The murder, p.19
The Murder, page 19
“I doubt that will ever happen. But as Nan says, stranger things have happened. When I was telling her about Abi, she said you were investigating Denise Knight’s murder, and had interrogated her. She got quite offended when I laughed.” Bella’s face lit up when she smiled, she was a pretty girl, and if Tom squinted, he could see a likeness to her grandmother.
“We are helping the police, yes. Liz seems to know everyone, and everyone seems to know something, even if they don’t realise they do.”
“You’re an Agatha Christie fan. My nan loves Poirot and the old girl, Miss Marple.” Bella looked around. “Do you live here on your own? Nan said she thought you and Liz make a lovely couple.”
Tom opened his mouth to deny any such thing but caught the devilment twinkling in Bella’s eyes. He smiled at her. “I do at the moment, but my daughter and grandson, Eddie, he’s almost four, will be moving in, in a couple of weeks. And as to Liz and I, as you well know, I’m far too old for Liz, she is my housekeeper, and yes, if you like, partner in investigating crime. So don’t go starting rumours that aren’t true. You’ll get yourself a reputation.”
“Fair enough.” Bella grinned. “Can I take my coat off while you do it, it’s boiling in here.”
“Yes, I left the heating on all night. It’s off now, but I can’t bring myself to open a window in this weather.”
“Has your grandson got his name down for preschool? If he has, I’ll be helping teach him. Passed my final health and safety thing. The police have finally returned my DBS check. Also passed, ’cos I’m a good girl, I am.”
“Two things, where is pre-school and how do I register him? I haven’t discussed childcare with Emily. Should have though.”
“Go onto the council website, go to the pre-school page, and put your postcode in. You should be fine. The nursery is allowed fifty pupils, it was only at forty-two last time I looked. What was the second thing?”
“Oh yes. You sounded just like Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady when you said that. That’s a film by the way.”
Bella’s smile was back. “That’s because I played her in the last am-dram production. I’ve seen the film three times. How beautiful was Audrey Hepburn?”
“Ah ha. You’re a thespian. If you don’t mind me asking, how do you know Abi? You seem a lot more mature than she is. Please don’t tell her I said that, wouldn’t want to offend. But she came across as a very angsty teenager, and you don’t.”
Bella explained that Abi had been in the year below her at school, and they caught the bus back and forth to town for years. Bella hadn’t wanted to stay on, so went to college and studied nursery nursing, and Abi, who was heavily controlled by her mother, had stayed on. They were still friends, Abi was also in the am-dram group, and up until recently went to the spin and step class at the gym. Abi had been having a hard time lately, and Bella was her sounding board.
“You could get yourself into trouble, you know, falsifying DNA. But I understand why you did it.”
“I doubt that. I’ll just tell them our samples must have got mixed up. As soon as she can do it, we’ll put it right. Don’t panic. Are you going to do that?” Bella nodded at the screen. “Only Nan’s waiting, and I’m going ice skating this afternoon.”
“Yes, of course.” Tom sat at his laptop and located the previous document. “Where do you go ice skating? It can’t be in town.”
“The Mall at Cribbs Causeway. They do an open air one, so it had better stop raining, but it’s lovely. All Christmas trees and pretty lights, and they’ve got the German market selling all the Christmas bits. Can I make a suggestion?”
“Of course.”
“Why don’t you just do one list as a warning. All cakes might contain, or traces of: flour, sugar, eggs, nuts, fruit, and on and on. That way you won’t have to do this each time she changes a recipe. She’s never going to throw anything weird in there.”
“Good idea, she’d better like it, or I’m grassing you up.” Tom began amending the list. As he worked on it, Bella skimmed the murder log which was still on the table. Tom printed the amended sheet and held it out to Bella. “What’s wrong? You look… perturbed.”
“That’s one word for it. I thought she was killed up by the stream late at night. Not by the church at half six.”
“Well, the time is still open, but yes, we believe around then, I’m afraid she was killed in the graveyard and moved to the stream. Probably to put the police off their tracks.”
“In a wheelbarrow. Denise’s daughter must be gutted. I might have been able to stop it. God, how bad is that?”
Tom’s heartbeat increased. “I’m not sure she knows that bit yet, so keep it to yourself. It wouldn’t do for her to hear it from the wrong person. She’s understandably quite delicate at the moment. Now, tell me how on earth you could have stopped Denise being murdered?”
Bella told Tom she’d taken her dog, Jasper, for a walk on Tuesday. They’d walked up Lower High Street, through the graveyard, along the lane a little way and then cut through to the stream and followed it as far as the stile. They’d gone further than Bella had intended and realising the time and that she’d be late for dinner, she retraced her steps. She’d checked the time at the stile, and it was six twenty pm. Her best guess was that it was about six forty when she heard the woman shouting in the graveyard. As her dog didn’t like strangers and would freak out at one who was shouting, she’d taken the long route back, following the lane to the end, and coming out up the road from Tom’s bungalow.
Tom asked her if she’d caught what was being shouted.
“Not really. The first thing I heard was ‘I don’t care’. I paused because I wasn’t sure if that was it, but then she shouted something like ‘it’s not your business’ and I went the other way. I didn’t hear any more though, not when I was walking along the lane. Perhaps if I’d gone through the graveyard, she wouldn’t have been killed.” Bella looked devastated, and Tom sought to reassure her.
“We can’t possibly know that. As someone has attempted to kill Alana too, even if you had, it probably would only have delayed the inevitable. Did you hear any response from whoever the woman was shouting at?”
“Nope. I assumed whoever it was simply wasn’t as frustrated. Whoever was shouting sounded like my mum does when she’s trying to get our Jill to do something You know, frustrated, not expecting to be killed.. Oh. That wasn’t very tactful. I’d better get back to Nan. Should I tell the police?”
“Absolutely. Here, jot down your name and telephone number and I’ll pass this onto DC Connor. He’ll be in touch, probably tomorrow but we might get lucky, and they get their skates on.”
While Bella jotted down the information, Tom slid Alice’s list of ingredients into a plastic folder. “Here you go, I’ll see you out. When you give it to Alice tell her not to forget my payment, and please keep all this to yourself. If the murderer is local, we don’t want to alert them to the fact we’re onto them.”
Bella’s expression changed a little, and she shook her head. “I won’t. I can’t believe you’re charging an old lady for a sheet of paper and some ink.”
Tom laughed. “She pays me in cake. I’ll get one almond slice if I’m lucky.”
Bella smiled. “I had one earlier. They’re good. Thanks, Tom, see you around. If your grandson is here at Christmas, bring him to see the pantomime too. It’s on at the village hall in Greater Compton, just down the road from the school, we’re doing Snow White. It’s quite good. You’ve got my number, let me know if you want tickets.”
“I will. Thank you.”
Smiling, Tom closed the door and went back to the living room. What a lovely young lady. Eddie could do worse than have someone like that helping him into the world of education. Although he himself had no intention of going into a crowded village hall, Emily might like to take him. He’d have to ask. But first things first, he needed to call Patrick. Patrick answered almost immediately.
“Hello, Mr Large, all done bar the shouting, we’re off out to get some lunch, so you’re not needed. Did Liz not tell you?”
“Call me Tom. I haven’t spoken to her since earlier, I was calling about the murder.” Tom told him what Bella had heard and passed on her details.
“Hmm. I’ll call it in now, get them to go and speak to her. We know the WI had been in the church planning the Christmas decorations. Mrs Lambert said there were a few of them about when she saw Denise, given what was said, and that it was said in frustration not anger, it could have been them arguing with each other. We’d better round them up next week and see.”
“Bit of a stretch though, given what happened to Denise, don’t you think?”
“Possibly. But elimination is necessary. Police work isn’t all deduction like Sherlock Holmes would have you believe. To get to the truth you also need to eliminate.”
“Yes, I can see that. Enjoy your lunch. My timer has just pinged I’d better rescue mine.”
Tom added the notes to the murder log by hand as he ate his fish pie. It looked untidy, and he went to his laptop to update it, as much to while away the time until Liz came back as anything else.
When Liz arrived she had an odd way about her, and when she sat at the table, she kept her coat on rather than put it on the back of the chair as she usually would.
“Are you not stopping?” Tom was disappointed. He wanted to tell her all about Eddie, what he’d ordered, and ask advice on his bedroom. He didn’t say this, he simply joined her and passed the updated log across the table.
“Not for long. Mum and Gemma were going into town, but Gemma’s got a bit of a temperature. What’s this for? Has something else happened? I came round to talk about your grandson.” Liz smiled and looked more like her old self.
“Yes, I have news, but let me tell you about Eddie first.” Tom retold his conversation with Emily, almost word for word. “So, immediately I got off the phone I got onto the internet and ordered loads of jungle related stuff, heavily weighted on the Lion King. Emily loved that film too, but I pretended I didn’t know anything about it. Oh, and I ordered something for you, by way of a thank you. I regretted it after, but it seemed the right thing to do. It’s good having a friend with a level head around.”
“What did you regret? Why?”
“I’ll ruin the surprise if I say.”
“You won’t, the flowers have been delivered.”
“Oh, I hope they were okay. Don’t like ordering things like that online. I regretted it because I didn’t want them to be misconstrued. I don’t want any more hand patting conversations. They weren’t a romantic gesture, just a thank you because Eddie and Emily are coming here to live. On that note, Bella mentioned pre-school. She starts work there soon and asked if Eddie would be going, do you know anything about it? Did Gemma go there? I thought I’d register him, but not knowing anything about it, I wasn’t sure whether I should wait for them to arrive.”
Liz relaxed and her smile was wide even though she looked confused. The flowers really were only a thank-you. That was an awkward conversation dealt with. Instead of answering his question about the school, she asked, “Bella who? Alice’s Bella? Must be, Alice was telling me about her job last week. Why have you been speaking to Bella?”
“Because she was at the graveyard around the time Denise was there. Possibly. Read it.” Tom pointed at the murder log.
When Liz had finished, she shook her head. “That’s crucial information, but as it stands it doesn’t help much. The police need to start their alibi chasing all over again. They were asking people where they were late at night, what we need to know is where were Jim Amery, Craig, and Karen Parker, and to a lesser degree, Andy Knight in the early evening?”
“I agree we can almost rule out Andy Knight, because how does he benefit by the death of Denise and Alana? He doesn’t. He might have had a row with Denise, after all she shouted ‘it’s none of your business’ and perhaps he killed her in a crime of passion. But that would mean the attempted murder of Alana was for an unrelated motive. Too much of a coincidence for me.”
“Exactly. The Parkers on the other hand have plenty of motive, with mother and daughter out of the picture, the house and anything else Denise owns might be theirs. On that point, what’s happened on the burglary at Denise’s, do we know?”
Tom admitted that element of the case had totally slipped his mind, and he made a note to chase Patrick Connor. He drew a circle around Amery. “Which leaves Jim Amery. If guilty his motive is what? Embarrassment, financial? Let’s say it’s one of those, would he kill his own daughter? I can see he might want the holder of his secret, Denise, out of the way. But why then kill Alana?”
“Perhaps he thought Denise might tell her, perhaps Denise threatened to if he didn’t come clean. Belts and braces. Still not a nice thought though. We could find out if his father is still alive and try to speak to him.”
“But Alice said he had dementia. Even if he didn’t, would he know anything about it? It wasn’t something a teenage boy would volunteer if the girl was going to keep her mouth shut.”
“All the more reason, depending on what type of dementia he has. Some people live in the past you know. He might think Jim is still that teenager and have lots he could tell us.”
“Or if he knows, he might protect his son. No, I think that’s a long shot that would waste our time.”
“Have you got anything better to do with your time?”
“As it happens, yes. I am awaiting the imminent arrival of my daughter and grandson, I do have to earn a living, I volunteer at the library… shall I go on?”
“We can get all that done, no problem. Let’s start with the kids. Have you made a list?”
“I have.” Tom flipped to the list in his notebook and handed it to Liz. “I’m going to have to go to that discount place for curtains, and I was wondering if I should get some wallpaper suitable for kids. Aren’t blank white walls boring? I know Emily’s used to be plastered with stuff.”
Taking the list, Liz went through to the bedrooms, she made notes on the bottom of the list, and satisfied he had everything covered, she asked, “What are you doing this afternoon? If you can leave now, I can take you.”
“I thought you had to get back?”
“I’ll pick something up for Mum. She loves knickknacks, and our Gemma will be asleep or watching the television anyway. I shouldn’t have taken her swimming really, I knew she had something about her.”
Thoughts of large stores, crowded aisles, and panic attacks flitted through Tom’s mind. But he ignored them and nodded. “I’d better get my coat on.”
As they approached the industrial estate, Tom’s heart started racing and he was blowing out breaths in short puffs. Liz looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “Are you going to be okay, because I can go in on my own and send you pictures of the stuff I think you’ll like?”
“You will not. This is my grandson. Mine. How can I not do this? I know how, don’t answer that, but I must give it a try. Onwards and upwards, at least I hope it is.”
His heart sank as Liz pulled into the carpark. It was going to be busy. Liz crossed her fingers as she walked to collect a trolley. Tom didn’t look well. The colour had drained from his face and his eyes were darting from side to side as though he were looking for someone. She decided being chirpy was the best way to handle it.
“Better have an extra-large trolley. We’re going to need it. I like shopping. I hope you’ve got enough in your bank account. This way.”
Liz walked quickly through the drizzle, Tom a little behind her, silently telling himself how to breathe, and focusing on Eddie’s bedroom. As they approached the entrance, he grabbed her arm.
“Stop. Give me your keys.”
“Why?” Liz handed them over.
“Because if I get overwhelmed, I’m simply going to leave, and we’ll revert to the sending pictures plan. My heart feels like it’s going to land in that trolley at any moment.”
“Good plan.”
As they entered the store, the chattering of others filled the air in competition with ‘Let it Snow’. It wasn’t quite December, but the Christmas songs had begun, and every display shouted they were wrong, it was Christmas.
It had been spring when Amy had died. He could cope with this. He grabbed Liz’s arm again.
“Take this. My pin number is zero-four-zero-two. Just in case. I wasn’t expecting Christmas to have arrived. That’s another thing I need to think about. I’ll have to buy for Eddie now too. He’s expecting snow by the way. I told Emily I’d see what I could do. Bella mentioned an outdoor ice-skating rink, a Christmas one. That might go some way to sorting it. And as an added bonus it’s outside. Although Bella might not be going, she was hoping this rain would stop.”
Liz had already steered both Tom and the trolley into the bedding section. She kept him talking. “Can you ice-skate?”
“I could in my youth. I was quite good. I was rather hoping it would be like riding a bike. I used to do that too.” He managed a smile, but his face contorted as his mouth fell open. “Will you look at that? It’s a sign, Liz. A sign.” Letting go of the corner of the trolley’s handle he rushed forward.
Liz smiled. At the end of the aisle was a display of jungle themed bedroom items. Curtains, duvet set, lamp shade, and best of all a giraffe bedside lamp. The giraffe’s head poked out of the top. Checking the measurement of the curtains, Tom loaded the items into the trolley. “Where’s the wallpaper section? It says they have wallpaper too.”
“We’ll get there. Let’s just follow these aisles, and get stuff as we come to it, otherwise we’ll be running back and forth, and it will take ages. Now what sort of bedding did you want for Emily? You’ve got the embroidered white on there now, do you think a bit of colour would be nice?” Liz led him towards some abstract designs.
In less than thirty minutes, the trolley was almost full. The bedroom items had been chosen, and he’d taken a ticket so he could order a single bed for delivery. Throws and cushions had been purchased for the sitting room, together with a deep pile rug, which jutted out from the trolley, and which Tom wasn’t convinced about.
