Murder With Mercy (2 page)

‘So, are you very busy at the station?' Ellie, making conversation.

‘The usual. Budget cuts. Redeployment of personnel. But the crime statistics are down, so the boss has been on holiday and gained five pounds.' She frowned. She was no fan of her boss.

Neither was Ellie, who had unfortunately made an enemy of the Detective Inspector. In a moment of distress Ellie's brain had slipped a cog and she'd referred to him as ‘Ears', since his appendages turned bright red when he was angry. The nickname had spread till even he had heard about it. To make matters worse, Ellie had shown him up for poor police work. Ears had been heard to say that if he could only have one wish, it would be that Ellie Quicke should be shut up in a nunnery. In a silent order.

‘He's in a good mood for once?' said Ellie. Hope dies hard.

‘Well, no worse than usual.' Ms Milburn attempted, and failed, to sound nonchalant. ‘I don't know if you've heard. A girl came into the station to lodge a formal complaint. She said her cousin had murdered her aunt for her second-hand Prada handbag.'

Ellie wanted to giggle but, looking at Ms Milburn's solemn face, decided that this would be inappropriate. ‘Ms Milburn, we've known one another for ages. Would you mind if I called you by your first name? I'm Ellie, of course.'

‘Ellie. I'm Lesley.' A pause. It would take time for them to become accustomed to the use of Christian names.

Ellie took a biscuit and held the tin out to Lesley. ‘Go on. A girl called at the station wanting to report a suspicious death. Ears took one look at her – I assume she wasn't pretty? Oh dear, I really ought not to say such things.'

Lesley managed a smile. ‘Well, perhaps if she had been a beauty he wouldn't have dismissed her out of hand, but yes, he passed the buck to me. I took her statement and made some enquiries. Aunt Ruby had been in a bad way, was due to go into a home, took too many sleeping pills one night. The doctor said he thought she'd taken a double dose because she was in pain and had become confused. There was no one else in the house at the time.

‘He'd visited the previous week to discuss Ruby's going into a home and said she'd hated the idea but hadn't seen any alternative. He signed the death certificate with some jargon that meant her heart had stopped. They use that form of words sometimes with elderly patients who are likely to pop off at any minute. No one would have taken any notice if the niece hadn't started shouting that it was murder.'

‘Actually shouting?'

‘Shouting. She was irate. Indignant.'

‘Not grieving?'

Lesley shook her head. ‘The cousins had disliked one another from birth. The accused had an alibi. She'd been away on a hen party weekend. Manchester. I checked.'

Ellie was amused. ‘So who gets the Prada handbag?'

‘Ruby had made a will some years ago after her husband died. She hadn't updated it, so everything goes to the cousin who's accused of murder.'

Ellie noticed her slip-on house shoes had trekked peaty footmarks all over the carpet. Oh well. ‘You don't really suspect foul play, do you?'

‘The official line is that Petra – the complaining niece – is off her rocker with jealousy because her cousin gets not only the Prada handbag but also the contents of their aunt's council flat, which, by the way, now reverts to the borough. I suppose what the aunt left might fetch a few hundred, if that.'

Ellie took another biscuit, brushing crumbs off her skirt. ‘So how did Aunt Ruby come to be in possession of a Prada handbag, even if it was second-hand?'

‘She used to work as a cleaner. One of her ladies gave it to her as a Christmas present.'

Ellie shrugged. ‘So?'

‘Oh, nothing. Nothing at all.' Defeated. Irritated. ‘I thought the tale might amuse you.'

‘Pull the other one. More tea?'

‘No. Enough, thank you.' She put down her mug with a snap. ‘There's another case. Similar. Elderly lady, not doing too well after a cancer operation, took too many sleeping pills one night. Different doctor. Verdict: misadventure.'

‘It happens.'

‘Yes, of course it does. I'm babbling. Take no notice.'

Ellie was puzzled. Lesley was wandering all around the point. Or was she? ‘Who benefited in that case?'

‘Some distant relation. The deceased left her a terraced house overlooking the park. That won't be on the market for long.'

Ellie half laughed. ‘Two old ladies get confused and take too many tablets. Where's the problem? Are you afraid there's going to be a third?'

Lesley's colour rose. ‘I suppose that's it. One old lady takes the easy way out, and another thinks, “Well, why not?” and copies her. Who can blame them, if the pain gets too much or they're threatened with being taken into care?'

Ellie sat back in her chair and thought about what Lesley had said. ‘You are a good detective, Lesley. Better than your boss, though we won't go into that, will we? Do you really think Petra or her cousin knocked off Aunt Ruby in order to inherit her Prada handbag?'

Lesley avoided Ellie's eye. ‘Yes. No. Oh, I don't know what to think. Ears wants me to stop Petra making a fuss and suing everyone in sight, which is what she threatens to do. What it is … I have no right to ask, but do you think you could have a word with the girl, see what you think?'

Midge turned his head to the door, his ears pricked. His hearing was far sharper than Ellie's. He stretched, elongating himself to twice his normal size. So what had he heard? Rose, getting up from her rest? The boy Mikey returning from school? Mikey had a special relationship with Midge. Where one was to be found, the other was bound to be not far away.

Ellie looked at the clock on the mantelpiece. Mikey was late. She frowned. He was often late, coming back from school. But that was another matter. Meanwhile, to deal with Lesley. ‘What good would that do?'

There was a distant scream from the kitchen. Was it Rose finding her precious sink awash with peat, or had she hurt herself? Ellie stumbled to her feet, her mind projecting a visit to the nearest Accident and Emergency department.

Lesley followed Ellie to the door, saying, ‘Petra was sacked from her job in a burger bar at Ealing Broadway six months ago and hasn't worked since. I know you've got shares in that hotel that's just about ready to open in the next road. They must be taking on new staff. I thought you could make an excuse to have a word with her about it, offer her an interview for a job there or something?'

Another scream from the kitchen.

The doorbell rang. A long, insistent peal. Only one person rang the bell like that, and Ellie grimaced, knowing who it would be.

Lesley was not ready to leave. ‘I sound desperate, don't I? And I'm not making much sense, either. It's just that something is very wrong, and it's bugging me.'

The doorbell rang again. Mistress Impatience was out there, demanding attention, demanding that her mother do this or that.

Distracted, Ellie handed Lesley her coat, her eyes darting first to the kitchen quarters, and then back to her visitor. ‘Thanks for calling, Lesley. I'm sorry everything seems to be happening at once. Perhaps when things have calmed down …?' She opened the front door to let her daughter in.

‘You've taken your time!' Diana stalked into the hall, forcing Lesley to step aside.

Lesley grimaced, shrugging herself into her coat. ‘Yes, yes. I'm on my way. Sorry. I know I shouldn't have, but Ellie … I gave her your address and suggested she call on you.'

The slim figure of a boy erupted into the hall from the kitchen like a stone from a catapult, narrowly avoiding Diana and forcing Lesley to take a step back.

‘Mikey, you come back here!' Rose, shouting from the kitchen.

Mikey swerved round Ellie to reach the stairs and thundered up them, oblivious to everything but flight. The cat Midge followed him. They disappeared around the landing. A door opened and banged shut. They were on their way to the flat at the top of the house.

Lesley righted herself, half laughing and half annoyed. ‘What's that boy been up to now?'

Ellie had spotted that Mikey had had a huge wodge of fruit cake in one hand and a bottle of Coca Cola in the other. He wasn't supposed to have Coca Cola because it gave him a sugar rush, and Mikey definitely did not need more sugar to give him a high. ‘I think he must have found Rose's hidden stash of cake.'

‘Mikey!' Rose, frail as a sparrow and looking rather like one, all brown and grey, appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. ‘That young limb!'

‘Quite,' said Ellie. ‘Lesley, are you all right?'

‘No harm done. I'll be on my way, but you won't forget …?' She stepped out into the wind and the rain, and Ellie shut the door on her.

Diana had already divested herself of her heavy overcoat. She handed it to Ellie and checked her appearance in the hall mirror, running a finger across her scarlet mouth, before stalking through to the sitting room and lowering her swollen body on to a high-backed chair. ‘I could do with some tea. Earl Grey, no milk, one lemon slice.' Black hair, cut short. A stick-thin body with an outsize bust and protruding belly. She looked as if she were about to give birth any minute.

Before becoming pregnant and getting married to the biggest of the local estate agents – yes, in that order – Diana had always worn black. Since the wedding she'd gone in for navy blue, with chalk white trims. The colours didn't suit her particularly, since she'd failed to inherit Ellie's fine skin and cornflower blue eyes. She'd adopted the colour blue because she'd read somewhere that babies liked it. As if you could have a baby by the book.

Ellie hoped this change of dress colour meant that her daughter would be a better mother to the expected baby than she'd been to her son by her previous marriage. Well, she could always hope.

‘Mother!'

‘Coming, dear.' Ellie wished she'd had time to change out of her gardening clothes and shoes, and to clean up in the kitchen. Oh, horrors! The mess in the kitchen! ‘I'll see to your tea. Won't be a minute.'

She hurried through to the kitchen to find Rose, arms akimbo, glaring at the still dirty sink and the flower pots on the draining board. ‘Sorry, Rose. I meant to finish before you woke up. Leave everything, will you? I'll clear up when I've got rid of Diana.'

Rose refilled the kettle with vicious haste. ‘What does Madam want this time? And don't say it's only a social call, because that one doesn't “do” social.'

Ellie clattered a fine bone china cup, saucer and teapot on to a tray, and delved into the fridge for a lemon to slice. ‘I didn't realize there was any cake left.' An empty cake tin was on the table, the lid on the floor underneath. Ellie retrieved the lid and replaced it on the tin.

‘I kept a piece back for your tea but Mikey got to it first. He'd have had my hand round his backside if I'd got to him quicker.'

‘He's a growing boy.' Ellie put tea bags into the teapot and poured on some boiling water. ‘Diana won't eat cake, anyway.' She carried her tray through the hall and into the sitting room. Diana was leaning back, eyes closed and hands clasped over her stomach.

‘Here you are, then. How are you feeling today?'

Diana's pregnancy had not been an easy one, and she'd felt sick for most of the time.

‘As if you cared.'

Ellie didn't reply. It was never any good arguing with Diana. ‘Nasty weather. How's your husband? The last I heard he was hoping to get out of his wheelchair soon. I never knew a knock on the head could set you back so much.'

A twist of Diana's lips. ‘He's given up, won't make the effort any more. Sinking into self pity. “My life is over,” that sort of thing. I can't be doing with him when he gets like this. He wants attention twenty-four seven. If I stay home with him he frets about the office and says we're heading for bankruptcy. If I go to the office, he's ringing me every five minutes, wanting me to come home.'

Ellie didn't care for Evan but she said, ‘Oh dear. How awful,' and tried to mean it. ‘I thought he'd feel better once he was back in his own house. It must have been fun for you, decor-ating and refurnishing it to your own taste.'

An arsonist had set light to Evan's substantial detached house some months ago. Worse, the arsonist had been his mentally unstable son. A double whammy, you might say. It had taken months of work and a complete redecoration of every room before the place had been fit to live in again.

‘Yes, yes,' said Diana. ‘I haven't been able to find a housekeeper and gardener to live in yet. Every time I arrange for Evan to interview someone, he turns them down. One drinks, another is too fat. He doesn't know what he wants.'

Perhaps, thought Ellie, he needed a loving, attentive wife. Ah well.

‘As for that daughter of his,' said Diana, with some animation, ‘she says she loves him to bits and wants to look after him, but she's studying for her exams, and when she
is
at home, he doesn't want her helping him to the toilet, or in and out of the bath.'

‘Mm,' said Ellie, ‘she's a good kid, but I can see he wouldn't want that.'

‘Another thing; she studies with her headphones on, so when he calls for help, she doesn't hear him. And, let's face it, a schoolgirl can't give him the companionship he needs. He needs someone older, more responsible, to be with him every minute of the day.' Diana put down her cup. ‘He's depressed, but won't go to the doctor about it. I have to get my priorities right. The business needs me.'

‘And the baby.'

‘Yes, of course.'

Business would come first with Diana. The new baby, second. Evan definitely came third now that she had to support him in his convalescence, rather than him supporting her in the style to which she had become accustomed.

Diana said, ‘That's what I came to see you about. He's developing paranoid tendencies, doesn't trust the district nurses. I can't blame him; you never see the same one twice. And with me attending to his business, and his daughter at school all day, he's pretty vulnerable. The other day he let some Jehovah's Witnesses into the house, can you imagine? They were still there an hour and a half later when I got back. To put it bluntly, he needs a minder, someone I can trust. Heaven knows why but he trusts you, and I want you to take him on, perhaps mornings only for the time being.'