‘All right. It doesn’t sound like the best way to spend an hour or so but we’re at least on the fringes of all this, whether we like it or not. Listen hard, Tony. You’re better at this part than I am.’
A wiry little female constable in uniform stopped them at the opening to the tent. ‘Sorry, sir,’ she said to Tony. ‘May I see your warrant card?’ She smiled apologetically at Alex, and Tony could see her making a mental note to wear a Tyvek suit in future, whenever she wanted to go where she shouldn’t.
‘I found the body,’ he said – only the mildest stretch. ‘We’re with Detective Inspector Lamb.’
‘And you’re SOCO, ma’am?’ the officer asked Alex.
‘They lent me a suit to keep me warm,’ she said, barely above a whisper.
‘Then I’ll have to ask you both to wait until someone comes out to verify who you are. Sorry about that. Would you wait on the other side of the tapes, please? I can’t leave my post at the moment.’
Quelling an urge to laugh, Tony led Alex away. Automatically they set off down the hill. ‘Did you bring your vehicle?’ Alex asked. ‘Mine’s in a field somewhere over there.’ She gave a vague wave.
‘I parked in Trap Lane near Green Friday. That’s closer. Shall we go that way and get your Range Rover later?’
‘Yes,’ she said and started to run. ‘Later or maybe never. I don’t care – I want to get out of here.’
He pulled her to a stop. ‘We’d better walk, not run, or one of us will break something in the dark. Damn, why didn’t I think to take the torch out of my car?’
‘We’ve got to find Hugh,’ Alex said. She clutched Tony’s arm with both of her hands. ‘He hasn’t done anything wrong. We both know that. But he could get into a lot of trouble if the police start looking for him more seriously and he’s keeping out of sight. Why would he do that anyway? And why wouldn’t he be open about everything?’
‘Listen to me.’ He glanced over his shoulder. Alex was asking him to reassure her, but that wasn’t on the cards, not now. ‘The police are looking for him – very seriously. They’re going to take him in for questioning. Bill told you someone reported seeing Hugh leaving Green Friday the same night you saw him there.’
‘I don’t understand who that could have been. Tony, what if we took Hugh to our place, until this calms down, and they work out what really happened?’
‘Good God, Alex.’ He turned away from her. If not for some weak moonlight, they would be in total darkness – appropriate, he decided. ‘You don’t mean that.’
He saw her bow her head. ‘I don’t know if I do or not.’
‘You saw him on this hill before you found Quillam’s body. And something about him worried you. How do you know he wasn’t aware of that body and where it was?’
‘Why would Hugh behave like this? If he knows anything about what happened he should already have told the police.’ Her voice rose. ‘We don’t know Percy didn’t just fall in. Nobody said a word about a weapon. Could Percy swim? I don’t know, do you?’
‘The wounds on the face were made by something, Alex. We don’t know what other injuries there are yet. If we want to get ourselves into the biggest mess of our lives, all we have to do is harbor a potential criminal.’
The instant the words were out of his mouth he regretted them.
‘Hugh is our friend. He’s been with us through thick and thin. He is not a criminal, potential or otherwise. I’m going to find my Range Rover.’
‘Sweetheart,’ he said, his throat tight, ‘please don’t do that to me. I’m trying to be rational. I have to put you and your safety and reputation first. And mine. Of course, I’m sure Hugh is a good and honorable man but we’re in a hard place right now. Would you at least help me figure out the best way through all this?’
‘I just want to find him – and talk to him.’
‘Of course.’ But she’d passed on a chance earlier – because she must have felt unsure about him. ‘OK, let’s get going. Hold my hand, please.’
She stepped close to him, looking up in the darkness, and he thought she might be close to tears. ‘I know I’m not always easy but I can’t even start to explain what happens to me when I feel things so … protective and angry at the same time.’
Tony gave her a hug. ‘Could be you’re hard not to love just because you’re the way you are. Ever think of that? Let’s go. Just stay with me and concentrate on where you put your feet.’
They made good progress even if they stumbled and repeatedly wandered from the route he thought he knew so well.
Each breath was sweet and cool. Too bad those breaths didn’t quiet his mind. Not a cloud touched the darkened sky, while a thin moon hung like a comma without a sentence to punctuate.
Without warning, Alex yanked on his arm and stopped them both.
‘Are you OK?’
She didn’t answer at once, then sucked in a breath. ‘Voices,’ she whispered, too loudly. ‘You hear that?’
He did. From farther down and to their left. The direction toward Green Friday. ‘Doesn’t sound like anyone’s worried. Just carry on the way we are.’
‘Someone’s coming,’ he heard a man say. ‘Hold still. Hello, anyone there?’ the same voice rose.
‘Alex Duggins and Tony Harrison,’ Tony replied, raising his own voice. ‘On our way back to get my Range Rover by Green Friday. Who are you?’
‘Dan O’Reilly,’ another and familiar voice called. A torch beam flashed upward and swept across them. ‘I see you. Stay put and we’ll come to you. Dr Wolf and Hugh Rhys are with me.’
Alex leaned close to him and he put an arm around her shoulder. ‘It’ll be OK,’ he murmured. ‘Wouldn’t have expected this trio.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Alex whispered.
The torch bobbled closer and the three men were visible as shapes moving behind the illumination. Then they were there, in front of Alex and Tony, calm and pleasant as if meeting on a hill, in the darkness, and heading toward the place where a man had been found dead was usual. Perhaps they didn’t know about the death. But that was a ridiculous idea.
‘Hey, Dan – Hugh,’ Tony said, looking at the third man whom he saw only as solid and of medium height.
‘This is Dr Leon Wolf,’ Dan said. ‘He’s a psychologist working with us on a series of cases. Hello, Alex. I should probably say the suit doesn’t become you, but I’d be lying.’
Tony set his jaw. Some things never changed, including the way Dan O’Reilly felt about Alex, damn him. Dan stepped close enough to give her a quick hug and touch her face. ‘Good to see you,’ he said and there was no doubt he meant it.
‘Good to see you, Dan,’ Alex said, but she leaned closer to Tony.
‘Do you know what’s happened up here?’ Tony said, looking directly at Hugh. ‘A drowning in that pond. Of course, you know. Messy business. Alex and I found the body some hours ago. We finally got to leave.’
‘My God,’ Hugh said, staring upward. ‘I heard someone was found but had no idea you were involved. We’re headed up there now – or Dan and Dr Wolf are. I offered to show them the way. Do you know who it is?’
‘As far as we know there hasn’t been an official identification yet,’ Tony said, squeezing Alex’s hand, hoping she understood that it was better for them to reveal nothing, to leave it to the authorities.
‘Hugh,’ Alex said quietly, ‘why are you here? How did you meet up with Dan, and … and …?’ she raised a hand vaguely in the direction of the doctor who didn’t speak.
‘I went to Green Friday to check the place out more thoroughly – with all the talk about someone missing and the police still being there – and I ran into Dan,’ Hugh said. He scrubbed at his face, turned his back, turned to face them again. ‘I haven’t been sensible. I should have gone straight to the police when I knew there was something wrong. I didn’t and now I won’t blame them for thinking I may have had something to do with whatever happened at Green Friday.’
Illuminated by his own torc
hlight, Dan’s expression didn’t change, but he studied Hugh intensely.
‘What do you think happened?’ Tony said. He couldn’t help himself.
‘Perhaps we’ll know soon enough now,’ Hugh said, glancing up the hill. ‘Unless the killer is too clever and very few are.’
Had anyone mentioned murder to Hugh, Tony wondered.
EIGHT
Tony parked behind the Black Dog and turned off the engine. ‘I thought we’d walk to Harriet and Mary’s from here,’ he said.
Alex’s mind wouldn’t leave Hugh and the case but she tried to concentrate. Harriet and Mary Burke, the septuagenarian sisters who lived above their tea shop, Leaves of Comfort, phoned while Alex and Tony were still making their way back to the Range Rover. They had already left Dan, Hugh and the strange doctor to climb the rest of the way to the death scene.
‘You’ve been quiet,’ Tony said. ‘Is there anything you want to say before we go to see them?’
‘I’m not sure. They’re usually here at the Dog by now. Harriet sounded upset … or perhaps, anxious more than upset. She said she wanted you to take a look at Lillie Belle but I don’t think that’s what’s really on her mind.’
‘So you already said,’ Tony said, turning toward her. ‘What else are you thinking?’
‘Well, I already said it really.’ Alex couldn’t sort out her thoughts from her feelings. ‘It’s Hugh who is completely confusing me. He obviously has no idea we know he’s hiding something. What he said tonight about not going to the police when he should have – that could mean anything or nothing. He went up to Green Friday with Sam and me and didn’t call the police first? Hugh could say that’s what he meant. Until he finds out he was seen last night, he could think he can pretend he was never there before today. If I could only figure out how to make him open up. Why don’t I tell him I saw him?’
‘We’ll have to come back for the dogs after we see Harriet and Mary,’ Tony said, not looking at her anymore.
Alex pulled her heels onto the seat, wrapped her arms around her shins and studied him in the shadows. The vehicle was warm inside, yet she shivered. ‘What does coming back for the dogs have to do with anything? We always come back for them. Why don’t you tell me what you’re thinking?’
‘Because you won’t like it.’
‘Try me. You’ll tell me in the end, so you might as well get on with it.’ She rested her chin on her knees. ‘I can be so pushy, I make myself sick sometimes.’
His laugh diffused some of the tension. ‘I’m not touching that,’ he said. ‘We can’t be sure Hugh hasn’t done something wrong. Even very wrong. He’s a great guy, at least that’s what we think, and we’ve known him a long time. Or a fairly long time. But what do we really know about him? Why did he show up in Folly and interview for the Black Dog job when he’d never managed a pub before?’
‘He had plenty of previous business experience. He ran a successful whiskey distillery. I’d never managed a pub and I bought one,’ Alex said, starting to simmer.
‘You’ve never mentioned why he left the distillery. Bit of a comedown – and I don’t mean to be rude. And it’s none of my business. But Lily worked at the Black Dog for years and you’d been around the place since you were a baby. You knew what you were doing.’
‘I don’t know why he decided to change his occupation,’ Alex said. This was getting them nowhere. ‘I didn’t ask because he impressed me and I’ll always be glad I followed my instincts.’ Please don’t let anything make her change her mind. ‘I think Hugh and Neve have slept together.’ She sucked in a breath through her teeth. ‘I shouldn’t have said that.’
Tony leaned down until Alex looked at him. ‘OK, your turn again. What makes you think that?’
‘Darn my flapping mouth. The day she came, I heard Neve suggest she share Hugh’s room. At least that’s what it seemed like. I couldn’t see his reaction, but he sounded furious when she reminded him that it wouldn’t be the first time. But I don’t really know what she meant by that, do I?’
‘I think you do. OK, sweetheart, out we get. We’ll see what the sisters are dying to tell us and I’ll take a look at the pup.’
‘Any thoughts about who the missing woman is, Tony?’
He paused. ‘I’ve wondered … hell, what do I know?’
‘Tell me.’
‘It’s only because she’s the first one who comes to mind, but I’ve wondered about Sonia Quillam. She and Hugh have some history and she tried to attach herself to him when all the trouble happened with her family.’
‘I don’t think that’s one bit off base,’ Alex told him. ‘I’m wondering the same thing. If she was at Green Friday, he could have gone to see her. Who knows what might have happened? They seemed like oil and water.’
‘She’s also the one woman we know Hugh was involved with.’ Tony turned his face away and was quiet for a moment. ‘I don’t think we should be giving any opinions on this, do you?’
‘No! We could make trouble where there isn’t any. Let’s get to the sisters, shall we?’
As they walked to the forecourt of the pub a line of powerful motorcycles roared in to park, one and two deep along the grass verge. The Gentlemen Bikers were a noisy bunch but they spent freely and were pleasant enough. At least they were fairly well behaved.
Coming down the path with several others Carrie Peale’s husband, Harvey, laughed as loudly as the others and swung his own crash helmet over one arm. He saluted Tony and Alex on his way past.
‘Odd fellow,’ Tony said. ‘Bit of a chameleon.’
Alex muttered agreement and, arm-in-arm, they carried on. The walk to Leaves of Comfort, on Pond Street, took them past cottage gardens thick with flushes of roses. Creamy clematis, luminous in the near darkness, climbed in mounds over door canopies. Lavish scents saturated the evening.
A single weak streetlight shed a bluish nimbus.
Alex held Tony’s arm tighter and closed her eyes a moment, reluctant to let the peaceful moment pass. She had to. ‘Hugh’s explanation of how he came to be with Dan and that psychologist today didn’t wash. I believe he met them deliberately.’
‘Meaning?’
‘Don’t you think it looks good for him if he had a friendly encounter with Dan and volunteered to walk them up to the pond? If he were trying to avoid police questioning, he wouldn’t do that. Or he might be trying to plant the idea that he wouldn’t be likely to seek them out if he had any reason to feel guilty.’
The warm windows of Leaves of Comfort lay ahead. Tony pulled Alex to a stop. ‘I thought of that, too. Wouldn’t you like to know a lot more about Hugh? I’ve never thought of him as avoiding questions but I’m wondering if he’s so good at the persona he wears that we buy it without question.’
‘Then why doesn’t he just cut and run?’ Alex shook her head. ‘If there’s any reason why he could end up in big trouble here, why not get out while he can? And he could probably do it. As you’ve mentioned more than once, he’s wealthy, so money isn’t a problem. Lease a private jet and go anywhere he wants to until everything blows over. That or never come back at all. You can bet he’s got funds outside the UK.’
She could almost feel and hear Tony thinking that over before he said, ‘He won’t do it. I don’t know why – or not yet – but he won’t run.’
‘That’s what you want to believe.’
‘Yes, I do. But I’m not happy about the way I feel. He’s going to shock the hell out of us, I can feel it. The question is, will we come to hate him?’
From the instant Alex and Tony climbed the stairs inside Leaves of Comfort and walked through the door, the Burke sisters’ rosy-colored upstairs living room felt wrong.
Rather than sitting in her big, overstuffed, chintz chair, Harriet stood, a lamp with a deep pink silk shade turning her fine white hair into a blush aura. Her smile looked forced.
‘Hello, ladies,’ Tony said, frowning. ‘Sorry if we’ve kept you waiting. It’s been quite a day.’
Mary, al
so standing, gripped her walker and nodded at Tony and Alex, whose stomach began revolving. She needed to practice managing that one of these days. Mary wore her hair in a bun with an ivory Spanish comb holding her wispy waves back. Both women had powdered their noses but their naturally pink complexions were too pale and they darted glances at one another every few seconds.
‘Sit down,’ Harriet said at last. ‘Lillie Belle’s under the weather. I’m wondering if some more of her teeth need to come out.’
‘I’ll take a look.’ Tony made a move to lift the elderly Maltese from her cushion. ‘She has very few teeth left.’ The little dog’s long, pink tongue lolled from the side of her mouth and she looked up at Tony with adoring black eyes that shone with health. The sisters had adopted her a few months ago after her owner died.
‘Let me hold her,’ Alex said and Tony put the dog in her arms.
‘The teeth can wait,’ Mary said, much too quickly. ‘Sit. We haven’t seen the two of you for a chat for far too long.’
Harriet cleared her throat. She turned awkwardly, facing them with her back to the kitchen and one of the two tiny bedrooms. ‘Mary’s right,’ she said. ‘It’s been too long.’ With her right forefinger, she made an elaborate pointing motion that seemed to indicate something behind her.
Alex looked from one to the other of the three doors in the room, other than the one that led up from the tea rooms below. Harriet raised her eyebrows and gave a single nod.
Someone was here, in one of the rooms.
Listening hard, Alex sat on the lumpy, rose, velvet-covered couch reserved for visitors and kept on straining to hear. These old buildings had thick walls meant to keep out cold in winter and heat in summer. They also rendered rooms almost soundproof.
‘What am I thinking of?’ Harriet suddenly announced. ‘I haven’t offered you anything. Have you had dinner?’
They hadn’t but Alex quickly said, ‘We’ve been nibbling all day. I don’t think we need anything.’ She was starving now that she thought about it.
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