula and went straight to bed with a temperature. This is my first full day up.’

  She started to cough, fished out a lozenge and put it in her mouth. Ellie did the same, saying she’d had the cold, too, and it was a right terror wasn’t it?

  ‘Ursula never catches colds, she doesn’t understand how much it pulls you down. She was very good, I suppose, doing the shopping and cooking, not that I fancied anything much. We didn’t see Daniel at all, but I wouldn’t have expected it. The young always avoid you when you’re poorly, don’t they?’

  Mrs Belton pounded one fist against the other. ‘I should have been the first to know. These young people, they get an idea into their heads and before you know where they are, they’re committing themselves to a lifetime of loneliness.’

  Like her, did she mean?

  Mrs Belton straightened the already neat pile of papers on the coffee table. ‘She ought to have told me, we could have talked it over. How she could have thrown over a nice boy like that! Daniel must be terribly upset. The trouble with Ursula is that she’s always been so quick to pass judgment. Ten to one, she’s broken it off over something quite trivial.’

  So Ursula hadn’t taken her mother fully into her confidence? Well, considering that her mother had been in bed ill, her decision seemed reasonable. ‘You say Ursula wasn’t there when the accident occurred?’

  Mrs Belton sniffed. ‘I told her, be sensible, you can go to parties any old time, but you have to be at the airport in the early hours of the morning, so why not give it a miss? But she wouldn’t listen. Off she went to the party with her rucksack, wearing a minidress that showed far too much, but there you are, they will do it, won’t they? Daniel took her to the airport, and she texted me when she got there, saying that her flight was on time.’

  ‘When did you hear of Lloyd’s death?’

  ‘It was in the local papers, wasn’t it? Ursula showed it to me last week, got really worked up about it. I had to tell her not to shout. My ears hurt! Honestly! These young people take things so hard, wind themselves up with conspiracy theories about people not drinking when he obviously had. I told her, when she’s seen as much of the world as I have, she wouldn’t get into such a state about a young man falling off the wagon. These things happen, big party, everyone at it. If he wasn’t used to drink, then the vodka probably had more of an effect than it would have done otherwise.’

  A note of grievance entered her voice. ‘I thought she was settled with Daniel, that they’d be married and I’d be having the place to myself next summer. I had plans to . . . I deserve a life of my own now, don’t I?’

  ‘Your daughter also talked about a disappearance. Do you know anything about that?’

  A shrug. ‘She had a friend called Mia. A little dark girl, almost gypsyish to look at. Tiny little thing. She was quite bright, studying some strange language, it may have been Japanese. Apparently she went off with some unsuitable man or other after the party, as girls do. Ursula wouldn’t accept that, oh no! Tried to ring her, went round to see the family, but the girl’s dropped out of sight. Youngsters . . .’ She sighed. ‘They never think that we worry about them. A shame, really. Mia might have talked some sense into her, instead of this.’ She gestured to the ring.

  ‘So Mia really has disappeared. Have the police been informed?’

  ‘She’s old enough to decide what to do with her life. I suppose the group is breaking up now. Pity. They have so many advantages that I never had. I had to work hard from the moment I left school. Nowadays they have these gap years and travel all round the place, having a whale of a time.’

  ‘New York for a holiday . . .?’

  ‘We should be so lucky.’ She gave Ellie a twisted smile that morphed into a coughing fit. Ellie waited while Mrs Belton dragged herself into the kitchen for a glass of water. She reappeared, holding a packet of pills. ‘Time for a pill.’ Her voice was fading from exhaustion.

  ‘You shouldn’t think of going back to work this week, and you shouldn’t go out in the cold. Do you have a neighbour who can do some shopping for you?’

  ‘Oh, her. We don’t speak.’

  ‘Well, can I fetch you something from the shops?’

  ‘I’ll go back to bed for a bit, I think. Ursula left me with a whole lot of frozen meals, not that I fancy them in the least. Junk food! I can still hardly believe what Ursula’s done. They’ve been together for so long.’

  ‘Better to break it off now than after they’re married.’

  ‘I suppose.’

  ‘I’d like to ring her, if I may. Tell her what’s happened about the ring.’

  ‘She’s got no mobile at the moment. Dropped it, clumsy girl, will have to get another, though I should think she’s fairly broke at the moment, what with the trip to America and all. I’ll let you have the emergency number for students at the University, if you like. You can leave a message for her there.’

  Mrs Belton consulted a telephone book and wrote down a number on a piece of paper for Ellie. At the same time, Ellie wrote down her own home number for Mrs Belton. ‘Just in case she rings you before I can get hold of her.’

  Mrs Belton gave Ellie’s phone number one glance, and screwed up the piece of paper, saying she only needed to look at telephone numbers once to remember them.

  Considerably intimidated by this evidence of a superior intellect Ellie, who had been known to forget her own phone number at times, got herself out of the flat, pulled out her mobile and asked the cab company to send someone round to pick her up straight away. Then she tried the number Mrs Belton had given her and left a message for Ursula to ring her, reversing the call.

  ‘Daniel’s not going to do anything stupid, is he?’

  ‘I shouldn’t think so, Dumbo. He wants a job in the Health Club when he finishes college.’

  ‘He got rat-arsed last night. I’ve never seen him so drunk.’

  ‘The problem with him is that little Miss Frigidaire
refused to let him grow up. He’ll soon find out the joys of living in today’s world. She scratched me, you know.’

  ‘Well, you did break her mobile.’

  ‘The least she deserved.’

  ‘I worry about Mia. I mean, she left so suddenly, and we don’t know anything about the man she went off with. She could be anywhere, out on the streets, starving.’

  ‘You’ve an overactive imagination. I’m not bothered, and the parents certainly aren’t. She never fitted in, did she?’

  ‘Yes, but suppose she’s, well, you know. In real trouble. Because of what we did. We don’t want her going to the police.’

  A pause. ‘I don’t think she’d dare, but I suppose I could ask around. Once I’d put my mind to it, it was easy enough to see who helped her get away. I’ll have words with the woman tomorrow when she comes.’

  ‘Who, Anthony? The cleaner?’

  ‘Who else? See if you can get Daniel to come along tonight. We’ve got hold of a really hot video. Might put some ideas into his virginal head. Take our minds off the financial situation. If The Man doesn’t pull something off soon, we’ll all be down the Job Centre.’

  ‘I thought the architect—’

  ‘Not as solvent as The Man thought.’

  FIVE

  Monday evening

  Ellie got home to find the house dark except for a light in the hall. She remembered just in time that she couldn’t use the front door because Thomas had bolted it, so made her way past the coach house that Roy had converted into his architect’s offices, and let herself into the kitchen quarters through the back door.

  What a sight! A splendid party was in progress round the kitchen table, with Rose presiding over their biggest teapot. Thomas – girded in his favourite apron with cats on it – was grilling a couple of pounds of sausages, while a frail-looking man in a dog collar sliced buns lengthways. Hot dogs were in the course of preparation, presumably. Ellie thought of the salad stuffs she’d bought to make them a sensible meal, and accepted she’d lost the battle for dieting before a shot had been fired.

  ‘Just in time!’ cried Rose, who looked tinier than ever, but was flushed with enjoyment. She’d even dressed herself, after a fashion, in a purple cardigan over a fuchsia pink T-shirt and a decent skirt. No stockings, but she did have her bedroom slippers on. Ellie smiled, because Rose was obviously feeling so much better.

  A large, fair-haired man backed out of the larder, holding up various jars. ‘Is this the right mustard?’ Stewart: little Frank’s loving father, Diana’s ex-husband, and the invaluable manager of the Quicke properties to let. He saluted Ellie with the Dijon mustard. ‘I dropped in to see you with an update on the old house, and got roped into making tea. Hope you don’t mind.’

  ‘Of course not. Especially if you’ve got some news for me.’

  ‘All the utilities are back on. The decorators started two days ago, and are scheduled to finish within three days if we promise overtime.’

  ‘Promise anything you like. Well done, Stewart.’

  ‘I wish I could stay to eat with you,’ said Stewart, looking longingly at the sizzling hot dogs, ‘but Maria will kill me if I fail to do justice to supper at home.’

  Maria wouldn’t, as they all knew, but Ellie smiled forgivingly as he retrieved coat and briefcase and made his way out of the kitchen door into the night.

  ‘Feed a cold, and starve a fever. Comfort food coming right up!’ Thomas pierced sausages to make sure they were cooked all through. ‘Shed your coat, Ellie. I’m cooking tonight. Oh, and this is my friend Peters from St Mary’s.’

  ‘It’s good to meet you at last,’ said the dog collar. ‘I rang to thank Thomas for taking the service yesterday, and he invited me round. He said you’d want to ask me about Lloyd.’

  She did, indeed. So after a fairly raucous high tea, which finished up with lashings of Rose’s Bakewell tart and cream, they adjourned to the peace and quiet of the sitting room.

  The Reverend Peters swallowed pills. ‘The antibiotics are kicking in at last, thank the Lord. Pleurisy’s no joke, especially at my age. Forgive me if I leave soon. I still tire easily.’

  ‘I’ll run you home,’ said Thomas, patting his frontage as a signal to the cat Midge to make himself at home there.

  ‘Of course you mustn’t overdo it,’ said Ellie, handing them both a cup of good coffee. How many cups had she had that day, and would she be able to sleep on them? ‘Can you tell me about Lloyd before you go?’

  ‘A bright mind. Old for his years. Thought for himself. He’d been brought up a strict Methodist by Welsh parents. In their late teens, some youngsters slough off whatever religion they’ve learned at their parents’ knee, in favour of experimentation. Sometimes they turn their backs on religion altogether. Lloyd had gone through such a phase and come out the other side. He approached me after a morning service about a year ago and started asking questions. I run a discussion group for young people on Wednesday evenings and he joined that. He knew his parents would have preferred him to go to a Methodist church, but he felt at home with us. Just before Christmas he asked me to prepare him to take communion, and he was thinking – I don’t know whether he’d have gone through with it – but he was thinking that one day he might train for the ministry.’

  ‘Did he drink at all?’ asked Ellie.

  The Reverend Peters shook his head. ‘A half pint occasionally. He said he’d tried getting drunk and it hadn’t done anything for him, so he didn’t bother nowadays. As for drugs: never. And, of course, as he was a student he had to be careful with his money.’

  ‘Sex?’

  Again, a shake of the head. ‘I don’t think so. He said there was a girl in the group he went around with – something to do with his digs? Anyway, he said he really fancied her, but she was already spoken for. He said there’d be plenty of time later to find someone he really liked, someone he could commit to. He had – not tunnel vision exactly – but I would say he was a remarkably single-minded young man. He had two goals: to get a good degree and teach, and to find out what God wanted him to do in life. He said everything else could wait.’

  ‘What did you think when you heard he’d got drunk and dived off a high roof?’

  He looked anguished. ‘When I saw the paragraph in the local paper, I thought it must be some other person of that name. I rang his digs and was told that yes, it was him, that he was being cremated. We couldn’t even have a service for him at our church. Human nature never fails to surprise me. He’s the last person I would have thought . . . well, it’s all over. I suppose I misread his character, that the front he put on for me was a false one.’

  ‘Ursula didn’t believe the official version, either. Was she the girl he liked so much, do you know?’

  He shook his head. ‘He didn’t give me a name. Old-fashioned in some ways. I liked him all the better for it. Ah me. I must admit, I grieve for him and for myself that such a bright star should have fizzled out like . . . like a damp squib.’ He tried to laugh, coughed, blew his nose. Stood to depart. A stooping, elderly cleric, disillusioned but soldiering on. ‘Must go.’

  ‘I’ll run you home,’ said Thomas, dislodging Midge to get to his feet.

  When he’d gone Ellie cleared up in the kitchen and saw Rose settled in front of her television set.

  Turning the volume up, Rose said, ‘Wouldn’t Miss Quicke have enjoyed it this evening? She always said that what this house needed was filling with lots of people.’

  Lots of people. Ouch. Again Ellie thought of the vast, unoccupied attic storey and wondered if she were being selfish in not allowing Diana and Frank to take over there.

  She was restless until she heard Thomas return and let himself in through the kitchen quarters. He was unsettled, too, though he took her arm and made her sit down in the big chair in the sitting room, saying, ‘Now, tell me what’s going on.’

  She told him, watching his face the while. She told him about Daniel and his reaction to the return of his ring, and then wha
t had happened when she spoke to his mother . . . and finally about the conversation with Mrs Belton.

  ‘. . . Oh, and Roy’s in deep trouble financially. He promised to put money into Prior’s Place and now he’s trying to raise a mortgage on the block of flats that my aunt left him, or to sell it. In the current state of the market, he’s going to lose hand over fist. Felicity wants the Trust to bail him out, but I’m not sure that I should. I don’t think the trustees would let me, anyway.’

  ‘No, I don’t suppose they would, but I suppose you’ll want to try.’ He fidgeted, frowning, sighing, shaking his head. ‘This Ursula business, though. What a mess. I don’t know what to think.’

  ‘She impressed me. I thought at first that she was a manipulative little madam, but sincere in her belief that something had gone very wrong. By the time I’d finished with the two mothers I’d decided that Ursula was imagining things, that Lloyd’s death was an accident, and that her sit-in at church was her way of grieving over lost innocence. She said her friend had gone missing. Well, young girls do get carried away and run off with unsuitable men and leave their families without a forwarding address. I convinced myself that I didn’t need to take the matter any further. I’ve got a call in to her to ring me, and I thought I’d say that I’d done as she asked, and that that was the end of the story.’

  ‘My friend Peters made you rethink?’

  ‘Yes. What do you make of it all, Thomas?’

  He pulled a face, rubbed one hand over his beard. He stood up, his eyes wandering around as if looking for something. ‘I don’t know, I really don’t. I need to . . . is it still raining? It was when I came in. I wonder if . . .’

  He wandered out into the hall, opened the door to the dining room, which had been set up for Ellie’s next business meeting. Closed that door. Went along the passage to his office, opened that door, and stood looking at the piles of work, the computers, the books. Closed that door. Didn’t touch the door of the room which was now Ellie’s study.

  Ellie followed him, wondering what on earth was wrong. He seemed frustrated, looking for something. But what?