Hot on the Trail (14 page)

“Yes,” Vera replied, her voice starting to shake. “What of it?”

“Miss Masters had similar, but milder symptoms to those she had last night.”

“I think we’ve heard enough,” Trevor said. “I think you all should leave,”

“Not without Mrs. Ryan.” Jameson replied.

“I don’t understand,” Vera said. “Are you arresting me?”

“Yes, I’m afraid we are.”

“Mum, don’t say anything else until we get you a lawyer. The evidence is too flimsy. You’ll be out in no time, I promise.”

Vera gave him a watery smile as Jameson led her out of the house.

The police later searched her home for belladonna, but didn’t find any, not that they expected to. They thought Vera was too clever and would quickly have got rid of any she had left.

* * *

The following morning David went to the hospital to collect Eve. Marion was staying in a little longer as she was still suffering quite badly from the effects of the belladonna. 

David came with the news that Vera had been arrested. He and Eve waited until they were away from the ward to discuss this latest development as they didn’t want Marion to overhear what they were talking about.

“I must say I feel as if a load has been lifted off my shoulders, David.”

“I’m pleased you feel happier now, Eve. You’ve been through a hell of a lot yet again.”

“You don’t sound as if you’re particularly satisfied with Vera being arrested.”

“Well, you did think the perpetrator could be Marion,” David said. “Or have you given up on that idea?”

“Not completely. Actually, it’s funny you should bring that up. I did think Vera might have broken into my house and started the fire, but I don’t see her as a potential killer, whereas Marion is such a strange woman. She acts a little crazy at times and I could see her murdering someone.”

“Well,” David replied. “Just in case the wrong person’s been arrested, I think we should keep our guard up.”

“I agree. Just think that if it was Marion, she actually poisoned herself. Quite a risky way to get an alibi, don’t you think?”

David nodded, while Eve continued talking.

“But why would she have done all these things? She must want my house for some reason.”

“I have no idea, Eve. Perhaps you should get rid of the house before something else happens to you.”

“What, and let one of those witches get it? No, at least not yet. I’ll hang on to it for a while and see what happens.

“Alright, but I don’t think I’m going to let you out of my sight for the rest of this trip!”

* * *

After Eve had showered and changed, her mobile rang. She answered it almost immediately, expecting it to have something to do with the case.

“Eve, it’s Trevor, Vera’s son. I hope you don’t mind me ringing, but I had to. Mum’s been arrested, but she wouldn’t have tried to kill you. There’s no way.”

 “But what about the lamingtons she baked a few days ago? After eating one of those, I had the same symptoms as I had last night, except they were milder. There was only your mother and Marion there.”

“That says it all. Marion must have slipped the belladonna into your lamington, not mum.”

“But why? Why would she want me out of the way?”

“I don’t know. She’s a weird one that Marion. Hardly says a word except to mum. I don’t know why mum’s friendly with her. She feels sorry for her I suppose. And you know what, funny things happened to your cousin as well.”

“Like what?”

Eve’s curiosity was awakened.

“Well, she seemed to get burgled quite a lot and then she said the house was haunted. Mum told her to get a grip. She’s very down to earth, my mum, but Andrea was convinced there were ghosts in her house.”

“Or somebody making her think there were.”

“Exactly. Marion for example.”

“Marion told me your mum wanted the house for you and your family.”

Trevor burst out laughing.

“I wish I had the money to buy it, but I don’t, and nor does mum. And the police will find that out soon enough.”

When Eve finished talking to Trevor, she told David about the call.

“Well, I’m now not convinced that Vera is the one who should have been arrested.  It could just as easily have been Marion. How are we going to convince the police to look further into this?” she asked him. “There’s no real proof. If Marion did do it, I doubt if she would have left any belladonna in her house.”

“No. I’m sure she’s much cleverer than she seems,” David replied.

‘We need to go to the house; well I need to go to the house and see if I can make Marion do something else.”

“It’s much too dangerous, Eve. You could get hurt..... or worse.”

“What else can we do? The police aren’t going to take our word. They’re convinced Vera’s the one who did the poisoning.”

Eve paused for a few moments trying to think what to do. Finally, she came up with an idea.

    “I know; I’ll go into the house while you wait in the car a little way down the road. If you don’t hear from me within half an hour, you can then come in and rescue me.”

“It’s not a good plan at all, Eve. I could be too late. No, we can’t do it; I won’t allow you to put yourself into that sort of danger. You’ve taken risks so many times before and you’ve got away with it, but your luck can’t last forever.”

“Then tell me what else we can do. I can’t...”

Eve was interrupted by a knock at the door and David went to answer it, pleased to have this distraction to what was becoming a difficult conversation. He had an awful feeling that Eve would try and sneak away and confront Marion whatever he said or did.

David was surprised to see the police when he opened the door. He didn’t think they had much else to tell them.

“Officers, come in,” he said.

“Thank you, Mr. Baker,” Detective Chief Inspector Jameson said.

“What’s wrong?” Eve asked abruptly.

“Nothing, nothing at all,” Jameson replied. “We just wanted to check that you’re fine and also inform you that Vera Ryan has been arrested for the attempted murder of you and Marion Carpenter.”

“Are you sure it was her? We aren’t certain at all. We think it could have been Marion.”

“What?” the inspector bellowed. “But Marion herself became ill from the belladonna.”

“”Yes, a very good alibi, don’t you think?”

“I don’t understand, Miss Masters,” Jameson continued. “Tell me why you think Marion wanted to kill you?”

    “To get hold of the house. She said that Vera wanted it for her son, but neither has the money, or so Trevor says. I’m sure you can check their bank books. “

“This is what Inspector Dimitris Kastrinakis warned me of. He said you interfered in his cases.”

“I don’t interfere;” Eve said stoically to Jameson. “I give an opinion. It’s up to you whether you follow it up or not.”

“You’ve certainly changed your tune from last night, Miss Masters. You were certain it was Vera. Now you think it’s Marion. I personally cannot think of any evidence to convict Mrs. Carpenter. The evidence against Mrs. Ryan is much stronger, particularly the fact that you ate the lamington she baked.”

“Marion could have injected it with poison while Vera wasn’t looking. I don’t think it mattered whether David or I got poisoned.”

“It’s all guesswork, Miss Masters. I doubt if even your friend Kastrinakis would follow such weak evidence.”

“Yes he would. If only he was still here.”

“He is, but not for long. He is completing paperwork to take Joanna Neonakis out of the country.”

“Really? I didn’t know she was still here. I hope they’ve put her behind bars. She’s a slippery character.”

“Of course she’s locked up and she will soon be gone. Now, we’ll be off and please, leave the detective work to us.”

When the police had gone, Eve let out a big sigh.

“They could have arrested the wrong person and I bet they’re not going to do anything about it, which means we’ll have to. It doesn’t matter that Vera is a bit loud and overbearing like Betty; if she’s innocent, she doesn’t deserve this.”

“You heard what the detective said; leave it to them,” David remarked, having kept silent throughout the entire conversation between Eve and Jameson.

“I can’t, David. They’re probably not going to do anything now because I interfered, so I’ll have to do something myself. I can’t let Vera go to jail for something she didn’t do.”

“If indeed she didn’t do it.”

“Yes, that goes without saying,” Eve replied impatiently.

“I know I’m going to regret this,” David said. “But we’ll go ahead with your plan, but this is the only thing we’re going to do. If Marion doesn’t fall for it, we stop. Ok?”

“Ok, David.”

Eve tried not to smile. She didn’t want to look smug, but she did like it when David did what she wanted.

* * *

That evening, Marion rang Eve to let her know she was being let out of hospital the following morning, so it was all systems go with their plan for that day.

Eve woke up early, desperate to get started. However, David, ever the voice of reason, said it was best to wait until after lunch to make sure Marion had returned from the hospital.

Eve and David finally arrived at the house at about two after an early lunch. They had decided to hire a car for a few days, thinking that it would be easier to get around in their own transport rather than taking cabs all the time. David, of course, hoped that this would be their one and only day of any sort of private sleuthing. Although Eve had promised it would be, he knew her only too well and fully expected her to find a way to carry on if this didn’t work out.

Eve was starting to feel a little nervous. The whole thing could go horribly wrong and she could end up hurt or even dead.

They sat in the car for a few minutes.  

“Are you sure you want to do this, Eve? I know I’m not happy about it.”

“I know you’re not and I must admit I’m a little nervous. I’ve already noticed Marion’s curtains twitching. She must spend most of the day sitting by the window. That’s odd in itself. However, this has got to be done. I could be quite wrong and Marion could just be a lonely woman with nothing better to do.”

“I hope that’s the case,” David replied. “Well, I’ll drive along a bit and wait. I think it’s going to be a long half hour.”

Eve reached over to kiss him and then got out of the car. For some reason she wasn’t feeling quite as excited as she usually would be in situations such as this. Perhaps she hadn’t quite got over being poisoned.

    Eve watched David drive off and then she fiddled about in her bag to get her keys out. Once she found them, she walked slowly towards the house giving ample opportunity for Marion to see her going in alone

Getting inside, she decided to head for the kitchen. It was now finished and she thought it looked great. She felt a little cheered up as she went round inspecting it and thinking of all the small appliances she would need to buy. Her resolve hadn’t weakened; she still intended to keep the house. No fires, burglaries or poisonings were going to frighten her away.

Just as Eve was examining her new cooker, suddenly a hand with a handkerchief covered her mouth. She tried to scream, but nothing came out. The hand seemed big. Did Marion really have such big hands? Eve felt woozy. What was on that handkerchief/ Chloroform? If it was, it would take a few minutes to knock her out. Perhaps she’d manage to escape in that time and reach David down the road. Then she felt something in her back. Was it a gun?

* * *

When Eve woke up she felt dizzy and her eyesight was blurred for a few moments. She could see there was someone in the room, but she couldn’t quite make out who it was. It looked like a man. Gradually everything became normal and she saw that indeed it was a man and one she didn’t know.

“Who are you and what do you want with me,” she asked brusquely.

“My, we are getting angry. Don’t you think you should be a little more pleasant? After all, I’m the one who has the power here.”

“It’s a bit difficult to be nice when you’ve been kidnapped and tied up. What did you use on me? Chloroform?”

    “Yes. It was perfect. It took long enough to work for me to walk you to my car. Then you passed out.”

“So, are you going to give me a clue as to why I’m here?”

“You’re my negotiating tool.”

“For what?”

“To get Joanna, or Victoria as I prefer to call her, released.”

Eve stared at him. Was this one of Joanna’s boyfriends, lovers, husbands? He could be anybody.

“They’ll never release her. She’s a kidnapper and possible murderer.”

“Then you die. Simple as that.”

Eve felt sick. She didn’t doubt that this man meant it. He seemed crazy enough.

“Why me, Mr … I don’t know your name.”

“Call me Charles. Why you? You ruined her life. Every time she was on her way to making a fortune, you did something that stopped her getting it.”

“She was having people killed to get what she wanted and she kidnapped my fiancé and sent me a ransom note. I’m sorry; I wasn’t going to give her money I’d worked hard for.”

“Shut up. I don’t want to hear your excuses. They mean nothing to me. If the police hand her over to me, I will give you to them. Simple as that.”

“How did you know where my house was?”

“I’ve been following you. It was easy. I saw you on T.V. after Victoria had been caught so I knew what you looked like. Then I started to ring round the hotels asking for a Miss Masters. I started at the top end so I didn’t have to wait long before I found out that you were at the Duxton. What luck I had; the second time I followed you, you went to your house and you went in alone. I’m pretty good at breaking locks and that’s what I did. While you were in the kitchen, I broke in through your side door.”

“You are a very clever man Charles, but you haven’t thought it all out properly. Where will you go? The police will be able to arrest you once you’ve done the exchange.”

“I’m going to ask for a private plane to be ready to take Victoria and me somewhere. I haven’t decided where yet.”

Eve looked at him, thinking of all the flaws in his plan. Perhaps things like this happened in films, but not in real life. The police could easily hide someone on the plane for a start, that is, if they agreed to it in the first place. Eve decided the man was mad and she had to get away. But how?