by Penny Grubb
Scott shook his head. ‘No.’
‘So Terry Martin hadn’t really sussed it out, had he? He’d come close, then he’d been sidetracked by what he found up there on the cliff.’
‘He’d come too close for the colonel to let him go.’
Annie felt a hollow inside her that was partly anger at the damage the colonel had wrought and partly sorrow for those to whom he’d caused the most devastation. ‘Terry Martin never stuck at anything,’ she said. ‘If the colonel had just kept his head down, some other cause would have taken him right out of Milesthorpe.’
Pat heaved herself to her feet and fixed Scott with a stare. ‘That letter the old guy Tremlow wrote, it was a confession wasn’t it, not a suicide note at all?’
He nodded. ‘Looks like it.’
Annie wondered if the colonel had persuaded him to write it or found he’d done it, and pounced on the opportunity. She thought of the words Tremlow had spat out. ‘I didn’t know what an evil man he was … he took money.’ Of course he’d meant the colonel, his trusted old friend, not Terry Martin.
Pat embarrassed Annie with a knowing wink as she stomped off to the kitchen where Barbara was busy. Their muffled guffaws and low-voiced chat created an awkward backdrop.
Scott glanced uneasily over his shoulder and kept his voice down as he said, ‘When did you cotton on it was Colonel Ludgrove? Jen said you figured it before he died.’
Annie thought for a moment. Information should flow both ways. ‘Will you tell me who the woman in that building was?’
‘OK, but you go first.’
She looked into his eyes, decided he was on the level – he’d better be – and told him about the false trails the colonel had laid for her. ‘The village grapevine had it all over Milesthorpe that I was looking into Terry Martin’s death. He had me sussed from the off, but it didn’t fall into place for me until I was up there with him. Another metre and I’d have been over the edge before I’d figured it.’
He reached out to grasp her hand. ‘Oh Annie, I’m so relieved you’re safe. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.’
She let him hold her hand while an awkward silence grew between them. He broke it by saying, ‘Will you talk to Jen? She says she wants to resign.’
‘Resign? Why?’
‘I don’t know. She won’t say anything except that she doesn’t know what happened up there on the cliff. She doesn’t think she can stay on.’
Annie slid her hand out from Scott’s grasp and sat still for a moment. When she spoke, she picked her words with care. ‘Will you tell her that I know what she thinks? And tell her I don’t think it happened that way. I was on the spot. I saw everything. She shouldn’t resign. She’s good at her job.’
He looked baffled. ‘But what’s it about? And can’t you tell her yourself?’
‘And can you also tell her that I don’t want to talk about that night. Not yet. So I’d rather you took the message. And I’d rather not talk about it now.’
She saw his puzzled expression and braced herself to resist his interrogation. Then his gaze became unfocused as though he was working it out for himself. Annie held her breath. Could he piece it together? No, he could only guess.
‘OK,’ he said at length, and gave her a nod as though they’d sealed a bargain.
She made him repeat her message to Jennifer word for word until he had it right. Then she said, ‘Now come on. You promised. The body in the shed. Who is it?’
‘It’s who we thought it would be all along. Balham.’
‘Edward Balham?’ She stared at him. ‘But … but it can’t be … It was a woman. The clothes …’
He shook his head. ‘I thought it was a man’s body all along.’
‘Is that what you saw on the film that first night?’
‘Not first time through,’ he admitted. ‘I thought I saw the glimmer of a wire above the body. It hadn’t been strangled. It had been hanged. Then I thought if it’s a guy, wearing all that lacy stuff, then it’s pretty clear what’s happened. It’s not the first one I’ve seen. It’s more common than you’d think.’
‘Auto-strangulation? Is that what it’s called?’
‘Something like that.’
It rang vague bells with Annie. Odd reports here and there. ‘So that’s why he went walkabout. To wear women’s knickers and semi-strangle himself in a dark shed?’
‘Yep. We even found the chair. A rickety old thing. The more rickety the chair, the greater the thrill. That’s why so many of them end up hanging themselves. Balham’s chair was textbook.’
‘And people get turned on by it?’
‘So they say. I don’t see it myself.’
‘Why the delay?’
‘We’ve had a real hassle getting a firm ID. No family. Decomposed corpse. But we have now. It’s definitely him.’
‘So it was never a murder then?’
‘Not even suicide. The verdict’ll be accidental death.’
Annie remembered the hard look Jennifer had given her that day in the coffee bar when she’d referred to odd sorts of deaths that turn out to be accidents. Jennifer thought she was fishing about the body in the building. An idea occurred to her. ‘The Milesthorpe grapevine was right all along. They always had it as Balham’s body.’
‘Speaking of grapevines, I heard that you persuaded Sleeman to use some muscle to clear out a drug problem in one of the blocks on Orchard Park.’
Annie owned the achievement with a nod of her head, but when he pressed for detail of who, where and when, she said. ‘It’s settled now. Let’s just leave it at that.’
She almost congratulated him on his grapevine, but decided it was too flippant at this delicate stage.
It took her thoughts to Vince. Impulsive, dangerous … livid at the revelation of what his nephew was mixed up in. Not that he wanted him on the straight and narrow, she was sure. It was that he didn’t want him involved in something so sordid and small.
‘Look, I know I said things about Sleeman,’ Scott said, ‘but I don’t mind you working for him if that’s the sort of influence you have.’
Bloody cheek, she thought. Who’s he to mind or not?
Mrs Earle, the Martins, Laura Tunbridge. Her three cases. What would it be like to have a secure berth to launch her career from? She needn’t get involved in the dodgy stuff or stay with Vince any longer than she need to get herself on her feet. Of course, he’d only ever made his three-cases comment to Pat. He hadn’t actually offered her a job yet.
As for Scott, well, it could be worth allowing herself to accept his apology and seeing if she could educate him into the twenty-first century. He had the raw materials in him.
‘I might be staying on,’ she said.
At once, his face relaxed into the smile that had attracted her even before she’d seen it. ‘That’s good. Maybe we could … uh … meet up sometime?’
‘Maybe.’
‘If you’re staying on, you’ll need someone to show you round the place.’
She smiled back at him. ‘I suppose I will.’
After he’d gone, she reflected on what he’d said about Jennifer and how much she’d seen. It had been dark, stormy. Jennifer couldn’t have been sure. Scott would say to her that Annie didn’t think it happened that way and Annie was there on the spot. She saw everything.
Hopefully Jennifer would leave it at that. Annie couldn’t see what might be gained from raking it all over. It had been a traumatic night for them all. For some, like Mally, it had been the culmination of several traumatic years. And what she’d said was the exact truth. She knew what Jennifer thought might have happened. And she, Annie, didn’t think it happened that way. She’d seen the small foot flash into view, kick the colonel’s leg from under him so he lost balance there at the top of the cliff. No, she didn’t think Mally had pushed her grandfather over the cliff, she knew for sure the girl had done it.
Annie slipped through to her room to sit in peace and sort her thoughts. She lay back on the bed, only
wanting to relax, and didn’t realize she’d slept until an hour later when voices roused her.
Almost before she woke, she sensed the atmosphere of hostility.
Pat’s voice shouted, ‘And I’ll have those bloody keys back.’
From the jangle of metal landing on a hard surface, it sounded as though she’d got them. Annie smoothed down her clothes to the background of Barbara’s raised voice, and then Vince’s.
‘It’s not your car, it’s mine. You’ve got plenty out of this settlement to get your own transport.’
Annie made no attempt to keep quiet as she shut her bedroom door and approached the living room. She stepped into a silence, aware they’d all reined back at her entrance.
Pat on the settee, cradling an unopened packet of biscuits, gave her a nod of acknowledgement. Barbara tossed an all-purpose surface cleaner spray from hand to hand. Vince took in a breath and paused before turning to her as though he needed a moment to change gear.
‘There you are, Annie. I’ve kept a distance while you’ve been here.’ He could say that again. ‘I wanted to see how you shaped up before I made any decisions. Now I’ve made my decision. I know you don’t have all the bits of paper, but I never thought much to bits of paper. You’ve shown what you can do.’ He paused as though expecting her to speak. When she said nothing, he went on, ‘You’ve courage and a good instinct. It’s a useful combination. You’ve earned yourself a place in the team. Good basic salary, good bonuses if you earn them. Have a long weekend and come down to the office middle of next week. Take the car down to London and pick up your stuff if you want. In fact, you may as well keep the car. You’re going to need one anyway.’
A vision reared up in front of Annie. She thought of all the people who’d told her to grow up and look for a proper job. Not for the first time, she played out a fantasy of returning in triumph in a tailored suit and a flash car. The sleek BMW was the fantasy made real. It’s just a small agency. Good salary plus bonuses … The car? Yes, it’s mine. Goes with the job.
She felt the smile creep across her features. Vince was still talking, saying he felt he’d come to know her … liked her style …
‘I’ve learnt a lot about you,’ he said.
She mustn’t let him go on. ‘I’ve learnt a lot about myself over the last week.’
Vince laughed, the first friendly laugh she’d heard from him. ‘I’ll bet you have. You never thought you could face down a homicidal maniac, did you?’
Annie looked up at him and thought about a seven or eight hour round trip just to lord it over past acquaintances. No way. She had a life to live. But maybe a trip to see her father would be a good way to start this new chapter and tie some loose ends from the past. It was time she found the courage to ask him how her mother died.
‘No, it wasn’t that,’ she told Vince. ‘It was other things. Personal stuff. I always knew I had it in me to meet a challenge. Now I want the chance to build on it. I want something that inspires me; that I really have to work for. But I don’t want to stagnate. The bits of paper, as you call them, are a part of it. They mean digging deeper into how things work, getting to grips with the detail. Matching theory to practice. You might not care about them, but they’re important to me.’
‘If it’s a matter of funding …’ Another first. An edge of uncertainty to his tone.
‘No, it’s not the money. As I’m given the choice, I want to be in on building something from the start, facing the real challenge of risking everything on it. So I appreciate the offer but I have to turn it down. And if your offer’s still open, Pat … Barbara … I’d like to accept.’
Vince looked round at them all. Pat on the settee feeling for the tag to open her biscuits, Barbara with her spray cleaner held up like a weapon, Annie standing in front of him. There was no hostility in his expression and his voice was friendly as he said, ‘You’ll be out of business in six months.’
Annie walked with him to the door to see him out, a gesture that this was her territory now more than his.
‘We might indeed,’ she said. ‘But that was just another challenge they could offer and you couldn’t. No hard feelings.’
His look of complete bafflement made her laugh as she walked back to the living room to rejoin her new team.
Copyright
© Penny Grubb 2010
First published in Great Britain 2010
This edition 2011
ISBN 978 0 7090 9505 7 (ebook)
ISBN 978 0 7090 9506 4 (mobi)
ISBN 978 0 7090 9507 1 (pdf)
ISBN 978 0 7090 8980 3 (print)
Robert Hale Limited
Clerkenwell House
Clerkenwell Green
London EC1R 0HT
www.halebooks.com
The right of Penny Grubb to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
