Murder In Law

by Veronica Heley

  By which Susan understood that Lesley thought there was something on Diana’s laptop which was not business, and that if it had been found in Evan’s bedroom then it followed that it was he who had taken it there. If Evan had been snooping on his wife’s laptop, then maybe he had some reason to do so. What might that ‘something’ be? Emails to her staff and prospective buyers? Or perhaps some emails which were not of a business nature?

  Diana was defiant. ‘My laptop is password protected.’

  ‘Then perhaps you will be so good as to give me your password. We have people who can always work it out, you know. But the sooner we can read your emails the sooner we can clear you of—’

  ‘Of what?’ Diana sneered.

  ‘It’s standard procedure. We have to clear you of any interest in your husband’s death.’

  Diana managed a harsh laugh, but her eyes switched to and fro.

  Lesley produced her best imitation of a crocodile. ‘I expect you wrote the password down in your diary, or on a calendar. People have to remember so many passwords nowadays that they have to keep a note of them somewhere.’

  Diana blenched. Clearly, Lesley’s words had hit home. She said, through her teeth, ‘Look all you like. I have a business appointment in town at noon and can’t hang around here watching you playing games.’

  Susan suppressed a giggle, but Diana must have seen some movement on the stairs for she looked up to see who was watching her from above. Susan had been rather enjoying the scene until Diana turned on her, too.

  ‘And what, may I ask, is Susan doing here? Who’s looking after my children if she’s running around, hanging on to your coat-tails?’

  Susan gasped. ‘You horrible woman! If you must know, I came to collect some things your children desperately need. They are being properly looked after, which is more than I can say for the way you handled them, dumping them on me without checking whether I had beds for Jenny and Evan, who’s missing his Hippo. He wet the bed last night, and you haven’t even asked how they are!’

  Diana’s eyes switched left and right. ‘Of course I care about them. But I can’t have them with me for the moment. You’ll have to look after them for a while.’

  Susan told herself to breathe deeply. ‘Have I your permission to take their things from here and hold them till you are able to take the children again? I need all sorts of things, including Evan’s bed and Jenny’s highchair and buggy. Everything they might need. I’ll give you a receipt for what I take.’

  Diana bit her lip. ‘I suppose that’s reasonable. Yes, go ahead. I know where you live.’

  Lesley leaped on this. ‘Diana, you are officially giving Susan permission to take the children’s belongings? Their beds, toys, everything that belongs to them?’

  ‘I said so, didn’t I? I suppose it’s marginally better she looks after the kids than handing them over to Social Services.’ In the tone of one choosing which filling she’d like on her pizza, she said, ‘You can give them a kiss from me.’

  Susan rolled her eyes, but kept quiet.

  Lesley tried to resume control of the proceedings. ‘Well, now that’s settled, Diana, I’d like you to come down to the station and talk through one or two details of the statement you made yesterday. I must warn you that we have located and spoken to your nanny, who has told us an interesting story about you meeting a man—’

  ‘Did she tell you that I’d sacked her for misconduct? No, she wouldn’t tell you that, would she! She was always rubbing herself up against Evan and using baby talk! Ugh! And he? He ought to have known better. He was deteriorating from day to day but he still encouraged her to come on to him. She was such a lazy cow, she neglected the children and expected me not to notice their clothes were food-stained and their hair and teeth not brushed.

  ‘I told her, oh yes! I warned her. Twice I told her she had to mend her ways, but would she listen? No way. She said I was a jealous cow and that Evan would stand up for her. I should have sacked her there and then, but I was booked to go to a conference overnight so I left it till my return.’

  ‘What conference?’ said Lesley. ‘This is the first I’ve heard of—’

  Diana ploughed straight on. ‘And what happened? Did she listen out for the children? If she had been, she’d have phoned the police and they’d have arrested the burglars before Evan … No, it doesn’t bear thinking about!’

  ‘She says she saw—’

  ‘You can’t believe a word she says. She hasn’t told you I’d given her a final warning to leave, has she? No, of course not. And you fell for it! Did she tell you she wanted me to pay her off in return for forgetting she’d seen me being dropped off by a friend after a conference out of town? No, she didn’t, did she? He’s a work colleague, by the way. He happened to offer me a lift to and from the conference. He’s a useful contact, but nothing more than a friend. Well, that was the last straw. Yes, I gave her the sack. Of course I did. What would you have done in my place?’

  Susan was shaken. Could it be that Diana was right about Lucia?

  Diana sounded so convincing! But …

  Lesley frowned. ‘So you admit you weren’t here last night. I’d like this friend’s name and where I can contact him.’

  ‘Certainly not. I won’t have my friends treated as if they were criminals.’ Diana clearly felt this was a winning move. Her colour returned to something resembling normal. ‘I’ve heard of police brutality and this is the outside of enough. My husband is dead and I have to keep the show on the road. I need my laptop. I have work to do, even if you haven’t.’

  ‘I can always arrest you for obstructing police enquiries.’ Lesley had begun to lose it.

  ‘Instead of trying to track down the men who murdered my husband, you steal my property and intend to constrain my freedom of movement? I don’t think so.’

  Between gritted teeth, Lesley continued, ‘Would you prefer to be taken down to the station in handcuffs?’

  ‘Is that a threat? Well, you may force me to go with you to the station but I can tell you here and now that I’m not saying another word till my solicitor is with me. You know the man I mean, don’t you? My mother’s solicitor. He’s the best.’

  Lesley bit the words off. ‘I know his reputation. Are you sure he’ll act for you? Have you asked your mother if she’ll foot the bill?’

  ‘What’s that to you?’

  There was a ring on the doorbell, and the detective constable went to see who was calling. There was a whispered exchange with Lesley, and in strolled … Rafael, carrying an official-looking envelope.

  Susan blinked. What was he doing here? He moved into the pool of light cast from the window on the floor above. It silhouetted him against the panelling. Rafael was wearing black leathers so he must have come on his motorbike. Susan thought he looked like an eagle. A handsome eagle, but one whose eyes had locked on to its prey. His prey was Diana, whom he’d never liked and whose treatment of her mother had frequently made him angry on her behalf.

  His eyes flickered up to Susan, acknowledging her presence. For a second his expression relaxed only to harden as he turned on Diana. His manner was dispassionate. He was ice cold.

  Susan shivered, deliciously. She knew of her husband’s reputation as a shrewd business operator but she hadn’t seen that side of him before. She was about to see him in action. Hooray!

  Diana lost a fraction of her defiant attitude. ‘You? What are you doing here?’

  ‘Looking for you,’ said Rafael. ‘Your office said you’d been in but left to deal with some important matter. I hoped I’d find you here …’ He handed her an envelope. ‘This is a formal notice of eviction from this property.’

  Diana gasped. ‘You can’t do that! Now Evan’s dead this is my house!’

  ‘No, it isn’t. As you very well know, this house is owned by the trust fund which your mother founded. Evan rented it from the trust. No rent has been received for some five and a half months, so the trust has every right to serve you with a notice of eviction
.’

  Diana tore the papers into small pieces and threw them at Rafael. ‘What nonsense! How dare you! My mother would never evict me.’

  ‘She is not here. The general manager and the finance director of the trust convened a meeting of the trust this morning. They considered the records and decided that, as Evan had failed to respond to no less than four reminders about non-payment of rent, the trust needs to take steps to evict him.’

  Diana lost none of her bravado. ‘How dare you! With my husband not yet in his grave! How heartless is that! How could you possibly threaten a poor widow and her children with eviction at this time! I’ll go to the newspapers! They’ll take my side and your name will be mud!’

  ‘The trust is giving you thirty days to get out. The courts might give you another thirty days, but in the end you will have to vacate the premises. Even you cannot expect to occupy a house without paying for it.’

  ‘You haven’t dared to run this by my mother. She’ll not see me thrown out of my family home.’

  Rafael suppressed a smile. ‘Your mother is unlikely to oppose the wishes of her general manager.’

  This was hitting below the belt. Diana had once been married to the man who was now the trust’s general manager. During the course of their marriage Diana had systematically reduced a decent, hardworking man to a quivering wreck. With Ellie’s help, he’d rebuilt his life. His second marriage had been happy and he was an outstandingly successful general manager of Ellie’s trust. Although he had a reputation for fair-mindedness, Diana understood that in this matter he would not take her side.

  Diana staggered. She clutched at the newel post at the bottom of the stairs. ‘I’ll give you a cheque now for half of whatever’s owing. I’ll give you the rest at the end of the month. You can’t turn us out.’

  ‘The trust will be happy to receive some back rent from you. But the eviction order stands.’

  ‘You bastard! I’ll have you for this! I know what you are! A worm feeding off the carcass of the dead! A criminal who swindled his way into the property of a dead man! A womanizer who only married that fat slob Susan because she was Ellie’s favourite! And little do you know what she’s been up to behind your back!’

  Susan yelled, ‘How dare you!’ She plunged down the stairs and would have attacked Diana if Rafael hadn’t managed to step between them and envelop his wife in his arms. She struggled to release herself, but he lifted her off the floor and swung her away.

  Lesley tried not to laugh. ‘That’s enough!’

  Diana took a hasty step back. She teetered on high heels and fell to the ground. Awkwardly. She screeched. ‘She assaulted me! I’ll sue her for assault!’

  ‘Steady!’ said Rafael to a struggling Susan. ‘Susan, don’t give her the satisfaction of suing you for assault! I cherish your defence of me, my sweet, but I think you’d better calm down.’

  Lesley said, ‘She didn’t push you, Diana, and the only slanderous words I heard were those you uttered about Rafael.’

  ‘You!’ Diana swung on the detective constable. ‘You heard her defame me!’

  ‘I heard you slander this man here,’ said the DC, poker-faced. ‘You said something nasty about his wife, too.’

  Rafael set Susan on her own feet but retained his hold of her. He looked amused. ‘Well, Susan. Have you really been playing away? Am I not man enough for you?’

  Susan crumpled against him. ‘Oh, of course you are. How could she even think …! And it’s no use saying she didn’t mean it, because she did. She spreads fear and hatred wherever she goes. She’s horrible to Ellie, and she doesn’t give a damn about her children, and she’s going to walk away from this just like she always does, leaving someone else to clear up after her! And what she said about you is not true, either!’

  Rafael looked at Susan with something like a guilty plea in his eyes. ‘And you’ll never bring my spotty past up against me again? I promised you I’d go straight and I have.’

  ‘Yes, of course you have.’ Susan wanted to kick him. Hard. She wanted to throw him down on the floor and have her wicked way with him. She was sulky and cross and weepy and she wanted reassurance that he didn’t think she was a fat slob and that he’d only married her because Ellie was fond of her.

  The landline phone rang. Or was it someone’s mobile?

  Susan dived for her pocket, as did Rafael … as did Lesley and the DC. It was Susan’s phone which was ringing. And then Lesley’s. Both answered.

  EIGHT

  Saturday late morning

  Lesley said, ‘What! Who …?’ She strode up and down the hall, listening to somebody on the phone who was telling her something she didn’t want to hear.

  Susan’s mobile said, ‘It’s Coralie here.’

  Who was Coralie?

  Oh, of course. Coralie. Back at the house. Looking after Lucia and the children. ‘Yes, Coralie?’

  There was a commotion in the hall. Lesley shouted, ‘Stop her!’

  Diana had taken advantage of the confusion to slip past the detective constable and disappear out of the front door. They heard her car rev up and thunder out on to the road before anyone could catch her.

  Susan held her phone close to her ear. ‘Can you repeat that, Coralie?’

  Coralie did.

  ‘Oh,’ said Susan. ‘Yes, I can see she would want her money but I’m at Diana’s house now, collecting stuff for the children. I’ll get back as soon as I can.’ She switched off.

  Rafael raised an eyebrow. ‘We have another visitor?’

  ‘Someone who wanted to ask Ellie for the money Diana owed her, but of course there’s no one there so she knocked on our door and Coralie—’

  ‘Coralie invited her in and pried all her secrets out of her. Coralie is enjoying this.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Susan, with doubt in her voice. ‘This is getting messy and she’s very young.’

  Rafael turned Susan towards the stairs. ‘Let’s fetch the kids’ stuff and get out of here.’ When he saw what needed to be collected, he took charge. ‘We’ll put a few things in your car and I’ll organize a van to get the rest.’

  He helped Susan make a list for Lesley of everything they were taking and decided what could go in the car and what would have to wait for a removal van.

  Susan quailed at the thought of driving such a heavily laden car home but Rafael couldn’t do it as he’d come on his motorbike.

  Susan had been badly shaken by the encounter with Diana. She told herself not to think about it for the moment. Concentrate, woman! It was good for her to have to drive the car. She could manage it if she kept calm. Of course she could. Even in bright sunshine which got into her eyes. And no, she hadn’t her sunglasses with her.

  She set off in sedate fashion. She told herself that millions of women drove large cars every day and managed it. Providing, of course, that they didn’t have to park in a space too small for their juggernauts. All she had to do was to drive along a couple of quiet roads, turn left into their road, left again into their driveway, and park as near to their front door as was feasible … and if it was at an angle, well, she should be congratulated at having got there at all, right?

  The plumber’s van was parked at Ellie’s front door. Well, hooray. At last he could fix that water leak in Ellie’s en suite.

  The sun shone brightly and there was a slight breeze. A perfect day for moving house.

  Coralie and a strange woman with frizzy orange hair shot out of the house with Lucia and formed a chain to unload the children’s things from the car.

  Coralie plucked the first bag out, threw it to the stranger, who handed it to the drippy Lucia, who dumped it in the hall. Coralie would make an excellent policewoman on demo duty, or a sergeant in the army. Coralie was just too efficient for words while Susan felt like a squashed tomato, or something that been run over by a bus.

  ‘Brilliant!’ cried Coralie, extracting the last of the equipment – Jenny’s buggy – from the boot of the car, and slamming the hood down. ‘Now we can ge
t organized. Lucia, tuck the buggy under the stairs out of the way. Marcy, this is Susan, the boss, who you wanted to talk to. Lucia, take that bag of children’s clothes upstairs, will you? I’ll help you sort it when we’ve fed our faces.’

  The woman with the dyed frizzy hair was called Marcy? She looked as if she’d had a rough life and mostly come out on top. Supermarket till operator? Ah-ha! Cleaner to Diana?

  Marcy nodded to Susan. ‘Marcy. Short for Marcia. Dunno what Mum were thinking of to call me by that poncy name, but there, we all have our cross to bear, don’t we?’

  The children bounced around, hyper at having their bits and pieces restored to them. Susan plucked Fifi from her buggy and cradled her. How she’d missed her baby! Fifi crowed, delighted to be back in her mother’s arms where she belonged. ‘Um, um, um!’ she said. Which was short for ‘Mum’?

  Coralie reported. ‘Fifi would not go to sleep, so Evan kept her amused by playing with her. Jenny’s been as good as gold, haven’t you, my pet?’

  ‘Cuckoo, cuckoo?’ said Jenny, who had pressed herself to the glass front door, looking out for Rafael.

  Susan fished the cross and chain out of her pocket and handed it to Lucia, who burst into tears and kissed it before hanging it around her neck. The girl was looking much better. She’d washed her hair and was wearing a decent T-shirt and jeans.

  Susan gave Evan his horrible Hippo, which he immediately held up to Fifi … who smelled it and crowed. What those two bright children could see in that repulsive soft toy, Susan failed to understand.

  Susan gave Jenny her tablet. This distracted her nicely. She stopped looking for Rafael and toddled off to play with it in a quiet corner of the big room.

  Coralie and Marcy put Jenny’s highchair together in the kitchen while Lucia hovered, trying and failing to lay the table for lunch. Coralie told Susan to sit down and give Fifi her bottle. Susan tried to resent this. Who was the boss in this house, pray? Her or Coralie?

  ‘You look tired,’ said Coralie to Susan. Naturally this made Susan feel more tired than ever. So she did as she was told.