Murder in Style (27 page)

Ellie took a seat, unasked. ‘Ray; she was worried about you. And Gordon. She wanted me to find out how you were both coping.'

Gordon drained his glass and held it out to Charles. ‘Get me another, will you?'

Charles was still on his feet. He had been drinking, but was not as far gone as the other two. Charles was uncomfortable, though still willing to play along with the boys. Charles took Gordon's glass but said, ‘Are you sure?'

‘Course I'm sure. Who's master here, eh?'

Ray grinned. ‘You are, me old mate. I knew I could rely on you.' He patted his coat pocket.

Ah-ha. Problem solved. Gordon had advanced Ray some money? More fool Gordon. What precisely were the financial arrangements in this household? Did Juno pay for everything? Probably. Did she have a joint account with Gordon? Mm, possibly not. Juno was the breadwinner. She would keep separate accounts for work and home. She probably paid a certain amount into a separate account for Gordon's personal use every month. So what collateral had Ray advanced to persuade Gordon to give him some money? Ah, he'd used Poppy's car, which she'd left round the corner from The Magpie … a car which must now belong to Juno?

Gordon took his glass back from Charles. ‘So, Miss Prunes and Prism, what did you really come for? You're not really here to see how we're getting on, are you? We're doing brilliantly, aren't we, Ray?'

‘I am now,' said Ray, fatly grinning. ‘I knew I could rely on you to see me through. I'm off to the club tonight and feeling lucky. “Luck be a lady tonight!” Payback on Tuesday when her cheque clears.'

Oh. The collateral was not Poppy's car, but Diana's cheque? Ellie said, in a small voice, ‘A cheque my daughter gave you? You'd better make sure she hasn't stopped it.'

‘What!' He spilled his drink again, but this time didn't bother to lick his hand. A stain spread out on the arm of his chair. That was going to take some cleaning, wasn't it? ‘Your daughter? Who …? No, you can't mean …! The estate agent in the Avenue?'

Charles leaned against the wall. He was still on the side of good nature. Just. ‘What estate agent? Not Marge. She's no friend of yours, Ray. She wouldn't lend you any money.'

‘Advance, not loan,' said Ray. ‘The woman advanced it to me if I promised to put the sale of The Magpie houses through her.'

‘But they don't belong to you.' Charles, frowning.

Ray giggled. ‘
I
know that.
You
know that,
Gordon
knows that. But the itsy-bitsy girl at the estate agency doesn't know that, and you're not to tell her. Promise?'

Gordon rapped the arm of his wheelchair. ‘The Quicke woman says you should make sure the cheque hasn't been stopped.'

‘Mrs Diana wouldn't do that.' He tried to flick his nose in a secretive way, and failed. ‘She trusts me, silly bitch.'

‘More fool she,' said Charles; his eyes were on Ellie. ‘Mrs Quicke, what do you know about Ray's cheque?'

‘My daughter made enquiries and discovered that Ray didn't own the properties concerned, so she cancelled the cheque she'd made out to him.'

Gordon started to laugh, started to say something, swallowed some more whisky, got the hiccups. Flailed his arm about, trying to get the words out. ‘Hic! You mean you haven't any money coming in? You bastard, Ray! Give me back my dosh! Hic! What did you think …? Hic! I'll flay you alive!'

‘Honest!' Ray was still giggling. ‘This one don't know nothing. Your money's safe with me. Twenty thou. Life-saver. You can have it against Poppy's car, if you like.'

‘What do I … Hic! … want with Poppy's car? If you've tried to scam … Hic! … me, it will be the worse … Hic! For you!'

‘Don't get in a fratch. Your money's safe with me.'

‘You'd better be right … Hic! Or I'll sue the pants off you.' Gordon waved his hand at Charles. ‘Get me … Hic! … water!'

Charles went off into the adjoining kitchen, only to call out, ‘There's a heck of a stink in here, Gordon! The freezer door's open. Oh, my God! Everything's …! Fish and …? I'd better open some windows. Where's the back door key?' Banging sounds, off. ‘There's one hell of a mess. And the fridge … why is there a towel over the fridge door? Everything in it is spoiled!'

Gordon was back to sipping his whisky, having got his hiccups under control. ‘Leave it be, Charles. Juno will have to clear it up when she returns tonight. Think of it as a Welcome Home present for her.'

‘But,' Charles returned, looking worried, ‘how can you be so sure that she is coming back?'

‘I told her, no more Mister Nice Guy. I said, “You've got to knuckle under, my girl!” I said, “No more of your nonsense, or your precious Clemmie will be in jail for life!”

Ray laughed. ‘You put her right. Silly cow!'

Gordon's mouth took an unpleasant twist. ‘The bitch will be back this evening, just you wait and see. I know how to keep order in my own household, don't I?'

Ray dreamily sank some more whisky. ‘You sure do, mate. I wish I hadn't been so soft with Poppy. She could always twist me round her little finger. She could do anything with me, she could.' Two fat tears appeared on his cheeks, and he slipped down in his chair.

Charles kept sending sharp looks in Ellie's direction. ‘You can report back that all is well, Mrs Quicke. Ray's got a loan to tide him over and Juno will be back home tonight. Gordon, that kitchen: you'll have to get someone in to clear it up. All that spoiled food!'

‘Juno can do it. In fact, I'm going to sit here and watch her. I'll make her lick the floor clean. I'm going to tell her to take off her clothes and use them to mop up with.'

Ray tried to pull himself up in his chair. ‘I shoulda done that with Poppy. What a bitch! Leaving me in the lurch like that.'

Charles looked sick.

Ellie felt sick. She had a feeling that she ought to get up and go while the going was good, but if she stayed, she might get them talking. They were all drinking, and with any luck might say something to help her understand better what had happened. She tried for a diversion. ‘Marika thinks Juno is safely with her relatives in Poland.'

Gordon nodded. ‘I thought of that and looked, after the funeral. It's true her passport isn't here. She keeps her business papers in the safe at the office. That's where it'll be. She'll be back. Trust me, she won't let her precious Clemmie be arrested.'

Ray stirred in his chair. He was weeping gently. ‘My lovely Poppy. No one but you, ever. What did you have to go and leave me for? We'd have worked it out. My luck would have changed …' He slid further down into his chair. The glass slipped from his hand on to the floor. His head rested on his shoulder. He snored.

Ellie asked, ‘Gordon, did you ever really love Juno?'

‘Of course I did! And she adored me!'

‘Or were you enamoured of the wealth she represented?'

‘She was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! I was crazy about her.'

‘She wasn't sure she loved you, was she? Something happened on the night of her eighteenth birthday party. Did you force her to have sex with you?'

‘Don't be ridiculous. We'd been having it off for ages. She always made a fuss about it, stupid bitch, but that was all show. She was gagging for it. And I gave it to her, didn't I?'

‘She didn't enjoy it?'

‘Poppy loved it,' said Ray, waking up, struggling to sit upright. ‘Couldn't get enough of it.'

‘Some girls give themselves gladly and without pain. Juno wasn't an easy conquest, was she?'

‘She was a cock-teaser!'

‘You left her in the wood, in tears, perhaps?'

‘Crocodile tears! She could turn it on like a tap. Every time! Pretending she didn't want to, pretending it hurt her. She knew how much it turned me on, her making out she didn't want it. Some women are like that, you know. She recovered quickly enough after, didn't she? Dancing with that chocolate soldier. Just as well he disappeared into the woodwork, or I'd have had to warn him off.'

Chocolate soldier. Does he mean the colour of his skin, or was he really a soldier?

Charles lifted his glass to his lips. ‘Marge, too. Though she wasn't exactly backward in coming forward. That was a night to remember!'

‘You say the man disappeared?'

‘Rejoined his regiment. Went overseas. Good riddance.'

‘Did you try to find him, after?'

‘No one knew who he was,' said Gordon. Smiling. Lying? ‘He'd come with a friend of a friend, gatecrashing the party, as these lowlifes do.'

Ellie said, ‘When Poppy and Juno discovered they were pregnant, Gordon and Ray offered to marry them. Poppy was happy enough to marry Ray. Juno, I suspect, was not so happy to marry Gordon. Did she try to contact the soldier? And fail? So I suppose she made the best of a bad job as so many girls have done before her. I'm sure she tried to be a good wife.'

‘She loved me to distraction.'

‘I think she did her best.' Ellie contemplated the wreck of a man before her. ‘You say you really loved her—'

‘I did. Of course I did. Why else would I have offered to marry her?'

Why, indeed? For money, because she was the most beautiful and most unattainable girl? Because she'd liked dancing with someone else?

She said, ‘Then Clemmie was born. That must have been a shock.'

‘I stood by her. I suggested that she give the baby up for adoption so that we could go on as if nothing had happened. She wouldn't hear of it. She put the baby before me! That shows you what a fine wife she was! She betrayed me, but I was prepared to forgive her on one condition. I said I would love and cherish Clemmie as if she were my own, provided Juno gave me another child straight away. She agreed, but—'

‘You discovered you were infertile.'

Anger sharpened his voice. ‘No need to go on about it!'

‘And then came the accident.'

‘No need to go on about that, either!'

Ellie almost felt sorry for the man. He'd had a run of really bad luck. Some men would have grown to meet the double challenge, would have become more instead of less loving to their family. Gordon said he'd loved Juno to distraction, but Ellie doubted that. The sight of his wife nursing Clemmie must have reminded him of everything he'd lost. He hadn't treated Clemmie well. Ellie was beginning to wonder how it had been for Juno. Had he taken out his frustration on her, too?

She said, ‘Juno lost out, too. She was young and beautiful but her husband had dwindled into a wheelchair.'

Gordon shouted, ‘She'd promised to love me till death do us part, and what happened? She foisted a bastard on me!'

‘You promised to love her, too. Did you fulfil your promise? Juno tried to, didn't she? She did her best to love and serve you in every way she could. But it wasn't enough, was it? You knew she was a good woman and she had said she would never leave you, but you didn't believe her. You set out to break her spirit in many mean little ways. I think she's been drifting away from you for a long, long time, but her vows, her compassion, kept her tied to your wheelchair.'

Gordon's face twisted into a grimace.

Ellie sighed. ‘It seems to me that both sisters began to think of divorce about the same time. Poppy had been driven to acknowledge that Ray's gambling had got way out of hand. And Juno—'

‘What's that? What!' Ray had heard his name and struggled to fight off sleep.

Gordon ground out, ‘You're off your trolley, woman! She'll never leave me.'

Ellie said, ‘The trigger that precipitated the final act of the drama was that someone stole some of The Magpie cheques and the twins asked Charles to do an audit. He uncovered the problem but thought it was Clemmie, rather than Trixie, who'd been responsible for it. He made his suspicions known to you, Gordon, which was like setting a match to a rocket. You saw a way to reinforce your hold on Juno, believing that she would never let Clemmie be prosecuted for theft.'

Gordon laughed. ‘I told her that I'd keep the evidence locked up for future use in case she ever thought of leaving me.'

‘Juno didn't believe Clemmie had stolen anything, so this threat didn't disturb her, causing you to widen the scope of your plan. You organized a family meeting and got Charles to repeat his accusations against Clemmie to her grandparents and to Poppy. That didn't work too well, did it? Clemmie's grandparents rejected the idea out of hand. Juno kept her mouth shut. But you worked on Poppy. You thought that if only you could persuade Poppy to prosecute, what fun that would be!'

‘Clemmie was guilty as sin,' said Gordon.

Ellie shook her head. ‘I disproved that yesterday. Charles knows.'

‘Leave me out of this,' said Charles, unsteadily replenishing his glass.

‘I wish I could,' said Ellie, ‘but you're all in it, to some extent. Poppy died, and this altered the balance of power. Juno was grief-stricken. She was sleepwalking. You didn't like that. You'd tried to make her pay you attention by getting Charles to accuse Clemmie of fraud, and that hadn't worked too well. So you tried something else. You told Charles that you'd seen Clemmie trying to get into The Magpie at about the time Poppy fell down the stairs. Charles was very ready to believe you. How delicious was that! You had no notion of actually going to the police with that story. Oh, no! Because if you did, you would lose your hold on Juno.

‘It was at this point I got drawn into the affair by Gerald and Marika, who asked me to look into Poppy's death. I went to the funeral and the reading of the will afterwards, which was a revelation. At the funeral, Clemmie and Juno attended to your every want, Gordon, as if they were your nurses doing their best for you, but not as if they loved you. In turn you ordered them around as if they were your servants. If I could see how distanced they felt from you, so could you, Gordon, and that's why you—'