Murder under the mistlet.., p.13
Murder Under the Mistletoe, page 13
‘Where are the others? Have you seen James?’
Hina said something, and Niko shook her head, looking worried, then pointed up the stairs. Debbie and I exchanged looks. ‘Stay there,’ I said firmly, with a stay! gesture and an expression that I like to think you wouldn’t need to know English to understand, and marched up to the tower.
It was empty. I gave a big frustrated aaargh, and was about to leave when I heard a muffled banging noise coming from behind me. I turned slowly… there was nothing there…
‘Jodie! Help!’ I jumped and looked out of the window. James was outside, on the roof, scrabbling to get the window open. I grabbed the latch and wrestled it open – it was old, rusty and quite stiff, and I had to bash it with the side of my hand Bruce Lee-style a couple of times to get it to move – letting him and half a ton of snow inside.
‘What the blazes…?’
‘Those blasted women!’ said James, hopping around, rubbing his hands together to try and warm up. If someone had done that to me, I’d have said something a bit stronger than ‘blasted’. I reached out and started to rub my own, much warmer hands briskly up and down his arms, like he was a toddler or something.
‘Hina and her friends shut you out there?’ I asked in amazement. He nodded.
‘I found them up here, playing hide and seek,’ he said. ‘I told them we should all go downstairs, but they said they were bored and just trying to have some fun. Then Niko told me she’d opened the window to look out, and her earring had fallen off into the snow. She seemed really upset, so I offered to climb out and get it – the roof’s flat here, so I didn’t think it would be difficult. And then the minx shut the window!’ He shook his head in amazement. ‘I love Japanese culture, but they do have a weird sense of humour.’
‘How long had you been out there?’
‘Only about a minute. I’m sure she’d have let me back in, but the window got stuck and she couldn’t open it. It probably didn’t help that she was laughing so much, at first, anyway. She said she was going to get help.’ He smiled ruefully. ‘I am a sucker for a damsel in distress. What an absolute idiot.’
‘Not an idiot. It was really nice of you to help them. They shouldn’t have done that, bored or not. Did you find all four of them?’
He shook his head. ‘No, the other two are hiding in the rooms downstairs.’ He grinned. ‘I did give them a thorough telling off, about wandering around the house without permission. I probably deserved it for spoiling their fun.’
‘Rubbish.’ I dropped my hands and smiled at him. ‘Come on, let’s go and find the others and tell them off, too.’
Chapter Twelve
We found Yui and Ren and marched them all downstairs, where I gave them a right rollicking, James translating. Their laughter stopped as I explained why we needed to all stay together.
‘The man who died – we thought—’ Hina mimed clutching at her chest and keeling over. I shook my head.
‘No. It was murder.’ I then mimed back at her, grabbing an invisible dagger and plunging it into Debbie in a frenzy of stabbing, like something out of Psycho. Debbie played the part of victim a little too well, clutching at her ‘wound’ and staggering back before dying slowly, painfully, and, if truth be told, a bit cheesily. I made a mental note to tell her about the local am dram group, who were always looking for new blood. The girls all looked horrified and huddled closer together. James said a few words and they all nodded, then he turned to me.
‘They didn’t have any idea it was murder,’ he said. ‘They’ll stay in one place and be as good as gold from now on.’ He turned back to them as Hina said something to him, and all the girls nodded. ‘Hang on, apparently they have something to confess to you as you’re the police. Sort of.’
‘Go on,’ I said. Ren spoke to James and he nodded in understanding.
‘OK… Ren says they saw you last night in the kitchen?’ I nodded. ‘They told you they were making tea as they couldn’t sleep. The reason they couldn’t sleep is because they were arguing about their car crash.’
I looked at him, and then the girls, in surprise. ‘Their crash? What about it?’
‘Apparently Hina is the only one insured to drive the hire car, but she was very nervous in the snow, so Niko took over as she’s a more confident driver.’
‘Only she crashed?’
‘Yes. Hina emailed the hire car company last night to tell them she crashed the car, but she feels guilty about it, and they were all awake trying to decide whether she should come clean or not. But of course they’ll know she was lying if she emails again and changes her story, and she might get into trouble.’
I smiled. ‘OK. Look, I’m not going to tell them whether they should tell the truth or not, but they should stop worrying about the email. The wifi is down, along with the phone line, and I’d be amazed if their mobile data was working well enough to send anything, so Hina could check her outbox and see if it’s still in there, waiting to be sent. Then it’s up to them whether she sends it when they get a signal, or delete it and tell the truth.’ James translated, and I could tell when he mentioned the email not sending as they all immediately looked relieved. I patted Hina on the arm. ‘I’m not condoning it, but there are worse things than lying to an insurance company. Like murder.’
We all turned as Bea came out of the snug to see what was going on.
‘Everything OK?’ she called. James scowled, his good mood disappearing again.
‘The police had better get here soon though, before we all go mad.’ He pushed past her and went back into the snug, no doubt to resume pretending to read the newspaper. Interesting, I thought.
I made my way back to the lounge to relieve Daisy and Germaine of their babysitting duties, but they were both engrossed in the Christmas movie, where Nick Festive was in the process of admitting that yes, he was indeed Santa, and he was helping a grieving family rediscover the Spirit of Christmas. Isaac looked up and smiled as I sat down next to him.
‘Any further on with the investigation, Detective?’ he asked me in a low voice. I shrugged.
‘More confused than ever,’ I admitted. ‘But that normally means I’m on the verge of a breakthrough.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes,’ I said, hoping it wasn’t obvious I was lying. ‘Can I ask – why did you swap rooms with Steve last night? And who else knew about it?’
‘Joshua and I went up to bed not long after you – I think it was just gone ten? Poor little man was almost asleep on his feet.’ Isaac glanced affectionately over at his son. ‘But he really did not like that room. He thought it was spooky. Our place is a big, modern, glass and concrete box, nothing like this, so he’s not used to old houses and all the creaks and noises they make. And apparently he heard Lily telling you about people being hung, drawn and quartered, and he wanted to know what that meant because it was obviously bad. So I did, which probably didn’t help matters. Anyway, I couldn’t get him to settle, so we went downstairs – I was going to see if any of the young ladies wanted to use it, and we’d sleep in here or something. But we found Steve in the kitchen, and he offered to swap with us.’
‘So you slept on the floor above, in one of the en suite rooms?’
He nodded. ‘Yes. Joshua was much happier and fell asleep straight away.’
‘Was anyone else around when you and Steve agreed to swap? Did anyone hear you talking about it?’
He looked thoughtful. ‘James came in when we were discussing it. He said Steve’s room was next to his, so if we swapped he could give me a knock in the morning.’
I smiled. ‘James doesn’t have kids, does he?’ He laughed.
‘No. Joshua woke me up at six, wanting to build a snowman. I heard you get up with the dog and he was quite keen to come with you, but it was just too cold.’
‘You’re not wrong, it was freezing,’ I said. But I was thinking, James knew… So that, to my mind anyway, put him in the clear. He could (feasibly) have had a motive for killing Isaac, and could have ended up killing Steve by mistake as he was in what should have been Isaac’s room, but if he’d known they’d swapped, that put paid to that theory. And actually, how could anyone mistake Steve for Isaac? Isaac was half the Santa impersonator’s girth, and probably a good few inches taller. Even in the dark you’d be hard pushed to mistake one for the other. ‘Did you hear anything else, earlier in the night? Any comings or goings? Voices?’
Isaac looked at me keenly. ‘No… Why? Do you think someone on our floor had something to do with it?’
‘No, I just—’
Germaine suddenly sat up, her ears pricked.
‘What’s the matter with your dog?’ asked Isaac. But before I could answer, she’d leaped up and trotted out into the hallway, tail wagging as she headed for the front door.
‘Probably just needs to relieve herself,’ I said, following her. She gave a little whine and scratched at the wood. I reached up to open the door…
…and then jumped back in shock at the sight of Nathan standing in front of me, hand raised to knock. He jumped too, then laughed as Germaine launched herself at him (or at his legs, anyway), yapping excitedly. He bent down to make a fuss of her.
‘Yes, I’m pleased to see you too,’ he said.
‘What are you doing here?’ I gasped.
He grinned. ‘Isn’t it obvious? I came to rescue you.’
‘Came to stop me poking my nose in, more like,’ I said, but I was so pleased to see him. ‘I didn’t even hear you come up the drive.’
He gestured over his shoulder. Behind him stood a very fancy, very new-looking police car. I was surprised; he didn’t normally drive a marked car. ‘It’s one of the new electric cars we’ve been trying out. Doesn’t freeze up in the snow and it creeps up on criminals.’
I stood back to let him in, then prised Germaine off his leg and hugged him. ‘Sorry, I know I shouldn’t kiss you when you’re on duty, but—’ He laughed.
‘It’s OK, no one’s looking…’ But we were interrupted by Trevor and James behind us.
‘Are you the police? Finally!’ James looked relieved. Nathan turned, taking out his warrant card.
‘DCI Nathan Withers from Penstowan CID. Are the officers from Carricksmoor not here yet?’
‘No they’re not,’ said James, irritably. ‘We need to get this over with so people can go home.’
‘Absolutely, sir.’ Nathan was always polite, but especially so to rude people. He was often so polite that they would suspect him of being rude himself, but there was never anything they could actually point to to prove that, which just made them confused and sometimes, even ruder. ‘My colleague, DS Turner, is following and should be here very soon to take statements from everyone. If you could please listen out for him? Thank you.’
‘What? Can’t you at least get the ball rolling? This is taking ages—’
‘Are you the owner of the house, sir?’
‘No,’ said Trevor, ‘I am. Trevor Manning.’
‘Mr Manning, if you could keep your house guests together, so that when DS Turner and the officers from Carricksmoor turn up they know where find everyone, that would be very helpful. In the meantime I need to inspect the crime scene. Ms Parker here can show me where it is.’ Nathan gave Trevor and James his most polite smile, and stayed where he was until Trevor managed to shepherd a grumbling James back into the snug.
Nathan turned to me. ‘Well, that one seems like a bit of a character.’
‘James? He’s all right, he’s just a bit stressed. He’s Isaac Barnes’ right-hand man. Maybe that’s what comes of working for a multi-millionaire.’
‘Glad I’m a copper, then. Upstairs?’
We headed up the stairs.
‘How’s Matt getting here?’ I asked. ‘Why didn’t he come with you?’ Nathan’s detective sergeant, Matt Turner, always accompanied him on cases, and I had the feeling that Nathan quite enjoyed taking the young officer under his wing.
‘I managed to walk to the station, but he was stuck out at the family farm…’ Nathan’s cottage was in town, not far from the police station, but I vaguely remembered Matt saying that he lived in a barn conversion on his dad’s farm, a few miles outside of Penstowan. ‘He said they had to dig out their driveway, and then he’d borrow his dad’s old Land Rover and meet me here.’
‘I just hope it’s not a diesel engine…’
We reached the top of the stairs. Nathan’s nostrils twitched.
‘Holy moly, that’s not nice.’
‘Yep, the smell is pretty bad. Just be thankful I turned the heating off in the room and opened the window.’ I turned towards the Dyneley Suite, but Nathan touched me on the arm to stop me.
‘Before we go in, catch me up on who’s here. You, Daisy, Debbie and your mum – who else stayed overnight?’ I went through the list of the abbey’s snow refugees, Nathan’s eyebrows getting higher and higher as I told him about the unexpected arrival of the Japanese eco-tourists and the enigmatic (and highly suspicious, to me at least) Bea and Liam. He sighed. ‘Oh good, so we’ve got loads of possible suspects. I do love it when we’ve got at least ten people who could’ve done it. It makes my life so much easier than when there’s just one person with a really obvious motive.’ He looked at me hopefully. ‘There isn’t just one person with a really obvious motive that you haven’t told me about yet, is there?’
‘There’s not even anyone with an unobvious motive,’ I said.
‘I suspected as much.’
I unlocked the door and stood back to let him in.
‘You not coming in?’
‘Am I supposed to?’
‘No, but when’s that ever stopped you? And I’m not going to tell anyone, am I?’ He reached into his pocket and drew out two pairs of latex gloves, handing one pair to me. ‘You know you want to.’
I smiled. ‘Some couples go out for dinner, you know. Some go dancing, or to the theatre…’
‘Yeah yeah, don’t try and tell me you haven’t already had a poke around in here. Tell me what you’ve come up with.’
We went inside. Steve’s bulk was still covered by the sheet I’d thrown over him earlier. Nathan reached out and twitched it aside.
‘Ooh, that’s nasty…’
‘The undignified position he ended up in, or the cause of death?’ Coppers and emergency responders, in my experience, often end up with a slightly inappropriate sense of humour. When you’re surrounded by evidence of the frailty of your own existence, or by the horror of humanity’s worst behaviour, you have to be able to laugh to stop yourself falling into a black pit of existential despair, even if it’s forced. Sometimes it helps. But not always.
‘Both.’ Nathan walked around the bed, studying the body closely – far more closely than I had been able to bring myself to do. ‘That must be a very long sword. He wasn’t exactly small, was he, and yet it’s gone all the way through him. That’d take some doing.’
‘It’s weird, innit?’ I said.
‘A naked Santa impersonator with a sword sticking out of him? Yeah, it is a bit,’ said Nathan mildly. I shook my head.
‘No, I don’t mean that. I mean, the way the body’s been left. It’s – unnatural.’ I stared at him. ‘And I know the whole thing’s “unnatural”, I just mean – there’s something not right about the way he was killed. It’s just – odd.’
Nathan looked at me keenly. ‘I think I know what you mean…’ He turned again to the corpse, then looked around the room. On the side table I’d spotted before lay a notepad and pen. Nathan took the pen and gingerly prodded at the pillow under Steve’s face. ‘These feathers – they’ve come from a gash in the pillow, which suggests some kind of fight, maybe? The sword’s slashed through the pillow case, so someone was waving it around.’ He moved his gaze along to the body itself, and I almost gagged as he poked at the cold flesh.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Looking at the site of the wound.’ Nathan shuddered as he attempted to lift up the loose flesh of Steve’s large, saggy belly, pressed against the bed. He grimaced. ‘It looks like the sword is buried up to the hilt, although with all these pillows under him it’s difficult to see properly. That really would take some doing.’ He turned to me again, holding the pen up as if it were a sword. ‘Imagine I’m trying to stab you through the chest—’
‘Don’t you get that pen anywhere near me!’ I said, leaping back. It had touched a dead person. A really dead person. Eww. Nathan looked down it, then dropped it on the bed and held up his hand instead, grasping an invisible weapon.
‘Imagine I’m stabbing you through the chest,’ he said again, advancing on me. ‘Bearing in mind that it’s not as easy to stab a human being as people think, and the murderer would have to hit him with some force to get the sword all the way through him.’ Nathan reached out and pushed me firmly in the chest. I staggered backwards, putting a hand out behind me to stop myself crashing into the wall. He leaped forward and grabbed me.
‘Sorry. But I think I know why the position of the body looks odd.’
‘Because he’s fallen forwards,’ I said slowly. ‘And if someone had stabbed him in the chest, particularly with the force needed to drive it all the way through, he would have fallen backwards…’
‘Exactly!’
‘So that means…?’
‘Buggered if I know. Yet.’ He still had hold of me. ‘Sorry I pushed you so hard. Are you all right?’
‘Yeah, I’m Cornish, remember – we’re tough.’ Although I didn’t feel very tough when I looked at the body on the bed. Here I was, in Nathan’s arms; only last night I’d been dreaming about spending time with him in a room just like this, but the elephant (Santa) in the room put a whole new perspective on the matter. I shuddered. I’d settle for a romantic getaway in a tent after this, although maybe we’d wait until after the snow had melted. Nathan let go of me and I straightened up.
