Murder by Mistake (26 page)

In the hall the Party Planner was mopping his brow thoroughly enough to shift his toupee to one side, while the cleaning team dodged around him and electricians shouted incomprehensible reports of this and that. Someone had moved the bridal arch so it stood by the stairs; probably to make it easier to take tables and chairs through to the dining room.

‘There’s no need to panic, dear lady. You may trust me to see everything will be absolutely tickety-boo.’

‘Of course.’ Ellie gave him a grim smile. ‘What else do I pay you for?’

His chest swelled, but his voice trembled as he patted his cheeks dry. ‘We cannot always trust others to be as professional as one would wish. The decorator – a fine woman normally, but in some distress – a daughter’s illness, a husband gone astray – but what is that when one is supposed to remember the chair covers as well as the tablecloths? One despairs, one really does.’

Ellie edged around him, aiming for the kitchen. ‘I rely on you to get it sorted.’

In the kitchen Rose was dispensing mugs of tea to members of the workforce, while Mia tied yards of a prettily figured lavender organza ribbon around tiny containers of bubbles, each one in the shape of a wedding cake. Three large men were making the most of their tea break, but when Ellie’s hard eye was turned upon them, they beat a retreat.

Ellie looked a question at Rose.

Rose shook her head. ‘No sign of Midge yet.’

Ellie unpacked fruit, fish, joint and cold meats, and held up the flower-filled basket. ‘Will this do for Ursula’s little sister, do you think?’

Rose exclaimed with pleasure. ‘Now there’s a pretty thing.’

Mia said, ‘I could put some of this lavender ribbon round it so she could string it round her neck when she needs both hands free.’

Pat bustled in, grimly pleased to see Ellie returned. ‘Thomas rang; he said he’d tried to get you on your mobile, but you were engaged. He said he’d no luck at the registry office. They wouldn’t tell him anything.’

Ellie nodded.

‘Stewart rang to say little Frank’s still refusing to dress up for the wedding and be a ring boy, and he – that is, Stewart – has been ringing Diana to see if he could get Frank off the hook, but she insists he go through with it and is dropping his outfit over there this afternoon. Stewart says he’s made some sort of bargain with his son; Stewart will bring him to the party and take him away as soon as the vows have been exchanged and the lad’s done his bit. Then they’ll all go off on their holidays as planned.’

Ellie nodded. Perhaps that was the best that could be hoped for.

Pat shuffled bits of paper. ‘Mrs Belton rang. Ursula’s mother. She wants to come round to inspect everything, which I suppose is understandable but not helpful at the moment. She’s on about a wedding cake, but we haven’t had a wedding cake delivered for Ursula, have we?’

Rose stowed Ellie’s purchases in the fridge. ‘I’ll cook the fish when we come back from the rehearsal. As for wedding cakes, there’s one come for Diana. Five tiers with bride and bridegroom figures on the top. What you’d expect.’

Mia held up the basket by its new ribbon loop. ‘Is this long enough, do you think? Ursula said she didn’t want a cake. I’d have ordered one for her if I’d thought about it early enough.’

Ellie switched on the kettle. ‘Thanks, Pat. I appreciate your standing in for me. Do you want to go off early? I don’t think we’ll be getting any work done today. Time for a cuppa, everyone?’

‘Yoo-hoo!’ A hard, clear voice. Diana!

Everyone froze.

Rose dropped her voice to a whisper. ‘What does
she
want?’

‘To sleep here overnight,’ said Pat. ‘Didn’t I say? She rang earlier to make sure the guest room would be free.’

Rose muttered, ‘That’s supposed to be Mia’s room.’

Mia shrugged. ‘Well, I’m not using it, so of course she can have it. I like sleeping above Rose’s room.’

Rose pulled a face. ‘Well, I’ve no time to go round changing sheets, so she’ll have to lump it.’

Ellie made herself a cup of strong tea in a mug, added milk and – at the last minute – some sugar. She also took the last biscuit from the tin, thinking that she was going to need all the carbohydrates she could lay her hands on. ‘I’ll deal with her.’

As she passed through the door into the hall, stepping sideways to avoid Mr Balls, something gauzy and light came floating down from the landing above, followed by a high-heeled sandal. Mia’s bridesmaid’s outfit? Ellie looked up to see Diana on the landing throwing the second shoe down.

Mr Balls took the phone away from his ear and stared as the fabric slowly settled on the floor. A cleaning woman carrying a box of polishing materials looked up and exclaimed in horror. The second shoe caught on the bridal arch and hung there, swinging to and fro.

Diana brushed one hand against the other. ‘I don’t know what that’s doing in my wardrobe. I need the space, so you can find somewhere else to put it.’ She vanished down the corridor.

Ellie picked up Mia’s dress, rescued the sandals and mounted the stairs. She took the outfit into Mia’s bedroom above the kitchen, carefully hung up the dress and placed the shoes below it. No great damage done, except to her temper.

She found Diana in the pretty guest room overlooking the garden, unpacking her wedding gown, shedding layers of tissue paper around . . . which someone else would have to pick up.

Ellie threw up the bottom half of the sash window. No Midge. She sent up an arrow prayer.
Dear Lord, can You keep Midge safe for us, please? Of course I realize he’s a streetwise cat and is probably staying away to show his disgust at this disturbance in his routine. But there are fast cars zipping up and down the road and . . . Enough!

‘Cat got your tongue?’ Diana at her most acid. ‘Cross because I’ve turfed the orphan child out into the storm?’

Ellie shook her head.

Diana hung her dress up, admiring it as she did so. She had brought a large suitcase with her, plus the box which had contained her dress, plus an enormous handbag. Once the dress was in the otherwise empty wardrobe, she began unloading toiletries from her bag on to the dressing table. She twitched a look at her mother. ‘Why the long face?’

‘I paid a visit to Valerie this morning. She’s recovering well from the last beating he gave her.’

Diana’s busy hands stilled for a moment, and she met her mother’s eyes in the mirror. ‘She irritates the life out of him.’

‘She’s sent the children away. Two of them show signs of abuse. Apparently they didn’t get good enough school reports to satisfy him.’

A shrug. ‘No skin off my nose.’

‘Oh, he doesn’t go for the face, usually. He hits the boys around the buttocks and legs. Valerie must have been specially “irritating” to get it in the face. How long do you think it will be before he starts on you?’

‘He won’t. Believe me, if he raised his hand to me he’d rue the day.’

‘Tough talking, but once you’ve been worked over once or twice, you won’t dare cross him. That’s what Valerie says, anyway.’

Another shrug. ‘Valerie is history.’

‘Not exactly. She’s still his wife. She hasn’t divorced him yet. She’s waiting for him to commit bigamy, and then she’ll call the cops, her solicitor and the tabloids. If you let her.’

‘What!’

Silence. Ellie let her words sink in.

Diana produced a light laugh. ‘You’re joking, of course.’

‘You didn’t know? You signed papers to say you were divorced—’

‘He did too.’

‘Only, he isn’t. He’s taking you for a ride. What I can’t make out is why. Why go through all the rigmarole of a false registry office wedding? Why the charade of the big reception—’

‘He
loves
me.’

‘—Unless perhaps he means to cancel the registry office booking at the last minute, saying the paperwork hasn’t come through in time? Then, with all the preparations for the reception so well advanced, he’ll persuade you to go through with the rest of it, make vows before everyone, get you to commit yourself to him publicly.’

Diana picked up her mobile phone, considered it, and laid it back down again. ‘Even if there’s been some sort of mistake and he’s trying to cover up the fact that the divorce papers haven’t come through yet, we can always get married later.’

‘You admit the possibility of error on his part?’

A shrug. ‘I know he’s so keen to marry that he’d do anything to . . . Not that I mean
anything
, precisely.’

‘Ring him and see if he’s still on track for the registry office.’

She lifted her phone, and put it down again. ‘It would mean I didn’t trust him.’

‘Do you?’

‘Yes, of course I do.’ Now Diana was getting angry. She started to rub cream on her face to remove her make-up. ‘Admit it; you’ve never liked him. You’ve never understood him – or me.’

‘No, I don’t understand him. For instance; why did he kill Mrs Summers?’

‘What?’ The jar of cream dropped from her hand, bounced off the dressing table and landed up on the floor. Another mess for someone to clean up. ‘How dare you! What makes you say that? Ridiculous!’

‘He had motive. It was she who tried to rent a big house for you, giving false references and a cheque that bounced. He can’t have been pleased when she was found out. She might well have found herself arrested for fraud, if she hadn’t so conveniently died, because she wouldn’t have taken the blame, would she? She’d have told the police who’d put her up to it, and then he’d have been arrested, too.’

Best not say anything about emptying her bank account because that was just surmise and might be proved wrong.

A light laugh from Diana. ‘He told me all about that. It was supposed to be a surprise wedding present for me, but it all went wrong. If only he’d left it to me, I could have got you to let me have the house and there’d be none of this bother. Because of course you will let me have it.’

Ellie wondered if Diana were right. Might not Ellie have given in eventually and parted with the house? She said, ‘He’s clever, I’ll grant you that. He knows how to manipulate you. But why go to so much trouble? Granted, he needs money to support his lifestyle. Valerie’s parents have stopped supporting them, and I don’t think she has any money of her own to judge by the parlous state of the car she runs around in. Getting rid of Valerie must make sense.’

‘He loves me, now.’

‘You have some bits and pieces of property, but he’s been living with you and off you for six months now and knows exactly how much you’re worth. He knows that he can easily get you to part with what’s yours. But it’s not enough, surely, to commit murder for?’

‘Murder?’ Diana half rose from her seat and then sat down with a bump. ‘You’re trying to frighten me. He wouldn’t harm a hair of my head—’

‘No, he harms Valerie instead. And his sons.’

‘That’s different. That’s all in the past. I’m his future. Together we’ll conquer the world!’

Ellie sighed. ‘Sounds good. Feels rotten. Will you cancel the wedding until you can work out why he’s lying about everything?’

‘He’s not lying, and I’m not about to give up my dream wedding—’

‘So long as it’s not your deathbed.’

Diana finished removing her make-up and smoothed foundation on to her face, looking at Ellie in the mirror. ‘You are a spiteful, malicious old woman. I see how it is; you’re jealous of my good looks and good fortune. You’ve never loved me as a mother should!’

Ellie returned her daughter’s scornful eye with a steady look of her own. There was colour in Diana’s cheeks. Perhaps she really did feel that she was unloved? Was there a hint of self-knowledge there? Did she know she was unlovable?

Ellie didn’t reply at once. The answer that rose easily to her lips was that of course she loved her daughter. She’d told herself so many times over the years. Sometimes she’d qualified it – especially of late – by admitting to herself that although she loved her daughter, she didn’t like her very much.

Was even that true? As of now, this minute, did she feel love for her daughter?

Well, what was love? Not that warm fuzzy feeling that you have for animals. For Midge, say. Where was Midge? Oh, Midge; do come back soon!

Love could be caring for a good friend. It could go very deep. Ellie’s love for Rose and Rose’s for Ellie was deep. Unspoken, but manifesting itself in dozens of little ways, day in and day out.

Ellie also cared deeply for a number of other people, some of whom were family and some just friends. Some of these reciprocated with warmth, some less so, but there was a pretty wide circle of people whom Ellie could honestly say that she loved.

Lust had nothing to do with it. Lust was what Diana felt for Denis, and she probably mistook it for love, though it was nothing like it.

Lust was only a very small part of what Ellie felt for Thomas, and he for her. Oh yes, rumpy pumpy was very nice indeed, to be looked forward to and enjoyed and smiled about afterwards.

Love was something else. When she thought of Thomas she felt . . . connected. Was that the right word? Yes, connected to him. Loving thoughts passed through her mind about Thomas. The feeling she had for him was deeper and far warmer than lust.

Although she knew in theory that love doesn’t demand a return on its investment, love was also Thomas making time in his busy schedule to check out the registry office for her. Love was her worrying about his weight. It was deeper than friendship, warmer than even those much-valued friendships where the to and fro is equally balanced.

Love is patient, love is kind. That was a quote from somewhere. The bible, probably. She’d never been much good at remembering chapter and verse. Thomas would know.