Murder In Law

by Veronica Heley

  Marcy laid about Lucia with a tea towel. ‘Leave setting the table to me. Go and make yourself useful for once. Get those children to go to the loo and to wash their hands before they come to the table, right?’

  Coralie bustled about. ‘Pasta with cheese sauce, frozen peas and sweetcorn for the little ones. Pizza for us, and a nice hot cuppa for afters.’

  Marcy rattled cutlery on to the table, ‘Ellie said as you was a good mother, Susan, and I can see you are.’

  Susan worked out the connection. ‘You got work with Diana through a local domestic agency? You knew Ellie because you’ve cleaned for her at some point in the past. You thought she’d be back by now, so you came round to see if she’d get you the money Diana owed you?’

  ‘I did, but she wasn’t there and the plumber said I should try next door which is how I met young Coralie here, and she told me about Mrs Di dumping her kids and their nanny on you. That poor kid, Lucia, she didn’t know nothing when she come to this country and she don’t know much now. The little ones put up with her and she didn’t make no trouble except she did make eyes at Mister, oh yes, she did that all right, thinking he’d stand up for her to Mrs Di, which was not going to happen. Anyone could see that but her. I tried to tell her but some people don’t like being told, do they?’

  Lucia led the two older children in. The children looked clean and were ready for food. Marcy and Coralie got them seated at the table, while Lucia hovered in helpless fashion. Two competent nannies and one learner.

  Coralie served hot pizza for the grown-ups. She cut off a wedge and put it on a plate at Susan’s elbow, while she and Marcy oversaw the children’s lunch, wiped up stray bits of food and spills of juice, managing to eat themselves and to talk at the same time. Multitasking par excellence.

  Marcy said, ‘It’s like this. I went to Mrs Di from the agency for a couple of hours a week at first. Then he, the Mister, got worse and she was working all hours – or out all hours, anyway – and she said she’d pay me direct if I left the agency and went to her every day because her husband needed everything doing for him and Lucia here was not going into a sick room, she wasn’t paid for that, was she?’

  Lucia bubbled with indignation. ‘No, never!’

  Marcy nodded. ‘Well, you did have your hands full with the two children. So I said I didn’t mind if I did and it was fine at first. I turned up about half nine, sometimes later, Monday to Friday, put in four hours most days, sometimes five. I did the shopping and the cooking and the laundry and seeing to Mister when he rang that dratted bell that he had in the front room. I left Mrs Di a note of what hours I’d put in, and she’d leave me my money in the kitchen every Friday. I didn’t do weekends, not with my family needing me then, you see?’

  ‘I do,’ said Susan. ‘I bet you charged less than agency staff and did a better job of it.’

  Marcy patted her hair. ‘That’s not for me to say, but yes, that’s about right. It was more convenient as I didn’t have to use up time travelling to and fro between jobs, and I kept me mouth shut about what I saw and heard.’

  ‘I’m fascinated,’ said Susan, burping Fifi and then giving her some of the pureed goo which Coralie had warmed up for her. Whatever it was, Fifi liked it.

  Marcy rolled her eyes at the children. ‘Little pitchers have big ears. Let’s send them into the big room to play, shall we? Lucia, you can put the telly on for a bit to keep them happy. We’ll take them out to the park later on.’ She wiped Evan’s hands and mouth and set him down on the floor. ‘Off you go, little man.’

  Jenny said, ‘Cuckoo?’ and lurched towards the front door, but went willingly enough when Lucia took her hand and led her away.

  Marcy switched the kettle on. Coralie swiped everything off the table and into the dishwasher. Fifi dozed off in Susan’s arms.

  Coralie said, ‘Shall I put her in the buggy for a nap?’

  Susan didn’t really want to let go of Fifi, but she knew it was the right thing to do. Susan found a tissue, blew her nose and gratefully accepted a mug of tea laced with sugar. And a chocolate biscuit.

  Marcy watched Susan, sipping her mug of tea as it went down. Susan realized she was being judged and tried not to squirm.

  The sun had moved round and shone full into the kitchen. They really must get a blind for that window.

  Marcy said, ‘Ah, there’s nothing like a good cup of Yorkshire tea.’

  Coralie nodded, drew up a chair and crunched on a biscuit.

  Marcy said, ‘This is a nice, quiet house. Yon Fifi’s a happy soul. Yours is a good man, Susan, I can tell. Same as Ellie’s.’ She drained her mug and looked into it.

  Coralie grinned. ‘Don’t tell me you read the tea leaves.’

  Marcy laughed. ‘Not since they changed to tea bags, no.’ She sat with her legs spread out, capable hands folded on the table before her. ‘Well, Susan, the thing is, Coralie told me you’d see me right if I was straight with you, but I have to tell you, I won’t go to the cops.’

  Susan watched Marcy as Marcy watched her. Susan thought about the way Diana bulldozed her way through life. ‘Diana threatened you with some lie or other to make you keep your mouth shut?’

  Marcy nodded. ‘Ah, Coralie said as you weren’t as green as you looked.’

  ‘Par for the course,’ said Susan, who was still wincing about being called a fat slob, and worried about what Diana had alleged that Rafael had done. Yes, he had waltzed round the edges of the law a couple of times before he met her, but she’d believed him when he’d said he wouldn’t do it again. Besides which, he was lily-white compared to some of the business deals Diana was said to have done! Wasn’t he?

  Susan said, ‘Diana threatens people with some crime or other to undercut any attempt they might make to assert themselves. She made out that Lucia had flirted with Evan. What did she say you’d done? No, don’t tell me. Let me guess. She said you’d stolen something?’

  ‘Right on. What happened was this. I turned up yesterday a bit after my usual time, maybe nearer half ten than ten because I missed my bus and had to wait for the next. When I got there, it was to find coppers all over the place. They asked me what I was doing and I said wasn’t it obvious, and then they told me Mr Evan had snuffed it. I didn’t know what to think. I stood there, struck dumb.

  ‘They asked when I was last there and I said everything had been all right the previous day and I’d made some liver and bacon for Mr Evan for his lunch which he liked but which Mrs didn’t and I used to give it to him for a treat. I’d washed up as usual and made the beds, and no, I hadn’t seen Lucia because I often didn’t see her for days, and she sometimes takes the children to McDonalds and then to the park when she’s collected Evan from nursery, so I didn’t think nothing of it. Then I’d gone home. So I give them me details and they showed me out.

  ‘Only when I was outside in the cold did I remember I hadn’t been paid for the last two weeks, because Mrs had made some excuse and promised me the lot, with a bonus, that Friday. So I had to find her, didn’t I? I rang her mobile but she wouldn’t answer. So I went and had a small fish and chips at the pub which is on me way home, and I kept ringing her. And when she did pick up, she said she’d join me there. So I waited and had another half.

  ‘When she came, she didn’t even sit down but put something in my hand which I thought might be my money, but it wasn’t. It was a pawnbroker’s ticket. She said as she owed me nothing because I’d stolen a diamond ring which had belonged to Mr Evan’s mother and pawned it. I was fair flummoxed, sat there with me mouth open. She whipped the ticket away and put it in an envelope in her handbag. She said there was no point my lying, that I’d needed the money for my daughter’s wedding, which was a lie because she knew very well as I’d paid for that with my lucky Lotto win, right out of the blue and very handy that was, too.’

  ‘A ring really had gone missing?’ asked Susan.

  A spread of hands. ‘First I’d heard of it.’

  ‘I suppose it was kept in the safe in th
e hall, so there’d be a limited number of people who had access to it?’

  ‘That’s what I said, once I’d recovered my wits. I said I couldn’t have done it because I didn’t know the combination to the safe. She said I’d been going through papers in her desk and found it that way. As if I could be bothered! There’s not enough hours in the day to keep that place going and satisfy Mr Evan’s whims. So no, I hadn’t ever thought of trying to get in the safe. But she said she’d found the pawn ticket in the pocket of my apron and if I didn’t make myself scarce and keep my mouth shut, she’d tell on me to the police.

  ‘She went off in her car like a rocket, leaving me sitting there wondering what had hit me. So I had another half and thought about it, and it come to me that she was right and if I went to the police, I’d lose my reputation and never get another job, which we need with my husband not up to work nowadays. Back trouble, see, that they don’t seem able to sort. So I came to ask if Ellie would see me right and that’s how I landed up here.’

  Susan put the pieces together. ‘Diana must have been short of money. She looked around her for something to sell and settled on a diamond ring which had belonged to Evan’s family and which was kept in the safe. She knew Evan would make a fuss when he discovered it had disappeared, so she decided to pawn it and accuse you of theft, which would keep you quiet while putting some cash into her own pocket. Is she really that short of money?’

  Marcy said, ‘She’s laid off at least one of her staff at the agency recently. I got that from my friend that I see down the pub now and then, the one that cleans her office. Everyone says that the housing market is sluggish and the estate agencies are in trouble. And that’s a big house to keep up, with staff to pay and all.’

  Susan pushed her mug forward for a refill. ‘She actually put the pawn ticket in your hand?’

  ‘You know why she did that? To get my fingerprints on it.’

  Coralie said, ‘She set you up good and proper, Marcy.’

  Susan took two chocolate digestive biscuits. She put the chocolate sides together so that she didn’t get her fingers messy, and bit into the two together. Aaah, that hit the target. She said, ‘Pawnbrokers have CCTV nowadays, don’t they? They have to make a note of whoever brings something in to pawn. The police can find evidence that Diana pawned it herself or …’ She realized the other two were ahead of her. ‘No, she got someone else to pawn it for her. Who?’

  ‘I been thinking of that,’ said Marcy. ‘I reckon it was the lad as does the lawns for them. Gardener, he calls himself. Odd job man, in my book. Smart arse. Baseball cap on backwards, sagging pants. You know the type?’

  They did.

  Marcy said, ‘He’ll have done it for a tenner, knowing it was dodgy and not giving a toss. All innocent looks and gift of the gab and got two girls in trouble already.’

  All three shook their heads. That lad would be no help to them without thumbscrews or waterboarding. Or, perhaps, a hefty bribe? But he’d not be a reliable witness even if they were to take the matter to the police.

  Susan patted crumbs off her top. ‘So, we come back to Diana. Granted she was short of money, but I’m wondering if there was something else. She was furious that the police had taken her laptop away. She said she needed it for work, and maybe that’s true. But surely, if it were just work stuff on it, then she’d have backed it up with a memory stick thingy, wouldn’t she? So why did she get into such a state about it?’

  Coralie’s imagination soared. ‘You think there’s secret emails on her laptop that she doesn’t want anyone to know about? Perhaps from another man? Would that be the man Lucia saw her with?’

  Susan said, ‘Ellie thought Diana actually had feelings for Evan.’

  Marcy agreed. ‘I suppose she did, in a way. She looked after him, saw to his medication. Kept her temper though he was not the easiest. Only once she come into the kitchen fit to burst. She said as he was driving her crazy, wanting this and that and then changing his mind. She said she felt like screaming the place down. Then she calmed down and said as everyone had their off days and she went back into his room and was all sweetness and light. Yes, for such a cold fish, she did have a soft spot for him. I couldn’t help but admire that in her, because he was a real trial to live with, he really was.’

  Coralie was impatient to get back to the real news. ‘Marcy, tell Susan what you said about Diana having other men.’

  ‘Well, it all started six months ago, maybe a bit more. Some mornings her bed was neatly made and her shower didn’t need cleaning and every now and then there’d be some red satin undies in the wash, which was the sort she’d never worn before, nor me, neither. Mister Evan wasn’t capable in bed no more, so I thought she was going out now and then to get it somewhere else. To tell the truth, I didn’t blame her.’

  Coralie nodded. ‘A shop down West Ealing has them undies in the window. Can’t think why they don’t get more cars bumping into one another as they go by.’

  Susan wondered whether she should investigate that shop. Even a ‘fat slob’ might raise interest when wearing red satin underwear. Or should it be black?

  Marcy ticked off items on her fingers. ‘She’d put the satin undies out to be washed every now and then, usually on a Monday morning. Then one day there was a new black dress in the wardrobe, showing far too much of everything, if you know what I mean. Not like her work clothes. The new dress was there one day, and never seen again. Likewise a bottle of expensive perfume and some dark red nail polish that she’d never used before. And to cap all, two pairs of high heels, the sort that you wonder how they keep them on. Expensive, too. One of them had the price tag still on underneath. They arrived in their carrier bags one day and then they disappeared, never to be seen again.’

  Susan mused, ‘She was definitely playing away. One man or two? And did you find out who?’

  ‘One man only, I think. She wouldn’t have had time for more. Of course it was wrong but with Mister being like he was, well, I could sort of understand it. She was careful, you know. There weren’t no phone calls to the landline or jewellery she couldn’t account for. She kept her smartphone with her all the time, and her laptop, too. Not that I could have done anything with her laptop, me not being gifted that way. I looked in the bin, to see if she’d discarded the bills from a restaurant or a hotel, but didn’t find nothing. I reckon she only played away on Thursday or Friday nights.’

  ‘According to Lucia, she was out this last Thursday night when her husband was killed. Diana said she’d been at an overnight conference.’

  ‘Humph!’ said Coralie.

  Marcy didn’t believe it, either. ‘Chance would be a fine thing.’

  Fifi woke up and grizzled. Susan took her into the kitchen and settled the child on her knee. How sweet it was to hold your child in your arms. Fifi knew she was loved. Did Diana ever cuddle her children like this?

  Susan wondered, ‘How was Diana with her children? Ellie said Diana was a good mother. I can’t believe she’s abandoned them, just like that.’

  Marcy pulled a face, twisting strands of hair around her forefinger. ‘She was OK with them. Not lovey-dovey, kissy-kissy. No sympathy for grazed knees. She was strict with them, not petting them or giving them treats, but … yes, I’d say she was decent enough that way … for a working mother. She preferred Jenny, who’s more like her for all that the girl’s so fair and Diana’s so dark.’

  Susan said, ‘I’m worried about them. They both slept badly last night and Evan wet the bed, but that’s perhaps to be expected after such an upheaval.’

  Coralie said, ‘They haven’t asked after their parents at all, though you’d think they would. It doesn’t sound as if their father had much to do with them so maybe that’s only natural in his case. Considering they’ve been whipped away from their home and dumped in a strange house, they’re not behaving too badly. Little Evan seems a nice child. Jenny? She can be a little madam, if I’m any judge. And she ought to be potty-trained by now.’

&nbs
p; Marcy looked at the clock. ‘I suppose I’d better be getting along. Can you give me a tinkle when Ellie gets back and I’ll pop in to see her about the money Diana owes me? I’ll go back to the agency tomorrow and ask if they can find me some more work somewhere.’ She looked hopefully at Susan. ‘You’re not thinking of having some help here, are you?’

  Susan’s eyes widened. ‘This situation is only temporary. Diana has to find somewhere else for them to live and then she’ll collect them … won’t she? Surely even she can’t just abandon her children and swan off into the blue with her latest man? Can she?’

  The other two gave her a steady look. Did they really think that was what Diana planned to do? Yes, they did. Oh.

  Coralie lifted her eyebrow at Susan. ‘Given your circumstances you might want to think about having some help in the house.’

  Marcy nodded. ‘Thought as much. Not far along though, are you?’

  Susan blushed. Everyone except Rafael seemed to have cottoned on to the fact that she was pregnant again. ‘I’ll have to talk to my husband about it. But there is one job you could do, Marcy. Ellie wants someone to go in next door and make everything ready for when they get back next week. They’ve had floorboards up and ceilings down, new plumbing and wiring. The decorators have finished but there’s dust everywhere. The carpets are down and their furniture has gone back in, but heaven knows what the bathrooms and kitchen look like. I should think there’s a good week’s work putting it to rights. If I guarantee you’ll be paid, would you like the job of putting everything to rights? You could borrow my key and start tomorrow, couldn’t you?’

  ‘Now that’s a job to get my teeth into. I think I can remember where everything used to be, but if in doubt I can ask you, can’t I? Only, could you give me something in advance, seeing as I’m missing my wages from Diana, and the rent will need paying willy nilly?’

  There was a muted roar outside, and down the corridor came the thump of little feet. ‘Cuckoo! Cuckoo!’ Jenny banged on the front door.