A Thoughtful Woman

by K T Findlay

  Freddy abandoned the diplomatic approach. ‘No you’re not James. We could use this woman.’

  ‘She killed Terry!’ yelled James.

  ‘We don’t know that yet,’ soothed Freddy, ‘but even if she did, she had grounds to do it. Terry murdered her husband for no reason whatsoever. She had more reason to kill him than you have to kill her.’

  ‘He was my friend!’

  ‘So was Carol. Doesn’t she count for anything?’ asked Freddy.

  James, skewered by Freddy’s argument, collapsed onto one of the kitchen chairs.

  ‘Like I said, perhaps Terry just got what he deserved.’ suggested Freddy. ‘Now, why don’t we get started on dinner?’

  26 Reviewing the situation

  At 8 AM on Friday morning, Senior Investigating Officer Goodwin was giving his most embarrassing press conference to date. They’d had the suspected killer of three men completely ensnared, yet still she’d managed to elude them. They’d kept the search up all night, but Goodwin had finally accepted the inevitable and called it off at dawn.

  In the public eye, Goodwin completely backed his team. Then he had a behind closed doors discussion with the despatcher and his boss, about the despatcher making decisions on his own without telling the commanders…

  Tony and Susan had gone straight back up to Heaven’s Spur with Felicity and the mountaineers. Peregrin stopped by the office first to deal with some administrative tasks. Top of his list was replying to another message from Helen.

  ‘I’m going up to Scotland for at least six months Inspector. One of my clients has offered to pay the rent on both my studio and cottage down here, and let me live with him up there in his house.’ she told him.

  ‘Good heavens! That’s generous!’ said Peregrin.

  Helen laughed. ‘It isn’t really you know. It’s not a gift, more of an exchange.’

  ‘Oh I see.’ said Peregrin. ‘Sort of a quid pro quo?’

  ‘Exactly.’ she laughed. ‘I don’t know if it’s going to work or not, but it’s the best option I have, and I know him well enough. I trust him.’

  ‘Do you have feelings for him?’ asked Peregrin.

  ‘What? Oh, you mean romance? No. Never. I can’t afford that with a client. Far too risky! I’ll try and make it fun and pleasant. That’s the most I’m hoping for. I’ll give you Hamish’s phone number so you can get hold of me. I’d be ever so grateful if you kept it to yourself, and not on the record. If it’s just you, perhaps I can keep the press at bay, for a bit at least.’

  It was Peregrin’s turn to laugh. ‘I’ve just had my boss explaining to the press why we let Selina slip through our fingers yesterday. If I can save you from that kind of horror I will, but I can’t promise anything. We’re supposed to record everything we find, but I’ll do my best to keep it confidential.’

  ‘I appreciate that. Thank you.’ she said. ‘Well, I’m already packed. I did it last night, so you’re not the only one with a sleepless night behind you. I’m just leaving now. As soon as I’m clear of Ipington, I’ll park somewhere and have a nap before carrying on to Scotland.’

  ‘Drive safe now.’ said Peregrin. ‘And the very best of luck. Oh! You do know that the forensics team are going over your studio today?’

  ‘That’s why I’m going now!’ she laughed.

  ◆◆◆

  About 2 PM, a uniformed officer arrived at Heaven’s Spur to deliver the first draft of the forensic team’s results. ‘They’ve found some of Selina’s blonde hair at Helen’s studio.’ he told the others, as they were having some hot tea from a thermos. ‘Forensics reckons they’re from a wig. They can tell by the ends.’

  Peregrin reclined back in the driver’s seat. ‘So she really is a redhead.’

  Susan shrugged her shoulders. ‘Maybe. Could be that’s a wig and all.’

  Peregrin smiled. ‘I wonder if she has a matching merkin?’

  ‘A what sir?’ asked Susan, puzzled.

  ‘A pubic wig. I’m just thinking of what Felicity found in our first three victims.’

  Suddenly he sat up. ‘No! I remember now. Felicity told me they had fallen out naturally. So no wig, no merkin.’

  ‘A what?!’ Susan gasped again. ‘A wig for your downstairs area?’

  Peregrin grinned. ‘Ah, I see you still have some innocence about you after all! They’ve been around since the 1400s, and some people like actresses still use them today.’

  She looked at him doubtfully.

  ◆◆◆

  ‘Oh yes.’ confirmed Felicity when she came up from her examinations at the end of the day. ‘Merkins were quite common at some points in history. Not so much these days though. Anyway, get me into a car with a cup of tea. I’m freezing!’

  She refused to even start her debrief before she’d been handed her second mug of tea.

  ‘Well, there’s a lot of work still to do, but there are a few things I can tell you. First off, it is indeed Terry Walker, if his clothes, watch and bike are anything to go by. The bike’s a bit further down the hill by the way. Also, the body has fillings where Walker’s dental records say they should be. So while I’m not prepared to officially identify him yet, I’m pretty confident.’

  ‘The flesh is largely gone, as you’d expect over all that time. The local wildlife has given him a bit of a gnawing, but the skeleton is still largely intact, except for some of the smaller bones, which presumably animals have wandered off with.’

  ‘The skeleton injuries are consistent with him having fallen off this bluff. He has multiple breaks, including some big whacks to the skull. He’d not have suffered I’m thinking. Out like a light. Not like poor Eric!’

  ‘How is Eric?’ asked Susan, who hadn’t had time to go and see him yet.

  ‘Pretty stuffed, I was told this morning.’ said Felicity. ‘You did a good job stabilising him and keeping him warm before they got to him. Without that, I think he could have died. So well done you.’

  ‘A long recovery?’ asked Peregrin.

  ‘I should think so. First of all he has to fight off infection, always a risk in a break like that, then the bones need to set, and then he’ll need to recover his muscles after being in a cast for weeks. So yeah, quite a long time.’

  Susan smiled. ‘That means I’ll get to work more with Peregrin and Tony. That’s nice.’

  Peregrin shot her a look. ‘I didn’t know you had issues with him.’

  Susan put on her innocent expression. ‘Oh I don’t. I just think he’s a little, young.’

  Felicity coughed. ‘Anyway, back to our man of the moment. There are no other signs of foul play, but it’s difficult to completely rule out any chemical component.’

  ‘You mean he might have been drugged?’ asked Peregrin.

  ‘Or simply drunk.’ replied Felicity. ‘Although, seeing as he appears to have got there on his bicycle, and his thermos seemed to be carrying only tea, that would seem unlikely.’

  ‘Why wasn’t his thermos broken in the fall”’ asked Tony.

  ‘Metal in metal, not the glass kind. So it was dented, but not broken.’

  Peregrin scratched his chin. ‘So we have the helmet, clearly recently put on that ledge, and the forensics boys told me that the paint of that message over there is no more than three days old at the most, judging by the condition of the paint. So, was it an opportunist who spotted the body and is having a laugh, or is there an actual connection do you think?’

  ‘There’s no way you can see the body from up here, and the mountain rescue folks said there was absolutely no sign of anyone having climbed down recently.’ said Felicity. ‘On balance I’d say someone knew he was here.’

  ‘Almost certainly the killer.’ Peregrin continued. ‘But why, if it hadn’t been found up to now? Why draw attention to it at this precise moment?’

  ‘Selina.’ said Susan. ‘Maybe Walker was her first, and she wants us to recognise the connection?’

  Peregrin thought about the quote. ‘“To let the punishment fit the crime, t
he punishment fit the crime.” It would align nicely with the other three killings in terms of motivation, wouldn’t it?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes sir. And it throws the spotlight off Emma. If there’s one thing that seems to drive Selina, it’s a sense of justice not done. While I think she’s ruthless enough to use an innocent party to achieve her goals, I don’t think she’d want to actually harm them. This might be her way of pointing us back on track.’

  Peregrin nodded appreciatively. ‘That’s a reasonable hypothesis. Certainly it fits what we know. But how come he got off so easy compared to the others?’

  Felicity coughed lightly. ‘Perhaps he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. She chanced upon him, there was nobody else about, and she dealt to him then and there? Then having done it once, she decided to carry on, only putting more thought into it. I mean she certainly put thought into the booze she used. We might just be looking at the spark that kicked this whole thing off.’

  ◆◆◆

  ‘I’m so sorry Emma!’ said Sally as the two of them sat down to dinner at the Cutty Sark that night. ‘I was over in Dalton drawing all day, and didn’t know a thing about it until I saw Hilary last night. They tell me they confiscated your bicycle!’

  Her voice was just loud enough to carry over into the next cubicle where two of the forensics team from Helen’s studio were grabbing a quick bite. She knew they’d be listening.

  Emma nodded. ‘In the circumstances, it’s hard to blame them. That cow dressed herself up as my dead ringer. If it wasn’t for Peregrin’s sharp observational skills I’d be in deep trouble right now. I suppose I might still be in trouble though, seeing as they wanted my clothes too.’

  ‘I can’t see it Emma. It’s as plain as a pikestaff that you had nothing to do with anything that woman has done. She simply spotted you cycling around the place and decided you’d make a good decoy. That’s all there is to it.’

  Emma sounded doubtful. ‘Well they’re certainly not treating me as innocent.’

  Sally laughed. ‘Oh relax! They have to eliminate you from their enquiries. That’s all. I mean you think you’ve got problems, look at that lot outside Miss Helen’s place. Now there’s a problem for you!’

  Emma looked out the window at the dozen or so newspapermen hovering around the door to the studio. A thought struck her.

  ‘Oh goodness! You don’t think they’ll be interested in me do you?!’

  Sally shook her head. ‘When there’s a dominatrix in the story? You’re a footnote to them, nothing more, because there’s more money in talking about Helen and Selina. Now, if you go gab, gad, gab, then yes you’ll be in the papers. Say no comment to everything, and you’ll be fine. It’ll be over and done with in a few days.’

  ‘Oh I do hope so.’ said Emma, real worry creasing her brow.

  27 Playing around

  It was Saturday morning, with not a hint of a breeze, and the sun shone as warmly as it could onto Emma’s patio.

  ‘More champagne Alan?’ asked Emma, lifting the bottle.

  ‘Yes please mum.’ he smiled. ‘That was a gorgeous breakfast. It’s like we’re in St Moritz!’

  Emma raised her glass. ‘A toast, to George, to justice, and a clean slate.’

  ‘Amen to that.’ he smiled, and clinked his glass against hers.

  Then he raised it to the sky. ‘Cheers dad.’ he said.

  ◆◆◆

  Next door, James and Freddy were packing, getting ready to leave. James was in a particularly grumpy mood. ‘I can’t believe it. Base seriously want to recruit her?’ he asked.

  Freddy nodded. ‘Yup. She’s got every quality we want, intelligence, patience, cool, calm, collected, a planner and determined as hell. She’s perfect.’

  ‘She killed one of our own!’ snapped James.

  ‘Did anyone tell you why Terry hadn’t done much work in his last few months?’ asked Freddy quietly.

  James snorted. ‘Of course he didn’t! He was tied up in his trial.’

  ‘That’s only part of it James. Base told me that he’d been retired. On a full pension, but retired none the less. Off the books.’

  James stopped trying to squash the last of his shoes into his suitcase. ‘Why?’

  Freddy put his own case onto the floor. ‘Base thought he’d gone rogue, or lost his judgement. Whatever, they felt he couldn’t be trusted anymore, so they dropped him.’

  James opened his mouth to object, but Freddy got there first.

  ‘He killed two innocent people James, one of them his own wife! For no reason whatsoever! And he attempted to blackmail the organisation with that document. Of course they dropped him! He gave them no choice. Now he’s dead. Deal with it. Base wants to recruit his killer. Deal with it.’

  James’s face had gone from red to white, and he was literally speechless with rage.

  Freddy looked at him calmly. ‘If none of that resonates with you, think about Carol. She was your friend too. What do you think she would have thought about all this?’

  The colour slowly returned to James’s face, and because he couldn’t actually deal with it as yet, he changed the subject. ‘What’s going to happen to this place? We’ve paid for three months and only stayed a few days. That’s going to look a bit weird.’

  Freddy laughed. ‘Nope. It’s all good. Base is going to use it as a safe house, or an R&R retreat for deserving staff. They’ll get their money’s worth out of it. Come on, let’s go.’

  He picked up his case and walked out to the van, leaving James trying to figure out how to squeeze in that final shoe.

  ◆◆◆

  ‘That’s the trouble with winter golf.’ sighed Alison. ‘Lunch is going to be late anyway, but when you get caught behind this lot…’

  She, Peregrin, Felicity and Sally were at the thirteenth tee, a testing par three requiring them to shoot across the sea onto a narrow promontory. Too long or too short and the ball fell into the sea. A slice was no better, and a hook dropped you into the trees.

  Still, they had lots of time to plan for perfection, trapped as they were behind The Flock, a group of septuagenarians who consistently demonstrated that exercising your rights, is not always the same thing as demonstrating good citizenship. In other words, they never let anyone play through!

  Their nickname arose partly from the similarity to the naughty word frequently used by those they were holding up, and partly because of their nonstop bleating about how bad the world had become, spoken at the sort of volume used by people who should have been wearing hearing aids, but weren’t.

  Peregrin’s foursome had just entered a period of relative quiet as The Flock ambled ahead of them into the trees, on their way to the green.

  ‘I thought you’d both be up in them thar hills bringing back the body.’ said Sally.

  Felicity shook her head. ‘This one’s more in the nature of an archaeological dig. Josie likes that sort of thing, so she wanted to go instead.’

  ‘Tony’s looking after it this morning.’ added Peregrin, ‘They won’t lift Walker until mid-afternoon, so I can have a mental health morning.’

  ‘What about the killers? Do you know for sure who they are yet?’ asked Alison.

  ‘It was just Selina.’ said Peregrin. ‘Although we don’t yet know who she really is.’

  ‘How can you be so sure? Especially about Walker?’ asked Sally, keen to discover just how much he’d figured out.

  ‘Easy. Ask yourself why she went to all that trouble to arrange her escape route when she could just have gone to ground and waited us out. The only reason she did that, was to get us up there in search mode. She needed a cop to find that helmet while they were actively looking for things. A civilian would have thought it was litter.’

  ‘The helmet really is Walker’s, and it hasn’t been on that ledge more than a couple of days. It could only have come from the killer. Selina led us up there very deliberately, so she killed Walker, or at the very least was heavily involved.

  ‘But why lead
you there at all?’ asked a bemused Alison. ‘She’d gotten away with it. Why bring it all back to life?’

  ‘Ah. Well there we’re into the murky world of amateur psychology.’

  Felicity grinned. ‘He means he’s guessing!’

  Peregrin pretended to ignore her, but couldn’t quite conceal his smile.

  ‘Holmes’s killing was clearly very personal, and well planned. He was a successful lawyer, so not short of enemies, but few with enough motive to actually kill him in cold blood. Thomlinson’s was equally personal. Tie the two together for a common motive and it’s now a small group. Add in Bob Harland and we’re down to just the Nixons and Sally here.’

  Sally blanched at his clinical tone, expecting policemen to come out of the trees for her at any moment.

  Peregrin carried on. ‘Then she throws Walker into the mix, and adds that quote from the Mikado. Now all four look like an eye for eye. If he’d been killed after Harland, I’d have said it might be another of her endless false trails, but Walker was killed years ago’

  Absentmindedly, he polished the head of his seven iron.

  ‘Walker was accused of pushing his wife off a cliff, and was then pushed off one himself. Holmes and Thomlinson could be said to have worked hard to set free two drunken killers, and Bob Harland was one of the killers. All three were killed with booze. It’s very Old Testament.’

  ‘A vigilante with such a burning sense of justice isn’t likely to feel good if an innocent party gets charged for something they’ve done. Selina knew giving us Walker would get Sally and the Nixons off the hook, so despite the personal risk, that’s what she did.’

  ‘And she got away with it.’ said Felicity. ‘She’s a very smart lady!’

  Peregrin grinned. ‘Yes she is, but it’s not over yet. We would have got her on Drunkard’s Lane if that despatcher hadn’t played God, and Heaven’s Spur might just give us the break we need.’

  Felicity shook her head. ‘Nah. There’s nothing there that’ll lead you to her. I checked it out thoroughly, and I’m really not expecting anything more when we get him back to the morgue.’