Murder by Mistake (21 page)

‘Indeed.’ Ellie looked at her watch. ‘It’s a bit late to ring the police tonight. I’ll do it in the morning. What a pity that Detective Inspector Willis is on leave. She left all details of your case with a Detective Constable who seems reasonably bright, but perhaps not quite up to dealing with something like this. And now, let’s find a plaster for that finger of yours.’

THIRTEEN

M
ia’s smile flickered and went out. ‘It’s stopped bleeding already, see? I don’t want you to keep on worrying about me. I’m all right, really I am.’

There was a new serenity about her. It might not last, but it was there. It was amazing that the girl hadn’t buckled under the knowledge of yet another attack on her life. Perhaps in the future there would be less despair and more hope in her life.

‘I’m so pleased,’ said Ellie, and meant it.

Mia gave Ellie an awkward, hasty hug. Perhaps the first time she’d touched someone of her own accord for months? ‘It seemed for a long time as if the world was full of nasty creepy-crawlies, but you showed me there are still good people around. You and Thomas and Rose; and Ursula, of course. And Ursula’s Sam. You used to call him Hawkface, didn’t you? It’s a good name for him. I don’t suppose I’ll ever meet anyone like that, and I wouldn’t have been right for him, anyway, even before . . . even before.’

‘Some day you’ll meet someone who is right for you.’ Banal words, but it was what every woman wanted, wasn’t it?

‘Oh, I don’t think so. I don’t suppose I’ll ever get married and have children, now. But as Thomas says, the fact that I’m still alive is something of a miracle, and I’m happy to wait and see what God wants me to do next.’

‘Well, that’s good.’ Inadequate words to express a deep thankfulness.

Mia turned on her brilliant smile. ‘It’s you we ought to be worrying about now. Are your cuts and bruises hurting you? You look as if you could do with some of the tender loving care you’ve been giving me.’

There is nothing better calculated to make you feel weak and tottery than someone saying you don’t look your best. All of a sudden Ellie realized she did indeed feel in need of a soothing cuppa and something to eat, plus a shower or a long deep bath with plenty of Radox in it. ‘I’m fine,’ she said. Of course. ‘Now, what about Mr Balls and his team, and those plants in the hall?’

Where was Midge? How far might he have gone in his flight? Would he be able to find his way back, once he’d stopped running?

Mia led the way back to the hall. Ellie peered out of the front door to see if Midge had returned, but he hadn’t.

The two women looked at the muddle of furniture and plants which had been left in the hall and quailed.

Mia said, ‘The thing was that the furniture came first thing and wasn’t too much in the way, but then the florist arrived just as the electricians were doing something important, traipsing backwards and forwards through the house. They didn’t want anyone crossing their path, so Mr Balls said the delivery people could put the plants down wherever they could find a space, and we’d put them into place later. Which I suppose means now.’

Mr Balls emerged from the conservatory at this moment, trailing his two slaves after him. ‘It is not our job to move furniture. No. Nor to attend to the floral displays. But, in view of the circumstances, we will set aside our own feelings to save the day.’

He stood in front of the bridal arch which had collapsed under the weight of Midge’s dive to freedom and now looked like a capital ‘M’. He sighed deeply. Then recovered to demand, ‘Strong wire! Pliers! At the double!’

His two slaves scurried to obey him, and with a heave from him, and some nifty work from the two slaves, the arch was coaxed into resuming its former shape and dragged to stand before the doors into the conservatory. It looked stunning, and no one would guess how nearly it had been wrecked.

The cleaners streamed downstairs, demanding that Ellie approve what they’d been doing. She went back upstairs with them, to find everything fresh and clean . . . and that all her toiletries had been removed from her dressing table and bathroom, and stowed away. She didn’t have many aids to beauty, but what she had she’d need, wouldn’t she? Oh well, she supposed she could put up with it for a couple of days.

Was Midge back yet? As Ellie let the cleaners out, she went out to the road to call his name. No cat.

She returned to face Mr Balls, who didn’t want comments; only admiration. She was, in fact, very willing to give it to him, because he really was an artist in his way. The florist had supplied a dozen gardenia plants which he proposed to arrange on the staging in the conservatory. They looked stunning, and the perfume was almost too much to bear.

Thomas appeared to add his words of commendation, but shortly made his escape, decoration not being precisely his thing.

The marquee was a revelation. Ellie stepped from the conservatory directly into a big tent. There was a small stage immediately to the left, beyond that there was an exit leading to the kitchen quarters, and beyond that a long table for drinks. Chairs and tables stood around in huddles to be put into their final places on the morrow.

Mr Balls and his team departed and quiet descended upon the house.

Ellie couldn’t rest, but wandered around. The dining and living rooms looked strange with most of the usual furniture removed. Her footsteps resounded on the polished but uncarpeted floors. At least their old settee and the television had been left in its usual place, so they could watch something that evening.

At supper time Ellie went to call Thomas out from his study.

His sanctum had not remained unscathed as he had hoped it might, since his stereo and various small items from the lounge and dining room had come to rest in and around his desk.

She said, ‘I’m worried about Midge.’

Thomas switched off his computer and rubbed his eyes. ‘I’ve got a bit behindhand today. Don’t let me forget the wedding rehearsal tomorrow evening. I think I’d better go straight to the church from my afternoon meeting, which is up in town. Do you think Mia can get to the church under her own steam, or will you take her?’

‘She seems a lot better, much calmer, but she hasn’t been out of the house since Monday, so I’d better take her. We’ll get a cab to the church, ask the driver to wait through the rehearsal and afterwards it can bring us all back here.’

‘No need for that. I’ll have my car with me and can bring us all back afterwards. As for Midge, he’ll come back when he’s hungry.’

Well, Midge wasn’t his cat, was he? Ellie went on worrying about him.

Somehow or other, despite all the interruptions the kitchen had experienced that day, Rose and Mia had contrived a tasty supper of gammon steaks with apple sauce, new potatoes and fresh beans, followed by a chocolate and orange soufflé which was a total delight.

Rose, however, seemed abstracted, and eventually burst out with what was worrying her. ‘Ellie, I know you’re a really big businesswoman nowadays and of course I don’t know the first thing about that sort of thing, but Miss Quicke caught me in the conservatory just now and asked me to give you a message.’

Rose’s belief that Miss Quicke was still hovering somewhere around the house could be unnerving, but normally Ellie could take it in her stride. Today, however, it caught her on the raw, and she would have made a sharp retort but that Thomas said, ‘Don’t tell me. She thinks the marquee an abomination and can’t abide all the comings and goings.’

‘Oh, no. Not at all. She’s finding all this most stimulating, though she thinks the marquee ought to have been used for Ursula’s wedding as well. No, no. It’s the finances she’s worried about. Have you taken out some insurance, she says? And if not, she would advise you to do so.’

Thomas took this seriously. ‘What does she think will happen?’

Rose shrugged. ‘Everything from an Act of God to someone breaking the glass in the breakfront cabinet in the sitting room, I should think.’

‘An Act of God?’ Ellie repeated. ‘Did she actually say that?’

Rose looked bemused. ‘How should I know? Seconds, everyone?’

When the kitchen had been cleared and Mia had settled down to watch television with Rose, Ellie wandered around the ground floor, now and then checking the drive outside to see if Midge had returned. Thomas watched one television programme, then came to find Ellie, who was in the middle of the marquee, staring into the distance.

He put his arm around her. ‘Cheer up. Midge will come back in his own good time.’

‘Of course he will. I think I’ll just ring Mr Balls to make sure he did arrange some insurance for the weekend.’

‘My love, are you sure this is not all too much for you?’

‘Do you mean, why do I take any notice of Rose’s conversations with a ghost? It’s not that, exactly. It’s everything; the cost of Diana’s wedding, and all the horrible things that have been happening, and those boys this afternoon. I have a nasty feeling that there’s something bad waiting to move in on me – on us. I know it’s not rational . . . Well, it is rational to dread Denis coming into the family, I suppose. Those boys of his are deathly frightened of him, and I don’t blame them. Then Diana is such a fool; oh, not in many ways, but she does take short cuts at work when she shouldn’t, and they never work out.’

‘You think Denis is a short cut?’

‘I don’t know what I think about him, except that if she’s difficult to deal with, he’ll be far worse. Tricky. Cruel. I’m sure he murdered Mrs Summers, though they may never prove it.’ She shuddered.

‘Relax. Leave it to the police. And if he does marry her, we’ll manage, somehow. Come and sit down. You’re worn out.’ He led her back to the sitting room and replaced her chair facing the television. His own La-Z-Boy had vanished, so he stretched himself out on the big settee and half closed his eyes. He fingered the remote, but didn’t switch the television on again – yet.

Ellie rang Mr Balls. ‘I’m so sorry to phone you so late, but did you remember to take out some insurance for the weekend?’

Mr Balls was slightly reproachful that she should have had to ask. He quoted a reputable insurance firm and said he thought he’d covered all eventualities, just in case. The cost would appear on his invoice.

‘Thank you,’ she said. And switched off.

Thomas yawned and relaxed. He checked the television listings in the newspaper. All he needed to complete the picture of a man peacefully taking his ease after a hard day’s labour was Midge sitting on his stomach. Oh, Midge; where are you?

Ellie couldn’t relax. ‘Thomas, may I tell you what the boys told me today? The police seemed to have written off Marge’s evidence because she’d had a glass of sherry, but I believed every word she said. As for the boys . . . Well, judge for yourself.’

She repeated everything she remembered, finishing with, ‘. . . And when I asked the General what his mother thought of the wedding on Saturday, he said she was pleased about it because it would make his father – a word he clearly hadn’t understood – a “pygmy” or a “biggy”.’

Silence. But it was a different sort of silence. Not restful. Full of uneasy suspicions.

She thought about what she’d just said. ‘Pygmy’ and ‘Biggy’. If you put them both together they made another, very different, word.

Thomas evidently thought so, too. He sat upright, looked at his watch, frowned. Got out his mobile phone, shook his head and put it away again.

Ellie said, trying the word out, ‘Bigamy? I asked Diana if Denis had got rid of his wife, and she said yes. But she can be very stupid about people, can’t she? She thinks Denis is the answer to all her dreams. She’d believe anything he said, if it meant she could marry him; though why she should want to . . . All right, I know. Sex. But she wouldn’t knowingly enter into a bigamous marriage, would she?’

‘What time are they due at the registry office on Saturday?’

‘Two o’clock.’ A long silence while Thomas rubbed at his beard and considered various unpleasant alternatives.

‘You could check at the registry office tomorrow?’ Ellie said.

‘Tell me again what Diana said about their making their vows before their guests. Didn’t you say something about her wanting me to don a surplice and officiate?’

‘Yes. She did, and I said you wouldn’t do it. I have no idea whether she believed me or not. She always thinks that if she pushes hard enough, people will do what she wants.’

‘We’re building a scenario on the word of a ten-year-old who clearly didn’t understand what he was told.’

Ellie was restless. ‘I know, I know. You may say I should give him the benefit of the doubt, that I can’t go round suspecting people of crimes they haven’t even thought of, and I agree. I also know that every fibre of me detests that man and has done from the moment I first met him. Yes, I am prejudiced against him. I believe he murdered Mrs Summers, and I believe he abuses his children. Now he wants to marry Diana and everything inside me is screaming, “No!”.’

‘Suppose you’re right. Why go through with a mock marriage since they’re already living together?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe he really loves her.’

The words ‘and pigs might fly’ hung in the air, but were not uttered.