“What if you had been there, sir?”
“She would have turned away and awaited the outcome of my conversation. Had that not directly implicated her, she might yet again have let Den go on in his bitching, niggling way. I don’t think she’ll tell us that.”
“Had you gone straightaway, and had you seen Ma there, would you have immediately connected her with Den’s shooting, leave alone Alan’s?”
“Maybe. I can’t tell. Probably not at once. She was always around and about the village. She knew every path very well. If she wanted to avoid being seen, she would know how best to go at it. Knew every by-way off the main road. As she demonstrated when she slipped up from the side of the bank, called Den, and calmly shot him. No problem with range that time. Nobody could have missed. She certainly had no need of a gun after that. The train was a bonus, although in the event probably a mistake. If consolation it be, if she hadn’t shot Den we might never have caught the killer of Alan Tewkes.”
“A most self-possessed, obsessed old woman, Digger.”
“Beyond doubt. After she killed Den, I see her going back to her railway carriage home to light another candle in front of the painting of her Duke’s father, her icon for how to behave and standards to be kept.”
No spur-winged plovers guided them in. They had done their job. The answer was ‘yes’, albeit a she not a he had done it. Hole and Maitland went to the carriage as Davis required. Ma Olive was in. Hole, without any foundation, claimed afterwards that she sensed that they were coming and was waiting for them. He was beginning to feel a touch of the supernatural in the way in which he had ‘seen’ into the answer to the puzzle of the two killings. The more prosaic Maitland, having conducted the formalities associated with the arrest and formal cautioning of Mrs Olive Carmody for the murders of Alan Tewkes and Den Bracegirt, saw it in more practical terms. The old lady was at home because she always was at home at that time day. No more than that. While she didn’t have a duster in her hand, he had no doubt that she had done no more than put it down inside in order to open the door. In his eyes, ‘good on his guv!’ but let’s not get carried away. They would have got there eventually. And in not too long a time, in his opinion, once his work had shown that the Foxley alibi for the Tewkes killing could stand up to scrutiny. Or so he argued. He knew Davis still was reluctant to give up on the idea that she could have shot her brother and made it to the train, without involving Ms Lakatos, such was her desire to get ownership of the many acres that surrounded Wickton. But that was old men for you! Set in their thinking. As unchanging as the old woman who, still in her never-varying shapeless garb, confronted them, with no sign of any emotion, again as was usual.
Ma wanted to get a coat. The WPC who was with them went in with her. Hole was on edge. They had taken Den’s gun, and Ma had thrown away the murder weapon, but might there be another in there? And was she desperate enough to use it? He needn’t have feared. The two reappeared, calm and in good order.
“It was wrong to kill Alan Tewkes, and Den.” He had to say something to her.
“No other way.” She spoke firmly. “No other way. Tewkes had to be stopped.”
Hole was glad of two witnesses to what was being said. She went on.
“As for Den, he was nothing more than a fool. Always was. Never liked him. Never knew how to hold his tongue. Never knew when he was well off.”
And then as though advised by a solicitor – ‘and this will be a fine case to defend for some member of that profession’ mused the DI – she stopped short and, without demur, allowed the constable to lead her to the car. The Inspector and his Sergeant drove back to the main station in silence. Hole had a further internal spell of musing as they did so. What a complete waste! Of the two lost lives and that of this strange, dedicated, role-obsessed old lady. An old lady that, removed from her ducal inheritance, looked likely to shrink away before their eyes. Where would she end up? Never back in her well-polished, cleanly-maintained railway carriage, of that he felt sure.
And he felt very sad. About the whole thing.
Epilogue
nother summer coming. Another world beginning. A re-opened and re-enlivened world. The programme committee – the Holes, Miss Heath and Graham Bingley – were ending their session. A duckling day at the end of May. Carefully shepherded small groups getting close to the hatchery and duckery. A pond-dipping session – though that was going to take some last minute sturdy efforts to get them ready, suitably stocked. The old watercress ponds, however, would provide the vital contents to fascinate the young. Tours and talks, although an eye had to be kept on the cost of advertising these. With Slimbridge not that far away they had to try and target a more local audience. Then build it into a loyal one.
“Pity we haven’t got some water voles. Always a crowd puller.” Miss Heath was more than a pair of willing hands.
“We’ve got the birds. We can found a junior bird club. So far as I dare proselytise, I can let it get known through the school.”
“Right, Annie. Who’ll lead that?” Hole got two volunteers from their two companions. As he knew he would.
Despite her concentration on the Hungarian centre, now launched and with a small permanent staff living in the gatehouse overseeing the growing complex and its activities, Galina still backed the wetlands. There was no interference. Traffic was strictly controlled, as was access to and fro the Centre. Similarly, income more than compensated for the bangs that came from Thornley’s sporting clay shoots. He was enjoying building up his new programme as much as were Galina and Digger theirs.
“An individual 40-bird sporting and a 50-bird flush for teams of two. How’s that! That’ll bring ‘em in. And no complaints, I warrant. Also, what a chance to talk about m’ guns!”
Gerry Hole was in his element. His new element. He had been a good policeman. He intended to be a better-still warden. He had been active, he had made contact with the Council concerning the controlled harvesting of the reed beds, for a small income. Also university researchers, studying the role of salt marshes in flood defences, brought in a share of the grants available for their work. He had read up on the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act, plus pages and pages more. There had been a visit from a Dutchman, an expert in that country’s management of marshes – and his advice had been free! The gentleman and his family were on their way to visit Wales and had seen his sign.
“Early morning walks across the mudflats. To see the Bewick’s swans in winter coming in to the fields at dawn from the flats.”
This last suggestion brought Alan Tewkes vividly to mind. Early mornings, in most weathers, continued to produce their especial magic. He, Alan, must have been in his heaven those moments before the unbalanced passion of Ma Olive had sent him off to the other one that, surely, there is, reserved for all those who dedicate their lives to other live things. To the beautiful things that are the wildfowl of the earth. As for rumours of a Severn barrage and its impact on his precious charges, if it came to an argument with planners Digger would turn Mabel Heath on them. She would be as effective as Ma Olive, in her more gentle way.
’Maybe’, dreamt Gerald Hole to himself, ‘ there will be a mansion there with Alan for me if I get this right.’
Sheldrake (Handsome, WWT Martin Mere)
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