Trap Lane

by Stella Cameron

  Alex gripped the edge of a table and looked at the side of Hugh’s rigid face. ‘You could have called me from the house,’ he said.

  ‘I wanted to get out of there.’

  ‘Right,’ Hugh said, suddenly sounding vague. He drummed his fingers on the back of a chair.

  ‘What do you want me to do now?’ Sam said.

  ‘We have to call the police,’ Hugh said. He looked at Alex. ‘What else can we do?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ She could scarcely breathe.

  ‘Anything else?’ Hugh said to Sam.

  The man turned crimson. ‘I had to check in case I could help someone. In a bedroom there were clothes tossed about. Women’s clothes. And there’s a car out back. A Mercedes. Kind of dark grey, I think. There were some things scattered on the bed. Lipstick, that kind of stuff. A few pounds. Notes and coins.’ He worked something from the front pocket of his overalls. ‘And this.’

  He gave a couple of photographs to Hugh.

  ‘Holy hell,’ Hugh said under his breath.

  ‘What is it?’ Alex said. ‘What’s happened?’

  ‘A piece of history,’ he told her, handing over one of the photos. ‘Probably taken twenty years ago.’

  One picture was of Hugh, probably in his early twenties, his black hair ruffled and longer than Alex had ever seen it, with a very blue sky behind him and scrubby, wind-raked trees on a craggy cliff edge. He was smiling over his shoulder at whoever was taking the picture but looked as if the smile was forced and the photographer had taken him by surprise.

  Automatically Alex looked at the back. Written in precise script was ‘My Hugh’ and nothing more. The other photo was of a thickset man standing in front of a wall painted in bright colors, but in the foreground, the man was badly out of focus. She dropped them both on the table. ‘It’s too late now but we shouldn’t be touching them. Did you pick up anything else, Sam?’

  ‘No. Should you lose those, d’you think, Hugh?’ Sam said. ‘I don’t mean I think you did anything in that house … but you know how things can get messed up when the police start in.’ He turned red again.

  ‘Thanks for the concern,’ Hugh said. ‘Even if I thought it was a good idea, it would get out that I’d destroyed evidence.’ He glanced at Alex. ‘Our local PI will agree with me there, I think.’

  ‘I’m no PI and we don’t know anything’s happened yet,’ Alex said, with more conviction than she felt. ‘Should we go to Green Friday with Sam and check around before we call the police? There may be nothing really wrong. Or is that a bad idea?’

  ‘No,’ Hugh said. ‘Let’s do it before we make fools of ourselves with your copper friends.’

  Alex picked the photographs up again. She was losing patience with her manager.

  ‘I don’t like any of this,’ Sam interjected. ‘Could be someone hiding out up there – waiting.’

  ‘Don’t come then, Sam,’ Hugh said. ‘Or you, Alex. It’ll only take one to deal with it.’

  ‘I’m coming,’ Alex said promptly, and Sam fell in with them. ‘The photos better go in a plastic bag first. Let’s take my vehicle,’ she added, certain there was a lot Hugh wasn’t saying.

  Within the hour the three of them sat on the front steps of Green Friday, waiting for the police. What they’d found inside the house matched Sam’s report. Alex took deep breaths, trying to settle the jumpiness in her stomach. She had made sure they did not move or touch anything but it was too late to take back what Sam had already done to the scene and she had a feeling he had likely shifted a few other things.

  ‘Looks like something nasty happened, doesn’t it?’ Sam said. Repeatedly, he pulled out a carefully ironed and folded white handkerchief and wiped his brow and the palms of his hands. ‘I don’t understand why we’ve had so many crimes in the area – killings, I mean.’

  ‘For all we know this goes on everywhere,’ Alex said. ‘Anyway, we don’t know whether or not there’s been a killing here. More likely not. I was thinking, though. That wine bottle fell and broke. Why wouldn’t it be reasonable for whoever was cut to go looking for help?’

  ‘Why not use the phone?’ Hugh said. He’d been silent since they entered the house until now. ‘Why not get in a car and go to a hospital? Where’s the victim? And there’s no sign of anyone, anywhere. We haven’t heard about an accident. If someone had walked into Doc James’ surgery saying they’d cut themselves badly, or been attacked, we’d probably know about it by now. And if it had been an attack, he’d also call the police immediately.’ Hugh didn’t sound as if he’d noticed anything untoward at Green Friday when Alex had seen him going there the night before.

  Alex sighed. Her lover, Tony Harrison, Doc James Harrison’s son and the local vet, had expected to see her around nine for a trip into Gloucester. He asked her to take a few hours off, vaguely talking about buying something to ‘zap up’ the breakfast room which was really the sitting room but still held on to its old name from before Tony had it almost completely changed.

  ‘Excuse me,’ Alex said. ‘You’ve reminded me I need to get in touch with Tony. It’ll only take a minute.’ She cocked her head but heard no approaching vehicles. ‘The police are taking their time.’

  ‘Do it,’ Hugh said, feeling his pockets. ‘Where’s my phone? Damn it, did I leave it inside?’ He ran through the door, glancing back at the driveway as he went.

  Tony answered at the first ring and Alex told him where she was. True to form, he didn’t ask a lot of questions and told her he’d come and get her. She could ask Hugh to drive Sam back down.

  When she rang off, Alex wondered how long the police would take to let the three of them go. You never knew which way their thought processes would go. Hugh returned, waving his phone. ‘In the kitchen. I’m glad I remembered before the police found it. I looked at the sink. I don’t think anyone attempted to wash any cuts there. I don’t get that.’

  ‘Tony’s coming for me,’ Alex told him. ‘I forgot we were going to Gloucester. I’ll give you my keys and you can drive Sam back to the Dog.’ She met Hugh’s eyes and tensed again at the anxiety there.

  An unmarked car approached down the driveway. A burgundy Kia Optima – spiffy but with the unmistakable feel of a police vehicle.

  ‘Aye-aye,’ Sam said. ‘Here come the plods, I think. They drive better looking wheels these days.’

  ‘Woman at the wheel,’ Hugh said.

  ‘They do have women in the police force,’ Alex responded with a grin. ‘Who knows what they’ll let them do next.’

  Hugh raised one brow. ‘Scary, if you ask me,’ he said.

  The car swung to a stop in front of them and Alex almost groaned when Detective Constable Jillian Miller climbed out and walked toward them. The woman’s pretty but unfriendly face was tattooed on Alex’s memory from two previous cases.

  Detective Inspector Bill Lamb, his thick, sandy crewcut unmistakable, strolled to join Miller. He smiled at Alex. She still found it hard to accept the change in his manner over the past year but the man’s friendship with Radhika, Tony’s assistant, had obviously softened him.

  ‘Detective Sergeant Jillian Miller, and this is my partner Detective Inspector Bill Lamb,’ Miller said with aplomb as if she shouldn’t have introduced Bill first, or better yet, waited for him to introduce both of them.

  ‘Alex Duggins of the Black Dog,’ Hugh said, indicating Alex, and as if Bill didn’t already know. ‘This is Sam Brock, our local locksmith and I’m Hugh Rhys. I manage the Black Dog for Alex.’

  Bill had crossed his arms and looked toward the sky. He lowered his shuttered gaze to Miller – now Sergeant Miller, Alex noted. Did the woman know she irritated her boss?

  ‘Is Dan ill?’ Alex said before she plastered on a smile to cover the realization that she shouldn’t show any sign of familiarity, especially with Chief Inspector Dan O’Reilly, in front of the touchy Jillian Miller.

  ‘No,’ Bill said quickly, although Miller’s lips were already parted to make a response. ‘But I’ll let
him tell you all about it when he sees you.’

  Miller glared at him. Her long blond hair was worn in braids wound together from her crown to the nape of her neck. Her navy-blue suit fitted an excellent figure perfectly and plain navy pumps showed off a smashing pair of legs. Too bad she wore an almost constantly sour expression.

  Hugh cleared his throat. ‘Sam came up to do some work for me this morning. I’ll show you what he found and you’ll understand why he didn’t want to get started until he’d talked to me. I can show you around inside.’

  ‘I’d better call for backup, boss,’ Miller said. ‘These three should be separated, so we’ll need help.’

  ‘Excuse me,’ Hugh said. ‘Alex has an appointment and she only came to give moral support. Tony Harrison’s coming to pick her up shortly.’

  ‘Poking her nose in, as usual,’ Miller said, not quite quietly enough. ‘She’ll have to wait just the same.’

  ‘Are you leaving your car for Hugh and his friend, Alex?’ Bill said, breaking his silence at last.

  ‘Yes. He’ll take it back to the Dog for me.’

  ‘Is there anyone in the house?’

  ‘No,’ Alex said. ‘Or not that I saw. Sam saw a car out back that doesn’t belong to Hugh? That’s right, isn’t it?’ she asked him.

  ‘Dark grey Mercedes, Sam thinks,’ Hugh said. ‘Not mine.’

  ‘Someone’s things are in there,’ Sam said. ‘All in a bedroom upstairs. And a bottle got broken on the kitchen floor. Glass cuts, too, I should think. There’s blood. And in the hallway. Tiles, you know. Everywhere. Hard stuff, those tiles – stone. There were things in the bathroom, the one in the bedroom with the clothes and so on.’

  Alex felt disassociated, numb, listening to Sam blurt out every detail he could come up with.

  ‘The front door was open,’ Sam went on. ‘That’s how I knew something might be wrong. I gave it a push and it swung in. I kept shouting but there wasn’t any answer. Scared me when I saw the blood, I can tell you that.’

  ‘Understandable,’ Hugh said. He must wish Sam would shut up until he was asked some questions.

  ‘And there’s the Mercedes out back,’ Sam said. ‘So they didn’t leave in that.’

  FIVE

  Tony pushed his cappuccino back and forth on the white Formica-topped table. ‘What are you thinking?’ Alex asked. It could be hard to love a man with a surreal ability to keep his cool. Often, she had no idea what he thought, even about something obviously concerning.

  ‘Nothing revolutionary. Only that you will probably never learn not to rush into potentially dangerous situations. And that if Bill hadn’t been there and if he obviously isn’t thrilled with his new partner and understandably besotted with Radhika, you would probably still be stuck at Green Friday – or at the station – being asked pointless questions.’

  She wrinkled her nose and covered her eyes. A headache bored into her temples. ‘At least you said the questions would be pointless. They would, Tony. I don’t know anything about what happened and neither do Hugh or Sam.’

  ‘I hope you’re right about that.’

  She dropped her hand. ‘I take that back. I’m not at all sure they shouldn’t have asked a lot of pointed questions and been a lot more concerned about what they saw. I think they will be soon. Sam’s got nothing to do with what went on in that house and neither do I, but I can’t be sure that goes for Hugh.’

  As soon as they had reached Gloucester, Tony drove to a Costa Coffee they had been to before. He suggested they needed to catch up on what had happened and Alex agreed; although her stomach jumped around just from trying to make light of the early morning visit to Green Friday.

  Tony took a swallow of his cappuccino and grimaced. ‘This stuff always tastes bitter to me. I don’t know why I order it.’ He reached for one of her hands on the table and raised it to his mouth. ‘Yes, I do. It gives me energy for a few minutes and I get a bit of a buzz. I’m a druggie, see.’ His smile lighted his face, and his dark-blue eyes. Looking at Tony almost always gave Alex a buzz. Public displays of affection weren’t like him, but he kept holding her hand and kissing her knuckles. He paused and said, ‘Are you going to tell me what you mean about Hugh?’

  ‘I kept thinking about mentioning this before, but I didn’t want to start believing it was anything. When I went to see Radhika’s house yesterday, I saw Hugh at Green Friday. He’d parked his car facing out of the drive as if he wanted to be able to leave in a hurry. He was going to the house and he didn’t see me. I was driving by and I thought about stopping but decided against it. He hasn’t said a thing about that visit, not that he had to. It’s his business. But he’s been in a bad mood ever since. I thought he might say something about being there after Sam came today and we went up there, but not a word, Tony. Do you think that’s odd?’

  ‘Not necessarily. If he didn’t see anything out of place when he was there last night, why should he think the two things were connected?’

  ‘Whatever happened there was within hours of his visit.’ Alex wrapped her spare hand around her mug. ‘Either way, I don’t see why he wouldn’t say everything was all right when he was last at the house. And why was he having all the locks changed?’

  Tony thought about that before saying, ‘You’re logical actually. Why didn’t he mention things were OK at Green Friday – when he was there – especially if there’s nothing to lose? I don’t know about the locks. Puzzling. I want to know more about this Neve, his cousin’s wife. It sounds as if there’s bad blood there. It’s nothing to do with the Green Friday thing, of course. At least it doesn’t sound as if it is. But you can’t help wondering about the story behind the visit. Hugh’s always been so private. He must be fuming about family showing up when he obviously doesn’t want much to do with them at the best of times.’

  Alex didn’t want to think about it all any more – not now. ‘Let’s try to put it all aside. For a little while. What’s this thing you want to buy to make the breakfast room look brilliant?’

  He looked at her hand, smoothed the fingers. ‘What’s your favorite place in your house, or what was your house, or what will soon be the house you used to own?’ He grinned, amused by his own word nonsense.

  ‘The conservatory, of course. It was almost enough to make me want to stay there.’ Now it was her turn to grin. ‘I’d have made you come and live there, of course.’

  ‘But the place is too big. We both agreed.’

  ‘We did. I was only pulling your leg.’

  His smile became angelic. ‘You can do that anytime you like as long as I can pull yours … I’d better behave. Wouldn’t want to shock the locals. I want to take you to an outfit that designs conservatories. Blake and Crisswell. They’re famous apparently. We’re going to build a conservatory at our place. I thought it would work off the breakfast room. I want to see if we can push the fireplace through so we can enjoy it from both sides. And keep the chimney. It draws so well. There’s plenty of space for expansion on that side of the house and the place has always been too plain as it stands. A conservatory would add some interest. Good light there, too. Later we’ll come up with more changes. You need a studio so you can paint again. I like the tower on Radhika’s place, not that we want to end up with something resembling one of King Ludwig’s efforts.’

  Alex rolled in her lips to stop them from trembling. Tears stung her eyes. This was who he was, a man who always thought of ways to make others happy, especially her. And she had loved her conservatory – in all seasons.

  ‘Hey,’ he said quietly, leaning closer. ‘Are you going to cry? This is supposed to make you happy.’

  ‘Happy tears. You are so good to me.’

  He seemed about to say more but pulled her to her feet. ‘Let’s go see what Blake and Crisswell have to offer. Then, if I can persuade you, I’m hoping—’

  Her mobile rang and she pulled it from her pocket, not quite sure if she was grateful for the interruption or not. She thought she knew what he wanted to suggest
. Was she ready now to take that final step – with Tony? He wanted a permanent commitment and most of the time she thought she did, too. Perhaps, once she had confirmed something.

  Bill Lamb was calling. ‘Hello, Bill? What’s up?’ she asked.

  With her eyes on Tony’s, she listened, her heart plummeting. ‘I don’t know anything about those things. You should ask Hugh.’ She let him keep talking until she had to break in. ‘What do you mean, you can’t find him?’

  Moments later she disconnected. ‘The police want to get in touch with Hugh. Bill made up some hogwash about only needing to verify a few personal details. I think they intend to take him in for questioning. I wanted to ask if they’d found a body but I knew I’d only get shut down.’

  ‘You’re making a lot of suppositions, sweetheart.’

  ‘I hope so, but I think that’s a pointless hope. Bill says Lily’s running things at the Black Dog. Liz Hadley’s there, too and they’re bringing in extra help. Hugh has dropped out of sight, or that’s what Bill said. Lily told him she didn’t see Hugh leave.’

  ‘Is Neve Rhys there?’ Tony asked. ‘They could have gone somewhere to have a private discussion.’

  ‘I don’t know. Bill also said the police know Hugh was at Green Friday last night because he was seen there. He was also seen leaving, angry, driving away much too fast is what the witness said. It’s not like Bill to be so free with information. I think he was feeling me out to see if I’d drop something useful about Hugh.’

  Who had seen him?

  SIX

  ‘Alex! Am I glad to see you.’ Lily Duggins waved her daughter into the empty snug bar and closed the door. ‘What’s going on? What have you heard? Bill Lamb was in here with that nasty Miller woman. She hardly let him get a sentence out of his mouth. I don’t know how he stands her.’