Murder in Style (24 page)

Ellie put the peeled potatoes into a pan of cold water, salted it and put it on to boil. She set about preparing some onions. ‘Then let's suppose that Poppy went to the top of the stairs under her own steam for some reason. Someone used the intercom to ask Poppy to let them into the office. Poppy then went to the top of the stairs to operate the lock on the front door to let them in.'

Clemmie rang the bell, wanting to be let in. Just because you like the girl, it doesn't mean you shouldn't look at what she might have done. Let's talk it through.

She continued, ‘Poppy goes to the head of the stairs to let them in. They climb the stairs to where she was standing, and throw her down?'

A pause while they both thought about that.

‘No,' said Ellie. ‘No sign of a struggle. It can't have happened that way.'

Lesley shook her head. ‘No.'

Ellie said, ‘There were no strange fingerprints anywhere?'

‘None.'

Ellie noticed that the potatoes had come to the boil. She drained the water off, sieved flour and a spoonful of made mustard on to the potatoes in the pan and shook it, hard. ‘Any phone calls to The Magpie landline making an appointment to see Poppy at the office that evening? Or to her mobile phone?'

‘Nothing. We checked. Juno used her own mobile phone to call the cab which took her away. That checked out, too. As you so rightly say, if only we'd found the office lights off and Poppy's handbag at the bottom of the stairs, we'd have gone for an accident without a second thought.'

‘And ignored the toxic state of affairs in the family.'

‘That is so.'

‘Therefore, it all comes down to alibis. How good are they?'

‘Each and every one of them is properly accounted for.'

‘Really?' said Ellie, popping the floured potatoes and the peeled onions around the joint. ‘Tell me all.'

L
esley did not want to talk about alibis. She was restless, now rubbing her fingers and admiring her engagement ring, and now looking at the clock over the cooker. She went to the window to look up at the sky. ‘It's clearing up. Should be a fine afternoon. What does he want to play cricket for, when we need to talk?'

Ellie held back a sigh. Lesley didn't know much about men, did she? ‘Men need their space, just as we do.'

‘I don't.'

This was untrue. Lesley had a difficult, stressful job and needed to relax and think about something else when she was off duty. Lesley was being difficult. Wedding nerves again?

Ellie said, ‘Do you want to watch him play?'

A shoulder twitched. ‘What, sit all afternoon on an uncomfortable chair while he prances around pretending to be a good batsman … which he is not? What's in it for me? I'm expected to commiserate with him when the umpire signals that he's out, and listen to the other women talk about their teenage children and how appalling it is that the police pick on them when they'd only been having a bit of fun? Oh, and then, to show how grateful I am to be included on such an important occasion, I'm expected to wash up after tea.'

Ellie had to laugh. ‘Yes, I see what you mean. What would you rather be doing?'

‘Dunno. I thought about joining a sailing club. Something physical. Something that would make me concentrate on anything rather than work.'

‘Good idea.'

‘He's not interested. So, I wonder, are my future weekends going to be spent watching him play cricket in the summer and football in the winter?'

‘You can develop your own interests, surely. You often work at weekends, and police work fascinates you. You're a born hunter.'

Lesley slapped the table. ‘
He
isn't. I can't think why I didn't realize it before.'

‘Does it matter? You wouldn't want to marry another hunter.'

Lesley accused her, ‘You're a hunter, too. You look as if you couldn't say “boo” to a goose, but you're a hunter. How do you manage, being married to Thomas … who isn't?'

‘Different skills. We are two halves of one. We balance one another.'

A frown. ‘Does my fiancé balance my needs? No.'

‘You threw the mug of coffee at him. You wounded him. He's forgiven you. He's invited you back into his life.'

Lesley indicated her smartphone. ‘Not until he'd said a lot of things that hurt.'

So Lesley had accessed the messages he'd asked her to delete? Well, it was good to know what your partner was capable of. Wasn't it?

Ellie said, ‘It's important to know when to have a fight about something, and when to give way. You might let him have a green settee when you'd rather have blue, but if it's a question of running up bills for things you can't afford, you put your foot down.'

‘That's not very romantic.'

‘It's practical.'

‘I'm supposed to be a blushing bride, adoring my husband-to-be, thinking his every word is the Law—'

‘I bet you know the Law better than he does.'

Lesley was forced into a laugh. ‘That's true. Yes, he's kind and hard-working, generous and thoughtful. He'll never make headmaster, but he'll always remember my birthday and to put the rubbish out on Thursdays. He's a semi-detached-house sort of man. I suppose he ought to be good enough for someone like me, who's never going to darn his socks or remember to pick up his dry cleaning.'

Was that enough? Ellie thought of the deep connection between herself and Thomas. She remembered the moment in which she'd realized that he was her best friend, and that he'd become so necessary to her that she couldn't bear to think of his moving away. And – she suppressed a grin – we won't talk about the fun we have with rumpy-pumpy! There were moments when she did feel left behind by his wholehearted service to the Lord, when she realized that she'd never be able to match him there … even as he seemed to think, which was nonsense, that she had a special, if different, talent for serving Him.

Would Lesley's marriage turn out so well?

Ellie told herself that every couple had a different dynamic, and what suited one, might not work for another.

The meat was cooking nicely in the oven. What should they have for afters? They'd plenty of cheese. That would do.

Lesley stared out of the window. ‘Cricket is so boring.'

‘Men don't think so. What about those alibis? The Cordover parents – Gerald and Marika – what were they doing the night their daughter died?'

Lesley pushed her fingers back through her hair, picked up her notebook, riffled through the pages. ‘There'd been a meeting at their house, family stuff. Marika served sandwiches and cake. All the usual suspects were there except Ray. Present were Gerald and Marika, plus Poppy and Juno and Gordon. I think the accountant, as well? Yes. Him, too.'

‘Not the next generation? Not Trixie or Clemmie?'

‘Adults only.'

‘What about Ray?'

‘At the club. The staff agree he was there. CCTV confirms it. He was there, losing, of course. He stayed till after one, and then went home.'

‘There were a number of things the family needed to discuss,' said Ellie, thinking that it wasn't only Ray's debts which were a problem. What about Poppy wanting a divorce? What about Clemmie's debts and Trixie's ambitions?

Ellie had learned a lot about the family since the Cordovers had called her in to help them. Some of it Lesley seemed to know, but not all. So, how many of the family's secrets ought Ellie to pass on to the police? If Poppy's death really had been an accident, then Lesley really did not need to know anything more than she did already.

Ought Ellie to keep quiet about Gordon's accusations re Clemmie, for a start? It might help Lesley to hear what he intended to do, but not if they were groundless – which Ellie was pretty sure they were. ‘Did Trixie have an alibi?'

‘She was in a restaurant with her manager and some friends, discussing how to raise money for her film project. The Indian restaurant in the Avenue. They were thrown out about half eleven.'

‘Some time after Poppy died?'

‘Considerably. Four or five of them went on clubbing, including Trixie. That checked out.'

‘When did Poppy and Juno leave their parents' house?'

‘About nine. They went off by themselves to talk over how to deal with Ray, and how they could pay him off in the event of a divorce.'

Lesley didn't know that Ray had signed over the garage to Poppy? Should Ellie tell her? No. Or not yet, anyway. ‘Gordon's a non-starter—'

‘Exactly. He couldn't have got up those stairs.'

‘Which leaves Clemmie.'

‘She had a driving lesson earlier that evening and then had some more driving practice with a friend. She lives in a small terraced house not far away. The friend was with her until late, long after Poppy died.'

No mention of Gordon's seeing Clemmie knocking on the door of The Magpie? Ah, but precisely when had that happened?

Had Aidan really given Clemmie an alibi? He was supposed to be on nights at the hospital, wasn't he? But even junior doctors didn't work nights all the time, did they? ‘Clemmie's friend; that's Aidan?'

‘I interviewed him. He confirmed he was with Clemmie all evening. Nice lad. Straightforward.'

‘Mm.' Ellie wasn't so sure about that. ‘What about Juno, then? You say she took a cab back home, after she'd been with Poppy for … how long? Not that I think she killed her sister. Well, she couldn't have done, since Poppy was alive when Juno left The Magpie.'

‘Agreed. Juno left about ten fifteen, just missing Gordon, who'd gone round to The Magpie to pick her up after he left the senior Cordovers. She'd already called a cab and gone by then.'

Yes, that fitted. Juno had gone to her parents' house in Gordon's car, but left with Poppy in Poppy's car to go to The Magpie. She hadn't had her own car with her that night, so she'd called a cab when she wanted to leave The Magpie.

Lesley said, ‘We found the cab driver. He remembered the fare because both sisters were standing outside when he arrived at The Magpie, and he didn't know which was his fare till one got into the cab and the other went back inside. He dropped Juno off back at her house at ten thirty, ten thirty-five. Some neighbours were at that very moment returning home from a function, and saw her arrive. She was exchanging a few words with them when Gordon returned. She helped him indoors and garaged his car for him.'

‘Timing?'

‘A quarter to eleven or thereabouts.'

‘Wait a minute. Have I got this right? Juno and Poppy left their parents' house to go off and confer. Gordon was also at the meeting, but he didn't go with them because he couldn't get up the stairs at The Magpie. Were the twins deliberately excluding him from their meeting?'

‘He said he'd stayed on at the Cordovers' to continue discussions with the accountant and his parents-in-law.'

‘Why didn't Juno wait for Gordon to pick her up from The Magpie?'

‘She said she didn't know how long he'd be.'

‘And Poppy's car?'

‘We found it parked round the corner.'

That would belong to Juno now, too. Ray would have co-opted it, wouldn't he? Even if he'd lost the Lexus to the club, he still had Poppy's car. It was unlikely that Juno would insist on his handing it over to her, wasn't it? Or was it?

Ellie probed a bit more. ‘Gordon went round to The Magpie to collect Juno. We know Poppy was alive when Juno left, but Gordon must have been there about the time that Poppy died?'

‘He thinks, just after. He's got a specially adapted car which he can drive anywhere he likes. But once he steps out of that, he has to get into his wheelchair or use two sticks. Clearly, he could never have got up the stairs to tussle with Poppy. And, he's no motive.'

‘That's true.' And, no means. Ellie had seen for herself that in his wheelchair he couldn't even get over the step into The Magpie shop without help. What a pity! Of all that family, Ellie would have liked Gordon to be the villain, whereas he was the only one who couldn't physically have done it.

‘What about the accountant?'

‘Stayed on at the Cordovers' till they threw him and Gordon out, which would be about a quarter past ten. The accountant went straight home. He lives five minutes away in one of those expensive flats overlooking the Green. As soon as he got in, he switched his computer on to check Facebook. He's having a long-distance flirtation with someone in Hull. We checked.'

Ellie subdued a need to giggle. Did Marge Money know about that? Mm, Ellie would bet that she did. Would Marge care? No, she wouldn't.

‘So that's the lot? The senior Cordovers didn't go out again that evening?'

‘No. After everyone had gone, they had a hot drink and then went to bed.' Lesley looked at her watch, looked out of the window. Fidgeted. ‘You know, I usually clean the flat on my day off. I wonder …'

Lesley was going to cry off lunch and return to the flat, not necessarily to clean it, but to make sure Angelica had vacated the place and to re-establish her position as its mistress. Ellie thought of the large quantities of food she was cooking for lunch. Well, Thomas would be very happy to have seconds, and any leftover vegetables could go into soup.

‘Do you know,' said Lesley, ‘I think I might as well make a move. It's been lovely of you to have me, especially when I was feeling so “down”. I'm grateful.' Lesley's mind was already all on what she planned to do next. She was smiling to herself. ‘I'll just pop upstairs and gather my things together. Shall I strip the bed?'

‘No need.' Perhaps Lesley would need it again before the wedding.

As Lesley went up the back stairs, Ellie got out her phone and rang Diana, who wouldn't be at work on a Sunday, but who probably wasn't cooking a roast dinner, either.