Found Guilty at Five (24 page)

F
IFTY-
O
NE

D
IANA HAD HEARD A VOICE IN THE YARD, DRAWN BACK HER
curtains and looked down. There was no lighting, and she had seen only shadows. Two dark figures and the new Jeep. Then one of the figures had seemed to fold up, and the other bent over him. She waited to see what would happen next.

Now a security light came on, and another person ran out into the yard. It was Foster! And the bending person was Grundy, straightening up. But who was it on the ground, motionless? As she watched with mounting anxiety, Foster and Grundy turned the prostrate man over and began to carry him towards the garden door. It was the little man from the summerhouse! Perhaps he was ill? But why the garden?

Then Grundy tripped, and from the way his end of the little man fell from his arms she knew that he was dead. Her heart thudded and she felt faint. She was frozen with fear. They picked him up again and this time disappeared through into the garden. She must do something, she told herself, and rushed to her door, where she banged as loudly as she could, yelling for help at the same time. There was no reply. Nobody came. It was after curfew, and the house was silent.

*   *   *

“G
OOD MORNING,
D
IANA,” SAID
S
OLOMON
G
RUNDY, COMING
unannounced into her room.

“It is certainly better than last night,” she replied. “Why was I locked in last night? And why is my room in such a mess?” A moment’s caution stopped her from asking about the night scene in the yard.

“Oh, sorry about that, my dear. We’ll get it cleared up for you. Now, about the locked door. Rules, I’m afraid. Of course there may have been no need for you to be secured. But we worried about your strange behaviour, you know. People suffering from grief sometimes do foolish things. You were allowed up to your room to collect your things, and then, as it was really quite late, we locked you in for your own safety last night. When you have been here a couple of days longer, there will be no need for lock and key.”

Diana glared at him. “Mr. Grundy! I am going back at once to my friends in Farnden. I shall send for my things. I will see that Bert’s cello is returned immediately, and I hope to hear nothing more of your activities here. If I do, and it is as worrying as my short stay has proved, I shall go straight to the police.”

Solomon Grundy’s head went back, and he roared with laughter. “Wonderful, Diana! You are destined for great things on the stage, if you should choose that unreliable profession. Now, I have work to do. Do pop your lovely head into my office and say goodbye before you go.”

Fuming, Diana stormed down the stairs and out of the front door and began to walk up the drive to the gates. Halfway along, a figure emerged from the tall laurel bushes. “Hi, Di,” he said. “Where are you off to so early?”

“Let me pass, Foster,” she said. “I’ve had enough of you and your shady friends. I’m leaving, and don’t try to stop me. And don’t try to find me again, either! You deceived me rotten, with your slimy charm!”

“Ah, shame!” he replied. “I don’t remember you putting up much of a struggle. But don’t worry, Sol’s told me to open the gates for you so you can make a dramatic exit.” He laughed, then turned and marched ahead of her. At the end of the drive, he saw her safely outside and then said, “Bye, Di! I’m on rough gardening duty this morning, so I’ll see you around. Cheerio!”

*   *   *

“W
HERE DID YOU GET TO,
D
IANA?” SAID
L
OIS, AS THE GIRL CAME
into the kitchen. “We were worried about you.”

“Oh, it’s a long story,” she said. “But I’m not sure I can talk about it at the moment.”

“Never mind, then. Just relax. Gran will be back in a minute, and Jamie and Akiko have gone down to see Mr. Nakamasa.”

“That is Akiko’s father? The old boy who’s staying at Stone House with Mrs. Tollervey-Jones? I need to ask you about her. At the moment I am homeless! And I remember you suggested she might have room for me to be a lodger for a while.”

Lois nodded. “Absolutely right. I think she’s really enjoying having someone in the house with her, and Akiko says her father already wants to go back to Japan. Going to retire, permanently, apparently.”

Diana was silent for a few minutes. Then she said, “Has Akiko heard from Mr. Grundy at that Last Resort place? It seems that cello I borrowed was ready for delivery to a client, and he wants it back right away.”

Lois sniffed. “The charming Mr. Grundy,” she said, “has already collected it. Or rather, one of his minions has collected it. But thanks anyway, Diana. It was a nice thought.”

“I was more or less given permission, you know. One of the residents, I think. Scruffy-looking fellow with black eyes. A bit sinister, I suppose. I should have known better. He showed it to me, and said he was sure Akiko could borrow it for a while. I think he may have done it to annoy Grundy. Anyway, I’ll apologise to Akiko when she comes back.”

“The black-eyed scruff? Did you know his name?” Lois held her breath. She had had no word from Cowgill, and assumed Parsons had not yet been caught.

“No,” Diana said. “No idea. I saw him once or twice, and he was pally with a so-called friend of mine. Foster. The one I stayed with when he was briefly gamekeeper at the hall. That was a mistake, I’m afraid. Not functioning properly at the moment,” she added, and fumbled for a tissue.

“You poor old thing, Diana,” said Lois. “Come on, cheer up. It might never happen. That’s what Gran always says.”

“It already has happened. My mum and dad are gone, and I’m so lonely.”

“What’s the matter with you, my girl?” said Gran, coming in like the north wind through the kitchen door. “And why the tears? What have you been saying to her, Lois? I don’t know, I’m sure. I go out for ten minutes, and when I get back my kitchen’s full of weeping women.”

“One weeping woman,” said Diana, sniffing. “Hello, Mrs. Weedon.”

“Coffee on yet, Lois? Or have you given up lifting the kettle?”

Lois sighed. “I’ll do it now, Mum,” she said. “Diana’s back, and she’s had a rough time. Not ready to tell us yet, though. Why don’t we all relax and give the girl a break?”

Gran took off her cardigan and rolled up her sleeves. “Right. But first, let’s sort this out. Diana’s back from where? Your bed was all ready for you last night, gel. What kept you?”

“I was detained, as the police say. But not by the police. I went back to collect my things from Last Resort House, and got locked into my room. Grundy had a good explanation when I saw him this morning. But I never want to see him again. Or Foster the gamekeeper, for that matter.”

“Was Grundy nasty to you? Is that what’s upset you?” asked Lois.

“He’s never nasty to your face,” said Gran. “But stories get around about Solomon Grundy. And if that’s his real name, I’m a banana.”

“Which, as we often say, you are clearly not,” said Lois. “But was he unpleasant, Diana?”

“No, he wasn’t. Slimy and sarcastic, but nothing actionable.”

“Then why—”

At that moment, Jamie and Akiko came bursting in, and seeing Diana sitting at the kitchen table, they were full of questions and relief at seeing her safely back. When she had explained about the cello to Akiko, she said she had a splitting headache, and thought she would take a painkiller and have a sleep.

“Didn’t get much sleep last night,” she said, “what with one thing and another.”

Lois looked at her closely. “You’ve told us one thing, about being locked in, but what was the other?”

“Um, I need to get that straight in my head before I tell you,” Diana said. “Can we talk about it later?”

F
IFTY-
T
WO

T
HE KITCHEN GARDEN AT
L
AST
R
ESORT
H
OUSE WAS A
model of productivity. Every kind of vegetable and fruit grew there in rows so straight and orderly that they might have been licked into shape by Solomon Grundy himself. Narrow grass paths ran between each bed, and at the far end, a small orchard of apple, pear and cherry trees acted as a screen, shielding the community from anyone in the field beyond. In one corner, sheltered by a high hedge of evergreen shrubs, there was a neat fruit cage, where raspberries and currants grew in abundance, and where any marauding sparrow unlucky enough to become trapped was dealt with summarily.

It was towards this fruit cage that Foster walked slowly in the sun, carrying a half-filled sack. He turned, looked back to the house, and saw Grundy watching him. He waved, and walked on. When he came to the cage, he carefully opened the framed netting door and, bending slightly, went in. In the far corner, glaringly obvious to any intruder, was a patch of bare earth. He opened the sack and drew out a bunch of strawberry plants, which he set out covering the earth and then neatly planted them. Then he tipped up the sack, and shook out the contents. It was clean straw, enough to pack around the plants and cover the remaining soil. Then he muttered something, gave a mock salute, and returned slowly back to the house.

Grundy was at the door as he approached. “Mission accomplished?” he asked.

“Mission accomplished. Sir.” His face set, Foster walked past him, through the group of residents shelling peas at a big table, on into the echoing, quarry-tiled hall and out through the front door. Grundy watched him go with a strangely regretful expression on his face.

“Mr. Foster leaving us, sir?” said Bert, appearing with a handful of green peas.

“He’ll be back, Bert,” replied Grundy. “Nothing surer.”

*   *   *

D
EREK RETURNED HOME AT LUNCHTIME TO FIND A CONFERENCE
going on in his kitchen. Akiko, Jamie, Gran and Lois sat around the table, and when he entered they scarcely looked up.

“Hello, there!” he shouted. “Anyone at home?”

Lois looked up. “Oh, it’s you,” she said, and then, looking across at Akiko, asked what she thought about it.

“About what?” said Derek crossly. “What’s going on here, Lois? Might I ask if there’s any lunch to be had?”

“Sorry, Dad,” said Jamie. “We’ve just been having a talk about Diana. She’s back, and gone upstairs with a headache. She was at Last Resort House last night, locked in, and something very nasty happened while she was there.”

“What nasty something?” Derek was losing patience.

“We don’t know yet. She was too upset to talk about it.”

Derek exploded. “If I hear one more word about that place in Waltonby, or missing cellos, or missing Dianas, then you can all clear out and leave me to get my own lunch!”

In the shocked silence that followed, Diana crept into the kitchen and sat down on an empty chair. “Sorry,” she said. “I’m very sorry to have caused you so much trouble, Mr. Meade. It’s like this. I think I witnessed a murder.”

F
IFTY-
T
HREE

C
OWGILL WAS JUST LEAVING FOR THE GOLF COURSE WHEN HE
was called back by the sergeant on the desk.

“Phone for you, sir. Mrs. Lois Meade. Would you like me to say you’re out?” The sergeant grinned knowingly.

“Cheeky devil,” said Cowgill, starting back up to his office. “Put her through straightaway.”

As he puffed up the last flight of steps, he reflected that perhaps he should have taken the sergeant’s advice. A call from Lois always meant trouble. But her kind of trouble was always welcome. He had nursed a hopeless infatuation for her for years now, and sometimes wondered what he would do if Derek had a fatal accident. He suspected that faced with the big decision he would chicken out. Lovely as she was still, though her children were adult and she was a grandmother, he reckoned her feisty independence and seemingly inexhaustible energy would be the death of him!

“Cowgill? Is that you? You sound if as you’ve run the marathon.”

“I’m fine. Just on my way out. You were lucky to catch me.”

“Well, let’s hope you’re glad I did when you hear what I’ve got to tell you. I can come into Tresham, or you can drive over here on your way to the golf course.”

“Is it very important? And you’re right. I do have a foursome fixed up.”

“It’s important,” Lois said.

*   *   *

W
HEN
C
OWGILL ARRIVED AT
M
EADE
H
OUSE,
G
RAN HAD AN
unusually serious expression, and without any preliminaries ushered him into the sitting room, where, to his surprise, he found Lois, Derek, Akiko and Jamie, and an unfamiliar blonde girl who was introduced to him as Diana Smith.

“Good afternoon, everyone,” he said. “Lois, are you going to tell me what this is all about?”

“Yes, I will. But Diana’s got the really serious stuff, so I’ll just explain what has happened since I last saw you, and then she can take over.”

Lois then gave him a succinct account of how she had kept her promise and stopped the amateurish and dangerous plan cooked up by Jamie. She reminded him about Akiko seeing Parsons in a field just outside the village, and reported Diana’s arrival with a cello, which turned out to have been stolen from Last Resort House. Diana had been encouraged to take it by a man sounding very like Parsons.

“I think it’s your turn now, Diana,” she said, and sat quietly next to Derek.

“I am Diana Smith. My parents recently died in a sailing accident, and I was befriended by a man named Foster. He invited me to stay with him in his gamekeeper’s cottage in Long Farnden. Farnden Hall, it was. No sooner had I moved in than he got the sack! Then he said he knew where we could stay temporarily, and we went to this place with a strange name, over in Waltonby.”

“Foster?” said Cowgill.

“Yes, that’s right. Well, he was very charming at first, but then I heard him quarrelling with one of the other residents, and he was horrible! I think I came to my senses, and decided to leave. I didn’t know it was like a prison, and you weren’t allowed out beyond the boundaries. Anyway, I just went for a walk and ended up back at Farnden Hall, in the chapel shop there. Mrs. Norrington was always really nice, though we didn’t much take to her husband!”

“And that’s when you met me,” said Akiko. “And said you could possibly borrow a cello for me. And you did!”

“Not realising I was stealing it,” Diana continued. “The man who encouraged me was a scruffy type, but quite helpful. He found this newly made cello on a bench in the Resort workshops, and said I could borrow it for Akiko.”

It was warm in the sitting room, and Lois felt Derek leaning on her. She prodded him, and he sat up with a snort. “What? Where?”

The tension was broken, and Lois laughed. “Go back to sleep, Derek. We’ll wake you up when it’s teatime.”

“Carry on, Miss Smith,” said Cowgill. “I imagine you are going to tell me who the scruffy type was and where he can be found. I am most anxious to talk to him.”

There was a sudden silence, and then Diana said that she was afraid it was too late. “I think he’s buried in a kitchen garden,” she explained, and described what she had seen from her bedroom window.

*   *   *

A
FTER THE WHOLE STORY HAD BEEN TOLD AND
C
OWGILL MADE
urgent phone calls, Lois asked Gran if she would kindly make tea. She was sure everybody, including the inspector, would be glad of a cup.

“Must be a serious moment if my daughter is polite to me,” she said, as she went off to the kitchen.

She had just left the room when the front doorbell rang. An immediate silence fell.

“It’s bad news,” said Akiko. “It’s my father! Something has happened to him. I can feel it!”

Jamie looked at her. “Don’t be ridiculous, Akiko,” he said. “Gran’s opening the door, so we’ll soon know.”

Gran duly put her head around the door. “Lois, it’s a Mr. Foster for you. I’ve told him you’re in conference with the police, and he said that was just fine. He had something to add to your agenda. Whatever that means. Shall I send him away?”

Cowgill got to his feet. “No, Mrs. Weedon,” he said. “I’ll see him in Lois’s office, if you will kindly show him in.” The meeting broke up then, and Akiko asked Jamie if he would go with her to see her father. “I still have this feeling that something is wrong with him,” she said.

“No escort needed now, Akiko,” he said. “Parsons is dead, so you’ll be perfectly safe on your own. I do have some work to do rescheduling our concerts. Give him my regards, won’t you.”

“I wonder if I might come with you, Akiko, to see if Mrs. Tollervey-Jones will have me as a lodger for a while?” Diana said.

“Of course. Are you ready? We can go straightaway, if Jamie does not want to come.” Akiko had not missed the coolness in his voice. So was it all over? She sighed. He was the sort who liked to protect and look after girls. But not love them, apparently.