Murder in Time (20 page)

Ellie looked at Thomas, who looked at Mikey. ‘What do you think, Mikey? You must have wondered about your father's family?'

A shrug. ‘It's all about him, isn't it? Not about me. I like me as I am.'

Thomas stroked his beard. ‘He's offering you a life of ease.'

Mikey grimaced. ‘He's a cheapskate.'

Ellie blinked. ‘Offering twenty-four thousand?'

‘I expect to earn more than that in the first year after I leave university. I've done the maths, which I suspect he hasn't. It's two thousand for every year of my life so far, and that is thirty-eight pounds and almost fifty pence per week. Peanuts. And him a millionaire.'

Ellie was intrigued. ‘Is he a millionaire?'

‘I googled him. The family's into oil and shipping and the manufacture of arms.'

Vera rubbed her eyes. ‘I keep telling Mikey that if he wants to go, I won't try to stop him.'

‘Baked beans,' said Mikey, as if that were the clincher.

Vera smiled, palely. ‘He means that in the old days the money had usually run out by the end of the week, and we used to have baked beans for supper. He means that Abdi ought to have helped us then. But, as I keep saying to Mikey, he didn't know about us before, and he is trying to make up for it now. Or rather, he did know but –' she rubbed her temples – ‘well … you understand what I mean.'

‘He thinks he can buy me, and he can't,' said Mikey. ‘For one thing, I'm worth more than he's offered. And we won't even discuss the blackmail because it makes me want to puke.'

‘He's offering you a ready-made family.'

A shrug. ‘If they're all like him …!'

Thomas said, ‘Mikey, don't close out all your options without thinking it through. He is your father. You don't have to go to live with him, but you could spend some time with him, get to know him. Perhaps you could meet your family on neutral ground and make up your own mind about them. There could be advantages for you in the future. Holidays abroad, foreign travel, money to spend. Why not?'

‘He doesn't want “to get to know me”. He wants to own me. Like a racing car, or a dog or a gold ring. “This is my son.” He doesn't know what I'm like. He's even given me another name. I'm
me
, and I'm staying
me
.' Mikey formed his hand into a gun and spat out, ‘Bang, bang! You're dead!'

‘Pride, Mikey!' warned Thomas.

‘Yes, I am proud of being me,' said Mikey. ‘I'm proud of Mum, too. We're not asking for handouts. We can make our own way in the world. “Conkers!” to him.'

Ellie hesitated. She wanted to cheer Mikey on but, like Thomas, she didn't think it right for him to cut his father out of his life if there were any possibility of forming a better relationship. ‘If your father had come looking for you, saying he was sorry for what he'd done, and asking to make it up to you …?'

‘He's not doing that. He doesn't understand the word “sorry”. Instead, he's trying to blackmail us.'

Thomas said, ‘Vera, we've heard what your son thinks. How do you view this offer?'

Vera bit her lip. ‘I've tried to make myself believe Mikey would have a better life if he went to live with his father. If he wanted to go then I'd wave him goodbye and try to get on with things. Yes, Mikey's in a good school now, but maybe he could be in an even better one, and of course it's tempting to think he could have every IT gadget under the sun, and never have to worry about making his shoes last another month. It would be good for him to have the rough and tumble of a family around him, because he's developing into a loner.

‘But it worries me that Abdi hasn't made any effort to understand what Mikey is like. He's my son and I love him, but he's not perfect. He thinks for himself and doesn't listen to advice, so he sometimes makes mistakes. You know what he can be like when he's crossed. He pulls the shutters down and goes his own way. He's obstinate and, well, bloody-minded sometimes. You're right: he is proud, and he can be a little so-and-so when he can't get his own way. So what would happen if Abdi caught Mikey in one of his moods? Mikey's only twelve, and he's not fully grown yet. I'm afraid Abdi might use physical force. It's no good saying you're not allowed to beat a child, because he's from a different culture, and I don't think that would weigh with him at all. If he were to beat Mikey … I can't bear the thought of it!'

Silence.

Mikey said, ‘Cool, cool! Icy cool. My mama is my papa, too. And I've got homework to do.' He walked out of the room with the cat still across his shoulders.

Vera picked up the papers. ‘All right. I'll tell Abdi to get lost. He can't really mean to carry out his threat to frame me for murder. I mean, that's so ridiculous it's unbelievable.'

Ellie wasn't so sure about that. She thought Abdi meant exactly what he said, and that if he didn't get his own way, he would go to the police with his so-called witness statement. But how to stop him? ‘Leave those papers with us for the moment, will you? I'd like to show them to Gunnar tomorrow.'

‘Oh? Yes. All right. I'm going to return Abdi's cheque to him tonight, with a note saying that we're not interested. I'll sleep better once I've done that.' She swept out, too.

Thomas said, ‘That wasn't quite the judgement of Solomon, but very near. It was the right decision.'

‘Yes, but I think I'm going to have to do some more interfering, to find out who really did kill the doctor. That is, if you don't mind, Thomas?'

He sighed and smiled, both at once. ‘Can I stop you, once you've got the bit between your teeth?' A gesture of resignation. ‘All right. Who are you going to attack next?'

‘Not “attack”. Talk to. I think we ought to go back to the beginning. I can't think that there were three totally unrelated incidents that night: the gatecrashers, the rape and the murder.'

He was surprised. ‘What could possibly link them, other than that fool Prentice taking a date-rape drug to the party?'

‘The police didn't find a connection. Logic says that maybe there isn't one. But I've a feeling that there is.'

‘Have you heard anything to confirm your theory?'

‘Well, there was a ruckus with a neighbour over a hedge or a fence or something, but it fizzled out after the doctor died. Then an old friend said I should look for the lady. “
Cherchez la femme
.” But she's drifting in and out of Alzheimer's: my friend, I mean. So I really shouldn't take any notice.'

He stared at her. ‘“Look for the lady”? What lady?'

‘I think she meant the doctor's wife.'

‘What has she got to do with anything?'

‘I don't know. I just feel that something is not quite, I don't know … it's as if a picture has been pushed out of the straight. Skewed. I've been told different stories—'

‘That's just it, Ellie. If you ask four witnesses to an accident what they've seen, you'll get four different stories. That's what's happening here. It doesn't mean that they're not telling the truth as they see it.'

‘I know that. But still … I could bear to know a little more about Mrs McKenzie.'

He patted her knee. ‘Light of my life, I fear I was less than gracious earlier when you leapt to my defence, but I do worry about you, you know. You go striding out into the badlands without any backup. I didn't know where you were today, or who you were with. Suppose you'd stirred up someone who has already killed and would have no compunction about killing again? Promise me you'll tell me where you're going and who you're going to see in future.'

‘That's sensible.' She crossed her fingers in her lap. ‘But, if something comes up while—'

‘Then you ring me before you go off on your new tack. Promise?'

She nodded. ‘Of course.' And meant it. At the time.

Later that evening, she was clearing up in the kitchen when Vera reappeared. The girl didn't possess any expensive clothes, and she hadn't made the mistake of showing too much cleavage, or wearing jeans so tight that she could hardly move. But this was a sleek version of their everyday Vera, with hair shining and smooth, loose around her shoulders. There was even a touch of rose on her cheeks and lips. From excitement or make-up?

‘Dan insists on taking me round to drop that cheque in to Abdi's place. I asked Mikey if he'd like to come, too, but he said “no”. I won't be late.'

The doorbell rang. ‘That'll be him.'

Ellie said, ‘Hold on a mo. I want a word with Dan.'

Dan was waiting in the porch, his car in the drive. A Volvo, safe and steady, like the man himself.

Ellie said, ‘Just a quickie, Dan. Could you step inside for a moment?'

He came in and closed the door behind him, his eyes asking Vera what this was all about.

Ellie said, ‘Dan, is your cousin Sam still around? Do you think I might have a word with him some time?'

‘Whatever for?'

Vera winced. ‘Abdi's threatening, you know …'

Dan said, ‘Abdi doesn't mean it, of course.'

There spoke the quintessential English gentleman, who would never have thought of descending to such tactics himself. Hadn't he learned anything about other people in his career as a schoolmaster? Surely, he must have done. He was seeing the world through rose-coloured spectacles at the moment, wasn't he?

‘I'd like to speak to Sam, just in case,' said Ellie.

Dan shrugged. ‘I don't know that he can be much help, as he was in hospital at the time my father was killed.'

‘I know, but I'm trying to get a better picture of what went on that night. Sam was older than you, and he might have seen things you wouldn't have noticed. I'd really like to talk to him and to your old neighbour, Mr Scott, if I can.'

‘I don't see what good it would do. But … well, Mr Scott's in the phone book. I haven't seen him for years, but I think I'd have heard if he'd passed away. Sam? He was with a merchant bank in the City, married into the aristocracy, nice woman, I like her. Two children. The last I heard, he'd stopped work to do some research on his family history. He's loaded, lives in Turnham Green in an architect-designed house and sits on cultural committees. Does a lot of good, unobtrusively. I don't see much of him nowadays. Perhaps once a year for a drink, that kind of thing.'

His eyes were on Vera while he talked to Ellie.

Ellie persisted. ‘Do you have his phone number?'

‘I suppose. Are you sure you …? All right. Hang on, I'll get it for you.' He accessed his smartphone. He reeled off Sam's full name, address and phone number, which Ellie repeated and carefully wrote down on the pad by the landline phone.

He was about to usher Vera out of the house, when Ellie said, ‘Just one more thing, if you don't mind—'

He smiled. ‘Or even if I do?'

‘Sorry, I realize I'm holding you up. Dan, someone said something … It's probably nothing, but I wondered if … No, I can't say it.'

He lost his smile. ‘Perhaps you'd better say it, before I begin to imagine the worst.'

Ellie was hesitant. ‘I'm sure it's nothing. Someone said to look for the lady. I'm wondering if your father had perhaps been, well, looking elsewhere?'

His lips compressed. He was angry, but controlling himself. ‘Who said that?'

‘I'm afraid I was listening to neighbourhood gossip.'

‘That's … hard to take. No, Mrs Quicke, nothing like that was going on.'

‘Would you have known if it had been?'

He looked startled. ‘I … No, you're right. I suppose I wouldn't have known. But I don't think, my father was always so busy …' His voice trailed away.

Vera took his arm. ‘Your father wasn't like that. You boys might not have noticed, but us girls always knew if a man had roving hands, and he didn't. Quite definitely not.'

Dan spoke to her, and not to Ellie. ‘Not for young girls. I accept that. But I'm trying to think back … It never occurred to me before that he might have, for an older woman, perhaps …? My mother was a very demanding person.'

‘No,' said Vera. ‘Doctors live life in a sort of spotlight. There would have been gossip—'

‘Mrs Quicke says that there was gossip.'

‘Yes,' said Ellie, feeling miserable. ‘I don't know how reliable it is. Now I've made you doubt your memories of your family. I'm so sorry. I wish I'd never started asking questions. Perhaps you are right, and the past is best left undisturbed.'

‘Yes,' said Dan, ‘and no. For years I grieved because I had no closure on my father's death. For an equal number of years after that, I thought it best to forget it and move on. Now the past has come up and hit me, it's brought a lot of good with it. I was young and naive then. I couldn't imagine my parents had any life outside the doors of our house, but of course they did. They must have done. If you turn up something which might be painful for me to hear, Mrs Quicke, then don't hesitate on my account. You've brought me more happiness than I could ever have dreamed of.' He put his arm round Vera's shoulders.

Vera had tears in her eyes. ‘Dan, you're going too fast for me. Which is not to say I don't like it.'

Dan laughed. With a nod to Ellie he led Vera out to his car.

Would it have been a good idea for Mikey to go with them, to have a look at Abdi's house?

Yes, probably. But, if he'd dug in his toes, then that was that. Hopefully, he would be tackling his homework rather than emailing his friends on the computer or watching the telly. Well, you could always hope.

At that point in time things became even more complicated. The phone rang, and it was Ellie's difficult daughter Diana, asking – no, demanding – yet another favour.

‘Mother, you know I said I'd need you to babysit at the weekend—'