‘She knew she was pregnant, look at this, she was counting – 3 days late, 5 days late and so on … then she’s put ‘Missed a whole month’ with exclamation marks.’
‘It doesn’t sound as if she was too upset about being pregnant then, does it?’
‘Just the opposite, I’d say. We’ll go and speak to the GP as well, it’s a Dr Murray.’
Monica stood waiting on the stairway while the sergeant affixed new seals to the door jamb. An old dark blue Austin Cambridge was moving noiselessly down the hill under its own momentum.
‘What’s happening there?’ Monica asked.
‘I reckon they’re coasting, trying to save petrol.’
‘Well that’s highly illegal.’
The old car turned into the Mermaid car park. The driver, a thin girl with shoulder length wavy brown hair, was making strenuous efforts with the steering wheel to back into a parking space, craning to look over her shoulder at the wall behind her. Her passenger was a girl with short cut yellow blonde hair, dark at the roots. Both were dressed in a white blouses and black skirts. As they got out the driver girl tugged at her tights, trying to conceal a wide ladder.
‘They must be waitresses here. Do you want me to have a word with them about the coasting?’
‘Perhaps, let’s see what they have to say for themselves first.’
Sergeant Bee took out his warrant card. The girls regarded their approach with a mixture of curiosity and defiance. The blonde said something under her breath, the driver, gathering up her hair into a rubber band, asked
‘You the police? My engine just cut out then.’
‘No it didn’t, you turned it off deliberately,’ said Sergeant Bee, ‘And yes, we are the police. We’d like a word, please miss,’
The girls exchanged looks, ‘Service is due to start’ said the blonde one.
‘Don’t worry about that, we can square it with your boss if needs be,’
‘I think we’ll go and sit at one of the garden tables, rather than talking inside,’ said Monica.
The girls perched uncomfortably side by side on a picnic table bench. Sergeant Bee drew up two white plastic chairs to face them and took out his notebook.
‘Right girls, names?’
‘Yvonne Trelease,’ said the blonde.
‘My name’s Jackie Carne,’ said the driver.
‘Would that be Carne as in Tregoss Riding Stables?’ the sergeant asked.
‘That’s right, that’s my mum’s place,’
‘I believe I’ve come across your dad once or twice, haven’t I?’
‘Father don’t live with us no more,’
‘Is that so? Where’s he to now then?’
She shrugged her thin shoulders under the white blouse ‘Dunno, he follows the race meetings, goes all round the country, he could be anywhere.’
‘Always was a busy man, your dad. Right, did you two know Amanda Shute?’
The girls exchanged looks, then Yvonne spoke
‘We knew her, like, but we weren’t friends nor nothing.’
‘’specially not working here, for her mother,’ said Jackie.
‘What are they like, as a family?’
Jackie shrugged. ‘Rich,’ said Yvonne and they both sniggered.
‘Hard as well,’ Jackie said, ‘Hard as nails, the mother is.’
‘And Roxy, she is too,’ added Yvonne.
‘And Amanda, was she like them?’
‘Not really,’ said Yvonne, she pronounced the word as if it had a double ee, ‘When we were younger, she used to come into St Columb, she wanted to go around with us that lived there.’
‘And did she?’
‘Sort of, I s’pose, I mean there was nothing much to do, we just used to hang around the Rec, really,’
‘The Rec?’ asked Monica.
‘Yeah, it’s the recreation ground, round the back of Fair Street. About ten of us used to meet up
there after the school bus. Amanda, she never went to school with the rest of us, but she used to
cadge lifts off people so as she could come in town and meet up.’
‘And did you all get on well?’
‘She bought her way in really, didn’t she Jack?’
‘Yeah, she always had money and she used to bring drink and fags, stuff that she’d nicked from the hotel – I suppose I shouldn’t really tell you that…’
‘I don’t think it can matter much now, do you? Go on,’
‘Well that’s it really, she wasn’t ever one of us,’
‘Poor little rich girl,’ said Jackie.
‘Did she make any friends among your group?’
Yvonne said ‘Not really, but I suppose the boys liked her a bit better than the girls did …’
Jackie gave a snort of laughter, Yvonne continued
‘I don’t want to be nasty, but none of the girls wanted her around because as soon as she knew that you liked a boy, she’d set out to get him for herself.’
‘Why did you put up with her then?’ the sergeant asked.
‘Like I said, she bought her way in. Also, my dad was working up Trenant campsite at the time, her family owns that as well so my mum told me I had to keep in with her. Mind you, if my mum had known the sort of things Mandy got up to she wouldn‘t have said that. I’m sorry, like I say, I don’t want to be nasty, not after what’s happened, but we didn’t really like her, did we, Jack?’
Jackie had opened her bag and taken out a partly smoked cigarette to light. Its tobacco smelled stale and strong.
‘We didn’t, no. I mean, she wasn’t the sort of person you could like really, she was a right drama queen, always thinking about herself and going on about how much she hated her life – it didn’t look that bad to the rest of us. You could say she had, you know, a body like a grown-up woman and yet she behaved like a little kid all the time. But still, what happened to her, nobody deserves that.’ She was a noisy smoker, popping her lips when she withdrew the cigarette and exhaling in a loud burst.
‘Do you have any idea who she might have been seeing recently, boyfriends?’
They shook their heads. Yvonne said
‘No, I hadn’t really spoken to her in ages. I mean we’d say hello and that when I saw her round here, but that was all.’
Jackie said, ‘I’ve seen her car sometimes, when I’ve been out leading a hack for my mum,’
‘Where did you see it?’
‘Up by the woods. You can’t miss it, not with them daft flower stickers all over it.’
‘Trenant Woods, you mean?’
‘That’s right, we take our riders up that way sometimes to get them off the road. Didn’t you and she have words though Yve?’
Yvonne looked annoyed. ‘That was a while back, and anyway I had every right,’
‘What did you have words about?’ the sergeant asked.
‘Something and nothing really. I was helping at the Feast Week fête, out at Trenant House, Mrs Shute puts on the beer tent for it. We were short-handed and Mandy and her sister – not Roxanna, the other one, Lexy, they were supposed to be helping out. Lexy wasn’t too bad, though she did try to lord it over us, but Amanda, she just kept disappearing, leaving us to do all the work, even Lexy had a go at her about it.’
‘So, you and she had words, did you?’
‘I had every right,’ she said again.
‘What did you say?’
‘I just told her straight, I didn’t see why me and Pauline, that was the other girl on, why we should be left to do all the serving and the clearing when she’d done nothing.’
‘And what did she say?’
‘Something like didn’t I know my place, then she just flounced off again.’
‘That must have annoyed you. What was she doing, when she went off?’
‘More like who than what,’ said Jackie with a low chortle but Yvonne said reprovingly ‘Jack!’ and she added ‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,’
‘No, you shouldn’t,’ said Yvonne, ‘Not when
she’s gone, even if she was like she was,’
‘Was Amanda with someone, at the fête?’ Monica asked.
‘She might have been, there was loads of men there, bigwigs and all sorts, but I was too busy to notice,’
‘Watch it,’ said Jackie, looking towards the side door of the hotel. Roxanna had appeared and was staring pointedly towards them.
Monica stood up. ‘Right girls, you can go now, thank you,’
‘And no more coasting, Miss Carne,’ said Sergeant Bee.
Jackie grinned at him ‘All right boss.’
At the reception desk Roxanna was pulling on a short white leather jacket. The sergeant said, ‘I’ll give you back the key, Mrs Blencowe, but I’ve replaced the door seals, Amanda’s room stays out of bounds for the time being.’
She took the key without responding.
‘Just finishing, are you?’ he asked.
‘Yes, I have to get back to relieve the childminder.’
‘Just one thing, before you go,’ said Monica, ‘Did you know that your sister was taking Russian lessons?’
‘Amanda, Russian? I don’t believe it. She was as dim as could be and she never did a stroke of work at school, she left without an O level to her name.’
As she spoke she tugged irritably at the sleeves of the white leather jacket. ‘If that’s all …’
‘Not exactly Happy Families, the Shutes,’ observed Sergeant Bee as they sat in the car watching Roxanna walk down the hill.
‘Indeed. One thing, the Carne girl mentioned seeing the car by the woods, presumably that’s the same woods as Jarvis meant when he was describing his damsel in distress act?’
‘It would be, yes, Trenant Woods, the family’s caravan site is out that way too. Mind you, the woods extend a hell of a way, most of that land belongs to the Haig-Mercers,’
‘Haig-Mercers?’
‘The county set, you know, the sort that still like to shoot peasants …’
‘Call it in, could you, ask if they’ve been into the woods yet to look for her car. Meanwhile we’ll go and pay Jarvis’s neighbour a visit.’
Paula Julian was plump and less than five feet tall. She wore a knee length black skirt, a pale-yellow nylon sweater and turquoise furry slippers.
‘Mrs Julian? DCI Guard, Sergeant Bee, I wonder if we might have a word?’
She regarded them unsmilingly.
‘You’d better come in,’
At the top of the stairs a slim, dark haired teenage boy appeared
‘It’s nothing for you, go back in your room, Robert,’ his mother said sharply.
The hall smelled of savoury cooking.
‘Something smells good,’ said Sergeant Bee.
‘Yes, well, we were just about to have our tea.'
She led them into a living room, on the screen of the large television the male and female presenters of the regional news programme were sharing a joke. There was a long beige sofa in vinyl textured like leather and two wide matching armchairs. Paula Julian did not invite them to sit down. Monica crossed to one of the chairs, sat down and took out her notebook.
‘We won’t keep you long, Mrs Julian,’ she said, ‘We would just like to ask you about your neighbour, Squadron Leader Jarvis.’
‘Graham, what about him?’
‘Did you happen to notice what time he came home on Tuesday evening?’
‘No, I was visiting my cousin, out at Padstow. I picked up my son, Robert, from St Mawgan village on the way back, about ten, Graham’s car was outside then.’
‘Did you hear him go out again?’
‘No, I didn’t.’ She took a handkerchief from her sleeve and flicked at unseen dust on the coffee table.
‘What was your son doing at St Mawgan village, Mrs Julian?’
‘Seeing his mates. Why, what’s wrong with that?’
Monica ignored the question.
‘Is it just you and your son living here, Mrs Julian?’
‘At the moment it is, yes. My husband, he’s out in Saudi, he works for an electrical contractor, he’s away six months at a time.’
‘That’s a fair old stretch, you must miss him,’ said the sergeant. He was standing looking at the photographs in brass frames which were ranged along a shelf.
‘That’s as maybe but I’d miss the money he makes out there a lot more.’
‘Is your son still at school?’
‘No, he’s at the tech, he’s doing a photography course.’
‘How well do you know Graham Jarvis?’ Monica asked.
‘Pretty well, I’d say we’re friends, as well as me doing a bit of work for him.’
‘What do you do?’
‘This and that. I keep the house nice and, seeing as he’s on his own, I do a bit of cooking, make sure his freezer’s stocked up. Sometimes I mind the children when he has them to stay.’
‘What about girlfriends, does he often have them to stay?’
‘No more than any other man in his situation would.’
‘What’s his situation?’
‘Well he’s single isn’t he, divorced anyway. He’s a free agent like.’
‘And have you met any of them, the girlfriends?’
‘Some of them, in passing. Look, I know what this is all about, it’s that Shute girl, isn’t it?
‘We are investigating the death of Amanda Shute, yes.’
She shook her head, ‘Nothing but trouble that one.’
‘In what way, trouble?’
‘She … she was a right little madam. She made his life a misery, for months on end,’
‘What did she do?’
‘She did all sorts, turning up here at all hours, ringing him – I tell you, sometimes when he was out I could hear through the wall, the phone going on and on, she must just have left it ring, all times of the night too. Then more than once she come round here to Robert, trying to make him give her my spare key. Crying and wailing, and too much drink in her more often than not. She even tried to make Robert climb a ladder one time, to let her in the top window, she got really pushy with him, luckily I came back just in time and saw what was going on. Then come the Saturday that she had the big scene with his new girlfriend, little Chrissie, dear of her… fighting and kicking and screeching Madam was, I came out to see what all the commotion was about, I had to threaten her, I said to her, I’ll chuck a bucket of cold water over you if you don’t leave off.’
‘What happened then?’
‘Graham, he got them separated and he went back inside with Chrissie, they had to bolt the doors and pull all the curtains. She kept bashing on the front door, then she started throwing stones at the windows. I come out again and I said to her if you don’t stop that I’m going to call the police, she hung about a bit longer then eventually she got in her car and drove off again. Like I said, I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but I can promise you, if she went and got into some kind of trouble, she would have brought it all on herself, that one,’
‘How old is your son, Mrs Julian?’ Monica asked.
‘Sixteen, why?’ her tone had become hostile and suspicious once more.
‘I wondered if he might be able to tell us anything about Amanda.’
‘Why would he? He didn’t know her. He knew of her, everyone round here did, but that’s all.’
‘She tried to get him to help her, with the ladder, didn’t she?’
‘Yes, but that don’t mean nothing, she’d pick on anybody, that one, if she thought it would get her her own way.
‘May we speak to your son, Mrs Julian?’
‘He’s working right now, revising, he’s got his exams coming up.’
‘You’d rather we didn’t speak to him, then?’
‘I don’t see no point in it, that’s all.’
Monica smiled blandly, ‘Very well, that’s all for now, Mrs Julian, thank you for your time,’
‘Enjoy your tea,’ said Sergeant Bee.
She nodded, tight lipped. As she closed the door behind them they sense
d that she stayed in the hall, waiting for their departure. Once back in the car they sat looking back at the house. A light was on in the front bedroom, they could see part of a wall poster, a girl on a tennis court with a bare buttock showing beneath her short white dress. Monica said ‘Mrs Julian may just be suspicious and unfriendly by nature but I’m sure there’s also something she doesn’t want us to know.’
‘You don’t think she’s the married woman that the squadron leader has a casual arrangement with, do you – she doesn’t seem his type really.’
‘It seems a bit unlikely, doesn’t it - she’d be too old for one thing. I think we should get Jones to do a check on the family though, including the boy who seems so keen to hide in his bedroom,’
‘Do you want me to call it in?’
‘Not now, it’s getting late. I’ll give you a lift home and we can start early again tomorrow.’
Sergeant Bee said that he lived on a new estate beyond the Quintrell Downs roundabout.
‘End of the road here will do,’ he said, ‘Save you turning’.
As she watched him walk away past the neat bungalows with close cropped lawns and unfenced front gardens she wondered if there was anyone waiting for his return. She thought not.
She returned to the air base. As she approached the lane she saw a Vespa scooter waiting to turn out onto the main road. She recognised the driver as Jones and waved in acknowledgement. But it was a diffident wave and the younger woman, intent upon the turning, did not notice it. On the hill outside the silver-grey flight simulator building stood two olive drab painted fire engines. A small group of men were gathered at the entrance, the barley sugar coloured light from the fire engines flashed intermittently on their faces. Large at the centre of the group she recognised George van Reindorp. Loitering on the margin was his driver, Corporal Glover, looking cocksure and faintly amused. As she pulled out around the mass of the engines the corporal nodded in her direction and made a brief salute.
The Trebelzue Gate Page 11
