Murder My Neighbour (7 page)

A condescending smile. ‘As you say, you wouldn't really know what anyone on drugs looked like.' His mobile phone rang. He whipped it out, listened for a few seconds, and shut it off. ‘Well, duty calls. Something more important, I'm afraid.' He was Mr Sarcasm himself. ‘I'll leave DC Milburn here with you to take any details you can recall, and no doubt we'll be in touch when we've caught the man.'

He didn't really think they were going to catch him, that much was clear. As he would say, ‘Another con job. End of.'

Ellie showed Ears out and returned to DC Milburn, who smiled at her in a completely normal, woman to woman, way. Ellie smiled back. ‘Tea or coffee? And would you mind if I just popped in on Rose, who's not feeling too good today? Falling off a ladder at her age . . .'

‘Climbing a ladder at any age,' said the DC. ‘I get vertigo.'

Ellie smiled. ‘I'm all right on ladders up to the fourth rung, then I cling on tight, close my eyes even tighter, and inch my way back down again.'

Rose had got herself dressed and moved as far as ‘her' armchair in the kitchen; or rather, Mia had helped get her there. Now they were sitting together happily going over some old recipe books, planning future meals and making a shopping list.

Ellie would have suggested she and the DC might sit outside, but the gardener was mowing the lawn so they returned to the sitting room, which was cool enough that early in the day.

‘This is a lovely room.' The policewoman looked around her, relaxing.

‘I am fortunate. But not lucky, yesterday. I know your superior officer has made up his mind that my caller was a con man. May I tell you exactly what happened and what makes me think he wasn't just that?'

DC Milburn eyed Ellie over the rim of her mug of coffee. ‘Our chief super says you've a feeling for villainy. Of course, she doesn't like it when you report some ghastliness or other, but she has to admit you've a nose for crime.'

Ellie blushed. ‘Why, thank you. I know I haven't got a trained mind or anything, and probably don't spot all sorts of things that professionals would, but I do notice this and that, and I made some notes you might like to see.'

She went through the notes she'd made the night before, concluding: ‘The thing is, would your usual con man have such an outlandish appearance? Wouldn't he want to be unmemorable? I mean, this young man had brutally short hair but it had been cut by a good barber, it wasn't a home-made job. Also, he had rings in his ears, his eyebrow and his lip.'

‘I must admit, I can't recall a con man looking like that. But an opportunist thief . . .' The DC shrugged.

‘Well, what about his car? It was bright yellow. Not a lemon yellow, but a deep egg-yolk colour like custard powder.'

‘You didn't get the licence number?'

‘No.'

‘What make was it?'

Ellie shook her head.

‘You didn't notice.'

‘I hardly know one make from another. When Thomas says, “Look at that Merc!” I don't know which car he means.'

‘Well, was it a small car?'

‘Not like a Mini, but yes; smallish. I only caught a glimpse as I closed the door, remember.'

‘Was it built like a beetle?'

‘Now I do know a Volkswagen when I see one. No, it wasn't. It had the normal up and down silhouette. Not an estate car. No sticky-out back.'

‘Two door or four?'

Ellie concentrated. ‘Four, I think; but I wouldn't like to swear to it. It had been recently cleaned, no dirt splashes. There was something hanging from the mirror at the front? I might be wrong about that.'

‘You're doing well. Any stickers on the windows, or at the back?'

‘You mean notices like Baby on Board, or those screens they put on windows to shield children from the sun? No, I don't think so. I'm a poor witness, I'm afraid.'

‘If I got some pictures of different makes of car, would you look to see if you could identify this one?'

‘I could try.' Both of them knew there was little likelihood of her succeeding.

The DC looked over her notes, frowning. ‘He certainly doesn't sound like the usual run of con men, but I suppose . . . ?'

‘He convinced me that his great-aunt did live at that big house and that he'd bought some Liquorice Allsorts for her.'

‘Liquorice Allsorts?' The DC smiled. ‘Yes, you'd think he'd talk about a box of Cadbury's Milk chocolates if he were a con man.'

‘Or Thornton's, something expensive for an elderly relative you were hoping to tap for a loan. He rang true when he said he was desperate for money. I don't know whether I believed him or not about the sister and her partner and all the rest. He might even have been telling the truth about working in the bedding department of a big store.'

‘We can't ring round every department store asking if they know him when we don't even know his name. He was probably lying, anyway.'

‘But his appearance . . . ?'

The DC sighed. ‘Perhaps it was his first venture into this sort of crime? I sympathize, I really do, but we haven't the manpower to follow up every lead in this sort of case. The best we can do is to put his details and a note of what you've lost into circulation and see if anything turns up. If he tries again, we'll be sure to hear about it. I'll give you a police report number, which you'll need for the insurance people. I assume you are insured?'

Ellie let her visitor out. Ears had taken the car, of course, and the girl would have to walk back to the station. Not that it was all that far.

Thomas materialized from his office. ‘Satisfactory?'

‘The police think it was just another con artist.' Ellie wanted to hit something. Hard.

‘Annoying. Are they going to follow up on the lost lady?'

‘Did I even mention it? Yes, I did. In passing. But I'm not even a member of her family. In fact, I don't think I'd know her if I saw her in the street.' She shook her head. ‘Honestly, I can see their point of view. I was very silly to let the boy into the house in the first place, and it's my own fault that he stole from us.'

‘No, it isn't. What about Hoopers, the estate agency? Did they give you an address where Ms Pryce can be found?'

The doorbell rang. ‘I'll take it,' he said. ‘I'm expecting someone.' He didn't look happy about it, but went off to answer the door.

Ellie stormed off down the corridor to her office and banged the door behind her. There were times when . . . men could be so irritating . . . hadn't she got her hands full at the moment, what with Rose . . . and Mia must be encouraged to leave them, but it was going to be difficult to manage without her . . . and as for Diana . . . Don't think about Diana. That was one problem too far.

She must talk to Thomas about it soon.

Ellie sat down at her desk, pushing away the pile of paperwork which her part-time secretary had left for her to deal with. Well, if Thomas was too busy to help, and the police thought her an idiot, she would have to set about finding the thief herself. It shouldn't be too difficult.

First, she rang Stewart on his mobile phone. ‘Stewart, it's Ellie here . . . No, no problem with Frank. As I told you, he went off to school quite happy, said it was football this afternoon after school and he's looking forward to that. How the young can keep chasing a ball around a field in this heat, I don't know. Have you spoken to your solicitor yet about Diana?'

A sigh. ‘I have. He needs all the paperwork from the time of the divorce. My darling wife took the news bravely. She reminded me that I'd put the deeds of this house in her name, which is true and means Diana can't force us to sell. How about you?'

‘I'm going to have to talk to Thomas about it. I'm ringing about something different. We took a walk round by the Pryce house last night, and Thomas disinterred a rather battered estate agent's board from the undergrowth. Hoopers. I think I ought to know the name, but . . . You know everyone round here in that line. Do you know anything about them?'

‘Doing well, branches all over West London. It makes sense that the Pryce house should have gone to them.'

‘I'd like to find out more about it.'

‘You said you weren't interested.'

‘The vegetable garden's being worked for food; the house is empty but there's no attempt currently being made to sell it. An unsatisfactory situation, don't you think?'

‘A messy situation, but I can't see—'

‘What it's got to do with me? I know, Stewart. I know. We had a caller who said he was related to the old lady and went off with some of our valuables. I'll tell you all about it some time. If I disappear you'll find me floating in the pond in the deserted garden, chanting something from Shakespeare about never telling her love.'

She caught herself up and laughed. ‘Sorry, Stewart. I don't know what's got into me today.'

A cautious tone. ‘Is Rose all right?'

‘So so. Mia's looking after her. But Mia really ought to be packing to leave, so that's another problem. I may have a word with your wife, see if she can find someone to come in to look after Rose for a few weeks till she's better.'

‘My wife's not working today – it's the end-of-term nursery show and the children are in it – but her assistant will be there, and I'm sure she'll be able to help.' Apart from looking after Stewart and the children, his wife owned the cleaning agency which looked after Ellie's house and many others in the area.

‘Which reminds me,' said Ellie. ‘Rose told me some gossip about the Pryce woman leaving, which I seem to recall she got from one of my cleaners. No, it's gone right out of my head. Sorry, I'm not quite myself today.'

Stewart was amused. ‘It's the heat. It's getting to me, too.'

Ellie held back a sigh. ‘I'd better ring the agency then.'

She rang off and phoned the agency. ‘Ellie Quicke here. Can you spare a moment? It's Rose, our housekeeper. She fell and hurt her wrist, nothing serious, but she'll have to rest for a bit, and our dear little lodger, who's been so good to her, is supposed to be moving out to a place of her own. Do you have someone on your books who could come in every day for a while . . . ?'

They were sympathetic, of course. ‘I can think of one person who would be suitable, but she may not be free. I'll ring you back, shall I? Is everything else all right, Mrs Quicke? You sound a bit fussed. Not like you.'

‘Ah well. I did a silly thing.' Ellie repeated the story about the Pryce boy and his search for his great-aunt. ‘Now am I dreaming it, or did one of my cleaners also work for Mrs Pryce in the past? Was there something about her cats being taken away?'

‘Vera and Pet? They should have been with you by now. What's the time? Eleven, just gone?'

Ellie took the phone away from her ear and listened. A vacuum cleaner whined somewhere. ‘Yes, they're here.'

‘They used to go on to Mrs Pryce's when they finished with you on Tuesdays and Fridays, I think it was. The old lady was very particular who cleaned for her and liked those two, used to give them a nice bonus at Christmas. She paid us by cheque, on the nail. Hold on a minute, I'll access her account . . . Yes, here it is. All paid up, no problem.'

‘Forwarding address? Did she ask for anyone to pop in and look after the house, or anything?'

‘No, a clean break. No forwarding address. She was going into a retirement home, I gather. They didn't allow pets, so she had the Cats Protection League come in to take her two. Vera said she'd have liked one of them, but I don't know what happened – maybe she came to an arrangement with the cat people.

‘I only remember about the cats because I thought we might have a mouse here at the office, and Vera said Mrs Pryce was getting rid of hers. A something and a nothing, as you might say. I'm so sorry about Rose. I hope she gets better soon.'

Like Ellie, they knew that when older people had a fall, it could be the beginning of the end. Luckily Rose hadn't broken anything, but the shock might start off any number of problems: pneumonia being the one which occurred most frequently, often proving fatal.

‘Thank you,' said Ellie, and she put the phone down.

She tried to collect her wits, which seemed to have gone gathering wool round the Wrekin, or wherever it was they went when they left her. How could she have been so stupid as not to remember the cleaners were due that day? How could she have been so criminally careless as to let the Pryce boy into the house and not keep an eye on him? How was she going to deal with Diana's challenge . . . for challenge it was?

Ellie heard herself groan.

She got to her feet, restless. What would the other trustees of her charitable trust say if she asked them to bail Diana out? They'd refuse. They must refuse. Their responsibility was to look after the money, and to disburse it to needy people.

She must talk to Thomas about it instead. Now.