An Unfinished Murder

by An Unfinished Murder (retail) (epub)

  ‘No one had ever told you?’ Jess sounded surprised. ‘About the disappearance of Peter Malone’s girlfriend—’

  ‘Why should we?’ Ellsworth interrupted, suddenly truculent. ‘Cassie never knew her! And it’s not something we talked about, Pete, Caro and I. It wasn’t a pleasant memory. Peter nearly had a nervous breakdown, Superintendent, after you finished with him!’

  ‘I was only a sergeant, then,’ Carter offered.

  ‘You scared him witless!’ Ellsworth declared.

  ‘Can’t think why,’ returned Carter. ‘He had expected, surely, to be interviewed?’

  ‘He hadn’t been prepared for the third degree.’

  ‘I hardly think it was that!’ snapped Carter, angered enough to let it show. He caught Jess’s eye and continued more calmly. ‘It may have seemed that way to Mr Malone, at the time. I’m sure, if you talk to him about it now, he wouldn’t describe it like that.’

  ‘He has described the experience to me, Superintendent, as it seemed to him at the time. He felt then he was treated unfairly. He still feels that. So, I hope it’s not going to happen again? You – and Inspector Campbell here – you were at their place yesterday, putting Pete through the mill. Can’t you realise that this… episode… has scarred his whole life? Yes, I know you have to talk to people who knew the girl, but can’t you see? Pete couldn’t help you twenty years ago, and he sure as hell can’t help now! Why aren’t you all at this place, Bamford, where she was found? Instead of messing about here, you should be looking there!’

  ‘Oh, someone is, believe me,’ Carter assured him. ‘We are liaising closely with Bamford. I’ve been to the scene of the discovery. It’s in woodland, as reported in the news. But it’s not a big area of trees, just a small spinney.’

  ‘It seems incredible to me,’ muttered Ellsworth, ‘that no one found her twenty years ago, when the… the burial was fresh!’

  ‘Oh, but someone did find her.’

  Ellsworth looked startled. ‘But we understood—’

  Carter continued, ‘That is to say, they came upon her before she was buried. Two children stumbled over her body, but they were scared and didn’t tell anyone.’

  ‘Poor little souls,’ said Cassie.

  ‘Yes, it’s altogether a very sad story.’

  ‘It sounds extraordinary to me,’ muttered her husband.

  Cassie began to collect empty cups, rattling them together. ‘I’ll take these back to the kitchen, if it’s OK with you. I wasn’t around at that time. Can’t help, sorry.’ She fled with her tray.

  ‘Tell us about the party,’ Carter invited Ellsworth.

  Ellsworth’s moment of aggression had evaporated. ‘Oh, that. You mean the one I threw at my parents’ house, I suppose. Look, it was just a party. My people went on a holiday cruise. Anyhow, I had the house to myself and I threw a party.’

  ‘And you invited Peter Malone?’

  ‘Yes, I invited Pete. I knew him, but we weren’t close friends at the time. We used to play a bit of tennis together, belonged to the same club. Pete was usually happy to make up a doubles foursome. Later, of course, he married my cousin and became a family member. I didn’t, before you ask, invite Rebecca to the party, not directly. I didn’t know the girl.’

  ‘So, who invited her?’

  Ellsworth threw his hands in the air. ‘I don’t know! Not now, not then! I’d never met her before that night, I told you! Someone brought her along. You must have been to parties when you were young, Superintendent! You know how it is.’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ Carter said vaguely. ‘So, you really have no idea who brought Rebecca?’

  ‘No!’ Ellsworth made a visible effort to regain control. He had begun to sweat. ‘I barely spoke to her. Just said “hi” when she was introduced, told her to help herself to a drink…’

  ‘Where did the drink come from? Was it your parents’ private supply?’

  ‘No!’ Ellsworth snapped. ‘Bloody hell, I wouldn’t hand out my dad’s good whisky and prized bottles of wine!’ He drew a deep breath. ‘It was one of those “bring a bottle” affairs. And people did – bring a bottle or two, mostly plonk or cans of beer.’

  ‘And when did you see or speak to Rebecca again, at the party?’ Jess interposed.

  Ellsworth’s head snapped round and he stared at her as if he’d forgotten she was there. ‘I didn’t – or if I did, I don’t remember. It was noisy and crowded, with people moving between rooms, some dancing, some going out into the garden and some—’ He broke off.

  ‘And some of them going upstairs?’ asked Jess when he fell silent.

  Ellsworth turned a deep red. ‘Not if I saw them and could stop them. I’d told them upstairs was off limits. They sneaked out into the garden into the shrubbery if they wanted to— Well, I suppose that’s what they did, if they needed privacy.’

  ‘How about into the conservatory?’ Carter asked sharply.

  ‘The conservatory?’ Ellsworth blinked at him, momentarily confused. ‘I don’t know – why do you ask?’

  ‘Malone found Rebecca crying in the conservatory. So he says, anyway. He claims that’s how they met and got talking.’

  There was a silence. Ellsworth leaned back in his chair and eyed his visitors. When he spoke, his voice was under control and his eyes sharp. ‘Look here, are you saying that someone tried it on with Rebecca in the conservatory and that’s why she was in tears?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Carter simply.

  ‘Well, I certainly bloody don’t!’

  ‘And then your cousin, Caroline, took Rebecca to her house for the rest of the night?’

  ‘Yes, left her there and came back to the party. Pete had been asking for someone to help – he said one of the girls was feeling iffy. It turned out to be Rebecca. That’s all I know.’ Ellsworth drew another deep breath. ‘It was the first time any of us had ever met her. I wish it had been the last!’

  Carter raised his eyebrows. ‘Because?’

  ‘Because she… because of the way it all turned out. What do you think?’ Ellsworth almost snarled.

  Carter glanced at Jess and got to his feet. Ellsworth couldn’t hide his relief. He stood up too, and so did Jess.

  ‘We understood, from Peter Malone, that you didn’t get to keep the family home, as your cousin did,’ Jess said blandly. ‘Are you sorry? I understand the houses were identical, built by your grandparents.’

  ‘What?’ Ellsworth appeared genuinely startled. ‘Why on earth were you talking about that, my old family home? That’s got nothing to do with this.’

  ‘They are very attractive houses, with a family connection,’ Jess explained, maintaining her bland expression. ‘I expect you regret letting yours go.’

  Ellsworth looked partly convinced by this explanation but still ruffled. ‘Yes, they were identical, but I didn’t “let it go”, as you put it . . .’ He paused and added, ‘My parents sold up and moved to the coast, bought a nice little cottage near St Ives. I’m not sorry. We like it here, Cassie and I. I do still own the St Ives cottage, as it happens. They left that to me. Cassie and I use it for family holidays. She and the kids spend most of the summer there, with Gordana.’

  ‘Nice,’ said Jess.

  ‘Yes,’ he told her stiffly. ‘It is. The old house – the one you were asking about – is still there, but it’s rather different now, unfortunately. The people who bought it turned it into a B&B, extended it to the rear and destroyed much of the gardens.’

  ‘Oh, dear,’ said Jess pleasantly. ‘Does that mean the conservatory isn’t there now?’

  ‘No, they knocked it down for the extension.’ There was a brief mocking gleam in Ellsworth’s eyes. Just for the fraction of a moment, but Jess saw it. No use us poking around there! he’s thinking.

  Cassie Ellsworth reappeared to say goodbye to the visitors. She was holding a length of broken plastic in her hands.

  ‘Dominic has broken his light sabre,’ she told them all. ‘It must have happened just before Gordana took th
em out.’

  ‘Thank God,’ muttered her husband.

  ‘You’ll have to get him a new one when you’re in Cheltenham, Nick, or they’ll squabble over the one that’s left.’

  ‘No chance. Take Oliver’s away, too.’

  ‘Nick! That would be unfair!’

  ‘The racket they make is unfair to me!’

  The visitors, realising that they’d been forgotten in this moment of domestic disharmony, quietly slipped away.

  * * *

  ‘Well, what do you make of all that?’ Jess asked Carter as they walked away from the Old Forge.

  ‘That Mr Ellsworth is a very nervous man. Perhaps that just comes from living with those kids.’ Carter gave an unexpected chuckle. ‘A lot of people see us as alien, so Dominic isn’t alone in his opinion. Let’s go and see Monica. This way.’

  Monica Farrell’s cottage stood diagonally across the street from the church and churchyard. As Carter and Campbell approached, their ears were assaulted by ear-splitting shrieks and whoops, marking the progress of the twins as they raced between the tombstones. They were even afforded a brief glimpse of Gordana, striding out, her orange sweater a vibrant patch of colour among the greens and greys, her dark hair fluttering, and the baby, Libby, strapped to her back in some sort of frame, like a rucksack.

  ‘Goodness, Ian!’ exclaimed Monica, ‘and Jess, too! This is an unexpected pleasure.’

  She ushered them into her cosy sitting room. It was in its usual comfortable muddle, with cushions and crocheted blankets, books and two cats lazing in a splash of sunlight falling through the small window. One cat got up and stalked out the moment it spied strangers. The other one came to sit down by the new arrivals and fix them with a basilisk stare.

  ‘We had some business in the village,’ Carter explained to her. ‘So, I thought we’d call by. I’m sorry I haven’t been over to see you for a while.’

  ‘You’re a very busy man, I understand that,’ Monica replied. ‘Where was your business in Weston? Or am I not allowed to ask?’

  ‘At the Old Forge – do you know it?’

  ‘Ah!’ said Monica, smiling. ‘Dominic and Oliver.’

  ‘You know them, do you? They’re over the road in the churchyard now, with the nanny, Gordana,’ Jess told her.

  ‘I thought I heard them. Nice, sensible young woman, that.’ Monica gave a nod of approval. ‘Intelligent, too.’

  Carter looked surprised. ‘Oh, you’re acquainted with Gordana? Do you know where she comes from? It seems to be a mystery.’

  ‘Of course it’s not a mystery!’ Monica retorted. ‘She comes from Montenegro. She’s spending time in England to brush up her language skills. When she has free time she sometimes calls here and we have long chats. She has a degree in molecular chemistry. She studied in Germany.’

  ‘I wonder if her employers know all that!’ murmured Carter. ‘They seem to think she was in the army.’

  ‘Oh, Cassie and Nick,’ said Monica. ‘I’ve had little to do with him. I understand he’s very successful. They don’t seem to lack money. They run three cars. They have to, I suppose. Cassie and Gordana both drive Cassie’s Mini, unless either of them has the children with her. Then they drive a monster like a little bus. Nick has a sporty number he probably fancies himself in. He shoots off each morning like a racing driver.’ Monica paused in consideration. ‘Cassie seems a pleasant young woman, a bit harassed, I fancy!’ She gave a sudden hoot of laughter. ‘I don’t know that Gordana herself was in the army, but her father is, or was. I understand Montenegro has quite a small army nowadays. Now then, I dare say you have time for a cup of tea?’

  ‘Well, we’ve just had coffee at the Old Forge…’ Jess said hesitantly.

  ‘I bet you didn’t get cake!’ said Monica. ‘I made a fruit cake yesterday – and if I say so myself, it turned out rather well!’

  ‘I wonder,’ said Jess, when they’d been supplied with a generous slice of cake apiece, ‘if you’ve ever met Nick Ellsworth’s cousin, Caroline Malone. Her husband’s name is Peter. We called on them yesterday for a brief chat, to do with a case that Ian’s investigating.’

  ‘That girl, I suppose? The one who went missing twenty years ago?’ Monica replied placidly.

  ‘Well, yes,’ Jess sounded her surprise. ‘You know about that?’

  ‘Well, I read my newspaper and there was a piece in that about a body – or rather, a skeleton – being found somewhere, not here. I do remember the original case, when the girl disappeared. Very sad.’

  ‘I worked on the original case,’ Carter told her. ‘I was a sergeant then, just made, and keen, you know. I didn’t get very far. That is to say, I didn’t find the missing girl.’

  ‘Well, if she wasn’t here, you couldn’t, could you?’ Monica retorted in a brisk but kindly way. ‘She’d gone home to see her parents, I understand.’

  ‘Oh, everyone is very keen that we should believe that,’ Carter muttered. ‘Well, perhaps she did, at that!’ he added. ‘But her parents saw nothing of her, and nor did anyone else in her hometown.’

  ‘And that’s what you came here today to talk to the Ellsworths about – the missing girl?’

  ‘Indirectly,’ Carter said. ‘Trying to fill in the gaps, you know…’ He paused. ‘It’s a bit like a jigsaw. The outer frame is complete, and pieces of the picture here and there filled in, but there are gaps, and I have a horrible feeling that some of the pieces are missing. I had hoped that Nick Ellsworth might supply a missing piece or two, but he didn’t.’

  Monica said in a quiet, absent-minded sort of way, ‘Sometimes the pieces aren’t missing. They’ve just fallen on the floor. They always seem to land upside down.’ More firmly, she added, ‘I’m afraid I don’t know the Malones. I may have seen them, if they’ve called at the Old Forge, but I wouldn’t have known who they were.’

  The impromptu tea party over, Jess collected up the plates and cups and carried them out into the kitchen. Monica followed.

  ‘Ian’s reading my newspaper,’ she said. ‘So we have five minutes for a chat about you. How are you getting on? Millie always asks about you when she writes to me from school.’

  ‘Give Millie my love,’ Jess said, turning on the tap over the sink. Displacement activity, she thought to herself as she did so. I know what’s coming next and I want to avoid it! Better to meet it head-on! ‘Millie isn’t still planning a future for me and her father, is she?’

  ‘Oh, in every letter,’ returned Monica calmly. ‘She’s at that age.’

  ‘Can’t you discourage her?’

  ‘No,’ said Monica, ‘not in any way that wouldn’t make matters worse. She’ll sort it out in her own mind, eventually. She’s a bright kid.’

  ‘Yes, she is. She’s a determined one, too.’

  ‘She’s very like her mother,’ Monica informed Jess. ‘But I don’t think you’ve met Sophie?’

  ‘No. I’ve… I’ve heard a little about her. But, honestly, Ian doesn’t talk much about his ex. He does talk about Millie…’ Jess paused. ‘Actually, I’ve got someone else lurking at the back of my mind at the moment. Not romantically! I’ve just heard from my brother.’ She went on to explain about the possible arrival on her doorstep of Mike Foley.

  ‘Been very ill?’ mused Monica. ‘Poor chap. Could be anything in those camps, I suppose, from measles to cholera.’

  ‘I don’t know what’s been the problem. Simon is vague, and it’s slightly worrying.’

  ‘You’ve met the young man before, have you?’

  ‘Oh, yes, in the dim and distant past, when both he and Simon were medical students. I just have this rather fuzzy image of an athlete running round a track. Not much to go on.’

  ‘No photos anywhere? You know, taken at some athletics event to record your brother’s presence, but with other people in the background?’

  ‘I hadn’t thought of that!’ Jess exclaimed. ‘I’ll look out my old photo collection. You ought to be the detective, Monica!’

  As they wer
e leaving the cottage, half an hour later, Carter dropped back to allow Jess to precede him so that he, in his turn, could have a quick private word with Monica.

  ‘Have you heard from Sophie lately?’ he asked, diffidently. ‘All OK, with the new baby and everything?’

  ‘I’ve had a couple of emails,’ Monica told him. ‘Photos of the new arrival attached. At the moment he looks like a blob.’

  ‘I’d heard the new arrival is a boy. Millie is quite pleased.’

  ‘They’re calling him Tristan,’ Monica said.

  Carter couldn’t help looking startled. ‘Why?’

  ‘Don’t ask me. I suppose Sophie has her reasons.’

  ‘Yes,’ Carter returned. ‘Yes, she usually does. Pass her – and Rodney – my good wishes when you next communicate.’

  * * *

  Carter and Jess’s walk back to their car through the village and passing the front of the Old Forge was not unobserved.

  ‘Where have they been?’ Nick demanded of his wife. ‘They left here nearly an hour ago!’ He scowled. ‘Is Gordana back with the children?’

  ‘She came in twenty minutes ago,’ Cassie told him. ‘Didn’t you hear them?’

  ‘She took them to the churchyard, you said. To find squirrels or something? That’s the direction those two detectives came from. Do you think they’ve been talking to Gordana?’

  Cassie folded her arms and surveyed her husband thoughtfully.

  ‘Honestly, Nick, you really are getting paranoid about Gordana. Why should the police want to talk to her? What about, for goodness’ sake?’

  ‘Us!’ said her husband fiercely. ‘I told you, that girl snoops!’

  ‘Of course she doesn’t!’ Cassie set off back towards the sound of wailing from Libby that had just broken out to the rear of the house. ‘What have we got to hide? I haven’t got any secrets. Have you?’

  ‘No,’ he said sullenly. ‘Of course I haven’t.’

  * * *

  Later that evening, just as they were all going to bed, the phone rang shrilly in the Old Forge.

  Cassie answered. ‘It’s Peter!’ she called out to her husband in surprise.