Murder In Law Read online

  Susan observed the girl’s kind but firm authority with the children and vowed to imitate it.

  Susan and Coralie turned themselves into robots, serving eggs here, toast soldiers there, segmenting fruit, wiping mouths and sticky hands, gulping down a cuppa themselves when they could.

  Lucia, the drippy nanny, wandered down, dressed in Rafael’s bath robe and with her long fair hair straggling over her shoulders. Little Evan and the Cuckoo ignored her. Drippy Lucia said she could only manage a grapefruit, but Susan didn’t have any. She made no effort to look after the children but accepted tea and dry toast for herself.

  Susan suddenly felt a bit sick, but told herself she hadn’t time to do anything about it. Jenny lashed out, sending her cup of milk over the bathrobe Lucia was wearing. Susan added that to the mental list of things that would have to go into the washing machine that morning. Evan’s sheets for a start. How many extra pairs of bedding did she have?

  Susan dived into the loo next door and threw up. Oh yes! How inconvenient was this! She gargled and went back to the fray.

  Little Evan tried to get off his chair, clutching a segment of orange in one hand and a biccy in the other. How he had managed to get at the biscuit tin was a mystery. Surely she’d put it up on the high shelf last night, after she’d fed him his midnight feast? No, perhaps she’d forgotten to do so.

  Coralie thrust a bottle into Susan’s hand and told her to sit down and deal with Fifi, which she did. Fifi objected to the change in her routine at first, but soon got down to it, and then took some porridge as well.

  Someone rang the doorbell. Lesley? Yes, it was Lesley. Oh dear.

  A quarter to nine of a sunny morning and all was well. Sort of.

  Actually, Lesley herself was looking rough round the edges and older than her actual age. She hadn’t slept well, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her carrying on with her job. She had a lot of the bull terrier in her, had Lesley.

  ‘Ah,’ she said. ‘Happy families.’ She was accompanied by a young man who was also in civvies.

  Two detectives in one morning. One too many?

  Lesley pointed at Lucia. ‘You must be the nanny.’ She recited her rank and gave the name of her colleague. They both held up badges. ‘So now, Lucia, let’s go into the other room and you can tell me all about it.’

  Lucia reacted like a startled horse. ‘No, no! You not arrest me, please?’

  ‘No, I’m not going to arrest you,’ said Lesley through her teeth. ‘But I do need to hear what happened to you yesterday.’

  Lucia grabbed the table and looked at Rafael. ‘Please, you protect me? You not let her arrest me?’

  Rafael hid irritation. ‘Of course she won’t arrest you unless you’ve done something wrong. Lesley, can’t you leave her in here with us while she tells her story? We’d like to hear it, too.’

  Lucia said, ‘Yes, yes. I tell you, I do no wrong. Only she, that horrible woman, do me wrong. You make her give me my wages and money for my ticket home.’

  ‘Oh, stay here if you wish,’ said Lesley, investigating the teapot and grabbing the last slice of toast.

  Lucia breathed through her mouth. Her resemblance to a hamster became even more marked. She pushed her chair nearer to Rafael. ‘I stay here, and you look after me, yes? Also, you get my locket back for me? Is in my bed, I think. I wish I had never come to this horrible country!’ She wept. Unbeautifully.

  Susan angled the bottle so that Fifi wouldn’t suck in air. Susan had little patience with inefficient little girls who turned to the nearest man for help when they’d done something silly. She said, ‘Coralie, do you think you could take Little Evan and Jenny into the big room and find them something to play with? Lucia, that’s enough. There’s a box of tissues just behind you. Blow your nose and tell us what happened.’

  ‘Oh, oh!’ Lucia wailed and rocked on her chair. ‘You are so cold! Just like Mrs Diana!’

  Little Evan and Jenny stared at Lucia with what looked like disgust. Coralie peeled Jenny off Rafael, saying, ‘My mum says the best way to deal with a hysterical girl is to throw a jug of cold water over her.’

  Lucia squeaked. ‘I wanna go home!’

  Little Evan objected to being led away by Coralie. ‘Lucia! Where you put my Hippo?’

  A tinge of colour came into Lucia’s pale face. ‘Oh, he so silly about his Hippo. He too old for it. Nursery say he must leave it behind. Is in my room, I think.’

  Lesley rolled her eyes and tried to soften her approach. ‘Now, Lucia. The sooner you tell us what happened, the sooner you’ll be on your way. For a start, you slept with the children at the top of Diana’s house, didn’t you? Were you disturbed by any noise the night before last?’

  Lucia sniffed and snuffled, used a tissue and managed to say, ‘No. The children sleep through the night now. We shut the door to the stairs and all is quiet. But in the morning I saw that horrible woman, that Mrs Diana, with a man in the road outside the house. She so mad that I see her. She tell me to go!’

  She looked around at their interested expressions and gained enough confidence to continue. ‘The children get up as usual. Half past six. I wash and dress them. I make breakfast. I take them down the back stairs: quiet, quiet, must not wake Mr Evan. I put Jenny in buggy. Little Evan, he want take his bicycle but he not safe with it so I say he must take his scooter. He say scooter is for baby, so he walk beside me. He not happy.

  ‘He is fine when we get to nursery. He run straight in. Jenny and I, back we go and we are coming near the house when we see Mrs Diana get out of big black car in the road. I think what any good girl would think. She is bad woman. I am sorry for poor Mr Evan!’

  ‘You saw Diana with a man? She realized you’d seen her?’

  A nod. ‘I take Jenny in back way as always. Mrs Diana, she follow me in. I leave buggy in the little hall and I carry Jenny up the stairs. Mrs Diana, she follow me. She hisses, like this, “Ssss!” Like snake. But she say nothing till we are at top of house and I put Jenny in playpen.

  ‘I think maybe she give me money to keep quiet but no, she say I am bad girl, making eyes at Mr Evan! Me? No! Never! I say, he like grandfather and not nice to me that way, ever. Mrs Diana, she shout at me, on and on. I think she will hit me. She say I must pack and go, straight away, that minute! I say I not know where to go, and she say to sleep on street for all she care. So I pack up my things quick, quick. I say, “Where is my money?” but she say I not deserve one penny and to go, out! Now!

  ‘I think maybe I go to my friend who live in Acton but I ring and he not answer and I walk and walk and I cry and cry. Then it is time to collect Little Evan from nursery. I think I say goodbye to him. I go to nursery and he run out and he say he is hungry and he must have food, now! I say to him, “No, you must go home to Mummy”. But he say again, “No! I hungry!” He always hungry and tired after nursery.

  ‘We go to McDonald’s and he eats. Then he wants go to park and it starts to rain and I think I must take him home, so we walk, oh so slowly, because he is tired and I am tired. All the way home we walk. But there is policeman at door. I say, “What is happening?” And he say, “Go go away! No visitors!” I ask for Mrs Diana and say I did live there, but he say she not there, and not to waste his time. So we go to tea shop and eat cake and that is last of my money. I find bench out of the rain. Little Evan, he so tired he fall asleep and I not know what to do.’

  Rafael nodded. ‘We can corroborate some of that. Diana asked Susan to fetch Little Evan from his nursery but didn’t tell us where it was. We tried to reach Diana and failed. Eventually we found Lucia by contacting Little Evan’s nursery and asking for Diana’s nanny’s details. They gave us her mobile phone number and we got through to her on that. Heaven only knows what would have happened to her and the boy if we hadn’t finally managed to track them down and paid for a taxi to bring them back here. She wasn’t capable of standing up straight when she arrived, never mind answering questions. Everything she had with her was soaking wet, includin
g shoes. We put her stuff overnight in the drier and hopefully it’s fit to wear again now. Diana had no right to turn her out like that, and to refuse her her money, but …’ He shrugged. ‘If there was another man involved, I suppose she was trying to save her reputation.’

  Lesley said, ‘That makes sense. Now, Lucia, we’re very interested to hear about the man you say was with Diana yesterday morning. What time was that?’

  ‘The nursery open half past seven. We come a bit later. Then I take Jenny back and I see Diana getting out of big, black car in the road outside the house. New car. Shiny.’

  ‘Number plate? Make?’

  Lucia shrugged. ‘Very new. Very big. I not know make.’

  ‘Tell me exactly what you saw.’

  Lucia tried to look vicious but really it wasn’t in her. Susan thought she looked like a hamster who’d found its water bowl empty.

  Lucia said, ‘She, Mrs Diana, I see her get out of car and stand on pavement. Then she reach back into car. I think she drop something on her seat.’

  Susan asked, ‘Her handbag? Large or small? Was it an overnight bag?’

  ‘Is with gold chain, over her shoulder, like so.’ She held up her hands to show it had been on the small side. ‘No overnight bag. She look inside car for something. Big man get out of driver’s seat. Dark suit. He go round car to help her find it. Keys, I think? He gives them to her. He grab her and he kiss her, and they laugh and he get back in car and drive off. She turn and see me. I look at her. She look at me. I not know what to do. I go into house by back door and upstairs as always. She follow me into house and upstairs and tell me to go.’

  Tears welled. ‘I say, “Give me my wages!” and she laugh, “Ha ha!”. You will make her pay me, right?’ She looked more than ever like a hamster whose food has been whisked away.

  Rafael said, ‘So she wasn’t home the night her husband was killed.’

  Lucia recoiled. ‘What! What you say?’ Her voice went up into a squeak. ‘Mr Evan? He is dead? You not tell me that! Oh, oh! No, no, no, no!’ She rocked to and fro, tears spurting. Full blown hysteria this time.

  Susan swept up Fifi and made off to the sitting room, followed by shrieks from Lucia. ‘She blame me! I know it! She blame me for everything! I am to go prison. Oh, no, no, no!’

  Susan checked that Jenny was happy in the playpen with all of Fifi’s toys around her, and that Evan was occupied with a book. She went to stand by the window overlooking the neglected garden. She checked that there was no light being thrown on to the lawn – which needed cutting – from Ellie’s part of the house. Then she told herself that she needed a new head, since Diana wouldn’t be needing artificial light at this time of the morning, would she?

  Susan rocked from one foot to the other, holding Fifi in her arms and singing to her. Fifi loved being sung to but she wasn’t easily distracted today. Fifi knew that something had gone very wrong in her little world. She screwed her head round to try to see what was going on behind them.

  A small hand clutched Susan’s jeans. Little Evan was unhappy, too.

  Susan sat down in one of the big armchairs by the window, gestured the boy to stand close beside her, and sang to them both. First it was ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star’ and then it was ‘Pat-a-cake’ with all the appropriate actions.

  Fifi relaxed, gurgling her pleasure.

  Little Evan leaned against Susan’s leg. ‘Where my Hippo?’ And then: ‘Silly Lucia! She cry all the time.’

  A shriek disturbed them from behind, but it was a shriek of joy. ‘U-oh! U-oh!’ Rafael had collected Jenny and came to join them. Rafael threw the little girl up into the air and caught her again. She crowed. She loved it, and she loved him, and she didn’t care about anything else in the whole wide world.

  Evan put his hands behind his back in a gesture mimicking his father, and stared at Fifi, who was comfortably settled in the crook of Susan’s arm. Fifi stared back.

  Evan looked up at Susan with clear grey eyes which reminded her of Ellie, and said, ‘Fifi?’ He brought one hand round to his front and waggled his fingers at her.

  Fifi looked back up at her mother, checking that it was all right to make friends with this stranger.

  Susan smiled and nodded.

  Fifi decided that she liked Evan. She waved her arms and gurgled her appreciation. She reached towards him. He caught her hand in his … and fell in love. Aged four and a bit. Headlong, desperately in love. He moved closer still, pressing against Susan, relishing the contact, the baby’s warmth, the clasp of her hands, her unstinting approval.

  Susan caught her breath. She told herself that there was nothing to worry about. A baby and a toddler expressed their liking for one another. A passing phase, surely. But her imagination projected the two of them forward down the years and suggested what might happen to these two if they continued to like one another in the years ahead. Susan foresaw trouble. Evan was a child damaged by his early years. He had received love from Ellie, but not from his father, and there was a query in Susan’s mind as to how Diana felt about him.

  Fifi had been blessed with love from many directions, all her life. She was a sunny, loving child but no fool. She showed signs of a quick intelligence. Apparently she approved of Evan. Well, she approved of lots of people. Her mother and father, Ellie and Thomas, and now Coralie.

  Evan had inherited some characteristics from his parents which were perhaps not altogether desirable although both mother and father were clever in certain ways. Also selfish. Little Evan could be stubborn. On the other hand, he looked out on the world with Ellie’s eyes. Perhaps he might turn out all right.

  For a dizzying moment Susan wondered which of the two might be the stronger if it came to a conflict.

  She told herself she was being absurd. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. What on earth had come over her, imagining that the two children had bonded for life. What nonsense!

  Rafael had collapsed on to the chair opposite, with Jenny rolling about all over him. Rafael sat up and wiped his forehead. ‘I’ve got to go in to work. I have a man coming to look at the door of the lift in the flats, but I don’t like to leave you like this. What do you suggest?’

  SIX

  Saturday mid-morning

  Coralie came in, carrying the children’s clothes which she’d sorted and folded into a neat pile. She said, ‘I can help you out this weekend, but you need a bigger highchair for Jenny, a smaller bed for Evan and the children’s toothbrushes and extra undies. Also their wellington boots and macs in case it rains again. Do we get some from the charity shop, or can we get hold of their own things?’

  Lesley appeared behind Coralie to say, ‘I’m done with that silly child, Lucia. Do you mean to keep her here? She’s alternately weeping and wailing that she’s got nowhere to go or swearing she’s going to sue Diana for damages or go to the papers and tell all about the murdered man’s wife being unfaithful to him. Which I’m sure she is perfectly capable of doing.’

  Coralie had identified herself with Susan and Rafael. ‘Lucia’s not much use but I suppose she could help me look after the children for a bit. If she does what I tell her to do.’

  Susan looked to Rafael for back-up. ‘We can’t turn Lucia out on to the streets, can we?’

  Rafael sighed. ‘No, I suppose not. Did she get the job with Diana through an agency? If Diana pays what she owes the girl, I suppose we could house her till she can get another post or can save up enough to go home.’

  Lesley said, ‘So, where did you put Diana last night? Isn’t it time she got up and faced her responsibilities for a change?’

  Susan and Rafael exchanged glances. Rafael said, ‘We haven’t put her anywhere. We haven’t seen her since she dumped Jenny on us yesterday morning. But, we did see something last night that made us wonder if she might have taken refuge next door. We’re almost sure there was a light on in Ellie’s bedroom last night. The thing is, there’s no water in that house. There was a leak in Ellie’s en suite and the plumber turn
ed the water off at the mains, so …’ He raised his hands, feigning an uncharacteristic helplessness.

  Lesley’s mouth twitched. ‘I must admit it did cross my mind that she might try to get in there, too. I rang Ellie last night and she agreed with me. She also said that Diana likes men who are physically well-built and have money. Oh, and she sent me a picture of a groundhog because I said once that I’d never seen one. It looks something like a big squirrel. I don’t know what she meant by sending me that in the middle of an investigation. She can be infuriating that way.’

  Rafael said, ‘Susan’s like that, too. She says something which sounds inconsequential but turns out to be true. Her brain makes what seems to be a giant leap into the blue, but she’s actually observed a myriad of tiny things and come up with the right answer by some means known only to herself. She’s always right. I’ve learned to listen to her when she says such things.’

  Lesley shook her head in wonder. ‘So what can you tell me about the groundhog, Susan?’

  Susan said, ‘I could swat both of you. How do I know what Ellie meant? Well, perhaps … Is it something to do with Diana repeating a certain pattern of behaviour, as happens in the Groundhog Day film?’ She shook herself out of the chair. ‘And, if so … Back to basics. Rafael has to go to work, and I need to get these children sorted. Which reminds me: did you manage to get in touch with Evan’s grown-up son and daughter?’

  ‘I did. Son is in lockdown and daughter is at some course in Glasgow. I checked, and yes, she’s definitely there and has been for three days. I spoke to her late last night. She was shocked to hear the news. She didn’t pretend to care about Diana, but I gave her full marks for worrying about the little ones. They’re her half-brother and sister, aren’t they, even though she’s hardly ever set eyes on them? She asked if there was anything she could do to help. She offered to fly back down today if there was a problem looking after the children. I said you were coping for the time being, so if there’s no emergency she’ll be returning to London on Monday afternoon as planned.’