Murder With Mercy (25 page)

A heavy sigh.

‘Sorry, sorry,' said Ellie. ‘That was uncalled for. I know you'll do the right thing. You wouldn't be you, otherwise. Suppose you drop round here later this morning and we'll go over Mikey's statement and discuss what the next step should be?'

Mikey was frowning at the screen. He turned it to Ellie, so that she could read what he'd written. Wavy red lines were everywhere. Apparently, spelling was not his strong point.

‘
I go there neerly every day. I like to see how it's made. I lurned a lot.
'

Ellie corrected his spelling of the words ‘nearly' and ‘learned'.

The second question was about how soon he'd learned about bodged jobs on the site. He'd written, ‘
Don't know. Hugh said about water leeking. Preston larfed. I thort, why?
'

Ellie dithered over whether or not to correct the spelling, then did a double take. Mikey was more than just computer literate. He was a computer whizz kid. So he must know about the spellcheck. Was he trying it on with her? Hm. Probably.

‘Mikey, use the spellcheck, please.'

He gave her a slit-eyed stare, sighed, and did as she asked.

She typed another question. ‘
What did you do about it?
'

He responded. ‘
Watched them. Preston didn't mind at first. Then he got cross. Dave can't hack it. I could do better than him.
' No spelling errors here. So he had been trying it on?

She said, ‘I dare say you
could
do a better job than Dave, even at your age. So you shadowed Preston and Dave … and then?'

He typed more words. Ellie watched them appear on the screen. She'd guessed correctly. He'd caught Preston and Dave interfering with a plumbing job which had been signed off the day before. It was Preston who had been wielding the wrench, and it was Dave who'd spotted Mikey watching them. She said, ‘So they grabbed you and …?'

He typed on. Yes, she'd guessed correctly.

‘
Was they mad! Dave had a knife. I put my arm up but it stung. Preston shook me. He hit me, here and here.
' He pointed to his jaw and throat. ‘
He threw me across the landing. I tumbled down the stairs. They shouted. Men came. My voice wouldn't work. Preston carried me downstairs. He shouted, lots, saying I was the bad one. He threw me in the back of his van. I bumped my head. It all went fuzzy. Like, I wasn't there. Then you came and got me.
'

No wavy red lines. Some green ones for grammatical errors. She discounted those.

A damning indictment.

Ellie stared at the screen, trying to imagine how the boy must have felt. It had shaken Mikey up, and it shook her, too.

She said, ‘Now we must deal with the matter of the car that tried to run you down.'

Mikey rolled his eyes, but did as he was told.

Ellie read what he'd written and felt depressed. It was no more than she'd guessed, but … oh dear. She was about to ask Mikey a further question when she noticed he'd disappeared. Why?

Ah, the doorbell had rung and he'd gone to answer it. His hearing was sharper than hers.

The phone rang, and it was Kate, wanting to know what was up.

Ellie shook her head to clear it. ‘Sorry to trouble you at a weekend. As you know, Edwina Pryce is making a nuisance of herself again. More than a nuisance. Now I know that I handed her affairs over to you with the instruction only to pay her bills if she was threatened with court action or the electricity being cut off, or whatever. I didn't want to know the details. But now I've got a horrid feeling that she's put one over us in spite of all our precautions. I need to know if somehow or other she could have managed, perhaps by inflating a bill or two, to scrape a largish sum of money together.'

‘You mean, by getting a supplier to charge us more than they charged her? Mm. Well, everything's on my computer, but … how could we tell without checking back with all her suppliers, and even then …?'

‘Yes, I know. It's a long shot. But I'm working myself up to a confrontation with her and I need as much ammunition as you can find. I suspect she's been bribing a workman on the hotel site to do a job badly and thereby delay the opening.'

‘You really think she's behind the sabotage at the site? But why?' It didn't take Kate long to work that one out. ‘Ah, to jack up the tension and force you to hand over your stake in the hotel? That's, well, extreme.'

‘Edwina is extreme. Her bills have all passed through your hands. What do you make of her?'

‘Hold on a mo while I boot up the computer.'

As Ellie waited, Mikey came in with a bag of Werther's Original sweets, which he emptied into the bowl Ellie kept on her desk. This meant Tesco's had delivered, so at least they'd have some food for the weekend. And yes, she knew sweets were bad for her teeth, but sucking one when doing a boring job did help to keep her sane.

Mikey vanished.

Kate was talking. ‘What do I think of Edwina? She's extravagant, a spendthrift. Wait a mo. I've accessed her account …' A pause. ‘Yes, every month I get a sheaf of bills from her: council tax, electricity, gas, phone; her MasterCard account; Waitrose, John Lewis; health treatments; gutting and redecoration of the flat; a new television and computer. I can't see anything amiss, apart from the fact that she's living a life of luxury at our expense. There's only one small query … Ellie?' In a sharper tone. ‘She used to bill us every month for taxis because she's waiting for a hip replacement – which I suppose she'll have done privately and send us the bill for it – the only thing is, she didn't bill us for the month of June.'

‘She went on holiday?'

‘Oh. Yes. So she did. Hotel bill, air fare. False alarm. She started using taxis again in August.'

‘Well, she can't drive.'

‘That's odd. If she can't drive, why has she bought a car?'

‘What!'

‘A second-hand Volkswagen, taxed for six months, MOT for eleven months, etc., etc. Five thousand five hundred pounds, and probably a bargain at that. Her covering letter says her doctor warned he wouldn't be responsible for the consequences if she walked any distance, so she bought the car from another member of the family thinking she could pay in instalments which she finds she can't manage. He threatened court action unless she paid up, so we cleared the bill.'

Ellie felt faint. ‘Yes, a cousin or second cousin of hers did have a car like that, but Kate, to the best of my knowledge, Edwina can't drive.'

Kate was on to this in a flash. ‘She may be taking driving lessons, but if so, wouldn't she have billed us for them? Also for the insurance for the car, and a provisional licence?'

‘And she hasn't?'

‘Definitely not.'

Ellie exhaled. ‘You have to admire her nerve! I bet that car never changed hands at all. She got five thousand five hundred pounds out of us, just like that. I suppose she produced a fake invoice for the car. And yes, she does have a car-driving relative with a slightly dodgy background. Perhaps he provided her with the invoice for a consideration. Or perhaps she created it for herself? She never thought we'd check, any more than we've checked any of her other bills.'

‘That's fraud.' Kate was scandalized.

‘Mm. Good. Well, not “good” exactly, but you know what I mean. If it's true, it gives us a nice lever to get her off our backs.'

‘Threatening her with the police might slow her down, but unless you can upset the terms of the will we're still liable for whatever she likes to throw at us.'

‘True. Can you dig out that invoice for me, let me have a breakdown of what we've spent on her so far, and we'll take it from there?'

Ellie put the phone down. So Edwina had managed to build up a nice little nest egg of five thousand five hundred pounds. The question was, what had she done with it?

Ellie, Rose and Mikey were in the kitchen clearing up after a light lunch of soup and sandwiches when the front doorbell rang. They'd done the rounds of the invalids. Both their temperatures were down, thank goodness, and Vera had even managed to swallow some home-made soup though Thomas still couldn't take anything but lemonade.

Ellie was on her way to the front door, when the phone rang in the hall. She opened the door to Hugh, saying, ‘Come in. Leave your coat here. Do you mind if I just take this call? Go through to my study. First on the left down the corridor.'

She turned back to the phone, to find the caller had rung off. But the answerphone light was winking. Something urgent? Hugh could wait a moment longer.

A message had been left by someone whose carefully rounded vowels and distinct consonants told Ellie that she'd been brought up to speak ‘properly'.

‘Mrs Quicke? You have not seen fit to reply to my communi-cations in any way, so I must assume that you have agreed to my terms. I have been in touch with the chair of the board of directors for the hotel chain, and he has been so good as to listen to what I have had to say, and to agree with my conclusions. It is perfectly clear to everyone that you are unable to control your so-called ward, the boy Michael, who has been responsible for so much damage at the hotel site, and who has put the opening date in jeopardy. We must assume you have been aware of his actions and approved of them. The chairman agrees with me that your conduct is indefensible. I have suggested – and he has agreed – that the only way to correct matters is for you to resign from the board and to hand your shares over to me. Naturally, you will no longer have any interest in the project and I, as the most senior surviving relative of the Pryce family, will be cutting the ribbon on Opening Day. I shall be calling on you on Monday morning at ten with my solicitor, to accept your signature on the papers transferring your shares to me. I think that is all quite clear.'

Plock. The phone call finished.

Ellie tried to replace the receiver on its rest at her end and fumbled the job. But, finally, got it there.

She couldn't think straight. One blow after the other.

How to counter them?

And with what? She was completely out of ideas.

Hugh was waiting for her. She went along to her study, trying to sort out what she should do next. Could Hugh help her by clearing Mikey? Maybe, but if he did … what then?

Hugh was sitting in a chair by her desk. He didn't look comfortable. She didn't feel comfortable, either. She switched on the lights. It was such a dark day. So depressing. She said, ‘Is it still raining? Silly question. Of course it is. Have you had lunch? Yes? Coffee? No. All right, let's get down to it.'

She seated herself at her desk and accessed Mikey's statement on her computer.

‘Here's what the boy has written so far. He's prepared to answer questions about it if you need more detail. Then we will run off copies for you, the police and Social Services.'

Hugh said, ‘Do we need to be so formal?'

She tried for a light touch. ‘Dear Hugh. You're fighting a losing battle on this one. Why not give in gracefully and admit that you have a problem on site?'

Hugh had slumped in his chair. ‘I have a problem on site. Yes. Now tell me how to solve it.'

‘You know how to solve it. It's your responsibility to hire and fire men.'

‘If it were only that simple. The managing director has just been on the phone to me. A Ms Edwina Pryce has been in touch with him, saying that you are behind all the problems we've had, that you've been working through the boy to delay the opening. He tells me that you are resigning from the project and that Ms Edwina Pryce is taking over. Also that she has promised the men a bonus if they finish on time.'

So Edwina had spoken the truth? She had managed to sell her story to the managing director? Ellie felt quite breathless. She tried to smile. ‘So first she causes delays to the project and then she urges completion on time?'

‘You think she's behind the sabotage? You have proof?'

‘I'm getting it. For a start, let's take Mikey's statement about surprising Preston and Dave doing something they shouldn't and what happened afterwards.'

He read it, sucked his teeth, shook his head. ‘It's his word against theirs.'

‘True. Except that the report on Mikey's injuries doesn't agree with Preston's statement. How do you get round that?'

‘I don't propose to.' He fidgeted. He wasn't enjoying this, either.

Ellie knew why. ‘Now let's look at what he says about the attempt to run him down in the street.'

Instead of reading it, Hugh got out of his chair and went to look out of the window at the sodden garden. It was getting dark, and he probably couldn't see much. He didn't want to read the statement, did he?

Ellie said, ‘Hugh, Mikey says he saw you and his pal the electrician upstairs as he walked along on the other side of the street. He says you signed to him not to go in. He continued on his way to the crossroads. A vehicle was approaching. He waited for it to pass, but it slowed down. He recognized it as a van – not a car – belonging to one of your workforce. There was a string of flowers wound round the driver's mirror. He recognized the driver, who was not wearing a hard hat.

‘The driver gestured to Mikey to cross the road in front of him. Mikey hesitated but started to do so. He saw the van's wheels begin to turn and leaped back on to the pavement but not before the mudguard caught him on his side.'

Silence from Hugh.

Ellie said, ‘Hugh, you told me that it was hard to see what was happening in the street. You were upstairs looking down on the road, and it was raining. You gave me a description of a car which you said paused to let Mikey cross the road, and then accelerated away. Would you like to revise your statement?'

Hugh pulled a face. ‘Mikey may have been mistaken.'

‘He gives considerable detail. He's seen the cars and vans your workforce uses often enough to know them. He knows your men. He recognized the van and the driver even in the rain.'