by M C Beaton
"Mrs. Raisin?"
"Yes. You are . . . ?"
"I'm Tom Courtney, Miriam's son."
"Do come in." Agatha stood aside to let him past. "Go straight through to the kitchen." Agatha did not want to put her guest in the living room because the chairs were soft and she found it awkward to struggle out of them.
"You have a charming cottage," he said.
He was tall with a lightly tanned face, black hair and brown eyes. Agatha guessed his age to be somewhere in his early forties.
"Do sit down," said Agatha. "I am sorry for your loss."
"Don't be. I was very close to my father, but I didn't see much of my mother."
"You live in the States now?"
"Yes, in New York."
"I believe you have a sister."
"Amy. She's still in the States. She's married to a doctor in Philadelphia."
"I didn't see either of you at the funeral," said Agatha.
"I couldn't bring myself to come over. I paid for it, of course, and made the arrangements long distance."
"Dear me. Why did you dislike your mother so much?"
He shrugged. "She bitched my poor father to hell and gone. He died of a heart attack when we were small. Amy and I were brought up by a succession of nannies and then we were both sent to schools in Switzerland. Then universities in the States. We went home as little as possible. Believe me, it was a relief when she moved over here. I work as a lawyer."
"So why have you come to see me?"
"Unfinished business. My mother left everything to Amy and me. Quite a lot. She was a bit of a miser. Not on the big things like expensive schools for us and so on but on niggling things like cheap meals or eating at other people's expense as much as possible, things like that. But I really want to know who killed her, and then I can get on with my life. I heard that she had hired you to find out who murdered John Sunday. I would like to hire you to find out who killed my mother."
"I'll do my best," said Agatha. "I feel if I could find out who murdered John Sunday, then I would find out who murdered your mother. She said to a friend of mine the night she was murdered that she knew something."
He smiled at her, a charming smile that lit up his handsome face. Agatha was even more painfully aware of the fact that not only did she have no make-up on but that she was wearing a tent-like blouse, a cotton skirt and slippers.
"Would you excuse me a moment?" she said hurriedly. She eased herself to her feet, always dimly afraid that the terrible hip pain would come back.
"Hip replacement?" he asked sympathetically.
"No!" lied Agatha. "Just took a tumble." Hip replacement, indeed. So aging.
Upstairs, she carefully made up her face and brushed her hair until it shone. She was just struggling into a trouser suit when her doorbell rang. Tom shouted from downstairs, "Don't worry. I'll get it."
As she finally made her way downstairs, she could hear laughter from the kitchen. She opened the kitchen door and went in. Toni was sitting at the table facing Tom. Her blond hair was been newly cut in a short elfin style, making her eyes look large. She was wearing jeans and half boots with a black sweater. A scarlet Puffa jacket hung over the back of her chair.
"Can I help you?" Toni jumped to her feet. "How's the hip replacement? Healing up okay?"
"What hip replacement?" said Agatha repressively. "Let's talk about something else. I gather you've introduced yourselves."
"Indeed," said Tom in his almost accentless English. "I didn't know detectives were that pretty off the television screen."
"You don't have an American accent," said Toni.
"As I was explaining to Mrs. Raisin here, I was schooled in Switzerland so I missed out on the American accent."
"Mr. Courtney," began Agatha.
"Tom, please."
"Right. I'm Agatha. Here's my card. If you call at the office on Monday morning, we'll draw up a contract for you. I'll tell you how far we'd got."
Agatha succinctly outlined all the interviews. When she had finished, Toni said, "You've forgotten the Beagles and the Summers. You sent me to interview them."
"Right. But as I remember you didn't get much."
"They were all so old and creaky."
Tom smiled. "Are you very sure? I remember at your age that people like me and Agatha here would seem creaky."
I'd like to throw something, thought Agatha savagely.
"Oh, no," said Toni, charmingly flustered. "I mean, neither you nor Agatha are old."
"Bless the girl," laughed Tom.
"Had they put the Christmas lights up?" asked Agatha. She turned to Tom. "You see, each Christmas their cottages were blazing with Christmas lights and John Sunday stopped them last Christmas. They were furious. Did they put the lights up after he was murdered, Toni?"
"They hadn't done when I called on them and then I never went back to Odley Cruesis."
"Will you rebuild the manor?" Agatha asked Tom.
"No, I'm selling the wreck to a builder. He's going to bulldoze the ruin and then build houses on the land."
"Was the place insured?"
"Yes, heavily."
Agatha asked, "Have the police enquired where you were the night your mother was murdered?"
"Of course. I was in the Cayman Islands on holiday. Plenty of witnesses."
The doorbell rang again. "You're a busy lady," commented Tom.
"I'll get it," said Toni. She came back followed by Roy Silver. Roy had once worked for Agatha when she had run her own public relations firm. He was still in PR. As a concession to a visit to the countryside, Roy was wearing a sports jacket, but underneath he sported a T-shirt with the logo Ready To Kill. He was a rather weedy young man with a weak, pale face and fine hair, cut short and gelled into small spikes all over his narrow head.
"Aggie, darling," he said, kissing her on the cheek. "I'll just pop my bag in the spare room."
Agatha caught an amused look in Tom's eyes and said hurriedly, "My young friend used to work for me. You might have phoned, Roy."
"Came on an impulse. Read about all the Cotswolds mayhem in the papers and then nothing. I thought you might have asked me for Christmas. There I was on my little lone."
"I assumed everyone I knew would be booked up for Christmas," said Agatha defensively.
Roy went off upstairs. Agatha said, "I'd like to get back to Odley Cruesis and begin again. I don't like the idea of asking you to work on your day off, Toni. I'll let you know on Monday how I get on."
"Oh, I'm free," said Toni blithely.
Agatha silently cursed both Roy and Toni. No chance of being alone with Tom.
When Roy came back downstairs, Agatha said, "We're going detecting. You can stay here if you like."
"Dear Aggie, remember all the times I've spent ferreting around with you. Are we going to start today?"
"I'll get my notes," said Agatha, "and then we can split up."
When she returned, she said, "First of all, Tom, do you want to go back to where you are staying and wait results? Where are you staying?"
"At The George in Mircester. But I'd like to come with you."
Agatha brightened. She consulted her notes. "Right. Toni, if you and Roy could go and see Tilly Glossop again, she might open up to you. Tom and I will go and see the Beagles and the Summers. Probably a waste of time but I would like to see them for myself." The doorbell shrilled.
"Don't move. I'll get it." Toni ran to the door.
She came back with Mrs. Bloxby. "I hadn't seen you for a while," said the vicar's wife, "and wondered how you were getting on."
Agatha, who did not want another remark about her hip, flashed her friend a warning look. Mrs. Bloxby focussed on Tom for the first time. Agatha introduced them.
She's off again, thought Mrs. Bloxby. I should be worried about her, but she needed some man to bring the sparkle back.
"We're all going detecting," said Agatha.
"In that case, I won't keep you," said Mrs. Bloxby. "But why don't you
all call at the vicarage for tea later and let me know how you get on?"
_______
Agatha elected to drive after a look at Tom's vehicle. It was a Range Rover and she cringed at the thought of climbing up into it. The day was still fine: blue sky, yellow daffodils, pink cherry blossoms and some purple stuff that Agatha didn't know the name of growing out of the old Cotswold walls.
"Young Roy seems a close friend of yours," said Tom.
"I suppose he is."
"Aren't you frightened of getting AIDS?"
Agatha nearly swerved into a ditch. She stopped the car and said in a thin voice, "I am not having an affair with Roy. I do not know whether he is homosexual or not. I never asked, it being none of my business, but it wouldn't matter if he were."
"But the close contact," said Tom.
Agatha glared at him. "Are you one of those freaks who think you can get it from lavatory seats?"
"Sorry," mumbled Tom. "I didn't take you for a liberal."
"You see before you," said Agatha, "an apolitical woman with a lot of common sense who doesn't listen to folk stories or ill-informed scares. Now, can we get on?"
They drove on in silence, Agatha's interest in Tom extinguished. As they were driving into Odley Cruesis, Tom said, "Maybe I shouldn't have said that. I lost a good friend to AIDS."
"What happened?" asked Agatha acidly. "Did her boyfriend breathe on her?"
"Him. He died. It was awful. I've been frightened of that horrible disease ever since."
"Ah, that explains it," said Agatha, suddenly cheerful again. "Here we are. I think the Beagles are in the first cottage."
The cottage had probably once been a farm labourer's cottage. It was made of red brick with a slate roof. The path up to the front door was of red brick as well. A glorious magnolia tree was just coming into flower in the little front garden.
Agatha rang the bell. An elderly man answered the door. He was small and round-shouldered and wearing two pullovers over a frayed shirt and baggy stained trousers. His face was wrinkled. Spare lines of greased hair covered a freckled scalp. His faded blue eyes looked at Agatha "So it's you. Nosy parker."
"This is Thomas Courtney, Miriam's son," said Agatha.
"Oh, I do be right sorry. Come along in. The missus is poorly today."
"What is up with her?" asked Tom sharply.
"Her do have a bit of a cold."
"I might wait in the car," said Tom nervously.
"It's just a cold!" exclaimed Agatha. "Not the black plague."
"Very well," he said reluctantly.
Mrs. Beagle was crouched in an armchair beside the fire. The room smelled strongly of urine, coal smoke and wintergreen.
"Here's Miriam's boy," said her husband.
Mrs. Beagle was as wrapped up as her husband and every bit as stooped and wrinkled. Agatha mentally removed them from her list of suspects. She estimated they would both have difficulty getting across the street, let alone murdering John Sunday.
Agatha looked around her, but there was nowhere in the small parlour to sit down. Charlie Beagle had sunk down into an armchair facing his wife. There was a battered sofa but two large somnolent dogs were stretched on it.
"Did you see anyone near the manor before it went alight?" asked Agatha.
"In the middle of the night!" said Charlie. "Us were asleep. Didn't hear about it till morning."
"About John Sunday," pursued Agatha, "you were at that protest meeting."
"And a fat lot of good that did," said Mrs. Beagle. "Jabber, jabber, talk, talk. Nothing could be done about that horrible man."
"Apart from Miriam and Miss Simms, did anyone else leave the room?"
"Not that I noticed," said Charlie. "But me and the missus, our sight isn't as good as it used to be. But good riddance to Sunday, I say. He was after stopping us putting up the Christmas lights. Such a display we had every year. We was in the Cotswold Journal. I'll show you. They sent me a photo and Fred Summer got one as well."
He shuffled over to a table by the window, piled high with magazines, newspapers and photos.
"Here we are. Just you look at that!"
Agatha studied a colour photograph showing the two cottages. The outsides were covered with Christmas lights. The Summers had a plastic Santa and plastic reindeer riding on the roof and the Beagles had a lit-up plastic creche in their front garden. Perhaps the only thing John Sunday did in his life that became it, thought Agatha, who had seen a performance of Macbeth once, was blacking out this monstrosity.
Then her bearlike eyes narrowed. Surely Charlie couldn't be that infirm if he had got the plastic Santa up on the roof, not to mention wiring up all those lights.
"What a lot of work," she said. "It must have taken you ages."
"I starts around the end of October, yes. Bit by bit."
"And did you get that Santa up on the roof all by yourself?"
"Easy. There's a skylight. I just push it up through there."
"Do you want to ask anything?" Agatha turned to Tom, who was standing with a handkerchief covering his mouth and nose.
He gave a muffled "No."
They took their leave. "You really are terrified of infection," said Agatha when they were outside.
"I hate colds."
"I don't think there's much point in interviewing the Summers," said Agatha. "On the other hand, they might have seen something."
"Do you mind if I wait outside?"
"Not at all," said Agatha, her interest in him dying by the minute.
The Summers seemed mirror images of the Beagles, expect that Fred Summer looked fitter. His wife also had a cold and was coughing miserably. Agatha felt the air was full of germs and began to sympathise with Tom.
Fred's story was almost the same as that of Charles Beagle. They had visited the vicarage, more in the hope of some cakes and tea than out of any hope that something about Sunday might be resolved. There was one piece of additional information. Fred and Charlie used to compete to see which one of them could have the most dazzling display at Christmas, but as they both got older, they had begun to help each other.
Agatha thanked them and left. Tom was standing outside, a light breeze ruffling his hair. He looked so handsome that Agatha felt a lurch in her stomach. It suddenly seemed a long time since she had enjoyed any sex whatsoever, and she felt her hormones raging.
Toni and Roy came rushing up to join them. Toni looked excited. "Tilly Glossop was out," she said, "but her neighbour, a Mrs. Crinch, came out to talk to us. She does not like Tilly. She said that Sunday was a frequent visitor but that the day before the murder, she heard Sunday and Tilly having a terrible row. When he left Tilly's cottage, Sunday shouted, 'Get it through your head, we're finished.' To which Tilly said, 'You'll be sorry.' "
"I think what we should do," said Agatha, "is accept Mrs. Bloxby's offer of tea and go through what we've got. We'll need to dig up all we can about Tilly."
Mrs. Bloxby suggested they should take their tea in the garden as the day was fine and it would give Mrs. Raisin a chance to smoke.
"You smoke!" exclaimed Tom. "Don't you know what you are doing to your lungs? And what about other people? Have you never heard of passive smoking?"
"We are out in the open air," said Agatha huffily as they helped Mrs. Bloxby to arrange chairs round the table in the garden.
Mrs. Bloxby watched the emotions chasing each other across Agatha's face as she looked at Tom: an odd mixture of exasperation, disappointment and lust. Odd, thought Mrs. Bloxby. I never thought of Mrs. Raisin as a lustful person. More of a romantic. Does she not realise that inside that handsome exterior is probably a very prissy man? Just look at the way he is polishing that already clean seat with his handkerchief.
Toni and Roy arrived to join them, saying they had not been able to find Tilly Glossop, and all the other villagers had shunned them as if they had the plague.
After tea and cakes had been served, Mrs. Bloxby asked how they were getting on. Agatha outlined the little they
had found. When she had finished, she said, "I don't know what's happened to Bill Wong. He usually calls round. I thought that after the death of Sunday he would come to see me. I tried phoning but he is always busy."
"Oh, I quite forgot to tell you!" exclaimed Mrs. Bloxby. "He called me on the telephone some time ago, saying that Detective Sergeant Collins watches him like a hawk and Wilkes said he was to give you no help whatsoever because he did not want outsiders meddling in police work."
"Considering the crimes I've solved for the police in the past, I do think that's a bit thick," said Agatha. "I might drive over later and see if he's at home. Have you heard any gossip about Tilly Glossop?"
"Only that she is not very well liked. There are remarkably few newcomers in Odley Cruesis, compared to the other villages, but such as they are complain that she is very rude to them. May Dinwoody and Carrie Brother are quite popular. Miss Brother is considered an eccentric. What makes you think that the death of Mrs. Courtney and the death of Mr. Sunday are connected?"
"It stands to reason," said Agatha. "She told Charles she had remembered something. Miriam probably told whoever it was and they decided to kill her."
"But the killing of Mrs. Courtney was quite elaborate," said Toni, "whereas the killing of John Sunday looks more as if someone just stabbed him in a rage."
Tom gave a laugh. "It's a good thing I have a solid alibi or I would be number one suspect." He took a packet of moist disinfectant tissues out of his pocket and began to clean his hands.
Agatha gave a little sigh. There he sat, the epitome of manhood with his handsome face, his strong throat and his strong figure, fussing away like an old woman.
"Where are you staying, Mr. Courtney?" asked Mrs. Bloxby.
"At The George in Mircester."
"Do you plan to stay long?"
"Just until all the legal business is settled. Pretty nearly finished. I should be off back to the States in a week or two."
"I heard you have a sister," said Mrs. Bloxby.
