by Joyce Cato
‘I think it might be best if we don’t go any further inside before your scene of crime people have had a chance to go over it thoroughly,’ she said. ‘I know they’re already going to have to look in here for traces of whoever took the penknife and cricket stump. But if I am right, then they’re going to be even busier in here than that. Because it’s in here that they’re going to find a good portion of the evidence needed to convict Erica Jones.’
Causon glanced around at the dim and dusty interior, looking less than impressed. ‘They’ll do a thorough job in here as soon as possible, naturally,’ he conceded. ‘But right now they have two murder sites to process first.’
And whilst he was hoping that he might have a viable suspect at last, if only to placate his angry superiors, even the infamous Jenny Starling, Causon supposed sourly, could fall flat on her face sometimes.
‘All right. But I really do think that this is a murder scene, too, and one that’s every bit as vital as the area around the trees where we found James,’ Jenny insisted. ‘Outside and around the back of here might be where Tris’s body was actually found, but this is where the person who killed him was standing when she did it,’ Jenny said firmly.
‘What?’ Causon said, clearly taken aback. Beside him, he felt his sergeant take an instinctive quick glance around.
‘You see those shutters?’ Jenny said, pointing at the darkened windows. ‘I was in here earlier looking for a chair, like I told you before. And those shutters were both very dusty and hard to open – I know, I gave one a try. I don’t think they’d been painted shut, as such. It was just that they’d never been opened much and had got very rusty and hard to move. Probably a good oiling would sort them out. But that’s not the point.’ She looked down at her hands and sighed. ‘Unless I miss my guess, I think your SOCO people will find that at least one of those shutters, if not both of them, are now more free of dust than the rest of the stuff in here. And what’s more, that they’ve been forced open very recently – perhaps they’ll even be able to find traces of rust from the hinges on the floor to prove it. Maybe even paint flakes from the window itself. I really don’t think the shutters or the windows have been opened for quite some time – until today.’
Causon’s eyes slowly widened as he finally saw what this marvellous cook was getting at. ‘And you’d bet money that the victim’s body was found lying right underneath the window that’s been opened, I take it?’ he said quietly. And whistled judiciously through his teeth. His eyes narrowed as he pictured the scene.
‘Wouldn’t you?’ Jenny said. ‘The killer might have arranged to meet Tris behind the pavilion, but instead of going outside and around the back, out in open view of anyone who might happen to be looking …’ She trailed off, deliberately urging him to follow her line of reasoning.
‘The killer came in here, where he or she wouldn’t be so easily spotted, opened the window and … bam!’ Causon said, miming the action of someone swinging a cricket bat down against an unprotected head.
Graham Lane shifted excitedly.
‘Look around,’ Jenny continued. ‘Even from where we’re standing, I can see a couple of old bats lying around, not to mention some cricket gloves, which would be great for concealing fingerprints. And the killer would have seen the same things as we do. All she had to do was select one of the old bats, put on some gloves, open the window and beckon Tris over. He’d have been expecting to talk to her out there anyway, and whilst he might have been a little surprised to be beckoned to the window, instead of her coming around to join him out back, he wouldn’t necessarily question it. Why would he?’ Jenny sighed sadly. ‘They probably talked for a little while about whatever it was Erica wanted to talk about. And I think we can easily guess what that was,’ she added grimly.
Causon nodded. ‘You still think that he and she had been doing the horizontal tango. And was desperate that her husband didn’t get to know about it.’
‘Yes. I definitely got that vibe off them. But whether or not you’d be able to prove that …’ She trailed off and shrugged.
Causon glanced at Lane, who also shrugged.
‘It all depends on how discreet they were. Some affairs are easy to prove, if they went to hotels or rented out a pad, or used a friend’s place for their trysting,’ the sergeant explained. ‘But if they were really careful – who can say? And I doubt that the lady was the sentimental kind who kept his loving text messages.’
Jenny gave a grim smile. Luckily, it was not her job to go grubbing about in other people’s dirty laundry. She gave a quick shudder.
‘Anyway,’ she picked up the thread from where she’d left off. ‘Let’s say that Erica and Tris talked for a little while, with Erica failing to get what she wanted from Tris. He turns to walk away and …’ She shrugged uneasily. ‘Well, as you so graphically put it, Inspector, bam.’
For a moment, all three of them were silent as they contemplated the shocking suddenness with which death could sometimes come.
‘And that would explain how it was possible for James Cluley to see Tris go behind the pavilion – but no one else come out again,’ she added.
And both men could see that it clearly pleased her to be able to exonerate the old man from lying. Indeed, it had always been obvious to Causon, at least, that the cook had never really believed in the concept of James Cluley as a heartless blackmailer, or someone who would try to profit from something as sordid as murder.
The inspector again whistled silently through his teeth. It did all sound pretty believable. And, for the first time, they now had a suspect who had a motive for killing Tristan Jones, and no alibi.
‘Yes. That’s all very clever, Miss Starling, I grant you,’ the inspector acknowledged willingly, though still inclined to be cautious. ‘But Erica won’t have been kind enough to leave us a clear set of her prints. And now we know how it was done, the field is more or less wide open again. Anyone could have sneaked in here after tea, and done the deed.’
‘Oh, not everyone,’ Jenny denied. ‘And certainly not anyone with a reasonable motive. Max Wilson was still batting in plain sight for all to see, so he couldn’t have done it. That lets him out. And I imagine Sergeant Lane checked Michelle Wilson’s alibi, that she was still chatting away in her chair?’
She looked at him, and he quickly nodded.
‘And Lorcan Greeves and young Mark were still away from the field and plotting their revenge,’ she pointed out. ‘Yes, they could have been in it together, I know. But you have got that independent witness who saw Lorcan come back to the cricket field after handing over the computer passwords to young Mark, haven’t you?’
She glanced across at Graham Lane. ‘And presumably it won’t take long to collate the witness statements and see if anyone saw Lorcan go into the pavilion just after Tris was last seen alive.’
Causon nodded. ‘That shouldn’t be a problem,’ he agreed. ‘And you clearly don’t expect to find anyone who did see him go inside, do you?’
Jenny merely shrugged. She’d never been overly partial to sticking her neck out.
Causon contented himself with a cynical smile. ‘Well, let’s just hope that the blood results confirm that none of the blood we found on Greeves belonged to James Cluley,’ he said hopefully.
‘So who does that leave us with?’ Sergeant Lane decided to take up the baton. He gave it a moment’s thought, frowned, then pursed his lips and glanced warily across at his superior. ‘I know it doesn’t seem very likely on the face of it, sir, but I suppose we do have to include James Cluley on our list of suspects at this point? After all, he could still have killed Tris and then been killed by someone else.’
Causon snorted, clearly indicating what he thought of that theory.
‘Yes, sir, I know, it does seem rather far-fetched,’ Graham agreed quickly. ‘Two different victims and two different killers, with two different motives, resulting in two dead bodies in the space of less than an hour or so. But a defence lawyer will try and put any theory out t
here if it can confuse a jury,’ he added defensively. ‘So we’d better have an answer for it.’
Causon sighed, and Jenny felt obliged to come to his rescue before the irascible policeman could pepper them with yet more of his sardonic outbursts.
‘Except that James never came back in here that I know of,’ she pointed out helpfully. ‘I was working in the kitchen, ferrying food to and fro, but you don’t only have to take my word for it. You can ask Caroline and Ettie or any of the others who were in here after tea, but I think you’ll find that they’ll agree with me about James not coming in. Besides, I got the impression that James regarded himself as some sort of unofficial right-hand man for the Umpire. At any rate, I think you’ll find that, when the cricket was being played, he was always watching closely. So as soon as Max Wilson started his innings, he would have been watching the match from somewhere, and I imagine there will be plenty of witness statements to corroborate that.’
She shook her head, and regarded Causon firmly.
‘No, as I see it, there’s only one person who could possibly have done it.’ She held up a hand and began to tick things off on her fingers. ‘One, Erica had a motive. Two, she was always present in the pavilion, because she didn’t want to go out and get burned, so her being seen in here wouldn’t even cause comment. Three,’ she bent down her index finger, ‘during the course of the afternoon she excused herself to use the loo – or so she said – thus giving her the perfect excuse to be absent for five minutes or so. Which is certainly long enough to have a quick chat with Tris, and then hit him over the head. And four, I even saw her dusting down her expensive clothes before re-taking her seat in the doorway. As she’d have needed to, if she’d just come from being in here, and had been battling with dusty shutters and stubborn windows. This place is filthy.’
Graham Lane began to feel really excited now. When you heard it all laid out like that… .
‘Erica Jones,’ Causon said, nodding slowly. ‘And you’re saying the reason she killed him was simple jealousy? Because he’d tossed her aside for Michelle Wilson?’ He sounded a little sceptical now. ‘She doesn’t particularly strike me as being all that emotionally unstable. In my experience, men or women who kill “out of hopeless love” suffer from low self-esteem and all that malarkey. And it strikes me that the Lady of the Manor has a perfectly healthy ego, thank you very much.’
Jenny couldn’t help but smile. ‘Well, I have a feeling that it’s not so much love or emotional revenge that’s behind all this. Unless, of course, you count a love of money.’ Jenny now had the rapt attention of both policemen, who were listening to her intently. ‘I didn’t overhear much of what they said when she and Tris were having their argument earlier, but I did hear Tristan mention a pre-nup that she’d been forced to sign.’
Causon nodded. ‘Gotcha,’ he said. ‘And no husband is going to be generous in a divorce settlement if he finds out his younger bride has been bedding his own son.’
‘Er … no,’ Jenny agreed succinctly. ‘And it would be no skin off Tris’s nose if his father divorced her,’ she pointed out. ‘In fact, he might have found it amusing to taunt her with the possibility.’
‘And our Lady of the Manor does strike you as a woman who likes to spend big,’ Graham Lane felt obliged to put in. ‘Like I said before, that outfit she’s wearing today—’
‘Yes, all right Mr Fashion Expert,’ Causon interrupted him before Lane could give him another lecture about haute couture.
‘Mind you, there’s nothing to say that it couldn’t have been a combination of the two things that motivated her to lash out at him,’ Jenny speculated, with world-weary cynicism. ‘Knowing that Tris was probably sleeping with half the female population of the county would be bound to seriously wound her vanity. But I still think that, mostly, she was fighting to hold on to her cushy and easy way of life.’
‘Quite,’ Causon agreed. ‘And if sonny-boy was teasing her with the threat of telling his father about their affair. Well, Sir Robert would kick her out, and the pre-nup would hold up in any divorce under those circumstances. Which would mean that Erica Jones would not only be facing one hell of a scandal, leaving her reputation in the mud, she would also have to make do with far less than she was used to.’ He nodded. ‘And if killing him meant that she got some emotional payback for being dumped for Michelle Wilson – well, why not? Yes, I think a jury would buy into that scenario all right.’
Jenny sighed wearily. ‘You know, Tris did strike me as just the kind of silly, unthinking fool who would torment his stepmother, just for the fun of it. But whether or not he’d ever have actually spoken to his father…’ Jenny shrugged philosophically. ‘Who can say? It would have put him in as bad a light as his stepmother, after all, if you think about it. And Tris, who knew how to look after number one, would hardly want to get on his father’s bad side, would he? Sir Robert might have disinherited him as well, and that wouldn’t have suited him at all.’
‘So she might well have killed him for nothing,’ Sergeant Lane said, aghast.
Jenny winced at such a horrible thought. ‘I suppose, in the end, she decided that she just couldn’t take that risk. And since he was leaving her bed for Michelle’s, she realized that she might be about to lose any hold over him that she might once have had and … well, decided to kill him.’
‘And planned it really well,’ Causon said grimly. ‘She minimized the risk of getting any blood or trace evidence on her, because the wooden wall and glass window shielded her. And afterwards, all she’d had to do was toss the bat outside to land beside the body in order to maintain the fiction that the killer had been outside with Tris all along. Then close the windows and shutters, put the gloves she was wearing back on the shelf, then come back in here and take her place, as if nothing had happened. Thus reinforcing her alibi. Neat. Very neat. You have to hand it to her.’
‘And later she could swear – perfectly truthfully – that she’d never left the pavilion,’ Jenny agreed, ‘and we’d all have to confirm that. We were her witnesses.’
The cheek of it, Jenny suddenly thought angrily. Using me as an alibi!
‘You’re right. I need to get SOCO in here right away,’ Causon said. ‘The gloves she was wearing must still be in here somewhere, and they’ll have her DNA all over the inside of them. Then there’ll be the dust on her clothes, which will be a perfect match for the dust in here. Oh yes, we’ll get her for it all right, now we know where to look for the evidence,’ the policeman said, with satisfaction.
‘Hang on a minute, though,’ the sergeant interrupted softly. ‘What about James Cluley?’
Jenny looked at him, surprised. ‘What about James?’ she echoed, as she heard Causon swear softly under his breath. ‘She killed him, too, of course.’
‘Now, hold on a minute, there have to be problems with that,’ Causon began to object, but Jenny was already shaking her head.
‘No – it had to be her, don’t you see? All these theories that were flying around about who would want to kill both Tris and James, and the possibility that there might be two killers was never going to wash. Because once Erica had killed Tris, she then found herself with no other choice but to kill James too. She simply had to.’
‘I don’t see how that follows,’ Causon objected. ‘If your theory about how she killed Tris is true, then James Cluley couldn’t have tried to blackmail her, because he’d have had no more idea than anyone else of who the killer was.’
But again Jenny was vigorously shaking her head. ‘No, no, that’s not why she had to kill him,’ she explained patiently. ‘Of course James didn’t approach her, or try anything on. In fact, she must have approached him. At some point, very soon after he left here, in fact. She’d have needed to act as fast as she could before more police reinforcements arrived.’
Jenny looked at both policemen a little sadly now. ‘I don’t really want to have to say it, but I’m afraid it’s true. She realized just how lucky a break it was for her to have you so dange
rously understaffed. It was because you were so short of people on the ground that she could plan and execute his killing with at least a realistic chance of success. If you’d been able to police this place properly right from the get-go,’ she waved a hand around, to include the pavilion and the grounds outside, ‘then she never would have been able to get away with it.’
Causon could be heard visibly grinding his teeth, and she winced in real sympathy.
‘I’m not accusing you of anything, you understand,’ she said hastily, desperate not to be misunderstood. ‘I know it wasn’t your fault. And I don’t see how we could have known about it in time to prevent it anyway,’ she added bitterly.
‘But I still don’t understand why she had to kill the old man,’ Graham Lane said, both to change the subject, and because he was genuinely baffled. ‘If he didn’t know she was the killer, and he wasn’t blackmailing her, what danger did he pose?’
Jenny looked at him wide-eyed. ‘Because of his evidence, of course,’ she said simply. ‘When James told us that he didn’t see anybody come out from either side of the pavilion once Tris had gone behind it – well, she realized the danger at once. She must have eavesdropped on your questioning of him. Although I don’t suppose that James himself would have made any secret of what he’d told you.’
‘But I still don’t see why it’s relevant,’ Causon continued.
‘But can’t you see what a fix Erica suddenly found herself in?’ Jenny said. ‘Her whole plan relied on the fact that nobody would look at her seriously as a suspect, because she hadn’t left the building, and thus had an unimpeachable alibi. She knew that if you dug deep enough you might find out about her fling with Tris, which would put her on the radar, but whilst she was in the position of not possibly being able to have done it, she felt safe enough. But when James told us what he’d seen – or rather, what he’d not seen – well, then it becomes a whole different ball game. You immediately thought that James was either lying about it, or was intent on sheltering someone, like his daughter or grandson. Or that he intended to try and use the knowledge to blackmail someone,’ Jenny reminded him. ‘But only Erica would have known that James was literally telling the truth. And that it was imperative that he must be made to stop telling the truth as soon as possible. Because if she didn’t shut him up, and he kept sticking to his story, you might just start to believe him. And who knows where that would have led you?’
