Murder With Mercy (28 page)

‘It was Terry's?' said Ellie. ‘Terry was her “project man-ager”?'

‘And got ten per cent of the total for his trouble first time round. The second time she probably pocketed the lot because it was payment for work already done. We will have to pursue her through the small claims courts to get the money back.'

Oh. That would mean months of hassle and unpleasantness.

Kate wasn't finished yet. ‘Now to the even more serious problem. The invoice for the car. Either young Terry supplied her with the bill and they shared the proceeds, or she thought the scam up all by herself. Whichever way, once the Licensing people are informed that she's “bought” a non-existent car, they will be decidedly unpleasant about it.'

‘We haven't found everything yet,' said Ken. ‘One of the last things Mrs Pryce did was to tell Edwina that we wouldn't accept her food bills any longer, nor pay for her account at Harrods, her subscription to the National Trust, and so on. Yet she's been passing these to Kate for payment recently.'

Ellie cringed. ‘So when we took over paying her bills, she tested us out with small amounts at first, to see how much she could get away with? She realized pretty soon that we weren't going to check back to see what Mrs Pryce had allowed before and took us for … how much?'

A quick glance between Kate and Ken. ‘We're not sure yet. We need to go through things in more detail. But at a conservative guess, over a hundred thousand pounds.'

That took her breath away. Ellie wiped the back of her hand across her forehead.

Silence. The other two looked at her with compassion. Kate stirred, looking at her watch. ‘I have to go. I said I'd meet the family at the Carvery.'

‘We need to do a lot more work on these papers,' said Ken, ‘but it's getting late and I promised to be back for lunch. Mrs Quicke, is there anything else I can do before I go?'

‘Give me a brain transplant? This is all my fault,' said Ellie. ‘I knew what the woman was like, and I ought to have foreseen that she'd try to take us for a ride. I am so angry with myself I can't think straight, but one thing's for sure: I can't let the trust pay for my mistakes. I'll have to make good our losses.'

‘No, no,' said Kate, rapidly packing papers away and shutting down her laptop. ‘It's not your fault. It's no one's fault. Or rather, it's Edwina's crime and she will have to pay for it. It'll take a while for us to assess the damage, but then we can turn the car invoice and the rest over to the police, who may or may not decide to prosecute her for fraud. If they don't, we'll have to take out a civil action in the courts to recover what we can.'

Ken frowned. ‘I don't think Mrs Pryce would have done that.'

‘Mrs Pryce is dead. Long live Ellie Quicke.' Kate gave Ellie a hug and vanished. The front door banged behind her.

Ken slowly gathered his own papers together. ‘You look as if you could do with a stiff drink. It's a shock when people whom you've trusted let you down.'

‘I underestimated her capacity to do damage, and I didn't take any sensible precautions to prevent this happening. I suppose it is possible that the trust may wish to write the debt off, but I know that Thomas will agree with me that the money must be repaid.'

‘Then get it off her. Another idea. Why not get Terry Pryce to tell on her? You know that I went on acting for him after Mrs Pryce passed away? He'd got himself into trouble, minor stuff. Drunk and disorderly in the town centre, for which he was fined. Speeding; points on his licence and a fine. I saw him through all that so he asked me to represent him when he was interviewed by the police some months ago when he wrote off his car, and later, at the court hearing when he lost his licence. He did manage to keep his job throughout, but it was a near thing. Suppose I threaten to inform his employers that he is alleged to have taken part in this fraud? I suspect he might be anxious to distance himself from Edwina, and to put all the blame on her. Would you like me to try it?'

‘If only! But we haven't time. I have to meet her first thing tomorrow. Is it possible – could you spare the time to be here as well, so that we can make it clear to her that we can prove fraud?'

‘It would be a pleasure. Then we can go on to the funeral together.'

K
en Greenbody said, ‘Preparation is the key word here, isn't it? We must marshal our forces, Mrs Quicke. Prepare our lines of attack.'

Ellie tried to smile. Thomas would say she should put on the armour of God, but she'd always thought armour must have been very uncomfortable to wear, particularly if you were of a well-padded persuasion. Or did the layers of fat insulate you against those bits which would otherwise stick into you in inconvenient places?

She let Ken out of the front door, noticing as she did so that Mikey had left his skipping rope coiled up at the bottom of the stairs. Come to think of it, she hadn't heard his ‘thump, thump' lately. She wondered where he might have got to. He was probably up with his mother now. Yes, that would be it. She'd check later on.

For now, she needed a good sit-down and a hard think.

The phone rang. She hesitated. She was in no condition to think sensibly about anything. But she was glad that she did answer it for it was her very own solicitor, Gunnar, booming down the phone at her. ‘Sorry, my dear, got held up. Can't get into the office today. Family, you know?'

‘Yes. No matter.' She tried to clear her head. ‘I think I have the wording I needed. Mrs Pryce's will stated that I must ensure the remaining members of the family would never be at a loss for the basics. How would you interpret that?'

‘Utility bills. Rent, possibly.'

‘She owns her own flat. Service charges?'

‘Mm. She could argue that one. If she is of a certain age and unemployed, she would be receiving a basic pension from the state.'

‘She is unemployed and of a certain age, so I assume she would.'

‘Has she any savings, shares? Own any property to let? That might affect the issue.'

Ellie thought of the money Edwina had been creaming off them. What would she have done with it? Stashed it abroad in the Canary Islands or whatever? Was she that clued up? Um, possibly not. ‘Let us suppose she got into debt and couldn't pay her food bills. Would we have to fork out for them?'

‘An interesting point. I'd have to check. Off the top of my head, I'd say we wouldn't pay her debts, but we might be persuaded to pay her an allowance for food. Baked beans, rather than caviar.'

‘We don't have time to consult cases that have gone through the courts in the past. Gunnar, I have a meeting with her tomorrow morning. She's run up a ton of bills, some of them fraudulent. I could hand them over to the police, and I may have to … but I feel I'm still hamstrung by the terms of the will.'

‘You could say that your solicitor has advised you not to pay anything except her utility bills in future. If you're feeling generous and as a gesture of goodwill – remember to put that in, “as a gesture of goodwill” – you could offer to double her state pension. I think a judge would go for that, unless she can represent herself as an orphan being crushed by a wealthy trust.'

‘We're all orphans at our age, aren't we?'

He laughed and put the phone down.

Ellie was left looking at the coil of Mikey's skipping rope. She had a horrid feeling that she'd missed something. She listened for the everyday noises which people make when they're living in a house.

She could hear Rose clattering about in the kitchen, with the wireless on. Rose was using the food processor. Making another cake?

Thomas was either talking to himself or on the phone to someone. He had his iPhone with him, didn't he? It was about time she went up with some more drink for him.

At the top of the house a door opened and some light-hearted music drifted down two flights of stairs. Someone – probably Ellie herself – had left the door to the stairs leading to the top flat open. Vera had her radio on, tuned to a different station from Rose.

There was a dearth of Mikey noises. Of course he could be watching telly up top, with the door closed. Or be closeted with his computer.

She knew he wasn't. He was nowhere in the house. Which meant … She didn't want to think what it meant.

She went upstairs to check on the invalids. Would they like something to eat? Perhaps some home-made soup or an egg on toast? Thomas said, ‘I thought you'd forgotten me. Yes, please.' Playing the neglected spouse. Ellie blew him a kiss and said she'd bring something up straight away.

Vera said she was sure she could manage to cook for herself, and Ellie said, ‘All right; I'll let you try tomorrow, but I'm playing chef today.' Vera asked where Mikey was, but didn't seem too worried when Ellie said vaguely she thought he was on her computer downstairs.

Ellie checked Vera's sitting room, which was much too tidy to have been visited by Mikey recently. The window of this room overlooked Ellie's garden and, as she usually did when she was up there, she looked over the wall which divided their property from that of the Pryce mansion. The rain had stopped, and Ellie could see that although it was Sunday a team of gardeners was beavering away, planting the last of some low-maintenance shrubs at the end of the garden. Someone else was fiddling with the pergola situated at the end of one of the paths. A man in waders was placing pond plants into the newly finished water feature. They were working overtime to catch up. No Mikey.

Hugh had forgotten to sever the rope that Mikey had hung over the wall. Had the boy made use of it the moment her back was turned?

Ellie felt a chill race down her back. Didn't he realize how dangerous this could be?

She went down to fill the food orders for Thomas and Vera. Rose was putting a chocolate cake into the oven to cook. Ellie hoped Rose hadn't left out anything important, such as an egg or the sugar.

‘Have you seen Mikey? Did he appear for food at lunchtime?'

Rose shook her head. ‘He must have come in when I was having my nap. He left the butter out of the fridge and half a loaf of bread on the table, together with the wrapping from a packet of ham. And my best kitchen scissors are missing.'

‘I suppose he's gone over the wall, though what he thinks he can do there … and the trouble he can get himself into! Why won't he listen when we tell him not to do something?'

Rose was placid. ‘Because he doesn't think we're doing enough to catch the baddies.'

Ellie raised her fists in the air and shook them. ‘I could murder him! I suppose I'd better see what I can do to rescue him. But first, I have to feed the invalids.' And hope Mikey makes it home again soon.

Which he didn't.

Ellie cooked light meals for the invalids and only after that did she try phoning Hugh. He must be busy because her call went to voicemail. She left a message for him, saying that Mikey might have gone over the wall again and, if so, could Hugh keep a lookout for him?

Ellie was too worried to eat much herself. Should she go over to the site and look for him herself? No. Not a good idea. Hugh wouldn't like that, and now the men had heard she was dropping out of the project, they wouldn't like it, either.

How to keep the boy safe? Suppose Preston and Dave caught him and … No, she wouldn't think about that. Dave had a knife and no compunction about using it. They'd clouted the boy good and hard and thrown him down the stairs before. What would they do to him if they caught him spying on them now?

She shuddered. Tried to pray.

Thomas said she was looking a little tired, and why didn't she have an afternoon nap? She promised she would, but couldn't rest.

Finally, the front doorbell rang. Both Ellie and Rose scurried to answer it.

It was Hugh, with a bedraggled scarecrow of a boy who looked as if he'd been in a mud bath.

The moment before, Ellie had wanted to half kill Mikey but the blank look in his eyes was enough to melt her anger. ‘My dear boy! What on earth—'

Rose gave a little scream. ‘Whatever have you been doing, you naughty boy?'

Hugh pushed Mikey gently into the middle of the hall. ‘I was busy, didn't get your message for a while. Found a couple of the men had cornered him out front, hiding under one of the lorries. You can't blame them for being angry, but I don't think they hurt him much. Just rolled him around in the mud.'

Ellie felt tears start. ‘Thank you, Hugh. I'm really grateful. I've told him so many times to keep away but—'

‘Let's have your clothes off and dunk you in the shower,' said Rose, laying hands on the boy's muddy jacket. ‘I'm not letting you go up to frighten your mother looking like that.'

The boy's left hand was clenched into a fist, and Rose couldn't get his jacket off till Ellie helped her. And even then …

‘What's he holding?'

The boy let his fingers relax and dropped a string of filthy felt flowers into Ellie's hand. She stared at it. Then at the boy. Then at Hugh.

‘I think it's part of the string of flowers which he said was looped around the driving mirror of the van that tried to run him down.'

A voice came from upstairs. ‘Mikey, is that you?'

Rose shouted back, ‘It's all right, Vera. He's been out in the rain, just come in. I'm going to put him in my shower and clean him up. Can you throw down some warm clothing for him, or he'll catch his death?' She whipped the boy round and shooed him down the corridor into her shower room, scolding all the way. ‘… and I suppose you've lost my best kitchen scissors, right? I should dock your wages, that is, if you'd ever earned any …'

Ellie held Mikey's trophy up to the light. ‘I'll find a plastic bag to put this in. I suppose he thought that if he cut off part of the string from the van that tried to run him down, it would prove something. But it doesn't, does it?'