Murder in Bloom - Libby Sarjeant Murder Mystery Series

by Lesley Cookman

  ‘Hidden?’ said Katie. ‘Why should it have been hidden?’

  ‘We – that is, the police – think Tony West hid her original documents when he gave her the false ones and they might be here,’ said Fran.

  ‘Why should they be?’ Katie was looking belligerent now.

  ‘He knew this place. And they obviously weren’t at his London place,’ said Libby.

  ‘Why do you say that?’

  ‘It had been ransacked when his body was found.’

  Katie looked down at her magazine. ‘So whoever killed him might have found them.’

  ‘Well, yes,’ said Libby, looking at Fran, startled.

  ‘Could have been her, then.’ Katie kept her eyes down.

  ‘In that case, why was she here looking for something?’ asked Fran reasonably.

  ‘How do you know she was looking for something?’

  ‘Because she said so,’ said Lewis, who was becoming even more exasperated. ‘Honestly, this is no bleedin’ joke. I’ve had enough. Let’s have a look round then I’m calling Big Bertha.’

  They covered the same ground they had gone over a few days previously, but no trace of Cindy was found. Fran stood still, scenting the air like a bloodhound, Libby told her, but to no avail.

  Back in the solar, Lewis called the police and informed them.

  ‘And we’ve had a good look round,’ he said. ‘How she got past me I shall never know.’ He switched off the phone. ‘They’ll be right out,’ he said wearily. ‘Gawd, why is this happening to me?’

  ‘Is there anything we can do?’ asked Libby, completely forgetting her vow to keep out of things.

  ‘I don’t know. Where would she have gone? And why did she want those documents so badly?’

  ‘That puzzled me, too,’ said Libby. ‘After all, the minute she tried to use the passport she’d be stopped. Either passport, come to that.’

  ‘It’s the birth and marriage certificates, I think,’ said Fran. ‘Proof of who she is so she can claim the estate.’

  ‘But could she claim the estate if she was accessory to murdering Kenneth? Anyway, Gerald’s still alive, we think.’

  ‘I’m not so sure about that,’ said Lewis, shaking his head. ‘If the poor old bugger was going loopy back then, he could be well dead by now.’

  Libby grinned. ‘Too true, but Fran doesn’t think so.’

  Lewis sent her a doubtful look. ‘All right, so what does Fran think, then?’

  Fran was silent for a moment, gazing out of the solar window towards the ha-ha. ‘If Cindy didn’t go out of the front door, where else might she have got out?’

  ‘Kitchen door,’ said Lewis.

  ‘Not very likely with Katie the dragon sitting there,’ said Libby.

  ‘No. There’s the old side door – well, back door, I suppose, at the end of the hall beyond the stairs. We’ve never used it.’

  ‘Come on then,’ said Fran, standing up. ‘That’s how she went out.’

  Lewis and Libby looked at one another. Libby shrugged and went out of the room behind Fran.

  Somehow, it wasn’t surprising to find the small oak door swinging very slightly on its hinges.

  ‘Where did she go from here?’ said Lewis, and looked sharply round. ‘That was a car, wasn’t it? Reckon it’s the police?’

  ‘Probably,’ said Libby. ‘You go and see to them and we’ll carry on here.’

  ‘Down here,’ said Fran, leading the way unhesitatingly towards the ha-ha. Libby puffed and kept up, and was unsurprised when Fran led them down to the sailing club.

  ‘Well, she’s not here,’ said Libby, catching her breath and investigating the lock and bolt on the door. ‘Do you think she got away from here?’

  Fran was frowning. ‘I’m not sure,’ she said slowly. ‘I’m certain she was here, though.’

  ‘Had we better tell the police?’

  Fran sighed. ‘As if they’ll believe me,’ she said, ‘but yes, I suppose we’d better.’

  ‘You know,’ said Libby, as she panted her way back up towards the house, ‘I thought when I was down here before it would be a good way to get on or off the estate – from that little inlet. And it can’t be seen from the house, so as long as you could keep out of sight on the way up or down it’s a perfect secret way. Do you think she could have done that?’

  ‘It seems so quick,’ mused Fran. ‘It couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes between Lewis calling you and us arriving. She must have run like the wind.’

  ‘With a heavy bag,’ added Libby. ‘I don’t know. All seems very fishy to me.’

  Outside the house they were met, to their surprise, by an irritated-looking DI Ian Connell.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ asked Libby, while Fran blushed and tried to blend into the background.

  Connell sighed heavily. ‘I could say the same to you, but I know you’ll have a legitimate reason. Hello, Fran.’

  ‘Hello,’ said Fran in a muffled voice.

  ‘As to what I’m doing here,’ said Ian, ‘we had a report that a Miss Cindy Dale –’

  ‘Or Mrs Cindy Shepherd,’ interjected Libby, smiling beatifically.

  ‘Had disappeared very suddenly from here after being bailed by the police,’ continued Ian, without pause.

  ‘Bailed, hey?’ said Libby. ‘Lewis told us you’d let her go.’

  ‘Hmm,’ said Ian. ‘Well, assuming you can’t throw any light on the situation, I’ll let you be on your way.’

  ‘Oh, we weren’t going,’ said Libby blithely. ‘We’re just going back inside to find Lewis.’

  Ian closed his eyes briefly and stood aside to give them access to the house. Fran paused before him.

  ‘Actually, Ian,’ she said, ‘I think she might have gone to the boathouse.’

  ‘Boathouse?’ He frowned down at her.

  ‘Sailing club,’ said Libby, turning back and regarding the two of them with interest. ‘You can’t see it from the house.’

  ‘Where is it?’

  ‘Would you like me to show you?’ asked Fran diffidently.

  Ian looked into the distance. ‘Very kind,’ he said, and Libby giggled. He shot her a look of pure evil and turned on his heel. Fran looked back at Libby, shrugged and followed him.

  Lewis was in the kitchen with Katie, while upstairs could be heard the heavy sounds of investigating constables.

  ‘Fran’s gone to show Ian the sailing club,’ said Libby, sitting down with them.

  Katie looked up with a frown. ‘Ian?’ asked Lewis.

  ‘Detective Inspector Ian Connell,’ said Libby. ‘We’ve worked with him before.’

  ‘So he might be able to help us?’

  ‘Oh, I doubt it,’ said Libby. ‘He thinks of me, in particular, as a nuisance. He does, however, believe in Fran’s gift. She actually got asked in to help solve one murder.’

  ‘He’s the one you called to tell him about Fran’s marriage,’ said Lewis, enlightened.

  ‘That’s it. I don’t know why he’s suddenly been put on this case, he wasn’t when I spoke to him before.’

  ‘Well, perhaps it’s lucky for us he has,’ said Katie. Lewis and Libby looked at her in surprise. ‘If he’s a bit more pleasant than that Bertram woman. Perhaps we’ll find out what happened to Tony. And Kenneth, of course,’ she added hastily.

  ‘But we know what happened to Kenneth,’ said Libby. ‘Gerald killed him.’

  ‘Never on your life,’ said Katie, a mulish expression on her face.

  ‘Did you know him?’ Libby was interested.

  ‘I met him. With Mr West.’

  ‘Was this when you were doing the outside catering?’

  ‘You never told me,’ said Lewis indignantly.

  ‘You never asked.’ Katie shrugged.

  ‘Did you tell the police you knew him?’

  ‘O’ course I did,’ said Katie, standing up.

  ‘Didn’t you say you didn’t know Cindy?’

  ‘I said she didn’t,’ said Lewis. ‘Did you, K
atie?’

  ‘I met her.’ Katie’s mouth was like a rat trap.

  ‘So you actually knew what the family was like before Gerald and Cindy disappeared?’

  ‘Not to say know,’ said Katie, moving towards the pantry. ‘Met ’em.’

  Lewis and Libby looked at each other. ‘Oh, well, as long as you’ve told the police,’ said Lewis. ‘Do you want a cuppa, Lib?’

  ‘No, I’d better go and find Fran.’ Libby stood up. ‘We didn’t mean to be this long. Guy will wonder where his beloved has got to.’

  Fran was walking back towards the house, with the two policemen running the other way towards the ha-ha.

  ‘What’s up?’ asked Libby.

  ‘Ian found some scratch marks or something.’ Fran shrugged. ‘Anyway, he’s called for reinforcements. Apparently Big Bertha’s having to stay deskbound for a bit and her team’s been stretched to the limit, so Ian’s been dragged in. I don’t think he was that delighted to see us.’

  ‘No, it struck me that way, too,’ said Libby, with a smile. ‘Nice to see him, though.’

  ‘Do you think I ought to ask him to my wedding?’

  Libby made a face. ‘Difficult one,’ she said. ‘Ask Guy and Ben. They’ll know what to do.’

  Fran nodded. ‘Have you said goodbye to Lewis? I ought to get going.’

  ‘Yes, I told him.’

  Fran was silent on the way back to Steeple Martin.

  ‘Come up with anything?’ asked Libby after a bit.

  ‘Cindy. There’s something altogether wrong about her.’

  ‘I agree, but everything she says is logical.’

  ‘Except, as we said earlier, why does she want those documents?’

  ‘Perhaps it’s not her own documents she’s looking for?’

  Fran nodded, carefully slowing down for the bend in the road that led into Steeple Martin’s high street.

  ‘Whose, then? Gerald’s?’ said Libby. ‘To prove he’s alive?’

  ‘Could be,’ said Fran. ‘But did she ransack Tony West’s house? And if so, did she do it after or before he was dead?’

  ‘I told you, she couldn’t have done,’ said Libby. ‘She didn’t get in to the country until the Sunday when she arrived at Creekmarsh.’

  ‘How did she get to Creekmarsh from the airport?’ asked Fran.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Libby looked bewildered. ‘Taxi? Lewis didn’t say.’

  ‘We don’t know everything,’ said Fran, turning into Allhallow’s Lane, ‘by any means.’

  ‘But we agreed yesterday we were going to leave it alone,’ said Libby. ‘We said it would be better, and Ben and Guy would be pleased.’

  ‘And Lewis asked us over today.’

  ‘Only to help him get rid of Cindy.’ Libby shivered. ‘And that turned out not to be necessary.’

  ‘Hmm,’ said Fran, and stopped the car.

  Libby’s mobile rang again.

  ‘Lib, it’s me again.’

  ‘Lewis,’ Libby said to Fran. ‘What’s up now?’

  ‘I’ve just had another talk with Katie.’

  ‘Yes? And?’

  ‘So who do you think gave the police Gerald’s DNA?’

  Chapter Twenty-four

  ‘KATIE DID?’ SQUEAKED LIBBY.

  ‘Unbelievable, ain’t it?’ Lewis was breathing heavily. ‘Seems she knew Tony better than I thought. She come down here with him when he come to see German Shepherd and he – Shepherd – gave her some mem – mem – memory thing.’

  ‘Memento?’ suggested Libby.

  ‘That’s it. Anyway, that’s what she gave the police.’

  ‘Other people would have touched it, though,’ said Libby dubiously. ‘How did they isolate it?’

  Lewis made an explosive sound. ‘You ask the most fucking awful questions,’ he said. ‘How do I know, for fuck’s sake?’

  ‘All right, all right,’ Libby soothed. ‘Look, I’m sitting in Fran’s car at the moment. I’ll phone you back when I get indoors.’

  She explained as she got out of the car. ‘So, do you want to come in and hear what’s going on?’

  Fran looked torn. ‘So much for non-involvement again,’ she said. ‘Oh, go on. You can make me some tea. I didn’t get one at Lewis’s.’

  ‘No,’ said Libby, ‘I didn’t fancy that stewed tea Katie made for Cindy.’

  In the kitchen, she removed Sidney from the bread bin and put the kettle on the Rayburn. ‘One day,’ she said, ‘I shall buy an electric kettle. So much quicker.’

  ‘Only when you come in like we have now,’ said Fran. ‘When you’re at home you keep it simmering just off the hotplate, don’t you?’

  ‘Mmm. S’pose.’ Libby went in search of the phone and punched in Lewis’s number. ‘Lewis? Now, tell me the whole story.’

  ‘I’ve told you,’ said Lewis with a sigh. ‘It turns out Katie knew Tony before I came on the scene. He helped her get in to the outside catering thing.’

  ‘How did they meet?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Libby could almost see Lewis frowning. ‘She didn’t tell me that.’

  ‘What did she actually say? Was it something like “he was a great help to me when I first started out”?’

  ‘Could have been,’ said Lewis slowly. ‘Anyway she knew him then, and German Shepherd had a couple of dos down here and Tony brought her down to help out. So she met ’em all.’

  ‘I’m surprised she’s never told you.’

  ‘She says she assumed I knew.’

  ‘But what about when the skeleton turned up? Surely she would have said something then?’

  ‘Well, she didn’t know anything about Kenneth being killed, did she? If it is Kenneth.’

  ‘I suppose not,’ said Libby. ‘But why did she give the police this memento, whatever it was?’

  ‘They’d found out the house used to belong to Shepherd, and they wanted to find out if the body was him, didn’t they? And when they interviewed her it all came out, so she gave them the – thing.’

  ‘What is it? The thing?’

  ‘A scarf of some sort, she said.’

  ‘Well.’ Libby looked over at Fran. ‘What will you do now?’

  ‘How do you mean? I don’t do nothing. I just sit here until the police have finished with it all. Then maybe I can get back to real life.’ He sighed again. ‘Although I don’t know whether I want to stay here, now.’

  ‘I bet.’ Libby nodded sympathetically.

  ‘Anyway, I just thought you’d like to know.’ He sounded wistful.

  ‘Thanks, Lewis. Chin up. I’ll call you tomorrow. Is Adam on his way home?’

  ‘Dunno. I’ll go and find out and give him a nudge.’

  ‘He’s fed up,’ Libby told Fran, when she’d finished relating Katie’s story, ‘and I don’t wonder. I still think it’s odd Katie didn’t tell him all this when she first worked for him.’

  ‘Sounds as though she was hiding something,’ said Fran, accepting a mug of tea. ‘And she definitely knew Cindy before.’

  ‘That was why she was so mad at finding her there,’ said Libby, sitting down at the table. ‘I wondered why she was so anti.’

  ‘Cindy was treating her like the help.’

  ‘Which is explained by the fact that the last time they’d met, Katie was the help.’ Libby frowned down at her mug. ‘But it doesn’t explain her loyalty to Shepherd.’

  ‘How do we know about that?’

  ‘She was so sure he didn’t do it, wasn’t she? When we were there earlier.’

  ‘And she still wasn’t admitting she’d known him.’ Fran shook her head. ‘Curiouser and curiouser.’

  ‘She did say she’d met him.’

  ‘Yes. And she had told the police. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised she hadn’t told us. We’re nothing to do with it, really.’

  ‘Although when I first came over to talk to Lewis she was trying to convince me to come back and support him.’

  ‘She probably didn’t realise then how far it was going to go,
’ said Fran. ‘And don’t forget, West wasn’t dead then.’

  ‘Hadn’t been found, anyway,’ said Libby. ‘No, you’re right. I expect she’s as annoyed as Lewis about getting involved. Perhaps they should both go back to London.’

  ‘Does Lewis keep a home in London?’

  ‘Oh – I don’t know.’ Libby looked up, surprised. ‘Never thought to ask.’

  ‘Well, if you speak to him tomorrow ask him and suggest he goes back to it for a bit. He was in London when the skeleton was first found, wasn’t he? Adam told you.’

  ‘Well, perhaps that means he’s got somewhere to go back to,’ said Libby, pushing her mug away. ‘I suppose I’d better get on with feeding the hungry hordes.’

  ‘And I’d better get back.’ Fran stood up. ‘I’m surprised Guy hasn’t phoned to find out where I am.’

  Later, over dinner, Libby told Adam and Ben about Pickering House, and then about the latest episode in the Creekmarsh mystery.

  ‘Yeah, I saw the police,’ said Adam. ‘They didn’t come near me, though, which is odd, if you think about it.’

  ‘Why?’ asked Ben.

  ‘Well, if they were looking for Cindy, who had skipped, by all accounts, then surely they would have searched the grounds and asked me – or anyone else working there – if they’d seen her.’

  ‘Perhaps they found her, then,’ said Libby.

  ‘Lewis would have let you know,’ said Adam with a grin. ‘You’re his mother confessor.’

  ‘He’s quite rude to his mother confessor, then,’ said Libby.

  ‘Well, you are a bit pushy,’ said Adam.

  ‘I’m not!’ gasped Libby.

  ‘Inquisitive, then,’ said Ben, patting her hand. Libby scowled and went to fetch cheese and biscuits.

  Lewis did call in the morning.

  ‘Adam said the police didn’t question him yesterday,’ said Libby. ‘We wondered why.’

  ‘They didn’t need to,’ said Lewis. ‘They know what happened.’

  ‘What?’ asked Libby, her stomach sinking in anticipation.

  ‘It was what your mate said. The sailing club.’

  ‘I suggested the sailing club in the first place,’ said Libby, indignation momentarily overcoming apprehension.