Murder With Mercy

by Veronica Heley

  Ellie looked at the clock on the mantelpiece. Mikey was late. She frowned. He was often late, coming back from school. But that was another matter. Meanwhile, to deal with Lesley. ‘What good would that do?’

  There was a distant scream from the kitchen. Was it Rose finding her precious sink awash with peat, or had she hurt herself? Ellie stumbled to her feet, her mind projecting a visit to the nearest Accident and Emergency department.

  Lesley followed Ellie to the door, saying, ‘Petra was sacked from her job in a burger bar at Ealing Broadway six months ago and hasn’t worked since. I know you’ve got shares in that hotel that’s just about ready to open in the next road. They must be taking on new staff. I thought you could make an excuse to have a word with her about it, offer her an interview for a job there or something?’

  Another scream from the kitchen.

  The doorbell rang. A long, insistent peal. Only one person rang the bell like that, and Ellie grimaced, knowing who it would be.

  Lesley was not ready to leave. ‘I sound desperate, don’t I? And I’m not making much sense, either. It’s just that something is very wrong, and it’s bugging me.’

  The doorbell rang again. Mistress Impatience was out there, demanding attention, demanding that her mother do this or that.

  Distracted, Ellie handed Lesley her coat, her eyes darting first to the kitchen quarters, and then back to her visitor. ‘Thanks for calling, Lesley. I’m sorry everything seems to be happening at once. Perhaps when things have calmed down …?’ She opened the front door to let her daughter in.

  ‘You’ve taken your time!’ Diana stalked into the hall, forcing Lesley to step aside.

  Lesley grimaced, shrugging herself into her coat. ‘Yes, yes. I’m on my way. Sorry. I know I shouldn’t have, but Ellie … I gave her your address and suggested she call on you.’

  The slim figure of a boy erupted into the hall from the kitchen like a stone from a catapult, narrowly avoiding Diana and forcing Lesley to take a step back.

  ‘Mikey, you come back here!’ Rose, shouting from the kitchen.

  Mikey swerved round Ellie to reach the stairs and thundered up them, oblivious to everything but flight. The cat Midge followed him. They disappeared around the landing. A door opened and banged shut. They were on their way to the flat at the top of the house.

  Lesley righted herself, half laughing and half annoyed. ‘What’s that boy been up to now?’

  Ellie had spotted that Mikey had had a huge wodge of fruit cake in one hand and a bottle of Coca Cola in the other. He wasn’t supposed to have Coca Cola because it gave him a sugar rush, and Mikey definitely did not need more sugar to give him a high. ‘I think he must have found Rose’s hidden stash of cake.’

  ‘Mikey!’ Rose, frail as a sparrow and looking rather like one, all brown and grey, appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. ‘That young limb!’

  ‘Quite,’ said Ellie. ‘Lesley, are you all right?’

  ‘No harm done. I’ll be on my way, but you won’t forget …?’ She stepped out into the wind and the rain, and Ellie shut the door on her.

  Diana had already divested herself of her heavy overcoat. She handed it to Ellie and checked her appearance in the hall mirror, running a finger across her scarlet mouth, before stalking through to the sitting room and lowering her swollen body on to a high-backed chair. ‘I could do with some tea. Earl Grey, no milk, one lemon slice.’ Black hair, cut short. A stick-thin body with an outsize bust and protruding belly. She looked as if she were about to give birth any minute.

  Before becoming pregnant and getting married to the biggest of the local estate agents – yes, in that order – Diana had always worn black. Since the wedding she’d gone in for navy blue, with chalk white trims. The colours didn’t suit her particularly, since she’d failed to inherit Ellie’s fine skin and cornflower blue eyes. She’d adopted the colour blue because she’d read somewhere that babies liked it. As if you could have a baby by the book.

  Ellie hoped this change of dress colour meant that her daughter would be a better mother to the expected baby than she’d been to her son by her previous marriage. Well, she could always hope.

  ‘Mother!’

  ‘Coming, dear.’ Ellie wished she’d had time to change out of her gardening clothes and shoes, and to clean up in the kitchen. Oh, horrors! The mess in the kitchen! ‘I’ll see to your tea. Won’t be a minute.’

  She hurried through to the kitchen to find Rose, arms akimbo, glaring at the still dirty sink and the flower pots on the draining board. ‘Sorry, Rose. I meant to finish before you woke up. Leave everything, will you? I’ll clear up when I’ve got rid of Diana.’

  Rose refilled the kettle with vicious haste. ‘What does Madam want this time? And don’t say it’s only a social call, because that one doesn’t “do” social.’

  Ellie clattered a fine bone china cup, saucer and teapot on to a tray, and delved into the fridge for a lemon to slice. ‘I didn’t realize there was any cake left.’ An empty cake tin was on the table, the lid on the floor underneath. Ellie retrieved the lid and replaced it on the tin.

  ‘I kept a piece back for your tea but Mikey got to it first. He’d have had my hand round his backside if I’d got to him quicker.’

  ‘He’s a growing boy.’ Ellie put tea bags into the teapot and poured on some boiling water. ‘Diana won’t eat cake, anyway.’ She carried her tray through the hall and into the sitting room. Diana was leaning back, eyes closed and hands clasped over her stomach.

  ‘Here you are, then. How are you feeling today?’

  Diana’s pregnancy had not been an easy one, and she’d felt sick for most of the time.

  ‘As if you cared.’

  Ellie didn’t reply. It was never any good arguing with Diana. ‘Nasty weather. How’s your husband? The last I heard he was hoping to get out of his wheelchair soon. I never knew a knock on the head could set you back so much.’

  A twist of Diana’s lips. ‘He’s given up, won’t make the effort any more. Sinking into self pity. “My life is over,” that sort of thing. I can’t be doing with him when he gets like this. He wants attention twenty-four seven. If I stay home with him he frets about the office and says we’re heading for bankruptcy. If I go to the office, he’s ringing me every five minutes, wanting me to come home.’

  Ellie didn’t care for Evan but she said, ‘Oh dear. How awful,’ and tried to mean it. ‘I thought he’d feel better once he was back in his own house. It must have been fun for you, decor-ating and refurnishing it to your own taste.’

  An arsonist had set light to Evan’s substantial detached house some months ago. Worse, the arsonist had been his mentally unstable son. A double whammy, you might say. It had taken months of work and a complete redecoration of every room before the place had been fit to live in again.

  ‘Yes, yes,’ said Diana. ‘I haven’t been able to find a housekeeper and gardener to live in yet. Every time I arrange for Evan to interview someone, he turns them down. One drinks, another is too fat. He doesn’t know what he wants.’

  Perhaps, thought Ellie, he needed a loving, attentive wife. Ah well.

  ‘As for that daughter of his,’ said Diana, with some animation, ‘she says she loves him to bits and wants to look after him, but she’s studying for her exams, and when she is at home, he doesn’t want her helping him to the toilet, or in and out of the bath.’

  ‘Mm,’ said Ellie, ‘she’s a good kid, but I can see he wouldn’t want that.’

  ‘Another thing; she studies with her headphones on, so when he calls for help, she doesn’t hear him. And, let’s face it, a schoolgirl can’t give him the companionship he needs. He needs someone older, more responsible, to be with him every minute of the day.’ Diana put down her cup. ‘He’s depressed, but won’t go to the doctor about it. I have to get my priorities right. The business needs me.’

  ‘And the baby.’

  ‘Yes, of course.’

  Business would come first with Diana. The new baby, sec
ond. Evan definitely came third now that she had to support him in his convalescence, rather than him supporting her in the style to which she had become accustomed.

  Diana said, ‘That’s what I came to see you about. He’s developing paranoid tendencies, doesn’t trust the district nurses. I can’t blame him; you never see the same one twice. And with me attending to his business, and his daughter at school all day, he’s pretty vulnerable. The other day he let some Jehovah’s Witnesses into the house, can you imagine? They were still there an hour and a half later when I got back. To put it bluntly, he needs a minder, someone I can trust. Heaven knows why but he trusts you, and I want you to take him on, perhaps mornings only for the time being.’

  Ellie hadn’t expected this. She shook her head, wondering how to soften her refusal. ‘I’ve got so many meetings, so much to do. Surely you can find an old friend who’d be willing to sit with him?’

  ‘I wish I could, but he’s so “down” that it’s … To tell the truth, ever since one of his old friends took an overdose, he’s been talking about suicide, and I can’t have that, can I? I know you’ve got things on, but surely you can do this for me?’

  TWO

  Ellie’s mind zigzagged to and from various possibilities. Could Diana be referring to the case which had brought Lesley Milburn to see her that morning?

  No, Evan Hooper would never be disturbed by the death of a cleaner. But hadn’t Lesley mentioned another woman who’d overdosed recently? ‘You mean the woman living up by the park?’

  Diana stared. ‘The park?’

  Ellie gestured to her right, then realized the park lay in the opposite direction, and pointed to her left. ‘Pitshanger Park? A terraced house backing on to the park?’

  A frown. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. Terraced house, indeed! Anita lived on the Argyle Road in a detached house similar to ours. She was captain of the women’s team for some years. You must have met her?’

  Ellie’s first husband had been a member of the golf club. She’d gone to various social events there with him but not made any real friends. Did she remember Anita? Yes, she did. A lively, good-looking woman with a pleasant husband.

  Diana continued, ‘Conservative, of course. She and her husband were very old friends of Evan’s family. Was he best man at their wedding? Something like that. A tragic case, cancer. She took too many pills one night. Misadventure.’

  Not the same woman, then. But, perhaps, another case to add to Lesley’s file? No, no. If an elderly lady becomes confused and takes too many of her pills, where’s the crime in that?

  Mm. Wasn’t suicide considered a crime in itself? Ellie was not sure. It used to be considered a crime, didn’t it? But perhaps it was so no longer? It was, she supposed, understandable that someone in great pain, or with a terminal illness, might be tempted to embrace death early. On the other hand, hadn’t she heard a minister at church say that it was wrong to shorten the span of life which God had intended for you? She must ask Thomas.

  Diana snapped her cup down on its saucer. ‘Well? I can count on you to help me out in this, can’t I?’

  Ellie told herself that she was not going to be blackmailed into doing something she didn’t really want to do. ‘I could do one morning a week, and that’s more than I should offer. I suggest you get a paid companion for him. Perhaps someone who can help him with his physiotherapy?’

  ‘He goes to the physio twice a week, complaining all the time. Since he can’t drive, I either have to take him, or pay for a cab.’

  Ellie wanted to ask if Diana considered her mother to be cheaper than a cab, but a prolonged ring on the doorbell stopped her. ‘Now who …?’ Vera had a key, and Mikey was already home.

  Diana inched her way out of her chair. ‘Tomorrow morning, then. Nine sharp. I’ll let you in and give you a key before I go to the office.’ She balanced herself on her feet and made for the hall as the bell rang again.

  ‘Coming!’ Ellie helped Diana into her coat and opened the door to the wind and the rain … and a strange man. No, not a stranger, but someone she hadn’t expected to see on her doorstep. She made the mental shift into business mode. ‘Hugh?’

  Some time ago Ellie had inherited Pryce House, an attractively ugly turreted mansion in the next road. There had been strings attached to the sale, and those strings had caused Ellie many hours of worry. She’d sold the house to a hotel chain, while reserving some shares in the business for herself to give her a financial cushion in case the aforementioned strings got out of hand.

  Somewhat to her surprise, the managing director of the hotel chain had wanted her to play an active part in transforming the Victorian monstrosity into a first-class hotel, and she had found herself consulted on all manner of things from the layout of the garden to the placing of the new lift shaft and even the choice of interior decorator.

  Hugh was the company’s highly efficient project manager and they had frequent site meetings, but he had never called on her at home before.

  He usually greeted her with a smile, but today he looked grim. ‘I hope it’s not inconvenient, Mrs Quicke?’

  Ellie said, ‘Come on in, Hugh. My daughter’s just leaving. What a horrible night.’

  Diana pushed past Hugh as if he were a lad on work experience trying to sell dusters, inserted herself into her car and drove off.

  Hugh stepped inside, taking in the spacious hall, the doors leading to the dining and sitting rooms, the colourful stand of plants in the conservatory at the back of the hall and the polished wood of the grand staircase.

  ‘A cup of tea? Coffee?’ Ellie wondered, uneasily, if Mikey were responsible for this unexpected call, although she couldn’t think why he should be.

  ‘No, thanks. A quiet word with Mikey’s mother …?’

  So Mikey was in trouble. Ellie tipped her head towards the kitchen, listening for Vera’s alto. The radio was on, but she couldn’t hear any other voices. So, Vera hadn’t yet returned from college. ‘I can’t remember what day of the week it is, but if it’s Tuesday that means she won’t be back till later.’

  ‘It’s Tuesday, yes.’ He hesitated, unsure of himself.

  ‘You’d better come on in and tell me all about it.’

  Hugh followed her into the sitting room with its mixture of antique and modern furniture. He didn’t miss the luxury of the lined velvet curtains, the flowering azalea on the piecrust table, the good china Diana had used … or the mugs for Ellie and Lesley. ‘You’re busy?’

  ‘Never too busy for you. Do sit down.’

  He was reluctant to say why he’d come. He sighed, deeply. ‘The boy.’

  She nodded, anxiety mounting. ‘What’s he done now?’

  ‘Don’t get me wrong. I’ve got a lot of time for him.’ He shifted his feet. He was not enjoying this. ‘You know he comes over the wall into Pryce House at all hours of the day and night?’

  She was startled. ‘No, I didn’t. At least, come to think of it, I did spot a track over the garden bed to the wall, but I thought it was foxes. How does he do it? That wall must be three metres high.’

  ‘He’s got a knotted rope attached to a laburnum tree on your side. One branch of the tree overhangs the party wall. When he gets to the top, he straddles the wall, lets the rope down the other side, and Bob’s your uncle. I’ve known about it for some time. We all have. The men didn’t used to mind. He was quite a favourite with them, useful for crawling into small spaces, retrieving dropped tools and the like.’

  ‘I dare say. But he shouldn’t—’

  ‘That’s boys for you. He says he does his homework in five minutes flat, and I believe him.’

  Ellie faked a smile. Mikey’s homework was a source of contention. He ignored the work he was supposed to do in some subjects, and Vera had twice been summoned to the school to be scolded about it. According to his form master, Mikey was heading straight for a life of crime, while if you believed the IT teacher, Mikey was the brightest brain in Britain and should go far. Take your pick.

  ‘I w
ondered if he felt he’d been done out of his rights, with his father – adopted father – having been a member of the Pryce family that used to own that house. But he never spoke of it. The men say he knows his way around the place better than they do. Only, it’s become a matter of sabotage …’ Hugh gave another heavy sigh.

  ‘I’m shocked.’ And she was. ‘Mikey can be mischievous, but he wouldn’t … Wait a minute, there was some trouble a while back which caused your schedule to slip a few days, but you said that was down to someone you’d had to sack for cutting corners.’

  ‘He’d been ordering more copper wire than was needed and selling the surplus off down the pub, so he had to go. He knew he’d been stupid, never argued when I sacked him. I can take that sort of thing in my stride. But after he’d gone, we discovered a leaking joint on one of the jobs he’d done: a job which had been signed off days before.’

  ‘But if he’d left by that time—’

  ‘He came back for a jacket he’d left behind. Or so he said. I was off site that day; the men hadn’t liked to argue. So we reckoned it was him, paying us out for sacking him. It would only have taken a couple of turns with a wrench to start a slow leak, but it took us two full days to check every joint …’ He gestured his frustration.

  ‘So that was down to him. We thought. Then four nights ago one of the electricians went back upstairs for a tool he’d left behind and heard water splashing out of a basin. Everyone else had gone. Someone had put the plug in and left the tap running. He shut the water off, reported it next day. It wasn’t the man we’d blamed for the first problem. I know, because I checked. He was playing darts in the pub that night, and he didn’t have a key to get back on site. We don’t have a night watchman but the place is secured with heavy padlocks every evening, and a security firm comes round and checks everything at four-hourly intervals.

  ‘No one put their hand up for it. Then I was delayed in a meeting up in town yesterday and didn’t get back till everyone else had left the site. I wanted to check that some light fittings had been delivered, so I let myself into the house about nine in the evening and heard water cascading down the back stairs. Someone had turned the taps on in a newly installed bath on the top floor. I turned the taps off, and we’ve had heaters going all day to dry the place out. That’s the third problem this month.