The Fruit Gum Murders (2 page)

‘Jewellery should be discreet … delicate.'

‘You mean cheap … have you seen what Lady Muick is wearing?'

‘Well, she can wear
anything
. She's got the presence.'

‘You mean because she's a big lump?'

They made a few more turns and finished up where they started.

Mary's face straightened and she shook her head.

‘That emerald and diamond piece round her neck must be worth around a hundred thousand pounds,' Angel said.

Mary's eyebrows shot up. ‘As much as that?'

The ‘Blue Danube' music came to an end. Mary and Michael Angel stopped dancing, as did all the others. They applauded the orchestra and took their seats.

Michael put his fingers down inside his collar again and began pulling it.

Mary saw him and looked round to see if he was being observed. ‘Don't do that,' she said.

‘It's sticking in, Mary. It's uncomfortable.'

‘You will insist on wearing your father's old dress collars. If you would let me get some—'

‘There's too much starch on the damned thing.'

‘There isn't any starch on it at all. Starch went out in the Dark Ages. I'll get you a couple of new collars. …'

Suddenly, there was a loud roll on the drums and a crash of cymbals. The lights went out and a spotlight showed up a young man in front of the sextet.

The Great Hall went silent and everybody stared in the direction of the stage.

‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the charity ball in the Great Hall here in Muick Castle, graciously permitted by Lady Muick and sponsored by Mrs Nancy Mackenzie. I am your MC for the evening.'

The MC was abruptly interrupted by a loud scream from the opposite end of the Great Hall.

In the dark, everybody turned towards the disturbance.

A voice called out, ‘Put the lights on.' Several others repeated the suggestion.

The lights went up.

It was Lady Muick. She was on her feet, her face white, her eyes staring, her fingers feeling round her long, scraggy neck. ‘My necklace! My necklace! It's gone. It's gone.'

Sir Rodney Stamp leaned over to her and said, ‘Where did you have it last?'

Lady Muick eyed him with huge eyes and said, ‘Round my neck. It's been taken in the dark.'

He blinked, took a gulp out of his glass. The young woman next to him grabbed him by the arm and whispered something.

The crowd began to mutter among themselves.

Mrs Nancy Mackenzie got to her feet and in a slow and confident voice said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen.'

The muttering stopped.

‘Ladies and gentlemen,' she continued, ‘would you please look around you and see if you can see an emerald and diamond necklace? It's very beautiful … and unmistakable. It belongs to Lady Muick. If anybody knows anything about it, please come and tell me quickly. I'm sure it will turn up. Then we can return to having a most wonderfully enjoyable evening. Thank you. Thank you very much.' Then she added, ‘Mr MC, would you please ask the gentlemen of the orchestra to play some music? Thank you.'

Mrs Mackenzie then looked at Lady Muick. She was feverishly searching through her handbag. Her hands were shaking. Mrs Mackenzie crossed to her and whispered something, to which her ladyship replied. Then Mrs Mackenzie dipped into her own bag and found a pen and a small notepad.

The microphone boomed out, ‘Please take your partners for a quickstep.'

The orchestra began to play ‘In the mood'. The floor soon filled up with dancers.

Mary turned to her husband said, ‘Isn't it awful, Michael?'

He nodded. He was thinking.

Then she said, ‘Can't you offer to do something?'

‘Like what?'

‘Well, you're a policeman, aren't you?'

‘As far as I know, I'm the only one here.'

‘Well, you could
offer
,' she said.

‘There's a limit on what I can do on my own, Mary,' he said.

The young footman who had been replenishing Sir Rodney Stamp's glass appeared, leaned over the table and quietly said, ‘Excuse me, sir. Detective Inspector Angel?'

‘Yes, lad, what is it?'

‘I have a note for you from Mrs Mackenzie.'

Angel unfolded the small piece of paper. In immaculate writing he read, ‘Inspector Angel, would you be kind enough to meet me in Lady Muick's sitting room. The footman will accompany you. Thank you. Nancy Mackenzie.'

‘Of course,' Angel said to the footman, and he passed the note on to Mary. ‘Won't be long,' he said.

Then he stood up. ‘I'll follow you, lad. Lead the way.'

Mary looked gently into his eyes and said, ‘Do what you can, love.'

‘Of course,' he said.

Then the footman walked as quickly as he could, weaving between people standing, sitting, talking or dancing, across the bottom of the staircase where now only Sir Rodney Stamp and his escort were seated. With Angel still following him, he made his way out of the Great Hall into the huge dining room and then through that to a door, where he knocked and waited a moment or two. It was opened by Mrs Nancy Mackenzie.

TWO

Nancy Mackenzie smiled, which was unusual. Angel thought she couldn't smile.

‘Ah, Inspector, come in. Thank you for coming,' she said. She had a strong voice and spoke as if she was addressing a political meeting of deaf halfwits.

Angel noticed a strong smell of brandy.

At the far end of the room, he saw Lady Muick sitting in an upholstered chair. She looked very pale and was fidgeting, sometimes looking at and fondling a tumbler that had a drop of something alcoholic, probably brandy in it. That would explain the smell. Standing by her side, erect and with his shoulders back, was a large man in a morning coat and black and grey striped trousers.

‘Sit down there, Inspector,' Mrs Mackenzie said.

‘What can I do for you?' Angel said.

‘That is, of course, her ladyship and the man there is her butler,' she said.

Angel nodded politely towards her ladyship, who waved a shaking hand and bowed her head slightly to one side.

Mrs Mackenzie sat down close beside him. ‘Now, you can see what a pickle her ladyship is in, Inspector. She tells me that the emeralds are twelve matching stones from South America, that the necklace is worth more than a hundred thousand pounds and that it's a family piece. What are we to do?'

Angel mind was in overdrive. ‘Short of asking all the guests if they know anything about it, and searching the premises, very little.'

‘We must do that, then. But surely we can do more?'

Angel looked at her and shook his head. ‘Mrs Mackenzie,
everybody
is a suspect. The castle would need sealing off, and I
mean
sealing off, and everybody would need to be searched and interviewed. And every nook and cranny, receptacle, pot and pan, drain and ledge checked. I couldn't do that on my own. And if the necklace has been stolen by professional thieves, it will be miles away from here already.'

‘Oh no, oh no,' Lady Muick said. Obviously, she could hear every word.

‘Can you tell me what time the necklace went missing, Mrs Mackenzie?'

‘Ask her yourself, Inspector.'

‘I heard you,' Lady Muick said. ‘It was when the lights went out. I don't quite know what it was, but the light going out made me think about my personal safety and security, and I felt round my neck for my necklace and discovered that it wasn't there.'

Mrs Mackenzie said, ‘That's about ten or twelve minutes ago, now.'

‘You didn't feel it go, ma'am?' Angel said.

‘No. I didn't feel anything.'

Angel said, ‘We would have needed a squad of men here already if we had expected a job like this. And a warrant to detain people and search them.'

Her ladyship said, ‘I wouldn't want everybody searching … like common criminals, Inspector. Many of these good people are my friends and well known to me. Whatever would they think?'

Angel said, ‘It's not practical under these particular circumstances anyway, your ladyship. So don't worry, we won't be doing any such thing unless we have evidence that they may know something.'

He turned back to Mrs Mackenzie. ‘I can ring the station and have them send out as many men as they can muster, probably eight or ten constables at this time, but we could not properly organize a watertight search and rescue unit to find the necklace at such short notice.'

‘I'm a JP,' Mrs Mackenzie said. ‘I can sign any warrant you might need.'

‘I know that, Mrs Mackenzie, but I would still have to go to the station and get the warrant itself and write it up. Meanwhile another hundred people could have left the castle.'

‘I see what you mean,' she said. ‘Right, well, what
can
we do?'

‘I can go round the hall and ask everybody one by one if they know anything at all about the necklace. If they say no, there's nothing I can do about it. Then you could have the staff – how many staff are there engaged for this ball?'

‘Forty-two. They are mostly ex-employees, known to her ladyship or me. About a dozen more volunteered for the work and were personally vetted by me.'

‘Well,' Angel said, ‘perhaps you could ask each of them individually if they know anything about the necklace?'

‘Indeed, I can and I will.'

‘Then organize them to search around the castle systematically. Every room, box, packet, place, ledge, drawer. …'

‘I can do that as well,' Mrs Mackenzie said, eager to get on with it. ‘Can we do anything when the patrons are leaving?'

‘Only wait at the door, to give the witness, the thief or the finder the chance to speak up. It also shows that we are on the lookout … that we are alert. I haven't much faith that any of these measures will necessarily recover the necklace if it has been deliberately stolen, but under the circumstances these are the only steps we can take at this stage.'

‘Well, thank you, Inspector.'

He reached into his pocket for his mobile. ‘I'll phone the station and get the men out.'

At Bromersley police station, the duty sergeant directed men who were on duty in the station and those out on routine property-checking procedures to Muick Castle. Then Angel began his personal excursion round the Great Hall, asking if anyone had seen the necklace or knew anything at all about it being missing.

DS Clifton, the night duty control sergeant, managed to assemble twelve uniformed men, who arrived around fifteen minutes later. There was one main entrance to the castle through the big door, a rear door to the stables and gardens, a kitchen door, and the French windows in the larger drawing room. Angel quickly briefed them and directed them to their posts, instructing them to stay near the actual door itself so that everyone leaving would have to pass very close to a uniformed man or woman.

Angel continued his personal journey round the Great Hall. He reached Sir Rodney Stamp and his young lady. He stepped up onto the dais and said, ‘Excuse me, have either of you seen anything of Lady Muick's necklace?'

The man glared at him as if Angel had accused him of picking his nose. ‘How
dare
you? Certainly not.'

Angel looked completely unmoved. After all, in his job he had been lied to and sworn at by experts. ‘And the young lady?' he said.

The bemused young woman looked from one man to the other and back and said, ‘No. I'm sorry. I didn't see anyone.'

Angel nodded and continued the round. He eventually reached his wife, who saw him and looked concerned.

‘What's happened, Michael? Is everything all right?'

‘They want me to find Lady Muick's necklace. Are you enjoying yourself?'

She shrugged and said, ‘Well. …'

‘I'm sorry, darling,' he said, ‘but they've set me on. I can hardly decline.'

‘I met Mr and Mrs Stewart Twelvetrees … well, Lydia came and sought me out … and Nadine. They seem very nice.'

‘Good,' he said. ‘I must get on. I'll come back soon. Try and enjoy yourself, sweetheart. Sorry about this. Offer to help Mrs Mackenzie, if you want to.'

She stood up and looked round. ‘Where is she?'

‘I dunno. Ask a member of the staff.'

Angel turned away and continued the questioning. ‘Excuse me, have either of you seen anything of Lady Muick's necklace?'

He eventually came across Stewart and Lydia Twelvetrees with Nadine and he said, ‘Oh, hello there. Can I ask if any of you have seen anything of Lady Muick's necklace?'

‘No, Mr Angel, sorry,' Stewart Twelvetrees said.

‘Delighted to meet your lovely wife,' Lydia Twelvetrees said.

‘Yes, it was,' Nadine Tinker said. ‘She is lovely.'

‘She said she was pleased you had made yourselves known to her,' Angel said. ‘We don't get out to meet people much, you know. Excuse me, must move on. I thought I was having an evening off. Instead they've got me working.'

Stewart gave him a friendly wave as he turned away, and heard him say, ‘Excuse me, can I ask if any of you have seen anything of Lady Muick's necklace?'

He carried on with the same question all the way round the Great Hall, including the MC and the orchestra, with no success. It took him more than an hour and he knew he must have missed people coming and going to the dining room, the bar, the bathroom, or on the dance floor but that could hardly have been avoided.

He went round to Lady Muick's sitting room and tapped on the door.

‘Come in,' the commanding voice of Mrs Mackenzie could be heard.

There was nobody there but her. She was at a table counting money. There was a biscuit tin filled with notes and coins, and several bags of coins ready to pay into the bank.

He told her what he had done and had to report that he had had no success. He then asked her if she had had any success with the staff.