‘He drove off five minutes ago. What’s all this about, Nick?’ She was already beginning to sound exasperated.
‘That Carter fellow came to see us yesterday,’ Nick Ellsworth explained. ‘He brought a red-haired woman with him, small, sharp-eyed, by the name of Campbell.’
‘That’s the woman he was dining with at the Wayfarer’s Return,’ Caroline said, thoughtfully. She regained her brusque tone. ‘So? You knew they’d turn up. Did you let the twins loose on them?’
‘What do you mean?’ he replied, nettled. ‘They’re not Rottweilers!’
‘As good as. I should think Dominic and Oliver would disrupt any police visit pretty efficiently!’
‘Look here!’ Nick rose to the defence of his offspring. ‘They aren’t that bad!’
‘Yes, they are! Otherwise, you wouldn’t leave home early and eat fry-ups for breakfast in the café at that filling station where you are now! I don’t blame you for preferring to breakfast in peace. I’m not getting at you. At times like this, the twins must be very useful.’
‘As it happened,’ said Nick with dignity, ‘the woman, Inspector Campbell, is herself a twin, and she was delighted to meet my sons.’
‘Merry hell!’ returned his cousin. ‘Well, then, what did the intrepid sleuths have to say for themselves?’
‘After Gordana took all the kids out to the churchyard…’
‘The churchyard! What on earth for?’
‘To see the squirrels! Listen, stop rabbiting on about my sons. I’m trying to tell you something.’
There was a pause. ‘Go ahead,’ Caroline invited. ‘I’m not stopping you.’
‘Well, Cassie made them coffee and they sat there and chatted. Caro, they seemed obsessed with the houses.’
‘Which houses?’
‘Your house and my parents’ old house, the ones our grand-fathers built. They kept talking about the conservatory and the gardens.’
‘So? Let them! Perhaps they are an item and they’re house-hunting. What did you tell them?’ Her voice sharpened.
‘Nothing! Anyhow, they left on foot.’
‘They must have had a car. Wasn’t it parked out front at your place?’
‘No! They’d obviously parked it somewhere else. They left on foot and were going in the direction of the church – and the churchyard. They were gone for ages, at least an hour. Then I saw them coming back, still on foot. What were they roaming around Weston for? Where had they been? I think they went to find Gordana and chat to her. Cassie says I’m paranoid.’
‘I’m with Cassie on this one, Nick. Anyway, chat to Gordana about what?’
Nick drew in a long breath. ‘Well, I don’t know, do I? But Gordana snoops. Cassie says she doesn’t, but I know she does. She was in the army, you know, back home, wherever home is.’
Caroline gave a hiss of exasperation. ‘You really are the limit, Nick! I’m sure that nanny of yours wasn’t ever in any army. That’s your imagination going into free fall. Why are you so hysterical about all this? What did you tell the police?’
‘Nothing! I just wish they’d stop hanging around – and that I knew what they’re thinking!’
‘Thinking, Nick, is your trouble!’ she retorted unkindly. ‘You never stop, and your imagination is totally uncontrolled, like I said. Pull yourself together! I mean it. If you carry on like this, the guys in the white coats will come for you. Go and have another coffee and a doughnut at that eatery where you are.’
‘Got to get to work,’ he replied gloomily.
‘So, go to work. And listen, don’t bother Pete! He’s a bit fragile about all this.’
‘Yes, I realise that, Caro. Pete… well, never mind. Speak to you later.’
When he’d cut the call, Caroline sat staring at her phone for some minutes.
* * *
But Peter Malone was not at work. He had been there briefly earlier, walking in through the door as usual, first thing, and greeting anyone he encountered, including Beth.
She handed him a sheet of paper as he walked past her. ‘This is the seating plan for the eleven o’clock meeting in the boardroom. I’ve put name cards by each place and I’m organising coffee and sandwiches.’
‘Great, Beth, thanks,’ he mumbled, taking the diagram and entering his office without glancing at it. Moments later, he came out again. ‘Beth? Who smokes?’
She stared at him in astonishment. ‘In this building? No one. It’s not allowed!’ She sniffed. ‘I can’t smell any cigarette smoke!’
He waved a hand. ‘No, I didn’t mean that! I meant, do you know if anyone working here is a smoker when not here at work? Does anyone slip out now and again for a quick fix of tobacco?’
‘I have no idea!’ retorted Beth stiffly. ‘The company encourages employees to take personal fitness very seriously.’
‘Right, then,’ he replied, ‘I’ll just step out and buy a pack somewhere – and go for a stroll alongside the canal for fifteen minutes. I need the fresh air.’
She was looking at him as if he’d suggested something so highly improper as to be criminal. ‘You don’t smoke,’ she said firmly. ‘I know you don’t.’
‘Well, I want a cigarette now, thanks!’ he returned sharply. Seeing her face redden, he added, ‘I’m under a bit of stress, Beth. If I’m to chair that eleven o’clock meeting, I need… I need to go for a walk and think things through.’
‘Oh, all right,’ she conceded, reluctantly. ‘What do I tell anyone who asks where you are?’
‘That I’ll be back in half an hour. I’ve got my phone if it’s an emergency.’
* * *
The call had come through to uniformed branch at three thirty, by which time not only had Malone missed the important eleven o’clock meeting, coffee and sandwiches provided, but he hadn’t contacted his office and was not answering his phone. The constable who originally took the call inclined to the view that the missing man would return soon of his own accord.
‘Got held up somewhere, I dare say,’ he informed Beth. ‘It’s only a couple of hours, isn’t it? Or perhaps he just forgot this meeting?’
‘Mr Malone does not forget meetings entered in his diary. If there were the slightest possibility of his doing so, I am there to remind him!’ snapped Beth.
‘Lucky fellow. Well, he doesn’t qualify as a missing person in our diaries until a couple of days have gone by. So, cheer up! He’ll turn up.’ The constable unadvisedly gave a chuckle he might have thought was reassuring.
He was talking to the wrong person. ‘Nonsense!’ stormed Beth. ‘Mr Malone is a very responsible person! He wouldn’t miss an important meeting without sending a message, at the very least. His car is still in the car park, so he can’t have gone far. And he has his phone with him. But it’s switched off. That’s not normal!’ Beth played her trump card. ‘This isn’t just an ordinary missing person, you know. Your Superintendent Carter came to see him the other day. I think it was something to do with an investigation. You ought to tell Superintendent Carter. I’m sure he would want to know.’
The constable assured her he would pass the report on to CID immediately.
‘Well, be sure and make it straight away!’ ordered Beth. ‘Like now!’
Realising he’d been handed a hot potato, the constable did as bid. The news reached Jess, who phoned Malone’s office immediately. ‘No sign of him yet?’
‘Not a thing! It’s nearly five. I’m sure something’s wrong.’ Beth drew in a deep breath, lowered her voice and went on, dramatically, ‘He asked me if I knew anyone who would have cigarettes. He doesn’t smoke. The building is a smoke-free zone. No one here smokes.’ In a whisper Jess had to strain to hear, Beth added, ‘First of all, they were all shirty here because I rang the police. Well, it was a very important meeting and it had to go ahead without him, so they were all in a bad mood. It was really inconvenient. Then, when he didn’t turn up, they sort of forgot me and got cross with him in his absence. Now, well, they’re all getting a bit fidgety about it, mu
ttering in corners.’
‘OK, Beth. Leave it with me. Just to check, you’ve been trying his phone, I suppose?’
‘It’s still switched off,’ said Beth gloomily. ‘It shouldn’t be. He doesn’t switch it off when he’s away from the office. I need to be able to get in touch with him, especially on an important day like today.’
‘Has he perhaps gone home?’ Jess asked. ‘There could have been an emergency.’
‘He would have let us know!’ insisted Beth.
‘Has anyone checked to see if his car is still in the car park?’
‘Yes! Of course I checked! And it is!’ Beth declared indignantly.
‘Have you rung his house?’
At this Beth became suddenly less assertive. ‘Well, you know, I wouldn’t want to get him into any trouble – or upset his wife, or anything.’
Jess was beginning to get the feeling all was definitely not well. A nervous breakdown, perhaps? Everyone who knew Malone seemed to be worried that, with the discovery of the remains at Bamford, his former experience as a possible suspect in the disappearance of his girlfriend would be playing on his nerves. Nick Ellsworth had been very keen to stress that. She reassured Beth that they would start immediate enquiries, and then went to find Carter.
‘Honestly,’ she said, repeating Beth’s account to him, ‘I think Beth was almost more worried that he might be a secret tobacco addict than that he’d just disappeared. But it sounds dodgy. He is acting out of character. Perhaps we should be concerned.’
Carter had received the news with evident displeasure. ‘Blasted man. What’s he playing at? You’ve told that PA, Beth, to let us know immediately if he turns up at the office?’
‘Yes, but I don’t think he will. It’s got a bad feeling to it, Ian. This eleven o’clock meeting was an important one. If, for any reason, he couldn’t make it, Beth insists he would let her know. I believe her. She called us on her own initiative. Not everyone in the firm is happy that she did.’
‘She’s got more sense than they have. Has anyone telephoned his house? Got in contact with his wife?’
‘Frankly,’ said Jess, ‘I got the impression they are all a bit scared of his wife. Anyway, no one on his staff, or among his work colleagues, wants to spread panic.’
‘No,’ said Carter with a sigh. ‘They don’t want to spread panic. They leave it to the police to do that.’ He stood up. ‘All right, come on, let’s go and find Caroline Malone. If we’re lucky, he’s been crying into his beer in a pub somewhere and will show up at home, maudlin but intact. Or, if not, he may still have been in touch with his wife.’
Chapter 14
‘What on earth do you want?’ snapped Caroline Malone, opening the door to find Carter and Jess on her doorstep.
She was wearing another of those palazzo pants and silky top outfits, noted Jess. This one was in black and white, very striking but intimidating. Caroline’s eyes sparkled with anger as she placed herself in the centre of the door opening, barring the way.
‘You were here the day before yesterday, for pity’s sake! Now what’s brought you?’
‘We are sorry to trouble you again, Mrs Malone,’ Carter said courteously. ‘But I wonder if we could have a word?’
‘Pete – my husband – isn’t here. He’s at work. He does have to work, you know! If it’s urgent, I’ll ask him to call you when he gets home.’
‘In fact, Mrs Malone, your husband isn’t at work. He hasn’t been in the office since a little after nine this morning. His PA contacted the local police, because he missed an important meeting and she had thought his manner strange. We’re hoping you can help us locate him. I’m sorry if this is a shock.’
The colour had been draining from Caroline’s face as he spoke and her usual confidence was evaporating. To Jess’s eyes, she appeared to be dwindling physically. Just for a moment she looked like an image of a Pierrot in a black-and-white baggy costume, a marionette version, hanging limply and disjointed from the puppeteer’s strings.
She said very quietly, ‘Nonsense!’
‘Perhaps we could come in?’ Jess prompted gently.
Caroline looked at her as if she’d never seen her before. Then she stood aside and gestured to them to enter.
As they followed her to the large room in which they’d talked on their previous visit, they heard a rattling noise from somewhere in the house, on the ground floor.
Caroline saw they’d heard it and her face flushed. ‘That’s not Pete, if you’re thinking I’ve got him stashed somewhere where you can’t get at him. It’s Lenka, my weekly cleaner. This is her day.’ This domestic detail served to help her regain some poise. ‘She’ll make us all tea. I’ll go and tell her.’
She walked out quickly towards the sound of a vacuum cleaner that had just started up. The noise of the vacuum was abruptly switched off.
‘Tea is a good idea,’ Jess murmured. ‘She may need it.’
Caroline was back in a few minutes, coming in with a brisk step, and apparently restored to her usual self. She held a mobile phone in her hand. ‘Lenka will be here in a jiff. I’m sorry, I didn’t ask you if you have a preference when it comes to tea.’ She raised her eyebrows.
‘However it comes,’ Carter assured her.
She nodded. ‘I drink herbal teas myself.’ She gestured vaguely around her at the seating. ‘Please, anywhere…’
They sat. There was a further rattling, this time heralding Lenka, who turned out to be a young woman with pink hair. She marched in briskly with the tray and plonked it down on a low glass-topped table. ‘There you go!’ she said. She eyed Carter and then Jess but added nothing more. They knew they’d been rumbled as police. Caroline had not needed to tell Lenka that. Lenka knew.
When this house was built, thought Jess with wry amusement, tea would have been brought in by a parlour maid in a black dress and white apron. Probably, that maid would have been just as quick to identify plain-clothes police officers.
Lenka had retreated to her vacuum cleaner. They could hear it buzzing in a muffled way through closed doors, like a very large bumblebee trapped against a windowpane. Caroline indicated her visitors should serve themselves. She put her phone down beside her and sat back on her white leather sofa, her bone china mug of herbal tea resting in her cupped hands. ‘Now, then,’ she said calmly. ‘What’s all this?’
‘Perhaps,’ Jess suggested, ‘you might like to telephone your husband’s office and check whether he’s back.’
‘I just have. He’s not.’ Caroline’s tone was bleak.
‘We understand from his PA, as Superintendent Carter explained earlier, that the meeting was scheduled for eleven o’clock.’
‘Yes, yes,’ Caroline said impatiently. ‘Pete spoke about it this morning before he left. Beth says his car is still in the car park. He can’t have gone very far. It’s not like him to miss an important meeting, but there has to be an explanation. Have you tried the hospitals?’
Carter nodded. ‘Not personally, but someone else has rung round. Yes, the car’s still there. I’ve seen it there myself. Beth also tells us he asked her for cigarettes.’
Now Caroline couldn’t control a start of surprise. ‘Cigarettes? What on earth for? He doesn’t smoke – and it isn’t allowed, anyway, in the building.’
She leaned forward, set down her tea and grabbed the phone beside her. ‘Nick?’ she asked them, as she scrolled down the stored numbers. ‘Have you asked Nick Ellsworth?’
Carter was shaking his head as she was connected. ‘Nick? Just a quick call to ask if you were in touch with Pete this morning. OK, what? Yes, if he rings you, call me – and ask him to call me. I don’t know. The police are here. They say Pete walked out of his office and hasn’t come back. His PA phoned them. She told them he was acting strangely. He wanted cigarettes. OK, thanks.’
She cut the call and sat back again. ‘He hasn’t been in touch with Nick.’
Jess said, ‘As to the cigarettes, that could have been just an excuse to go out.
When he discovered there were none to be had, he told Beth he would go out to buy some and walk by the canal for a few minutes, presumably to smoke a couple. It suggests he was stressed about something. Has he been worried?’
‘Of all the stupid questions! Of course he’s stressed!’ Caroline burst out, eyes blazing. She turned her attention to Carter. ‘You’re hounding him again! Just as you hounded him twenty years ago! It’s that wretched girl! Ever since she’s turned up again—’
She broke off and Carter said mildly, ‘Rebecca hasn’t turned up again in person. Her remains have been found.’
‘Dead or alive, she—’ Caroline stopped, set down her mug of herbal brew and leaned forward. ‘Listen to me, both of you! Pete is a kind man. He’s always been a kind person. He rescued, if that’s the word, Rebecca from Nick’s party and persuaded me to bring her here, because he was sorry for her. Damsel in distress was a role she played very well. After that, she started clinging to him, her rescuer, her hero! He couldn’t get rid of her and he was too kind to tell her outright he wasn’t interested in her, not in the way she wanted.’ Caroline heaved a sigh. ‘Then she told him she was going to see her parents for the weekend, and none of us ever saw her again. But you lot were there immediately, weren’t you?’ She glared at Carter. ‘Making out that Pete knew something he wasn’t telling you! Suggesting—’
Carter broke in to defend himself. ‘No investigating officer at the time suggested anything to Mr Malone.’
‘Don’t try and wriggle out of it!’ she snapped. ‘OK, you insinuated that he knew more than he was telling. He didn’t! He’d told you all he could and you just wouldn’t let go! He nearly cracked up over it. Ask Nick. He’ll tell you.’
She leaned back against the sofa cushions, a study in black and white on a creamy white background. Like a still from a nineteen-forties film, thought Jess.
Quietly, Caroline went on, ‘And all the time Rebecca had done what she’d told Pete she was going to do. She went home to that place, Bamford. And someone there killed her – or she had an accident – who knows? But someone buried her there and you’ve got her bones to prove it. But you still don’t give up, do you? No, you’re back here straight away asking your questions! And now – and now…’ Her voice trailed away.
An Unfinished Murder Page 20
