False fire

by Veronica Heley

  As, indeed, did Bea.

  But that was another matter.

  Bea gestured that they should follow her out into the garden to inspect the garden shed, which was empty of all but tools and shadows. Returning to the house, she led the way out of the office quarters, up the stairs and into the kitchen. Talking the while, she opened every cupboard door. Even the freezer.

  In the living room, William was sitting with his head in his hands. She would have liked to reassure him, but couldn’t do so in front of their uninvited guests. He lifted his head long enough to say, ‘The hour is up.’

  Bea said, ‘Let them search the place first. Far be it from me to stand in the way of Alicia’s legal guardian … at least, Alaric? Is that what you are? Or are you merely her adopted father? What does your legal wife think of your mislaying her daughter so cavalierly? And of Ninette’s charming habit of assaulting anyone who gets in her way?’

  Not waiting for a reply, Bea said, ‘Well, onwards and upwards. Follow me. This is the living room, which you’ve already seen. I don’t think there’s any cupboard here which might hold a child, however small. Do let me know if you fancy there is some stone we haven’t turned over. Sorry, hiding place, I mean. Up the stairs. Big bedroom, closet, en suite. Guest bedroom, en suite.

  ‘Up to the top floor. Two small bedrooms, sitting room, k and b. Would you like to peer under the beds? Yes, please feel free to do so. I want you to be absolutely, one hundred per cent satisfied that you have searched this house from top to bottom and that Alicia is not here.’

  Dumbly, they followed her, Alaric looking increasingly uncomfortable, and Ninette furious.

  Back downstairs, where Mel was making hot drinks for herself and her charge. ‘Bernice is feeling hungry,’ said Mel. ‘She fancies a boiled egg and soldiers, and a sandwich or two. It’s wonderful how quickly children can recover, isn’t it?’

  Bea said it was, indeed. She found her shopping list and a pen. She wrote down that on that day at two thirty in the afternoon, her house had been searched and no trace had been found of the missing child. She added the date. She held out her pen to Alaric, who signed it without comment, and passed it to Ninette, who also signed. Mel witnessed their signatures.

  ‘And now, please go,’ said Bea. ‘Do let me know when the child surfaces, won’t you? Her grandfather is most distressed. I see the hour is up and over by fifteen minutes. Are you going to ring the police, or not?’

  Silence. Ninette consulted Alaric. Talk about flaring nostrils! They looked like two horses, about to bolt in panic.

  ‘I don’t know what to say.’ That was Alaric.

  Ninette ground her teeth. Bea heard the noise quite distinctly.

  Bea opened the front door. ‘Shall we leave it to her grandfather to decide? After all, he’s the one who has the child’s best interests at heart, isn’t he?’

  Ninette and Alaric descended the steps in a rush. On the pavement, they stopped to have an argument. Ninette spat some words at Alaric. He put a calming hand on her shoulder, which she shook off … and stalked away, rigid with fury. Alaric, left behind, extracted a cheroot from a case in his breast pocket, and lit it with a gold lighter. And then followed her.

  Bea shut the front door and leaned against it, thinking she was too old for all this cloak-and-dagger stuff.

  William came out of the living room, and looked a question.

  She handed over her smartphone. ‘We make a good team, don’t we? I’m hoping there’s enough evidence there for you to prove Alaric failed to act as he should, leaving Alicia stranded in the middle of nowhere. I put the phone on “record” and can only hope the quality was good enough to capture everything they said. There’s also a photo of Ninette losing her temper with Bernice. Please play it back and record it on another phone. I need that one. You can give a transcript of this to your solicitors, can’t you, in order to get Alaric removed from his guardianship or whatever it is he’s got?’

  He couldn’t relax. Not yet. ‘And you think there’s no need to ring the police?’

  ‘Not now Mel’s making food for Bernice … or rather, now that Bernice has sent Mel upstairs to make her some food. Possibly enough food for two? Which reminds me that I haven’t had any lunch yet. Have you eaten, yourself?’

  ‘What! Food? I can’t think of … What do you mean? They searched the house. Alicia is not here.’

  ‘Well, she wasn’t. I suspect that she arranged with Bernice to come back here but not to enter the house until Bernice gave her the all clear. I think we can take it that Alicia slipped down the stairs and into the basement office when Bernice sent Mel up for some food. And the child will now be … where? Let’s go and see where she and Teddy are hiding, shall we?’

  He didn’t understand what she meant but followed her down the stairs and into the agency offices. There were lights on in the main office, and in Bea’s. Outside the twilight was closing in. It was a dark and drizzly afternoon.

  Bernice was sitting in a sort of nest in the duvet on the settee, cross-legged, contemplating a chess problem on the board in front of her. She looked up when they entered. Wary.

  ‘Ta-da!’ said Bea, with a wide gesture. ‘You see? No bear.’ Teddy was indeed conspicuous by his absence. ‘William, it’s still light enough for you to pick your way out into the garden. I expect Teddy’s in the garden shed keeping Alicia company. She’ll probably be glad of a wash and a cup of tea. And of that sandwich Mel is making for Bernice.’

  William blundered out through the French windows into the garden, calling out, ‘Alicia, it’s only me!’

  Bea sat down beside Bernice and inspected the board. Her late husband had introduced her to the game but she hadn’t played it for ages. Could she remember enough of the twisty moves he’d taught her to beat Bernice? If she played the girl and lost, she’d lose respect. If she played and won …? It would help to keep the upper hand. Now, how was the game going? What openings were there for black?

  She said, ‘I suspect you’re a killer player, Bernice. You beat Mel, I suppose.’

  Bernice flattened her eyelids at Bea. And made no comment.

  Bea fingered a pawn. ‘Now, where shall I go with this? Shall I take this pawn here … or shall I move my one remaining knight?’

  ‘Knights jump on people,’ said Bernice. ‘And bishops slide across.’

  ‘And queens …’ Bea skidded hers across the board. ‘Take the biscuit. Checkmate.’

  William came stumbling back through the room, carrying a bedraggled Alicia in his arms. ‘She’s all right! Thank the Lord! Needs the toilet, and she’s dehydrated.’

  Bea said, ‘Take her straight upstairs. Let Mel clean her up and feed her the food she was preparing for Bernice. And, let the school know we’ve got her safe and sound, or they’ll be phoning the police themselves.’

  ‘And Alaric? Do we tell him he’s off the hook?’

  ‘What do you think?’

  William grinned. ‘We keep him dangling in suspense for a while.’ He started for the stairs, shouting, ‘Mel? I’ve got her!’

  Bea leaned back in her chair. ‘Time to come clean, Bernice. I think I know how you managed to get Alicia here, but fill me in, will you? Start from the phone call you received when you were out shopping with Mel.’

  ‘Lissy said she was standing outside the school. She said they’d dropped her on the drive because there were some workmen’s vans by the front door. She said she couldn’t bear to go in. And then she shut off—’

  ‘And wouldn’t take your phone calls when you rang back. Which panicked you. Understandably.’

  Bernice twisted a strand of hair round her finger. ‘You got Uncle William to ring the school and they said she hadn’t arrived, but you said to wait and she’d ring me. And you were right. She did.’

  ‘That was the chirruping sound I heard when we were all upstairs in my bedroom. I couldn’t identify it until I remembered that William had given you girls a new phone each only that morning. You went off to the loo to
take your phone call in private. What did Alicia say then?’

  ‘That she was on her way back here. She had the money Uncle William had given us to buy new trainers. She’d taken a bus to the station and was on the underground train coming back here.’

  ‘You told her that, once she arrived, she must wait outside in the street till you could smuggle her in? Did you think I’d agree to hide her, or that you could keep her here without me knowing?’

  ‘I thought you’d look after her till her mother got out of hospital and then it would be all right. And you did hide her from the baddies.’

  ‘No, I didn’t. I made them look all over the house, and sign a document which said Alicia was not here. I also taped those two nasty pieces of work admitting that they’d left Alicia in the middle of nowhere.’

  ‘But you are hiding her now.’

  ‘Not I. In a minute I’m going to ring her uncle Steve and tell him that Alicia is safe and sound. I shall tell him that Ninette attacked you. I shall say how worried I am that she might attack Alicia too because, after all, she’s no blood relation to the girl, is she? And I’ll ask if it’s really true that Alaric left Alicia in the school grounds but didn’t see her handed over, because Ninette was so anxious to get back to town for her hair appointment.’

  Bernice blinked. ‘They’ll take her away again, and then she’ll run away again and … you can’t let them have her!’

  Bea sighed. ‘My dear, it’s not as simple as that, and you know it. The law says Alaric is her adopted father and he has the right, with her mother, to decide where she lives. The fact that he doesn’t seem a very caring parent gives William the ammunition to challenge Alaric in the courts. But by law, I have to hand Alicia over either to her mother or her father as soon as she reappears. I expect William is running through his options as we speak.’

  ‘Her mother doesn’t care.’ A bleak tone.

  ‘Oh, I expect she does, really.’ Fingers crossed. ‘But she’s quite poorly, you know.’

  ‘Perhaps Uncle William will hide Alicia somewhere.’

  Bea shook her head. ‘No, he won’t. And you know he won’t. He’ll fight for her, but he won’t break the law.’

  Bernice sighed. ‘They’ll send her back to the school.’

  ‘It’s not so bad, is it?’

  ‘Without me? She’ll die.’

  ‘I hope not.’ Though Bea thought Bernice might be right. ‘How about you?’

  A shrug. ‘I’ll be all right. I suppose they’ll find me another school.’

  ‘Is this one really so bad?’

  ‘No. It’s all right, really, now I’ve dealt with the bullies.’

  ‘Leon can get on to the school, get them to take you back.’

  ‘He’ll wait for Auntie Sybil to do it. Uncle Leon’s not so good with people. He’ll huff and puff but he never actually does anything himself if he can help it.’

  An acute judgement.

  The child continued, ‘Auntie Sybil loves me, she really does. And I love her. But she’s so old and I’m something of a trial to her, because she has to keep stopping and thinking what she should do with me when she wants to go somewhere or do something on the spur of the moment. She’ll be furious that the school doesn’t want me back and she’ll find another boarding school for me, but I don’t want to go without Lissy.’

  Bea nodded. She wanted to hug Bernice, but thought it best not to touch the child lest she lose her fragile self-control.

  ‘When I’m grown up,’ said Bernice, ‘I’m going to buy a house in the country and have a collie dog and a black cat for intelligent company and have some peace and quiet and only invite people in when I want to talk to them.’

  ‘A trifle bleak,’ said Bea. ‘You’ll need to keep that keen brain of yours from getting rusty. Do you want to be an aeronaut, or a website designer, or a mathematician or an airline pilot or an archaeologist or a ballet dancer … or what?’

  The child smiled. ‘I could be any of those things if I wanted to. Mostly, I want to be like you and Auntie Sybil.’

  ‘Your aunt? That I can understand. She’s an amazing person and brilliant at making money. But why me?’

  For the first time, of her own accord, Bernice laid her head against Bea’s arm. ‘Some people, like Uncle Leon and Mummy and my stepdad, only have a little space inside them for loving other people. I mean; they do love people, but not very many, and they can’t make that space any bigger. Auntie Sybil expanded herself to take me in. She doubled up her loving space for me. You’re the same.’

  Bea put her arm round the child, with care, and was not rebuffed. She thought it was a terrifying prospect for a woman in her sixties, who would normally be thinking about retirement, to be lumbered with an intelligent child. It was exciting, yes. But, on the whole, more terrifying than exciting.

  Bernice said, ‘I’d better go and find Teddy. I gave him to Alicia to look after and she didn’t bring him back in. He doesn’t like being out there in the cold and the dark.’

  She vanished into the darkening garden, and was back with Teddy before Bea had put away the chess pieces in their box. Together they made sure the lights were all turned out and climbed the stairs to the kitchen.

  Alicia was at the table, being fed egg and soldiers by Mel. William was on the phone. He shut it off when he saw Bea and Bernice.

  ‘I rang Steve, told him Alicia had found her way back here after being dumped by Alaric. I’m taking Alicia to the hospital to see Daphne in a minute. My solicitor has dictated me a form which I shall try to get Daphne to sign, giving me the right to look after the child for the time being. I’ve informed the school that the child is with me and will not be returning until after the weekend, if ever.’

  ‘And did you tell Alaric?’

  William grinned. ‘What do you think? I expect Steve will get round to it, eventually … but he does have rather a lot on his plate at the moment.’

  ‘What terrible people they are,’ said Mel, efficiently cleaning Alicia up. ‘There, now. All done? Perhaps a biscuit and some juice to follow?’

  Alicia nodded. She held out a hand to Bernice, who took a seat beside her, hoisting Teddy on to her hip.

  Bea investigated the contents of the fridge. ‘You need something to eat as well, William. And what do you fancy, Bernice, now that Alicia has eaten your tea?’

  ‘I can manage,’ said William, looking at his phone again. ‘I’ve booked myself a room at the hotel down the road. I’ll eat when I get back from the hospital. I must ring the hotel to change the booking so that Alicia can have a room next to me.’

  ‘Leave her here for the night,’ said Bea. ‘I am not having those two girls wreck my bedroom again, but they can move into the flat on the top floor. That is … Mel, are you free? Could you bear to stay on to look after these two naughty children tonight?’

  ‘Can do. I’ll let my mother know. You know, I thought my family was weird, but this lot take the biscuit.’

  ‘You can have the run of the flat on the top floor tonight. The girls can have the room with the double bed, and you can have the single next to it. There’s a small kitchen and shower room next door. Ham sandwiches do everyone? Or scrambled eggs and smoked salmon?’

  William gave Bea back her phone. ‘I’ve copied the interview with Alaric and Ninette on to my phone, so you can have yours back. With thanks. I ate a couple of bananas a while back. That’ll do till Lissy and I get back from the hospital. May I pay for you to get in some ready meals, if you’re going to play hostess today? Save you cooking. Come on, chicken. We’re off to see your mummy.’ He picked Alicia up off her stool, made sure she was reasonably tidy, and towed her out of the front door.

  Peace and quiet.

  Mel said, ‘I’ll give Bernice her tea. All right, Mrs Abbot?’

  ‘Bless you, my dear. You didn’t expect to get involved in a family feud when you came to work this morning, did you? You must say if you think it’s all a bit much for you.’

  ‘Certainly not,’
said Mel, straightening her shoulders. ‘It’s most interesting, and I wouldn’t like to leave the children without anyone to look after them. Not after all they’ve been through. They’re managing very well, aren’t they, but …’

  ‘My old nanny used to say, “There’ll be tears before nightfall”. Yes. They’re running on adrenaline at the moment, but when their batteries fail, they’ll need extra care. So, thank you, Mel. I appreciate your staying … and that’s the front door. I wonder what William has forgotten.’

  It wasn’t William. It was a total stranger, holding an expensive-looking tote bag. Bleary-eyed. Unshaven. Wearing a good-quality black T-shirt – which had been pulled on inside out – a leather jacket which had seen better days, and jogging trousers. Bringing with him the unmistakeable odour of a fire. A taxi was just drawing away.

  A hoarse voice. ‘Alicia? Is she safe?’

  ‘Yes, she’s quite safe.’

  ‘Thank God for that.’ He went limp, put out a hand to steady himself against the doorframe. Then, with an effort, pulled himself upright again. ‘I have some things here for Lord Morton.’

  NINE

  Saturday p.m.

  ‘Lord Morton?’ For a moment Bea was at a loss. ‘Oh, you mean William? He’s a Morton, isn’t he?’

  ‘Uncle Bill.’ The visitor nodded, tried to smile.

  Bea wondered if the man was actually swaying, or was it an optical illusion? ‘You’re … Steve, is that right?’ She wasn’t surprised that she hadn’t recognized this exhausted, dishevelled creature. At dinner last night he’d been a dapper youngish man in evening dress, with curly fair hair that was beginning to grey at the temples. He’d been seated between Ninette and the supermodel, Faye, and had worn an expression of … what, exactly? Amused resignation? That was the nearest Bea could come to it. No wife, partner or girlfriend had been apparent.

  Steve was the one who’d kept his head and gone for the fire extinguisher.