Murder In Law

by Veronica Heley

  Susan stared into space. ‘Good. Yes, that’s good. I was just thinking about what Diana did yesterday. She arrived here expecting to leave Jenny and a whole lot of stuff for the children with Ellie. When she heard Ellie was still away and I refused to give her a key to next door, she decided to leave Jenny and the children’s things with me. She didn’t leave any of her own things with me. What did you say she took from her bedroom? I got the impression it wasn’t much. Surely she must have packed a bag of clothes for herself?’

  Rafael said, ‘I don’t get it. Does it matter what she took?’

  Susan reddened. ‘Um, probably not. Forget I said anything.’

  Lesley said, ‘Ellie told me you had a good brain, Susan. She said you worked things out by thinking about how people are. So what’s wrong with Diana not packing much for herself?’

  ‘Because she’s always perfectly dressed and made up. She’s a businesswoman, always on parade. I would have expected her to pack not only toiletries and make-up but several changes of underwear, and at least one business suit, with shoes and jackets, another handbag, a whole lot of stuff. She’d need at least one good suitcase, if not more. She announced her intention of taking herself and the children to Ellie’s but she knew the house had been uninhabitable for months and she hadn’t kept any of her belongings there, had she? She packed up several bags of things for the children but what did she take for herself?’

  Lesley looked annoyed. ‘I’ll check. She probably meant to return home later to collect some things for herself.’ Lesley got through on the phone to the detective constable who’d been on duty at the house the previous day and exchanged a few sharp words. What she heard didn’t improve her mood. ‘The detective constable says Diana changed her skirt, washed her hands, picked up her jewellery box, and … that’s all. And no, she didn’t return home to collect anything else.’

  Susan said, ‘No toiletries? No business gear? I don’t get it. Another thing – when she found out her mother couldn’t take them in and dumped Jenny on us, why didn’t she ask us to give her a bed? Had she, perhaps, some other venue in mind?’

  Rafael snapped his fingers. ‘She planned to move in with her lover?’

  Susan frowned. ‘Yes, maybe that’s what she hoped to do, but it’s not what she ended up doing, was it? She might have tried him, but in the end I think she did exactly what she said she’d do in the first place, which was to move into her mother’s house … except she didn’t pack any toiletries for herself. I don’t get it.’

  Lesley said, ‘She didn’t have keys to next door, and you didn’t give her any. I suppose I’d better check to see if she broke in, and if she’s still there. How frustrating. I really do need to speak to her again.’

  She started to leave the room, but Susan called out after her. ‘I need to get some more things for the children from their house. Is that all right? Will you tell whoever’s guarding the premises to let me in?’

  Lesley’s voice floated back. ‘I think Forensics have finished. I’ll check. It should be all right if you only take stuff from the top floor. We’ll need a receipt, of course. I’ll check out next door first and I’ll meet you there.’

  Jenny hit Rafael in an effort to attract his attention. ‘U-oh! U-oh! Play horsies!’

  Rafael had had enough. He heaved himself to his feet and deposited the child into Coralie’s arms. ‘I’ll leave you to the joys of domesticity while I get on with some real work. After I’ve dealt with the lift I’ll work from my office at the flats to see if I can find out who’s been giving Diana a good time. Also, I know someone at the golf club who can tell me if Evan’s been indulging in any hanky-panky recently. I don’t really buy the “random intruders being disturbed” theory, do you?’

  He slid out of the room leaving them, literally, holding the baby.

  Susan and Coralie looked at one another, raised their eyes to heaven and said, ‘Men!’

  Susan said, ‘Coralie, can you keep your mouth shut? If a story about cheating wives and slaughtered husbands hits the media, you might well find yourself offered money for information. Diana probably deserves everything that’s coming to her, but I’d like to protect her children. If you feel it’s going to make life awkward for you, then I’d understand if you wanted to follow my husband out of the door.’

  ‘I’m like me dad. The things he’s seen and heard …! But he don’t talk about it none. I can keep me mouth shut if I think it’s the right thing to do. These kids need me and so do you, by the look of it. How far gone are you?’

  Susan was touched by Coralie’s concern. So touched, in fact, that she had to brush tears from her cheeks. ‘Three months, I think. I wasn’t sure at first and I didn’t bother to have a test because so much was going on, what with the move here and everything. Rafael doesn’t know. He didn’t want us to have another so soon. And now, all this …’

  ‘No more picking up that great lump of a boy, then. You put your feet up when you feel like it, right? Now, I’ll help you out over the weekend and as for next week, I’m sixteen and a half and I was going to leave school at the end of this term to train to be a nanny, anyway. So you’d be doing me a favour, like, giving me some practical experience.’

  Susan said, weakly, ‘You’re an awful bossy boots, Coralie.’

  ‘Just what you need at the moment. I said to my mum last night, I said that Susan needs to be careful or she’ll drop the sprog early, and my mum, she’s a midwife, she said as I oughter see you over this rough bit but she says she expects me back home every evening for a meal, so’s she can check I’m not overdoing it. If that’s all right with you?’

  That was a very sensible suggestion. It had occurred to Susan the moment Coralie had walked in that morning, that it would be wonderful to have her full-time and able to stay overnight … until cold reason had intervened.

  Coralie was too young to live in, and in any case, they had no spare bedroom in which to put her, unless … For all of five seconds Susan fantasized about offering Coralie one of the empty, unfurnished rooms in the attic at the top of the house, but then she recalled what they looked like. Putting a new water tank and electrics in had been a major project. Rafael had planned to fit the rooms out eventually to accommodate a lodger, or an expanded family … but not yet.

  ‘You are amazing. Coralie, I accept with gratitude and we’ll pay you the full rate for a nanny. Have you any idea what we do about young Lucia?’

  ‘Hardly out of nappies herself, is she? Her clothes are dried nicely, and when she’s washed her hair and got herself dressed, she’ll feel a lot better. Now, I’ll get Lucia to help me look after her two while you rescue a highchair and a small bed for Evan and some other stuff from their house. We could do with a second buggy as well. And see if Evan has a scooter. They all seem to have them nowadays and it makes walking with them a lot easier.’

  ‘I think he has a scooter and a bike.’ Susan busied herself making a list of what they needed.

  ‘And don’t you worry none about Lucia. I’ll straighten her out and stop her making a fool of herself with the press. She needs to know she can’t talk to them and expect to get another job in our line of business. Now you’d better get moving or we’ll never get sorted by lunchtime.’ She picked Jenny up. ‘Pooh, you pong. Come along, now. Let’s get you cleaned up. You’re a big girl now, and should be in grown-up pants instead of nappies, don’t you think?’

  Coralie whisked Jenny off, talking to her about how nice it would be to wear pretty pants instead of nappies.

  Fifi snuggled into Susan’s arm. She was sleepy, due for her morning nap. She had curled her fingers round one of Evan’s, and he was leaning close to her but looking back at Coralie with a speculative glint in his eye. Did he think he might play Coralie off against Lucia?

  Susan said, ‘Now, Evan. Coralie’s a proper nanny, right? You do what she says and you’ll be safe with her while I go to find Hippo, right?’

  He thought about that. He was no fool, was Little Evan. Yes, he recogn
ized that he’d be safe with Coralie. He nodded.

  Susan hoisted herself to her feet with Fifi in her arms, feeling the awkwardness in her body for the first time. She was going to show her pregnancy this time earlier than she had with Fifi, wasn’t she? ‘Time for her morning nap. Evan, would you like to help me tuck her in?’

  Susan imagined Ellie standing behind her, nodding and smiling. Ellie and Coralie would get on like a house on fire. Ellie would let Coralie get on with whatever she wanted to do, and Ellie would only have to put in a word now and then – as a suggestion and not an order – and Coralie would know instinctively not to overstep the mark.

  Peace and joy would reign.

  Susan also knew that Ellie would be giving thanks at this point for answered prayer. Susan said aloud, ‘I don’t know if I really believe, deep down. But … Well, thanks, anyway.’

  Legally, Susan was able to drive their big car. She’d passed her test months ago and been added to Rafael’s insurance, but she had hardly taken it out since. After Fifi had been born Susan had decided it was better for mother and child to go for a walk with the buggy round the park or to the shops, rather than be stuck in the back of a car in a traffic jam. In short, Susan had flunked it.

  But needs must. Not without a qualm, Susan left Fifi and Diana’s children in Coralie’s hands and set off for Evan’s house. She’d taken Fifi’s baby seat out of the back of the car to provide more room for the equipment she planned to bring back, but now she wondered if she ought to have organized a removal van as well. How big was Evan’s own bed? What did Jenny sleep in? A cot?

  She missed Fifi’s presence. Fifi was basking in Coralie’s affection. Susan told herself she didn’t hate Coralie. It was just that she, Susan, missed being away from Fifi. It was the first time they’d been parted. Susan knew it was a necessary part of Fifi’s growing up process to have periods of separation. This was why mothers played ‘Peep-bo!’ with their children. Fifi would be perfectly all right with Coralie. Of course she would.

  Susan drove sedately. Or that’s what she told herself. She was only honked at twice for driving slowly.

  When she got to Evan’s house she drew up outside in the road, as there seemed to be a large number of cars in the drive. She recognized Lesley’s car, but Diana’s didn’t appear to be there.

  Susan got out of the car, explained to a PC on duty who she was and that she was expected, was told to wait there … until Lesley came out, saying, ‘You’re right. There’s a pane missing from the kitchen door at Ellie’s. Anyone could put their hand through and turn the key to let them in. Someone stayed overnight, but whoever it was had fled the coop before I arrived. I’ve put out an all-points bulletin for Diana. Meantime, you can come in. I’ll go round with you to see what you’d like to take for the children.’

  Lesley hesitated. ‘Ellie did say I should let you have a look around, that you might notice something I haven’t.’ A light laugh. ‘Ellie gets these ideas in her head. The house has been photographed from top to bottom. Forensics have been and gone. I’m taking you in through the front door because … I suppose you might see something which strikes you as not quite right. If you do, you’re at liberty to say so. You don’t mind a spot of blood here or there, do you?’

  Susan shook her head and told her stomach to behave.

  Lesley led the way into the house. ‘The place is as the occupants left it, and at first sight it’s telling me the same story that Diana gave us, that this was a break-in that went wrong. My instinct tells me it’s nothing of the kind. I’m going to talk through what I think happened. Right?’

  Susan nodded. She looked round the hall, and shuddered. There were dark splodges on the parquet floor and the panelled walls. There were drifts of grey powder where Forensics had been dusting for fingerprints. Evan’s empty wheelchair lay at the foot of the stairs.

  Lesley said, ‘Yes, it looks exactly as it should if Evan was attacked when he interrupted a burglary. He fought, they whacked him about and left him for dead. Everything I see on the ground floor bears this out. Look, this is where Evan was sleeping when the action started.’ She led the way into the big room on the left overlooking the drive.

  No blood splotches, a few patches of grey powder. No signs of struggle. This was a room which had been occupied by an invalid. There was a hospital-type bed and all the paraphernalia of a sick room: an angled lamp and a hand bell; a paperback; some medication; spectacles; a box of tissues; a water jug and a couple of empty glasses on the bedside table. A huge television set sat smugly in the bay window. The remote control for the television was lying in the clutter on the bedside table. A man’s clothing had been thrown carelessly over a chair nearby, and the previous day’s newspapers lay in a heap on the floor.

  Susan took a step to one side and accidentally disturbed the top layer of the newspapers, revealing the existence of a laptop.

  Lesley picked it up, looking annoyed. ‘That should have been taken in for examination with the one we found in the snug opposite. I suppose this was his, and she’d left hers next door. I’ll put it in an evidence bag and leave it in the hall.’

  Susan turned round, careful not to disturb anything else. There were venetian blinds at the window, and the floor was laid with a substance which would make it easy to move around in a wheelchair. All very clinical.

  Lesley said, ‘You see the bedclothes have been thrown back. It looks as though he undressed, got into bed, read for a while or watched the telly, turned off the light and settled down to sleep. Agreed?’

  Susan said, ‘Was he wearing pyjamas when the ambulance men found him? I mean, he hadn’t got up and got dressed for the morning?’

  ‘No, he hadn’t. He was in his night gear when they found him. It looks as if something disturbed him in the night, he turned on his bedside light and threw back the duvet. Getting into his wheelchair he pushed back the bedside table, disturbing the papers so that they fell on the floor covering the laptop. He then went out into the hall to see what was going on.’

  ‘This was during the night and not early morning? Were the venetian blinds closed or open? They’re open now.’

  ‘They were closed when the police arrived in response to Diana’s call. They were reopened after the photographer had finished in here. Yes, his bedside light was on. The blinds were also closed in the snug opposite. Let’s go across there now, shall we?’

  Lesley led the way. ‘We found a torch in the hall, left behind by the intruders. It had been covered with tape, won’t take fingerprints. It looks as though the intruders brought torches with them in order to find their way around a darkened house in the middle of the night. They came and left by the kitchen quarters, by the way. Diana says she came down the stairs to make her husband’s breakfast at nine o’clock, saw her husband lying on the floor in the hall and phoned it in. She says she didn’t touch anything else, not even the light switches.’

  Susan turned to look back into Evan’s bedroom. ‘Hang about. I believe Evan was something of a control freak. He wouldn’t have gone to bed without having his smartphone within reach. He’d have felt naked without it. And I’ll bet you anything you like that there was whisky in one of those cut-glass tumblers on his bedside table.’

  ‘Correct on both counts. Ellie always said he drank too much. As for his smartphone, we found it under a chair in the hall. He’d taken it with him when he left the room, but hadn’t been given a chance to use it.’ She went on: ‘His golf clubs are kept in the hall stand and it looks as if he armed himself with one of them on his way to the snug which is where we think he found the intruders. Now, come and look at this.’

  The room on the opposite side of the hall contained a large TV, an expensive sound system, comfortable chairs, a low coffee table and a well-stocked bar.

  Lesley said, ‘It seems he pretty well lived in those two rooms with forays to the kitchen at the end of the hall and to the downstairs cloakroom.’

  This room was a shambles, furniture had been overturned and bo
ttles smashed. Broken glass glistened on the carpet. There were dark blood stains everywhere. Two pictures had been taken off the wall and left propped against a chair.

  Susan looked at those two pictures. ‘They took those off the wall and carefully laid them aside. Presumably they did that before Evan came upon the scene. They were looking for a safe?’

  ‘The safe is actually behind some panelling in the hall and they didn’t find it. Diana is desperate to get into it. She says that she urgently needs her passport for work purposes.’

  ‘Surely she’s not serious about asking for her passport at the moment? Didn’t you say she was after some documents as well? What would they be?’

  ‘We’ll find out as soon as we can get into the safe. She refused to give us the code but we’ll get an expert to open it for us.’ Lesley led the way back to the hall. ‘We found Evan’s wheelchair more or less where you see it at the bottom of the stairs. It had been overturned, with him still in it. One of his golf clubs was lying nearby. It was bloodstained, so he’d obviously used it on at least one of the intruders. He himself had been knifed and hit with a blunt instrument – possibly by his own golf club, though we won’t be sure of that till later.

  ‘Further along the hall …’ She led the way. ‘Dining room on the right, undisturbed. And then …’ Lesley opened the door to a small room which had obviously been used as a study, with desktop computer, printer, et cetera. ‘Diana’s domain, we assume. Equally undisturbed. Then there’s a toilet and shower … and finally we come to the kitchen quarters.’

  An unobtrusive door let them into a small lobby leading to what had once been servants’ quarters. On the right there was a glass-panelled door which allowed them to see into the kitchen. To the left was a narrow stair which led up and up, out of sight. Tucked to one side by the back stairs was a small bike with stabilizers, a scooter and a child’s pushchair. Beyond was a substantial door which must lead to the outside world.