by A L Fraine
The assembled crowd had already begun to mutter between themselves in hushed, shocked tones while one or two others started to call out, asking questions.
“She was murdered?”
“Where?”
“What happened to her?”
Jon raised his hands to calm them down. “Please. I can’t answer all your questions right now. This is an ongoing investigation, and I would ask that you be respectful of that, and of Piers and Ingrid’s loss. I understand that you were all going to be staying here for a few days anyway, so I’m going to ask that you remain here so we can talk to you all over the next few days.”
“Are they okay?” Veronica asked.
“They’re upset,” Kate replied. “I think you should all give them some time and respect their privacy and personal space. If they want to talk, I’m sure they’ll ask.”
“I understand,” Veronica replied. “I’ll do anything I can for them. They are family, after all.”
“Of course,” Kate replied.
“May I ask you about Harold?” Jon said, taking a step towards Veronica and Howard. “He’s your father, right?”
“My father, yes,” Howard replied.
“And he went into the hospital this morning?”
“That’s right.” A man stepped forward from the assembled family. He had floppy dark hair and a somewhat rakish attitude. “I raised the alarm. I found him in his room, clutching his chest and trying to call out. It was lucky I was nearby at the time. Otherwise, who knows…?”
“And you are?”
“Spencer. Spencer Lockwood, sir.”
Jon nodded. He looked to be in his late thirties and seemed a little too cocky and confident for Jon’s tastes. Still, that didn’t make him a murderer.
“He’s got cancer,” Veronica added. “It’s in the late stages and he’s very weak. This gathering was to hopefully cheer him up for a few days.”
“I understand. So, he’s had a heart attack or something?”
Veronica shrugged. “We don’t know yet. Vivian went with him, but we’ve not heard back from her.”
“She’s one of your daughters?”
“Yes. All our children are here, Cece, Piers, Vivian, and Spencer, along with their partners, for those that have them, and their children. It was a shock for us to see Harold get taken in like that. It wasn’t what we wanted for him. This was meant to be a fun weekend.”
“I’m sure he enjoyed yesterday, and I hope he pulls through for you.”
“Thank you,” she replied and stepped closer as some of the extended family began to wander off, talking amongst themselves. “So, what happened with Lizzy? How was she killed?”
Jon smiled. “I know you want to help, but I can’t share details of the case with you, Mrs Lockwood.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t believe this has happened. I want to help.”
“We understand,” Kate replied. “We do. But the best way for you to help is to just cooperate for the time being. We’ll let you know if there’s something specific you can assist with, okay?”
“Thank you. It’s just that, family is so important to me, to us,” she replied, gesturing to her husband. “When someone hurts our family like this, we need to stick together.”
“You do, and the best thing you can do to help right now is to support Piers and Ingrid in whatever way they need,” Kate persisted.
“We will, I can assure you. We’ll do whatever we can to help them, and you.”
“Actually, there is one way you can help,” Jon replied. “May I ask what security you have around the house? Do you have any cameras?”
“We do, yes. Several. They mainly cover the front of the house and the main entrance.”
“Can we get a copy of last night’s recordings?”
Veronica thought about that for a moment. “Um, yes, I think so. I’ve never done that before but I’m sure it’s possible. I’ll probably need to ask one of the younger ones to help me. I’m all fingers and thumbs around computers, you know?”
Jon smiled, recognising himself in that comment. “I know what you mean. If in doubt, give it a kick.”
Veronica laughed, and Kate gave him a wry smile.
“Indeed,” Veronica replied. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to just have a word with my partner outside.”
“Please, go ahead. The front door is open. Come and go as you please. I’ll be around if you need me,” Veronica replied. “Isn’t that right, Howard?”
“Absolutely. Mi casa es su casa.”
Jon thanked them again and led Kate outside, taking a walk around the courtyard. “What do you think?” he asked once they were a good distance from the house.
Kate sighed as she considered her answer. “I think we have our work cut out for us. That’s what I think.”
“I know what you mean,” Jon replied, feeling troubled by the situation they found themselves in.
“But other than that,” she continued, “I think this is looking like a family affair, at least to some degree.”
“I’m inclined to agree,” Jon replied looking back at the building. “In fact, I think we’ll find the murderer in that house.”
“Do you think it’s Spencer?”
“No idea. Maybe. If he does have a criminal record, it won’t help his case.”
“Piers seemed convinced it was,” Kate added.
“He did. But his objectivity is likely compromised right now. I am getting the feeling there’s some animosity between family members. Oh, and I think Piers and Ingrid have more to tell us.”
“You think they’re lying?” Kate asked.
“No,” Jon replied, thinking about the feeling he’d got in the room with them, and how Piers had dodged the question of what Spencer had actually said to them. “But I think he was holding something back. He wasn’t being completely forthcoming.”
“I noticed that, with the Spencer thing.”
“That’s right. I want to know more about his past too. Piers seemed sure Spencer was a criminal of some kind. So we need to call this in and see what we have on file.”
“Agreed,” Kate said, as Jon pulled out his phone and dialled the office, turning the volume up so Kate could hear. She leaned in to listen.
Within moments the phone line clicked, and a familiar voice came on the line.
“Detective Superintendent Ray Johnston,” the DSupt said in greeting. “Is that you, Pilgrim?”
“Yes, sir,” Jon replied.
“And where the hell are you? You should have been back, or in touch ages ago.”
“We visited the body at Silent Pool. We found her identity and moved on to find her parents, who are local. It turns out the murdered girl is Elizabeth Lockwood, and the entire family had gathered at the Lockwood estate for a celebration. Anyway, something happened here last night, which led to Lizzy leaving the house and her subsequent murder.”
Ray sighed audibly over the phone line. “You’re at the Lockwood estate? And you didn’t call in to tell me?”
“We wanted to get to her parents as quickly as possible.”
“And did you?”
“Yes.”
“Wonderful. Now, why didn’t you keep me informed about what you were doing and where you were going?”
“I’m sorry, sir, we should have called it in.”
“Yes, you should have, Pilgrim. And what are you planning to do with all the people in that house?”
“I thought it best to keep them there,” Jon replied.
“What?”
“Then they’re all in one place, which should make things a little easier. We can take their DNA, do interviews…”
“What are you playing at, Pilgrim? You see, this is the kind of cowboy operation that the ACC was talking about and why he assigned me to your team. So have you told them to stay put?”
“Yes,” Jon replied, glancing up at Kate, who looked just as annoyed with Ray as he felt. “This isn�
�t the crime scene.”
“I don’t care what it is, it could be the queen's shitter for all I care,” Ray replied. “Damn. Right, fine, we’ll play it your way. But I don’t agree with this course of action. It’s reckless and might interfere with the investigation. This isn’t some bloody episode of Poirot, you know.”
“I understand, sir,” Jon replied knowing that the DSupt had a point.
“Good. I’m watching you, Pilgrim. And you, Kate. I presume you’re there, listening in to this.”
“I’m here, sir,” Kate replied.
“From here on out, I want regular updates, okay? I want to know where you are and what you’re doing at all times, and you run big choices like that by me, okay?”
“I understand,” Jon replied.
“Good. Now, I presume you wanted to talk to your team?”
After a few moments, feeling suitably chastised, Jon was put through to Nathan.
“Hey, Loxley,” Nathan began as he came on the line.
“Fox,” Jon replied.
“Still got your job, then?”
“You heard that, did you?”
“Difficult not too, these walls are thin.”
Jon grimaced. “It’s going to take some getting used to, having Stingray breathing down my neck the whole time.”
“He’s not exactly making friends around here,” Nathan agreed. “So, what can I do for you?”
“I need you to look into something for me. Can you run a search on Spencer Lockwood and see if we get any hits?”
“Spencer Lockwood, sure thing,” Nathan replied, and Jon could hear him tapping on the keyboard. “So, you have a lead?”
“Something like that. Our victim, Elizabeth, belongs to a wealthy family who had all gathered at the family estate. She was killed while visiting the local beauty spot sometime last night.”
“You don’t think it was a random act of violence then?”
“It’s possible, but I don’t get that feeling from it, no. Anyway, the victim’s father accused Spencer, so we need to check him out.”
“Aaah, well, looks like the man was right. Spencer has a criminal record, mainly for drugs offences, it looks like. I’m going to have to dig deeper into this for you, though. See what I can find.”
“Great, you do that. We’ll also need DC Evenson down here to stay with the parents, and I think we should get a forensics team down too, to take some DNA samples, in case we get a match with anything on the victim.”
“Sure thing. I’ll get that all sorted out for you,” Nathan replied. “No problem.”
“Thanks, man,” Jon replied and ended the call.
“You alright?” Kate asked peering at him.
“Yeah. It’s just going to take some time to get used to Stingray’s way of working. He seems like a good man, but a little bit too by-the-book for me.”
“He’s asserting his authority,” Kate replied. “That’s all it is. He’s making sure we know who’s boss, including you. If you just play by his rules a bit, get him on-side, I think it’ll pay off in the long run.”
Jon sighed as he stuffed his phone back in his pocket. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“I know I’m right. I’m female, and I’ve had to deal with shit like this from men all the time.”
Jon nodded. “Yeah, I bet.”
“Welcome to my world.”
Jon laughed. “As long as I can make my tea by putting the milk in last, I think I’d be happy in your world.”
“Aaah, well. That’s the rub, though, isn’t it, you see? There’s an entrance exam for my world, and if you can’t cope with making tea the right way, then you’re barred entry.”
“The right way?”
“The only way.”
“Okay, I suppose it’s a bit like that checkpoint between the north and south, right? Everyone going north is required to differentiate mushy peas from guacamole, and everyone going south is asked to pronounce quinoa. I nearly failed that test, but I’d done some cramming before I set off and squeezed through.”
Kate laughed. “You’ll want to be careful then, because you’ll get kicked out if they find you putting gravy on chips.”
“Point taken, Barry. I’ll keep an eye on that.”
“Right then, Hercule, what’s next?”
Jon gave Kate a look at her comment but said nothing. “I think we need to talk to Spencer.”
6
Walking back inside, Jon followed the sound of movement and walked into the kitchen at the back of the house on the right. Inside, Veronica sat talking with her daughter, Cece.
“Everything okay, Detective?” Veronica asked.
“Fine, yes. We need to speak with Spencer, do you know where he is?”
“Cece, can you find him please and bring him here?”
“Sure thing,” the woman replied and smiled at Jon as she walked out. “Won’t be a moment.”
“Piers and Ingrid have asked for some time alone,” Veronica stated after a moment.
“I’m not surprised,” Kate replied. “It’ll take time for them to come to terms with what happened.”
Jon nodded in agreement. “We have a liaison officer coming over shortly, who’ll give them some advice and help them over the next few days.”
“Of course,” Veronica replied. “Do what you need to do.”
Jon nodded. Moments later, he heard footsteps approaching and turned to see Spencer walking over with Cece.
Jon turned to Veronica. “Is there another room we could use?”
“You can use the same one as last time. Piers and Ingrid have retired to their room,” she answered.
“Excellent, thank you,” Jon replied and turned back to Spencer. “If you’d follow me, please?”
“Lead on, Officer. Always happy to talk to the law,” Spencer replied, standing with one hand in his pocket, totally at ease.
Jon eyed him suspiciously before leading him across the entrance hall and into the morning room with Kate. He closed the door behind them as she directed Spencer to sit.
“So, what can I do for you, fine officers?”
“You’re Spencer Lockwood, right?”
“You’ve got me dead to rights, Detective,” he replied, and raised his hands, mocking them.
“I’m DCI Pilgrim, this is DS O’Connell,” he replied, ignoring the mocking comment and gesture.
“A pleasure, I’m sure.” He didn’t sound convinced.
“I hear you said some unflattering things about Lizzy last night. Is that right?”
“So what if I did?”
Jon didn’t like that tone of voice at all, and decided he could be just as aggressive in this interview as Spencer was being. “Well, in case you haven’t noticed, she’s dead, and we think someone might have killed her, smart arse.”
“A-hem,” Kate coughed, disliking the insult. Jon grimaced in reply, knowing he’d gone a little too far, but this idiot was pushing his buttons. He reined himself in a touch, as Spencer replied.
“You’re not from around here, are you? You’re from up north somewhere, right? Are things that bad for the Surrey police that we’re bussing in officers from elsewhere in the UK?”
“You see,” Jon said, ignoring him, “it looks mighty suspicious that you were mouthing off, saying horrible things about Lizzy sticking her nose too far into your business, only for her to turn up dead a few hours later. Don’t you think?”
“Not really.”
“Did you say these things?” Jon pressed.
He shrugged. “Yeah, I said some stuff. So what? She was a nosey little bitch, as far as I’m concerned. She should have learnt to keep her nose out of other people’s business, then maybe she’d be alive today. No one liked Lizzy. No one. Did Piers tell you what I said? Because I’m guessing that it was him that ratted on me.”
“Ratted? That’s how criminals talk,” Jon remarked.
“Come, look at all the fucks I don’t give,” Spencer replied, sweeping his hands out wide. “Piers should ha
ve raised her better. Instead, he got himself a little-miss-smarty-pants who should have kept to herself a little more. She was never right for this family. She didn’t believe in the same things we do. I won’t mourn her death.”
“Brave words, coming from someone with a criminal record. You seem determined to be a suspect.”
“But it wasn’t me. I might hate the cow, but I didn’t kill her.”
“But you do have a criminal record, Mr Lockwood.”
“Yeah, so what?
“So, it doesn’t look good for you.”
“If you say so. But as I said, I didn’t do it, and I can prove it.”
“Please do.”
“I was with Portia, all night, sat out there on the porch, talking and smoking. We were there until about two-thirty. Go ahead, ask her. She’ll back me up, just like I’ll back her up. Plus, there’s CCTV of the porch, so…”
Jon grimaced at the thought of Spencer having an airtight alibi, thereby throwing a spanner in the works and putting paid to the idea that this would be an open and shut case.
Spencer smiled smugly at him, and Jon wanted deeply to wipe that smile right off his face. But he restrained himself for now and just stared at him.
“So,” Kate cut in, “let’s go through what happened last night. I believe at around ten pm, Lizzy took Harold upstairs, right?”
“That’s right,” Spencer replied. “I waited maybe ten minutes or so before I said something. She’d been pissing me off all day. Anyway, at about half-past, Howard seemed to have had enough and called an end to the night. But I wasn’t interested in going to bed, and went for a walk. I ended up finding Portia on the sun loungers and joined her for a blunt.”
“How stoned were you, Mr Lockwood?” Kate asked.
“Not stoned enough, Miss Marple.”
“What do you remember next?” Kate asked, as Jon watched. He was pleased that Kate hadn’t mentioned Lizzy appearing after midnight and was curious to see if he would confirm what Piers had said.
“We talked for ages, I think. Put the world to rights, you know? Oh, yeah, then Lizzy appeared after midnight sometime, said she was going for a drive. I heard her car out front.”
“Did you only hear the one car?”
“I think so, yeah. So anyway, Portia heard something a while later, sometime after one, and asked me to check it out because she was stoned out of her mind.”
