‘I’m sorry to ask you this,’ Alex said. ‘Would you come and have a few words with Tony and me, please?’
Bill looked at his watch.
‘It can’t wait?’ Dan said. ‘We’re both whacked.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, feeling like a recording. ‘Really. I’ve been trying to get hold of you for hours. I don’t want to sound panicked, but Mum and I are … we’re not sure what we should do about something.’
Windows in the restaurant rattled, startling Alex. The wind was revving up for another good blow. ‘It’s about when I was born, really.’
Dan squeezed the bridge of his nose. ‘I see.’ The way he said it made plain he didn’t see anything and didn’t want to unless it was on his own terms and time frame.
‘OK.’ She looked at the floor, trying to decide how to disengage gracefully. There was nothing to be gained by pushing this now.
A hand holding her elbow brought her face up fast.
Bill Lamb smiled at her. It happened so rarely she hadn’t realized what a nice smile he had, or how it changed his usually expressionless eyes. They shone with something approaching humor and the skin at the corners crinkled very nicely.
She was tired, too, and losing all objectivity. ‘Yes?’ she said to Bill. You were in a bad state when the slightest sign of kindness turned you into a jellyfish.
‘Why don’t we get my fearless leader a drink and go into the snug like you suggest? Let’s all have drinks and you can get whatever’s worrying you off your chest.’ He frowned slightly. ‘Unless you’d rather I not be there. I understand that, of course. Wasn’t thinking.’
‘Tony and I would appreciate having your opinion, too,’ she said before she could decide if she was getting sucked in by a little charm.
‘Off we go then,’ Bill said and they joined Tony with Dan, apparently slightly mollified at the prospect of a drink, bringing up the rear.
This time Tony insisted on getting their drinks and left Alex alone with Dan and Bill. ‘Let’s get started,’ Dan said. He shed his coat but not his suit jacket and still managed to look disheveled with his tie askew and his shirt collar wrinkled. Not at all his usual appearance.
‘You have had a long day, haven’t you?’ Alex said, feeling guilty.
Dan glanced down at his clothes and raised one brow. ‘It shows, hm? Yes, but sitting here in the warm and looking forward to a brandy makes me feel better by the second. How about you, Bill?’
‘Just ducky, guv.’ Bill took off his trench coat and his dark grey suit jacket. He was of average height but powerfully built. No fat on that trim body.
Alex almost suffered a pang of guilt for noticing Bill Lamb the man – almost. She smiled to herself.
‘I hope you got started, darling,’ Tony said pushing the door open with a shoulder and coming into the snug with a tray of brandies.
Tony, you are the real standout. And he was, but she was definitely not concentrating on the reason they were all here. ‘I’m going to keep this short and sweet, Dan,’ she said, all business. ‘No waffling all over the place. Sorry I did that to you the last time. Nerves make a mess of me sometimes.’
Accepting his glass, Dan took a hefty swig and looked at her. ‘Don’t you worry about the other night. We all have difficult moments.’ He helped himself to a sausage roll and Bill captured the steak and kidney pie, a plate, and silverware from a caddy on the bar.
The brandy warmed Alex and did a good job relaxing her. ‘There’s a woman called Beverly Irving who took my mother in when she was expecting me and had no place to go. You know … I think you know my mum has never been married. She spent a lot of years just holding things together for the two of us. I’ve got to stay focused.’ For a moment she paused and mentally rearranged what she had to say. ‘Beverly Irving tried to take me away from Lily. She said she wanted her to go back to school and finish her education but the price was for Beverly to adopt me. It was all supposed to be altruistic, but it got a bit sick.’
She sketched in the story, glancing from time to time at Tony who gave her encouraging nods and smiles or said an occasional, ‘That’s right.’
Dan and Bill listened intently, each of them leaning forward in their chairs, drinks forgotten.
At last Dan said, ‘So this woman threatened to hurt someone Lily loves. What do you think she meant by that? What does Lily think she meant?’
‘All I think is that it’s ominous coming from someone who was supposedly out of the picture years ago,’ Alex said. ‘My mother had forgotten she signed to have any mail redirected to Beverly. This happened over a lot of years and Mum put it behind her. I think the only reason the last effects of Mum’s mother reached her was because someone got scared there would be trouble if they didn’t. The people in Child Protection Services are so busy. Mum said you should see their offices. Mad, she said. They just let anything meant for Mum slip through their fingers. I don’t even know if there was anything before my grandmother died and left those few things. Beverly was furious my mum had them. She must have found out from the office and she called Mum. It’s as if she’s known everything about us all these years. It’s sickening.’
They sat in silence, thinking, before Dan said, ‘This isn’t a Serious Crimes incident – not at this point and I hope it won’t be.’
‘No,’ Bill said, giving Alex another of his smiles. ‘But we won’t just let you dangle. Gosh, I wouldn’t want to face Radhika if she found out we’d done that.’
Dan gave an explosive laugh. ‘The little lady has my partner wrapped around her fingers, folks. But Bill’s right. I don’t like the sound of this. We stopped any surveillance of you but perhaps we’d better have someone keep a look out again – unofficially, of course. We can always tie it to your being a witness to the Hill fire – if we have to.’
‘I think you should watch Grant Hill, too.’ Alex let the statement pour out and put a hand over her mouth. ‘I shouldn’t have said that.’
If there had been any doubt about her having their attention, there wasn’t anymore.
‘Good for you,’ Tony said. He got up, came around the table and planted a less than chaste kiss on her lips. ‘Good girl. You made the right decision. Listen to her, Dan and Bill. There’s something whacky there.’
The detectives looked at each other.
Tony disappeared for a couple of minutes to return with the brandy bottle. He topped up the glasses, pausing at Alex’s; she nodded emphatically.
‘We may need this,’ Tony said.
Alex tried to be concise. She tried not to embellish, and didn’t, but the facts were the facts and Grant had threatened her.
Falling back in his chair, Dan regarded Alex with a mixture of respect and amazement. ‘You followed LeJuan and Barry to the Knighton estate.’
‘Yes,’ she said quietly. ‘I didn’t know that’s where they were going. I only thought about getting to see you and it was obvious – or I thought it was – that they knew where you were. So I followed.’ She felt miserable.
‘The footsteps were yours,’ Dan said. ‘That saves some work. What if it hadn’t been us in the carriage house? What if Harding and Trafford were going after criminals – desperate men who would stop at nothing – and you got in the way.’
Tears in her eyes embarrassed her. ‘I believed it was you two there.’
‘This is bizarre,’ Bill said.
Tony jumped in. ‘It was a poor decision but it worked well for your purposes. You’ve got to admit that.’
‘You’ve got to swear you won’t repeat a word of this,’ Dan said. ‘Nothing you overheard. You may well have to talk about it on the stand in court but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Can you keep your mouth shut? You, too, Tony.’
‘I would never jeopardize a case,’ Alex said.
‘Of course not,’ Tony agreed. ‘What about this Beverly Irving.’
‘We have to think about it,’ Dan said. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll set the wheels in motion to find her and fig
ure out what she wants and why. You say you never met her?’
Alex shook her head, no.
‘And Lily hasn’t seen her since she got away?’ He didn’t wait for Alex’s answer. ‘She’s been hanging around in the shadows, that’s for sure. And she’s been getting information about you. She couldn’t get everything from a sporadic communication by letter. Let me see if we can get someone we know assigned to the case.’
A great rush of gratitude overwhelmed Alex. She gulped and since she heard it she assumed everyone else must, too.
Dan’s phone rang and he patted pockets until he found it. ‘O’Reilly,’ he said. ‘No, I haven’t. Should I know her … all right. Had anyone spoken to the husband? Oh. That doesn’t help … does she now? That’s the place to start, then. You’re sure of the identification?’
All but slopping her drink, Alex moved hastily to sit beside Tony. He held her hand and turned up the corners of his mouth. ‘Take it easy,’ he said.
‘Yes,’ Dan said. ‘We’ll be right there.’
He put his phone away. Dan was already on his feet replacing jacket and coat.
Dan sighed and looked from one to the other of them, ending with Alex. ‘I hope I don’t regret asking this but I’d do it in an interview if that becomes where we’re headed.’
‘What do you mean by that?’ Tony said.
‘I’m talking to Alex. Do you know a Winifred Sibley?’
Staring at him, uncomprehending but with a sinking sense of doom, she said, ‘I do.’
‘She doesn’t have a family?’
‘I think she has a husband who travels with his work. He’s away a lot. I can’t remember ever seeing him really. Gladys Lymer is her best friend. She works at Leaves of Comfort.’
Dan sniffed. ‘A neighbor told one of our officers she didn’t think Winifred was married.’
‘I’m probably wrong then,’ she swallowed.
‘Something’s happened to Winifred. What? Just tell us now. We can get to what we know about her after that.’
‘You’re going to know anyway,’ Dan said, on his feet and gathering his overcoat. ‘She’s dead. In a shed workroom behind her house. Blunt force trauma to the head.’
TWENTY-EIGHT
Winifred Sibley’s pretty cottage was at the edge of the village green, several doors from Lily Duggins’ home. Lights each side of the front door picked up a coat of fresh powder green paint.
A SOCO van was parked at the curb of a narrow pavement and LeJuan Harding parked between that and the nondescript vehicle he recognized as the police surgeon’s.
At the windows of every little home, lights shone cheerfully through the darkness. At first glance, it was an almost magical scene that belied the violence LeJuan expected to find shortly. As soon as he got out of his car he heard quiet conversation. Just past the SOCO vehicle, people had gathered on the pavement. Their tones were horrified, disbelieving.
He approached quickly, beckoning a young woman constable to accompany him. ‘Evening all. Please move back. The officer here will place tape so you’ll know the area we need to keep clear. Thank you all for your cooperation.’
‘Make sure no one gets past the tape,’ he said to the constable quietly. ‘Patrol until you’re relieved. Eyes open for media. No one gets past. No details given out.’
‘Yessir,’ she said smartly. ‘These people will already know the name of the victim. They may know more. They’re likely to talk.’
‘Nothing we can do about that. With any luck we’ve got a bit of time before the press get here.’
The front door was closed and an officer had been stationed there. Silently, he indicated a path around the cottage and LeJuan quickly reached the back garden, cast in odd gray and white shapes by the glaring lights that had been erected. The temperature had plummeted again and iced-over puddles of melt shone glassy black.
A tiny white dog, his fur standing up all over, had parked himself a few feet from a surprisingly large shed with an open door and constant movement inside. The dog gave an unearthly whine that broke into bursts of frantic yips before sinking back to the whine. LeJuan gave the dog a quick stroke on his way past. Dog, or oversized white mouse? He stopped to scratch the creature’s neck before moving on.
Dr Lewis’s was the first voice he heard, strident as usual. DCI O’Reilly’s face turned to him the instant he stepped through the door.
‘Good for you, LeJuan,’ O’Reilly said. ‘That was quick.’
LeJuan didn’t volunteer any information about where he’d been when the call came in. ‘Dispatch said one victim. An older woman. Is it murder then, guv?’ He could see the victim and already knew the answer.
‘Yes, poor woman.’ O’Reilly screwed up his eyes. ‘What’s that bloody racket out there?’
‘I’d say a mourning dog, guv,’ LeJuan told him. ‘Be a disaster if someone trod on it. Might weigh a couple of pounds soaking wet. I don’t like to call Animal Control. Could be someone else it’s close to will take it in.’
The dog cried out again and then didn’t stop. ‘Of course. I already knew about him. Have someone take him across the road to the pub and keep him warm in a coat pocket or something,’ O’Reilly said. ‘Tony Harrison’s there. He might as well do something we ask him to do for once and quiet the dog down.’
Another uniform dealt with removing the dog but the sound it had made stayed in LeJuan’s head. ‘Poor little beggar,’ O’Reilly muttered and LeJuan liked him for it.
The dead woman, wrapped in several old sweaters and with a scarf around her neck, was slumped sideways in a wooden rocking chair beside an electric bar fire. Her right hand rested in her lap, a long length of white material beneath her fingers. The left arm hung beside the chair.
On the right side of the head was a terrible wound. Blood was stuck thickly in her hair and made spidery blackish rivulets across her face.
‘Furious force there,’ O’Reilly said. ‘Hit her twice, although I’d say the second blow was unnecessary. She would probably already have been dead.’
‘Don’t see why I had to come at all,’ Dr Molly Lewis said, but with humor. ‘I’d say you were right, Dan. But the second hit was responsible for a lot of the mess. Took out the eye and socket, the cheekbone and most of the nose. Crazy bastard whoever he is.’
LeJuan winced.
‘I don’t suppose you’ve got any hunches about whether this is our man from Darla Crowley?’ Dan asked.
‘Hunches?’ She looked around. ‘Just making sure you aren’t talking to someone else, my friend. I don’t work on bloody hunches. This doesn’t have to be the same perpetrator, but I wouldn’t be amazed if it was.’
‘Is this as pointless as it looks?’ LeJuan heard himself say. ‘What was she doing? Making lace? God, I didn’t know anyone still made the stuff. There’s blood on it.’ He rubbed a hand across his eyes. There were times when he wavered, times when he wasn’t sure this was his life’s work the way he’d once been so convinced – when he was younger and thought he was needed to help avenge the cruelly treated.
‘Bastard,’ O’Reilly said. ‘I don’t know who he is but I hate his guts. Still, this is our job, stopping the crazies. I think I’ve got everything I’ll get here, Molly. I’ll be there when you do this one. When do you think you’ll get to it?’
‘In the morning,’ Molly said and her voice was as flat as LeJuan felt. ‘I’ll get to her first thing. Shall we say eight?’
‘Eight it is.’
LeJuan stood with O’Reilly who said, ‘I should mention we’ve had a break about Darla. She was Lance Pullinger’s sister. Looks like he bought the cottage as a place to keep her safe. Not sure from what yet. Now we’ll go to the kitchen and talk to the woman who called in. Bill was dead on his feet so I told him to turn in. You can fill in for him, not that there’ll be much to deal with until later when we line up more interviews.
‘The neighbor who found the deceased came to check because of the dog. A lot of neighbors will have heard him so checking
the times should be easy enough. House-to-house with the usual patience. Follow-up on Winifred Sibley’s close contacts and her movements over the past day or so. Emphasis on last night, of course. I doubt she went out to her workroom to make lace after midnight but we’ll know more when we get an idea of the time of death.’
‘Right,’ LeJuan said. ‘Should I put someone on making a list of family, friends, neighbors and such?’
‘Yes. You’ll have plenty of help with that. She worked for Mary and Harriet Burke at Leaves of Comfort.’
LeJuan watched the photographer work. ‘That will be a good source of information. The ladies know what goes on locally, don’t they?’
‘They do. Now let’s get this initial interview over with fast and move on. Lily Duggins called in the death. She’s the one who found the victim.’
‘The police are out there in the shed now,’ Lily said into her phone, looking along Winifred Sibley’s back path toward her shed. ‘All kinds of them. No, Alex, I’m not a wreck, I’m more-or-less OK. Shaken up, naturally, and sad but I haven’t fallen apart. The shock will come later.’
She listened to Alex worrying and trying to plan for what Lily should do next and interrupted, ‘James is on his way here now. Nothing for you to worry about. Yes, I know they took the little dog over to Tony. Nice little girl. Her name’s Lillie Belle … yes, it does suit her. I think she’s a Maltese. She’s so upset.’ Lily was also upset, sick to her stomach and frightened, but she wasn’t going to tell Alex or anyone else just how frightened.
‘Alex, I think we’re going to find ourselves more in the middle of whatever’s going on around here. It’s different, isn’t it … yes, I know murder’s always different, of course I do, but, well, you’re a bit more involved than usual. I hate to say murder is usual but you do seem to get yourself dragged into these awful cases.
‘You do know Gladys has been close friends with Winifred forever, don’t you?’ The younger generations didn’t tend to take a lot of notice of what older people did. ‘Well, she was and she’s going to take this very hard. So are Harriet and Mary.’
Whisper the Dead Page 20
