Death in the Cotswolds (25 page)

‘Was it to do with the Masons?’

He made a clicking noise. ‘Well, yes, in a way. She let drop that I was on the square. He was so outraged he took his custom elsewhere. I was angry with her for about two days at most. Gran just happened to get an earful because she was the next person I saw after it happened.’

‘Did you know Gaynor had joined the Masons?’

‘Of course I did.’ Of course he did. It explained nearly everthing.

‘Okay. Thanks for telling me,’ I said. ‘Now go and see to Sally. Tell her I’ll be round tomorrow.’

I handed the phone back to a forlorn-looking Leslie. ‘Poor old Sal,’ I said.

He sighed. ‘We were going to the theatre this evening.’

‘Why are you here then?’ I wondered.

‘Shopping,’ he said as if that was obvious. He did have a bulky Waitrose carrier bag in one hand. ‘It’s my turn to cook.’

I had no patience with his dull domestic little plans. ‘I must go,’ I said. ‘I’m due at the vet’s.’

He didn’t ask for more detail and I was in no mood to give an account of recent events. Somehow Leslie and Oliver had become insignificant bystanders in the rollercoaster that the day had become. Even if they had murdered Gaynor and Verona, it seemed to matter a lot less than Thea’s distress and Sally’s hip and Kenneth’s pig-inflicted injuries.

Thea was talking to the vet woman in the reception area when I got back. There was no sign of the dog. Help! I thought. They’ve had to put it down. Phil was never going to forgive me.

I couldn’t think of a safe way to phrase the question, so I just looked. ‘I thought you’d gone off without me,’ she said, only half joking.

‘The dog?’ I ventured.

‘He’s got to stay in overnight. The vet thinks the hip’s just dislocated.’ The parallel with old Sally Grover was inescapable. How strange life could be, I thought, ramming events at us in teasing conjunctions, forcing us to make comparisons.

‘That’s good, isn’t it?’ I ventured.

Thea sighed. ‘Could be worse,’ she conceded.

The vet picked up the vibes between us and smiled cautiously. ‘He should be fine in a few days,’ she said. ‘He’s a gorgeous dog.’

‘He ran out right behind me,’ I burst out. ‘One minute everything was clear, the next—’

‘It happens,’ said the vet. ‘Setters tend to act on impulse.’

It was a very diplomatic thing to say, I had to give her that. It wasn’t going to help the atmosphere on the drive home, though.

Thea sat beside me in her smelly jumper, trying in vain to reach Phil on the phone. ‘I tried twice at the vet’s and he wasn’t answering,’ she said. ‘When I phoned the police station, they said he was unavailable to take calls. What does that mean?’

‘He must be out on some sort of mission,’ I said. ‘Staking out somebody’s house, having to keep quiet.’

‘I don’t think so,’ she said, her voice cold.

‘I saw Leslie Giddins just now,’ I said, in an effort to start a new subject. ‘He was talking to Oliver on the phone. His gran’s hurt herself.’

‘Oh dear.’ There was little interest in her tone.

‘And Pamela’s going to wonder where on earth we’ve got to.’

‘I forgot all about that,’ she said, reviving slightly. ‘What’re we going to do?’

‘I don’t know,’ I admitted. ‘It’s nearly six already.’

‘So?’

‘Nothing, I suppose. Somebody else might have given her a lift by now.’

‘She’ll still want the car.’

‘Mmm,’ I said. ‘Well, I’m thirsty and hungry. I’m not doing anything until I’ve had some tea.’

We went directly back to my house and I put the kettle on. Thea had decided not to disturb the two remaining dogs, if we were going out again in a little while. ‘They’ll be confused,’ she said. We could hear the spaniel barking.

‘She must have smelt you,’ I said.

Thea looked down at her jumper in horror. ‘Oh, God. I’ll have to go and change, won’t I.’

‘I can lend you another one,’ I offered. ‘If you promise to keep it clean.’

‘I’ll do my best,’ she grinned.

‘Did you get any coffee?’ Thea asked me, when I’d turned my attention back to the kettle.

‘Bugger,’ I groaned. ‘Sorry. There’s only tea, I’m afraid.’

I expected her to shrug and accept a mug of nice strong Indian brew, but she surprised me. ‘No,’ she said. ‘There are limits. I can put up with rampaging pigs, damaged dogs, stinking jumpers, but only if I get a decent cup of coffee at the end of it. I’ve got a
jar of Gold Blend over the road. I’ll have to go and get it, whether it winds the dogs up or not. I won’t be long. It’s getting dark – I hope I’ll be able to see in that house.’

‘Take a torch,’ I told her, getting on out of a drawer.

When I realised ten minutes had passed, I merely thought she’d gone to the loo, or been distracted somehow. Maybe Phil had finally called her on her mobile.

But the dogs were barking again, which seemed peculiar. Thea knew we were meant to take Kenneth’s car back. Twelve minutes was too long to readily explain. I went to my door and looked across the street.

You can’t tell what’s going on inside a house just by looking at it from outside, especially when there’s no electricity and no lamps had been lit inside. So I went over and tried to open the front door. It wouldn’t budge. Why on earth would she lock it? What were the dogs barking at?

I went around the back, my mind paralysed by the strangeness. There were no answers to my questions and I wasn’t in any state to make inspired guesses. The dogs had gone quiet, at least, which seemed like a good sign.

The back door was locked as well. ‘Thea!’ I called out. ‘Where are you?’ That started the dogs off again. I banged hard on the door. ‘What’s going
on?’ My head filled with a picture of Phil bending over the lifeless body of his beloved, blaming me even more than he was going to blame me about his dog.

I couldn’t let it happen. I remembered the ladder and the wonky bathroom window, and got myself up there in seconds. The window came open quite easily, but I was almost too big to squeeze through it. I had to dive in head first, which was awkward and undignified, and left me in a tangle on the floor, my legs practically in the loo. I hoped I’d been quiet enough to avoid notice, even by the dogs. I stayed in a heap, not daring to move until I was sure of what was going on.

Somewhere I heard voices. ‘Lucky we locked the doors. Has she gone?’ a man hissed.

‘Probably,’ said Thea. ‘But she’ll know something’s wrong. She’ll call the police.’

Too late, I realised I should have done just that. Much more useful than sprawling on the bathroom floor.

‘Why did you come here?’ she asked, her voice sounding impressively steady.

‘We needed to fetch something. I thought you were out.’

‘Oh. What about the dogs? They wouldn’t have let you in.’

‘Shut up. I’m not explaining it all now. It doesn’t matter. You’re just stalling for time.’

I assumed he’d got that right. Thinking about it, the most likely explanation was that he’d crept in the back and quickly shut the dogs in one of the rooms downstairs. Then the dogs must have started barking when they realised they’d been tricked.

A woman’s voice joined in. ‘We thought you’d gone,’ she said.

My heart was thundering so drastically by then that I could hardly hear what they were saying. The voices were familiar, but the identity of the speakers seemed to matter to me less than the fact of their intrusion and the idea that Thea was in danger. The rooms were unlit, but it was less dark than I’d expected. Half of me wanted to get to my feet and simply march right into the room and demand an explanation. I think the locked front door was the strongest reason preventing me from acting on the instinct to rescue my new friend. Instead I crawled very quietly and carefully out of the bathroom and onto the landing, where I could hear everything more clearly. Having made myself consider the situation logically, I was forced to admit to myself that Thea and I were trapped with these people and although I certainly hadn’t thought through precisely what could happen if I charged in and made a lot of fuss, I had enough remaining wits to understand that it would almost certainly make things worse.

‘We came here to get something,’ said the man
again, with laborious significance. ‘Something we left in the attic.’

So I had been right all along! The Masonic trinkets belonged to Eddie Yeo – whose voice I was now sure I recognised, despite not having heard him speak for nearly a year. He had a high voice, with careful vowels where he’d eradicated his Gloucestershire accent.

‘They’re not there any more,’ said Thea sturdily. ‘Phil took them away for examination. He found your fingerprints on them.’

The woman made a little moan and I realised Thea was addressing her, not Eddie.

‘There! See what you’ve done, you silly bitch,’ snarled Eddie.

The woman gave a choked sound, and I tried desperately to fill in the gaps caused by not being able to see their faces.

‘You killed Gaynor and Verona, didn’t you?’ said Thea, with what seemed to me appalling recklessness. ‘For some stupid reason to do with Freemasonry.’

I was so eager to know whether she was talking to one or both of them that I almost gave myself away.

The woman spluttered again. ‘What?’ she gasped. ‘What are you talking about? Eddie didn’t kill anybody. It was Ariadne who killed them.’

‘You genuinely think that, do you?’ Thea
sounded almost sorry. I was totally sandbagged by Caroline’s firm assertion, as if it was plain fact. ‘What a fool you must be,’ Thea added calmly.

Eddie laughed nastily. ‘You’ve got that right,’ he said.

‘Eddie!’ Caroline’s voice was shocked, confused, but still a long way from revising her opinion about me, I feared.

Thea seemed to have thrown every scrap of caution out of the window. ‘It wasn’t Ariadne, you idiot, it was Eddie. I think he brought you here to kill you as well. He wants to wipe out that whole group of women Masons. Isn’t that right, Eddie?’

This time it was Caroline who laughed, though with no hint of mirth. ‘He wouldn’t do that,’ she said. ‘That’s stupid.’

‘So why has he brought you here? What did he tell you was going to happen?’

‘Actually,
I
brought
him
,’ said Caroline. ‘I’d already decided I couldn’t keep the new Lodge going without Gaynor or Verona. I was going to let him have the regalia and so forth.’

‘You really did meet here, then, you three women? In Helen’s attic? But why?’

‘It had good vibes,’ she said simply. ‘And it fitted all the criteria. It was Gaynor’s idea, funnily enough.’

‘But weren’t you worried that Ariadne would see
you? She lives right across the street.’

Caroline gave a loud sigh. ‘We met on the nights she did her evening class. But the truth is, I was still hoping she’d join us,’ she said. ‘That was another reason why it seemed such a good place.’ She made a soft little whimpering noise, for some unknown reason.

Eddie made a noise rather like a snarl. My stunned brain slowly came to the conclusion that if I
had
joined Caroline’s Lodge, I might be lying in the Barrow’s long grass as well as the other two.

Thea’s voice suddenly sounded closer and I realised she was edging towards the door. ‘He made it look as if Ariadne had killed them,’ she said. ‘With the knitting needles. And you fell for it. But surely Phil must have told you it couldn’t have been her?’

‘I haven’t spoken to Phil,’ she muttered.

‘So you let this wretched little man talk you into suspecting your friend?’

‘Mary stopped being my friend nearly three years ago,’ she said harshly.

‘Well, you’ve got it wrong,’ Thea repeated. ‘The murderer is right here in front of you.’

It still felt like wild fantasy to me. How could the irritating, pompous, self-satisfied Eddie Yeo
possibly
have committed two murders?

‘But why would he? What would he have against those two girls?’

‘Ask him,’ Thea invited.

A short silence followed. It was getting much darker with every minute that passed. Then Caroline said quietly, ‘You’re my friend, Eddie – aren’t you?’

He replied with a loud tirade that suggested his control was cracking. ‘You think I could be a
friend
to someone as sick as you?
Friends
with a woman intent on perverting the Craft – polluting it in that disgusting way. Wearing our symbols, defiling our rituals. All I did was clean them out of the way, your revolting little Sisters. They had to go, it was obvious.’

Another stunned silence, and then, ‘You
executed
them,’ whispered Caroline. Thea spoke next. ‘That’s right! He stabbed them through the heart with the closest thing he could find to the ritual knife the Freemasons use. Because he saw them as traitors.’

‘Really an execution, then,’ said Caroline, sounding terrible.

‘They were in her bag,’ said Eddie. ‘It made it seem right, somehow. I saw the points, sticking out.’

This was too much for Caroline. ‘You’re a monster!’ she suddenly shouted. ‘A stupid, bigoted, crazy monster.’

The slap was so explosive I almost felt it on my own skin. Both women shrieked, so I wasn’t sure
which had received the blow, although Caroline was the obvious choice.

Then Caroline spoke rather thickly. ‘You can’t hope to get away with it,’ she said. ‘Although maybe you think you will. You seem to have some kind of power complex.’

It did me good to hear her. It made up my mind for me. I’d never manage to get out of the house without them hearing me, not by window or door, and by the time the police could respond to any call I made, things might have moved on to a point where someone got killed.

‘She’s right, Eddie,’ I said, showing myself in the doorway. ‘Now have some sense and stop behaving like a lunatic.’

Eddie Yeo was a bureaucrat, for all his silly yellow car and ideas about the sanctity of male bonding. He was not particularly fit and neither was he very quick-witted. It seemed almost banal that he could have slaughtered two healthy young women out of some obsessive notion that not even his most rabid fellow Mason could have approved.

He had a knife in his hand, however, which I had not anticipated at all. In the gloom it had taken me a few seconds to register just what it was. Slowly I focused on a long pointed thing, with a blade that looked extremely sharp. I cocked my head at it, aiming for the less-than-impressed gaze that women throughout the ages have used to wither the male
ego. ‘Makes a change from knitting needles,’ I said calmly.