Dead and Gone

by Dorothy Simpson

  ‘They had no choice, I imagine. What else could they do? They wouldn’t have dared risk driving Rachel away too. Oh, poor Ginny,’ Susan repeated. ‘It’s unbelievable. Absolutely the last thing she needed.’

  Had he known all this before, Thanet thought, he might have been more willing to accept that Virginia had thrown herself down that well in despair. But the conclusion to be drawn from those bruises left little room for doubt.

  ‘Why didn’t Virginia like Rachel’s boyfriend? Did she say?’

  ‘She thought Rachel was too young for a serious relationship with anyone, but apart from that, she didn’t trust him, thought he had an eye to the main chance and probably saw Rachel as a good prospect. He hasn’t a penny to his name, I believe. Also, she thought he was too free with his attentions to other young women at the Club. He’d been around for a while before Rachel came home, and Ginny had had plenty of opportunity to observe him.’

  ‘He gave her some coaching, I believe.’

  ‘Did he? That must have been when I was away. Our elder daughter lives in New Zealand and we went over there for an extended trip last winter, didn’t get back until April.’

  ‘Wasn’t that difficult for your business?’

  ‘It did require a colossal amount of organisation before I went, to keep things ticking over in my absence. But you have to get your priorities right. My daughter was expecting her first baby and there were problems.’

  Babies again, thought Thanet. They seemed to crop up all the time. ‘Everything was all right, I hope?’

  She looked surprised that he had asked. ‘Yes. After a few traumas on the way.’

  ‘Good . . . Virginia didn’t by any chance hint that there’d been anything between her and Matthew Agon, did she?’ If there had been, it would have been to Susan that Virginia would have been most likely to mention it.

  She laughed. ‘Oh no. He was much too young. She wasn’t in favour of toy-boys, as she called them, thought it would be degrading to have everyone pointing and whispering.’

  ‘But she wasn’t averse to causing gossip, surely. We understand her affair with Dr Squires is common knowledge at the Health Club.’

  ‘So you know about that. Well, that’s different. Matt Agon is young enough to be her son, isn’t he? Frankly, I think Howard Squires was absolutely crazy to carry on with a patient like that, but there you are. Some men seem to lose all common sense when they get involved with a woman like Ginny. But that’s their affair, isn’t it?’

  ‘When did she become involved with him, do you know?’

  ‘Not really. While I was away. It was certainly going strong by the time I got back.’

  ‘Several months ago at least, then. From what you said, about her always liking to be the one to end the affair, it was due to come to an end soon.’

  ‘I agree. And if he does get away with it, he’ll be a lucky man. Let’s hope he has more common sense in future.’

  ‘She didn’t by any chance tell you she was going to break it off with him, did she?’ If she had, thought Thanet, what stronger motive could they look for? The prospect of losing her, together with the outrageous way in which she had flirted with her sister’s boyfriend on Saturday night, might have been enough to provoke a row in which Squires might have lost his temper.

  But Susan was shaking her head. ‘But that doesn’t mean she didn’t. My God, do you think that’s what might have happened?’ She was looking aghast.

  ‘At the moment we have absolutely no idea. It’s all pure speculation. There are a number of possibilities.’

  ‘Well, I hope you get him, whoever he is!’ she cried, suddenly passionate. ‘I may not always have approved of her behaviour, but she hasn’t had an easy time and she certainly didn’t deserve this!’

  ‘No,’ said Thanet, his tone sombre. ‘Of course she didn’t.’ He rose. ‘I think we’ve taken up enough of your time, Mrs Amos. You’ve been immensely helpful. Er . . . Before I go . . . ?’ And he nodded at the jacket he had chosen.

  ‘Oh, of course.’

  The negotiation was swiftly completed. ‘Christmas shopping,’ Thanet said to Lineham with a somewhat shamefaced grin as they walked back to the car.

  ‘Already? You’ll be buying your Christmas cards in the January sales next!’

  ‘Joan’ll love it. I didn’t want to miss the chance.’

  ‘Just pulling your leg, sir. Bet it was a bit pricey, though.’

  ‘It’s good to push the boat out from time to time,’ said Thanet, trying not to think just how far he’d pushed it this time. Anyway, he didn’t care. He was delighted with his purchase. He glanced at his watch. Twenty past twelve. ‘We’ll go back to the Dog and Thistle for a bite to eat, before meeting the Super.’

  They carried their drinks outside to a table on the wide pavement again. Here beneath the trees they were at least shaded from the fierce heat of the noonday sun. Considering himself briefly off duty, Thanet loosened his tie and undid the top button of his shirt, making a mental note to remember to do it up again. It wouldn’t do for the Super to catch him like this. Draco, he was sure, would not allow himself such laxity under any circumstances.

  While they waited for the food to arrive they were silent, mulling over the interview with Susan Amos.

  ‘I still can’t believe that Mr Mintar was perfectly happy for his wife to carry on like that,’ said Lineham eventually.

  ‘Difficult to accept, I agree.’

  ‘And you know what they say about worms turning.’ Lineham was warming to his theme. ‘Maybe the provocation on Saturday was just too much. Perhaps the pressure had been building up all day. The four of them had been out together earlier, remember, to Sissinghurst. What if she’d been making a play for Mr Prime then, too?’

  ‘Possible, I agree.’

  ‘So Mr Mintar may already have been angry with her, before the dinner party even started. And then on top of all that there was the shock of Rachel’s engagement and the strain of having to go through the charade of being pleased . . . Maybe that’s it, sir! Maybe he thought that in view of this latest development, they had to act quickly if they were to get rid of Agon before his position became too entrenched. He’d been wanting to pay him off, remember, but his wife was against it. Maybe he grabbed the first opportunity to tackle her about it, while everyone was off changing. We’ve only his word that he was in his study the whole time. So maybe he went back, had a row with her about it and suddenly it was all too much and he just snapped . . .’

  ‘Could have happened like that, I agree.’

  The food arrived and they tucked in. Lineham had chosen the bacon and mushroom baguettes again, while Thanet had opted for home-cooked roast beef with English mustard. It was good, too, the meat thickly sliced and succulent, the mustard freshly made.

  ‘Mmm. I must bring Louise here sometime,’ said Lineham. ‘Of course,’ he went on, ‘you could argue that a lot of this applies to Virginia’s sister, too. She might have had enough, as well. After all, from what Mr Prime said, it was far from the first time Virginia had had a go at pinching Jane’s boyfriends – and had usually succeeded too, by the sound of it, to the degree that she’d put off bringing him here to meet Virginia as long as she possibly could. Not surprising, I suppose. Jane’s no oil painting is she?’

  ‘I’ll risk a cliché and say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, Mike.’

  ‘Maybe. But when a woman like Virginia throws herself at you, it must be a big temptation.’

  ‘Obviously one that Prime was strong-minded enough to resist.’

  ‘But Jane wasn’t to know that, was she? After all, she’s no spring chicken. Maybe she felt Prime was her last chance, and imagined him slipping away from her like others had done in the past. Rachel told Agon that Jane had been really upset, remember, that she’d heard her crying. And Jane and Prime were there for the whole weekend, there was all day Sunday yet to come. Maybe Jane felt she couldn’t face it, if Virginia was going to carry on in the same way, and like we
said decided to have it out with her. Marilyn Squires was pretty definite about her coming out of the door leading to the kitchen corridor.’

  ‘If she was telling the truth.’

  ‘You think she might not have been?’

  ‘No, I’m inclined to believe her. Anyway, we’ll have to interview Jane again, obviously. But it’s just occurred to me . . .’

  ‘What?’ Lineham stopped chewing.

  ‘Mr Mintar. I wonder how ambitious he is. His father was a High Court judge. What if he aspires to the Bench too?’

  ‘I don’t see what you’re getting at.’

  ‘Well, it sounds to me as though in that respect Virginia could have been a considerable liability.’

  ‘The way she carried on with men, you mean?’

  ‘Her blatant flirting, yes. Hardly proper behaviour for the wife of a prospective High Court judge, wouldn’t you agree?’

  ‘Are you suggesting he might deliberately have set out to kill her on Saturday?’

  ‘No, not at all. But it could have been an underlying reason for him to have been fed up with her, don’t you think?’ Thanet was keeping an eye on the time. He wanted to be at the Mintars’ house ahead of Draco. He did up his top button and tightened his tie. ‘Come on, Mike, we’d better go. Mustn’t keep the Super waiting, must we? No,’ he went on as they walked to the car, ‘I think that whoever committed this crime did it on the spur of the moment.’

  ‘I agree,’ said Lineham. ‘But to change the subject, I wonder how long it’ll take to get that search warrant.’

  ‘I expect it’ll have come through by the time we’ve finished at the Mintars’. By the way, I’ve been thinking, Mike.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Young Rachel. I feel sorry for her. She’s had a rotten time. She’s obviously still very upset about losing her sister, you could tell from her behaviour the night before last, and now, on top of that, this terrible thing has happened to her mother.’

  ‘So? We’re doing all we can.’

  ‘To find out who was responsible for the murder, yes. But what about Caroline?’

  ‘You want to have another shot at finding her?’

  ‘Why not? It was four years ago, I know, which in one way will make things more difficult, as the trail will be cold. But in another way the lapse of time might help. For one thing she and young Swain might have become more careless as time has gone on, and not be taking as much trouble to cover their tracks. Also, her attitude might have changed, she might not be so hardened against her parents now. And apart from anything else, she has a right to know what has happened to her mother. So yes, I’d say another effort is called for, wouldn’t you?’

  ‘Who’ll you put on to it?’

  ‘Tanya, I think. It’ll give her something to get her teeth into.’ Thanet was conscious of time ticking away. It was twenty past one already. Perhaps they had lingered too long over lunch. He had a sudden vision of Draco standing waiting for them in the courtyard, feet planted firmly apart, stopwatch in hand. ‘Better put your foot down, Mike. We don’t want to be late.’

  FIFTEEN

  It was twenty-five past one when they pulled up at the Mintars’ house.

  ‘No sign of the Super yet,’ said Lineham.

  ‘No,’ said Thanet with satisfaction. He was watching Digby, who had just emerged from a door at the far end of the coach-house carrying a ball of green twine and a bundle of bamboo canes. At least they’d know where to find him when the search warrant came through.

  At 1.30 precisely the car radio crackled into life. There was a message from Superintendent Draco: something had cropped up and he would be unable to keep their appointment. Instead, Inspector Thanet was expected to report to him for an update at five o’clock sharp.

  ‘Bet he never intended to turn up,’ said Lineham. ‘Just keeping us on our toes, isn’t he?’

  ‘I’m not grumbling,’ said Thanet, glad of the reprieve. Lineham was probably right.

  ‘So, who first?’ said Lineham as they got out of the car.

  ‘Jane Simons, I think,’ said Thanet. ‘If we can find her, that is. And after that, Mr Mintar.’

  The back door stood open but they had to knock twice before Mintar appeared, clutching a white linen napkin and looking even worse than he had yesterday. He was wearing the same clothes and Thanet guessed he had probably slept in them. There were food stains down the front of his shirt and he still hadn’t shaved. Those who knew the dapper well-groomed QC only from his courtroom appearances would scarcely have recognised the man.

  For a moment or two he stood looking blankly at Thanet as though he’d never seen him before and couldn’t imagine what he was doing there. Then came a gleam of recognition. ‘Oh, it’s you, Thanet,’ he said in a lifeless monotone. ‘We were just finishing lunch.’

  ‘I’d like another word with you later, sir, if you don’t mind. But first, if I could speak to Miss Simons . . . ?’

  Mintar seemed to rouse himself. ‘I gather you’ve nothing of moment to tell me?’ And suddenly he was his former self, fixing Thanet with that familiar penetrating stare.

  ‘There was one thing, sir.’ Thanet had intended waiting to impart this piece of information until the beginning of his interview but Mintar’s question had put him on the spot. ‘The PM took place this morning—’

  ‘And?’ The word shot out like a bullet.

  Thanet told him about the bruising, their certainty that Virginia’s death had been murder.

  Mintar’s face was bleak. ‘I see,’ he said, the words little more than a whisper. He turned away. ‘I’ll fetch my sister-in-law.’

  ‘Taken a nose-dive hasn’t he, sir?’ said Lineham softly when he had gone. ‘All the same, I wouldn’t fancy having to face him in Court.’

  ‘Better keep on the right side of the law then, hadn’t you!’

  It was a few minutes before Jane Simons appeared and Thanet guessed that Mintar had been breaking the news of the PM results to the others.

  ‘You wanted to see me?’ She was looking shaken but was much more composed than the last time they had seen her. The only residual hint of yesterday’s tears was a slight puffiness around the eyes.

  ‘Just one or two more questions,’ said Thanet. ‘I’m glad to see you’re feeling a little better,’ he added as they all sat down. No need as yet to be too heavy-handed, he decided. In any case, she would have had plenty of time to prepare her story. Prime would almost certainly have told her the gist of his conversation with them on the way into the village yesterday morning, including the fact that he had had to admit that he and Jane had returned separately to the pool. ‘We’ve been talking to everyone who was present at the dinner party on Saturday,’ he said, ‘getting a clearer picture of the sequence of events that evening. Miss Simons, why did you and Mr Prime give us the impression that you returned to the pool together?’

  She caught her lower lip beneath her teeth in an expression of troubled innocence. ‘Yes, Arnold told me you’d got the wrong idea about that. I’m sorry. We didn’t intend to mislead you.’

  ‘We understand that you had an argument, while you were up in your room, and that you were rather upset.’

  ‘My God,’ she said, with a flash of hostility. ‘You have been poking about, haven’t you?’

  ‘We’ve had to. Your sister is dead, Miss Simons, and it’s our job to try to find out why.’

  She compressed her lips. ‘I know. I’m sorry.’

  Genuinely contrite? Thanet wondered. Or merely politic?

  ‘If you’ve picked up that much,’ she said, ‘you’ve probably gathered what the argument was about. I know you’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead but I’ve always thought that a rather mealy-mouthed attitude. There’s good and bad in all of us and my sister was no exception, as I’m sure you’re finding out. That doesn’t mean to say I wasn’t fond of her, I was. She was my sister, after all. But there’s no point in trying to deny that she was a terrible flirt. I honestly don’t think she could help
herself. She simply couldn’t resist trying to charm every man who came along. And that, of course, included my boyfriend. I suppose I was taking my resentment of her behaviour out on him, poor man. Very unfair of me, I’d be the first to admit.’

  ‘And you no doubt decided to take her to task about it?’

  She lifted her heavy shoulders. She was wearing a sleeveless sundress and Thanet saw the muscles in her upper arms ripple. She could have tipped Virginia into that well with ease, he thought.

  ‘Why deny it?’ she said.

  ‘So what did you do?’

  ‘Finished changing, went down to the kitchen. I knew Ginny would still be there.’

  Thanet’s pulse accelerated. ‘And was she?’

  ‘No. I was surprised, I must admit. As I told you yesterday, she was a stickler for getting everything ship-shape. It wasn’t like her to leave the clearing away half finished. It was only later, when we realised she was missing, that I began to wonder about it, think that perhaps she had been interrupted.’

  ‘So what did you do?’

  ‘Went on out to the pool, of course. If she wasn’t there, too bad. What I had to say to her could wait.’

  ‘You didn’t look for her?’

  ‘No. I assumed she’d decided to swim first, finish clearing up later, and had gone up to change. I couldn’t be bothered to go back upstairs.’

  ‘Did you look out of the kitchen window?’

  ‘No. Why should I?’

  ‘It didn’t occur to you she might have gone outside?’

  ‘It never entered my head! Ralph said he wondered if she might have gone out to finish watering the camellias – apparently Howard and Marilyn arrived before she’d finished, but I’m no gardener, haven’t even got a window box, so the idea of going out to water the garden in the middle of entertaining guests? It’s just too bizarre! No, I just glanced around, saw she wasn’t there, and went out to join the others.’

  ‘Please, would you try to think back . . . When you glanced around, did you see or even glimpse someone, something, anything out of that window? Any movement . . . ?’