Murder By Accident

by Veronica Heley

  As they opened the car door, Armand said – or rather snarled, ‘See that big one? I know him well. Excluded from school three times, so far. He carries, they say, though I haven’t actually caught him at it. No Rose?’

  ‘Not in. We assume she’s gone back to Ellie’s, while we were on our way here.’

  Ellie sank into the car, thankful to hear Armand lock the doors after her.

  ‘Ellie, suppose you ring your aunt and see if she’s arrived yet.’ said Armand.

  Ellie got out her mobile phone and rang her own number. Eventually Aunt Drusilla condescended to come to the phone. ‘Yes?’

  ‘Aunt, it’s me. Ellie. We’ve come over to fetch Rose, but she’s not in. Is she with you?’

  ‘No, she isn’t, and I wish she were. I can’t get Channel Five on your television set. Rose got it for me the other night. I thought you said she was coming back to us tonight?’

  ‘She was. Look, if she turns up, would you ring my mobile? I’m a little worried about her.’ Ellie rang off. ‘She’s not there. So where is she?’

  ‘Visiting a neighbour, presumably. Who’s she friendly with around here?’

  ‘This is not exactly Happy Families territory. She’s never mentioned anyone’s name, that I remember, especially since Joyce moved out a while back. The only person I can think of is Norm, Mo Tucker’s boyfriend. When he came round to see Aunt Drusilla, it crossed my mind that they recognized one another. I suppose we could try him.’

  ‘He lives in the next block, right?’ Ellie looked around as one does when a driver reverses, and saw that the group of lads had grown to seven or eight. Perhaps the ones who’d followed her up to Rose’s flat had come down to join their friends below.

  As Armand drove sedately along, looking for the right tower block, the group followed them. The one on the skateboard almost caught up with them at one point.

  Ellie felt her uneasiness grow. Some of the lads seemed to be on their mobiles, possibly phoning their girlfriends? Possibly asking for reinforcements?

  ‘They’re a bit threatening, aren’t they?’ she said. ‘Do you think we ought to hang around here? Perhaps we should get out of the estate and call the police.’

  ‘I’m not afraid of them,’ said Armand robustly. ‘They wouldn’t dare interfere with me.’

  ‘Hmm.’ Kate wasn’t so sure. ‘I agree with Ellie, but we can’t call the police just to see if Rose has gone visiting a friend.’

  ‘Rose said the police don’t like coming into the estate after dark.’

  Armand huffed and puffed. ‘You’ll be making out this is a No Go area for them next.’

  Ellie wasn’t at all sure that it wasn’t. They parked near the second tower block. Security lights were on in the foyer and all up the stairs. It wasn’t raining and it wasn’t far to the entrance. But … she hesitated. She glanced around but the lads seemed to have drawn back into the shadows. All but one.

  There was a knock on the window at Armand’s side. He opened it because he knew the lad.

  ‘It’s Jogger, isn’t it?’

  ‘’Sright. Ain’t seen you round here before. Who you looking for? Mebbe I can help?’

  Armand saw no reason to refuse the information. ‘Mrs Quicke is trying to trace a friend of hers, Mrs McNally. She thought perhaps Mr Tucker might know where she is. Mr Tucker lives in this block, doesn’t he?’

  ‘Sure. He’s me grandad. Take her up there, shall I? Your quickest way out with the car is, take a right turn, go back the way you come.’

  ‘We’ll wait,’ said Kate.

  Nineteen

  ‘ Thank you,’ said Ellie, getting out of the car and following Jogger to the front door of the flats. ‘What’s your real name? Not Jogger, I

  assume.’

  ‘They call me Jogger, ’cause I don’t like standing still. Up the stairs do

  you? The lift’s out again.’

  ‘How far up?’ asked Ellie, when they reached the third floor. ‘Almost to the top.’ Jogger didn’t seem to feel it, but Ellie did. She

  refused to be beaten, though. Stop for a breather. Hold on to the banisters.

  Don’t try to hold a conversation with Jogger, who was skittering up the

  steps ahead of her.

  Finally they made it and stepped out on to a windy walkway. Doors led

  on to the flats at intervals. It was just like the block in which Rose lived,

  probably built at the same time by the same builders.

  Jogger did a rapid knock on a door and used a key to let them into a

  bright, fuggy flat. An elderly man sat in an armchair with a rug over his

  knees. Big fat Norm sat nearby. The television was on full blast. Both men

  were comfortably drinking beer out of cans and smoking. Neither wore

  shoes and the state of their socks and clothing made Ellie pinch in her

  lips. The room was centrally heated, and the fumes from constant smoking

  made it hard to breathe easily.

  ‘Hey up,’ said Norm, turning his head fractionally to see who had come

  in. ‘It’s Jogger … with … hang about, I know you, don’t I?’ ‘Mrs Quicke. We met when you came to see my aunt, remember? I was

  so sorry about Mrs Tucker. How are you coping now?’

  The old man tried to twist round in his chair, but failed. ‘What does she

  want?’

  ‘Well, I was trying to find Rose McNally – you know her, don’t you? Her

  phone’s out of order and she’s not in. I wondered if you might know

  where she might have gone and … excuse me, but how do you manage

  to get out, being so high up, and the lift out of order?’

  ‘It’s hard, it’s very hard,’ whined the old man. ‘Me having but one leg an’ all. Norm said we should try the Housing again, get us a ground-floor flat …’

  ‘I’ll go on Monday,’ said Norm, looking uneasy.

  Jogger, who hadn’t stopped jogging on the spot, said, ‘Norm’s not that good at reading and writing, see? He gets as far as saying what he wants and they says, Fill in this form here, and then he forgets what’s he’s come for.’

  ‘You shut your lip,’ said the old man. ‘Norm’s been looking after me all right, gets me my meals, don’t he? Helps me in and out of bed? I’d like to see you helping out.’

  Jogger grinned. ‘Nothing gets you nothing in this world.’ Ellie was distressed for them. ‘Can’t you explain about the reading and writing, Norm? I’m sure they’d understand. I mean, it’s quite a common thing, not being able to cope with forms. I had ever so much difficulty after my husband died, trying to understand the forms. If the worst comes to the worst then surely Rose – or even I – could help you fill out the forms to get you a ground-floor flat.’

  ‘Could you get me another wheelchair?’ asked the old man, with a leer. ‘Jogger here broke the one the hospital give me and I can’t go nowhere without it.’

  Ellie seated herself, unasked, trying to deal with this problem. ‘Haven’t they given you an artificial leg?’

  ‘It don’t fit proper, and I can’t keep going back for them to have another go at it. Mo was going to write to the doctor about it, but …’ He pinched out his cigarette butt and took another from the pack at his elbow. ‘Mo was a bit of all right,’ said Norm, doing the same.

  ‘I’m sure she was. By the way, did she ever talk to you about someone called Tracy?’

  There was an instant change in the atmosphere. Neither man had moved, but it was there. Then she got it. Jogger had stopped jogging. ‘What is it? You know her?’

  ‘She’s my granddaughter,’ said the old man. ‘Jogger’s her brother. They live over the other block. We don’t see much of her, but Jogger comes by now and then.’

  Ellie was puzzled. ‘You mean, she’s Mo’s daughter?’

  ‘Nah. She’s my other daughter’s, that died a couple years back. She’s Mo’s niece, got it? Got a kid of her own, going on fourteen, fiftee
n now. What about her?’

  Ellie became wary. ‘I’ve met her, I think. She used to clean for my aunt at one time. Then I think I saw her at a wedding reception, waitressing?’ Jogger was listening, hard. Still not jogging. So all this was important to him? Norm was staring at the television set as if enthralled. His cigarette was burning down between his fingers. What was going on here? ‘That’d be her,’ said the old man. ‘But you didn’t come round to see her, did you? We don’t know where this Rose might be, so you’d best be on your way.’

  Ellie got to her feet, feeling uncomfortable. She got the impression that these people knew something that she didn’t. She also understood that they were not going to tell her what it was. Jogger was on his mobile phone, talking into it, turning away with a hunched shoulder to hear the reply.

  ‘Well, thank you for seeing me,’ said Ellie, and then was conscious that this form of social dialogue was not exactly appropriate here. Jogger snapped his phone shut. ‘One of me mates says Rose has just got back, gone up to her flat. Take you over there, shall I?’ Norm and the old man turned to look at Jogger, who ducked his head and started jogging on the spot. Ellie looked at the older men, wondering if they’d give her a clue as to what was going on … because something definitely was going on here. Neither man said anything, so she murmured, ‘Goodnight’, and followed Jogger out of the flat. He led her rapidly along the walkway. She hesitated, called after him, ‘I thought the stairs were at the other end?’

  ‘This way’s quicker.’ He sped along the walkway at a great pace and held the door open on to another staircase. He had taken out his phone again, and was talking rapidly into it, but too quietly for her to hear what he was saying.

  She looked out of a window and saw what she had expected to see; a car-parking area surrounded by a landscaped lawn with pathways leading off in different directions. Except that Armand’s car was nowhere to be seen.

  ‘I ought to tell my friends …’

  ‘They’ll be on the other side of these flats. We’ll catch up with them after you’ve seen Rose.’

  Well, that was what she had come for, to see Rose. They left the flats by a different door from the one they had entered by. She tried to orientate herself, and failed. She’d never had a good sense of direction. She followed Jogger out into the night. He moved smoothly along the path, always a little too far ahead of her so that she couldn’t question him.

  Now why did she think he didn’t want to be questioned? He’d been very helpful, hadn’t he?

  Ah, now she recognized the name of the building in which Rose lived. She looked around – why was she so uneasy? – wondering where all his friends had gone to. There was no sign of them.

  Jogger opened the front door and made for the stairs. ‘The lift’s out. We’ll have to take the stairs.’

  ‘It was working earlier.’

  ‘It’s out now.’

  She toiled up the stairs after him. She had to stop on the third landing to catch her breath. Jogger waited for her, impatiently.

  Then up the last few stairs and on to the walkway. The rap music was still blaring. The light outside Rose’s flat was still out. Two of Jogger’s mates were standing outside the door of the flat from which the music was coming. They nodded to Jogger as he came up.

  Jogger opened the door into the noisy flat and motioned that Ellie should go inside.

  ‘This isn’t Rose’s flat.’

  ‘No, but Tracy knows where she is.’

  This was Tracy’s flat? Oh. So Tracy lived next door to Rose? They were the ones who’d made Rose’s life such hell? And when Tracy was cleaning for Aunt Drusilla, she would have known all about Rose being asked to move in as carer. Tracy had tried to trip Rose up as she came down the stairs. Tracy was on the books of at least two cleaning companies. Tracy had tried to steal from Ellie at the wedding reception.

  Ellie did not feel she wanted to meet Tracy again, but Jogger had pushed her inside the flat and closed the door behind him.

  Norm squirmed in his chair as the door closed behind Jogger and Ellie. ‘Not a bad sort.’ Mr Tucker stared hard at the television set, not noticing that his cigarette was about to burn his fingers.

  Norm said, ‘Perhaps we had ought to have stopped her going over there? I mean … Trace can be a bit, well … sharp.’

  Mr Tucker yelped and killed his cigarette. ‘You know what she’s like. We can’t do nothing.’

  ‘Yeah, I know. But if they’ve done something to Rose McNally, well … see what I mean?’

  ‘It was an accident,’ said the old man, fiercely. ‘Mo’s death was an accident. We got to put it behind us.’

  ‘Yeah, but that woman there … she seemed all right, din’t she? We shoulda warned her, is what I’m saying.’

  ‘And had our flat trashed, too? Change the channel. I’m sick of this one.’

  Tracy was also sitting in an armchair, watching the telly. Or perhaps not watching it, but letting her eyes rest on it. The sound was turned down. Or perhaps it was merely being drowned out by the noise from a bedroom next door? The air was as thick with cigarette smoke as it had been in Norm’s place, and there were several beer cans in evidence, some empty and some not yet opened.

  Tracy swept back one arm and thumped on the wall behind her. ‘Pack it in, Trev!’ The noise next door didn’t change.

  Jogger said, ‘He’s on the walkway. Shall I tell him you want him to turn it down?’

  Tracy didn’t reply directly but grumbled, ‘It’s doing my effing head in.’

  On the two-seater settee sprawled a youngish man with spiky hair who Ellie – after a moment’s thought – recognized with a feeling of dread.

  She managed to smile at him, as if she hadn’t just put two and two together to make five. ‘Hello, I know you, don’t I? You do some work now and then for my builders? I think I’ve seen you working round at my aunt’s, too? Good evening, Tracy. I’m looking for my friend Rose. Jogger said she’s just returned to her flat.’

  ‘Yeah, that’s what I told him to say,’ said Tracy, inhaling smoke and letting it drift out of her nostrils. ‘She’s gone.’

  ‘Really? That’s surprising. Well, I’ll just check for myself, if you don’t mind. My aunt’s been asking for her and her phone seems to be out of order.’

  ‘Temp’ry fault. Be all right tomorrow. Rose has gone for good. Best tell your aunt that and tell her I’ll be round tomorrow to have a word with her about moving in, right?’

  ‘Very well,’ said Ellie, now only anxious to leave. ‘I’ll tell her. Now I’d best be going. My friends are waiting for me downstairs.’

  ‘They’ve gone,’ said Tracy. ‘I told the lads to tell them Rose had been taken ill – vomiting and the like – and that you’re staying on a bit to look after her. So they went.’

  ‘Yeah, they gone, man!’ echoed Jogger, back on his mobile. ‘They argued a bit, so us lot give the car a rocking and they got the hell out.’

  ‘I see,’ said Ellie. ‘Very well, then. I’ll call a cab.’ She delved for her mobile in her bag, but was not particularly surprised when Jogger reached out a long arm and took it from her.

  ‘Oops!’ said Jogger, and dropped it on the floor. He then trod on it. ‘Oh dear, look at that. Clumsy old me.’

  Ellie sat down in the nearest chair. ‘So what is it you want to speak to me about?’

  Tracy heaved herself to her feet and stretched out one huge arm for another tin of beer. Having popped it open, she drank deeply. ‘You lost me my job. You owe me one.’

  ‘You lost yourself your job, if you’re referring to what happened yesterday afternoon at the wedding. You can’t blame that on me.’

  ‘You owe me.’ The woman swayed from one massive leg to the other. Her feet were incongruously tiny, but the ankles were swollen.

  ‘Look, it’s getting late. What is it you want?’

  ‘I’m going to be your aunt’s new carer. Me and my boy are going to live in that big house and you’re going to help me get there.’<
br />
  ‘Miss Quicke wouldn’t have you, I’m afraid.’

  ‘Oh yes, she will, if you tell her to. I’ve noticed you coming and going and I keep me ears pricked. You bloody own that house, don’t you? You could bloody well turn her out if you wanted to? Right. So you tell her who her carer’s going to be and she’ll have to put up with it.’

  ‘Is that what all this has been about? Electrocuting your aunt? Frightening Rose? Fixing my kettle?’

  ‘It were an accident. How did I know the old cow had a heart?’

  ‘Did you consider that my aunt might have a heart condition, too? Or Rose? You didn’t care which of them got the shock?’

  ‘It were an accident. Ask my friend Jase.’

  Her ‘friend’ Jase spoke up for the first time. ‘It were an accident. Only meant to give her a shock. Or one of the others. Din’t matter which. Scare the old cow off, that’s all it was for.’

  ‘My daughter has been arrested for your aunt’s murder.’

  Tracy, Jase and Jogger rolled about laughing. ‘Serve her bloody well right, acting like she’s something from the ayleet, and us like scum.’

  ‘And Rose? Did she treat you like scum?’

  Tracy sneered. ‘She’s past it. And that daughter of hers, always looking down on us, making me serve food at her wedding, all lace and no knickers. Rose shouldna tried taking a job that’s mine by rights. I worked for it, din’t I? Put up with Lady Muck for months, do this, do that, you haven’t done this right, you’ve got to do it over again. Living in that great big house with room for twenty people, but no, she wouldn’t let me have even a little bit of it for me and my boy that’s been unfairly excluded from school and treated like dirt. That job’s mine and the sooner you realize it, the sooner you can go.’

  Ellie thought, This woman’s barking mad!

  ‘However long do you think you could keep me here? Overnight? People will come asking for me, you know.’

  Jase shifted uneasily. ‘Come on, Trace. I gotta work tomorrow.’

  ‘It won’t take long. She won’t last as long as Rose did. Will you, dearie?’

  Ellie asked, with a feeling of dread, ‘What did you do to Rose?’