Plock. The phone call finished.
Ellie tried to replace the receiver on its rest at her end and fumbled the job. But, finally, got it there.
She couldn’t think straight. One blow after the other.
How to counter them?
And with what? She was completely out of ideas.
Hugh was waiting for her. She went along to her study, trying to sort out what she should do next. Could Hugh help her by clearing Mikey? Maybe, but if he did … what then?
Hugh was sitting in a chair by her desk. He didn’t look comfortable. She didn’t feel comfortable, either. She switched on the lights. It was such a dark day. So depressing. She said, ‘Is it still raining? Silly question. Of course it is. Have you had lunch? Yes? Coffee? No. All right, let’s get down to it.’
She seated herself at her desk and accessed Mikey’s statement on her computer.
‘Here’s what the boy has written so far. He’s prepared to answer questions about it if you need more detail. Then we will run off copies for you, the police and Social Services.’
Hugh said, ‘Do we need to be so formal?’
She tried for a light touch. ‘Dear Hugh. You’re fighting a losing battle on this one. Why not give in gracefully and admit that you have a problem on site?’
Hugh had slumped in his chair. ‘I have a problem on site. Yes. Now tell me how to solve it.’
‘You know how to solve it. It’s your responsibility to hire and fire men.’
‘If it were only that simple. The managing director has just been on the phone to me. A Ms Edwina Pryce has been in touch with him, saying that you are behind all the problems we’ve had, that you’ve been working through the boy to delay the opening. He tells me that you are resigning from the project and that Ms Edwina Pryce is taking over. Also that she has promised the men a bonus if they finish on time.’
So Edwina had spoken the truth? She had managed to sell her story to the managing director? Ellie felt quite breathless. She tried to smile. ‘So first she causes delays to the project and then she urges completion on time?’
‘You think she’s behind the sabotage? You have proof?’
‘I’m getting it. For a start, let’s take Mikey’s statement about surprising Preston and Dave doing something they shouldn’t and what happened afterwards.’
He read it, sucked his teeth, shook his head. ‘It’s his word against theirs.’
‘True. Except that the report on Mikey’s injuries doesn’t agree with Preston’s statement. How do you get round that?’
‘I don’t propose to.’ He fidgeted. He wasn’t enjoying this, either.
Ellie knew why. ‘Now let’s look at what he says about the attempt to run him down in the street.’
Instead of reading it, Hugh got out of his chair and went to look out of the window at the sodden garden. It was getting dark, and he probably couldn’t see much. He didn’t want to read the statement, did he?
Ellie said, ‘Hugh, Mikey says he saw you and his pal the electrician upstairs as he walked along on the other side of the street. He says you signed to him not to go in. He continued on his way to the crossroads. A vehicle was approaching. He waited for it to pass, but it slowed down. He recognized it as a van – not a car – belonging to one of your workforce. There was a string of flowers wound round the driver’s mirror. He recognized the driver, who was not wearing a hard hat.
‘The driver gestured to Mikey to cross the road in front of him. Mikey hesitated but started to do so. He saw the van’s wheels begin to turn and leaped back on to the pavement but not before the mudguard caught him on his side.’
Silence from Hugh.
Ellie said, ‘Hugh, you told me that it was hard to see what was happening in the street. You were upstairs looking down on the road, and it was raining. You gave me a description of a car which you said paused to let Mikey cross the road, and then accelerated away. Would you like to revise your statement?’
Hugh pulled a face. ‘Mikey may have been mistaken.’
‘He gives considerable detail. He’s seen the cars and vans your workforce uses often enough to know them. He knows your men. He recognized the van and the driver even in the rain.’
‘You think I saw it, too?’
‘You know whose van it was, and who was driving it. It was young Dave, wasn’t it?’
‘I have to look at the bigger picture. I’m responsible for getting the work done to the highest possible standard and completed on time.’
She leaned back in her chair. She’d known, liked and respected this man for a long time. It was hard to believe he would give in so quickly. She couldn’t understand why he should. In the rather harsh light in her study she noted fresh and deeper lines on his face, a thinning of his hair, a droop to his shoulders.
‘Dear Hugh, you are feeling tired, and no wonder, with all that’s been going on with this project.’
‘It’s my last job for the company.’
‘Will you look back on it with satisfaction?’
He repeated, ‘I have to look at the bigger picture.’
‘At Mikey’s expense? At the expense of what is right?’
‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’
But she did. Oh yes, she did.
He knew it, too. He said, ‘Well, I’d best be going. Working double time today, trying to catch up.’ He wasn’t giving her another chance to talk him round, but made his own way to the front door, picking up his coat on the way. He opened the door and hesitated. Without looking at her, he said, ‘I’m really sorry, you know. But this is how it has to be.’
He vanished into the rain, leaving her to shut the door behind him.
She sank into the seat by the phone. For two pins she’d burst into tears. Even for one pin. Her throat ached, and she wondered if she, too, was going down with flu. It wouldn’t be surprising if she did, and it might save her from having to face Edwina on Monday.
She’d never like the word ‘defeat’, but she couldn’t see any way in which she could reverse what was happening. Oh, she could go to the chairman and spin him her tale of woe, try to make him understand what Edwina had been up to, but without proof, why should he or anyone else believe her? And the damage the woman was doing to Mikey and Vera … It didn’t bear thinking about. Ellie’s mind went round and round, thinking about it.
She ran her hands back through her hair. There wasn’t a single thing she could do to stop Edwina walking all over them. Well, except for that niggle about buying a car which she couldn’t drive. Edwina would probably have a good explanation about that, too. She’d say she’d overlooked an invoice, or was waiting for the driving school to confirm, or something.
If only there were some way Ellie could curb the woman’s spending! That would be some solace. But the wording of Mrs Pryce’s will had been clear enough. Ellie inherited the estate and Pryce House to do as she wished with, the only proviso being that she had to keep the remaining members of the family out of trouble financially. Or words to that effect.
Ellie couldn’t remember the exact wording, although she knew she ought to have it engraved on her heart … or whatever organ it should be, as Edwina didn’t seem to have much of a heart herself.
Gunnar, her solicitor, hadn’t got back to her. It had probably been stupid to ask him to do anything for her on a weekend. Was there anybody else she could ask to help?
Well, just conceivably, there was.
Mrs Pryce’s own solicitor had been a round, bouncy, youngish man by the name of Greenbody. It was he who had been responsible for the drawing up of Mrs Pryce’s will, so he’d know her exact intentions towards Edwina and the only other surviving member of the family, who was her cousin or second cousin or whatever. Terry Pryce. He’d once owned a yellow Volkswagen, and Ellie would take a bet – and she was not a betting woman – that this was the car which Edwina claimed to have bought recently.
Ellie hadn’t had any reason to contact Mr Greenbody recently since her own solicitor h
ad steered Mrs Pryce’s will through probate, but she seemed to remember that he’d gone on acting for young Terry in some unrelated problem or other. Something which had involved the police? Nothing desperate. Drunk and disorderly? Driving under the influence?
Ellie had been only too happy to let Mr Greenbody go on looking after Terry while Kate coped with Edwina’s demands. For some reason, either inertia or by an oversight, Mr Greenbody had continued to represent Terry in his dealings with the trust. Kate had said this was a good thing as she had more than enough to do, coping with Edwina. She’d also said that Mr Greenbody’s requests to help Terry with his finances had been reasonable. There had been the occasional bill for repairs and maintenance for his car, a request for a new washing machine, that sort of thing. By no means unreasonable.
Terry had a job somewhere, didn’t he? Ellie wondered how Mr Greenbody had managed to curb young Terry’s excesses. It might be interesting to find out.
SIXTEEN
Ellie hunted for and eventually found Mr Greenbody’s home number.
‘Mrs Quicke? How delightful to hear from you. Keeping well, I trust?’ Noises off indicating children at play and a television set on full volume. ‘Just a mo, while I shut myself away from the family. They’re playing inside in this dreadful weather, but what can one expect at this time of the year? Now, what can I do for you today?’
‘Help me murder Edwina Pryce?’ She hadn’t meant to say that.
Instead of being horrified, Mr Greenbody laughed. ‘What’s she been up to now?’
‘Too long a story to tell you, but I’m wondering how Mrs Pryce coped with her extravagance. Her spending of late has been excessive.’
‘She coped more less, and not all the time, by refusing to pay anything except the utility bills. Oh, except when Edwina had a water leak at the flat which did a lot of damage. She had to move out to a hotel while the place was gutted. Everything had to be replaced; wiring, plumbing, carpets, redecoration, everything. Even then—’
‘What?’ Ellie shot upright in her chair. ‘Are you sure? I’m in shock. When was this? We’ve just paid a bill for doing the same thing.’
‘Have you now?’ His voice lost all its humour. ‘This would be some twelve, maybe thirteen months ago. Mrs Pryce did query the bills. She was going to get them checked, thinking they’d probably been inflated, but she let it go because she was tired of fighting all the time.’
Ellie rubbed her forehead. She was beginning to get a pressure headache. ‘You mean Edwina charged Mrs Pryce for all that work over a year ago? I can hardly believe that we’ve passed bills for the exact same work.’
‘Dearie me. What a very enterprising lady she is.’
‘I feel quite faint. We never thought to check. We ought to have done, but … I’m at fault, I’m afraid. I disliked the woman so much that I handed her affairs over to someone else to deal with. It was only when she presented a bill for buying Terry’s car that I—’
‘Terry’s car? The Volkswagen? When was this? That car’s been off the road for months. In fact—’
‘What? Are you sure? But … No, I’m being stupid. You wouldn’t say so if it weren’t true. Can you explain?’
‘There’s no mystery about it. Terry Pryce got drunk once too often. He careered down a hill and clipped a Toyota driving in the other direction. The driver of that car and his passenger got away with shock and minor injuries, for which Terry ought to be grateful to the end of his life, but probably won’t. He failed to stop and report the accident. Instead, he ended up at the bottom of the hill, wrapped around a lamp-post. And I mean wrapped around it. The air bag inflated and saved its owner’s worthless life. Terry was found wandering across the road, singing a song about survival.’
‘And the car?’
‘Written off. Carted off on the back of a lorry. He’s lost his licence, of course. He hasn’t to my knowledge bought another car.’
‘The Licensing Agency will have been informed that the car was written off?’
‘Certainly.’
Silence.
‘I think,’ said Ellie, trying out the words for fun, ‘that this is good news.’
‘Because Edwina’s claiming she bought a car which no longer exists?’
‘And we paid out for it. And for doing the work on her flat a second time.’
‘Fraud.’ He sounded plummy with satisfaction.
‘I love that word. Fraud. Mr Greenbody, I wonder if I could ask you to spare some time to compare notes on Edwina’s spending with my finance director? You may have met Kate at some point during the handover of the estate?’
‘The wonderful Kate? Certainly. I’d be delighted. What’s your timescale?’
‘Appalling. Edwina is setting up a meeting on Monday morning at ten, in which she expects me to hand over … Well, that’s a long story. Can you spare the time to listen to me rant about her?’
‘Delighted.’
So Ellie gave him the gist of what had been going on, including the shenanigans at the hotel site and Mikey’s part in it … and how Ellie suspected Edwina had first engineered trouble and then complained to the managing director that Ellie had arranged for Mikey to sabotage the work … and finally had offered bonuses to the workforce to get the work completed on time.
‘Where’s she getting the money from, to give bonuses?’
‘Indeed. In addition, she’s saying I’ve forfeited the right to hold any shares in the project because I’m responsible for what Mikey is alleged to have done. I’m at a loss how to fight her off. The only way I can think of to get back at her is to query the terms of Mrs Pryce’s will, and to look more closely at her accounts. Hence my last-minute plea to you.’
‘You want to know the exact wording? Well, I should know, as I argued with Mrs Pryce about it for some time. She wanted to ensure that the remaining members of the family are – and I quote – “never at a loss for the basics”.’
Ellie repeated the words in a hollow tone. ‘“Never at a loss for the basics”? But that could mean I only have to cover the utility bills and her rent, with perhaps a little over?’
‘She owns her flat outright. You might pay her council tax, if you felt generous. But yes, that’s what Mrs Pryce meant. You’d need to get a second opinion, if you wanted to test it in court.’
Ellie was quiet, trying to reorganize what passed for her mental processes. How come she’d not realized before exactly what the will said? How come she’d let Edwina milk the trust for so much money? And what should she do about it?
‘Mr Greenbody, you couldn’t spare some time tomorrow to compare accounts with Kate, could you? I know it’s a lot to ask, and Kate may not be able to free herself from domesticity, but if I can only get a handle on what Edwina’s done I might be able to defeat her. You must bill me for your time, of course.’
‘At double my usual rate? No, Mrs Quicke, I’ll do it for a minimum fee. I liked old Mrs Pryce and admired her for dealing with that difficult family so well. Edwina and Terry gave her nothing but grief. She thought that perhaps Terry might one day make a decent member of society, though from what I’ve seen of him it’s unlikely. She sorrowed deeply over Edwina. She believed the girl had been so badly warped by her earlier life that it was doubtful she would ever be a rounded personality. The one who died, Edgar, was the best of the bunch, and I gather you are caring for his widow and stepson. That is more than Mrs Pryce could have hoped for, and I’m sure she’d thoroughly approve. Her premature death was a shock. I miss her still and will do whatever I can to help you sort out this mess. I’ll go into the office later this afternoon and sort out the relevant papers. Give me a ring when you can arrange for Kate to meet me there tomorrow. Or, wait a minute, I think I might have her home phone number on a card she gave me somewhere. Perhaps I should go to her?’
‘Could we meet here at my place? I’ve got Thomas and Vera down with flu, and I don’t want to leave Mikey on his own.’
‘Just looking at the diary … Yes, I’ve got nothin
g on tomorrow that I can’t rearrange. There’s Anita’s funeral on Monday, of course. Did you know her? I suppose you’ll be going? Do you want a lift? What time are you supposed to meet Edwina?’
‘At ten. Suppose you join us at that meeting as well, and we can go on together to the funeral?’
Ellie put the phone down on what had been a most satisfactory conversation. The house lay quiet about her. A little too quiet? What was Mikey up to now? Before she tracked him down, she’d make one more phone call. It might be difficult for Kate to arrange for the children to be looked after on a Sunday afternoon, but it was worth a try …
Ten minutes later, Ellie left the study, switching on lights as she went. Rose would be resting on her bed with the television on, but Ellie had a feeling that she ought to find Mikey and tell him to stop it. Whatever ‘it’ might happen to be.
He was sitting at the bottom of the stairs with the cat on his lap. Forlorn. Had he been listening to her talk with Hugh and her phone calls? She remembered the old adage about listeners hearing no good of themselves. Mikey certainly couldn’t have derived much comfort from listening in.
He was too quiet for her comfort. Boys like Mikey needed lots of physical action to balance their habit of sitting at a computer for hours on end.
Rain was lashing at the conservatory. He couldn’t go out to run around in the garden, and until he could use his voice again it wasn’t any use suggesting he went to a friend’s house to play.
There was a stir in the kitchen as Rose turned on the radio for comfort. So she was up and about after her afternoon nap.
Ellie beckoned Mikey to follow her into the kitchen. ‘Rose, what can we find for Mikey to play with? What did you do on a rainy day as a child? I can’t remember doing much except playing in our Wendy house with a friend. Sometimes we helped my mother do some cooking. On Sundays we had to visit my auntie, when we played cribbage and had Battenberg cake for tea.’
‘We skipped,’ said Rose. ‘We could teach Mikey how to skip. Not in the kitchen, but in the hall.’
Murder With Mercy Page 20
