Closer to Death in a Garden (Pitkirtly Mysteries Book 10)
Page 20
‘Apart from the alpaca incident,’ Christopher pointed out, crunching up a bit of crispy lettuce that had fallen out of his sandwich. ‘They got some unwanted publicity then.’
‘Yes,’ said Keith, ‘and that was where Mr Kilpatrick came in.’
‘Was he in league with Madeleine and the boys?’ said Amaryllis.
‘I’m coming to that,’ said Keith.
‘Sorry,’ said Amaryllis, not sounding at all sorry.
‘Madeleine Blyth-Sheridan was trouble from the start,’ said Keith solemnly. ‘She was sent off to a boarding-school because her parents couldn’t do anything with her, she was expelled after attacking another girl there, they talked the school into taking her back and she ran off with some boy from the local garage. That was when she had the twins.’
‘They were twins, were they?’ said Amaryllis with interest. ‘They weren’t all that alike.’
‘Fraternal twins, I expect,’ said Sarah Ramsay. She was keeping surprisingly quiet. Jemima guessed she was being nice and letting Keith have a turn in the spotlight. And she seemed to have let him run the case more or less on his own. There was no knowing what went on inside the police station, though. The Chief Inspector still had all the power.
‘They were fostered out but she always wanted them back,’ said Keith. ‘According to her, anyway. Says she was psychologically damaged by having them taken away.’
‘Hmph!’ was Jock’s contribution to the conversation. He had his mouth full of Scotch egg, so maybe that was all he could say.
‘She killed a man, allegedly by accident, when she was in her twenties and the twins were in primary school,’ Keith continued. ‘She was inside for a while, and she got into the wrong company when she came out. Mr Kilpatrick was the older brother of one of the women she shared with. They planned a robbery together. Some jewellery, from a big house up near Gleneagles. She swindled him out of the proceeds and came back here to hide the stuff in her brother’s stables... Kilpatrick came after her, of course, but he didn’t know where she had gone with the loot until the alpaca incident. That was when he moved into the house over the back, and bided his time.’
‘Why did Madeleine stage the scene with the alpacas, though?’ said Charlie. ‘She must have known it would draw people’s attention – that was the point of it, wasn’t it?’
‘Ah,’ said Keith. ‘They all fell out.’
‘Who fell out, Keith?’ said Ashley timidly, tugging at his sleeve.
‘The Blyth-Sheridans,’ said Keith. ‘The brother and his wife found the jewels Madeleine had hidden, and sold them. By the time she discovered what had happened, they had spent the money. That was when she thought of getting her revenge.’
‘With alpacas,’ said Charlie Smith, patting the dog with one hand and taking another fairy cake with the other. The dog regarded the cake hungrily for a moment and then put its head down meekly.
‘Revenge with alpacas,’ said Jock McLean. ‘Could be a book title.’
‘That’s a bit daft,’ Dave argued. ‘Who’d want to buy a book about alpacas?’
‘So she hadn’t really thought it through,’ said Amaryllis, obviously trying to prompt Keith to carry on. ‘She hadn’t imagined anyone was still looking for her. Or perhaps she was planning to divert Mr Kilpatrick’s attention to her brother and sister-in-law.’
‘And then the twins took a hand in things,’ said Keith sadly. ‘You’d think they would have learned from their mother’s mistakes, wouldn’t you?’
‘It doesn’t always work like that,’ said Jemima. ‘I was never any better at putting in zips than my mother had been. We just couldn’t get the knack, either of us.’
‘Yes, but putting in zips isn’t quite the same as killing people,’ said Jock.
She felt his tone was unnecessarily dismissive. She had opened her mouth to say something when Keith intervened.
‘Anyway. Madeleine and the twins – we haven’t worked out exactly who did what yet, but one of the lads seems to have been a bit of an expert in electronics and sound systems and the other one was just plain nasty and liked to attack people – managed to kill Mr Blyth-Sheridan, dump him in the garden centre, try and implicate the next person who came along...’
‘Me,’ said Amaryllis helpfully.
‘And they killed Mrs Blyth-Sheridan too, quite likely at about the same time. That was when Madeleine realised the alpaca was still loose and she had to catch it before it attracted people’s attention.’
‘She must have known people would notice something, though,’ said Amaryllis, ‘after he was found in the garden centre and the police came.’
‘She was just trying to spread a bit of confusion,’ said Keith. ‘I must admit she succeeded, for a good while at least. The Chief Inspector and I were a bit baffled at first.’
‘Not just at first,’ admitted Sarah Ramsay, looking even younger and less official as she lounged on the blanket with a beer. ‘We were baffled up until the point when you asked young Sammy to do those drawings... That was really helpful. I don’t always welcome the involvement of civilians, but this was a case where we were struggling, and that was a breakthrough.’
Jemima and Dave looked pointedly at Jock, but of course he wouldn’t want to claim any credit for thinking of the idea. Instead he mumbled a bit and said, ‘That Sammy’s a good wee artist.’
‘We looked at the background, of course,’ said Keith. ‘We found out about Madeleine’s criminal record but we discounted it because we didn’t know she was even in Pitkirtly. And we had no idea of the whereabouts of those two layabout sons of hers. Even when we found out somebody was sleeping in the old hotel we didn’t know who it was.’
‘What about the old woman who looks like a witch?’ said Amaryllis.
‘A witch?’ said Keith.
‘She lives just up the road from Mr Kilpatrick,’ said Amaryllis. ‘There’s a Neighbourhood Watch sign in her window.’
‘Or is it Neighbourhood Witch?’ whispered Dave, making Jemima laugh, which she didn’t really approve of when such a serious discussion was going on.
Keith laughed too. Surely he couldn’t have heard? But it turned out he hadn’t.
‘That’s old Mrs Armstrong,’ he said. ‘Inspector Armstrong’s mother. She’s very hot on neighbourhood security. Tells us off at regular intervals for not sending foot patrols up her way. Sees suspicious characters at least once a week – including you, Ms Peebles.’
‘That doesn’t mean she isn’t up to no good,’ said Amaryllis stubbornly.
‘It’ll never stick,’ said Keith. He looked round the group. ‘Any more questions?’
‘Why was Mr Anderson talking to Madeleine Blyth-Sheridan on the beach?’ said Jemima, suddenly remembering that panicky morning when she had thought she and Dave would never be able to roam around town freely again. ‘And why did he make those threats?’
‘He was trying to be too clever,’ said Keith. ‘Pretending to get close to her so that he could collect evidence and catch her out. He thought she’d be impressed if he threatened you. He’d become obsessed with the stolen jewels case and just wouldn’t give up on it. He got into trouble with his company and got the sack, but that didn’t stop him. He was asking for trouble.’ He reflected on this for a moment and added, ‘That’s why we don’t encourage people to take the law into their own hands. He should have brought it all to us and moved on.’
‘He might have done if he thought there was any chance of the police following it up,’ said Amaryllis. ‘But that’s all water under the bridge now, of course.’
It wasn’t like Amaryllis to be so conciliatory. The blue sky, sunshine and picnic fare might have had something to do with it. Jemima wondered if they should have a picnic at the end of every case. Not that she actually wanted to be involved in any more murders. She shuddered slightly, and Dave put his arm round her shoulders. His chair rocked slightly on the uneven ground as he did so, but luckily it stayed just about upright.
‘He’s lucky to be a
live,’ said Keith.
‘We’re all lucky, on a day like this,’ said Jock McLean, and put a whole fairy cake, sugar flower and all, in his mouth.
THE END
If you enjoyed Closer to Death in a Garden, you might like the others in the Pitkirtly Mystery series:
Crime in the Community
Reunited in Death
A Reformed Character
Death at the Happiness Club
Frozen in Crime
The Queen of Scots Mystery
A Tasteful Crime
The Christmas Puzzle
Death in a Cold Spring