Murder My Neighbour (30 page)

‘What a shock it must have been to both of them to find the other there! I imagine there was an argument; perhaps she threatened to call the police, and he assaulted her in order to stop her leaving and raise the alarm. She was dragged around the place and punched until she lost consciousness.'

The DC said in a soft voice, ‘Edwina Pryce admitted they did know where the safe was, but says she didn't know the combination. She says Mrs Pryce did give it to her once, a long time ago. She says she wrote it down on that year's calendar, which has since been thrown away.'

An unlikely tale, thought Ellie. Edwina throw away the combination to the family's safe? Pull the other one.

As for Evangeline, from what Ellie had heard about that young lady, she'd certainly not have passed up a chance to memorize it, or to write it down somewhere.

‘Evangeline presumably took her mother's front door key . . . We'll have to check on that,' said Ears. ‘So how did this mythical window cleaner get in?'

‘Well, I suppose there are two scenarios. The first is that he spotted Evangeline going into the house and pushed his way in after her. That's very possible. There was another way. He didn't have a front door key, but he's had access to the house for years and knew the layout. He was in and out of the house on that last day when the utilities were turned off. He was there to put padlocks on all the outside doors – and incidentally, he didn't hand over all the keys to the padlocks, but kept some for himself so he could get into the yard at any time he liked.

‘Now the back door key, which usually hung on a hook in the kitchen, is missing. I think he took it. You'd better check whether or not it got handed in to the estate agents, but my guess is that it wasn't. Once inside the yard, using the keys he'd kept to the padlocks, he had access to the house through the back door.'

‘Why would he want a back door key to an empty house? And don't tell me he was after the contents of the safe on the day she moved out, because at that point everyone thought Mrs Pryce had gone off with all her bits and pieces.'

‘Well, not everyone, perhaps. Those who were involved in her demise would have known better. But, getting back to Jack; an empty house is an open invitation to people with contacts in the building trade. Good fireplaces and plumbing fixtures go missing from empty houses all the time. Jack hasn't a good reputation. The only puzzle to me is why he waited so long to go in.' There was something else in the back of her mind about that, too, if only she could remember it.

‘Oh,' she said, with a little jump. ‘Have you checked to see if the back door was jemmied open?'

‘No sign of a break in.'

Ellie sighed. ‘Oh dear, it does look as if it was Jack, and that he planned to rob the place right from the start.'

‘So you say,' said Ears, heavily sarcastic.

Ellie pursued her own line of thought. ‘When he got in through the back door, the first thing he did was to turn the electrics on. He must have done this after the girl arrived and before she got as far as the safe. If she'd noticed that lights had been turned on in the house she wouldn't have gone in, would she? It must have been a shock to her when the place lit up.'

‘All right; she knew where the safe was. What makes you think she knew the combination to it?'

‘I don't think Edwina has been straight with you. What, throw away the combination to the family's safe, when she knew that a number of valuables had been stored there over the years? Of course she didn't!'

‘Then why is she pretending that she did?'

‘She's dissociating herself from her daughter's attempt at burglary. I suppose you can't blame her for that. But the idea that Evangeline would have come to the house armed with nothing but a key and a torch is a giveaway. She must have known the combination.'

‘You think Edwina gave her the key and the combination, that she was in it with her?'

‘I really don't know. It could be that, or it could be that Evangeline had the combination all along and took her mother's key, acting on her own initiative. There wasn't any blood in the television room, was there? The man must have caught her in the hall, perhaps as she came through the front door. The blood spatters tell us it was a hard fight with lots of blood shed. Have you checked to see if all the blood was hers? Maybe she managed to scratch him as he threw her around. She tried to get out of the front door at one point, didn't she? Finally he knocked her out and left her lying on the floor at the bottom of the stairs. He went off to work on the panelling, but once he'd found the safe, he couldn't open it. She was still alive at that point—'

‘Why do you say that?'

‘Because she was moved after she'd been rendered unconscious. I suppose that when he found the safe he went back to try to shake the combination out of her. She couldn't or wouldn't help him. His earlier blows to the head might have knocked all the sense out of her, or perhaps she was so bloody-minded she wouldn't tell. Poor girl. He panicked and left, leaving the lights on, perhaps not realizing that she was dying. I hope he didn't realize it.'

He made a gesture of defeat. ‘You've told us nothing we didn't know already. I expected better of you.'

She ignored the sneer in his voice. ‘There's plenty I don't know. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? And why did the chicken cross the road?'

‘Don't even think it!'

She allowed herself a small smile. ‘All right. I can't even guess who might have caused Mrs Pryce's death until we find out whether the safe was empty or not. You say Evangeline was disappointed when the will was read. When did that happen, may I ask?'

The DC replied, ‘The will wasn't read till early this week. On Tuesday, to be precise. After that, Evangeline must have been psyching herself up to check on the safe, and finally made it on Friday night.'

‘And why did Jack the Lad hold back till now?'

The DC said, ‘We believe his name is really John, and he is listed among the beneficiaries of the will, but he didn't attend the reading. In fact, only the immediate family attended. The others mentioned will be informed of their good fortune by letter. We have an address for him. We'll follow that up. You do know that you—?'

Ears cut her short. ‘If she wants to play games with us, that's all right. It takes two to tango.'

Ellie blinked. What on earth did he mean?

‘Enough,' said Ears, gathering himself together. ‘I'm really disappointed in you, Mrs Quicke. I'd thought you'd want to help us, instead of withholding information, so—'

‘What?'

‘When you're prepared to be open with us, we'll be happy to continue this discussion. As it is, we'll be on our way.'

Ellie couldn't think what he meant. ‘I've done my best, but . . .' She shrugged. ‘Let me show you out. I'll be down in the morning to see if I can identify my bits and pieces, all right? I can sign a statement then.'

As she passed out of the door the DC muttered something about a letter, which Ellie didn't catch because she was so happy to see the back of them.

She shut the front door with a bang. Good riddance.

She tried to turn her mind to some other matter, but for some reason couldn't think straight. Was she missing a piece of the jigsaw puzzle? Several pieces, in fact. Facts and figures whirled around in her mind, refusing to settle into a pattern.

Perhaps there was no pattern. Perhaps it was all panic and stupidity.

He didn't reply. He seemed to be waiting for her to do – or say – something.

There was one question she could put to Rose, if she wanted to be nosey. The violence of Evangeline's death was frightening. Suppose Fritz had been mistaken about Jack? It would be terrible if she'd pointed the police in the direction of an innocent man.

She went through to the kitchen. ‘Rose, does someone called Jack clean our windows?'

‘He used to, years ago, but Miss Quicke got rid of him, said he gave her the creeps. Someone the gardener recommended does it now. Is there a problem?'

‘Absolutely not. That lamb smells delicious! And here comes Thomas, back in good time to eat with us.'

Perhaps they'd go out into the country that afternoon for a walk. Or what about a visit to Kew Gardens? Yes, why not? Life was not all tears and tension, was it?

The night was rendered hideous by Midge, who gave up sentry duty in favour of headbutting the dining-room door.

Boom! Boom!

Screams of terror from the little cat.

Boom!

Eleven o'clock. Boom! Half past. Boom!

Thomas got out of bed, went downstairs, picked Midge up, thrust him into the kitchen and shut the door on him.

Bang! Bang! Midnight.

Midge wasn't giving up. Rose tottered out of her room. ‘What's the matter? Is it a burglar?'

Mia joined her. Thomas returned, collected Midge and carried him up the stairs to join Ellie in their bedroom. Midge hissed out a complaint, but in a few minutes decided that he must have won, because the intruder was downstairs and he was ensconced on a chair in the master bedroom. Besides which, he knew he could always get out of the window if he wished to do so. Tomorrow, oh tomorrow, he'd drive that little rat out of his territory!

Peace at last.

Ellie stared at the ceiling. She liked jigsaw puzzles, but this one was rather too hard for her. She reminded herself that she was going to have a busy today tomorrow, which didn't help. At one o'clock she was still awake.

Why had Ears been so, well, almost secretive about the reading of the will? He'd implied . . . She didn't know what he'd been thinking, but it was almost as if he thought she knew something about it. But she didn't.

Suddenly, she remembered the two unopened letters in her study. She slipped out of bed, careful not to disturb either Midge or Thomas, and crept down the stairs to her office. She closed the door and put on the light.

Yes, both letters were from solicitors.

She opened the one from Gunnar, her own solicitor, first. He reported that until he'd seen the contract Diana had signed with Denis at the start of their business venture, he could not be expected to give an opinion. But his first thoughts were that if Denis wanted to sue Diana, Diana could in turn threaten to sue him for breaking the terms of their agreement by no longer being available. If both parties to the agreement decided to sue, then the agreement might be considered null and void. Diana could then change the name of the agency and continue in practice.

Ellie smiled. Now that was an interesting way out of the dilemma, wasn't it? But it didn't solve the problem of how to deal with a daughter who kept on wanting more money and more attention and was never satisfied with what she'd got. And who had tried to k— . . . Ellie made herself complete the sentence. A daughter who had tried to kill her mother. All right, it had been a momentary impulse. But if Thomas hadn't come in at that point . . . It didn't bear thinking about, but Ellie knew that some time she would have to face up to what had happened.

Blood is thicker than water, etcetera. Even if Diana was the most unloving of daughters, she was still Ellie's responsibility. Till death do us part. Surely that was the Christian way of looking at things?

The other envelope was from a solicitor Ellie didn't know. It was much larger and contained a letter on thick, expensive paper and another envelope. A writ from Diana?

No. Very far from it.

Ellie sank down into her chair. The covering letter was from a solicitor called Greenbody. Now that rang a bell, didn't it? Yes; he – or possibly they – were Mrs Pryce's solicitors. Edwina Pryce had mentioned them.

Ellie scanned the letter. Apparently, Mrs Pryce had left Ellie a legacy. How very pleasant. And unexpected. After all, Ellie had only met Mrs Pryce once, although she thought they might have been good friends if they'd met more often.

Mr Greenbody requested that Mrs Quicke contact him soonest to discuss the terms of the will. Fine. Ellie would do that. A few thousand would be nice, to offset the cost of redoing the bathroom and the holiday in Paris.

There was an envelope addressed to Ellie alongside the covering letter: