The Diary Of Pamela D. (13 page)

‘Oh, that! Pay him no heed, girl, he’s just
very strung up right now. You have to keep in mind that he’s
responsible for the safety of everyone on this estate, which is
something that he feels most keenly right now.’

‘Yes, well, he needs to get out more,’ Pamela
said, thinking again of her coming trip to Hornsea, her mood
improving at once.

When she wheeled the trolley
into the front sitting-room at less that her usual dignified gait,
Mrs. Dewhurst looked up at her and smiled. ‘I never though the day
would come when I would actually welcome the sound of the
trolley
clattering along
! But do be careful my dear! Don’t you dare chip my fine
china.’

Pamela smiled as she served Mrs. Dewhurst and
Theo, Chief Inspector Matthews, Fred and Anne Pascoe, and two young
constables, a man and a fairly pretty woman who appeared to be in
her mid-twenties, who looked up and smiled.

‘I heard your concert at Easter. Wish I had a
voice like yours.’

Pamela made a face. ‘You can have it! I’m
afraid that I was born with more voice than talent.’

Mrs. Dewhurst gave her a
mock-stern look. ‘Pamela’s voice is
so
bad, in fact, that it’s being
issued on a brand-new CD next month.’

‘Ugh,’ Pamela said with a
shudder, ‘I don’t even want to hear it. I mean, the recording will
probably be okay, but it’s what happened
during
the recording that I’d rather
forget.’

‘Pamela,’ Anne said with an entreating smile,
‘would you mind very much taking Jennie off my hands for a bit?’
The reason for this was obvious: that they were trying to have an
adult conversation, and while the little girl couldn’t understand
much of what was being said, she was nevertheless affected by the
demeanor of the adults surrounding her.

Anne well knew that Pamela
didn’t need to be asked, that she would jump at the chance to play
with Jennie for a while. But Theo said, without looking up from
something that he was reading, ‘Don’t take her outside. Stay
indoors, where I- where
we
know where you are.’

‘I really don’t think that’ll be necessary
right at the moment,’ said Inspector Matthews. ‘Constables Morris
and Whitehead are at loose ends right now; they will accompany
Pamela and the child into the back garden. Won’t they?’ he added,
giving the two a look that sent them scurrying to their feet.

‘Yes, Chief Inspector,’ said the young
woman.

Flashing the female constable a surreptitious
smile, Pamela led the way.

They went to a place by the tarn where there
were shade trees, picnic tables and benches. Along the way, the
young woman introduced herself.

‘I’m Heather Morris. This here is Paul
Whitehead.’ After a long moment, she confided, ‘I think the Chief
was glad to be rid of me. Bloody misogynist wouldn’t even let me go
with you without an escort.’

Paul, a shy, introverted young man, managed a
guilty look at this, but it was apparent that he watched Heather,
herself a healthy-looking attractive girl, with an interest that
had absolutely nothing to do with escorting or police work. He was
painfully obvious, which made the two girls share a smirk. Then,
when they had seated themselves, purely on impulse, and just for
the devil of it, Pamela handed Jennie over to Heather, ignoring the
young woman’s feeble protests, and well knowing the effect this
would have on Paul Whitehead. When Jennie took an instant liking to
her, Heather shot Pamela a glance that said eloquently, “One day,
when you least suspect it, I am going to repay the favour.”

‘So, why do you say that Mr. Matthews is a
misogynist?’ Pamela said. ‘He’s always nice enough to me.’

‘Why?’ Heather said. ‘Because I just happen
to be a woman, and we just happen to be in the area where that
Askrigg fruitcake is supposedly lurking about, and because of that,
the Chief Inspector no longer sees me as a cop!’

Sizing the young woman up at
a glance, Pamela said with utter conviction, ‘You only say that
because you’ve never laid eyes on him. You’re not much bigger than
me, and he picked me up like I weighed nothing. He’s like . . .
have you ever read
Beowulf
?’ Pamela hadn’t actually read
it, but Mrs. Pascoe had read it to her one afternoon. She read to
the girl often, thinking she needed
culture
. Pamela thoroughly enjoyed the
experience and felt at moments like this that it was actually
paying off. To her surprise, Heather’s eyes dilated with barely
concealed fear.

As though fearing to be
overheard, she replied in a low voice, ‘That’s about the tenth time
I’ve heard Albert Askrigg referred to as
Grendel
! You’re not really saying that
he’s-’

‘Yes,’ Pamela cut her off, and with fatal
certainty added, ‘he really is like that.’

‘And
you
somehow managed to get away from
him,’ the young constable said in wonder. ‘So
that’s
what all the fuss is
about.’

‘You’re not actually
scared
, are you?’ Paul
interjected, feeling brave for the moment.

‘Paul,’ Heather rejoined, ‘we’re talking
about the man who beat off six officers, two of whom were pensioned
off afterwards because of the extremity of the injuries they
suffered. One of the officers present was Chief Inspector Matthews.
Now, in light of that, show me someone who’s not afraid of Albert
Askrigg and I’ll show you a complete fool.’

Paul paled as her words sank in. Robert
Matthews was legendary for his sheer size and strength alone. It
was evident in the extremity of his frown that Paul was trying to
imagine what sort of a man could actually beat up Robert Matthews,
and five others in the bargain-

‘But . . . that’s bloody inhuman!’

‘Well, well,’ Heather said to Pamela as she
handed Jennie to her, ‘I think he’s finally got the picture.’

‘Why isn’t Theo intimidated by Albert?’
Pamela wondered rhetorically, not expecting an answer.

Heather huffed. ‘Shows how
much you know about the man! I’d pay good money to see the two
of
them
duke it
out- the untamable force vs. the immovable object. Mr. Dewhurst
once caught a burglar who had broken into Dewhurst Mansion. Theo
threw the fellow out. Only thing was, the front door was closed at
the time. The man needed reconstructive surgery to rebuild his
face.’

Pamela swallowed, not able to believe the
woman’s words. ‘Theo’s not that kind of man!’ she said
defensively.

‘He is if someone pulls a gun on his mother,’
Heather said.

‘
What
?’

‘The robber told Mrs. Dewhurst to open the
safe. She refused. He pulled a gun. Theo took it off him, snapped
in two as though it were a toy, and gave the fellow the bum’s
rush.’

‘Nobody ever told
me
about that,’ Pamela
said, feeling left out.

‘Theo was a wild one before
his father died,’ Heather said. ‘He and my oldest brother went to
school together, so I’ve heard all the stories. According to my
brother, when Theo’s father died and he had to come home and look
after the family’s estates and businesses, all the wildness, all
the
life
, seemed to
go out of him. Apparently it was partly on account of this girl he
was seeing. She was a hoity-toity type who never lifted a finger to
earn her keep and was only good at spending her daddy’s money.
Well, she and Theo were like two peas in a pod until Theo’s father
snuffed it. Then, Theo had no choice but to get serious, but the
girl had no intention of changing her ways. He ended up dumping
her, and that, as they say, was the end of that. Except that he did
the right thing: she’s nothing but a drunk and a tramp who’s been
married four or five times, with no children, no real life and no
stability.’

Pamela was thoughtful for a long moment. Much
became clear to her from Heather’s story, but what was becoming
clearer to her were the man’s ambiguities. Which was the real Theo?
The young, impulsive, headstrong reveller and capricious, selfish,
sometimes dangerous free spirit or the conservative, reserved,
gentle man who kept to his business and to himself, expressing
himself in infrequent acts of kindness; even tenderness?

The four started involuntarily as a flock of
ducks exploded from a thick copse at the North end of the tarn.

Taking a cautious look around, Heather said,
‘If you don’t mind, Pamela, I’d feel better if you went back
inside. Paul, will you go with her and tell the Chief Inspector to
come out here and join me?’

Within moments the place was
like a hornet’s nest. Armed police wearing helmets and bullet proof
vests came seemingly from nowhere and began combing the spot where
the ducks had been disturbed. Pamela discovered that for the first
time she was looking forward to getting away from the Dewhurst
estate, that her life and her new home were becoming blighted by
Albert Askrigg. She found herself wishing fervently that Theo
would
do
something,
that he would somehow take charge of the situation, that he would
flush Albert out of hiding and deal with him and put an end to the
instability and uncertainty that were eroding life at Dewhurst
Manor.

That evening, as she was clearing the supper
dishes from the dining room table, Theo approached her, his look
guarded.

‘I understand you were to have gone to
Hornsea on Saturday,’ he said quietly. ‘There has been a change of
plan. You’ll be staying home.’

Pamela gaped at him, devastated. ‘What? But
I’ve been waiting to go since Christmas! It’s all I’ve been looking
forward to.’ She began crying. ‘I’ve got to get out of here for a
while. It’s only for a week. Please.’

‘I’m sorry, but it’s completely out of the
question,’ Theo told her, an unfamiliar hard edge to his voice.

‘But
why
?’

He looked away from her, as if unwilling to
speak. But he said, ‘Do you want your friend, Tessa, to be put at
risk as well?’

‘What? Of
course
not!’

‘Then you will remain here.’

Pamela went to her room
where she cried her heart out. It wasn’t
fair
! She had been looking forward to
this trip, at first to see her friend, Tessa. Then, as the spectre
of Albert Askrigg raised its pall over her life, she began to
experience a growing need to escape. Day by day, it seemed, the
threat of Albert Askrigg was growing, menacing her at every turn.
She was becoming afraid to sleep, and would lay awake nights
wondering if there were hidden passages in the mansion by which he
might steal upon her, unseen and unheard, in the middle of the
night, a nightmare shadow that was not a shadow.

That evening, as she made
her way downstairs to finish up in the kitchen, she chanced to
overhear Chief Inspector Matthews and Theo speaking together in the
sitting room. The Chief Inspector was saying, ‘-has to be connected
in some way. All of the victims appear to have had consensual sex
just prior to being killed. That your Pamela managed to fight him
off tells us
something
, but
what
? By
all appearances, none of the others even
tried
.’

‘What are you saying?’ Theo
said, his voice sounding uncharacteristically sharp, strained.
‘That they
wanted
what happened to them?’

Seeming to choose his words
carefully, Mr. Matthews said, ‘I
think
, and keep in mind that this is
pure supposition on my part; I
think
that he meant to leave us with the
impression
that the young
women had consensual sex with him, just to make us believe that he
had total power over them.’

‘Only a sick, diseased mind could conceive of
doing such a despicable thing,’ Theo said.

‘Or an
evil
mind,’ the Inspector said,
quietly. ‘A
truly
evil mind.’

‘Please, Inspector,’ Theo said. ‘Next, you’ll
be back to that business about ghosts and demons.’

‘There are many of my most
experienced and unimaginative officers who have taken to calling
this fellow
Grendel
. Did you know that?’

‘I’m familiar with both stories, past and
present,’ Theo told him. ‘As I told you before, the myth is just a
myth, and Albert Askrigg is just a man, not an inhuman,
supernatural monster. And what is more, a man who will one day be
caught and brought to justice, like any other.’

‘I’m beginning to wonder,’
the Chief Inspector said. ‘You forget that I fought the man, along
with five other officers. Ed Townsley, you remember him? He got the
side of his skull crushed by a blow from Askrigg’s
fist
. Brian Cleese
suffered massive internal injuries when Askrigg picked up the
officer
over his head
and flung him against an iron railing. He slapped
me
down like a rag doll
after I’d thrown myself against him. It was like diving onto a spur
of rock!’

In an ominous, menacing tone, Theo said
quietly, ‘Chief Inspector, it’s getting late. If I am forced to
deal with Albert Askrigg myself, I will. And if I do, what’s left
will be fit only for-’