Murder in Bloom (22 page)

‘For summer, yes,’ said Libby, ‘although I suppose I ought to get myself a proper summer jacket.’

‘And a proper winter coat,’ said Fran. ‘I can never understand how you can keep warm in that blue thing.’

‘I can wear lots of jumpers underneath,’ explained Libby. ‘Where are we going?’

Pickering House was on the other side of Canterbury in a rather more affluent area than Steeple Martin and Nethergate. It sat at the end of a gravel drive, looking for all the world like a wisteria-covered farmhouse, but once inside, Libby could see what a fabulous venue it was for a small wedding. Nothing had been done to alter the interior, as far as she could see, except to add electric light and discreet central heating. The room where the ceremony would be conducted was, like most of the downstairs rooms, wood panelled, with what looked like old church pews set in rows. The reception room, too, was panelled, with long French windows leading on to a covered terrace. In a small library a bar had been introduced, and upstairs the bedrooms were equally delightful. The only modern touches were the bathrooms, which were reassuringly stateof-the-art.

When Fran had finished talking to the manager, they went to inspect the gardens.

‘Will you stay here the night before?’ asked Libby, dead-heading a straggly Queen Elizabeth rose.

‘No, we’re going to be traditional. Guy will be in his flat with Sophie and I’ll be at Coastguard Cottage.’

‘On your own? What about getting dressed?’

‘I can use the room here to get ready. Guy will get ready at home and come with Sophie.’

‘Who’s bringing you?’

‘I’ll drive myself,’ said Fran.

Libby was shocked. ‘You can’t do that on your wedding day! What about one of the children?’

‘The farther away they stay the better I shall like it,’ said Fran, grimly.

‘Well, I shall come and fetch you, then,’ said Libby, ‘and we can get dressed together in your posh room. Ben will probably want to fetch Guy as well.’

‘Yes, but if he did that we wouldn’t have a car for the morning.’

‘Where are you going?’

‘I don’t know, Guy won’t tell me.’ Fran giggled. ‘I feel like a teenager again.’

Libby grinned at her and squeezed her arm. ‘So you should. Now tell me about the terrible trio.’

Fran sighed. ‘Not Jeremy, he’s fine. It’s the girls.’

‘What have they been doing? Last I heard there’d been a stony silence.’

‘Which they have now broken.’ Fran sighed again. ‘Honestly, those two have barely spoken in years, and now they’re ganging up on me.’

‘What about?’

‘What I said before. I’m too old to be making such a fool of myself, and have I made sure that all my money is tied up safely for them to inherit.’

‘And have you?’

‘Oh, I’ve tied it up all right! They get a certain amount each, and a certain amount in trust for any of their offspring. I know there are only two at the moment, but Chrissie and Jeremy might both become parents, although I can’t see Chrissie wanting children. She just dotes on that bloody Cassandra.’

‘The Siamese you went to cat-sit when they moved? How is she? Have they kept any of her kittens?’

Fran shook her head scornfully. ‘They were simply a money-making exercise. She’s had at least one more litter since then. All the time Chrissie can say she’s looking after the little cash cow – cat – she has an excuse for not going out to work.’

‘Oh, well, perhaps we can hide them at the back of the room and not notice them,’ said Libby. ‘I suppose they are coming?’

‘Oh, yes. Begrudgingly, but they are coming. Honestly, Libby, it upsets me so much. When I see you with any of yours, you’re such a happy family.’

‘I know.’ Libby nodded. ‘Even when they’re driving me mad, I love them to bits. One of the reasons I wouldn’t move in with Ben, or agree to marry him, was that I didn’t want them to be unhappy. Now, of course, it turns out they’ve all been expecting the announcement for ages.’

‘They know Ben. Mine don’t know Guy. They’ve never met him.’

‘Perhaps you ought to ask them down, or arrange to meet on neutral territory before the wedding.’

‘They’d argue about where it should be,’ sighed Fran. ‘They’ve already complained about holding it here, so off the beaten track.’

Libby frowned. ‘I don’t know what to suggest,’ she said, ‘short of having Peter and Harry as bouncers to remove them if they start making a fuss.’

Fran brightened. ‘I will, actually,’ she said. ‘And I’ll ask Adam and Dominic, too.’

‘Are you inviting my children?’ Libby raised her eyebrows. ‘That’s very nice of you.’

‘Of course, you’re almost my family now. I shall invite cousin Charles, but I haven’t got any other relatives, and I don’t know any of my old London friends any more. I shall ask Dahlia from my old flat, but otherwise it’s all the friends from Steeple Martin and Nethergate.’

‘How lovely,’ said Libby, and gave her a hug.

After a final look round inside the house, when the manager presented Fran with the typed-up itinerary of the day they had discussed earlier, the women left. They were almost into Canterbury when Libby’s phone rang.

‘Libby, it’s Lewis. You’ll never guess.’

Libby repressed a sigh. ‘What’s happened now?’

‘They’ve let Cindy go.’

‘Go? Why?’

‘I don’t know, Lib, they didn’t confide in me.’

‘Sorry,’ said Libby, shooting a quick glance at an obviously interested Fran. ‘Where is she?’

‘Where do you think she is? Here of course. Bloody woman. I don’t know what I’m going to do with her.’

‘She can’t stay, Lewis.’ Libby put her hand over the mouthpiece. ‘Cindy’s been released and she’s turned up at Creekmarsh.’

‘So how do I get rid of her? She’s a bit shaky. Will you come over?’

‘No,’ said Libby firmly. ‘I’m in Fran’s car just now, so I can’t. Talk to Katie. She’ll help, surely.’

‘Katie won’t even speak to her,’ said Lewis miserably.

‘Why on earth did the police send her back to you?’

‘It was her choice. She said all her belongings were here, which they are, and they sent her off in a police car. I haven’t dared ask her what happens next.’

‘You’re going to have to,’ said Libby. ‘Is Adam there? He’ll back you up, surely?’

‘She’d wonder what on earth he’d got to do with it,’ said Lewis. ‘And Mog’s at home with Fiona and the baby, so he can’t help.’

Libby sighed. ‘You’ll have to be brave,’ she said.

‘Are you sure you can’t come over?’

Libby looked at Fran, who was nodding. ‘Tell him we’ll come,’ she said. ‘Half an hour.’

‘We’re coming over,’ said Libby. ‘Fran says so.’

‘When?’

‘On our way now,’ said Libby. ‘Half an hour, Fran says. Keep an eye on her until then.’

‘Why? What’s she going to do?’

‘She came to Creekmarsh for a reason,’ said Libby. ‘Whatever that was, I don’t think she’s found what she was looking for. And I think that’s why she’s come back. She’s going to cause trouble one way or another.’

Chapter Twenty-three

LEWIS WAS PACING UP and down in front of the house when they arrived.

‘She’s gone again,’ he said, obviously exasperated. ‘Bloody woman’s a nightmare.’

‘Gone?’ Libby climbed out of Fran’s car. ‘Where? When?’

‘I’ve no fucking idea!’ roared Lewis. ‘She went upstairs, I asked Katie to make her a cup of tea and called you. When I went and knocked on her door, she’d gone.’

‘With her bags?’ said Fran.

‘Yes.’

‘So what happened between her arriving and you going upstairs?’ ‘I don’t know, do I? Katie took her a cup of tea.’ ‘Have you asked Katie?’ Lewis looked much struck. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I’ve

only just discovered it myself. Come on, let’s ask her.’ He turned on his heel and disappeared inside. Libby and Fran looked at each other and followed.

Katie was sitting at the kitchen table reading a magazine.

‘I made the tea, yes,’ she said, nodding towards the teapot beside the Aga. ‘I thought she was coming down for it.’ Her lips thinned. ‘I’ve got enough to do without running after that little madam.’

Libby stifled a grin and Fran cleared her throat. ‘Would you have seen her go past the window?’ asked Fran.

‘I wasn’t looking.’ Katie’s eyes drifted down to her magazine.

‘She could be here somewhere,’ said Libby. ‘Have you got a mobile number for her, Lewis?’

He shook his head. ‘I suppose we could have a scout round.’

‘How about the attic?’ said Fran. Libby, Lewis and Katie all looked at her in surprise. ‘I was thinking she might be up there looking for her passport if it had been hidden.’

‘Hidden?’ said Katie. ‘Why should it have been hidden?’

‘We – that is, the police – think Tony West hid her original documents when he gave her the false ones and they might be here,’ said Fran.

‘Why should they be?’ Katie was looking belligerent now.

‘He knew this place. And they obviously weren’t at his London place,’ said Libby.

‘Why do you say that?’

‘It had been ransacked when his body was found.’

Katie looked down at her magazine. ‘So whoever killed him might have found them.’

‘Well, yes,’ said Libby, looking at Fran, startled.

‘Could have been her, then.’ Katie kept her eyes down.

‘In that case, why was she here looking for something?’ asked Fran reasonably.

‘How do you know she was looking for something?’

‘Because she said so,’ said Lewis, who was becoming even more exasperated. ‘Honestly, this is no bleedin’ joke. I’ve had enough. Let’s have a look round then I’m calling Big Bertha.’

They covered the same ground they had gone over a few days previously, but no trace of Cindy was found. Fran stood still, scenting the air like a bloodhound, Libby told her, but to no avail.

Back in the solar, Lewis called the police and informed them.

‘And we’ve had a good look round,’ he said. ‘How she got past me I shall never know.’ He switched off the phone. ‘They’ll be right out,’ he said wearily. ‘Gawd, why is this happening to me?’

‘Is there anything we can do?’ asked Libby, completely forgetting her vow to keep out of things.

‘I don’t know. Where would she have gone? And why did she want those documents so badly?’

‘That puzzled me, too,’ said Libby. ‘After all, the minute she tried to use the passport she’d be stopped. Either passport, come to that.’

‘It’s the birth and marriage certificates, I think,’ said Fran. ‘Proof of who she is so she can claim the estate.’

‘But could she claim the estate if she was accessory to murdering Kenneth? Anyway, Gerald’s still alive, we think.’

‘I’m not so sure about that,’ said Lewis, shaking his head. ‘If the poor old bugger was going loopy back then, he could be well dead by now.’

Libby grinned. ‘Too true, but Fran doesn’t think so.’ Lewis sent her a doubtful look. ‘All right, so what does Fran think, then?’ Fran was silent for a moment, gazing out of the solar window towards the ha-ha. ‘If Cindy didn’t go

out of the front door, where else might she have got

out?’

‘Kitchen door,’ said Lewis.

‘Not very likely with Katie the dragon sitting there,’ said Libby.

‘No. There’s the old side door – well, back door, I suppose, at the end of the hall beyond the stairs. We’ve never used it.’

‘Come on then,’ said Fran, standing up. ‘That’s how she went out.’

Lewis and Libby looked at one another. Libby shrugged and went out of the room behind Fran.

Somehow, it wasn’t surprising to find the small oak door swinging very slightly on its hinges.

‘Where did she go from here?’ said Lewis, and looked sharply round. ‘That was a car, wasn’t it? Reckon it’s the police?’

‘Probably,’ said Libby. ‘You go and see to them and we’ll carry on here.’

‘Down here,’ said Fran, leading the way unhesitatingly towards the ha-ha. Libby puffed and kept up, and was unsurprised when Fran led them down to the sailing club.

‘Well, she’s not here,’ said Libby, catching her breath and investigating the lock and bolt on the door. ‘Do you think she got away from here?’

Fran was frowning. ‘I’m not sure,’ she said slowly. ‘I’m certain she was here, though.’

‘Had we better tell the police?’

Fran sighed. ‘As if they’ll believe me,’ she said, ‘but yes, I suppose we’d better.’

‘You know,’ said Libby, as she panted her way back up towards the house, ‘I thought when I was down here before it would be a good way to get on or off the estate – from that little inlet. And it can’t be seen from the house, so as long as you could keep out of sight on the way up or down it’s a perfect secret way. Do you think she could have done that?’

‘It seems so quick,’ mused Fran. ‘It couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes between Lewis calling you and us arriving. She must have run like the wind.’