The Dead of Winter (19 page)

‘Oh God.' Melissa's colour drained, and she fled to the downstairs cloakroom.

‘Sorry,' Miriam said. ‘I wasn't thinking.'

‘Time of death?' Mac asked.

‘Best I can offer is between four and six this morning.'

‘Between four and six,' Rina mused. What time had she heard the noises in the attic? ‘There was someone else here around then,' she said quietly. ‘I saw them the night before. I heard them last night and saw their footprints. Maybe Edwin saw them too?'

She shuddered at the thought that she might have gone to confront Edwin's murderer armed only with a heavy glass candlestick.

Quickly, she filled Mac in on what she had seen and done, trying to gloss over the fact that she had gone poking about unprepared and alone.

‘Rina!' Miriam was appalled.

Joy giggled and then sobered. ‘Sorry, I just have this image in my head of Rina in a pink dressing gown and slippers bonking an intruder on the head with a candlestick. It sounds like a Cluedo game, but really, Rina darling, why didn't you come and wake us up?'

‘Because I'm not as sensible as I should be,' she told them. ‘It opens up other possibilities though, doesn't it?' She sighed and glanced out at the heavy snow. ‘Actually, I hope it was someone from outside, otherwise it all gets a bit grim, doesn't it? Amazing how helpless a bit of weather can make us, isn't it?' She pulled one of the big doors open and looked out. A blast of freezing, snow-laden air skittered in, and she let the door swing closed again. ‘I hate to sound melodramatic, but I think we should all be careful, stick with the people we trust. We have one dead body; we don't want any more.'

SEVENTEEN

I
t was just before three in the afternoon. Joy, Tim and Miriam, along with Jay Stratham, were in the small room off the dining room, watching the videos shot the night before to see if Edwin had indeed been cheating.

Viv, Robin and Rav were sitting at the table, talking sporadically, trying to make sense of Edwin's death and also Edwin's insistence on setting up this event. Rav had been with him over the Christmas and New Year and was at a loss; Edwin had been excited but methodical, and it was he who had invented the character of Grace, the manufactured ghost.

‘He never said where he got the idea from,' Rav said. ‘Just told us she should be called Grace and also the various ideas he had about her life. We brainstormed the rest.'

Viv was thoughtful, something nagging at the back of her mind. ‘There was a Grace in the news clippings, I'm sure of it. I just can't remember where I saw it.'

‘Then he might have been influenced by that,' Rav agreed. ‘I know he was very set on the name and the character. Maybe he found out something about the so-called ghost that Elizabeth and her group created?' He looked hopefully at Viv, who shook her head.

‘I can't remember,' she said. Then: ‘Does it really matter?'

‘I suppose not.'

‘We could go over the records again,' Robin said. The others nodded agreement, but no one seemed to have the energy to move.

In the large hall, Mac was trying to construct a timeline based on the statements he had taken. Jay paced while Terry watched. He held a script in his hand which he kept trying to read, but Rina could see he could not concentrate.

Toby had wandered off to his room.

Rina, bored with inaction, crossed the hall towards the kitchen wing to see if Melissa wanted any help. She was startled when the front doors swung open and Gail staggered through, supporting David Franklin.

‘Oh, Lord, are you all right? Mac! Come here!' she called. ‘Come on, sit down, you're both frozen through.'

‘We crashed the car.' Gail was crying and obviously distressed.

Blankets were found, and warm drinks, and Miriam inspected the deep cut on David's head. Both Gail and David were chilled through.

‘My God, you were lucky,' Rav said. ‘You could both be dead just from the cold.'

‘I know.' David was shivering uncontrollably now, hands clasped tightly round a large mug. ‘We knew we couldn't stay where we were, but I really wasn't sure I could make it back across the fields. We could see Aikensthorpe, but it just seemed like forever away. I thought we'd freeze to death before we made it back.'

‘Why didn't you call someone? We would have come out to find you.'

David Franklin shook his head. ‘My phone is still back there somewhere in the car, we think – we didn't realize it was missing until we'd already set off. Gail tried hers and couldn't get a signal, then the battery died. The case was cracked in the accident, so we think it must have damaged the connector or something. I know she put it on charge last night just before bed.'

How does he know that? Rina thought.

‘Simeon was there,' Gail said vaguely, leaning back into the armchair and closing her eyes.

‘Try not to go to sleep yet,' Miriam told her. ‘You're still really chilled and probably concussed.'

‘Simeon?' Rina asked. ‘Oh, you mean Professor Meehan. He left here before we arrived,' Rina explained to Mac. ‘I replaced him.'

Gail lifted her head and looked around the room. ‘Where's Edwin?'

Silence as the others exchanged glances. ‘I'm sorry,' Rav said finally. ‘Edwin died in the night.'

‘What! Died? But how? His heart?'

Rav hesitated and then shook his head.

‘Someone killed him, didn't they?' Gail demanded.

‘Gail, don't be absurd, who would want to—' David Franklin broke off, the expected reassurances that it was natural causes obviously unforthcoming. ‘I don't understand.'

‘None of us do,' Rav told him. ‘Mac and Miriam here are trying to make some sense of it, as the local police are on the other side of that landslide. It's all very unfortunate.'

Ah, the great British art of understatement, Rina thought. They should make competency in that part of the new Citizenship exam, along with drinking tea and talking about the weather.

‘I'm sorry,' Gail said. ‘Mac and Miriam? Who are you, anyway?'

While Miriam explained their presence and who and what they both were, Mac went back to Melissa's office and made another call to the local police. The news was no better. He told them about Professor Franklin's car and that both occupants had made it back to Aikensthorpe House. He was told that the route through should be cleared the next morning when the heavy equipment required would be on scene.

‘Weren't you involved in the Cara Evans enquiry?' Inspector Chandler, his local contact, asked him.

‘Yes,' Mac told him cautiously. ‘I was.'

‘So you're currently on suspension, then.'

‘That's so, yes.'

‘Right.'

Mac could hear the questions hanging in the air. Instead of encouraging them, he said, ‘We've done all we can to secure the evidence and the scene, but I'll be very glad to be able to hand this over to you.'

Again, a slight hesitation. ‘You're sure the old bloke didn't just pop his clogs?'

‘I'm sure.'

‘Right.' That word again, so full of unexploded meaning. Mac had become used to a certain notoriety being attached to his name this past year or so – inevitable, given his involvement in such a high-profile case as a child murder. Especially as he had been present when she died and was now a suspect in the death of her killer.

Mac closed his eyes and brought the conversation back to present matters. ‘So, we can expect someone to arrive tomorrow morning then?'

‘All things being equal, yes. Unless we get more bloody snow or another chunk of hillside decides to give in to gravity.'

Mac thanked him and rang off.

Returning to the main hall, he told everyone that help would be a little longer getting through.

‘Don't they realize there's a killer on the loose?' Jay asked.

‘I'm not sure they are quite convinced of that. Edwin was an old man, and they only have our word that it wasn't natural causes.'

‘But you're a police officer and Miriam is a CSI.'

‘And murder investigations cost a lot of money.' David was cynical. ‘Better for everyone if this is just a heart attack. I suppose you
are
sure?'

Mac experienced a moment of uncertainty, then pushed it aside. Of course he was sure. He wasn't exactly a stranger to violent death, and neither was Miriam.

‘I'm sure,' he said. ‘Look, we don't know fully what went on here; I think we should all just be careful. The local police will arrive tomorrow and a proper inquiry can begin. In the meantime, I suggest everyone keep a lookout for anything strange and that tonight we lock our bedroom doors.'

‘There are spare keys,' Viv pointed out. ‘Maybe we should take the spare keys.'

‘They need to be fingerprinted,' Miriam said. ‘They need to stay in the key cupboard for now.'

‘But—'

‘If you lock your door and leave the key in the lock then no one else can unfasten the door from the outside,' Mac pointed out. ‘We just all need to be sensible.'

No one actually argued with him, but the tension and fear were palpable. No one said it, but Rina could see the wary glances cast between the huddled little group and hear the unspoken question. One of them might have killed Edwin; would the killer strike again?

EIGHTEEN

T
he afternoon dragged on. Rina, Tim and Joy retreated to Rina's room and pored over the folder Viv had given them all on that first night and the printouts from the Internet that Mac had brought with him.

‘So, as I understand it, the consortium that bought this place want to turn it into a conference centre and wedding venue,' Tim said at last. ‘There are all these plans down on paper, and the local press report that it will bring jobs and opportunities into the area, that they will need tradesmen to do the restoration and kitchen staff and admin people to organize the conferences . . . and what do we actually see, eighteen months on?'

‘Melissa and a bit of rewiring,' Rina said. ‘Yes, the rooms are comfortable and the kitchen is well equipped and clean—'

‘But the laundry room is one washing machine and a dryer,' Joy said. ‘And the kitchen is fine for a smallish event, but I'd hate to have to cater an entire wedding.'

‘Maybe they just plan to use outside agencies?' Rina suggested

‘And this event, this weekend, it's been a real oddity.'

‘You mean even without the murder?' Joy said. ‘No, but you're right. I looked in the visitors' book,' she added. ‘You know, I like to see the comments and that. Well, there's hardly any.'

‘Maybe we're reading too much into this,' Rina said at last. ‘Tim, I'm sure I saw a list of shareholders somewhere?'

‘Yes, it's . . . Ah, here it is.' He skimmed down the list of names. ‘Well, what do you know?'

‘Anyone familiar?'

‘Yes, actually. Three names. The mysterious Professor Meehan – or at least I assume Mr S. Meehan is him. Then our friends David Franklin and Edwin Holmes. Edwin was part owner of this place.'

Rina took the list from him and looked thoughtfully at it. Shareholders were listed: four of them, plus a company called Reality Enterprises for which they had no separate listing. She was willing to bet that many of the names would be on both lists.

She frowned. ‘Look at the other name,' she said. ‘Do you recognize it?'

‘Oh, my God.' Joy's eyes were wide. ‘Miss G. Wright. Could that be Grace Wright? But that's—'

‘Impossible, or someone else with the same name,' Rina said. ‘What on earth is going on?'

NINETEEN

G
ail and David had dozed in front of the fire in the big room, Miriam not being happy about leaving them unobserved until she was sure they had fully recovered. By the time Rina and the others went back down, Gail had woken again and was looking better. It was clear, though, that she was worried about something and that David Franklin was not sympathetic.

‘I felt Simeon's presence,' she asserted. ‘I told everyone during the seance that I felt someone else, and I felt him again just before the car crashed. I'm sure of it. I think Simeon's dead.'

She was clearly agitated, and David Franklin was not helping by being so dismissive.

‘I don't suppose anyone actually checked that he'd made it home?' Viv asked. ‘He might have had an accident or something. I mean, with the weather being so bad.'

‘The weather was fine when he left,' Robin pointed out.

‘You don't actually
believe
her?' David Franklin was annoyed now.

‘I'm keeping an open mind, just like you told us to,' Viv retorted.

‘
Has
anyone heard from him?' Rina asked.

It seemed no one had.

‘We didn't exactly part on the best of terms,' Rav confessed. ‘He didn't like the idea of Edwin's ghost. He thought the project was doomed to failure.'

‘Why was that?' Joy wanted to know.

‘Oh, as Rina pointed out, it was nigh on impossible to reconstruct what happened in 1872. Edwin was adamant he wanted to continue, and Simeon equally adamant it was a bad idea.'

‘Look –' Mac sounded tired and irritated – ‘what's the harm in calling his home and making sure he's all right? I'd like to ask him a few questions, anyway.'

‘What about?' Robin asked.

‘I'd like to know why Edwin was so adamant about continuing with this experiment and Professor Meehan so much against it.'