Unfortunately, neither Midge nor Rose had expected this, and both overreacted. Rose screamed and flailed her arms around in an effort to fight off her uninvited guest while Midge distended to twice his normal size, leaped off Rose on to the table and overturned a pint of milk.
Mikey looked stricken.
Ellie began to laugh.
The cat fled, and Rose, reluctantly, smiled. ‘I’m a silly old billy. Look what that darned animal’s done now!’
‘Will there be enough milk for breakfast without it?’ asked Ellie, seizing some paper towels to mop up the spilt liquid. ‘Don’t be upset, Mikey. It was a lovely idea of yours to comfort Rose by putting the cat on her lap, even if it did take them both by surprise.’
‘There’s plenty of milk in the freezer, and look what I found in the washing, when I took it out of the drier.’ Rose held up Ellie’s watch, which had been missing for days. ‘It must have got mixed up with the sheets when you changed the bed, and it’s still going.’
‘Wonders will never cease. That’s a good omen for the day, isn’t it? Now, Mikey. What shall we have for breakfast?’
FIFTEEN
Saturday morning
Ellie led the way to her study, followed by Mikey and the cat. ‘It may be the weekend and most people won’t be working but, even though I may not be the brainiest person in Britain – don’t laugh, Mikey – I have advantages which a lot of people lack. I have clever friends, and I have money. And, just occasionally, I know how to make people jump.’
She settled him down with her computer. ‘Now, I want you to write down everything you remember about the problems at the site.’
She turned to the phone. First, she must consult her solicitor. He might be playing golf or have gone away or, well, anything. But she had his mobile number and no compunction whatever about interrupting his Saturday.
‘Gunnar, it’s me, and I’m in trouble again. Yes, I know it’s Saturday, but it’s urgent. Two things. I may need some backing to fend off Social Services who think they can make out a case to put Mikey into care. Nothing will happen at the weekend but perhaps I can make an appointment to see you about it early next week?’
‘I’m in court on Monday. Tuesday afternoon for a short half hour, perhaps?’
‘I’ll jot that down. Teatime, I assume? If they take action before that, I’ll send you an SOS. Even more important than that, could you look out Mrs Pryce’s will and let me know how far I need to observe the clause about providing for Edwina Pryce? She’s on the warpath again and I’ve run out of ammunition to use against her. It sounds silly, but she’s managed to get the ear of someone high up on the board of directors at the hotel chain, and I’m very much afraid that she’s got them thinking her way. I’m going to fax her latest blackmailing letter through to you in a minute, and you’ll see what I mean.’
‘How long has this been going on?’
‘Only this last week. I know I should have contacted you straight away, but there’s been complications. Flu. Yes, both Thomas and Vera. Thanks, they’re both on the mend now, but it’s been an anxious time.’
‘What does the pesky woman want?’
Ellie subdued hysteria, because really Edwina’s threats were hollow, weren’t they? Only, if the director had been persuaded that Ellie was behind the sabotage at the site, then perhaps Edwina might be able to swing things her way. ‘She wants me to hand over my shares in the hotel, or alternatively to pay her “compensation”. She’s been living like a millionaire at our expense, and I’m sure that’s not what Mrs Pryce intended. Can you find a hole in the wording of the will to let me off the hook?’
‘My dear lady. A pleasure. I’ll ring you back.’
She faxed Gunnar a copy of Edwina’s letter only to find Mikey was staring at his computer screen, without making any effort to work on it. ‘Full statements, Mikey. Times and dates, if you can remember them.’
He shrugged. Perhaps he didn’t know where to start?
She said, ‘Let me put a question on the computer, and you try to answer it.’ She typed in, ‘Why have you been missing school?’
He gave her a look of scorn.
She sighed. ‘All right. I know why. Let’s try another question.’ She typed, ‘Do you visit the hotel site often?’ She left a space for him to reply, then tried another question, ‘When did you suspect that some of the workmen were not doing their job properly?’
She turned the screen back to Mikey, who read the questions and nodded. He thought for a bit and then started to type with two fingers, making them dance across the keys.
Ellie pressed more buttons on her telephone. ‘Kate? Ellie here. Yes, I know it’s a Saturday morning and you’re busy but I need financial advice and I need it now. Yes, do ring me back. I wouldn’t want to interfere with potty training.’
She put the phone down, smiling. Kate was not only an ex-neighbour of hers, but a good friend and also the financial director for the trust. Kate could make figures turn somersaults and jump through hoops. She was also a devoted wife and mother of three children under the age of six, and somehow managed to keep all of them content with their lot.
Ellie tried another number. ‘Hugh? Ellie here. Yes, Mikey’s all right. Bruised and shaken, but all right. He’s at my side at this very moment, preparing his statement for the police.’
A small explosion at the other end of the phone. ‘What!’
Ellie said, ‘Yes, I thought you might not want him to do it, but look at it from his point of view. He’s got to clear his name.’
‘How is he giving you his side of the story?’
‘He’s not talking yet, if that’s what you mean, but he can operate a word processor like nobody’s business. You didn’t know that? Ah, he’s quite something on a computer. A useful skill. He’s got sharp eyes, too. And ears.’
‘I’d rather—’
‘I sympathize, Hugh. I do realize that you are in a difficult position, but this has got to stop. For one thing, your man Preston has put Mikey in the clutches of the Social Services, who’d very much like to write the boy off as a proto-delinquent who needs to be taken into care. Yes. I can see it would be convenient for you in some ways if—’
‘No, no. You’re twisting my—’ With some heat.
Ellie raised her eyebrows. ‘I’m sorry if I misunderstood you, Hugh. I know you’re fond of the boy. Let me finish. I think both of us know who’s been at the sharp end of the sabotage at the site and that it’s Preston and Dave. I do believe you’d like to shift both of them out of your sight, preferably to the North Pole, but there’s someone pulling the strings behind them, isn’t there?’
A dull sound to his voice this time. ‘No, no.’
‘It’s hard to discover that you’ve been betrayed by people you’ve trusted. You’ve known all along that they were the saboteurs, haven’t you?’
Silence.
Ellie ratcheted up the pressure. ‘I’m sure you know, Hugh. You know all your men, through and through. You know who’s at the end of their working life and who’s having difficulty paying their bills. You know who might accept a couple of hundred here or there to help pay for Christmas. You know the family relationships that bind their loyalties to one another, rather than to the man who pays their wages. And you recognized the car that tried to kill Mikey. Oh, you gave me a taradiddle about it being this or that make, but I think perhaps the police would get a different answer if they questioned the electrician who watched the incident with you.’
A tired objection. ‘You can’t—’
‘Yes, it’s distressing,’ said Ellie. ‘But it was devastating for Vera and Mikey. Do they deserve what’s happened to them? Also, I’m more than slightly concerned that the conspirators see Mikey’s existence as a threat. You’ve been thinking along those lines too, haven’t you, because you tried to warn me? Twice he’s been attacked. Will he be lucky enough to get away with his life, third time round?’
Silence.
‘I understand that you would like t
o protect your men at all costs, not least so that they don’t lose their bonuses for the job. But your loyalty must primarily be to the people who employ you. It is, isn’t it?’
A heavy sigh.
‘Sorry, sorry,’ said Ellie. ‘That was uncalled for. I know you’ll do the right thing. You wouldn’t be you, otherwise. Suppose you drop round here later this morning and we’ll go over Mikey’s statement and discuss what the next step should be?’
Mikey was frowning at the screen. He turned it to Ellie, so that she could read what he’d written. Wavy red lines were everywhere. Apparently, spelling was not his strong point.
‘I go there neerly every day. I like to see how it’s made. I lurned a lot.’
Ellie corrected his spelling of the words ‘nearly’ and ‘learned’.
The second question was about how soon he’d learned about bodged jobs on the site. He’d written, ‘Don’t know. Hugh said about water leeking. Preston larfed. I thort, why?’
Ellie dithered over whether or not to correct the spelling, then did a double take. Mikey was more than just computer literate. He was a computer whizz kid. So he must know about the spellcheck. Was he trying it on with her? Hm. Probably.
‘Mikey, use the spellcheck, please.’
He gave her a slit-eyed stare, sighed, and did as she asked.
She typed another question. ‘What did you do about it?’
He responded. ‘Watched them. Preston didn’t mind at first. Then he got cross. Dave can’t hack it. I could do better than him.’ No spelling errors here. So he had been trying it on?
She said, ‘I dare say you could do a better job than Dave, even at your age. So you shadowed Preston and Dave … and then?’
He typed more words. Ellie watched them appear on the screen. She’d guessed correctly. He’d caught Preston and Dave interfering with a plumbing job which had been signed off the day before. It was Preston who had been wielding the wrench, and it was Dave who’d spotted Mikey watching them. She said, ‘So they grabbed you and …?’
He typed on. Yes, she’d guessed correctly.
‘Was they mad! Dave had a knife. I put my arm up but it stung. Preston shook me. He hit me, here and here.’ He pointed to his jaw and throat. ‘He threw me across the landing. I tumbled down the stairs. They shouted. Men came. My voice wouldn’t work. Preston carried me downstairs. He shouted, lots, saying I was the bad one. He threw me in the back of his van. I bumped my head. It all went fuzzy. Like, I wasn’t there. Then you came and got me.’
No wavy red lines. Some green ones for grammatical errors. She discounted those.
A damning indictment.
Ellie stared at the screen, trying to imagine how the boy must have felt. It had shaken Mikey up, and it shook her, too.
She said, ‘Now we must deal with the matter of the car that tried to run you down.’
Mikey rolled his eyes, but did as he was told.
Ellie read what he’d written and felt depressed. It was no more than she’d guessed, but … oh dear. She was about to ask Mikey a further question when she noticed he’d disappeared. Why?
Ah, the doorbell had rung and he’d gone to answer it. His hearing was sharper than hers.
The phone rang, and it was Kate, wanting to know what was up.
Ellie shook her head to clear it. ‘Sorry to trouble you at a weekend. As you know, Edwina Pryce is making a nuisance of herself again. More than a nuisance. Now I know that I handed her affairs over to you with the instruction only to pay her bills if she was threatened with court action or the electricity being cut off, or whatever. I didn’t want to know the details. But now I’ve got a horrid feeling that she’s put one over us in spite of all our precautions. I need to know if somehow or other she could have managed, perhaps by inflating a bill or two, to scrape a largish sum of money together.’
‘You mean, by getting a supplier to charge us more than they charged her? Mm. Well, everything’s on my computer, but … how could we tell without checking back with all her suppliers, and even then …?’
‘Yes, I know. It’s a long shot. But I’m working myself up to a confrontation with her and I need as much ammunition as you can find. I suspect she’s been bribing a workman on the hotel site to do a job badly and thereby delay the opening.’
‘You really think she’s behind the sabotage at the site? But why?’ It didn’t take Kate long to work that one out. ‘Ah, to jack up the tension and force you to hand over your stake in the hotel? That’s, well, extreme.’
‘Edwina is extreme. Her bills have all passed through your hands. What do you make of her?’
‘Hold on a mo while I boot up the computer.’
As Ellie waited, Mikey came in with a bag of Werther’s Original sweets, which he emptied into the bowl Ellie kept on her desk. This meant Tesco’s had delivered, so at least they’d have some food for the weekend. And yes, she knew sweets were bad for her teeth, but sucking one when doing a boring job did help to keep her sane.
Mikey vanished.
Kate was talking. ‘What do I think of Edwina? She’s extravagant, a spendthrift. Wait a mo. I’ve accessed her account …’ A pause. ‘Yes, every month I get a sheaf of bills from her: council tax, electricity, gas, phone; her MasterCard account; Waitrose, John Lewis; health treatments; gutting and redecoration of the flat; a new television and computer. I can’t see anything amiss, apart from the fact that she’s living a life of luxury at our expense. There’s only one small query … Ellie?’ In a sharper tone. ‘She used to bill us every month for taxis because she’s waiting for a hip replacement – which I suppose she’ll have done privately and send us the bill for it – the only thing is, she didn’t bill us for the month of June.’
‘She went on holiday?’
‘Oh. Yes. So she did. Hotel bill, air fare. False alarm. She started using taxis again in August.’
‘Well, she can’t drive.’
‘That’s odd. If she can’t drive, why has she bought a car?’
‘What!’
‘A second-hand Volkswagen, taxed for six months, MOT for eleven months, etc., etc. Five thousand five hundred pounds, and probably a bargain at that. Her covering letter says her doctor warned he wouldn’t be responsible for the consequences if she walked any distance, so she bought the car from another member of the family thinking she could pay in instalments which she finds she can’t manage. He threatened court action unless she paid up, so we cleared the bill.’
Ellie felt faint. ‘Yes, a cousin or second cousin of hers did have a car like that, but Kate, to the best of my knowledge, Edwina can’t drive.’
Kate was on to this in a flash. ‘She may be taking driving lessons, but if so, wouldn’t she have billed us for them? Also for the insurance for the car, and a provisional licence?’
‘And she hasn’t?’
‘Definitely not.’
Ellie exhaled. ‘You have to admire her nerve! I bet that car never changed hands at all. She got five thousand five hundred pounds out of us, just like that. I suppose she produced a fake invoice for the car. And yes, she does have a car-driving relative with a slightly dodgy background. Perhaps he provided her with the invoice for a consideration. Or perhaps she created it for herself? She never thought we’d check, any more than we’ve checked any of her other bills.’
‘That’s fraud.’ Kate was scandalized.
‘Mm. Good. Well, not “good” exactly, but you know what I mean. If it’s true, it gives us a nice lever to get her off our backs.’
‘Threatening her with the police might slow her down, but unless you can upset the terms of the will we’re still liable for whatever she likes to throw at us.’
‘True. Can you dig out that invoice for me, let me have a breakdown of what we’ve spent on her so far, and we’ll take it from there?’
Ellie put the phone down. So Edwina had managed to build up a nice little nest egg of five thousand five hundred pounds. The question was, what had she done with it?
Saturday early
afternoon
Ellie, Rose and Mikey were in the kitchen clearing up after a light lunch of soup and sandwiches when the front doorbell rang. They’d done the rounds of the invalids. Both their temperatures were down, thank goodness, and Vera had even managed to swallow some home-made soup though Thomas still couldn’t take anything but lemonade.
Ellie was on her way to the front door, when the phone rang in the hall. She opened the door to Hugh, saying, ‘Come in. Leave your coat here. Do you mind if I just take this call? Go through to my study. First on the left down the corridor.’
She turned back to the phone, to find the caller had rung off. But the answerphone light was winking. Something urgent? Hugh could wait a moment longer.
A message had been left by someone whose carefully rounded vowels and distinct consonants told Ellie that she’d been brought up to speak ‘properly’.
‘Mrs Quicke? You have not seen fit to reply to my communi-cations in any way, so I must assume that you have agreed to my terms. I have been in touch with the chair of the board of directors for the hotel chain, and he has been so good as to listen to what I have had to say, and to agree with my conclusions. It is perfectly clear to everyone that you are unable to control your so-called ward, the boy Michael, who has been responsible for so much damage at the hotel site, and who has put the opening date in jeopardy. We must assume you have been aware of his actions and approved of them. The chairman agrees with me that your conduct is indefensible. I have suggested – and he has agreed – that the only way to correct matters is for you to resign from the board and to hand your shares over to me. Naturally, you will no longer have any interest in the project and I, as the most senior surviving relative of the Pryce family, will be cutting the ribbon on Opening Day. I shall be calling on you on Monday morning at ten with my solicitor, to accept your signature on the papers transferring your shares to me. I think that is all quite clear.’
Murder With Mercy Page 19
