Murder in the Garden

by Veronica Heley

  ‘I know the one you mean,’ said Ms Cullen, her mouth turning down even further. ‘They were great friends right up to the time my Lana settled into her job in the travel agency in the Avenue, but she doesn't give my Lana the time of day nowadays. Gone up in the world, you see. Got herself a nice little job at the BBC at White City, married a producer, no less. She invited my girl to her wedding but didn't include her husband, so naturally they didn't go. The wedding was in some posh hotel up in Town. My Lana said that it was in one of those magazines, Hello or OK or something. She promised to bring me a copy but she never did.’ And her mouth turned down even more.

  Mrs Dawes was enjoying herself. ‘And what about that dark girl that used to hang around with your younger daughter, Trudy? Trudy went to train for something, I can't remember what …’

  ‘She got her degree, the first in our family. She's at the High School now. As for that girl you mentioned, she was a wild little thing, got into bad company …’

  Ellie and Mrs Dawes both leaned forward, thinking that this was the girl they were looking for.

  ‘… had up for shoplifting …’

  So Diana wasn't the only one, thought Ellie.

  ‘… but when she got pregnant, her boyfriend did marry her, which none of us expected, I can tell you. Trudy was bridesmaid at her wedding, would you believe! My girl, that's never been in trouble, acting bridesmaid to that little trollop! They see one another now and then, but it's different when you've got children, isn't it? You move with a different set. She's settled down now, they say. Why, her little boy must be about ready for school this September. How time flies.’

  ‘Yes, indeed,’ said Ellie, looking at her watch. ‘Which reminds me …’

  ‘You're not going so soon, are you?’ Ms Cullen had no intention of letting her visitors escape so quickly.

  ‘I'm afraid I have to visit my daughter this afternoon, too,’ said Ellie, being truthful but thankful that she did have a perfect excuse to leave.

  Ms Cullen cackled. ‘Is she still as wild as ever, that daughter of yours? My Lana used to tell tales of meeting your Diana at night in the town centre when she was supposed to be tucked up safely in bed. Trudy says Diana went with boys long before she did!’

  Ellie sat down again with a bump. At fourteen, Diana had been going with boys? And parading round the town centre when she was supposed to be tucked up in bed? No! Surely not!

  Ms Cullen was happy, now she could pull someone else's daughter to pieces.

  ‘Yes, I remember her all right. Tarty piece, your Diana. Swore my girls to secrecy, taught them how to get drinks in pubs under age and how to buy cigarettes! Dear me, yes. Up to all the tricks. I heard she tried to diddle you out of the house when your husband passed on, is that right?’

  Ellie forced herself to be pleasant while wanting to hit their hostess with something hard. ‘Diana married the nicest of men and has a little boy now. She's setting up in the housing line herself, now. She has quite a talent for it.’

  ‘And for other things, too, I heard,’ said Ms Cullen, grinning. ‘I told my girls, “Don't you think you can cheat me out of my house. Not me.” I've got an arrangement with one of those pension companies that I get an annuity from them and after my death the girls get nothing. You should do the same.’

  ‘Yes, thank you. I must think about it,’ said Ellie, hardly knowing what she was saying, she was so anxious to get away. ‘But I'm afraid we really must be on our way.’

  ‘Wait a minute,’ said Mrs Dawes, heaving herself to her feet with an effort. ‘Ellie, didn't you say you had some old photos of the girls which you found the other day in a box in the attic? You said you'd contact them, see if they'd like to have them now.’

  Ellie understood at once that this was a way to get the girls' current addresses. She admired Mrs Dawes' invention, as she'd said nothing of the sort.

  Ms Cullen said, ‘Don't you bother none about them. You let me have the photos and I'll ring the girls and tell them they'll have to come round to see me if they want them. Right?’

  ‘Right,’ said Ellie, feeling limp. ‘Well, we really must go.’

  ‘You'll come again.’ It was a challenge.

  Ellie braced herself. ‘Yes, of course.’

  They got out into the open air somehow and Ellie scrabbled in her bag for her mobile. If she'd been by herself she would have walked home, but Mrs Dawes wouldn't be able to manage it. ‘Let's just go round the corner. She may be watching us from the window.’

  She phoned the cab people, who said they'd pick them up in five minutes.

  Mrs Dawes said, ‘You needn't have promised to go again.’

  ‘She's lonely. And sad. You were brilliant. You'd make a better detective than me, any day.’

  ‘Hah! I enjoyed that.’

  Ellie took Mrs Dawes' arm. ‘Was Diana really like that? I'd no idea.’

  Mrs Dawes patted Ellie's hand. ‘Yes, dear. She was. Your husband knew. I was coming back from a meeting at the Town Hall and saw him chase her across the road and pull her into his car, with her kicking and screaming like a banshee. Such excitement. I thought at first he was chasing some bit of skirt, because Diana was plastered with make-up. Then I recognized her. He saw me looking too. He asked me afterwards not to worry you with it, because he'd had a word with Diana and she'd promised not to go out like that again. I don't know if she did or not. Anyway, she straightened out, more or less, didn't she?’ More or less. Less rather than more.

  Ellie said, ‘Diana's brave and bright and she's got a flair for interior decoration. I know she's other things as well.’

  ‘Yes, dear. We all have our crosses to bear. Now, do you need to write down what we've discovered? Lana's working at the travel agency - I think I've seen her there, but I wasn't sure because she's cut and dyed her hair and lost a few pounds in weight. Now she's got a husband but no children, right? Trudy's a teacher at the High School, with a partner but still no children.’

  Ellie didn't feel inclined to investigate any further. What if the Cullen girls had more bad news about Diana to impart? ‘We've discovered that both of them and their particular girlfriends are still alive, so that's a dead end. We don't have to talk to either of the girls.’

  ‘Don't we?’ Mrs Dawes was disappointed.

  ‘What would be the point?’

  Mrs Dawes sagged.

  A lady of vast proportions, when she sagged she was a dead weight. Mrs Dawes could be on her feet all day when organizing a flower exhibition or judging one, but her bad leg would make her pay for it afterwards. Perhaps you needed to be reasonably mobile to make a good detective. Ellie was pleased to see the minicab waiting for them on the corner.

  After dropping Mrs Dawes back at her home, Ellie took the cab on to the big house Diana had converted into flats, stopping on the way to pick up some bits and pieces from the shops.

  Standing back to get a good look at the house, Ellie still considered it looked bare and unwelcoming with all the garden stripped away to provide car parking. There were no For Sale notices outside, but Diana seemed to have managed without having to pay an estate agent.

  Whether she'd been wise to go it alone was another matter.

  Ellie found Diana inside, showing another couple around the ground-floor flat. It was much like the one Diana was occupying, though slightly larger, as the house was an irregular shape.

  Both Diana and the customers appeared pleased with themselves. Diana was still looking pale but was back in her working gear. Ellie went through to the garden flat to unpack the food she'd brought. It was going to be another beautiful evening with a splendid sunset, and Diana had the French windows open on to the garden outside. She'd even got a tiny fountain playing in a stoneware pot on the patio.

  Ellie started putting supper together. Diana came in and threw herself down on the settee, saying she still felt awful. ‘I know I look all right, but I'm not. You've no idea what it's like.’

  ‘Haven't I?’ Ellie kept her temper. ‘You forget th
at I went through it five times.’

  ‘Oh. Well. Yes, but not as badly as this.’

  Ellie refrained from saying it had been worse to lose babies when they were five or six months. What would be the point? ‘Supper'll be half an hour. Are you still showing people round? I thought you'd sold the lot.’

  ‘You can never have enough interest. Someone may drop out.

  Besides, once this lot is all through, I'll have to start all over again on another project. By the time I've paid the bank charges and the mortgage, I'll be lucky if I can clear enough to buy a twobedroomed semi for my next effort. You don't know of an old wreck that needs doing up, do you?’

  ‘You'd be better off buying a terraced house that's sound, and modernizing it.’

  For once Diana didn't dismiss a suggestion of Ellie's out of hand. Instead, she nibbled a forefinger. ‘You may be right. Would you help me?’

  Ellie considered this idea. On the one hand, she could afford to invest in some housing and Diana had proved she could modernize and appeal to a certain market. On the other hand, Diana was not above cutting corners to make a quick killing. ‘I'd have to think about it. Could I trust you?’

  ‘What a thing to say!’ Diana had reddened. ‘Of course you could trust me. Now I've found something I feel happy doing, I won't need to skimp on detail. I haven't here, have I?’

  ‘I don't know, dear. I'm no expert. To change the subject, I went to see Ms Cullen this afternoon. You remember her mother lived next door to us and you used to play around with her grandchildren?’

  ‘They were older than me. That Trudy …’ Diana laughed. ‘As wild as anything, out with her friend all hours, but butter wouldn't melt, to look at her now. Teaching somewhere, isn't she? Boring!’ ‘I heard it was you who were the wild one, out all hours in the town centre, smoking and drinking, when you were supposed to be in bed.’

  Diana shrugged. ‘There was a crowd of us. Lana and Trudy and a whole gang from the High School. Looking back, I think how innocent we were, but at the time we thought we were so daring! We bought cigarettes and shared them out and took them to school to show how cool we were. Lana pinched some of her gran's make-up - would you believe, at her age, her gran was still trying to look glamorous? - and we shared that out, too.

  ‘I remember I pinched some stuff from Woolworths, false eyelashes and mascara and stuff. Sometimes I see Lana sitting behind that desk in the travel agency and think how lucky I was to escape all that. Poor cow, she'll probably be there till she dies … unless they throw her out for a younger, prettier model.’ Diana smiled to herself, remembering. ‘You never had a clue, did you?’

  ‘No, dear. Your father knew how poorly I'd been, and he protected me. He realized how much it would have worried me.’ Yes, Frank had protected her and he'd been right to do so. She'd never have been able to cope at that time, recovering oh so slowly from the hysterectomy and still working full-time.

  Diana shrugged. ‘Well, I grew out of it, didn't I? By the time Stewart came along, I knew there had to be more to life than sitting behind a desk all day.’

  ‘Poor Stewart,’ said Ellie, wondering if he and Maria had found anywhere suitable to live yet. ‘Now, Diana. Tell me straight. Are you thinking of going back to him?’

  ‘No way. Maria's welcome to him. And before you ask, Derek has been ringing me, trying to make up. I've told him to get lost. Maybe we'll still have the odd few hours together -’ And here Diana ran her hands down over her breasts and smiled - ‘but now I've lost the baby, I'm free to look around me again. Next time I'll choose someone who'll back me no matter what. Don't look so disapproving, Mother. I'm a free agent.’

  ‘You do worry me, Diana. A self-centred life is no recipe for contentment.’

  ‘Oh, if you're going to preach the Bible at me …’

  ‘Remind you, yes. God's laws are wise and, if we disregard them, we pay the price. You conceived a child by a man with whom you'd had a passing affair, and when you were threatened with a miscarriage, you made sure the baby would die.’

  ‘It wasn't a baby. It was just a … a collection of cells.’

  ‘How soon will it be before you think of the baby you lost, think of its little arms around your neck, loving you? I still grieve for all those babies that I lost.’

  Diana flounced. ‘Well, I won't.’

  ‘You promised before God to take Stewart as your husband as long as you both shall live …’

  Diana flushed scarlet. ‘Well, I wasn't to know that he couldn't-’

  ‘He was a good man, Diana, and he truly loved you. He went on loving you long after you'd broken your marriage vows. You almost destroyed him …’

  ‘I did nothing of the kind!’

  ‘You reduced him to a wreck, you destroyed his self-confidence and his manhood. Perhaps even worse, you tried to corrupt him into your sneaky ways, using inferior contractors because they would give you a backhander. No, of course I don't approve of divorce, but I felt like cheering when Stewart found out he could still function as a man and discovered that Maria was interested in him. What's more, I'll dance at their wedding.’

  ‘Well! I suppose you'll back them in keeping little Frank, too?’ ‘I did think I would, yes. But now, I really don't know. You love Frank and he loves you. But he also loves Stewart and Maria and his childminder and me and Roy and everyone. Most of the time, anyway. I see you in him sometimes, when he gets into a tantrum. Stewart and Maria love him, yes. But will they let him get away with murder? That would be very bad for him. On the other hand, are you the sort of mother who gives in to her child just because he takes after her? And would that be good for Frank?’

  ‘How dare you!’

  ‘I never thought I'd say this, Diana, but I don't much like what you're becoming. If you're not careful, you'll end up a hard, selfish woman whom nobody loves, because you don't love anybody but yourself. And that's enough of a sermon. Supper should be ready by now. Shall I lay the table?’

  ‘Go to hell!’ Diana made for her bedroom and slammed the door behind her.

  Ellie unstuck herself from her chair. She was trembling. Had she really said all those terrible things to Diana? Granted, Diana had had it coming to her, but … her legs were shaking, they really were.

  And - sniff - supper was going to spoil if she didn't attend to it straight away. She'd put some minted lamb chops in the oven and cooked some potatoes and broccoli on top of the stove. Yes, everything was done. She dished up for the two of them and called to Diana that supper was ready.

  Diana did not respond. So Ellie found herself a knife and fork, sat down at the table and ate her supper. Still no Diana. Perhaps she was waiting for Ellie to rush to her side saying she didn't mean all those things she'd just said, and would Diana please forgive her. Ellie did nothing of the kind. She put clingfilm over Diana's plate and left it beside the microwave. She washed up everything else, called out to Diana that she was off now, and left the flat …

  … only to come face to face with Stewart and Maria, with Frank, on the doorstep.

  ‘Why, hello, Mrs Quicke,’ said Maria. ‘We didn't expect to see you here. We've come to look at the ground-floor flat that's for sale.’

  Fourteen

  Ellie walked all the way back home to tire herself out. She couldn't remember when she'd last got so churned up. Fancy telling Diana off like that! Had she gone too far? Probably. Had Diana deserved it? Certainly, but …

  Did it ever do any good to rant and rave?

  No, of course it didn't. The gentler approach was always better. Except, of course, that the gentler approach had never worked with Diana, who'd always made it clear she thought her mother weak.

  Coming face to face with Stewart and Maria had been another shock. They'd seen the advertisement for the flats on the Internet, and had had no idea that Diana was involved. Miss Quicke had given Stewart details of two houses which she'd said they could rent from her, but both needed a great deal of work doing to them. They'd continued to look at other flat
s and houses as they came on the market, but so far had seen nothing they could afford or even liked.

  They hadn't liked the look of Diana's big monster of a house, but they'd thought there was a garden flat which might suit them. When Ellie told them that Diana was keeping the only garden flat in the house, they said they'd go on to the next house on their list. Ellie wished them luck, kissed little Frank and waved them off.

  Little Frank had been yawning. It was way past his bedtime. Ellie wondered if she should point this out, but didn't. After all, how could that busy pair look round houses together, unless they took Frank with them?

  By the time she got home again, Ellie was scolding herself for an interfering busybody. She ought to have been more understanding with Diana. After all, the girl had only recently miscarried. Her hormones must be all over the place. Ellie ought to have made allowances.

  The house seemed very empty. Ellie still wasn't tired. She hoovered the sitting room. She always had to do that after the gardening club had been in for coffee. How was it that men couldn't eat a biscuit without leaving half of it on the floor? She even polished the furniture. She used up a lot of energy.

  All the time she was remembering scenes she hadn't thought about for years. Pushed to the back of her mind. Stupid, stupid to think about them now. To let them upset her.

  Diana, ten years old, defiant, swinging the bag with her swimming things in it. Frank, white with fury and shame. The headmistress, saying that she had to consider involving the police … the other girl's parents, one crying, the other so angry he could hardly speak.

  Diana hadn't meant it. It had been a bit of playground fun that had got out of hand. Diana would never deliberately … no, of course she wouldn't. The fact that the other girl had ended up in Casualty had been … well, it had been an accident. Of course it had.

  Diana wouldn't. No. Of course not.

  It had taken quite a lot of hushing up, though. The other girl had never returned to that school. Frank had had to pay her first term's fees at a private school, but luckily she and her family had moved away from the area and the whole nasty incident had been forgotten.