Murder for Good

by Veronica Heley

  Hetty fell for it. She picked her way through the tables to sit down opposite Ellie.

  Ellie lowered the menu.

  Hetty started to her feet, alarmed at facing someone whom she’d left, drugged and locked into an attic room.

  Ellie said, ‘Yes, it’s me, and I’m here on behalf of Mrs Harris. Now, what would you like to eat, Hetty? They do an all-day breakfast here which looks good.’ Ellie was counting on the fact that Hetty was always hungry, had just come off her shift at The Cedars and wouldn’t yet have had time to eat lunch.

  Sure enough, Hetty relaxed enough to resume her seat, though she looked ready to fly at the slightest threat. ‘I meant no harm when I locked the door on you. I knew someone would let you out eventually.’

  Liar, liar! Your pants are on fire!

  Ellie signalled to the waitress. ‘The all-day breakfast do you? With coffee or tea?’

  ‘No, I don’t want to … Perhaps an egg and cress sandwich and a coffee to take away?’ She looked at her watch. A ruse? ‘I don’t have much time before my next job.’

  The waitress took the order and Hetty relaxed another notch. ‘How is Thomas? Still in hospital? I was sorry to leave you in that great big house without notice. Are you managing all right? Are you ready for me to come back?’

  ‘Thomas spent some time in hospital and still has to be careful of his diet, but he’s getting on all right.’

  ‘Yes. Well.’ Hetty glanced at her watch again. She was still very much on edge, but the twin lures of food and money kept her on her seat. ‘Was it you who left a message for me at The Cedars? Some money I’m owed?’

  ‘I’ve checked with Mrs Harris. She believes the agency would have paid you all the hours you worked, but she wants to be sure you received a legacy from her husband.’

  Hetty held on to her large handbag with both hands but relaxed half a notch more. ‘Well, yes. I was surprised, naturally. Good of him.’

  ‘How much?’ Ellie tried to speak casually, as if the answer didn’t matter much.

  ‘Oh, not as much as he gave Thomas.’ Resentment made Hetty’s mouth tighten. ‘I thought Thomas deserved something, then. I didn’t realize at the time what a horrible person he was.’

  ‘It’s good that Mr Harris remembered worthy causes at the end. Salvation Army, Cancer Research, Cats’ Protection League—’

  ‘Oh, he wasn’t interested in cats. Nor dogs, come to think of it. He gave some money to refugees and clean water in Africa. Stuff like that.’

  ‘And to you.’

  Hetty bridled. ‘Didn’t I look after him when his wife had deserted him in his hour of need? Mary Poppins, everyone’s favourite nurse, that’s what he called me.’

  ‘Because you were able to top up his pills so that he got a good night’s sleep?’

  ‘What if I did? That’s what he wanted.’

  Ellie felt very tired. ‘Yes, I expect it was. You like to help other people when they’re in pain, don’t you, Hetty? How long have you been doing this?’

  ‘Dunno. Some time. It started with Elsie and Lily.’

  Ah-ha! Ellie concentrated. Elsie and Lily. They were the first people to leave Thomas something in their wills. ‘They lived locally and he used to visit them, right? Did you look after them as well?’

  ‘Of course. What silly sausages they were, fluttering around about how much they loved having dear Thomas visit them. They’d ring one another up and say how long Thomas had spent with them each time, as if it were a competition! So I said, one day, not really meaning it, that they should leave him something in their wills, and that’s what they did!’ She exuded satisfaction, which morphed into discontent. ‘They didn’t think of leaving me anything, the mean old things.’

  ‘Did you help them to go to sleep?’

  A shrug. ‘What if I did? They were well past their sell-by dates, and always complaining about their aches and pains. They couldn’t get a good night’s sleep on what the doctor gave them, and I had these pills by me from when another of my ladies died. It’s good to help people.’

  ‘You do it whenever you see someone in pain? Like Councillor Thornwell. I understand he was in a bad way before he died. Drink, wasn’t it?’

  Hetty sighed. ‘Poor man. The agency said he was difficult, but I never found him so. He had so many things wrong with him, diabetes, heart, liver, you name it. He’d divorced his wife when she took up with another man, and he drank so that he could forget his troubles. Then his dog had to be put down, poor thing. I told him, he should get another from the rescue place, but he didn’t feel up to it.’

  ‘Yes, someone told me he was fond of dogs.’

  ‘He had this Labrador, a beautiful dog but smelly, some stomach problem, and it was getting on, nearly eighteen, was it? Something like that. Councillor Thornwell seemed to lose the will to live after the dog died. I found him slipping into a coma twice and managed to bring him round, but I couldn’t watch him twenty-four hours a day, no one could. What with the whisky and the insulin and him getting muddled about which he’d taken …! He wasn’t in his right mind at the end, you know. That last day he asked me to bring him in a bottle of whisky, and as I came through the door he grabbed it from me and poured some out. I said it was a bit early for a drink, wasn’t it, and he said that was no business of mine and I was to get out and leave him in peace. So what was I supposed to do, eh? I left him. Of course I did. You’d have done the same. It was no skin off my nose if he tipped over into another coma and died. I never got paid for that whisky, neither.’

  ‘Didn’t you keep the receipt from the shop, and present it to the executors?’

  ‘Well, no. He’d left me a bit in his will, you see. Not a fortune, but enough to cover the cost of the drink. Remembering that, I didn’t feel I could ask for more. A sad day. Poor Councillor Thornwell. He had a nice house and all. His wife took a lot of the ornaments when they divorced and left it a bit bare, but that made it a pleasure to clean.’

  ‘A tragedy,’ said Ellie. ‘One you couldn’t have prevented.’

  ‘I defy anyone to say I could. They simply don’t know what they’re talking about.’

  ‘Who doesn’t know what they’re talking about? Someone you know?’

  Hetty said, ‘One of his old cronies. Stupid woman! Didn’t know beans! How long had I been cleaning for her? Nigh on three years. She grudged every penny she gave me. She was like that man as turned everything to gold, never getting anything new, refusing to spend any money to keep the house nice, that damp patch on the landing was a disgrace, and as for her cats, the hairs were everywhere.’

  ‘Do you mean Mrs Pullin? Was it she who accused you of helping Councillor Thornwell to an early death?’

  ‘She did so! Rang me out of the blue and said as his solicitor had asked to see her because he’d done her will only that week and he’d noticed she’d left the same amounts to Thomas and to me as Councillor Thornwell, and he wanted to be sure she knew what she was doing.’

  Ellie leaned back in her chair. So that was it! Mrs Pullin’s solicitor had compared the wording of the two wills, found identical bequests and queried it with his client.

  Hetty said, ‘I couldn’t understand what Mrs Pullin was making all that fuss about. Yes, I’d known she and Councillor Thornwell were both going to make their wills, and we’d talked about it a bit, which charities to give to, and all that. They’d both got plenty of money to give away and why shouldn’t I come in for a bit, seeing as I’d worked for them for so long? And yes, I did suggest they leave a bit to Thomas, because in those days I was completely deceived as to his character and thought he deserved a bit of good luck. More fool me! If I’d known then what I know now, I’d never had suggested he get any money from anyone. But there, that’s what happens when you’re trying to do the right thing by people.’

  Ellie felt slightly unwell. ‘Mrs Pullin asked you to call in that evening? She wanted to know why you’d suggested Thomas’s name to Councillor Thornwell and persuaded her to include both your
self and him in her will? Why did you go at that time of night? Why not wait till morning?’

  ‘I was passing her house on my way home from the church hall where I’d been helping to clean up after a children’s party. She didn’t want to wait till morning. She was that mad! Round the bend! Called me all names under the sun, saying I’d been plotting with Thomas to fleece older people and that I was a money-grubbing slut and other words which I won’t sully my mouth with repeating. She said she wanted me to know, then and there, that she was going to cancel that bit of her will the next day!’

  Ellie was surprised into a laugh. ‘She thought you and Thomas were in a plot together to …? No! Words fail me.’

  ‘Stupid cow!’ Hetty reddened. ‘I could have had her up for libel—’

  ‘Slander, not libel. Libel is written.’

  ‘But would she listen? She was screaming at me, saying I was a wicked woman! She was holding this knife because she was cutting something up for the cats, and she poked it at me, and I grabbed her arm and took it off her in self-defence, of course I did. What else was I supposed to do! The stupid creature! But that didn’t stop her! She swung her arms at me like a windmill. Then one of her dratted cats got between her feet and she fell forward on to the knife that I’d taken off her and was still holding. And that was that. It wasn’t my fault.’

  Silence. It never was Hetty’s fault, was it?

  Ellie said, ‘Was there a lot of blood?’

  Hetty nodded. ‘Some. I had to step back sharpish not to get it on me. I stood there, waiting for her to get up and apologize for the awful things she’d been saying to me, but she didn’t. She just sat there with the knife stuck in her and her holding on to it. I told her, I said that if she ever repeated that about Thomas and me again, I’d have her up in court. Then I walked out and went home. The nerve of the woman!’

  Ellie ventured. ‘You put the radio on before you left?’

  Another nod. ‘She was making silly noises, like, “Ugh, ugh!” So I said, “It serves you right,” and I put the radio on so that her next door wouldn’t hear Madam going, “Ugh, Ugh!”’

  ‘Mrs Pullin bled to death.’

  ‘Not my fault. Nothing to do with me.’

  ‘You might have saved her, if you’d got an ambulance.’

  ‘She attacked me. I didn’t know she was going to die. It was all her own fault if she did.’

  ‘I don’t get why you turned the radio on.’

  ‘I wasn’t having her repeat those sinful words of hers to her next-door neighbour. Talking about me and Thomas like that! Anyway, she usually had the radio on when she was working in the kitchen.’

  ‘The people around you are accident prone, aren’t they? Mr Harris, overdosing on painkillers, left to die in his bed. Councillor Thornwell, fuddled with lack of insulin and provided with enough whisky to see him off. Mrs Pullin, mortally wounded after a tussle with you, left to bleed to death.’

  ‘They chose their own deaths. I can’t be responsible for how they chose to die.’

  Ellie felt a surge of rage. ‘You persuaded them to leave you some money in their wills. You fed them pills they ought not to have had—’

  ‘I didn’t force them to take anything, did I?’

  ‘You knew you shouldn’t hand out pills like that! You had a tussle with Mrs Pullin which caused her to stab herself! The crux of the matter is that you left those three people to die, knowing you were going to profit by their deaths. That’s murder!’

  ‘How dare you take that tone with me!’ Hetty reddened. ‘Old people die every day. That’s what they do.’

  ‘Deaths seem to follow you around. How many more people have you conned into leaving you money, and how much have you made out of them so far?’

  ‘No business of yours!’ Hetty struggled to her feet. ‘I’ll thank you to keep your evil words to yourself, or I’ll see you in court for slander and libel or whatever it is.’

  Ellie lost it. ‘You can’t walk away from this. You’ve as good as murdered at least three people!’

  Hetty got a grip on the table and thrust up and forwards over Ellie’s lap. Crockery and cutlery crashed to the floor. Fortunately Ellie had finished her cup of coffee, but she was pinned to her chair. Helpless.

  Hetty screamed. ‘You … you filth!’ She thrust her way through the startled customers and dashed out into the street.

  Head down, almost running.

  The girl behind the counter shouted, ‘Stop! What about your takeaway?’

  A woman on the pavement side-stepped out of Hetty’s way. ‘Watch it!’

  Hetty darted into the road.

  There was a scream of brakes. A bus shuddered to a halt.

  Someone shouted, ‘No!’

  Ellie tried and failed to push the table off her. She began to shake.

  Voices, shouting. A child screamed.

  Someone wailed, ‘Oh, oh!’

  A passer-by in the street took out his phone to call for an ambulance.

  The traffic slowed to a halt, causing a honking of horns.

  Ellie closed her eyes and told herself to breathe deeply. In. Out. In and out. She didn’t know whether she hoped Hetty had survived her fall under the wheels of the double decker bus … or not. Possibly not if you judged by what people were screaming outside in the street.

  An untidy end. If it were an end.

  She wondered, if Hetty were indeed dead, who would inherit the money she’d so carefully managed to acquire.

  The verdict for Hetty would be accidental death. She’d stepped in front of the bus, without looking. The verdict would be the same for everyone else she’d helped to die. For all the people who’d left Thomas money, as well.

  Sanity would return to life. Soon.

  TWENTY-ONE

  Saturday morning

  Ellie was about to make a sandwich for lunch when the newly repaired doorbell rang. It was a subdued but lengthy ring. Almost tentative.

  Ellie had been expecting – or rather, dreading – to hear from Diana for some days. Usually Diana rang or descended on Ellie several times a week with demands for her to babysit or, worse, to help with her money situation, but there’d been neither sight nor sound of her.

  Diana usually rang with a strong, long push. A demanding, strident push, announcing that she was a busy woman and ought not to be kept waiting. So this couldn’t be her, could it?

  But it was. Diana was wearing black, as usual, but she did not look quite her normal polished self. She didn’t have either of the children with her, either. So this visit must be money matters again. Oh dear.

  Ellie said, ‘I was about to have some lunch. Would you—?’

  ‘This won’t take long.’ Diana usually stalked everywhere but this time she walked at a reasonable pace into the sitting room and stood looking out on to the garden. It was raining, but not hard. The lawn still hadn’t been mown.

  ‘Coffee?’

  A slight shrug. ‘Don’t bother. I wanted you to know. I got Evan to the doctor’s in the end. There were tests, and more tests. The upshot of it is that he’s been diagnosed with the onset of Alzheimer’s. He’s furious …!’ She laughed, a harsh sound, and put her hands over her mouth to stifle the sound.

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  Diana stiffened her shoulders. ‘I should have guessed. I did wonder, but … Anyway, it’s confirmed. There’s nothing much they can do.’

  ‘And you with two young children.’

  ‘They’ll be all right.’ A note of impatience. ‘I’m working on Evan to give me power of attorney. He tried at first to put me off, but he’s seen sense at last. We’re getting everything signed tomorrow. He’s making over the business to me, of course. I insisted on that. He hardly ever goes in nowadays, anyway. And, thanks to that odd friend of yours, Raffy or whatever he calls himself, I’ve managed to offload our option on the development down by the river, so we’re clear of debt. We’ll manage.’

  Ellie withheld a sigh. Diana had a history of making bad business
decisions but she did seem to be doing the best for the family in the present circumstances.

  Ellie said, ‘I am so very sorry.’

  Diana said, ‘I’ve made my bed and must lie on it. Isn’t that what you’re always telling me? You warned me about marrying Evan but I went ahead and did it, anyway. You thought I was marrying him just for his money and there was that, of course. But also, I’m fond of him, and respect him … Or rather, I used to, but now … He has temper tantrums, like a two-year-old. I do worry about him. It hurts to see him fumbling for words and forgetting …’ She stopped and put her hand over her eyes for a moment. ‘Go on. Laugh, why don’t you? Me, the Iron Maiden, weeping over a man.’

  Ellie marvelled. Was Diana really crying for her husband?

  Ellie lifted her hand to place it on her daughter’s shoulder, and then let it drop. Diana did not like to be touched.

  Diana rolled her shoulders to release tension. ‘They say it can take years to develop or take you over like a galloping horse. This is the galloping kind. I will not shove him into a home. I will not have the children distressed. I’m thinking of employing a couple to live in and look after him when I’m at work, because I will have to continue working.’

  Ellie was cautiously approving. ‘That seems like an excellent idea.’

  ‘But expensive. Which is why I came. The trust owns the house, right? I’ve been looking into the accounts and I can’t see that Evan has been paying rent for the last couple of years, even though he’s supposed to have done so. You may say I should downsize, but if I do, I wouldn’t be able to offer free accommodation to the carers whom we are going to need and I would have to stay at home to look after him and the children, which means there’d be no money coming in.’

  Monique had known Evan hadn’t been paying rent, and she hadn’t left instructions to sell the house over his head. So Monique had still had a soft spot for her ex-husband? Which meant that Ellie had some leeway in this matter?

  Diana said, ‘Do you think you could see your way to cancelling the arrears? If so, I am hopeful I can manage the rent in future.’