Like False Money

by Penny Grubb

  ‘Mel!’ The colonel’s tone snapped Mally upright in the chair. ‘There’s no need for that talk.’

  ‘Sorry, grandad.’

  Annie found herself unsure whether it was the insult to Mr Tunbridge or Mally claiming to be poor that had earned the rebuke.

  Mally looked subdued for a couple of seconds, then began, ‘Dad says …’ only to be interrupted by her grandfather.

  ‘Your father’s a renegade, a wastrel.’

  Annie shifted in her chair, uncomfortable that the family feud should be played out in her presence and that Mally’s father should be denigrated in front of his daughter.

  ‘He’s not, grandad. He had to go on a business trip. He couldn’t help it.’

  The colonel gave a contemptuous sniff. ‘He didn’t look very businesslike when I saw him the other day.’

  Mally pounced on this bait. ‘When did you see him? Where?’

  ‘A day or two ago, talking to young Laura.’

  ‘Why didn’t he come to see me? That’s not fair.’

  For the first time, Annie found her sympathies veering the other way. Mally was only thirteen; it wasn’t fair to goad her about her father like this. She decided to drop a small bombshell into the exchange.

  ‘I’m glad you’re feeling better, Colonel. I wonder if I could ask you about this?’

  She pulled the key from her pocket and held it out for them to see, watching closely to see how Mally reacted. Nothing. They both stared blankly. It matched Maz’s assertion that the girls had never seen it.

  ‘What is it?’ Mally asked.

  Annie gave an abridged account of Maz handing it over to her. Mally shrank in her chair. The colonel looked aghast.

  ‘I need to know the truth,’ she ended, ‘before I decide what to do next.’

  Mally leapt to her feet. ‘I think you’re stupid and you should just mind your own business.’ She flounced to the door.

  ‘Back here, Mel, and face the music,’ the colonel said.

  To Annie’s surprise, Mally obeyed. There was some code between them that Annie had yet to crack.

  ‘Here, young lady.’ The colonel spoke without anger but with a firmness that Mally complied with. The girl stood on the hearth rug in front of him, her gaze down at her feet. ‘An explanation.’

  ‘It’s Mr Balham. People said they didn’t know where he went walkabout. Well, we knew ’cos we saw him up there. We tried to get in but it was real well locked.’

  ‘And where did this scoundrel from Hull come into the picture? I’ve warned you about people like him.’

  ‘I … uh … we … One of us … it was probably Laura … told Maz about it and so we showed him. It looks old but Maz said Mr Balham had new locks on and all that. We just wanted to see in. You can’t see through the gap at the back. Then we showed Maz where Mr Balham lived. Maz told us to, and Maz saw the key and he said he could get us a copy made.’

  ‘And did this young vagabond break into Mr Balham’s house?’

  ‘We didn’t tell him to; we didn’t go in the house.’ For all Mally’s discomfort, she couldn’t disguise her admiration for Maz’s bravado. ‘He said he’d got the key but we said we didn’t want it.’

  The colonel looked thunderous and Mally for once remained subdued. Annie couldn’t second guess what sat worst with the colonel, the stalking of his friend Edward Balham or Mally’s association with Maz.

  ‘I’m obliged to you for bringing this to my attention, Miss Raymond. So’s young Mel. She could have taken the whole business to the police, Mel, and then where would you be? Say thank you.’

  Mally’s sullen gaze met Annie’s. ‘Thank you,’ she muttered.

  Annie itched to ask about the faxed page, but knew she was on thin ice with this interview already, and didn’t know which of the three had sent it with Maz. She’d go back to him and get the facts straight.

  She tried a more oblique angle, and asked, ‘What was Terry Martin to do with it?’

  The colonel stared at her. ‘What did that scallywag have to do with any of this?’

  ‘I thought Mally said something about him,’ Annie lied, watching the girl closely.

  Mally looked blank and then indignant. ‘Nothing. He had nothing to do with any of it. We didn’t know anything about him killing Mr Balham in that shed.’

  Annie saw a look of pain cross the colonel’s features at this mention of his friend. Annie was glad she’d told him it wasn’t Edward Balham in the building on the cliff, but of course he knew his old friend was missing. Maybe he’d already connected him to the murder.

  She murmured conventional condolences about Tremlow and they had a stilted exchange. The colonel struggled to hide how uncomfortable he was at a close friend taking a coward’s way out.

  As Annie rose to go, the colonel looked up at her. ‘May I keep the key?’ he said. ‘I’ll see it gets back to Ted Balham.’

  The key would never get back to Ted Balham because he was dead. Annie wouldn’t be the one to tell the colonel. But it wasn’t a bad compromise. She hoped Pat would agree as she handed it over.

  CHAPTER 24

  THE PLAN FOR clandestine interrogation of the three girls hadn’t worked out, but Annie knew just where to go for information on Elizabeth Atkins.

  ‘Annie, I wasn’t expecting you today,’ said Doris Kitson. ‘Is it about poor Charles?’

  ‘There was something else I wanted to ask you, but yes, it’s tragic about Mr Tremlow. I wonder what made him do it.’

  ‘He was always highly strung. You’ll sit down for a cup of tea, won’t you? His mother sent him away to school, you know.’

  ‘Yes, you told me that before.’

  ‘It’s always a mistake. Now promise me you won’t send any of your children away to school. Well, you won’t, will you? Not with the example of poor Charles in front of you. And then his wife, too. A travelling salesman.’

  ‘It was all such a long time ago, though,’ Annie pointed out, as Doris waved her to a seat at the scrubbed wooden table.

  ‘Ah yes, time. A great healer but a great deceiver too. Of course, I shall step into the breach. It’ll be hard but I’ll manage. I’ll have to delegate. What’s that new word they all use now? Subsidiarity. That’s what we need round here if the Christmas Fayre isn’t to suffer.’

  Annie said nothing. Had Doris completely lost her marbles or was she, Annie, not as fluent in Milesthorpe-speak as she’d thought. Christmas Fayre? It was barely August. She cleared her throat. ‘Doris, last time I was here, you told me something about a friend of yours. Elizabeth Atkins.’

  Doris placed a tray with teapot, cups, saucers and milk jug on the table. ‘Elizabeth died years ago, dear. You wouldn’t be interested in her.’

  ‘You told me you weren’t satisfied her death was from natural causes.’

  ‘Well, maybe I was hasty. She was quite an age. It’s all been very upsetting, what with Charles and everything. And now people are saying Ted’s died. Is it true? Did they really find him in that building on the cliff? Do you know about it?’ Doris spoke fretfully.

  So word had begun to leak out, but Annie wouldn’t pour fuel on the rumour fire. ‘As far as I know he hasn’t been seen for about three weeks, but that’s all I know. What have you heard?’

  ‘Oh, just people gossiping. You know how they do. Three weeks though. It’s a long time. He hasn’t been off for this long before.’

  Just like the colonel, Doris was distracted and not the robust person Annie had first met. ‘About Elizabeth Atkins,’ she prompted.

  ‘Yes, dear. Elizabeth died a rich woman and she left a considerable sum of money to Milesthorpe Church.’

  The church again. Annie tried to think herself into Terry Martin’s head. Had he known Elizabeth Atkins before she died?

  No, Doris was clear on that, but she might have talked to Terry Martin about Elizabeth. ‘He was interested in the church wardens.’

  ‘What have the church wardens to do with it?’

  ‘She left her mon
ey in trust and they have it to administer.’ Doris shook her head. ‘If only she’d left it to someone more practical … Those gates …’

  Annie took it that by someone more practical Doris meant herself, and thought back to the paperwork she’d seen in some of the offices where she’d worked.

  ‘In my experience …’ It felt odd to talk about previous experience. She didn’t think she had any. Maybe those bits of jobs had taught her something after all. ‘… money left in trust can take years to untangle.’

  Doris sniffed, clearly of the view that it wouldn’t have taken her two minutes.

  When Annie arrived back into Hull, and let herself into the apartment, she heard Barbara’s voice from the living room. ‘He’s been at it since Dad first got ill.’

  ‘Come off it. I’d have seen it. You can’t mean …’

  A rustle of paper. ‘Look at that.’

  ‘Where did you get that?’

  ‘I was in the agency offices this morning. Six a.m. Long before any of those shysters were up and about.’

  ‘Christ! I can’t believe he’s doing this. He promised Dad he’d look after the business for me … for us.’

  ‘Junk the sentimentality, Patsy. He has. Hell, he’d junked it while Dad was still alive. All he’s looking after is number one.’

  ‘The bastard! I’ll kill him!’

  ‘You damned well won’t. Not if you don’t want to lose the whole lot. Do you realize how dicey our position is?’

  Annie found herself stalled in the hallway. She hadn’t meant to overhear all this and couldn’t just walk in on it. Her priority was the Martins’ case, and she had to speak to Pat about it no matter what family crises were ongoing. She crept back to the outside door, eased it open and slammed it shut. At once the voices stopped. Good. She’d walk in as though she didn’t know Barbara was here.

  ‘Hi.’ She entered with a smile.

  Pat glanced up. Barbara narrowed her eyes.

  ‘Pat, one of the girls from Milesthorpe got her hands on the missing page from Terry Martin’s notebook.’

  ‘Oh yeah?’ Pat struggled visibly to pull her mind back to Milesthorpe. ‘Right, yeah, those three girls. Did you get the goods from them?’

  ‘I only saw one of them.’ Annie explained the circumstances; the letter Maz had passed on, but could see that Pat was distracted. ‘Look, I didn’t get a chance to ask about the fax thing. D’you mind if I check my e-mail? It might have come through by now.’

  ‘Sure.’ Pat waved her through to the big bedroom, clearly happy to have her out of the room.

  Annie sat at her boss’s desk, in amongst the clutter of the room, and turned on the PC. She drummed her fingers whilst bits and bytes reached out across networks to make their connections. She logged into her e-mail and ran her gaze down the list of new messages. Viagra… Cialis… Your loan is approved… Best prices … All spam. Nothing from any of the girls.

  She sat up suddenly. Of course there wasn’t. Where would they get her e-mail address? She’d given them her card, which was Pat’s card with her number written on. Her phone number but Pat’s e-mail. She bounced up from the chair.

  ‘Pat … Pat!’ As she burst back into the living room she realized she’d interrupted again and this time less tactfully for her intrusion being unintended. She tried not to notice the blankness in the two faces that turned to her. ‘I need you to check your e-mail.’

  She tried to be rational and unemotional in her explanation but knew she came across as breathless and immature.

  ‘OK.’ Pat heaved herself out of the settee and balanced herself on her crutch to hobble to the bedroom.

  Annie tried to hover at her shoulder but was squashed back by a look.

  The wait seemed interminable, then Pat said, reading from the screen, ‘From Laura Tunbridge. No subject. That sound like the one?’

  ‘Yes, that’s it. What does it say? I’ll—’

  ‘I’ll redirect it, OK?’ Pat’s fingers pecked at the keyboard. She heaved herself to her feet again and hobbled back out of the room.

  Annie hurled herself back into the chair in front of the desk and played the Alt+Tab sequence to switch back to her own e-mail.

  Sender: Laura Tunbridge.

  She clicked it open.

  It’s what we got money for.

  No salutation. No formal schoolgirl style. Laura had been in a hurry.

  So Terry had paid them for information on Elizabeth Atkins, but what would they have known about an elderly woman who died over three years ago? She daren’t e-mail back. She mustn’t leave that kind of paper trail. But she wondered about the Dearloves. Could she ring with some excuse about a message from Tina?

  Tina had rung the Dearloves on her phone. She clicked through the call register until she found the number. ‘Hello, I’m sorry to bother you but I understand Laura Tunbridge is staying while her parents are away.’

  ‘No, sorry. She does sometimes but our daughter’s ill so she’s staying with another friend.’

  ‘Would that be Melissa Fletcher?’

  ‘That’s right, but her parents are away too. She’s staying with her grandfather.’

  Annie ended the call feeling puzzled and rang through to the colonel’s. Mally answered.

  ‘Hi Mally. It’s Annie. Can I speak to your grandfather?’

  ‘He’s asleep. I’m not to disturb him.’

  ‘That’s OK. Mally, is Laura staying with you while her parents are away?’

  ‘Nah. I told you before. She was going to but she went to Kay’s.’

  ‘When did her parents go?’

  ‘Yesterday. Anyway, I didn’t want her here.’

  Annie held her tone in neutral. ‘And what about Boxer? Is he in the stable at your grandfather’s?’

  ‘No, he’s at Tina’s.’

  Annie didn’t press the point because Mally wasn’t hiding anything. Laura had sent the e-mail on Saturday afternoon. Annie and Pat had seen them out with their ponies in the morning. She thought back to Tina and the pony Laura never brought back. She supposed Laura could have taken it to all manner of places.

  She tried to recreate Laura’s movements. Saturday afternoon, she sent the e-mail. Sunday, she stayed with her parents until they left. Wouldn’t they have dropped her off wherever she was to stay? Kay’s illness might have complicated matters. Annie worked through Mally thinking Laura was with Kay and the Dearloves thinking she was with Mally.

  It didn’t matter what angle she came at it, Laura had been missing all night.

  CHAPTER 25

  ANNIE FELT DREAD rise up inside her. This was no faulty deduction like the non-existent second man on the scaffolding; no mad panic like the one that swept her up when she heard Vince berating Maz. She hadn’t misread this one. A young girl was missing.

  The low voices of Pat and Barbara still murmured from the living room, but Annie held back from rushing in there. Pat was distracted. It would mean explanations, time lost.

  Her hand reached for the phone, hesitated, drew back. Who could she call? Scott? What would he say? Would he take her seriously? Jennifer? What had Scott told her?

  If she dialled 999 they’d want explanations she couldn’t give. Are you a relative … a friend … a neighbour…? She clapped her hands to her face in frustration. Who?

  Of course, Tina Hain. Tina would take her seriously. She’d tell Tina; let her get on to the police.

  As soon as Tina picked up the phone, Annie blurted out the story. ‘The Dearloves think she’s at Colonel Ludgrove’s,’ she ended, ‘and vice versa.’

  A weight lifted from her as she shared the facts, but that was nothing to the relief she felt on hearing Tina’s first words.

  ‘Oh Lord! Has she pulled that stunt again? That explains Boxer.’

  Tina wasn’t worried. Laura was OK. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘This is Laura all over. It’s because she’s in trouble.’ Annie listened to Tina explain. Laura had run off before. ‘She took her pony and went to an aunt w
ho lives about twenty miles away.’

  Annie felt her knotted muscles untangle themselves, but knew she must verify Laura’s safety for sure before she went to bed tonight.

  ‘The first time it happened,’ Tina said, ‘she gave her parents the worst fright of their lives. When she arrived with the aunt, she said her parents knew where she was and the aunt let her stay over and didn’t ring because it was late. The police were called out. It was chaos.’

  ‘She’s done this more than once then?’

  ‘Oh yes. There was a good gap after the first time, but then she did it again because she’d had a row about something. Then it was set to be her stock reaction to anything not going her way. But the last time – back in the spring – her father went on ahead to the aunt’s and waited till she turned up. He tried to find her on the way, but she went cross-country. He took the box and was there to stop her the moment she appeared on the drive. Apparently he bawled her out so loudly she nearly wet herself. He didn’t let her go in the house. He loaded the pony straight in the box, Laura in the car and drove them both straight home. It’s probably the first time she ever had a proper bawling out and we thought it had stopped her.’

  ‘But of course with them being away at the moment…?’

  ‘Yes, that’s what I’m thinking. I’ll bet the aunt’s already been in touch. Look, I have to nip up into the village, I’ll call in on Ludgrove and the Dearloves and just double check. I’ll call you back.’

  ‘Yes, please. That would be a weight off my mind.’

  Annie stood up, turned off the computer and went back to the living room. She gave Pat a brief summary of what had happened. ‘Tina’s going to ring me back when she’s made enquiries.’

  ‘Run off and no one’s noticed.’ Pat laughed. ‘Poor kid. It’s always frustrating to have your grand gestures fall flat.’

  A silence fell. It was clear that whatever business was being conducted in this room was far from over. Annie was an unwanted third party.

  ‘I’ll nip off out,’ she said, and headed for the door. Relief about Laura had let Mrs Earle into her thoughts. The Neanderthal brother might not have handed over the keys. She knew it was irrational and not the way to conduct business, but Orchard Park had been her very first real case and she wanted face-to-face closure.