Talk of the Village

by Rebecca Shaw

  'Come on, Lady Bissett. What harm could they have done her? We know they's crackers but they won't murder no one would they?"

  'Wouldn't they? Don't you be too sure.' The crowd watched the police officers standing outside the back door. The Detective Constable and the Inspector had a whispered conversation and then they said, 'One, two, three!' and barged at the door with their shoulders. Their combined weight and force broke the latch and the door burst open. Inspector Proctor was unmoved by the condition of the kitchen. There wasn't much that could surprise him about people.

  'Hello there, it's the police. Can we have a word?'

  Gwen appeared. 'Just you keep well away from me. We don't want you here.'

  'Believe me madam, we wouldn't be here at all if it wasn't for the fact that we have a little girl missing. Yours is the only house we haven't been able to check, and check it we must.'

  'Where is your warrant?'

  'We haven't time to waste getting a warrant. Everyone else has co-operated willingly. We need to make sure she hasn't been shut in somewhere by mistake.'

  'What are you accusing us of?'

  'Nothing, madam. It is simply a case of looking to make sure she hasn't been taken ill somewhere and can't get help or has locked herself in an outhouse and can't make herself heard.'

  'You can search the shed if you want. You'll find nothing in there. It's always locked.'

  'Give me the key and my Constable will look.'

  123

  Gwen put her hand in the pocket of her apron and handed him the key. While Cooper searched the shed, the Inspector questioned Gwen, 'Did you go to church this morning?'

  'Certainly not.'

  'Where's your sister?'

  'Having a nap.'

  'Could you get her to come down to see me?'

  'No. She's not at all well.'

  'Then in that case I shall go upstairs to see her if you ·will accompany me.'

  'You won't.'

  'If you won't go with me then I shall have to go alone.' He made to brush past her into the hall. Gwen stood aside, then changed her mind and went up the stairs in front of him.

  Beryl lay huddled in the big double bed they shared, apparently asleep.

  'Wake your sister for me.'

  Beryl stirred at the sound of his voice.

  'Good afternoon Miss Baxter. I'm making inquiries about a little girl who's gone missing. Felicity Charter-Plackett. I understand she's always called Flick. Have you seen her today?'

  Beryl's eyes slid from his face to Gwen's and then back again. 'No.'

  'Would you recognise her if you did?'

  'Yes.'

  'Have you been out today?'

  'No.'

  'Has your sister been out today?'

  'No.'

  He looked at Gwen and said, 'There's a Sunday newspaper in the kitchen. Mr Charter-Plackett doesn't deliver newspapers, so how have you got it into the house?'

  124

  'Well, that's all I've done. I didn't think you meant popping out for two minutes for a paper.'

  'What else do you think I hadn't meant?' He heard Cooper return to the house. Cooper shouted up the stairs. 'It's full of old clothes, guv . . . sir. I haven't moved everything, we'd have to clear the whole shed out to do that.'

  'Do it, Cooper.'

  'Yes, guv.'

  Gwen glared at him. 'You'll have it all to put back again.'

  'We will.'

  The Inspector went back downstairs again but not before he'd opened the big bedroom door and looked in. He estimated that the piles of newspapers hadn't been disturbed, though he could be wrong. He opened the sitting room door next, looked in and then returned to the kitchen. Moving a pile of papers from a kitchen chair he sat down to wait for Cooper to empty the shed. He looked round the kitchen hoping to unnerve Gwen and make her say something. She stood watching him. He picked up the Sunday newspaper and began reading.

  'Nothing better to do with your time than sit there? What about repairing that door?'

  'We'll send someone round.'

  Jimbo came to the back door to report that they had had no success in the school.

  'We're being invaded. Get out, go on, get out.'

  Cooper came back from the shed sweating and dirty. 'Nothing in there guv.'

  'Thanks, Cooper. Put it all back.'

  'Back?'

  'Yes, back.'

  Jimbo, by now almost incoherent with anxiety, asked Gwen if she knew where Flick was.

  'Please Miss Baxter we need to know.'

  125

  'I don't know.'

  'Are you absolutely sure you haven't seen her going past the house? I know you like to watch people going by. Perhaps you happened to see her after church. Or you saw someone stop to speak to her. Think Miss Baxter, think.'

  'No, I didn't.'

  'We'll search the garden now, Miss Baxter.' The Inspector stood and turned to go out. Jimbo followed him and they went to the far end of the garden and began looking section by section. They unearthed an ancient mangle, a roll of rotting carpet, and various old boxes and an old mower, but of Flick they found nothing. It was Jimbo who came upon the lid of the disused well.

  'Oh my God. I didn't know they had a well. Inspector, come here.'

  'That's recently been disturbed.' Jimbo went deathly white. The Inspector looked at him. 'Go and find the village Sergeant for me, will you, Mr Charter-Plackett, and ask him for his torch. He'll have one with a powerful beam.'Jimbo hurried off, glad to be of use.

  'Now we've got him out of the way, we can get the lid off and look down.'

  Between them they managed to lift it off. The Inspector threw a stone down. 'It's very deep. Go and get the torch from the car, Cooper.'

  Willie arrived to offer his help. 'You don't think she's down there do you, Inspector?'

  'We have to look at every possibility. My instincts tell me there's something odd here. I can feel it in my bones as they say. Good lad, Cooper.'

  He shone the torch down the well. The surface of the water gleamed greenly back at him. He moved the beam of light slowly up and down the walls of the well. There were no signs of anything having rubbed against the brickwork as it was pushed down. He decided to have

  126

  another go inside the house. They heaved the lid back on again.

  Jimbo arrived with the Sergeant's torch.

  'Oh thanks sir, my constable remembered we had one in the car. I'm glad to say there's no sign of your little girl down there.'

  Gwen and Beryl were both in the kitchen when he returned to it.

  'You're feeling better are you Miss Baxter?'

  'Yes.'

  'Right, Cooper. Upstairs. And search properly, every drawer, every cupboard, don't miss a thing. Both bedrooms.'

  This upset Gwen and Beryl. They both rushed to block the door.

  'You've already searched. You can't search again. We won't let you.'

  'I'm afraid I can. Move to one side please.' He noticed Beryl's eyes stray momentarily towards a chest of drawers, which was standing in front of what was obviously the understairs cupboard. When he looked at the floor he saw marks which showed that the chest had been dragged across to its present position. How had he missed that?

  'Cooper, move this chest.'

  Cooper pushed and strained but couldn't budge it, so Willie went to give him a hand. At this the two women became more and more agitated. Suddenly Gwen snapped. She went straight for Cooper and lunged at him and beat him with her fists.

  'This is our house. Stop it, stop it! You've no right!'

  Inspector Proctor took hold of her and forcibly restrained her from attacking his constable. She kicked and struggled to get free, shouting at Willie and Cooper to stop. The two men pulled open the door of the cupboard and Cooper shone the torch inside.

  127

  'Here we are sir. She's here.'

  He knelt down, reached inside and came out backwards on his knees, holding Flick in his arms. She had been bound and gagg
ed and lay limply. Constable Cooper bent his head and listened for her breathing.

  'She's OK. She's breathing.' He laid her down on the kitchen floor. Jimbo undid the gag, unbound her arms and ankles and then held her to him and forced back the sobs which, despite his strenuous efforts to retain self control, would keep coming into his throat.

  Til go tell her mother, Mr Charter-Plackett,' offered Willie and he ran from the house shouting. 'She's all right, we've found her.'

  The crowd outside cheered. They caught snatches of Inspector Proctor saying, 'I arrest you both . . . and anything you might say ... I must ask you to accompany me to the station.'

  The procession to the police car was followed by dozens of pairs of eyes. Pat Duckett shouted, 'Yer nasty pair of old baggages. Yer deserve all yer get. What did yer want to harm a poor little girl for?"

  The Sergeant, who had arrived too late to help, importantly cleared the way. 'Move along please, move along.'

  'Harriet are you awake?'

  'Yes, I've not been to sleep yet.'

  'Neither have I, and what's more I don't think I shall. God what a day. Never again.'

  'I'm going to check if she's all right.' Harriet went across the landing to Flick's bedroom and stood looking down at her. Flick was curled on her side, her hand tucked under the pillow in its usual position. Harriet gently stroked the hair from her cheeks and pulled the duvet a little closer around her shoulders. She went back to bed and lay staring at the ceiling.

  128

  'She's fine, sleeping like a baby. Never ever do I want to go through a day like today again.'

  Jimbo lay on his back staring at the ceiling. 'I've been thinking: it's my fault this happened.'

  'Your fault? How could that be?'

  'I've put everything into making a success of this business . . . mostly for my own satisfaction but also as one in the eye of those City people who said I'd be back there inside six months. It's made me ignore my own children.'

  'You haven't.'

  'Yes I have. I don't mean I ever stopped caring about them. How could I? They're our own flesh and blood, for God's sake. But today, when I thought we'd lost Flick I realised that under pressure from me we've let that bond between ourselves and the children grow weak. That's why she feels free to just wander off as she likes. Because we don't put restraints on her. We're always busy and, to be honest, we've been quite glad if she's not bothering us.'

  'But we take such care of them. The boys don't go off and they're older.'

  'They don't seem to feel the need. You see, there's two of them so they always have someone to share games with. It makes Flick quite an outsider, you know.'

  'So what's the remedy?'

  'From now on, I don't care what it costs, but whenever Flick and the boys aren't at school I want you home there for them. I know it means employing people in the shop and the kitchens when you're not there. But no matter what it costs, that's what we're doing. We came within a hair's breadth of her being dead. I can't imagine what hell that must be but I know it would be double hell if we had ourselves to blame. I just can't take a chance of that happening.'

  'But I enjoy working in the shop.'

  129

  'I didn't say you would do nothing, Harriet, I said you weren't going to be involved whenever the children are at home. And that's final. I'll work twice as hard to make it possible. You are their mother and I want you to be there.'

  'Jimbo, since when have you told me what to do?'

  'As of now, but then I've never been so frightened as I was this afternoon. You know, waiting to see if a big deal had come off when I was at the bank, the old adrenalin would be riding high, my palms would be sweating, my nerves at top pitch, and that awful patch of fear at the pit of my stomach would be there gnawing away. But it was nothing compared to today. I am not going through that again.'

  'She ought to be able to go about alone in a place like this.'

  'She ought, but obviously she can't.'

  'You're quite right of course, and I shall do as you say. And tomorrow when the police come to question her, make certain they don't frighten her, won't you? We don't want to make matters worse than they already are.' They were quiet for a while, then Harriet said, 'All that trouble with Caroline and the rabbits last night doesn't seem very important today does it?'

  'But, Inspector, I didn't go in. I saw Chivers running down Church Lane when Brown Owl dismissed us. He's always wandering off, and I'm frightened he'll get lost, he's only small, he's not even had a birthday yet. I ran after him and he went to Misses Baxter's side gate and climbed over. I went to the gate and called "Chivers, Chivers".'

  'Did you open the gate Flick?'

  'No..o..o.o. I stood looking over, calling. Daddy said I mustn't go in people's gardens after my cats. So I didn't. But then she came out.'

  130

  'Who came out?'

  'Gwen.'

  'What did she say?'

  'Nothing.'

  'I can't understand why she was so very very cross with you if you didn't go in.'

  Flick looked uncomfortable and glanced anxiously at her mother. Harriet patted her arm and said, 'Just tell the Inspector the truth, Flick.'

  Flick swallowed hard and whispered, 'Daddy's told me not to go in people's gardens after my cats, but I did twice. They like Miss Baxters' garden because it's all messy and piled with rubbish and they like to play in there, it's such an interesting garden for cats you see. So they've told me twice not to go in there and shouted at me and she said, that is Gwen said, she would punish me if she caught me again. This time I didn't go in but she just opened the gate and before I could run away, she grabbed me and dragged me inside. I told her Mummy would be cross. But she wouldn't listen. She used some naughty words I've heard the boys use, and Daddy once when he dropped a box of baked beans on his foot. She held me tight and Beryl said, "Let her go. You must let her go." But Gwen didn't listen.'

  'Where did she hold you? Pretend you're Gwen and get hold of me like she got hold of you.'

  Flick grabbed Inspector Proctor's neck and his arm. 'Like that but really tight. I couldn't get away.'

  'What happened next?'

  'She told Beryl to get some old cloths and then she tied me up and stuffed me in the cupboard. It was so hot and I couldn't breathe and then Daddy was holding me. I don't know how long I was in the cupboard.'

  'Did Beryl help to tie you up?'

  'No. She was crying and saying "No, no, no." She said she was so upset she'd have to go to bed.'

  131

  'So Beryl didn't do much then?'

  'No. Beryl must be nicer than Gwen, mustn't she?'

  'Well, I'm not too sure about that, she didn't stop Gwen or go to get help did she?"

  'No, she didn't. Can I go and play now?'

  'Is there anything else you need to tell me. Your Mummy is here and we don't have secrets from Mummy do we? So tell her and me right now if you can remember things I've forgotten to ask.'

  'I've told you everything. I'd like to go now please.'

  'Are you quite certain you've told us everything that happened? Did they take you anywhere else besides the kitchen?'

  'No, nowhere else. Nothing else happened at all. Will they go to prison for being nasty to me?'

  'We'll wait and see.'

  'May I go now, please?'

  'Yes, but before you go I want to say something. Your cats know you love them Flick, because you look after them so well. They're not daft, they know when they have a good home. So don't, whatever you do, go looking for them again. It might be a while before they get back home, but they will. Thank you for answering all those questions. You've been a great help. Off you

  go-'

  Flick got down off the chair and went to find the boys. She thought she'd go back to school tomorrow, they'd all want to know what had happened, and she'd be able to tell them about the doll Venetia had sent her that morning. It was absolutely gorgeous and had the most wonderful lace dress on and beautiful
long blonde hair. She didn't know which was lovelier, the doll or the box it had come in. She'd call it Venetia, that was a perfectly splendid name for a perfectly splendid doll.

  When she left, the Inspector stood up to take his leave. 'Thank you, Mrs Charter-Plackett. There's bound to be

  132

  some after effects, like bad nerves and nightmares. Your daughter will need lots of love and reassurance. We shan't be able to keep those women locked up for ever, much as we might like to, so take care. If Felicity lets slip any more information, no matter how slight, will you phone me at this number? If I'm not there leave a message to ring you. I'll be in touch.' The Inspector shook hands with Harriet and went out to his car.

  133

  Chapter 11

  Despite Caroline's anxiety about Flick she still felt as strongly about Jimmy and the rabbits and was determined to swing public opinion onto her side. She made a point of mentioning the subject to everyone she met. Some villagers met her idea with downright hostility. But aided and abetted by Pat, who made it her business to introduce the subject to as many of the school parents as she was able, many of the villagers came round to her way of thinking. Michael Palmer, having listened several times to the story of what had happened in The Royal Oak on the Saturday night, agreed with Caroline.

  'Knew yer'd see it her way, Mr Palmer,' Pat commented gleefully as she tidied the hall after school dinners. 'She's a lovely lady is Dr Harris, she's really cut up about them rabbits, feels right bad about 'em. I don't understand how some people don't see her point of view. I tell yer who would be on her side . . . Mrs Meadows. Now she was always very keen on kindness to animals. She had that campaign d'yer remember? Not long after she got 'ere, about stopping foxhunting. Yer remember she got the Council to stop the hunt going across the Big House land. 'Spect that Health Club lot won't care too hoots about poor foxes. Do you ever 'ear from Mrs Meadows, Mr Palmer? I always thought you two got on really well.'

  134

  Michael Palmer hesitated for a moment and then gave an emphatic 'No'. Pat smiled to herself. She hadn't lived thirty-nine years without learning something about human nature. She guessed from his answer that it wasn't strictly the truth.

  In his pocket Michael had the latest letter from Suzy's mother, this time at the bottom was a short note from Suzy herself sending him her good wishes. It was the first time she'd written anything at all and the first time he realised that she knew he'd been writing in response to her mother's request. In future he'd have to be careful what he said about the twins. It was one thing divulging news to a devoted grandmother, quite another telling a mother news of the babies she'd given away. He fingered the envelope, carefully tucked away in the pocket of his tweed jacket. One day perhaps she'd write a real letter to him. In his mind's eye he could see her long fair hair, her lovely rounded cheeks and the sweet, so sweet smile which lit up her face. He imagined his hands cupping her cheeks and himself placing a kiss on her dear mouth . . .