“Also in London?” this from Maitland.
“As it happens, yes. Family business.”
Hole decided to show something of his preparation.
“We know all her papers are fully in order.”
“Checking on her? Why should you doubt it?”
“Routine. Part of the job. The employment of illegal immigrants is a growing social problem. Thought you might like to know that we have no interest in her, absent or not.”
“Then what is your interest? Interest enough to make you call today without any notice? It can’t be me, can it?”
“Do you know what happened to your husband’s gun? The one you said used to be kept in the safe where you showed us yours? By the way, there’s another reason for calling today. To return your rifle. Sergeant Maitland has it safe in the car – which we can see through this window,” he added with a smile to ease the strain that was developing.
“Thank you. My husband’s gun?”
“You said he used to keep it in that safe. There is room for more than one.”
“Not since we were married. I was speaking historically. He used to keep it there. He lived here alone before the marriage. Kept a gun then. I never saw it in the house after the wedding.”
Maitland was as curious as he was professional.
“Sounds odd, that, if I may say so. You did some shooting, and brought your gun with you. Your husband, who also shot, gets rid of his gun when you get together. You were hardly soul mates in that respect, were you?” Hole’s raised look warned him that he had been too presumptuous, but Galina took it in good part. Hole was relieved. He didn’t want to give his suspect prey any ammunition, as it were, by presenting her with grounds for complaint against the police. Her reply was in good humour.
“You’ll have a second career as a marriage counsellor at this rate, sergeant! Neither of us were keen shooting people. James had taken it up for much the same social reason as my father, only he, my husband, got in with the old Duke’s group in its latter days. That is how we met” – Thornley had been right, noted Hole – “shooting, that is. Not with the Duke. With my father. He continued the practice when he bought Wickton. Thought it right that his ‘gel’, as well as his sons, should savour the full flavour of his newly, and expensively, acquired country life. No secret. Not a great success either, at first. There was social disdain. Snobbery I’d call it. James was one of the few, the only regular, from the Duke’s group that took up my father’s invitation. At first. Later on, as we became more socially acceptable, and our entertainment too good to refuse, others joined in. James was by then fully at home. He was after me more than mallard! When we married, we gave up shooting. James had been using one of my father’s pair. We didn’t have any loaders so he had little call to take both out at once. Mine was packed up for me when I moved down here. When we found it in my dear father’s crating, we thought it lucky that we had somewhere to lock it away safely. And in accordance with the law. That’s how the re-registration came to be overlooked.”
Hole had to think quickly. He was aware of his superior’s order not to give away the grounds of their case against Galina. Equally, if he was to get anywhere with this gun line of enquiry he would have to push a bit at the borderline of that instruction.
“Used your father’s gun, you say. That surprises me. Why keep his own safe in that case?”
“Oh! I don’t know really. He used to have a gun here. I told you that. Wouldn’t have got in with the shooting group from The Hall, as it was then known, otherwise. Left it there, I think. Yes. Let me get this straight, because I asked him myself why he had a gun safe and no gun. He said at first that he had bought it ready for mine. Pretended to know that my father would send it down to Fox Lea with me. But that was only teasing. We used to tease each other in those days.” Her tone took on a wistful note. “He was older than me. By some years. He was a good man at heart. Just hardhearted in business.” She gave a short, harsh laugh. “I’d like to have seen him dealing with that wet Reed.”
Hole didn’t want to lose sight of his main thread.
“He left his own gun at The Hall, you say?”
“The more I try and recall the more I’m sure of it. I swear, now, that when he said he’d come out with my father in the early days – and how pleased the old parent was to have ‘captured’, as he put it, one of the exclusive shooting group that had been there before him – he said something about losing his own gun. My father, just to get in with anyone with such local connections, would have bought him a new one had he asked. Anything to get James on board. I could see that it was me he wished to board. But we let that develop under the guise of a common love of the sport.”
“Lost it!” Maitland couldn’t help exclaiming. “Sounds most unlikely. Especially from an experienced man, as you describe him, and one with a hard head for business. You don’t just lose a gun!”
“By lost I mean lost possession. Used to leave it at The Hall for safe keeping, I’m now sure is what he said. And when the Duke’s effects were sold, as he had no heirs, before my father could buy the property, James’ gun went with the rest kept there. He says he never saw it again.”
“And he took no action to recover it?” Hole was as intrigued as his sergeant.
“Wasn’t worth enough to make a fuss about. He could have bought a dozen new ones had he wanted to. It was, I tell you, me he was after. Quite happy to appear in the old man’s debt the better to get closer to the daughter. Marriage to money, not that he needed any but he loved its attraction, was by then an important part of his life’s business plan. But all this talk about the gun! It puzzles me, Inspector.”
Hole couldn’t give up on the topic quite then. He risked his arm a little further.
“Bear with me, please. I don’t want to labour the point, but I have a reason for my next question before, I promise you, leaving the subject. Can you recall what the make of his gun was? Your husband’s? I don’t mean any one that he borrowed from your father. His own. The one you say he stored at The Hall.”
“Oh gracious! Not a question I would expect. Nor, I fear, one that I can help you with. Before we moved into Wickton I really didn’t know James at all. Isn’t there anyone left from those days, shooting friends perhaps, that you might be able to ask? I can’t answer you, I’m afraid. I haven’t a clue.”
And there Hole did have to leave it. He had to accept that, in effect, according to his widow, James Foxley had installed a gun safe that he didn’t bother to use, leaving his gun for safe storage and, recalling his last interview, maybe free cleaning, at The Hall. He then didn’t bother either to complain or replace it when it was caught up in the sale of the goods and chattels that had been the Duke’s. Well, he had to admit to himself, it made a coherent yarn. It also made the bringing home of a charge of murder against Mrs Galina Foxley that much harder. Yes, they could, and would have to, trace some fellow fowlers of those days. Thornley could put them on to any still around – he said he belonged to a group of old boys who had shot together for years – but it might not be that easy. And it was going to take time. Annie’s mallards would have to undergo their census and health check without him, the way things were going.
Hole sent Maitland out for Galina’s gun, and then took time exchanging receipts and giving instructions on the importance of registration. Their hostess asked for advice as how best to dispose of it, saying that she had no wish whatsoever to have a gun in the house leave alone use one. The DI suggested going to Graham Walmsley – ‘the chap I was going to see when we bumped into each other in Talbot the other day’ – urging swift and decisive action whichever course she chose. He then dared on to the other topic that concerned him regarding her part in the events of the past few weeks.
“I must ask you something on another matter, Mrs Foxley. I would rather do so in the informality of your own home. I take it that you are in no rush?” Galina had the sense to spot that ‘no rush’ was indeed what she then needed to be in.
&n
bsp; “As part of our on-going investigations concerning the two shootings, but especially that of your brother, there is one matter I keep bumping up against that I must say to you, now, seems to provide a common thread. The land that houses the wetlands reserve. Your brother Jeremy indicated to me that he felt it should by rights revert to him. Others indicate that it may become yours due to some business arrangement with Alan. Is the matter any more settled between you, or is there a family feud developing?”
Galina took her time before replying.
“Looking for a motive, Inspector?”
“There is, as I say, a thread. The land is, or seems to be, in some dispute. There are those who want it to revert to its use in the time of The Hall.”
“That I won’t allow, believe me?”
“If the land becomes yours.”
Galina paused again, then:
“It will. Not yet public knowledge, but it soon will be. I take it that you have found that out already. I certainly want that land. I feel I should have been left something by my father in his Will. It was no matter how well founded James was, I deserved better treatment than would have been thought suitable for a woman in Victorian England. When Alan died it seemed right to me that it came my way. Jeremy has the house and all that went with it.”
“Except that land.”
“True. In that sense I was glad that my father did as he did. To think of the whole lot now going to my eldest brother annoys me. I won’t hide it. But back to shooting? Never! A lot of good this upper-class pretence did my father, and a lot of good it’ll do Jeremy too. All take, and sneers behind one’s back. Much as my dear sister-in-law may dream otherwise. It’s why I went into partnership with Alan. To keep the wetlands going. And to foil any hopes of that pair at Wickton getting their greedy hands on it.”
“Not to use the land for yourself? For some other purpose? No more than to keep the bird sanctuary going?” Hole knew he was leading but felt he saw a gap. A way in somewhere if only he could prise it open that little more. He might have to risk a sharp response, if not a complaint. But it was worth it. Again, there was a considered silence. The answer, when it came, was not what Hole had been expecting.
“My approach to them was genuine. I did want him to keep going. But if you think I have some ulterior motive – for heaven’s sake!” – as though the thought had just struck her – “for heaven’s sake! Kill my own brother! Me! Kill Alan! Is that what you are getting at? If so I must…”
Hole broke in firmly “… most certainly not!” What else could he say? Of course she was right. How now was he going to explain this blowing of the lid to Davis? He hurriedly groped for some covering words.
“I am not accusing you of anything.” That was true at least. As yet. “I seem to have stepped onto a hornet’s nest. Not my intention. But please understand that the land, and its use, seems to play a central role in this affair.” Strictly speaking, there was no reason why she should think that. If she was completely innocent. It worked. She spoke again, in a rational tone.
“I’ll take that. Sorry if I exploded. It’s not been easy.”
“Nor for us”, put in Maitland as his contribution to the soothing process. “We are doing all we can to make things clear. Clear things up,” he added, lamely.
Galina ignored him, speaking with controlled firmness direct at Hole.
“Yes, I did go into partnership with my brother Alan, to help him. And, yes, if it will help, although I can’t see how it will, as a result of that partnership the grounds will become mine. More. I do have another, but not incompatible, purpose. I want to site St Stephen’s there.”
Another church! Hole was bemused attention. As he waited for a follow-up, there was the sound of the front door opening and closing. If a car had driven up, he wouldn’t have noticed it, so involved was he becoming. He suspected that the sergeant hadn’t heard anything either. So much for keeping a wary eye on their own vehicle – albeit, now emptied of its gun.
Galina gave a shout.
“In here!” The door opened, and the immigrant helot appeared.
“Come in, Svetlana. Come in. Do as you’re told,” this last with a disarming smile. “You know very well who these gentleman are. It’s about time they got to know about you.”
And, turning to the two policemen, Galina added:
“This is the one who can tell you all about the plans for St Stephen’s-on-Severn”.
Chapter Twenty Eight
nd some relation was Prime Minister for a short time at the end of the last war.”
“Fascinating I’m sure. So what?” Davis was all ears but not altogether happy with what he was being told about the visit to Fox Lea. It was developing more into a tale of everyday Hungarian folk than a direct guide to the killer they were after. But, not for the first time, he knew he knew his man, and let Hole continue.
“I always was aware of the stilted but correct English. Your check on official status helped. What I didn’t realise was that hidden beneath her name, Lakatos is her married name, was the one that interests us. Mortlemann. This Svetlana is a cousin of Galina Foxley’s. Daughter of Mortlemann’s brother. He changed the family name to Tewkes, you will recall, sir.”
Of course he ‘recalled’! The Super, nevertheless, kept quiet.
“Mortlemann’s family was big at the time of the Emperor Franz Joseph. Galina’s great grandfather was an officer of the Imperial Army, a senior one by 1914. Got a number of awards for bravery. The last one posthumously. He was killed when serving under Mackensen in the Carpathian campaign against the Russians in 1915. Our Tewkes’ father had about everything ever printed, in every language, on that episode. He drummed it into his children as a mark of their high rank. To support, no doubt, his social climbing aspirations having bought Wickton. Had a particular effect on Jeremy, Galina says. In view of her plans, it’s clear the propaganda affected her also. If in a different way.”
“And that way is?”
Hole realised he was being long-winded. Or appearing to be. In fact, he was still trying to get the run of things clear in his mind. He got down to the essence.
“What Galina says is that she, as a true daughter of Hungarian nobility, had to do something to support those of her, as she put it, ‘fellow countrymen’ who are now free to come and live in this country. As they are in increasing numbers. Wanted to set up a sort of social cum educational centre for them. Backed by her money. Aided by her cousin, Svetlana Lakatos.”
“For that she wanted land. I can see that; for this St Stephen’s. Why that name?”
“The eleventh century founder of Hungary, sir. As every schoolboy knows.” His senior, once more, kindly, did not retort.
“Yes. Land near and land available.”
“And land cheap”, added Maitland. “For a small investment with Alan, she could get her hands on just the acres she needed. Gloucester’s not a bad centre for such a scheme, come to that. Good communications. Couldn’t be in London. Impractical and over expensive.”
“So,” mused the DCS, “she never had her husband’s gun in the house, never used her own gun, only wanted the land for humanitarian purposes and, no doubt, was happy to let the bulk of it remain as a wetlands reserve? All in all, as pure in every respect as the driven snow. And the murder of Den? What about all this bush-cutting business?”
“I didn’t get on to that, sir. I went further than I intended in showing our case hand as it was. But I think it was worth it. To get her talking.”
“So you say. Where’s it got us?”
“Have you found out if the killing gun was Foxley’s?”
“As certain as dammit. Yes. We can go ahead on that assumption from all that they have been able to turn up so far. Not much doubt. No DNA though. Not yet at any rate, and I confess my hopes are fading. What the hell happened to it between Foxley’s ‘losing’ it in the sale at The Grange, as you tell me, and it turning up in a goods wagon in Wolverhampton, is another matter we are no further forrard with.” He
changed tack. “Had she told her brother Jeremy about this – this hostel! – planned for his back yard?”
“Didn’t ask her that. See what you’re getting at. Wouldn’t increase the level of family love exactly.”
“But it would raise his determination to get that land for himself. Not only no money from it, but a crowd of help-seeking Hungarians peering in through every window of his stately mansion. Enough to drive him to murder.”
“That would depend when she told him. If she did. If it was before Alan was killed then, yes, I can see that he would have extra cause to eliminate his brother in order, as he then supposed, to inherit the land. If it was after that death, then he faced a double whammy, as it were. No land, and ill-used land.”
“Indeed,” added Maitland. “If he was only told of the plan for the immigrant centre after Alan’s death, then it all comes back to Galina. Back to basics. She wanted the land, so she laid the legal foundation by her so-called partnership deal. The first step in her arranging for the inheritance to happen. Is she after the restoration of the Hungarian title? Or Hungarian lands and property?”
Hole chimed in.
“She would hardly have let on to Jeremy until her plans were well advanced, and before she knew that she had a strong legal case. She wouldn’t have wanted to alert him, or arouse his suspicions that the land would not come to him if anything happened to Alan.”
Davis was bothered. The talk was getting confused.
“We can see that Jeremy wanted the land, driven on by his Lady Macbeth. He had every opportunity to kill Alan, but with that particular gun? It could, I suppose, have been left behind at Wickton when the Duke’s estate was sold. To some extent, what Thornley said chimes with Galina’s evidence. If the gun was in the house at the time of the Duke’s posthumous sale but was known not to belong to the old boy, then maybe it wasn’t put up for auction, or whatever. Just left there as part of the newly-acquired Mortlemann estate. Unused until Jeremy wanted an untraceable weapon to commit murder. What he didn’t know was that his act was a waste of time as his sister had both legal claws on and social plans for the acres that surrounded his home. That discovered, why kill Den Bracegirt?”
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