False Pride

by Veronica Heley

  ‘Any news of the solicitor?’

  ‘I’ve left a message on his mobile phone, which is switched off at present. He’s probably out on the golf course somewhere. It’s the weekend, you see. He’ll ring back when he can, I’m sure. Meanwhile, I’ll get back to tracing who is looking into the attack on Kent.’

  Bea left her to it and charged up the stairs, slowing down as she reached the hall. Were the stairs steeper than they used to be or, perish the thought, was she getting tired? All this dashing about! She wasn’t as young as she had been.

  Magda was sitting with her knees together, her hands folded in her lap, and her head bent.

  Bea pulled up sharply. Was Magda praying?

  Magda heard Bea. She looked up, and tried to smile. ‘Sorry, I was miles away. Trying to pray, actually. I haven’t done that for years. I expect you think it doesn’t do any good, but it seemed appropriate.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Bea, ‘I pray, too. You’ve found out where Lucas is?’

  ‘I think he’s at his club, though they won’t admit it. I left a message and a password. “Lapis lazuli”, the stone that makes that wonderful blue paint.’

  Bea picked up Lucas’s address book. ‘The police will want this. I’m thinking we should make a copy of all the Rycroft family’s details before we hand it over to them. In particular we need to know where to find Ferdy, Shirley and Hilary.’

  Magda’s eyes didn’t leave the book. She didn’t like it passing out of her hands, did she?

  Bea said, ‘I’m so sorry. Before I forget, I have some more bad news for you. Kent didn’t make it.’

  Magda sighed. ‘That’s a shame. I only met him the once, but I was impressed. Mrs Tarring must be devastated.’ She stood up, and ran her fingers through her hair. ‘I must look awful.’ She held up her hands. ‘Look at me. Shaking!’

  She was being brave, but she was a bit battered around the edges. It was then that Bea noticed Magda was wearing, not her old-lady-type pink blouse, but a rather becoming short-sleeved top in blue, pink and lilac. And lipstick. Oh-ho! Magda was fast coming out of her shell, wasn’t she?

  FIFTEEN

  Sunday late morning

  ‘Well,’ said Bea, ‘there is some good news; one of the Terrible Twins is dead, and the other has survived but is still in hospital.’

  Magda nodded. ‘Yes, that does make me feel better. But still terrified. Who’s next for the chop? Is it me? Was Owen put in my bed as a warning to me not to have anything more to do with the Rycrofts?’

  ‘If it was, you’re going to ignore it. Aren’t you?’

  A shy smile. ‘I suppose I am. I’m not going to hide myself away, but it doesn’t stop me quaking inside. I just hope that Lucas gets one of my messages. Once I know he’s safe, I can walk away and think about the Rycrofts no more.’

  Bea hinted, ‘Lucas might want to keep you on, no matter what Mrs Tarring says.’

  Magda’s lips tightened. ‘Oh, no. He won’t want me around after this. His family goes back to the Conquest, or something. I mean, he’s a lovely man, and I’ve so much enjoyed working for him. When he explains what he’s writing, and his research …’ She shook her head, with a real smile, ‘It’s so interesting! And he’s so kind, you’ve no idea. When I told him about my father’s wanting a special high chair, he researched one for me, and he’s even encouraged me to try new dishes out for him to eat, and he was talking about my going to an exhibition with him, something that he’s particularly interested in.’

  It sounded as if Lucas was taking an interest in more than an exhibition. It sounded to Bea as if he were coming out of a long period of non-interest in women – probably caused by his sister-in-law’s messing up the family big time – and had begun to find Magda as interesting as she found him. Not only had he talked to her about his work and taken it upon himself to help find her father a suitable chair, but he’d also watched television with her.

  Magda said, ‘I know that nothing can come of it. Mrs Abbot, promise me you’ll find someone good to be his next housekeeper?’

  What could Bea say, except, ‘Yes, of course.’ Then her own worries drifted up to the surface. She said, ‘I’m sorry if I’ve been a bit sharp. I have a young ward. She’s at boarding school. She was supposed to spend the weekend with friends in the country, but she walked out on them and is making her way back to London all by herself. I must say I’m imagining all sorts of horrors.’

  Oh, Bernice, am I going to take you apart when you get back here?

  Magda said, ‘Oh, that’s terrible. You’ve been so good, helping us while you must be wishing us anywhere else but here.’

  What excellent manners Magda had.

  Bea said, ‘If you’ve finished up here, would you like to join us downstairs? I’m going to try to work out a timeline of who did what, and to whom.’

  So downstairs Bea and Magda went. Bea asked the others to join her in the main agency room, to see if they could sort out exactly what had been happening. They pushed a couple of desks together and settled around them.

  Piers said, ‘I’ve got this and that. And some thoughts which may be quite irrelevant. I haven’t covered all the hospitals yet, but I think I’ve found out where most of the bodies lie.’

  Mrs Tarring said, ‘I’m nowhere through getting all the information about which police forces are dealing with which incident, but I have got some of it.’

  Bea nodded. ‘Then let’s start by constructing a timetable of events, leaving lots of space around it, which we can fill in with our thoughts and whatever data we can find.’

  Magda smiled politely but her thoughts were clearly elsewhere.

  Bea found some sheets of A3 paper and handed out big pens to everyone.

  Mrs Tarring was dubious. ‘Wouldn’t it be better to have a spreadsheet on the computer?’

  Bea said, ‘We’ll transfer all the information we get onto the computer, once we’ve worked out some kind of timeline. Let’s start by writing down who was attacked, in what order, if possible, with place and time. We’ll put down everything we know about each incident. We’ll start a second column for which hospital they were taken to, and what happened to them there. And lastly, we’ll fill in which police force is dealing with each incident, preferably with contact names and numbers. Right?’

  ‘I get it,’ said Piers. ‘We are the command centre for all information.’

  Mrs Tarring gave him A Look. Such frivolity did not accord with her more serious view of life. ‘I still think it would be easier on a computer.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Bea, ‘but not when we have four people inputting data at once. We need something larger than a computer screen for this. Let’s tape sheets of A3 together and work on them. Now, the first victim must be Owen. Do we all agree on that? Yes?’

  ‘No,’ said Magda. ‘At least … I may be speaking out of turn, and what do I know about it, but do you want to consider the death of Kent’s only son? I never met him, of course, but I do remember Lucas going to the funeral. A hit and run, wasn’t it? Some time ago?’

  ‘Irrelevant,’ said Mrs Tarring.

  Bea agreed. ‘Possibly irrelevant, but let’s include him down for the moment. He died three months ago, wasn’t it? Which would be some time after Owen arrived and caused chaos?’

  ‘Well, yes.’ Mrs Tarring pinched in her lips. ‘But you can’t seriously believe that Owen killed Ellis. That’s ridiculous.’

  Piers was easy. ‘Let’s put him down in brackets as being a possible victim.’

  Mrs Tarring would have objected, but Bea said, ‘Go for it, Piers.’ And he did. Then he wrote down Owen’s name. ‘There was some doubt as to his parentage, if we can trust the gossip-mongers. Do we know whose son he really was?’

  Mrs Tarring said, ‘He was Lord Rycroft’s. He had his birth certificate stating that his father was Lord Rycroft.’

  ‘Not necessarily proof that he was,’ said Piers.

  Mrs Tarring bridled. ‘How dare you!’

  Bea said, hastily, �
�Well, leave that for the moment. Piers, put his name down next. According to what we observed, he was probably killed – we don’t know where – sometime on Friday. But he wasn’t put into Magda’s bed till the Saturday morning while she and Lucas were out of the house.’

  ‘Weird,’ said Piers. ‘I mean, that’s like two crimes. Killing him is one thing, but putting him in Magda’s bed is another. That speaks of a personal grudge. Who would dislike Magda enough to do that to her?’

  Magda started on hearing her name, and looked around as if to wonder where she was.

  Mrs Tarring was magisterial. She even bestowed a look of approbation on Magda. ‘In my opinion, Magda has a pleasant personality and, as far as I know, hasn’t quarrelled with anyone. Not even with Owen. Magda, you never met Owen, did you?’

  Magda shook her head. ‘Not till I found him in my bed.’

  ‘Which means,’ said Bea, ‘that that placement was really aimed at Lucas. Agreed? Let’s get on with making the chart. Who murdered Owen? Any ideas?’

  Mrs Tarring looked grim. ‘Everyone. No one. Take your pick. He’d upset everyone, in and out of the office. Except for his father, that is. Lord Rycroft thought he could do no wrong.’

  Bea wondered, ‘Do you think we should include the removal of the jewels from the bank in our chart? That’s a crime in itself … or is it? Mrs Tarring, do you agree with me that it must have been Owen who’d plotted to get the family jewels out of the bank?’

  ‘Well, it wasn’t Kent. Why would he do that? He could get them out any time he liked. And it wasn’t Lord Rycroft, for the same reason.’

  ‘Besides which,’ said Bea, ‘neither of them would need to use Lucas to do the deed for them. Whoever organized that caper selected Lucas to take the blame. They thought he would be too stupid to query an order on official notepaper. And there they made a mistake.’

  Piers said, ‘But why would Owen do it?’

  ‘He wanted to get Lucas into trouble,’ said Bea. ‘Why? It’s only a guess, but I think it might have been because Lucas wasn’t afraid of him. Lucas ignored him, and Owen didn’t like that. If everything had gone to plan and Lucas had taken the jewels out of the bank using forged papers, Owen could have screamed to the police that Lucas had stolen the jewels. And there they would be, in Lucas’s possession. Mrs Tarring, can you think of any other reason why Owen might want to incriminate Lucas? There wasn’t any bad blood between them … or was there?’

  ‘Well, I suppose … though it’s a poor reason, but Owen wasn’t happy with his new flat. He’d liked it at first, but when he realized that Lucas’s flat was so much larger and brighter, he wanted them to swap. Lucas didn’t make a fuss; he just said he wasn’t moving. So I suppose it is possible that Owen thought up that ploy with the jewels to bring Lucas down. And another thing, Lucas put in a good word for the girl Owen had got sacked. Owen heard about it, and made a lot of rude remarks about Lucas wanting to get into the girl’s pants … Sorry, but he did! No one believed him. And we all hoped Lucas would never hear about it.’

  Bea said, ‘Yes, I can see that it would have amused Owen to get Lucas blamed for theft. We know Owen was in and out of the office. He had access to all the paperwork, and to the key of the safety deposit box. What do you suppose he intended to do with the jewels?’

  Mrs Tarring was finding all this difficult. She didn’t really have a flexible mind, did she? Or was hindered by her loyalty to the family name? She hesitated. ‘He might not want to do anything with them except frame Lucas for their theft. I’m sorry to say, he did bear grudges. He spent a lot of time trying to get back at anyone he thought had injured him. Even if it was unintentional. He came in one day raving about someone who’d pushed past him in a queue at the bank, and how he had taken the number of their car and was going to follow them home and do them an injury. Kent tried to calm him down, but then he turned on Kent for not backing him up and, oh … he was a difficult man to deal with.’

  Piers said, ‘Sounds to me like he had an inferiority complex. He knew he wasn’t measuring up to the Rycroft image, and so wanted to pull everyone else down to his level.’

  Bea mused, ‘Someone must have found out what Owen was planning to do. How did they find out, do you think? I mean, Owen was dead by the time Lucas went to the bank.’

  No one knew the answer to that one. Bea thought of bugs placed beside telephones. Who was it who had been listening in on Lucas’s phone conversations? Not Owen, who was dead by that time. Who could it have been?

  Piers said, ‘It would be interesting to know for certain where Owen was killed and when. Any ideas?’

  Mrs Tarring said, ‘How could we possibly know where he was killed?’

  ‘That’s easy,’ said Bea. ‘He was killed in his new flat, which was directly under Lucas’s. All the killer had to do was wait for Lucas and Magda to go out for the day, and pop the corpse up the stairs.’

  Everyone nodded. Piers said, ‘Do the police know that he lived under the shop?’

  Mrs Tarring made a note. ‘I’ll check.’

  Magda stood up. ‘I’m sorry, but I’m finding this all very difficult. I can’t really contribute to what you’re doing. Would anyone like a cup of coffee, or shall I rustle up some lunch for us all?’

  And then she can be close to the phone upstairs if it rings …

  ‘Bless you, my dear,’ said Bea. ‘More coffee would be good. And how about some cheese and salad stuffs for lunch? It’s all in the fridge in the kitchen.’

  Magda went off, taking the stairs at a run.

  Piers put down his pen. ‘I’ve put “Removal of jewels!” straight after Owen’s death. We don’t know what time Owen was killed, though we think it was on Friday, but we can estimate times for Saturday morning.’

  Bea said, ‘Magda said she and Lucas went to the bank about half nine. Then on to the studio about ten or ten fifteen.’

  Piers wrote that in. ‘The next victims were me and Magda. But at least we know who did that. The Terrible Twins roughed us up, knocked me out, wrecked the place, and departed. I’m writing down … eleven o’clock, twins visit studio, tear the place apart. Eleven twenty to half past, the twins leave. I return to consciousness. Magda leaves to come here and I go in search of Lucas, whom I don’t find. I’m back at the studio about noon. Where did the twins go after they left the studio?’

  Bea said, ‘Yes, let’s follow their trail. They told me they drove around looking for Magda. First they tried Lucas’s place, where they failed to gain entry because they hadn’t got any keys. Then they tried the office, which was all locked up for the weekend and finally came back here. I believed them when they said they couldn’t get in to Lucas’s place and I don’t think they were responsible for stealing Lucas’s collection of jade. They were still after Magda and the jewels at that point. Besides, their method of searching is destruction, and Lucas’s place was tossed but not destroyed.’

  Piers said, ‘You’ve got a point there.’

  Bea said, ‘Their second visit to me ended in tragi-comedy. They had found a bottle of something to drink, which had been placed by someone unknown in their open-topped car, and by the time they arrived here they were in some distress. Several people have assumed that it was the twins who assaulted Kent, but I don’t think they did. In the first place, they admitted roughing up Piers but didn’t mention harming Kent. And I don’t think they had time to return to the studio and attack Kent before making their return visit to me at noon.’

  ‘It would have been close, almost impossible for them to have done that. And, why should they return to the studio? It makes no sense. I’d gone to the barber’s, drawn a blank there and was back at the studio about the same time the twins reached you. And that’s when I found Kent on the floor.’

  ‘So, who did Kent in? It happened between the time you left at eleven twenty or half past eleven, and what … about noon?’ Bea frowned down at the chart. ‘And who knew that the jewels had been taken from the bank? Apart from Kent and Lord Rycroft.’<
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  Mrs Tarring lowered her head.

  Why? Why was the woman not taking part in this discussion? What did she know that she wasn’t prepared to tell us? There was something the twins had said. They’d referred to a woman whom they had failed to contact. They’d called her not by her name, but by a nickname … ‘Herself’. There were only two women involved in this affair, weren’t there? Or three, if you counted Magda. Mrs Tarring, Shirley, Magda. Eeeny meeny miney mo.

  Piers said, ‘Yes, how did the twins get to know the jewels had been removed from the bank? Do you suppose it was they who planned it, and not Owen?’ He answered his own question. ‘No. If they had planned it, they wouldn’t have been able to get the necessary paperwork and the key from the office.’

  Bea watched Mrs Tarring play with her pen. ‘Unless they had an accomplice?’

  ‘Ridiculous,’ said Mrs Tarring. Half-heartedly.

  Piers said, ‘On the other hand, do you think the twins organized the bugging of Lucas’s phone? Do you think they might have done Kent’s as well? Is that their style? Again; no. I wouldn’t have thought so.’ He threw down his pen. ‘Is some madman going around knocking off anyone with the name of Rycroft? And why? And now we come to the next question; who poisoned the twins? At least, we assume it was poison? One of them died, remember. So who had it in for them?’

  ‘What’s more,’ said Bea, ‘who arranged for Lord Rycroft to die? Or was that really just an accident?’

  Mrs Tarring cleared her throat. ‘No, I’m sure that was just an accident. He was a terrible driver, you know, and if he was on his phone coming down a hill too fast … well, what can you expect? Of course the police will look into the question, but I’m sure there’s nothing in it. Let me fill you in on which police force seems to have been in attendance, and who we have to contact there. Now, the police force dealing with Owen … I have the details here somewhere.’

  Bea watched Mrs Tarring at work, her lips tight, her eyes on what she was writing.

  The chart showed … something. Something that Mrs Tarring didn’t want to talk about? Bea ran her eyes down the timetable again. She said, ‘I’ll just pop upstairs and check timings with Magda.’