Murder in Mind (21 page)

Ellie checked the time on her watch. How long would Thomas be able to wait for them? Perhaps he could go home, and they could call him when they were ready to leave? Then there was Rose, who was not having a good day. And what about Vera? She couldn't be asked to wait for them indefinitely. And little Mikey?

‘I must ring home,' said Ellie.

‘I'm staying,' said Diana, who looked as fresh as when they'd first seen her. ‘Why don't the rest of you go home?' An ironic smile. ‘I promise to let you know when he's discharged.'

‘I suppose so,' said Freya.

Angelika nodded. Ellie wondered if they'd eaten anything at all that day, apart from the soup and sandwiches they'd had at her house. She wondered if there were any curry left . . . not that she fancied it at the moment.

Freya yawned. The skin around her eyes looked brown. Angelika drooped. They were not allowed to use their mobile phones inside the hospital, so ‘Joey-my-love' couldn't contact her, or she him.

Ellie went outside to phone Thomas. ‘Evan's just gone up for a brain scan. Are you all right?'

‘Mm. Working on my notes for the conference.'

Ah, of course. She'd forgotten he was going away for a couple of days later in the week. ‘I've no idea how long we're going to be. Vera's wonderful, saying she'd stay with Rose till we got back, but goodness knows when that'll be.'

‘If you can get some indication, I could go home and relieve Vera. Then you could phone me when you need to be picked up.'

‘Or I could get a cab to collect us.'

‘True. But I've got all the girls' luggage in the back.'

‘I'll ring you again in five minutes.'

Ellie checked back with the desk. The nurse said she had no idea whether or not Evan would be able to go home soon. A doctor chanced by, and Ellie managed to catch his attention. He nodded, talked in a low voice to the nurse behind the desk, and said it all depended on the results of the brain scan but, from what the nurse had said, it was unlikely that Mr Hooper would be discharged that night.

Ellie relayed this information to the girls. ‘I'm staying,' said Diana, baring her teeth in a smile.

The two girls looked at Ellie with dull eyes, too tired to protest.

Ellie said, ‘The hospital can let us know when he's ready to be discharged.'

She went outside again, to phone Thomas. Ambulances were drawing up outside, all the time, for there'd been some ruckus or other in the town centre. The department was going to be busy that evening. ‘Dear Thomas; please come and collect us.'

‘Get yourselves to the main entrance of the hospital. I can stop there for a minute to pick you up.'

Ellie shepherded the girls through the corridors and round to the main entrance where, thankfully, Thomas was waiting for them in his car.

Angelika and Freya lolled in the back, exhausted. Ellie used her mobile again, this time to Vera.

‘We're just leaving the hospital, Vera. We'll drop the girls off at their house and come on home. How are you coping? How is Rose?'

‘She says she's all right, but she's anxious, wants to know where you are and when you'll be back. If you're not going to be that long, I'll wait here till you return.'

‘How about Mikey?'

‘Happy as Larry. I hope you don't mind, but he's in the library, rearranging all the books.'

‘Fine. No one reads those books, anyway. See you in a minute.'

The roads were still busy though the rush hour was over. It was getting dark.

Thomas turned into the Hoopers' quiet road. Quiet no longer.

The sky was alight. Red.

A roaring sound.

Mouths agape.

Fire engines. One in the road, another in the driveway of the Hooper house.

The Hooper house was on fire.

Monday evening

T
hey got out of the car. And stared.

Angelika put her hands to her face and swayed. Was she going to faint?

Freya, eyes wide, mouthed the word, ‘No!' She clutched her teddy bear even more closely.

Ellie put her arms around Freya and tried to turn her away from the sight of her burning home. The girl resisted. She had to see what was happening.

Fire roared up into the dusk from the ‘snug' at the front of the house and from the hall . . . and from the room to the left of the hall. The dining room, was it? The whole of the ground floor was ablaze. The upper floors were dark and looked all right. For the moment.

‘My car! I must get my car out of the garage!' Angelika started forward, only to be caught by a reporter's camera with a flash. Three of them were lurking just inside the gate. She dodged them only to be trapped by a fireman. ‘Hold on, lady!'

She struggled in his arms. ‘My car!'

Freya whispered, ‘This can't be happening!'

Thomas collected Angelika from the arms of the fireman. ‘It's these ladies' home. Can you tell us—?'

‘It's pretty bad, squire. Can you take them away? We're expecting a third engine any minute.'

There was a huge explosion from the far left of the house, where the garage was situated. Everyone felt the blast and recoiled.

‘My car,' whispered Angelika and, eyelids fluttering, knees bending, hung from Thomas's arms in a faint.

Freya stated, ‘This'll kill Dad. He loves his Lexus.' She wasn't weeping. Beyond it.

The fireman was agitated. ‘Can you move your car; please, sir!'

Now they could hear another fire engine coming; lights pulsing, siren screaming.

Angelika moaned, returning to life. She tried to stand by herself. Thomas supported her. He said, ‘Ellie?'

Ellie tried to speak and failed. She jerked her head towards their car and opened the back door to thrust Freya inside. Thomas picked Angelika up and pushed her in, too. Ellie got into the front. Thomas got into the driver's seat, and he drove off as the third engine turned into the Hooper's driveway.

‘Home,' said Ellie, trying to think what was best to do.

Thomas set his teeth and concentrated on driving. Curious sightseers, neighbours, and assorted passing cars had stopped to gape and clog up the traffic.

‘Not far,' he said. ‘You'd better phone Rose or Vera. Tell them we're all on our way back.'

Ellie got through to Vera and relayed the information. Vera said she'd cope. Ellie shut off her phone. ‘I had a teddy bear as a child. I wore out its voice and my mother had it replaced. A Merrythought? Merry-something. Not a Steiff. Not a valuable bear, but comforting. Did you have a teddy bear, Thomas?'

‘A monkey. Blue. Both my children had teddy bears, though. And the grandkids.'

‘We did give one to Diana, but it came to a bad end.'

‘What did she do to it?'

‘Put it on the bonfire. I really don't know why. Perhaps because we couldn't afford a Steiff and she rejected second-best?'

The car turned into their road.

Ellie said, ‘I'm not making much sense, am I?'

‘You are making perfect sense, my love. We hang on to things we love in times of stress.'

‘Yes, but you don't need your monkey nowadays. You hang on to Jesus.'

‘So do you.'

Ellie thought, but didn't say, that she wasn't sure her hold on Him was strong at times like this. Perhaps He was still holding on to her, though? A comforting thought.

Thomas helped her out of the car as Vera opened the front door to greet them. Thank God for Vera.

But, what about Rose? ‘Is Rose all right?'

‘She's resting. Don't worry about anything.' Vera helped the two girls into the house, and between them, they unloaded their belongings and put them in the hall.

Ellie said, ‘Vera, I think we'll have to let the girls stay here tonight. You'll want to get back home—'

‘Not till you're straight. You look as if you're about to fall down. Angelika goes in the spare room, right? That's it. Come along now, duckie. Up the stairs we go.'

Vera started up the stairs, half carrying Angelika, while toting her suitcase as if it were made of feathers.

Thomas picked up Freya's rucksack. ‘In little Frank's room?'

‘Thank you,' said Freya, remembering her manners. ‘You're very kind.' She was on autopilot. Her eyes were open, but she didn't seem to know how to climb the stairs when she got to them.

Ellie gave Freya a push and got her setting one foot in front of the other and so, step by step, into Frank's room. Freya was staring ahead, seeing nothing. Or seeing her home being destroyed by fire?

Ellie guided Freya to the bed and sat her down on it. The bed there was always left made up for little Frank's visits. Ellie sat beside Freya and put her arm round the girl's shoulders.

Freya was stiff, unresponsive. ‘I'll be all right. You don't need to worry about me.'

‘You're a little soldier. The bathroom's next door but one, along the corridor. Come down when you fancy something to eat.' Ellie left the girl there.

Vera was bustling around with an armful of sheets and towels.

Ellie said, ‘I can do that.'

Vera shook her head. ‘You leave it to me. I'll sort them.'

Ellie went down the stairs, slowly. She could hear the murmur of Thomas's voice, talking on the phone. She stood in the hall, not knowing what to do next. She let the quiet of the house settle around her.

Dear Lord, thank you. I can't begin to see how we get out of this tangle, but thank you. I don't know why I felt it so important to get the girls out of there this morning . . . but you must have been on my case. I probably missed some clue or other. If they'd stayed, they might have died . . .

Fire . . .

She shuddered. Fire destroys so much.

It also cleanses. Gets rid of the rubbish.
Was there something in that house that needed to be destroyed? Something nasty that's behind all this death and destruction?

A little brown mouse of a woman crept out of the kitchen. In the poor light Ellie couldn't be sure for a moment whether it were Rose, or Ellie's long dead Aunt Drusilla. They did look rather alike, and Rose had a confusing habit of referring to Miss Quicke as if she were still alive.

‘You're safe, then,' said Rose. ‘I was worried.' She looked up the stairs. ‘But you've brought them here, which means that trouble will follow.'

‘What else could I do?'

Rose shook her head. ‘As Miss Quicke says, we'd better put in an extra spot of praying tonight. And –' in a livelier tone – ‘you're never going to send that girl Vera home at this time of night, are you? She hates that dark old flat that she's been stuck in and, as for that young limb, Mikey, he's building walls with the books in the library. I don't suppose he's doing any harm. No one's had any of those old books off the shelves while I've been here, and so I told him.'

Ellie nodded. ‘There's nothing he can spoil.'

‘I made two lasagnes with Vera's help and I said that if she would like to have the big bed in my old room upstairs tonight she could do so, and Mikey could sleep with her, or if he's the restless type, which I think he probably is, then we'd put a mattress on the floor for him out of the way, because if I know one thing about boys of that age, it's that they like to raid the larder in the small hours, and goodness knows how we're going to make the milk go round for breakfast, though the milkman does deliver early. Dearie me; what am I doing, keeping you here talking when I can see you're fit to fall down at any minute? You go into the sitting room and I'll bring you a nice cuppa.'

Rose bustled off back to the kitchen, but Ellie, instead of going into the sitting room, went down the corridor to the library. She knew why.

Edgar Pryce had been worried about Mikey. Edgar Pryce had passed the buck to her, and she'd accepted it. So now it was her turn to see what was to be done with the boy.

She told herself Mikey wasn't going to do any damage in the library, and even if he did, it wouldn't matter. The room had hardly been touched since Ellie's aunt died. True, it was furnished with some nice antiques and the built-in shelves around the walls were filled with books collected by previous generations. Some of them might possibly be valuable.

Ellie opened the door to the library and heard a quick slithering sound as something – somebody – slid out of sight. There was no small boy to be seen, but books had been taken off the shelves and left in piles on the floor. No, not piles, exactly. They'd been built up into low walls which enclosed a small space in the far corner. An empty space.

She hesitated. What was she supposed to do next? The boy couldn't do any harm if left alone in here, could he? In the old days he'd often been unmanageable, throwing tantrums at the drop of a hat, but Vera said he was a different person since he'd discovered computers.

One dark, intelligent eye surveyed her from the darkness in the kneehole of the desk. Ellie nodded to the eye. It vanished.

She said, ‘We could do with a bit of light on the situation, couldn't we?' She could put the light on, reassure him, and then leave him in peace and quiet while she had her promised cup of tea. She clicked on the overhead light and hesitated. It was as if someone had spoken in her ear.

Talk to him.

She shook her head. She was tired. This was a boy with a lot of problems.

He's fatherless. Gifted. Edgar gave him a reason for living. He's lost Edgar. Edgar asked you to look after him. His mother is loving and giving but not up to his weight mentally. Vera says he's not eating properly. Think what that's going to mean when he has to go back to school next week. If he ignores school lunches, he'll be handed over to psychiatrists and everyone will think he's crazy and they'll point at him and make nasty remarks that he can hear and bully him. It will destroy him.