A Full Churchyard (21 page)

‘So you believe the carers are abusing their position of trust?'

‘I can't rule it out, Mrs Plumpton. As you and I know, dishonest and disreputable people join genuine organisations to steal or assault vulnerable people including children. I don't think all our carers are doing such things and I don't think it is institutionalized, but I fear someone – or more than one – is abusing the trust placed in them. I'm rapidly approaching the moment when I shall have to be bold enough to officially state my fears. It would not surprise me if an evil person has joined the carers to gain access to potential victims. It's rather like paedophiles working as scoutmasters, choir masters or priests to gain access to young children. Such people don't suddenly become paedophiles, Mrs Plumpton, but they will join any organization that enables them to pursue their evil ways. Such deviousness among the criminal fraternity is not unknown but it taints others working in the same profession. What I need to know, therefore, are the names of all those who have become victims of this abuse of trust, if indeed it has happened. And I need to know the day, date and time of any offending, along with the day, dates and times of any deaths. If anyone did make a formal complaint against the CVC I need to know the outcome. Do you think it is possible to obtain all that information by searching our files in tandem with those of the town police and the CVC? And, of course, we need to ensure that our enquiries are undertaken with the greatest of discretion. We must do our best to keep the proverbial lid on this enquiry for as long as possible.'

‘Our computers will do most of the work,' she reminded him with confidence. ‘The Control Room maintains confidential records of incoming calls or verbal reports. Sergeant Cockfield-pronounced-Cofield gave me a lesson when the system was installed so that I, as your secretary and PA, could access the station computer. It's all in there, Mr Pluke, it can all be found.'

‘Good! Then you've got yourself a job! You'll probably realize I'm still seeking some kind of plan or system that's used by the criminals. Their MO,
modus operandi,
method of operating. It's usually a good means of identifying criminals.'

‘I understand. I'll start straight away and can obtain the data in confidence – although, of course, I do have to provide our password before I can start.'

‘Do whatever is necessary.'

‘Over what period shall I search, Mr Pluke?'

‘The last two or three years will be a useful starting point. It should determine whether we need further back-checks over longer periods.'

‘You realize the abstracts will include the cases we already know about?'

‘Yes, but that will provide a good double check on our work. Now, I trust that the list of Crickledale Carers includes Mr Furnival, Mrs Allanby and the two full-time carers in addition to all the volunteers?'

‘They are all there, Mr Pluke, including volunteers and staff who have recently left.'

‘Excellent. The guilty person could be someone who has left but who still knows how to work the system. And have they all been checked for convictions and police records?'

‘They have, that's done before they are selected for the posts. As you already know, those on the current list are all clear except one, a Mr Dorsey, a window-cleaner. It was a juvenile conviction for assault – actual bodily harm – which has since expired but it is still shown on his record due to the vulnerability of our clients. Especially the young ones.'

‘So we have no known sneak-thieves or burglars among them?'

‘Not according to our records, but we all know that some thieves never get caught or prosecuted.'

‘Thanks, Mrs Plumpton. It's astonishing that some thieves and villains pass through life without being caught for their crimes. They show up on routine checks as clean and wholesome, whereas they are true villains. I have to bear in mind that we might now have people of that kind in Crickledale! Even as CVC volunteers!'

‘I've always considered Crickledale to be a law-abiding community.'

‘It can appear so but we never know what's bubbling beneath the surface, do we? It's like looking at the smooth and bright water of your garden pond, knowing that all manner of unsavoury creatures live and lurk down there, killing and plundering . . . but we must accept what we see and know. Anyway, Mrs Plumpton, you are doing a good job with your ventures into crime detection. Perhaps it is a blessing that we are going through a very quiet spell just now.'

‘I'm really enjoying my detective work, it's such a change from routine office procedures. And I do like to be kept busy.'

‘Now where is Sergeant Wain? I have a special task for him.'

‘I'm not sure where he is. . . .'

‘I'll find him. Well, Mrs Plumpton, I think that's all for now. It will be interesting to see what your research reveals.'

‘Let's hope I can reveal all kinds of interesting things, Mr Pluke,' and with one of her large smiles, Mrs Plumpton left him.

In the solitude of his office, therefore, he decided he must re-examine and analyse yet again all the information he had gathered. He was fully aware that it was so very easy, especially when discovering something new and exciting, to overlook the obvious whilst being side-tracked or swamped with masses of new information.

So what had he missed? What had escaped his notice, he wondered? It was time to reassess his progress, so he began to jot down the positive information he had gleaned so far. He hoped it would indicate the future direction of his enquiry. For example, was he concentrating too much on the elderly when others in care might be victims? Or were there victims among other elderly people not on the CVC's formal list? Or even young people . . . all the possible combinations must not be overlooked.

Despite his reservations, he had to accept that Crickledale Volunteer Carers were strongly in the frame due to their involvement in some of those puzzling deaths, but he was acutely aware that the actions of just one rogue could so easily tarnish the others. So had the carers themselves noticed anything untoward during their ministrations? Had they noticed one of their own members falling short of their very high standards – if so, how could they make a reasoned complaint? Indeed, he realized, that might explain Millicent's recent odd behaviour. Had she noticed something that was not right whilst being nervous of becoming a whistle-blower by informing on her colleagues? And had her role as the wife of a senior detective meant she had been targeted at work?

Getting closer to home, had Millicent witnessed anyone misbehaving in the vicinity of the old folks, or indeed with any of their other clients, particularly those who had lost their belongings? And if Millicent had discovered someone misbehaving or being dishonest, what could or would she do about it? Inform her policeman husband? Would any individual carer inform against their own kind? Did peer pressure or misplaced loyalty persuade the witness from revealing the truth, however unsavoury it happened to be? Or was he, Pluke, reading far too much into the entire situation?

Was Millicent right in her condemnation of his alleged snooping? Was he obsessed with looking for a murderer when in fact no murder had been committed? Or seeking a gang of thieves when nothing had been stolen? He had to bear in mind that there had never been any official complaints about the behaviour of any of the Crickledale Carers, so perhaps he had no right to investigate them as he was doing now. In spite of his own reservations, he nursed a deep desire to uncover the truth, whatever it was; that over-ruled any sense of precaution he was experiencing.

He began to write down all the volunteers' names in pencil in one of his many notepads. He found that writing
aides-memoires
in pencil rather than keying it into a computer meant he could recall it with greater clarity and so he compiled his list which was headed:

Crickledale Volunteer Carers

The Cedars, Millbank Road,

Crickledale (Phone Crickledale 776020)

Staff List

Chairman: Mr John C. Furnival, widower in his late 50s-early 60s. Ex-fireman

Secretary: Mrs Sarah Allanby, a widow in her 50s

Professional Carers: Mrs Rebecca Frankland, 35 (776870)

Mrs Juliet Jarvis, 42 (776670)

Volunteers and their contact telephone numbers, all with a Crickledale prefix code.

Mrs Eileen Baker, 28. Ex-chambermaid. 1 child (776114)

Mrs Anne Barnett, 55. Retired nurse. Adult children (776808)

Miss Fiona Blackwell, 18. Out-of-work. No children (776272)

Mr Keith Dorsey, 47. Window cleaner. Unmarried (776007)

Miss Fiona Grainger, 22. Cleaner, out-of-work. No children (776435)

Roland Parkinson, 45. Out-of-work stonemason/builder. Single (776670)

Mrs Millicent Pluke, 47, wife of Detective Inspector Pluke (776316)

Mrs Cynthia Roseberry, 76, retired local government officer (776304)

Mrs Marie Rose Stonehouse, 32. Housewife, 2 children (776535)

Miss Rachel West, 33. Former secretary, 1 child (776270)

He added six footnotes:

1
.
Miss West
had inherited the house belonging to Miss Croucher, her next-door neighbour.

2
.
Miss Grainger
had been carer to Mr Lindsey before his death.

3. Mrs Stonehouse, Mrs Barnett and Mrs Roseberry all worked on Thursdays.

4. Thursday evenings were set aside for extra visits.

5. Mrs Barnett and Mrs Roseberry had both attended Mrs Langneb's funeral.

6. Mobile telephone numbers are not listed here because several carers do not possess them and in any case, such conversations are not always confidential.

As he pondered this list, he wondered who, if anyone, had inherited Mrs Langneb's house – Miss West had inherited the house belonging to Miss Croucher but, in addition to being a carer, she was a friend and neighbour of Miss Croucher. There was no evidence to suggest that Miss West had connived in any way to inherit the cottage and it was widely known that Miss Croucher had no family. Being made aware of whom had inherited houses was not the sort of information that would generally be known by the police but he knew that, in the event of a murder investigation, he must elicit such information as a possible motive. That may yet prove necessary.

In addition, the undertaker for Mrs Langneb's funeral had been a local man, Jacob Carpenter. It was he who had commented that Miss Croucher's death was rather odd and Pluke had discussed that with him. So far, however, he had not been interviewed about his role in the funerals of the other deceased clients of the CVC. Could he or Sooty Black have engineered deaths to provide themselves with extra income? It was highly likely they knew that access to the homes of those old folk was fairly easy because many left their doors unlocked for friends, neighbours and carers. And if they knew that, then so would other local undertakers. And their staff. Then there was that other old character at Mrs Langneb's funeral, Awd Ezra. He'd sat alone with bodies before the funerals – although his visits followed the deaths, they did not precede them, but they would provide opportunities for theft.

As he stared at the list of people that had so far ‘come into the frame' he realized he knew very little about any of them, apart from Millicent. And now he wondered how much he really knew about her! But if he was to drive this cold-case review to a successful conclusion, he must forge ahead. If there was an answer to his concerns, he would find it!

It was now time to consider whether or not he should openly regard this as a murder investigation or even a major crime enquiry. Perhaps it was a little too early for that radical step! He was still trying to determine whether or not any crimes, other than the theft of Mr Lindsey's gold watch, had been committed.

But first he must learn more about individual carers. In so doing, he must avoid generating any alarm or any suggestion that he suspected any of them of committing crimes, even murder. Furthermore, he would have to start at the top. He then realized he knew virtually nothing about John Furnival, the director of Crickledale Volunteer Carers, except that he was a former senior fire officer.

His first task, therefore, was to learn more about that man and to determine the qualifications he had displayed in securing his post. He must do that without alarming any of the townspeople or the local council under whose auspices the carers functioned. He must not alert Furnival to the reason for his sudden personal interest.

Likewise, his knowledge of Mrs Allanby, the CVC secretary, was extremely limited. Certainly he had passed her in the street on occasions when he had invariably raised his panama and greeted her warmly – as he did with all attractive women.

It was perhaps fortuitous that the list of carers included many people known to him, albeit rather slightly in most cases. He began to realize that, deeply and truly, he did not know much about the majority of individual townspeople. He further realized there was a difference between knowing something or someone, and being totally sure that such knowledge was based on truth. As a police officer he was aware that many people operated their daily lives under some kind of personal façade – many wanted to portray themselves as successful and clever when in reality their skills and personality were contrived.

So where had Mr Furnival served as a member of the Fire Service? What rank had he held? And why had he left? Indeed, where did he live now – did he live in Crickledale or did he commute to work? And how could Pluke acquire all the necessary information without setting off alarm bells in town? But the truth must be found. He would proceed with great caution.

His mind made up, he used the secure telephone in his office to ring an old friend whose hobby was researching the medieval trods of the North York Moors. His expertise had led Pluke to many locations of hidden or forgotten horse troughs and, in return, Pluke had identified some of the ancient trods of interest to his friend.