‘She did it to herself. We just made a bit of a mess with her flat, and then left her there with a few little surprises. Booby traps, you might say. She brought it on herself, right?’
Ellie felt faint. ‘Brought what on herself?’
‘You’ll see.’ Tracy took Ellie’s arm and whirled her up and out of the door of her flat and along the walkway to Rose’s front door.
‘Let us in, Jase. Then fix it back the way you did it for Rose.’
Jase shambled up and did something to the door handle. He opened the door and stood back to let them in. Tracy shoved Ellie inside and switched on the lights, while Jase stood in the doorway, grinning.
The flat had been trashed. There wasn’t a piece of furniture which hadn’t been thrown around. Rose’s cherished pot plants had been thrown at the wall and lay smashed on the carpet. Glassware, china … all in pieces. Rose had only had two pictures on the walls and they were now on the floor, the frames and glass in shards.
Rose had kept a collection of family photos on the mantelpiece: portraits of her parents, her long-dead husband, and of her daughter Joyce at different stages. These had been thrown around the place, some having been ripped up, others trodden on.
‘Oh, how could you!’ exclaimed Ellie.
‘I never touched it. Boys will be boys, you know.’
Ellie looked in the bedroom. Here there was the same evidence of destruction. The bed had been overturned, the mattress flung off against the wall. The curtains had been torn down and thrown over it. The built-in cupboard had been ransacked, most of the clothing lying in a stir-fry on the floor. Ellie recognized the royal-blue suit Rose had worn for her daughter’s wedding, and the good-quality hat and good coat which Miss Quicke had bought Rose the other day.
Ellie put her head round the door of the second bedroom. This had received the same treatment. Some of Joyce’s wedding presents and her wedding dress had been savagely attacked. Joyce would be furious! In the kitchen everything had been taken out of the cupboards, the fridge and the tiny freezer, and piled into the middle of the floor. Tomato sauce and flour mixed with eggs decorated everything from the ceiling to the floors.
Strangely enough, none of the electrical equipment had been smashed. ‘We might swop the microwave and the fridge in a coupla days,’ said Tracy.
‘This is appalling. Suppose this had been done to your flat?’
Tracy shrugged. ‘No one’s going to touch our place, are they? They wouldn’t dare!’
‘Where’s Rose?’
‘In her bedroom. She made the mistake of touching something she shouldn’t, right? And if you’re not very careful, you’ll go the same way. Then it’ll be “Two women found in tragic circumstances, faulty wiring to blame”. As soon as you’ve had enough, bang on the wall. Three long, three short. Go on doing it till we hear you, right, and then we’ll turn off the current and get you out. Don’t bother trying to shout out of the window. Nobody takes no notice of shouting round here. Or breaking glass. Right?’
Tracy gave Ellie a push back into the kitchen and with her rolling gait made for the front door, where Jase was standing, holding a piece of wire in gloved hands.
‘I wouldn’t try to get out, if I were you. The handle on the front door’s going to be wired up to the mains again. Other things, too, so be careful what you touch! Ha! Ha!’
The front door slammed shut.
Ellie was alone in a booby-trapped flat with the body of her dearest friend. Where was Rose? In the bedroom?
Ellie picked her way carefully through the debris to the main bedroom. The discarded mattress appeared to be moving – or was that an illusion?
Ellie leaped forward and pulled the curtains and the mattress away from the wall.
‘Don’t touch the lamp!’ Rose was lying in a huddle in the small space between the bedside table and the wall.
She was dishevelled and looked as if she’d collected a black eye, but she was alive.
Ellie tried to help Rose to her feet, but failed.
‘It’s my knee,’ said Rose. ‘I must have twisted it when I fell. Don’t touch anything. Ellie.’ She collapsed on to the floor, nursing her knee, which had indeed swollen to twice its usual size.
‘What happened, Rose?’
‘I was just packing up this morning to come back to you when they burst in and started trashing the place, screaming at me that I wasn’t going anywhere. I didn’t understand at first, I really didn’t.’
‘Don’t try to talk yet.You’re trembling. Lean back on the mattress. I think that’s safe enough.’
‘You must warn your aunt, dear. I don’t like to speak ill of anyone, but Tracy and Jase are not very nice people. There’s been nothing but trouble in the flats since they came, not to mention the noise, but no one dares complain because if they do they get beaten up or their flats get trashed …’
‘Why didn’t you warn my aunt when Tracy first turned up to work for her?’
‘I didn’t know she worked for your aunt till after I moved in, and I didn’t want to give her a bad character when she needed the job so badly, with her son out of school and everything, so it wouldn’t have been right to warn your aunt then, when Tracy was really trying so hard. Well, at first she was, anyway. When Mo died, I thought how dreadful for poor Tracy, even though I knew they weren’t on good terms. Something to do with a carpet that should have been Tracy’s after her mother died, but Mo took it? Such silly little things can turn into a feud if you let them, can’t they?’
‘Dear Rose, you saw no evil.’
‘Not till they burst in on me like that and started shouting. I couldn’t believe it, even then. Tracy knocked me down and, oh dear, my poor eye, is it quite closed up yet? I have such a head, but I don’t think we’d better look for the aspirins dear, do you? Then they started trashing the flat though I tried to stop them, and they said they’d stop as soon as I stopped working for your aunt but of course I couldn’t agree to that, could I? Then they pushed me in the cupboard here in the bedroom and left me for ages, and I thought that I must be brave and really what an adventure it all was and I’d never imagined such a thing could happen to me, and my bits and pieces could all be replaced and weren’t worth that much anyway. Only I couldn’t get out and I thought of you and your aunt and how you were getting on, and I missed the service at the church, didn’t I? Though I must say that Tum-Tum seems very nice …’
‘Yes, he is. But Rose, do be quiet and let me think for a minute.’
‘… and I could hear them moving around the flat and I couldn’t think what they were doing, but then they let me out and said was I prepared to do what they asked and I said no. So they said I could try to right the mess if I wanted to, so naturally I started in the bedroom and went to pick up the bedside lamp and got such a shock I must have passed out. Then when I came to, I was under the mattress and they were throwing more things on top of me. So I played dead. Am I glad to see you, Ellie. I heard everything they said to you. How are we going to get out if the handle on the front door is electrified?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Ellie. ‘Do you think they were bluffing and we could just walk out?’
‘I wouldn’t like to chance it, dear.’
‘Come to think of it, how are you still alive, if you got electrocuted?’
‘I was wearing these heavy walking shoes, dear. I wasn’t going to pack them because they’re too heavy, so I thought I’d change into them. Rubber soles, you see. I suppose that’s what saved my life.’
Ellie nodded. Rose had always liked good solid shoes, which she bought from the charity shop. Ellie looked down at her own shoes. They were simulated leather brogues, with a synthetic sole. They wouldn’t prevent an electrical charge going through her. No, they couldn’t chance the front door. Tracy had used Jase to rig the electrics at Aunt Drusilla’s, and the kettle at Ellie’s. He knew how to do it, all right.
Tracy was, of course, quite mad.
Tracy really believed she had a right to do whatever was needed so
that she could get her own way. In a way, she was like Diana in that. Tracy didn’t care that Diana was going to jail. She didn’t care about anything except getting her own way.
Two women found in tragic circumstances. Faulty wiring to blame …
Twenty
Ellie put her hands down at her sides, and looked around her. She wouldn’t touch anything – no, not anything – till she was sure of it. The mess was indescribable, but she mustn’t try to clear it up. In any case, Rose would never come back here again … poor Rose, forced to watch the destruction of her home …
Armand and Kate had been fooled into going away and leaving them. Roy was at the golf club. She had no mobile phone to contact anyone who might be able to help her.
‘You stay here, Rose, and rest that knee. I’m just going to see if your phone’s working again.’ She picked her way back into the living room and located Rose’s phone by the upturned table – which had lost a leg. The phone was off the hook, but there was no buzz indicating that the line was alive.
Dare she try it?
Anything they’d tampered with was liable to kill her.
‘That poor woman came round looking for her friend,’ they’d say. ‘What
a shame. Rose’s flat was trashed? What a pity. But some of the boys around here … you know? And they were both electrocuted? How dreadful!’
Think, Ellie. What do you know about electricity?
Not nearly enough.
It’s carried along wires. So if she could see wires trailing along the
carpet, perhaps she’d know which items of furniture carried a lethal charge. She seemed to remember that wood didn’t conduct electricity very well, if at all. Nor paper. Nor material – unless it had metal in it.
So if she picked up the broken wooden table leg and poked around with it, she ought to be able to test out her theory.
She picked up the wooden table leg, and it didn’t give her a shock. So far, so good. She poked at the telephone on the floor. Still no jolt. She would risk it. She picked up the receiver and found the line was dead. The wire leading from the main body of the phone had been cut. It lay in shards of glass, looking for all the world as if the wire had been cut accidentally.
So that was out.
She could break the window with the table leg and shout for help. But nobody in this area would take any notice of that.
A metal tray on which Rose had been accustomed to serve tea lay on its side. Ellie touched it with the tip of the table leg and jumped as she felt a jolt go up through her elbow. So the tray had been wired. Where were the connecting wires?
Ellie carefully teased broken china and glass away from the tray and spotted a wire which had been attached to the tray with a tiny clamp.
It would be a good idea to pray for protection before she made another movement. Stand still. Pray.
Be with me, Lord. You know my situation. If it is your will that I survive then help me, guide me.
The noise from next door was deafening. It made it very hard to think straight.
It would be a good idea to trace the wire from the tray back to … wherever it came from. Perhaps a plug that she could pull out of its socket?
She traced it under a rug. She lifted the rug and found a dozen more wires leading in different directions away from the door. The wires all joined together near the door and went under it.
She couldn’t pull the plug out of the socket because the socket was outside the flat.
At least she’d still got electric light. Thank the Lord that she could see what she was doing.
She traced three of the wires to their destinations. The television set was one. The oven and kettle in the kitchen. Ellie wasn’t too sure about the microwave, either.
The bathroom. There was a wire leading to the hot-water tap in the washbasin. Turn that on, and meet your Maker.
Stewart had used the rubber bath mat when he neutralized the kettle at Ellie’s. No rubber bath mat. Just something in cotton, rather thin and worn.
Rubber. Gloves? Shoes? Where might something like that be?
Ellie went into the bedroom, her senses assaulted once again by the noise and the mess … torn duvet, pillows, sheets … smashed clock, smashed mirror. Smashed china figurines. Ellie had given Rose one of those for her last birthday. Don’t think about that. Rose seemed to be dozing, reclining on the mattress. It would probably be the best thing for her, to have a little rest.
Most of Rose’s clothing had been pulled out of the built-in cupboard and left on the floor, but her shoes were still inside. Ellie pulled them out. Heavy brogues, and lace-ups. Some silver sandals. Some plastic overshoes and a pair of wellington boots that Rose had bought from the charity shop one day when they’d had a sudden downpour. Ellie had offered to send Rose home in a taxi, but dear Rose had wanted to be independent and had bought the boots to walk home in.
Wellington boots. Good quality. Rubber soles?
Yes!
Ellie took off her own neat shoes, and pulled on the boots. They were too big for her, but she didn’t care about that.
Now for some rubber gloves … anything rubber that she could use to protect herself with. There were only plastic gloves in the kitchen. Not much good for this sort of work but they might do.
She remembered seeing something, somewhere …
Ah. Rose had very wisely bought some large rubber shapes cut to look like feet, which she’d applied to the bottom of the bath, so that she didn’t slip in the water. They were definitely made of rubber.
Now, if Ellie could only get a couple of them unstuck … ugh! They’d very firmly glued themselves to the bottom of the bath. She needed something to prise them up with. A knife from the kitchen? Ah, but be careful which one you choose. Standing in wellington boots may help, but may not protect you entirely.
A plastic spatula on the floor. Try that. The edge is reasonably sharp and yes, it was working … but … bother! That piece tore right across. Try another. Carefully, now. You’ve got all night to do this. Only, once you get out of the door, you’ll still have to run the gauntlet of that gang of louts outside. Don’t think about them. One step at a time.
Ellie stood up, holding two giant red rubber feet.
Rose moaned and shifted when Ellie shook her. ‘Come on, dear Rose. One last effort and we’ll be out of here. Put on your new coat and hat. It’s probably raining again … there. And where’s your handbag?’ Rose blinked and covered her black eye with her hand.
Ellie helped her into her new coat and hat, and assisted her into the sitting room, where they retrieved her handbag. Rose gave a little cry and bent to retrieve one of her cherished family photographs.
‘Never mind that now,’ said Ellie. ‘I’ll come back and get those later and have them restored for you. Perhaps we’ll set you up with a wall of photos in your new home? You need never come back here. Your home is with us now.’
Rose looked around her, her lips trembling. Then she nodded. ‘Do you know, I used to pray that someone would have the courage to deal with those people next door? I didn’t realize it would be me who’d bring them down. Shall we go straight to the police?’
‘After you’ve seen a doctor,’ said Ellie, who thought Rose really ought to be in hospital. ‘Stand quite still till I get my own shoes.’
She found a plastic bag in the kitchen and put her own shoes and her handbag into it, to carry more easily. Then she faced the front door.
‘Well, here goes!’
Wrapping the red rubber feet round her hands for protection, Ellie grasped the door handle and turned it. No shock. The relief! But the door still didn’t open.
‘Let me,’ said Rose, unthinkingly stepping forward to help. ‘You’ve to give it a tug in wet weather before it opens. Or perhaps they’ve double-locked it?’
‘Don’t touch it!’ Ellie dug Rose unceremoniously in the ribs to prevent her touching the door. ‘Sorry, but …’ She looked closely at the lock. It had come away from the door jamb, no doubt broken
open when the louts barged in.
Ellie tugged at the door with all her might and, Glory Be, it opened. She looked quickly up and down the walkway but there was no one in sight. It was raining heavily, which might keep the gang indoors. Also they wouldn’t be expecting her to escape.
She looked down. A wire led from the handle down to the floor, snaking along the walkway to Tracy’s flat. A larger coil of wires emerged from the rug by the door of the flat, and also led along to Tracy’s flat.
‘We’d better leave all that in place,’ said Ellie, keeping her voice low. ‘Keep your voice down. We don’t want them coming out to stop us leaving … not that they’d probably hear us with all that noise going on. Come on, courage! We’d best not try to go down by the lift. Jogger said it wasn’t working, anyway. So where’s the other stairs?’
‘This way.’ Rose pointed to the right.‘But I don’t think I can make it, Ellie. You go on and get help.’
‘I’m not leaving you here. If necessary, we’ll hop all the way to the chemist’s. Come along, now. Lean on me.’
Ellie was sweating by the time they reached the corner, and Rose groaned every time she tried to put her foot to the ground. Once they reached the end of the walkway, Rose gestured to a door which led them into another corridor at right angles to the first one. Ellie opened the door and looked along the walkway, but there was still no one in sight.
Not surprising on such a foul night. They reached a door marked ‘Emergency Exit’. ‘I can’t possibly do it,’ gasped Rose.
‘Oh yes, you can. Think of my aunt, and what she’d do in the circumstances. Would she let a sprained knee defeat her?’
Rose tried to laugh, though it came out as more of a sob. But she did start down the stairs, putting her good leg down first, then swinging the other leg round and down. Still they met no one.
Ellie couldn’t think what they were going to do when they reached the bottom of the stairs. The rain might be keeping the gang inside. With luck. It was some way to the nearest bus stop, she hadn’t a mobile phone to summon help with, and Rose certainly couldn’t walk any distance.
Murder By Accident Page 27
