Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell (23 page)

‘Taxi?’ said Agatha.

‘I’m sure the police will have checked that. And buses.’

‘Unless Sheppard was in on it. If only we could make sure he’s not at home when we call.’

‘I think that could be arranged,’ said Charles. ‘Let’s get home and I’ll phone him and say there’s been a break-in at his shop.’

‘What if she goes with him?’

‘We’ll chance that. If not, we’ll need to wait until Monday morning, when he goes to work.’

They hurried back to Lilac Lane. Charles looked up the Sheppards’ number in the phone book. ‘Don’t listen,’ he said to Agatha. ‘I’m going to disguise my voice and I can’t do it with you listening. I’ve got to pretend to be a copper.’

Agatha went into the kitchen. She took out her packet of cigarettes and then put them away again.

She heard the murmur of Charles’s voice and then he came into the kitchen. ‘That’s it,’ he said. ‘Let’s go.’

Charles drove quickly to Blockley, hoping he did not meet Luke Sheppard driving out of the village. He parked in front of the Sheppards’ cottage and took a deep breath. ‘Here we go, Aggie,’ he said.

Megan answered the door. ‘You again,’ she said. ‘What now?’

‘May we come in?’ asked Charles, smiling at her. ‘We have some news for you.’

‘I suppose. Luke isn’t here. There’s been a break-in at his shop.’

They followed Megan as they had done before, out into the garden. ‘So what have you got to tell me?’

Charles opened his mouth to start with a diplomatic way of approaching the subject, but Agatha said brutally, ‘You murdered Melissa. You were seen in the village at the time of her death. We have a witness.’

Megan sat very still, the pupils of her eyes seeming huge. Then she laughed. ‘Nice try. I was in Oxford all night. How was I supposed to get from Oxford to Carsely?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Agatha. ‘But we have this witness. It places you at the scene of the murder.’

‘And what do the police have to say to that?’

‘We haven’t told them yet,’ said Agatha.

‘Why not?’

‘We wanted to know what you had to say for yourself.’

‘Aren’t we all supposed to be in the manor-house library?’ jeered Megan. ‘While the great detective accuses and the guilty one breaks down? Why don’t you both take your fairy-tales and run along, or I will call the police and charge you with harassment.’

‘It was you James found out about,’ said Agatha doggedly. ‘You were sectioned at the same time as Melissa.’

‘I’m going to count to ten, and if you’re not out of here by the time I have finished, I am going to call the police. One . . .’

‘Come on, Aggie,’ said Charles.

‘Two . . .’

Agatha rose reluctantly to her feet.

‘Three . . .’

Charles urged Agatha through the cottage. ‘Four . . .’ Megan’s voice chanted.

Outside, Charles said, ‘That’s it. We’re going to see Bill Wong.’

‘What can he do that we can’t?’ demanded Agatha.

‘We’ve got a suspect, we’ve got a witness. We’ve got to show Bill where to look.’

Mrs Wong looked outraged when they asked to speak to Bill. ‘It’s Sunday,’ she protested, ‘and we’re about to have Sunday dinner.’

‘Bill!’ shouted Agatha.

Bill appeared behind his mother, who was blocking them off on the doorstep. ‘What is it, Agatha?’ he asked.

‘We’ve found the murderer.’

‘You’d better come in. Do stand aside, Ma.’

Mrs Wong backed off, mumbling under her breath. Bill led them out into the garden. ‘Sit down,’ he said. ‘Tell me about it.’

Agatha took a deep breath and began to explain about how Mrs Green thought she had seen a child on the night of the murder, about how the description of the ‘child’ fitted with the description of Megan Sheppard.

‘But why?’ asked Bill.

‘Wait a minute,’ said Agatha, screwing up her face in concentration. ‘Something’s coming. What about this? James was inquiring if there was a possibility of one psychopath befriending another. What if Melissa and Megan met in that psychiatric unit years ago, when Megan was sectioned. What if they did become friends, and then maybe lost touch. What if . . .’ She screwed up her face even harder. ‘What if there was an earlier will? What if Melissa had originally left her money to Megan? What if Melissa thought that Megan was dangerous? By coincidence or by plot, Megan marries her ex. Damn, we should have asked her lawyer if she had made a previous will. Anyway, somehow Megan finds out that Melissa has changed her will and blames James’s influence and attacks him. Then she goes on to murder Melissa.’

Bill put his head in his hands. ‘Agatha, Agatha. A lot of police work and time went in checking out the Sheppards’ alibi. Their car was in the hotel garage all night.’

‘Oh. Wait a bit. What sort of car?’

‘A Range Rover.’

‘You could get a motorbike in the back of one of those.’

‘Agatha, all vehicles that went out of the hotel garage that night were checked.’

‘But they wouldn’t need to leave a motorbike in the car. They could leave it at the station or in Saint Giles. Oh, Bill, if they had a motorbike, or a scooter, it might be registered to one of them. Please, Bill, do try.’

‘I’ll see what I can do. Wait here.’

‘The more we discuss it, the thinner it gets,’ mourned Charles.

Bill came back. ‘They’ll get back to me. We have to wait.’

‘You see,’ said Agatha earnestly, ‘she could have slipped out of the hotel when no one was looking. I know Mrs Green’s got bad eyesight, but she could pass for a child and no one would think of reporting seeing a young teenager.’

‘Dinner’s ready,’ called Mrs Wong.

‘You’ll need to put mine in the oven,’ Bill called back. ‘Important police business.’

Mrs Wong appeared in the garden, holding a ladle like a weapon. ‘It’s a disgrace, that’s what it is, bothering people on a Sunday.’

His mother retreated. ‘You can check the records at the hospital,’ said Agatha. ‘If she was there at the same time as Melissa, it’s something to go on.’

‘It still won’t make her a murderess.’

Agatha sighed. And then the phone rang. Bill ran into the house, calling out, ‘I’ll get that.’

‘If Mrs Wong answers the phone first and that’s the police, she’ll give them a long harangue about Sunday dinner,’ said Agatha gloomily.

‘It just might not have anything to do with Megan at all,’ said Charles quietly. ‘Don’t build up your hopes.’

Bill came back and his eyes were gleaming. ‘What?’ asked Agatha eagerly.

‘You’re a witch! There’s a motorbike registered to Megan Sheppard. I wonder if they still have it.’

‘The shed,’ said Charles. ‘They have a shed at the bottom of the garden.’

‘I’ll need to go into the office,’ said Bill. ‘I hope they haven’t got rid of that motorbike. I wish you had come straight to me in the first place. She may have fled. Go home and wait. Yes, Agatha. It’s out of your hands now.’

So Agatha and Charles waited. The long afternoon dragged on into evening and Agatha’s phone remained silent.

They ate a silent meal, waiting, always waiting. Then, just before nine o’clock, the doorbell rang.

‘At last!’ cried Agatha, leaping to her feet.

She rushed and opened the door. Megan Sheppard stood there, the outside light over the door gleaming on a small but efficient pistol she was holding in her hand. ‘Back into the house slowly,’ she said.

Numb with shock, Agatha did as she was told. Charles came out of the kitchen and stood staring at the pair of them.

Megan waved the gun in the direction of the sitting-room. ‘In there,’ she snapped.

When they were inside, she ordered, ‘Sit down.’

Agatha and Charles sank down side by side on the sofa.

‘So it was you,’ said Agatha, through dry lips.

‘And I would have got away with it,’ said Megan, ‘if you hadn’t come blundering around.’

‘Why?’ asked Charles. ‘Was it the money?’

‘She said she would leave it all to me. We were friends, she thought. Actually, I never liked her. But I kept in touch with her over the years. I didn’t take Luke Sheppard away from her. He got sick of her and asked for a divorce. That was when I moved in. She didn’t mind, she said.’

‘But no one knew you had been seeing Melissa,’ said Agatha. ‘Didn’t you call at each other’s houses?’

‘No, she didn’t want to see Luke again, or so she said. Then Luke came back one evening and said Melissa had sent for him.’

‘That was when she told him,’ said Agatha, thinking, I must keep her talking. Where is Bill?

‘No, that was his story. She actually told him that she had a friend in the village, James Lacey. He had advised her to change her will and leave the money to Julia, her sister.

‘I phoned her up to protest, to say she hated Julia and that we’d always been friends, but she said that Lacey was right. Sorry, and all that. The worst of it was she really got a kick out of telling me.

‘I was red with rage. I found out where Lacey lived and went round and attacked him. He got away. I thought he would go to the police and I couldn’t believe my luck when he just disappeared. I realized I had to silence Melissa, and silence her fast. She would guess it had been me who attacked James. I told Luke. He was as anxious to get his hands on the money as me. That shop of his is hardly selling anything and he had just remortgaged the house. So we planned to put the motorbike in the car and stay at the Randolph in Oxford. We left the motorbike in Saint Giles. I slipped past the desk. The porter was on the phone and I crawled past under the desk.’

‘What did you kill her with?’ asked Agatha.

‘An ordinary hammer. Now I am going to shoot you both and get out of here.’

Charles rose from the sofa and walked towards her. ‘No, you’re not.’

‘Charles!’ cried Agatha in an agony of fear. Megan aimed the pistol at his face and tried to pull the trigger. Nothing happened. Charles seized her wrist and twisted it until the gun fell on the floor. He clutched the struggling Megan tightly, yelling to Agatha, ‘Get the gun. The safety catch is on.’

Megan was kicking out wildly and screaming and trying to twist around and claw Charles’s face. Agatha grabbed the gun. ‘Get rope or something,’ shouted Charles.

Agatha stood blindly. Rope, rope, where on earth is rope? She ran into the kitchen. Nothing. She seized a large roll of Sellotape and ran back with it. Megan’s screams were awful, mad, unearthly.

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake,’ panted Charles.

And then there came the wail of police sirens. Charles succeeded in throwing Megan on to the floor and sat astride her, holding her hands above her head.

Agatha rushed and opened the door and waved frantically to the arriving police cars.

Villagers were gathering at the end of the street. They
would
turn up now, thought Agatha.

Bill was in the first car. ‘She’s here?’ he cried when he got out.

‘Inside. Hurry,’ said Agatha.

Megan was handcuffed and taken off. Charles and Agatha followed in another police car to Mircester to make their statements. Agatha felt quite limp and also disgusted with herself. She had been so frightened when Megan pointed the pistol at her that she had wet herself. Why hadn’t she just told the police that, and begged to be allowed to change?

She had no sense of triumph, no gladness in being proved right. She felt old and messy.

Inspector Wilkes sent Bill to take their statements. As he went to switch on the recording machine, Agatha said, ‘Where’s Sheppard?’

‘We took him in for questioning. We got him just as he was returning from Mircester. We found the motorbike, and in one of the saddlebags we found the vacuum cleaner. It was one of those small ones people use for cleaning cars. I hope it hadn’t been emptied. That’s the trouble with dealing with mad amateurs. If James had not disappeared, we would have been able to arrest her and Melissa might still be alive. Megan had the most amazing luck.’

‘I wonder if Melissa ever intended to leave her any money,’ said Agatha. ‘I wonder if James found out about Melissa and dumped her because she was dangerous. I wonder if she told Megan that in the hope that Megan would make life a misery for James.’

‘Unless we find James Lacey, we’ll never know,’ said Bill. ‘Now, let’s begin.’

They both made statements and Bill disappeared with the papers, leaving them alone. ‘I can’t bear this,’ said Agatha to Charles. ‘When she pointed that pistol at me, I wet myself.’

‘If they keep us here much longer,’ said Charles, ‘you’ll soon be dry.’

‘Doesn’t it disgust you?’

‘No, ordinary human functions do not disgust me. Stick it out now. Can’t be much longer.’

But Bill returned with Wilkes, who said he would like to go over their statements again. Agatha was too weary to do other than repeat everything she had told Bill, but Charles was sure that Wilkes really wanted to know how they had managed to figure out it was Megan when the police had not.

It all seemed like a dream, thought Agatha, as she and Charles went through their investigations once more, step by step. At last the statements were approved. They signed and were told they were free to go.

Agatha regained some of her usual spirit. As they were leaving the room, she turned and said to Wilkes, ‘You might at least say thank you.’

‘For what?’ said Wilkes, shuffling the statement papers.

‘For solving your case for you.’

‘We would have got there sooner or later,’ began Wilkes pompously.

‘Pah,’ said Agatha Raisin and slammed the door behind her.

Oh, the luxury of a warm soapy bath and dirty clothes spinning in the washing machine. Wrapped in their dressing-gowns, Agatha and Charles met in the sitting-room for a nightcap.

‘That’s over at last,’ sighed Agatha.

‘Except for James,’ said Charles. ‘Fancy a trip to France?’

‘I feel too weary to even think about it,’ said Agatha. ‘How could James behave so irresponsibly?’

‘He didn’t know Melissa had been murdered.’

‘He must have done. It was in the newspapers, along with his photograph.’

‘He may not have looked at the newspapers. Say you find him, Aggie? What then?’

‘I want to hear his side of the story,’ said Agatha, but the fact was she wanted to give him a piece of her mind. The oh-so-perfect James, who had always been picking on her, had made one big major mistake for which he ought to be deeply ashamed for the rest of his life.