False Impression

by Veronica Heley

  Inspector Durrell nodded. ‘I dare say I’ll be taking a ride out there to ask some questions, yes.’

  ‘I’m coming, too,’ said Leon. ‘I won’t rest until I’ve seen how Briscoe is for myself.’

  ‘Me, too,’ said Dilys, sticking out her chin, and then, turning to Keith, she added: ‘You don’t mind, do you?’

  Jennifer said, ‘You can’t hold me. You can’t prove anything. And if I don’t get home tonight, my husband will come here looking for me.’

  ‘Indeed.’ The inspector narrowed his eyes at her. ‘How will he know where you are?’

  ‘Of course he knows!’ She realized what she’d said and gasped. ‘What I mean is that I left him a note to say I was visiting a friend at this address.’

  ‘At this time of night?’ said the inspector. ‘I don’t think so. Jennifer Valentine, I must caution you that—’

  ‘Hold on a minute,’ said Bea. ‘Her visit here is another distraction. She says she came to warn us about her husband and that he knows where she is. All well and good, but is that really what she came for? She’s acted as a Trojan horse for him before now. I don’t know if he’s acting for Mrs Evans or Denver, but Jennifer is the link between them. Denis Valentine is the killer. He had the training for it. His job was on the line. I think that he was hired through Jennifer to commit the murders, but he left it to the others to tie up the loose ends. They fumbled around with dead cats and hate messages and cameras, but that wasn’t his remit. He’s SAS, remember. Specialized forces. Killing to order. Silence. Speed. Knives. Jennifer says she came here to warn us but tried to escape as soon as she realized her distraction technique had failed her … which shows she knew exactly what was planned. So what did she really come for?’

  All eyes were on Jennifer, who shook her head and laughed.

  Keith clicked his fingers. ‘She brought another bug, so that he could tell what we were up to. He’s listening to our conversation as we speak.’

  ‘Where’s her handbag?’

  Dilys looked under chairs. ‘Dunno.’

  ‘She dropped it in the garden, I expect,’ said Leon. ‘Shall I fetch it?’

  Jennifer laughed again.

  ‘No,’ said Bea. ‘She was alone in this room for a few minutes while we were attending to the man on the ladder. It’s in here, I’m sure of it. Or possibly she’s hidden her mobile somewhere, leaving it on so that her partner can hear what’s happening. Now, where is it?’ She upended the chairs round the dining table, and then, struck by a thought, looked across at Hari. And then at the door.

  Hari nodded and melted out of sight.

  Hari had said that the killer would come via the agency in spite of the alarm system down there. The outer doors were shut and locked. There was a grille over the windows which gave on to the garden. But Bea knew Hari was right. That was the way the killer would come. And she couldn’t remember whether or not she’d turned the alarm back on the front door when the police and the firemen left.

  ‘Not here,’ said Leon, checking the chair and table by the end window.

  Dilys looked under the rug in front of the fireplace. Silly girl. It wouldn’t be there.

  ‘Got it!’ The inspector was under the dining table, flourishing Jennifer’s handbag.

  Bea headed for the door. ‘The alarm system! I must turn it back on.’ Only to be brought up short by a large man in black holding a revolver. And smiling. Not nicely.

  ‘Sit,’ he said, motioning her to a chair with the revolver, which had a large bulge at the end. A silencer?

  Jennifer screamed with laughter. ‘Oh, your faces!’

  Bea risked a glance over Valentine’s shoulder.

  He grinned. ‘Hoping our tame watchdog will come to the rescue? I dealt with him on my way up. You!’ He waved his gun in an arc covering the whole room. ‘All of you. Sit where I can see you.’

  Jennifer got to her feet. ‘What you going to do with them, lover boy?’

  ‘There’s going to be a break-in. Nice house, nice pickings. A genteel dinner party. Everyone had too much to drink and made the mistake of challenging the burglar, who shot the lot of them before escaping with their jewels … such as that rock you’re wearing, missus.’ And he gestured to Bea’s ring. ‘You can give that to me for a start.’

  Bea slid her diamond ring off her finger and shoved it down her cleavage. ‘Over my dead body.’

  ‘That can be arranged.’

  Keith said, ‘That type of revolver holds six bullets. Just saying. One for each of us. I doubt if he has brought spares. I suppose he knows how to use it?’

  ‘Be sure I do. Jenny, tie their hands behind their backs.’ He threw a bunch of leather straps at her. ‘Tightly. Start with him.’ The revolver in his hand twitched towards Leon.

  Jennifer laughed. She’d slipped off her one remaining shoe. In her stockinged feet, she made her way over to Leon, who was standing by the far window and who didn’t move when she approached him. ‘Turn round, you stupid, silly man,’ she said.

  ‘Not on yours!’ said Leon, not moving.

  ‘Don’t be absurd,’ said Jennifer. ‘He’s an ace with a pistol.’

  ‘Do as the lady says,’ said Valentine.

  ‘Just a minute,’ said Leon, meeting Bea’s eye.

  ‘Do as you’re told or your lady gets it.’

  ‘We need to talk—’

  ‘You asked for it,’ said Valentine, and raised his gun …

  Pfft! He fired the gun in the direction of Bea’s feet …

  … as she dived to her right, ending up on the floor, but still in one piece …

  … as Keith dropped behind the settee, dragging Dilys with him.

  Leon leaped on Jennifer …

  Who screamed.

  Leon twisted her round so that she hung from his arms.

  She screamed again, feet off the floor. ‘Let me go!’

  Pfft!

  The bullet went high. Glass smashed, showering down from over the mantelpiece.

  My mirror! My mother’s mirror! How dare he!

  Bea could hear someone murmuring nearby. The inspector, under the table? On his mobile?

  Summoning reinforcements? Pray God they come quickly.

  A hand grasped her wrist, and she was lifted to her feet, willy-nilly. Valentine grinned down at her.

  She kicked at his legs. She might as well have tried kicking an oak tree.

  She felt the barrel of the gun laid to her forehead. Oh, typical! Typical! Stalemate. Villain seizes heroine and threatens to kill her if her friends don’t do exactly as he asks. Friends oblige and are killed one after the other. Over my dead body!

  Well, yes. Probably.

  Distraction!

  She filled her lungs – and she had good lungs. And screamed. She had a good scream.

  He yelled in her ear, ‘Shut up!’ and ground the barrel of the gun into her skin.

  She filled her lungs again, ready for another go … and got walloped.

  Dizzy.

  Limp.

  She must not pass out. No.

  How many bullets did he have left? Four?

  And there were five of them.

  He shook her, hard. And let her drop to the floor.

  She stayed where she had fallen, arms and legs all over the place.

  She tried to raise her head. He kicked her on the jaw. Ouch.

  There was a ringing in her ears. Due to the blow she’d had to her head?

  No. It was the landline. The telephone.

  Everyone looked at it. Even Valentine.

  ‘Well, aren’t you going to answer it?’ said Leon, still hanging on to Jennifer.

  No one moved. Well, they wouldn’t, would they?

  Footsteps. Light footsteps coming down the stairs. ‘Bea, are you there? I think I’ve blown a fuse on your hairdryer.’

  Bea groaned. She’d hoped Anna was well out of it.

  A radiant vision appeared in the doorway. Anna’s hair hung in a golden bell about her shoulders. She was weari
ng one of Bea’s most revealing nightdresses and swinging a hairdryer by its cord, round and round and …

  Valentine gaped. The gun in his hand wavered.

  Bea chose that moment to claw at Valentine’s leg. He glanced down, furious, signalling his intention of kicking her into next week and beyond, shifting from one foot to the other.

  ‘Aaargh!’

  The hairdryer flew through the air with malice aforethought and a good swing from an angry, healthy woman. It knocked the gun right out of the warrior’s hand …

  He jerked, eyes rounded in surprise …

  … and folded over at the knees …

  … as a hand chopped into the back of his neck.

  His eyes rolled up in his head …

  … he dropped like a stone …

  … and lost all interest in the proceedings.

  Jennifer screamed, ‘You’ve killed him! Murderer!’

  There’s altogether too much screaming going on. We’ll have the neighbours complaining.

  Anna was smiling. ‘I love you, Hari. Have you killed him, or will you let me have a go?’

  ‘I love you, too, Anna,’ said Hari, deftly securing the man’s hands behind his back. ‘No, I haven’t killed him, but he won’t be making any more trouble for a while. You all right?’

  ‘I always had a good aim. We must go tenpin bowling some time.’

  ‘Tomorrow do you?’

  Leon hoisted the struggling Jennifer high. ‘Take this one as well, will you? Bea, are you all right?’

  ‘Someone do something about that gun,’ said Bea, through her teeth. She struggled to her feet, hanging on to the nearest chair. ‘Because if you don’t, I won’t be answerable for the consequences. I shall put it to that man’s head and pull the trigger, and you will all swear on your mother’s graves that it went off by accident, understand?’ She stood over Valentine, arms akimbo. ‘That mirror was my mother’s that survived two world wars and look what you’ve done to it, you nasty piece of—’

  ‘Three bullets left,’ said Keith, grinning, as he rose up from behind the settee with Dilys in his arms. ‘I’ll deal with it. The bullets should match those from the bodies in the car park.’

  ‘Inspector?’ said Bea, bending down to look under the table.

  He groaned. ‘My back’s gone. Help me out, will you?’

  Hari took Jennifer off Leon, dumped her in a chair, and repeated his trick of tying her thumbs together through the slats at the back. She tried to kick him, at which he just laughed.

  Leon eased his neck and came to check Bea over. ‘Are you really all right?’

  ‘Apart from my diamond ring digging into my bra, yes.’

  He picked her up in his arms and held her tightly. She didn’t object, though her feet were off the ground. But after a moment she did ask to be put down. ‘Please?’

  Leon put her down but kept an arm round her. ‘Hari, I thought he’d dealt with you on the stairs.’

  ‘He tried. That alarm system for the agency is not worth the wiring. He was good. I didn’t hear him coming, but a shadow moved on the wall and I ducked, though not quite fast enough. I lay still, pretended he’d knocked me out. He kicked me a couple of times, and I played dead. Foolish of him not to make sure. I kept remembering Mrs Abbot talking about distraction and I wanted to see if Anna was all right, so popped upstairs to see if His Lordship would phone for the police and then ring down here—’

  ‘Which I did.’ Orlando appeared, in his outlandish, paw-printed silk pyjamas, grinning and holding up his mobile phone. ‘I say, Anna! You look … wow! I could almost fancy you!’

  Anna blushed, holding her hands over her breasts in mock embarrassment. ‘Hari thought I might divert his attention if I wore one of Bea’s revealing nightdresses …’

  Bea felt every man look at the nightdress and then at her. Their thoughts might have been written across their foreheads.

  Bea wears that sort of nightdress?

  She was not going to look to see if they’d all got an erection. Well, probably not Orlando, but the others …

  ‘That’s enough of that! Someone get the inspector out from under the table and, yes, I think I can hear the buzzer on the mat outside the front door going which means the cavalry has arrived, and they’ll need to be let in and fed and watered and if anyone thinks I’ve got the energy for that after everything that’s happened, they’ve got another think coming. And, there’s no more biscuits. And for heaven’s sake, don’t let Jennifer walk around without any shoes on or she’ll get glass in her feet and sue us for damages, which I fully intend to do to you, you horrible mutt, Mr Valentine, as I see you are conscious again and you’ll wish you weren’t any minute now, because I’m going to … I’m going to … I don’t know what I’m going to do, but whatever it is, you’re going to wish you’d never been born!’

  ‘There, there,’ said Leon, putting both arms around her, and holding her tight. ‘You are a brave girl.’

  Dilys said, ‘There, there. I’ll get you a nice hot drink in a minute. You’ll be fine in the morning. Just a mo while I let the police in and tell them what to do.’

  Bea met Anna’s eye, and they both began to laugh. Dilys playing ‘mother’?

  Anna had Hari’s jacket over her shoulders and was holding it close around her. Shivering. She could do with a hot drink and an early night, too. Not that any of them were likely to get to bed before dawn.

  Keith helped the inspector to his feet, inch by inch.

  The inspector sneezed. ‘It’s the dust under that table.’

  ‘Oh, let me get the vacuum cleaner out, and I’ll deal with it straight away!’ Bea was overwrought. She let herself down into a chair and closed her eyes. ‘Wake me when it’s all over, will you?’

  Dilys ushered a couple of policemen into the room, saying, ‘I keep wanting to say, “You rang, My Lord?” Because that’s what Orlando did, you know? Oh dear, I think I’m going to be sick.’

  ‘No, you’re not,’ said Keith, putting his arm around her. He held out the gun to the inspector. ‘Dilys and I will get some tea and biscuits going. Tea, anyway. And perhaps I should pop out for some more biscuits at the all-night place. Everybody take sugar?’

  Saturday morning

  Bea and Anna went to bed just before dawn and were still asleep when the inspector led the raid on the Holland headquarters. Orlando woke them at eleven with tea and biscuits, saying that everything was under control and they should go back to sleep. So they did.

  When the sun was high in the sky – and how pleasant it was to see the sun after so many cloudy, rain days – Bea got herself out of bed with an effort, groped her way into the shower, dressed in whatever came to hand, gave a little scream when she saw herself in the mirror, and sat down to see what art and a steady hand might do to improve matters.

  There was a nasty bruise coming up on her jaw. Drat that man! And who was going to have to clear up the mess? Not the police, oh no! That mirror …! Her mother must be turning in her grave. And if there were shards of glass in the hearth-rug, that would probably have to be dumped, too. And then the front door would need stripping and repainting, and the planter in the garden would need to be replaced and all the bulbs replanted. She could have screamed with frustration.

  Anna knocked on the bedroom door and came in. She was dressed and made-up. Her hair hung loose about her shoulders. Both eyes were now open. Sort of. She said, ‘Are you awake? I feel like death. How about you? And before you say it, I know I shouldn’t have borrowed your nightdress.’

  Bea grinned. ‘Keep it,’ she said. ‘It looked better on you than on me, and I suspect your need of it is more urgent than mine.’

  Anna blushed. ‘I don’t think Hari needs much stimulation.’

  ‘Nor Leon, come to think of it. Although we haven’t got that far yet.’

  ‘No? You could have fooled me.’

  Bea sighed. ‘Conflicting lifestyles. I don’t see how we can work it out.’

  Anna also sighed. ‘I
know what you mean. But that doesn’t mean we can’t look for a way round it. I must go back home today. Pick up the pieces. I’ll take the clothes I’ve borrowed and have them cleaned, right?’

  ‘Thanks. I’d be grateful. And we must make a date to go shopping.’

  ‘And to devise a working relationship between the college and your agency.’

  They smiled at one another. Friends.

  Down they went to find Orlando in an apron. He was cooking breakfast for Keith, who was looking heavy-eyed but pleased with himself.

  ‘Behold the wanderer returns,’ said Orlando. ‘Seat yourselves, my dears, and let me revive the flagging spirits with orange juice, eggs Benedict – which is a speciality of mine – and toast with honey. Coffee or tea?’

  ‘Coffee.’

  ‘Twice.’

  Languidly, they took seats at the table and waited for Orlando to provide. ‘What news?’

  Keith said, ‘All good. I took Dilys and Leon in my car. She refused to be left behind. Quite right, too. I envy Leon his unflappability. The inspector told us we were not to try to storm the castle until he’d got his warrant. Hari said he’d pop along to see if the college was all right and the rest of us went to an all-night service station on the motorway to wait. Leon got us some breakfast and the newspapers. He suggested Dilys might like a nap, but she refused. The way he went about things, it might have been any ordinary day at the office. He worked on his laptop, took some phone calls. At half past ten the inspector rang to say the warrant was through and he was about to go in, but we were to wait outside the college till he’d got the security team mopped up. We met up with Hari … Oh, Anna: he says everything’s all right there, in case you were worrying.’

  ‘I’m not worrying with him on the case,’ said Anna, trying not to sound smug.

  Keith went on: ‘It took Durrell about half an hour, then he rang Leon to say they’d arrested Denver, and we arrived in time to see him being removed. Durrell had the rest of the security team lined up, with one of his sergeants and a couple of constables taking statements, so we rolled through the gates and into the courtyard. You remember that there are offices for Holland Holdings all leading off the courtyard? We had to go through them to get into the main house. Durrell went ahead into the maintenance department and showed them his warrant. Talk about setting the fox in the henhouse. You never heard so much hysteria in your life. All guilty, the lot of them.’