Trap Lane

by Stella Cameron

  ‘Right. Like he wants Bill or Dan to find him here with Perry and Neve. Don’t ask me why that would be, though – but he didn’t have to meet them here.’

  Carrying the tray, Tony went to the Burke sisters’ table. ‘May I join you?’ he asked quietly. ‘I think we’ve got something to talk about.’

  Harriet pulled a chair back for him. ‘So that is the Rhys couple, I take it?’ At Tony’s nod she continued, ‘Does Hugh know they talked to Annie?’ She studiously avoided looking toward the window. ‘They obviously don’t know Annie’s here at the Black Dog, though, or they wouldn’t have come. Or, I don’t think they would.’

  ‘I don’t think Hugh knows the Rhys couple spoke with Annie,’ Tony said, knowing he couldn’t be certain. ‘He would have if he hadn’t been absent this morning. Those two could think they said enough to keep her quiet around him. They’re bound to run into her and it’s likely to be soon. Doc James is having her rest upstairs so I don’t suppose we’ll see her down here tonight. They’ve moved her to Alex’s room. She talked to Hugh, though, on their own, remember. Who knows what she said then? Could be she mentioned them coming to your place and making accusations about him.’

  Mary looked at him through her thick-lensed glasses, her eyes huge and distorted. ‘Harriet and I wondered if Annie came to us to ask advice on finding a place to live here. We’ll do that if she still wants to once she leaves the Black Dog, but she shouldn’t want to be here where she lost her hopes for love with the man she loved. I’m so sad for Annie. Everything she dreamed of is destroyed and she isn’t trying to start over. I understand how it is when you love someone so much – I was there once, so long ago it seems like another era – but her life must not stop at twenty-three. I think that’s how old she is. She doesn’t seem to think about a future at all.’

  ‘Ladies, please think about what I’m going to say to you.’ He drank some of the lemonade-laced beer and winced. ‘You said she sounded afraid of something to do with Elyan. That’s a riddle all by itself. I know you want her to explain this herself but I’m not sure she will. I’m not even sure she would say it to you again. Doc and Lily say she’s not very well.’

  ‘I know.’ Harriet studied her fingernails. ‘Mary and I talked about this during the afternoon. We’re hoping you and Alex will help us decide what to do about it. Annie was distraught after those people got through with her and I think she just spilled things out. She wouldn’t repeat it and she wasn’t making any sense. But something was said that made her desperate and afraid. That’s it …’ She looked at her sister. ‘Mary, those people frightened her. Why would they do that? It needs to be brought out into the open – for Annie’s sake.’

  Tony looked into the fire. His old dog, Katie, came, rested her gray-blond head on his lap and looked into his face. He scratched beneath her chin while he thought.

  ‘I wonder if we should get some official advice,’ he said finally. ‘Bill Lamb’s all right. I know he can be brusque but—’

  ‘Radhika loves him,’ Mary broke in. ‘You know perfectly well she wouldn’t if he weren’t a good man.’

  There wasn’t a soul in Folly – as far as Tony knew – who didn’t think his assistant was wonderful, including him. ‘You’re right. What if we ask Radhika’s opinion first?’ That was a cop-out and he knew it, but he was only human.

  ‘Indeed,’ Harriet said. ‘What a wonderful idea and I just know Radhika will talk to Bill about it. She would break the ice and make everything so much easier. But she’d say if she didn’t think it was a good idea to go to Bill – until we know more.’

  Tony barely contained a laugh. He wasn’t the only one capable of looking for an easier way out.

  The urge to laugh faded abruptly. Through the passageway from the restaurant and inn came Bill Lamb with Jillian Miller. Tony turned to see Alex but two groups of noisy men dressed to ride had come in and both Alex and Carrie Peale were too busy pulling pints to notice drama elsewhere.

  Bill approached Hugh and tapped his shoulder. He paid no attention to Perry or Neve.

  ‘Oh, good gracious,’ Harriet said. ‘Do you know where Radhika is, Tony?’

  ‘She’s sleeping at the clinic during the week at the moment,’ he said. ‘On weekends she spends time at her new house. It’s only partly finished. Anyway, Bill doesn’t want her at Trap Lane again until this case is solved. She’s probably at the clinic now. Why?’

  ‘I’m going to call her and ask her to come over,’ Harriet said. ‘I’ll do it from the kitchens. I’ll explain why to her. I think Hugh’s in a muddle. He needs time to sort himself out. We need an intervention.’

  ‘I think it’s a bit late for that,’ Tony said.

  Bill Lamb closed the door to the interview room. The thin file in his hands was more because he was expected to have one than anything else.

  ‘Would you like coffee or tea?’ he asked Hugh Rhys – seated across the table from Jillian Miller. This was not an interview he expected to enjoy. ‘It’s all pretty bad but it’s wet.’

  ‘Nothing, thanks.’ Hugh’s tone was neutral. He didn’t look angry and certainly not scared or confused.

  Bill had his own styrofoam cup of black coffee.

  Miller appeared nervous enough for all of them. Interviews were not her strong suit yet and might never be but at least she tended to say too little rather than too much.

  ‘If it’s OK we’ll be recording this interview,’ Bill said and nodded to Miller to start the machine. ‘Just a formality. For your benefit as much as ours. You understand you’re not under arrest?’

  ‘Yes.’ Hugh’s dark eyes didn’t flicker.

  ‘We’ve asked if you want your solicitor present and you’ve declined. Have you changed your mind, Mr Rhys?’

  ‘No.’

  Sliding into his chair beside Miller, Bill put his cup on the table and opened the folder with its few forms inside. These he read through, more slowly than necessary. Miller had provided him with a notepad and he pulled it toward him while she went through the preliminaries for the recording.

  He was warm and stood up to remove his jacket. ‘It’s hot in here. This room is always warm. It’s supposed to be air-conditioned but you wouldn’t know it. Windows would probably help.’

  Hugh made none of the frequent thin and nervous jokes about potentially escaping through a window.

  No windows, slightly shiny yellow walls, metal chairs and a yellow Formica-topped table – and this was considered the best of the interview rooms. Bill had not thought about the institutional scent of disinfectant, unfortunate air-freshener and sweat for some time but with Hugh already looking completely out-of-place, Bill smelled it all sharply.

  Seated again, he picked up a pen. ‘You didn’t have anything to say on the way here to Gloucester. Do you know why we brought you?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘I’ll get to that right away, then. You were seen leaving the house, Green Friday in Trap Lane, Folly-on-Weir, on the twelfth of this month. Early in the evening.’

  For the first time there was a slip in Hugh’s perfect composure. He looked away for a moment.

  ‘On the morning of the thirteenth,’ Bill continued, ‘you called us to the same house.’

  It didn’t take long to run through the details of the encounter with Hugh, Alex and Sam Brock, the locksmith, or to go over what had been found inside the house.

  Throughout, Hugh looked directly at him, his expression solemn but giving nothing away.

  ‘You went into the house before calling us?’ Bill asked. He knew the answer but there was more that he doubted he knew at all.

  ‘We all did,’ Hugh said. ‘It was the natural thing to do. Sam had been there earlier to do some work for me. He came down to the Black Dog and told us there was blood and broken glass on the kitchen floor. More blood in the hall. And clothing strewn around in a bedroom.’

  ‘You looked at all these areas?’ Bill asked.

  ‘I looked all over the house.’

  Bill
glanced at the top sheet in the file. ‘And you can confirm that all the things Sam mentioned were there?’

  Hugh leaned back in his chair, frowning. ‘I don’t think I can be sure. I didn’t look closely – there was just a pile of things on the bed and I wanted to make sure there wasn’t anyone hurt somewhere.’

  ‘Reasonable,’ Bill said. ‘Sam told us there was a Mercedes parked out back. Did you look at that?’

  ‘No. Vehicles are sometimes parked up beside some outbuildings. Beyond the swimming pool.’

  This had never seemed like a man who would play word games, but Bill decided he’d started playing one now. ‘Didn’t Sam say he saw the Mercedes from a window in the house?’ He ran a finger down one of the computer-generated forms. ‘Says so here.’

  ‘I didn’t see a car from any window.’

  Bill made another note. ‘Would it be possible to see vehicles by the outbuildings from the house?’

  ‘I …’ Hugh frowned and paused. ‘Possibly from upstairs although I’m not sure which rooms.’

  ‘What were you doing at Green Friday on the twelfth?’

  Moments passed in silence before Hugh said, ‘I own the house. I was checking on it.’

  A flicker of anger irritated Bill. Would he be irritated if he were getting this runaround from a stranger? ‘You parked your car close to the front gates, facing out. Did you want to be sure you could leave in a hurry?’

  ‘Yes. I wanted to get back to work quickly.’

  Bill turned a little toward Miller, indicating she should take over for a while. She needed the practice and he wished he were somewhere else.

  ‘Six of one, half a dozen of the other,’ Miller said, and her voice cracked. Her cheeks turned pink. ‘You had to turn your car to leave, what did it matter when you did that?’

  Hugh looked amused. ‘How right you are, sergeant. I hate to be late – I get tetchy, so I suppose I was guilty of faulty logic.’

  Miller looked pleased with herself. ‘Why didn’t you mention being there on the twelfth when you called us in on the thirteenth?’

  ‘To say what? There was nothing to tell you.’

  Bill pushed to his feet and started to pace. He owed any interview skills he had to Dan O’Reilly who was brilliant. ‘How long were you at the house that night?’

  ‘As long as it took.’ Hugh ran both hands through his hair. ‘OK, let’s stop this. Or I should say, I’m going to stop this. Not that I’m guilty of anything illegal.’

  Bill sat again.

  ‘Would you like something to drink now,’ Miller said, and Bill had the urge to stand on the pointed toe of one of her high-heeled shoes. Had she forgotten that the last thing to do at a moment like this was stop the flow?

  ‘Coffee, please,’ Hugh said. He looked increasingly worn. ‘Cream, no sugar. Thank you.’

  Miller popped up and sashayed to the door. Looking back, she said, ‘You, guv? You must be hungry. Shall I check the cafeteria for a sandwich?’

  ‘Just water, thanks.’ What a difference it would make to have someone like LeJuan with him, but it was up to him to help Miller grow into her new position.

  Once she was gone, he scooted close to the table and propped his elbows. ‘Why not tell me anything you think would help, Hugh?’ No harm in loosening up a bit. It might even help.

  ‘Do you remember Sonia Quillam?’ Hugh said. ‘Percy’s wife and Elyan’s mother. She called me from Green Friday that day – the twelfth – asked me to go and see her. She and her family had stayed there that time when there was so much trouble.’

  ‘I remember. It would be hard to forget. Tragedy on top of tragedy, that was.’

  ‘Yes. It still is. I see Elyan. His father did too. I can’t imagine what he will make of this death. Sonia never went to see him – she told me she couldn’t face it. Annie Bell was engaged to Elyan and I think she still is – hopeless as that is, but she sees Elyan whenever it’s allowed. It all got so twisted. Did you ever hear Elyan play?’

  Evidently Hugh didn’t recall asking the same question before. ‘No, but Dan did. He said Elyan played some jazz. Seems unreal now.’ Enough of that.

  Hugh only nodded and frowned. ‘The Quillams had stayed at Green Friday for some weeks before everything went sideways. You know all about that. Anyway, Sonia must have kept a key and she went there sometime before the twelfth without letting me know or asking if it was OK. I wasn’t happy. I went to see her as she asked. It wasn’t pleasant. I left telling her to be out of there by morning. And that was that. She didn’t contact me again, thank God.’

  ‘Do you remember what she was wearing.’

  ‘Yes.’ The man’s mouth twisted down at the corners. ‘A flowery kaftan, flowing thing made of some sort of thin stuff. Backless high-heeled sandals. She always wore those. She’d been drinking, I think.’

  ‘Always wore backless sandals? You sound as if you’re well acquainted with her.’

  ‘I was at one time. Not now – not for a long time. She liked those sandals.’ At that moment he appeared distant.

  ‘Sounds as if you may have been close.’

  ‘We were, as I’ve already said, but that’s history. I wasn’t in the best place at the time and I was young. She was even younger. She met and married Quillam. She was becoming a noted soprano and he took her under his wing.’

  The temptation to mention that it sounded as if Percy had taken her under more than his wing was strong – and inappropriate. ‘So that was it? You never rekindled the relationship?’

  ‘She married Quillam. End of story. And now it’s history, but I’ve already said that twice.’

  ‘How was she when you left that night?’

  ‘Angry.’

  ‘Why?’ He wanted this over, if only for tonight. At least they had a probable identity for their missing person.

  ‘She had some idea of getting back together. I wasn’t interested – never have been since we broke up. That’s all I can tell you. I could hate her, but I don’t. She deserves more pity than hate. But she did a lot of damage to the people around her.’

  Miller knocked and came in with coffee and water. Hugh drank his coffee, grimacing.

  ‘I warned you it was bad,’ Bill said. ‘Sonia Quillam doesn’t appear to have been seen since you left her.’

  ‘I don’t know anything about that.’ Hugh let his head hang back and sighed. ‘I don’t want any harm to come to Sonia, but she knows whatever we had was over a very long time ago. She also knows that I’m aware she uses men when she needs something from them and always has.’

  ‘It doesn’t look good that you avoided mentioning your encounter with Sonia Quillam. You see that?’

  ‘I do. But when I left her, she was alive and well. Angry, tipsy but fine. I just had to get away. I’d been through the act before and it never ended well. Easier to get out of there. And before you ask again in some different way, I didn’t want to discuss that night because this is just what I was afraid of – that someone would blow the event out of proportion and start accusing me of something. I don’t know where Sonia is but if I had to guess I’d say she’s found herself a safe place to be with someone who will be only too glad to have her. She’s a beautiful woman and there is no shortage of men happy to settle for that – even if it’s only skin deep.’

  Bill considered what he was about to say and decided, what the hell. ‘You hate her, don’t you?’

  ‘I hate what she’s done to some people. Do I hate her? No, that’s a very big word and I save it for more capably hateful people. Sonia is not a great intellect.’

  ‘Why did you go to Burford this morning, Mr Rhys?’ Miller snapped out baldly and in opposition to the way she and Bill had agreed to handle the matter. Bill was angry she hadn’t let him know her intentions beforehand. She continued, ‘I’m sure you remember entering a house there on Hollows Lane. Middle house of a terrace of three. Your behavior, getting there in a hurry, and appearing to be surreptitious about entering the building, was suspicious. I doubt
you’d deny you hoped you wouldn’t be seen. Why don’t you explain what that was all about?’

  While Hugh frowned, Bill seethed. He tried to catch Miller’s eye, but she avoided looking at him.

  ‘Could you be more specific?’ Hugh asked. He pushed his cold coffee away.

  ‘I don’t have to be,’ Miller said. ‘I ask the questions.’

  ‘Right,’ Hugh said, sitting even straighter. ‘And I asked for clarification. I was there, yes. I’m free to go where I like, when I like and since no charges have been made against me, I surely have the right to understand any of your questions. Do you know where you’re going with this?’

  The bright flush on Miller’s cheeks further annoyed Bill. He stepped in while she was still formulating a response. ‘You were there. Thank you for that.’

  ‘And you left in a hurry as if someone warned you to get out.’ Miller blustered now. ‘Was that because you were doing something you shouldn’t be doing?’

  A head was going to roll. This would get them nowhere. Finally, Miller glanced at him with a triumphant little smile as if she were pulling off a brilliant coup. He shook his head faintly.

  ‘We’ll get back to this,’ he said. ‘Your friends held a gathering at Dr James Harrison’s home today. Weren’t you invited to that?’

  ‘Is there anything you don’t know?’ Hugh said. ‘There was a meeting, yes. I was not there, yes.’ He relaxed his posture and Bill decided the man thought they were on a fishing expedition – which they were. That could always be a good idea if it was handled properly.

  A tap on the door preceded the welcome appearance of Detective Constable Longlegs Liberty – who was aptly nicknamed – someone else Bill had, at least in part, inherited from Dan O’Reilly. This was a capable, useful officer. Longlegs inclined his head and Bill excused himself.

  ‘Won’t take a minute, guv, but I thought you’d want to see this.’ With a gloved hand he opened a brown bag and took an evidence bag from inside. ‘These were found in a charcoal grill near Green Friday. There’s a little park there with barbeques. Someone was in too much of a hurry trying to get rid of these.’