Murder in Style (29 page)

Ray? Ellie sighed. Would he ever be able to curb his gambling? If not, he'd probably end up on the streets. Oh dear. Yet what he'd said about his wife indicated that he deeply regretted her loss. Some of the family had thought him responsible for Poppy's death because he had expected to inherit her wealth, but Ellie had seen no signs of guilt in him. Lots of other signs – desperation, mostly. The curse of the addict. Nothing can be of any importance to an addict, compared to their need for drink, or drugs, or gambling.

If Ray's alibi at the club could be broken, could he have killed his wife? Well, it was possible, perhaps. In a moment of madness, a confrontation gone wrong?

Gordon couldn't climb stairs, so he couldn't have killed Poppy. And why would he want to, anyway?

Ellie rubbed her eyes. Of all the people in the Cordover family whom she'd got to know, Gordon was the only one with the urge to control others. If she didn't do anything to help, tomorrow he'd do his best to destroy Clemmie … which raised the question of what exactly it was that Marika thought Ellie could do to keep her granddaughter safe?

Let's recap.

Juno cared deeply about Clemmie. Juno had run away. Quite right, too. She'd kept in touch with her parents, with Clemmie and with Marge. Probably also with Celine. So, what had she asked them to do to protect Clemmie?

The only thing Ellie could think of, was asking Ellie herself to interfere … which was not, pardon me, but really, not enough!

Thomas came in. Didn't speak. Hovered.

She said, ‘I know. You think I ought to be up and about, doing something to help Clemmie. I quite agree, but I don't know what.'

‘It might be good to have Clemmie's version of events? Suppose Gordon has invented that story about seeing her going into the office that night?'

‘The thing is, I believe that he did see Clemmie there.' She thought about it. ‘No, that's not quite right. Charles told me Gordon had seen Clemmie hammering on the door and ringing the bell. And I said, “Didn't she have a key?” And Charles said that she must have had one, but had forgotten it or something. So he didn't actually see her go in. Or, did he?'

He put his arm around her. ‘Are you fed up with the lot of them? Ready to throw in the towel?'

‘Certainly not. All right, I'd better go and ask her, I suppose. What's Mikey doing?'

‘Muttering to himself. Accessing websites. Making notes. Twirling pencils around as if he were a conjuror.'

‘He's a good lad.'

‘Yes. Do you want him to come, too?'

Thomas's offer of help touched her so much that it caused her to reach for a hanky, which she failed to find. She sniffed. ‘You want to take a hand? That would be good. Gordon scares me. I'm really afraid of what he might try to do.'

He took her seriously. ‘You aren't easily scared.'

‘Gordon has changed since the funeral. I think perhaps he was always a bully to Juno and Clemmie but to others he represented himself as a victim. Since last Friday, he's gone from querulous complaint to fury. I think if he knew where to find Juno, he'd attack her physically.' She back-tracked. ‘Oh, I can't think why I said that. Surely he wouldn't …? Would he?'

‘From what you've told me, from what I've seen for myself, yes; he would. Let's go and see Clemmie. Warn her what's about to happen.'

‘I keep thinking about Juno. She's a brave woman who has managed to cope with Gordon all these years. I cannot think she'd disappear and leave Clemmie undefended. She must somehow have managed to put some sort of protection in place for her … but what? Is she relying on Marika and Marge? Or on me? But, what can any of us do?'

‘One step at a time. Why don't you ring Clemmie, see if she's in?'

‘She's probably out having a last-minute lesson in the car. Didn't Aidan say he's been giving her lessons? You should see his funny little two-stroke. He's a big lad, and when he gets in, it sinks down. You can almost hear it groan. I suppose it's good in traffic.'

She rang Clemmie's mobile.

Clemmie was in a hurry. ‘Sure, drop in later, if you like. I'm just about to go out and have one last driving practice, and after that I'll have to cook something for Aidan's supper. He's on nights. Do you know where I live?' She gave the address. It wasn't far from the shop.

Ellie switched off. ‘Now let's find out what Mikey's doing.'

Mikey was still on the computer. He looked frustrated. ‘I've got a list of half a dozen places which were advertised this last week. All central, within walking distance of the shops. Modern, with lifts and speakerphone entry. Two have security cameras. One has a balcony. Nearly all have two bedrooms, three with wet rooms. All have some kind of arrangement for car parking or have a garage in the basement.'

‘Are any of them rented furnished? Juno might have gone for that.'

Mikey ran his fingers down a pencilled list he'd been making. ‘Two. On six-monthly leases.'

‘Are you sure you're on the right track?' said Thomas. ‘Juno might have been preparing a bolthole for months. She could have taken her time, leased an unfurnished flat and chosen furniture and furnishings for it over a period of time.'

‘Somehow, I don't think so. I don't think she decided to cut her losses until after Gordon threatened to go to the police about Clemmie. I think she acted on the spur of the moment. First she went off with her parents and, when she was safely away from Gordon, she left their car to go … where? Possibly, to a hotel? From there I think she phoned Marge and asked her to find her some place into which she could move straight away.'

‘That makes sense. Can the police get hold of her telephone records? If we had proof she'd phoned Marge at that point, we could confront her, get her to tell us where Juno is staying.'

Ellie shook her head. ‘The police won't act unless we can give them good reason to do so. And that, we don't have.'

Mikey was restless, fiddling with a pen. ‘Did they find her laptop at work? That would show whether or not she'd been planning her escape through Marge, wouldn't it?'

Ellie clapped her hands together. ‘Ah, let me think! Yes, that's it! That's the missing piece of the puzzle. There was no laptop on Juno's desk or anywhere near it at The Magpie, only a PC. Juno vanished after the reading of the will with just the clothes she stood up in and, I assume, a handbag. Credit cards, smartphone, even an iPad … yes, all those could have been in her handbag and she could order whatever else she needed with them online, with delivery the following day or earlier. She didn't have a laptop with her, because she wasn't expecting to have to disappear … and who takes a laptop to a funeral?'

‘So where is it?'

‘I don't know. Let's think. Like Poppy, she'd have kept all her private business separate from her home accounts on a personal laptop, wouldn't she? Or maybe an iPad? Oh dear, what do I know about iPads? Would a businesswoman keep everything on an iPad, or would she need a laptop as well?'

Thomas shrugged. ‘An iPad is too fiddly for me.' He had a smartphone and a computer but no iPad.

Mikey agreed. ‘An iPad's all right for small stuff but I'd want a laptop as well, if I were paying the bills for the house as well as running a business. She'd have done her online banking on the laptop, wouldn't she? She wouldn't have used her office computer for that. You say Poppy had an iPad, a laptop and a computer, so wouldn't Juno have had the same?'

Ellie held on to her head. ‘That's right. They'd both have wanted to keep their personal information separate from work. A sensible precaution to take in view of what their husbands were like. When I visited The Magpie office, Poppy's laptop was still there and Lesley says that Poppy's handbag contained an iPad. That accounts for Poppy's stuff. There was no laptop beside or on Juno's desk. I'd swear to it. So, where on earth is it?'

Thomas frowned. ‘Perhaps Juno took it home with her in the week after Poppy died, after the police said they were not investigating the death any further?'

‘No, no. She liked to keep the two sides of her life separate. She ran that household on silken rails. I don't think Gordon ever lifted a finger for himself. If he saw that laptop, he'd be reminded she had a life outside his, and he'd have wanted to know what secrets she was keeping from him.'

‘The laptop would be password-protected,' said Mikey.

‘He was perfectly capable of making a scene or even smashing the laptop if she refused to let him see what she was doing. No, she wouldn't have taken it home. Poppy kept her laptop at the office, and surely Juno did the same. She had no reason to believe that she was going to have to disappear straight away, so I think she left it in her office as usual. She'd think it would be safe from Gordon there.'

‘He didn't retrieve it somehow, after Juno disappeared?'

‘How could he? He can't climb stairs, and he wouldn't have the keys, would he?' She tried to think straight. ‘Poppy dies, the police are called in and seal the office. While the office is closed, Juno arranges for all business calls to be rerouted to Laura, the office manageress. This keeps the business going. The police decide not to take their enquiries into Poppy's death any further, and they withdraw. The office and the shop remain closed until the day after the funeral on Saturday, when both reopen.

‘Celine and Clemmie open the shop that morning. Celine keeps the shop open all day, with the help of Clemmie in the morning and a teenager in the afternoon. Laura and Ruth open the office on the Saturday morning, with Charles. Clemmie joins them in the afternoon, which is when I visit the office and note that Juno's laptop is gone. I don't think Juno removed her laptop during that week, because she didn't anticipate the need to disappear. So it's reasonable to assume it was taken after the reading of the will on Friday and before the office was opened on Saturday morning. What it comes down to is: who had keys to the office and knew the code to shut off the alarm? That's supposing, of course, that the alarm had been set when the police turned the premises back to the family. I think either Clemmie or, possibly, Celine, took it.'

She rubbed her forehead. ‘I'm getting confused. Why do I think that Clemmie didn't have any keys? Surely they trusted her with keys, didn't they? But if either Celine or Clemmie took it, how did they get it to Juno? I would take my oath that neither of them knows exactly where she is.'

Mikey and Thomas were following her reasoning with deep concentration. Mikey said, ‘They gave it to Marge to hand over to Juno. Didn't you say Marge was Clemmie's godmother?'

‘Yes, but Marge was away on holiday, and didn't get back to this country till the Friday night after the funeral.'

Mikey said, ‘You said Juno was ill, hardly able to walk.'

Ellie nodded. ‘Yes, she was. I think she pulled herself together after she got away. Perhaps she even went back for the laptop herself, which means she can't be far away. Oh, I give up!'

Let the whole boiling lot of them stew in their own juice. They'd brought their problems on themselves. None of them was anything to do with her. She remembered the watchful eyes of Clemmie … and Marika … and Marge. Withholding knowledge, but asking for her help.

Thomas and Mikey were looking at her in much the same way. Speculatively.

‘What?' she said, exasperated.

‘Waiting for you to tell us what to do,' said Mikey. He struck a jaunty pose. ‘I've been praying about it. A bit. Well, I did when I thought about it.'

Thomas smiled. He'd been praying, too.

Mikey added, ‘I've not got to be back till supper time.'

Ellie glanced at her watch, which as usual was going slow. ‘I suppose I could warn Lesley that Gordon is going to denounce Clemmie as a thief and a murderer tomorrow morning.'

‘Before you bring the police into it,' said Thomas, ‘let's check Clemmie's story. Has she – or has she not – got keys to the office? We really need to hear her version of what happened on the night of the murder.'

‘All right, let's go.' Where had she put her handbag? She'd seen it a moment ago. ‘But first we have to rescue Charles.' Ellie hadn't meant to say that. It was the last thing she wanted to do. The words had shot out of her mouth without her thinking through what they meant. She sighed. Well, all right! She found her handbag and rummaged through it till she found the card he'd given her ages ago, when she'd first bearded him in his den – or rather, in the office at The Magpie.

‘I'd better ring him. He's probably perfectly all right, but I'll just check.' She rang the mobile number Charles had given her. The phone rang and rang … and rang.

Finally, ‘Hello …?' A voice that quavered.

‘Charles? Ellie Quicke here. Where are you?'

‘I'm not sure. I'm on the pavement … somewhere. Not sure where. I drove away from Gordon's, but I nearly … the other driver shouted at me so I … I'm shaking! I didn't think I'd had too much to drink but … Stupid! I got out of the car in case they do me for being drunk in charge. I'm not drunk. At least, I don't think I am.'

Patiently, ‘Where are you? We'll come and fetch you.'

‘Um. Dunno. Oh, there's the school opposite. I'm by the roundabout.'

‘You're out of the car, aren't you? Walk up and down. Have you any water to drink?'

‘Yes, I think. I'll look. Sometimes I do keep some in …' He shut off his phone.

‘Let's go,' said Ellie.

‘You don't really want to rescue him, do you?' Mikey, in distaste.

‘Not particularly,' said Ellie, ‘but Thomas thinks we should and he's driving.'

Thomas got out his keys. ‘Yes, you're right.'

Mikey said, ‘Can I put my bike in the back? Or on the roof? Do I have to ride it?'