The Fruit Gum Murders

by Roger Silverwood

  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.

&nbs
p; 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.

  ‘None at all. Nobody saw anything. Nobody knew anything. Most exasperating.’

  Angel nodded. But it was no surprise to either of them.

  ‘How is Lady Muick after all this?’ he said.

  ‘She’ll get over it. But it’s not a very nice thank-you for her letting the townspeople of Bromersley climb all over her furniture and look around her home for free.’

  Angel shrugged slightly and nodded in agreement.

  ‘Well, thank you for your efforts, Inspector,’ she said. ‘But I am certain that we could have recovered the necklace if we had closed and barred the castle doors and strip-searched everybody, like I wanted you to do in the first place.’

  Angel’s face muscles tightened. ‘It was not possible,’ he said, ‘we didn’t have enough officers on hand to implement it, and by the time we could have made the castle watertight, the necklace could have been well away from the place.’

  ‘That’s not necessarily true, Inspector. The thief might very well still be in the castle.’

  ‘He or she might still be in the castle. But, in any case, we haven’t enough officers to carry out strip searches. It’s the sort of thing carried out under certain circumstances in prisons. It’s a huge undertaking, ordering perfectly innocent people – many of them elderly – to take off their clothes in front of officers, and then the officers actually examining them.’

  ‘If people were honest, such searches would not be necessary.’

  His eyes flashed. ‘I know that. You tell them. Ninety-nine per cent are honest. It isn’t reasonable to put the ninety-nine through the indignity of a strip-search. These people have paid money to come here to enjoy themselves. It wouldn’t be reasonable to put them through such an ordeal. This is not yet a police state! In any case, it is not possible to do it. We haven’t the authority and even if we had, we haven’t enough officers of both genders to enforce it, so forget it.’

  Her face was scarlet; her eyes were popping out of their sockets. ‘You have been very vocal telling me what you can’t do,’ she said. ‘Can you be just as vocal telling me what you can do?’

  ‘There is still the opportunity that as people leave, they might get cold feet and discard the necklace. They might even report something they’ve seen or heard to an officer. We will have to see. That reminds me. The necklace could have been dropped into a lavatory cistern for later collection. I will immediately have them checked. Excuse me.’

  He dashed off.

  Meanwhile, the sextet played the last waltz, and many people left the Great Hall and made their way to the cloakroom. Stewart and Lydia Twelvetrees and Nadine were in the forefront of the crowd. They collected their coats and filed past the two burly policemen in their Day-Glo yellow jackets at the front door.

  ‘Good night, officer,’ Lydia said.

  ‘Good night, madam,’ the young policeman said with a smile. ‘Drive safely.’

  Stewart Twelvetrees went for the car while Lydia and Nadine stood near the main door hugging their wraps and purses, with several others. He soon arrived.

  Nadine said, ‘Come with me in the back, sis.’

  ‘All right,’ Lydia said. ‘You don’t mind, darling?’

  ‘No,’ Stewart Twelvetrees said. ‘Be there in two minutes anyway. Are you in? Seat belts on?’

  ‘Yes, drive on, Jeeves.’

  Stewart Twelvetrees grinned and said, ‘Yes, my lady.’

  They went over the artificial moat and were on the long drive, but there were many cars ahead of them.

  ‘Did you enjoy it, Nadine?’ Stewart said.

  ‘It was fabulous, thank you. It was nice to see all the dresses.’

  ‘You looked very nice.’

  Nadine smiled.

  Stewart Twelvetrees said, ‘Didn’t you think so, darling?’

  Lydia didn’t reply. She was looking out of the window; her mind was elsewhere.

  Nadine nudged her.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ Lydia said.

  ‘Stewart was asking you if you thought I looked nice.’

  She frowned, then seemed to catch up with the thread of the conversation. ‘Oh yes, sis, of course, you look terrific.’

  Nadine wasn’t sure that she really meant it. She pulled a face and shrugged.

  ‘I did, really,’ Lydia said to her. ‘Pink always suits you.’

  Nadine wrinkled her nose. ‘It’s blush pink,’ she said. ‘It’s not just pink.’

  Lydia’s lips tightened. ‘It’s red, if the truth be told,’ she said in a low voice.

  Nadine’s eyes flashed. ‘It is not red. If it had been red, I wouldn’t have worn it. You know what Mam said about girls who wear red!’

  Stewart Twelvetrees heard the conversation and quickly said, ‘We’re nearly there, girls. And
you both look like princesses.’

  Nadine said, ‘If I had had my own way, I would have had that green dress. I love anything green. Green is my favourite colour.’

  The rest of the journey was made in silence.

  Three minutes later, the car stopped outside their house.

  ‘All change,’ Stewart Twelvetrees said with a grin. As the sisters got out of the car he added, ‘I think I’m ready for bed.’

  ‘I’ve got my key,’ Lydia said.

  When the car doors were closed, he drove the car into the garage.

  In the hall, Nadine said, ‘I’m going straight up.’

  Lydia said, ‘Don’t you want a drink or anything, sis?’

  ‘No,’ Nadine said. ‘I must get to bed. I’m on early turn in the morning. Let’s stop the fighting.’

  ‘Yes,’ Lydia said.

  They exchanged kisses on the cheek.

  ‘Say goodnight to Stewart for me,’ Nadine said and then she went upstairs.

  Lydia kicked off her shoes, went into the kitchen in her stockinged feet and put the kettle on. Then she came back into the hall as Stewart Twelvetrees came in from the garage and began to lock the front door.

  She took off the plain chiffon stole and began to hang it over the newel post to take upstairs later, when something fell onto the carpet.

  Both Stewart and Lydia saw it glint as it caught the light, and they saw it land on the carpet.

  It was the missing emerald and diamond necklace.

  Twelvetrees bent down and picked it up. ‘Where on earth did that come from?’

  Lydia went scarlet, not only her face but also her chest and neck. ‘I’ve no idea,’ she said. ‘Oh, Stewart,’ she added breathlessly. ‘Oh, Stewart, darling. Let me have it. I’d like to see it up close.’

  He passed it to her.

  She snatched it eagerly, looked at it, checked the fastening, dashed to the mirror in the hall stand, held the necklace across her chest and said, ‘Isn’t it beautiful, darling? Isn’t it the most fabulous thing you have ever seen in your life?’

  He frowned. He was licking his lips. He shook his head. ‘But where did it come from? I mean, who—’