Murder With Mercy

by Veronica Heley

  He stared at her, not pleased. ‘Of course they were there, finishing off that bathroom at the top. I tell you, it was an inexperienced driver hitting the wrong pedal. Or Mikey misinterpreting a signal from the driver to cross.’

  Mikey shook his head.

  Silence.

  Hugh fidgeted. ‘I really must get back.’

  There was a stir behind them. Rose was standing there, listening. In some distress.

  Ellie felt hot tears on her neck. Mikey was crying, too.

  Ellie tried to stand up with the boy in her arms. Couldn’t manage it.

  ‘Hugh, would you be a dear and carry Mikey upstairs for me? I don’t want his mother bothered because she’s in bed with flu. I’ll put the boy into the bedroom opposite mine on the first floor, the one which my grandson uses when he has a sleepover. We always keep the bed made up, and there’s a bathroom next door that he can use.’

  She led the way upstairs. Hugh followed, carrying the child, whose eyes were closed but who had tears on his cheeks.

  Ellie opened the door to the bedroom. ‘Here we are. Mikey, how about a shower to deal with those bruises? Yes? Can you manage by yourself?’

  They watched the boy walk unsteadily to the bathroom. Then they heard the shower running.

  Hugh fidgeted. ‘I really ought to get back.’ Yet he didn’t go.

  Ellie said, ‘Dear Hugh. You’ve been wonderful. Thank you.’

  ‘Why won’t the boy speak?’

  ‘It’s an emotional thing. Mikey was very fond of his stepfather and couldn’t seem to talk for a while after he died. I suppose the doctors have a word for it. Gradually, it went away. Now it’s back, and I’m inclined to blame the rough treatment he received from your men.’

  ‘You can’t prove that. Look, I don’t want to be alarmist. I like the boy and I’m concerned for him. First he pokes his nose in where he’s not wanted, is caught red-handed, and tumbles down the stairs when he tries to escape. Then he mistakes the signal from a car on the road and nearly gets run over. You need to keep an eye on him or something worse might happen.’

  She didn’t think she’d heard aright. Was that a threat? From Hugh, of all people?

  He said, ‘I’ll fetch his raincoat and the basket on wheels, and leave them in the hall.’

  ‘Thank you.’ What else could she say?

  She saw Hugh drive off and set off up the stairs, again. She could hear Vera calling out, ‘Mikey, is that you?’

  Ellie diverted to climb the stairs to the top, paused to press her side where she’d got a stitch, and tried to think what she could say to Vera. Not the truth. No, not yet.

  She put on a bright voice. ‘Well, the bad penny’s turned up again. Wouldn’t you know he’s got thoroughly chilled going out in the rain, so he’s having a hot shower. He’s decided to sleep downstairs, so I’ll just collect his pyjamas, pop him into bed in the guest room and get him a mug of hot milk.’

  Vera might be unwell, but her instincts told her something was wrong. ‘Let me see him.’ She threw back the covers.

  Ellie soothed Vera back on to the pillows, producing a smile that felt fake. ‘Nothing to worry about, Vera. He’ll be right as rain in the morning.’ She collected his pyjamas to take downstairs, followed by Midge the cat.

  She couldn’t think what she needed to do next. Yes, she could. She was desperate for a cup of tea, and that must be her number one priority.

  Down she went, to deliver Mikey his pyjamas, and to check on Thomas. She now had three invalids to look after, plus Rose, and no help in the house.

  Rose appeared in the doorway to the kitchen quarters. Rose had her arms crossed and was standing with her feet apart. Rose was going on the attack. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘I wish I knew. If we could get Mikey to talk …’

  Rose shook her head. ‘He’ll snap out of it when he’s ready. One thing, he did bring the shopping back. Fish cutlets, biscuits and plenty of lemons, plus aspirin and throat stuff. I’ll set about making some more drinks, shall I? We can keep some in the fridge.’

  Cough, cough, from upstairs. Thomas must have woken up.

  The phone rang.

  Ellie wanted to say she wasn’t there, but she knew that wouldn’t help. She picked the phone up.

  ‘I’ve found something.’ A man’s voice. Now who …? He said, ‘I just wanted to be sure you were in. I’ll bring it round. See what you think.’ He cut off the call.

  Ellie shrugged. She said to Rose, ‘Someone says he’s coming round. It can’t be Evan, so it must be Freddie.’

  ‘I’ll put the kettle on.’ Rose vanished.

  Ellie pressed the button on the answerphone.

  Message one, recorded that morning, Diana. ‘Mother, are you there? I need you to come to the hospital with me. Pick up the phone, for heavens’ sake! I can’t wait around for ever. Ring me on my mobile.’ Delete.

  Message two, from the agency. ‘So sorry, Ellie. We’re still not able to field enough people to cover everyone. If you’re desperate, ring me back, and I’ll see if I can get someone to come over after the weekend.’ Delete.

  Message three was one of those automated ones which, if you didn’t pick up, would go away. Hopefully. ‘My name is Darren and I am pleased to inform you that you have won a hundred thousand pounds … press five to give us your bank details …’ Delete. Scam number two thousand and two.

  Message four, a woman’s voice. ‘Marcia here. I called on His Highness yesterday, had a tot or two with him. He seemed quite cheerful, said Freddie had been round. I’ve challenged Evan to a duel, see who can sink the most shots with our putting irons. I’ll try to pop over there later today after my hair appointment, or maybe at the weekend … No, best not at the weekend. Diana wouldn’t approve. Anyway, just to say I’m in touch. Bye.’

  Message five? No, the front door. And it was Freddie, looking excited and much more alive than before. ‘I found it in the drawer of her bedside table. Not with the rest of her medicines, which were in the bathroom cabinet and which my sister was in the process of clearing out, anyway, though I did ask her to stop. Anyway, she’s so busy rearranging everything, I slid out of the house without her finding something for me to do. I really ought to be at the office, but they understand.’

  He went straight through into the sitting room, and Ellie followed, switching on lights and drawing the curtains against the early dusk.

  He held out a plastic bag with a small, empty cardboard box in it. The ends had been pulled outwards, and the box had been pressed flat. It had a label on it, from one of the pharmacies in the Avenue. Ellie took the plastic bag from him.

  ‘Don’t touch the box. That’s why I put it in the plastic bag. Fingerprints.’

  She nodded. She could read the pharmacist’s label well enough. It was from Temple Pharmacy, which was the one both she and Thomas used. The contents had been sleeping pills. Yes. But where there ought to have been a label giving the name of the person who had been prescribed the pills, there was a blank. A label had been affixed at one time, but had later been torn off.

  ‘You see? That’s not where we get our medicines. We go down to Ealing Broadway to Boots, or get them at the supermarket. We don’t use that pharmacy. Anita didn’t get those pills from our doctor.’

  ‘She might have got them elsewhere, so you wouldn’t guess what she planned to do.’

  ‘In that case, she wouldn’t have torn off the label with her name on it.’

  That was true.

  Freddie did his pacing act again. She did wish he’d keep still for a moment. Was that more coughing from Thomas upstairs? She couldn’t concentrate.

  ‘What I want you to do,’ said Freddie, ‘is to find out where May gets her medicine. If it’s from Temple Pharmacy, then we’ve got her and can go to the police.’

  Ellie wasn’t so sure. ‘Even if May does get her medicines here, that doesn’t prove anything.’

  Freddie was dancing up and down with impatience. ‘Fingerprints! I can easily find
something she’s handled, something from the office, her coffee mug, a piece of paper. They can match them up, can’t they? I’ll get on to it tomorrow. No, tomorrow’s Saturday, isn’t it? I keep forgetting, which is strange, really … But next week.’

  Ellie let herself sink down into her chair. This day seemed endless. ‘Even if what you suspect is true, even if there are May’s fingerprints on the box, I’m not sure that the police would want to charge her with anything.’

  ‘Then why did she tear her name off the box?’

  ‘We can’t be sure that she did.’

  Now he was getting angry. ‘I thought you were going to help me.’

  ‘By proving that someone in your wife’s circle provided the means for her to take her own life?’

  He hesitated. She could see that he wanted to hit someone or something. She felt for him. ‘Freddie, do sit down. Would you like a cup of tea?’

  ‘I want … I want …’ He sat, covered his face with his hands, and gave way to sobs.

  Ellie let him be. A good cry was supposed to do you good, though personally she’d never found it did anything but give her a headache.

  Rose came in with the tea tray. Rose obviously thought this visitor deserved more than a mug, because she’d used the good china. There were also some chocolate biscuits, thanks to Mikey’s shopping expedition.

  Oh, bliss. She poured out two cups of tea. She would take some up to Thomas in a minute. She took a mouthful. Wonderful …! And another. She drank half the cup off, even though it was really too hot to do so safely. Freddie hadn’t touched his. She poured herself a second cup.

  ‘Freddie, I realize you want answers, and you’ve been brilliant, turning up this important piece of evidence. Now, I happen to know that the police have been looking at one or two cases similar to your wife’s even though it’s unlikely that any charges would ever be brought against anyone who did some shopping for a person who wanted to commit suicide. You do understand that, don’t you?’

  A snuffle. A reluctant nod.

  ‘I could ask my contact at the police station if she would talk to you about Anita’s death. She may or may not have time to do so, but I think she is curious enough about what’s been happening to want to speak to you about it. Would you like that?’

  Another nod. Emphatic, this time. It was like handling a child. Promise a lollipop and hope you can deliver. He was so grateful that he even drank the cup of tea she’d poured out for him, while she enjoyed her second one. Ah, there was nothing like a nice cup of tea when you didn’t know what to do next.

  She saw Freddie off, aware that Rose had come out of the kitchen and was hovering, asking questions without words.

  Ellie said, ‘Rose, are you all right for the moment? Can you manage something for supper? I want to ring Lesley about Freddie and his pills, and then Evan, who wanted me to go round there but of course I can’t, and then the school to explain what’s happened and ask one or two questions about Mikey’s behaviour there.’

  ‘I’m all right. I’ve made some soup but I forgot the salt so we’ll have to put it in later, and we’ve got the fish Mikey brought back for supper. I’ve made some more lemonade, but I don’t think my legs will manage the stairs again for a while.’

  Ellie didn’t think her legs would, either. Not till she’d had a good rest. So she sat down by the phone and tried to reach Lesley Milburn at the station. Lesley was out. Of course. Ellie left a message for her to ring.

  Next; Evan. He picked up straight away. ‘How are you doing, Evan? I’ve got Thomas and Vera and her son all down with the flu and whatever, so I don’t think I can get over to see you today.’

  ‘I’m having a fine old time. My mobile phone summons ladies of leisure to my side, every hour on the hour. I have some trouble keeping them apart. They’re all very sympathetic, which is more than Diana is. She wants me to get out of my wheelchair and doesn’t listen when I tell her I’m not ready for that yet.’

  ‘Do the ladies urge you to do your exercises?’

  ‘Of course not. They bring me titbits to eat or a bottle of something good, and they know how to listen. They’re all very well brought up. They might fidget, but they don’t interrupt.’

  Ellie was amused. ‘You old fraud. I bet you’re milking it for all you’re worth.’

  ‘True. I must admit one of them is a bit of a pain, going on about her own aches and pains, but I talk her down. After all, she’s not confined to a wheelchair, and I am.’

  ‘One-upmanship?’

  ‘What else can I do?’

  ‘Get back on your feet as soon as you can. Diana won’t be able to keep the office going much longer.’

  ‘There, now … And I thought she was supposed to be a superwoman.’ His tone was sarcastic. Had he fallen out of love with Diana so soon? Or had he married her solely because she was going to give him a son and she was good in bed?

  Careful, here. ‘She married you because you were Superman.’

  ‘Disappointed, is she?’ Jeering.

  ‘No. Distressed. Upset. Trying to be everything you want her to be. You are the strong one now, Evan. It’s up to you to take over again, at work and play.’

  ‘You forget, I’m in a wheelchair.’

  ‘With your very own harem to fulfil your every whim. It’s a sort of life, I suppose, but will it satisfy you for long?’

  Silence.

  Ellie wondered if she’d gone too far. Probably. Evan liked his bit of nooky, and he wasn’t likely to get it while he was in his wheelchair. Or – nasty thought – was he afraid he’d lost his nerve in that direction, and therefore was in no haste to get out of the wheelchair?

  He said, ‘I never reckoned on you turning into the mother-in-law of seaside postcards.’ But he didn’t sound annoyed. He sounded amused.

  Ellie grinned. ‘We’re about the same age, aren’t we? And a lot more experienced and wiser than some. You’ve enjoyed your convalescence and having everyone run around you, but now’s the time to reassert yourself as master of all you survey.’

  He gave a long, long sigh. ‘I suppose you’re right.’ He clicked off the phone.

  As Ellie put the receiver down, the phone rang.

  ‘Lesley Milburn here. You left a message for me?’

  ‘Can you come round?’

  ‘Is it urgent?’

  ‘N-no. Not really. But interesting.’

  ‘How did you get on with the people from Social Services?’

  ‘They came, they saw and they left empty-handed, but only because they thought Mikey was going down with flu.’

  ‘Isn’t he?’

  ‘It’s hard to say. His temperature goes up and down. Look, I really need to talk to you about Mikey. Something very odd is going on there. He was knocked over by a car that didn’t stop today.’

  ‘It’s not my case.’

  ‘The disappearing pills are yours, aren’t they?’

  ‘You have something for me?’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘I’ll be round as soon as I can.’

  Now, one more phone call and then she must check on her invalids.

  Friday afternoon

  Poor Evan.

  He was so pathetically grateful for someone to talk to. He’d held her hand as if he’d never let it go.

  He’d been so noble, thinking only of what a weakling he was, and how hard it was on Diana and the coming baby. She’d said that of course Diana loved him as he was, but he was so sunk in despair that he couldn’t see it. He kept saying they’d be better off without him.

  He said Diana had stopped loving him when he had his accident, and that she didn’t even share his bed at the moment. Apparently, she had to get up to go to the bathroom a dozen times a night and was so restless that he couldn’t get any sleep at all.

  She asked what pills he took to go to sleep, and he told her. He said that sometimes he wished he could go to sleep and never wake up.

  Well, she’d a few sleeping tablets left.

  She suppo
sed she might put some in her handbag for him. He was lonely and depressed. That wife of his ought to be ashamed of herself, neglecting him as she did.

  FOURTEEN

  Friday afternoon

  What to do next?

  Ellie felt as if she were going round in circles. She would have screamed if screaming would have done any good, which she knew it wouldn’t. Screaming would only upset Rose and, if they heard her, it would upset Thomas, Vera and Mikey, too.

  She could go into her study and shut the door and scream. Well, it was a thought.

  Instead, she went along to Thomas’s quiet room and sat down in his chair. She was worn out. She relaxed. Closed her eyes. Let her hands fall loosely into her lap.

  Dear Lord, can you give me a word of advice? Vera is doing well, and if I can stop her fretting over Mikey, I think she’ll be all right. I’m worried about Thomas. You know what happens when a cold gets on his chest. And what about Mikey’s latest accident? Ought I to call the paramedics again? I wish I knew what to do!

  Thomas always said that when he asked God for help he’d get an answer, even though it might not be what he expected. Ellie wasn’t at all sure that she could get through to God as if you were talking on a telephone line, but she tried because she was in such a state, not only about Thomas, but also about Mikey, too, and people being helped to commit suicide and Rose getting overtired and … oh, everything going round and round in her head till she didn’t know what to do for the best.

  Dear Lord, tell me what to do next.

  Silence.

  Nothing was going to happen. Why had she ever thought it would?

  At your service, dear Lord. Show me the way forward.

  She leaned back in the chair, trying to relax. She would take five minutes off and then traipse upstairs again.

  It was very peaceful in this room. No wonder Thomas liked it to much.

  Dear Lord, here I am. At your feet.

  Every nerve end seemed to quieten down. She smiled, remembering how Thomas had once said she was a fiery angel defending the weak. She had a mental picture of herself as a larger-than-life-size angel, wearing a breastplate and with long wavy hair. Brandishing a sword. Which gave her the giggles.