by Sherri Bryan
“Why have you been hanging around outside my window?” Charlotte struggled to get free from Marigold’s clutches. “What are you up to?”
Lavender sighed. “You know, it’s a real pity you couldn’t stop meddling, Charlotte. We never wanted you to come to any harm but we can’t let you go now. It’s too risky.”
The sisters hauled Charlotte into the café, the windows of which had been covered with blackout paper.
“What the bloody hell’s she doing here?” Trevor Slade looked out from the kitchen, the knocking of his hammer and chisel against the tiled wall coming to a brief stop.
“Don’t worry about it. She’s a minor inconvenience. We’ll take care of her later.” Marigold pushed Charlotte down into a chair. “Where’s Richard?”
“Dunno, but I’ll kill him when I see him. Bloody idiot, should have been here ages ago. If it hadn’t been for him not turning up, we’d have been out of here by now. He’s been moaning about a gut ache since yesterday but I’m telling you, his guts’ll be the least of his worries by the time I’m finished with him.” Trevor turned back to the task in hand and continued tapping at the wall tiles.
Intuition told Charlotte to say nothing about Richard’s death but, despite her anxiety, she was livid that Trevor appeared to be demolishing her kitchen. “What are you doing to my wall?”
“There’s something that belongs to us in your kitchen, Charlotte.” Lavender settled herself on a bar stool. “We thought we might have been able to reach it from the outside, but it would have created too much of a disturbance. So Trevor’s accessing it from the inside. That’s why we’ve been hanging around outside the window.”
“But what could possibly be behind my kitchen wall that belongs to you? And why do ...” Charlotte suddenly spotted Nathan’s phone on the bar and all thoughts of what Trevor Slade was up to went out of her head. “And why is Nathan’s phone here? Where is he?”
The kitchen door swung open and Charlotte’s mouth dropped. Without any sign of the debilitating arthritis she claimed had virtually confined her to a wheelchair, Maureen Slade strode out purposefully.
“Where’s your wheelchair?” Charlotte gaped.
“Oh, that old thing.” Maureen smiled sweetly. “I don’t actually need it, Charlotte, but it makes things so much easier that people think I do. I mean, whoever would have thought that a crippled, wheelchair-bound old lady like me would have had it in her to pull off a plan like this?”
Charlotte shook her head in disbelief. “Where’s Nathan? I want to see him.”
“Oh, let her see him, Maureen, for God’s sake. It might stop her whining,” said Lavender. “She can’t cause us any trouble if we keep an eye on her. When we’re finished here, we’ll get rid of them both, her and Costello.” She took a newspaper from the pile on the bar and began idly flicking through the pages.
“Your boyfriend’s down there - on the floor behind the bar,” said Maureen. “I’ve no idea why he was skulking around here so late at night so you can imagine our surprise when he poked his head in.” She laughed a hollow, mirthless laugh. “If only he’d stayed outside, he wouldn’t have got hurt. Poor Laurence - he almost put his back out dragging him round there.”
Charlotte rushed around to the other side of the bar where Nathan was lying on the floor, blood oozing from a gaping wound on his forehead. He was breathing, but unconscious.
“Oh, good God!” She dropped to her knees, desperately wanting to cradle him in her arms but knowing that she mustn’t move him.
The graveness of the situation dawned on her.
If these people are prepared to attack a police officer, they’re prepared to do anything.
She had to do something. Surreptitiously, she felt in her pocket for her phone and pressed redial.
“I do hope everything’s alright, dear.” Maureen Slade’s voice dripped sarcasm as she looked down at Charlotte.
“No, it damn well isn’t alright! What did you do? What did you do to him?”
“I didn’t do anything,” said Maureen. “Laurence did.”
“Who the hell is Laurence?” Charlotte was trying desperately not to panic, for hers and for Nathan’s sakes.
The door opened and a man in a black ski jacket walked in sending Marigold into raptures as she squealed with delight and ran to his side. They kissed briefly before he took down his hood and Charlotte gasped as her living nightmare took a turn for the surreal.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting to see you here, Charlotte - I hope you’re not taking my name in vain? So sorry I wasn’t here when you arrived but I had to go out for a sugar fix.”
It was Larry Hall ... and Marigold Burridge was clinging to him like a limpet.
“You? Oh no, no, Larry ... please tell me you didn’t do this to Nathan?”
He grinned and took a bag of gobstoppers from his pocket. “’Fraid so, Charlotte.” He was calm and seemingly untroubled by what he’d done. “Want one?” He offered the bag of sweets to Charlotte, shrugged when she refused, and popped one into his mouth.
“Larry, listen to me.” Charlotte spoke as calmly as she could. “I don’t know how you got involved in all this but my guess is that you’ve been pressured into joining forces with them so they can use you to do their dirty work.
“Have you any idea of the trouble you’re going to be in for assaulting a police officer? Did you ever stop to think why none of them did it? Please, Larry. Please think about what you’re doing and how this is going to affect the rest of your life. Whatever they’ve made you do, you’re not like them. Deep down, you’re not a criminal.”
Larry removed the gobstopper from his mouth.
“Charlotte, I haven’t only just become “involved in all this”. I’ve been a part of this family for a long time. How long’s it been now, Marigold?”
“Nine years, more or less.” Marigold clung to his arm and put her head on his shoulder.
“Yeah, around nine years. We got to know each other when Mum joined the St. Eves Ladies Association.”
Larry was thoughtful for a moment. “Y’know, who’d have thought that Mum joining the Association would change my life as much as it changed hers? Dad was always busy in the shop so I drove Mum to all the events ... and that’s how I met Marigold.” He planted a kiss on the end of her Roman nose.
“I can tell that you think it’s gross.” He noticed Charlotte’s look of distaste. “A forty-year old guy with a sixty-five year old woman, but we’ve got so much in common. We got chatting because we both love music. We like different styles, but our passion for it’s the same. And she’s a fantastic musician. She can play any instrument, y’know, and any tune, by ear. She’s amazing.
“Anyway, we ended up spending a lot of time together up at her place. At the weekends we’d stay up all night, listening to music and chatting. She was the first person to have ever taken an interest in my opinions and what I had to say. For the first time in my life, someone made me feel really good about myself.
“I told her how I couldn’t wait to save enough money to move out from my parents’ house and get my own place. God, their constant nagging about how I still live under their roof and don’t have a proper job really gets me down ... and if they ask me one more time when I’m going to join the family business, I swear, I won’t be responsible for my actions.” Larry laughed and licked the gobstopper he was holding between his finger and thumb.
“Anyway, I’m sorry to disappoint you, Charlotte, but you’re wrong ... because deep down, I am a criminal. It was me who whacked the Detective Chief Inspector over the head ... and I killed Samuel too.”
He took out a pair of drumsticks from his inside pocket and beat out a drum roll on the bar before popping the gobstopper back into his mouth and continuing to read the newspaper.
Charlotte closed her eyes. She couldn’t believe that quiet, introverted Larry Hall was a murderer. She was appalled. But more than that, she was furious.
It took all her self-control not to scream at the to
p of her voice. “Don’t say you’re sorry, Larry, because you don’t mean it. Your parents’ hearts are going to break when they find out about this. They didn’t raise you to be this way. And you know why? Because they’re good people. And they thought they were raising a good son.” The slight tremor in her voice was the only evidence of her rising anger.
“And by the way, I don’t think that your relationship with Marigold is gross because of the age difference, I think it’s gross because you’re hanging out with the family who inflicted so much pain on your own family.
“How you can even contemplate a relationship with Marigold is beyond me. She must have known how traumatised your mother was by the robberies as much as you did. Your own mother. My God, you disgust me.” Shaking with fury, she turned away.
“Don’t you dare speak to him like that!” Marigold yelled at her across the bar.
“It’s okay, Mari. Leave it.” Larry stared at Charlotte and for a moment, she thought she saw a fleeting look of sadness in his eyes before he turned his attention back to the newspaper.
Blinking back furious tears, she squeezed Nathan’s hand tightly. Please God, let him be okay.
“You do realise that you have no way of getting out of this alive, don’t you?” Still fuming, Marigold was at her most spiteful. “I’m just telling you because we wouldn’t want to give you any false hopes, would we, Lavender?”
“No, we certainly wouldn’t.” Her sister agreed.
Charlotte’s anger had reached boiling point. “You’re all maniacs! For goodness’ sake, why are you doing this?”
Maureen considered Charlotte’s outburst as she shook a cigarette from a soft pack. “What do you think? D’you think we should tell her?” She lit the cigarette and blew smoke out of the side of her mouth.
“You’re not allowed to smoke in here,” said Charlotte, proprietorially.
Maureen threw her head back and laughed till the tears ran down her cheeks. “Oh, did you hear that? I’m not allowed to smoke in here. That’s priceless.” She bent down and blew her smoke in Charlotte’s face. “And who’s going to stop me? You? Your detective boyfriend? I don’t think so.” She flicked her ash at Charlotte and hoisted herself onto a barstool.
Charlotte realised that she was going to have to stall for time until the police arrived so, in desperation, she tried another tack. “Look, if you’re going to kill us, at least have the decency to tell me what all this is about.”
Maureen looked at her thoughtfully. “Okay, Charlotte. Because I like you, I’m going to tell you what’s going on. We’re going to be here for a while so I might as well do something to pass the time.” She made herself comfortable and began telling her story.
“Years ago, my husband and I had a little property development business. It was called MB Properties. And just so you know, the MB didn’t stand for Maureen and Bill. It stood for Maureen Burridge.”
Charlotte’s brow creased in confusion. That’s Lavender’s and Marigold’s surname. And why does MB Properties sound so familiar?
“Yes, Burridge was my maiden name. Lavender, Marigold and me - we’re cousins. Not a lot of people knew that though, because our fathers didn’t get on. Even though they were brothers, they couldn’t stand the sight of each other, so our families had relatively no contact at all until after our parents had passed away and we were adults.
“Of course, I got stuck with the non-achieving brother of the family as my father. The one who had nothing and couldn’t be bothered to better his life.
“Lavender and Marigold, on the other hand, were blessed with the successful, wealthy, go-getting brother for a father. The one who left them with a small fortune and saw to it that they would never need to work a day in their lives if they didn’t want to.
“I, on the other hand, had to take every job going to earn money. I knew I didn’t want to be like my father. I wanted more and I worked hard to get it. I passed every one of my school exams with flying colours and got a place on a business and accountancy course.
“When I began to spend more time with Marigold and Lavender, they offered to put the start-up money into a property development company for me. They could see I knew what I was talking about when it came to business and they were happy to invest their money in me. They knew I’d show them a healthy return before too long, which, of course, I did.
“After Bill gave up his ... er ... shall we say, previous line of work, he became involved in the business too. We were an incredible team and for years, it was as though our life was blessed. Everything we touched became profitable. The money was pouring in and we had everything we wanted. But then the kids got arrested and everything took a nosedive.
“It started out as petty crime. Nothing more than a few snatched purses and wallets here and there but they began to get used to having money in their pockets and not having to work for it.”
She lit another cigarette from the stub of the last and blew a smoke ring up to the ceiling. “Anyway, they started robbing houses. Then they progressed to businesses and security vans. Every time they went on a job without getting caught, it became like a drug they needed more of. At first, we tried to dissuade them but when the money they were bringing home began to get serious - I’m talking hundreds of thousands of pounds - we had to rethink the situation.
“None of us wanted to turn our backs on that kind of money but, while the police were looking for the robbers, none of us wanted to keep it in our houses. So we did the next best thing. We hid it, and the property business was the perfect cover. We’d hide the money in whatever property was being developed at the time and before it was finished, we’d take it out and move it to the next one.
“It was such a perfect plan until your fiancé stuck his nose in and ruined everything. You see, we’d hidden almost £350,000 in your kitchen wall just two weeks before the boys were arrested. Trouble was, with all the commotion after that, nobody thought to put the builders on hold and they went ahead and completed the job before any of us had a chance to get the money out.
“What with the arrest, the trial, the boys going to prison and Bill becoming ill, the last thing on my mind was the money so we decided to leave it where it was - only temporarily, of course. I mean, we were so flush it wasn’t as though we needed it at the time.”
Charlotte stared in horrified disbelief as she realised why the name MB Properties had been so familiar to her.
They were the property developers she’d bought the café from. She’d never had to meet them as the agent had dealt with the sale on their behalf, but she clearly recalled the name being on all the paperwork.
It was almost beyond comprehension that this despicable family had been involved in the creation of her wonderful café, which she had credited so many times with saving her from the darkest despair following the loss of her parents.
She recalled the first time she’d set eyes on it, not long after it had been transformed from a dingy storeroom into what would become Charlotte’s Plaice.
“I can’t believe you were the property developers who turned the old Chandlery storeroom into this café. I just can’t believe it.”
“Well it’s true, dear. And you shouldn’t be so surprised - that was our business, after all.” Maureen crushed her cigarette with the toe of her boot and blew smoke out of her nose.
“You know, Charlotte, if your precious Nathan hadn’t been so intent on interfering - constantly going round to check that Lionel Hall and that insipid wife of his were okay - we would never have crossed paths, you and me.
“You see, if he hadn’t walked into the store during the second robbery, the boys would never have been arrested. They would have had plenty of time to take the money out of your kitchen wall and we would have moved on to the next property and out of your life.
“In hindsight, they should never have gone back to the Hall’s place but it had been so easy the first time - like taking candy from a baby, Richard had said - they couldn’t help themselves.
�
��After they were arrested, the stress made my poor Bill so ill - it was terrible to see. And it was all your damn boyfriend’s fault. When Bill died, I swore I would get my revenge on Nathan Costello one day. And that day, my dear, thanks to his unexpected, but very timely, arrival, is today.”
Charlotte glared at Maureen. “Are you completely out of your mind? Nathan’s a police officer…a detective. He’s supposed to prevent crime and protect the community. He wasn’t interfering by going round to check on Heather Hall, he was doing his job. And he probably only turned up here tonight because when he passed by he thought there was something suspicious going on. Because that’s his job.”
Maureen laughed again. “Oh my goodness, you’re beginning to sound like my Samuel. When the boys were released, we got straight on a plane and went to the villa in Tenerife to regroup and put a plan in place. We needed to figure out how to get our money back and how we were going to settle our scores with DCI Costello.
“The thing is, Samuel went a bit soft in the head while he was inside. He just wanted his money. He didn’t want revenge on anyone, let alone a copper. Can you believe he even had the nerve to threaten to tell Costello what we were planning unless we dropped the idea? I can assure you, that was the last mistake he ever made.
“I arranged for Richard to call him and arrange to meet on the marina with Lavender, Marigold and Laurence, on the pretext of planning how they were going to get into your café.
“And that’s when Laurence killed him. On my say so, of course. No one does anything without my say so. Don’t get me wrong, it was a terribly hard decision to make but it was, shall we say, a necessary evil. He was starting to become a liability and we couldn’t risk him shopping us to the police.”
Charlotte looked at her in horror. “You are out of your mind! You ordered the murder of your own son?”
“Well, yes, dear. Obviously, I couldn’t do it myself - I’m not a complete monster, you know. So it’s a blessing for us all that Laurence was around to do the deed. He doesn’t look it, but he’s awfully strong. He has to train for hours every day so that he can keep up with all that drumming - it’s very strenuous, apparently.”
