‘You can prove that?’ said Rob.
Lucy decided to take part in the conversation. ‘He’s had his leg amputated, Rob.’ She glanced at Daniel. ‘I presume it was in the car crash you were both involved in?’
He nodded. ‘I suggest, Miss Linden, you forego the tea and scones and take your policeman friend with you. My wife giving birth is enough excitement for me for one day, along with you bursting in waving a gun about.’
‘A gun?’ Rob looked at Lucy.
She put her hand through his arm and whispered, ‘I’ll tell you all about it when we get outside.’
Neither of them spoke until they had closed the front gate behind them. Then Lucy took the gun from her handbag and handed it to Rob. ‘Barney gave it to me – said it was Winnie’s and had once belonged to her father.’
He took hold of it, shaking his head in disbelief. ‘Why didn’t you come to me with it?’
‘I did but you weren’t there. I was going to tell you everything about how I found out this address and what Barney said.’
‘You looked up O’Neill’s name in the directory, I take it?’ She nodded. ‘Me too,’ he added. ‘It seemed the simplest way in the end. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it in the first place.’ He smiled faintly. ‘I suppose I got distracted.’
She squeezed his arm, feeling a great warmth inside her. ‘What are we going to do?’
Rob inspected the gun and then pocketed it. ‘It was a dangerous thing to do, coming here waving a gun about. That charming man in there was a rebel, too, remember.’
‘The gun’s not loaded.’ She dug in her pockets and brought out the bullets.
He took them from her. ‘Even dafter,’ he murmured. ‘What if he’d had a gun and called your bluff?’
‘Better than being responsible for another man’s death.’ He leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the mouth and she knew he understood. She smiled. ‘Besides, I don’t think Daniel O’Neill would have let his brother kill me. He seems a sensible man.’ Her smile faded. ‘I’m worried about Barney. He said Winnie had that gun with her when she collected the rents so she must have had it with her the evening she was killed.’
Rob nodded. ‘But it doesn’t make sense Barney killing her,’ he said. ‘Perhaps she pulled it out from wherever she kept it and threatened McCallum with it. There was a struggle—’
‘No!’ said Lucy, heaving a sigh. ‘I don’t believe it. You said you didn’t believe Callum would kill. Barney, maybe, in a fit of anger, but not Winnie.’
He eyed her sad face. ‘Then you’d rather believe Barney did it?’
‘No. But I’ve got a funny feeling he did.’
Rob looked as unhappy as she felt. ‘We’d better get going. There’s no cushion. It’ll be a bumpy ride.’
What did that matter? thought Lucy, when the other option was being left behind to walk or take a tram which would delay her arrival at Barney’s. She wanted to be there when Rob confronted her stepfather. She still had a seed of hope in her heart that he’d be able to come up with some other reason for having Winnie’s gun.
It would have been a terrible anticlimax if Barney had left for the cinema but they found him still at home. Agnes looked relieved to see them. ‘There you are, Miss Lucy. Mr Rob Jones!’ She nodded her head towards the sitting room. ‘He’s in a right tizzy. Can you hear him playing? He’s been at it non-stop since you left. Folk have been complaining but he takes no notice. Can you do something with him?’
‘I’ll try,’ said Lucy, glancing at Rob. She opened the door to Barney’s sitting room and they went inside.
He did not appear to have heard them and it was not until Rob put his hands over the keys that he stopped playing and looked up. ‘Don’t ever do that again when I’m playing! I am the Great Supremo!’ he bellowed and smacked Rob’s hand away before smiling at Lucy and saying in an almost normal voice, ‘So you’re back. Did you shoot him?’
‘No.’ Lucy’s skin crawled. ‘He-he doesn’t know what happened to Mam. He can’t have killed her anyway because he’s had a leg amputated and must find it harder to get around than you do.’
Barney stared at her. His face had gone a peculiar colour and then he laughed. ‘You believe that? He’s having you on.’
‘He’s got a wooden leg,’ insisted Lucy.
‘A trick!’ Barney ran his fingers along the piano keys.
‘The gun, Barney,’ said Rob, taking Lucy’s hand and squeezing it gently. ‘Why didn’t you tell us about it?’
‘Didn’t want to,’ he growled. ‘You’d have jumped in with your big feet and put a stop to everything. It was going so well. Then she had to go and spoil it!’ He began to play again.
‘Who? What did she do?’ Rob was obviously having difficulty keeping the irritation from his voice.
‘Winnie. She threatened to have me put out of my home and to go North and live on the income. She couldn’t sell the property, mind. She knew that. But she could use the money and choose the tenants and give me orders.’ Barney smiled up at Lucy and his eyes weren’t quite focussed. ‘It was in my brother’s will, you see? You came into the music room one day when I was re-reading his solicitor’s letter. I dropped it and you went to pick it up. I was terrified in case you saw what was written on it. My brother got his will drawn up before he went back to the front. If they didn’t have any kids, when Winnie died all the property would come to me. Everyone believed, though, that it was already mine because I was the elder brother. I didn’t say otherwise. If they’d thought I was my brother’s pensioner they would have pitied me, and I didn’t want their pity. I’d counted for nothing long enough!’ His expression turned ugly. ‘Father left everything to my brother. He was the blue-eyed boy! And I was dismissed out of hand because I was a cripple. Even my music Father looked on as cissy… but he never foresaw the war that would take so many healthy young men.’
‘So you shot Winnie to get the property?’ said Rob.
Barney did not answer but started playing again. He was smiling but looked ghastly. Lucy felt dreadful. ‘Did you kill Mam, too? I thought you loved her.’
His fingers faltered and he glanced at her. ‘I did love her. I wanted us to be a happy little family, and we were for a while, weren’t we?’
She nodded, a lump in her throat. He carried on playing.
‘Barney, where did you put Mam? Tell me so I can give her a Christian burial?’
‘She wanted more than I could give her but I got my own back on her in the end.’ He carried on playing, louder and louder, swaying backwards and forwards. The perspiration was running down his face. He looked ready to explode.
Lucy could bear it no longer. She brought her fist down on the keys. ‘Stop it!’ she screamed. ‘Tell me where she is?’
‘Don’t do that!’ roared Barney, and hit Lucy so hard she overbalanced.
Rob stopped her from falling and half-carried her to the big leather chair by the fire. They exchanged looks and he touched her face with a gentle hand. Then he turned to Barney.
He had risen from the stool and was staggering towards them. ‘Sorry, girlie,’ he gasped. ‘Sorry! I didn’t mean to do that. Didn’t mean to kill Winnie but she waved that gun about and went on and on about getting rid of your mother and you. Wouldn’t listen to me. She wanted you out of the apartment, said you’d both give the place a bad name.’
Lucy could barely bring herself to look at him. ‘What about Mam?’ she whispered. ‘What have you done with her?’
‘I didn’t kill her!’ he yelled, waving his arms about. ‘You ask that Callum McCallum where she is. He’s the one who knows what happened to her. He’s the one who… the… one… who… spoiled everything!’ Barney was suddenly gasping, clutching at his collar. His face twisted. He was clumping around in circles. He fell against an occasional table and brought a vase crashing to the floor as he collapsed in a heap.
For a moment neither Lucy nor Rob moved. Then he went over to Barney and got down on one knee and felt for a pulse
. ‘Is he dead?’ Her voice quivered.
Rob’s face was tight with concentration. She waited until he looked up and nodded. ‘I’ll have to go for a doctor. Will you be OK?’
She nodded. Tears were pouring down her cheeks. ‘Right to the end he was still blaming Callum,’ she said in a choking voice. ‘He was always jealous of him.’
‘Perhaps it was more than that,’ murmured Rob, putting an arm about her shoulders. ‘I’ll get Agnes to make you a cup of tea.’
She tried to smile but couldn’t. He kissed the tip of her nose and left. She curled up in the big leather chair. Her face was throbbing and she couldn’t take her eyes off Barney’s body, scared all of a sudden in case he should come back to life. She wanted to shout at him: I once depended on you to make Mam and me happy! You were someone I believed in so much!
Agnes came into the room, visibly trembling and twisting the hem of her pinny round and round one hand. ‘Oh, dear! Oh, dearie me! I knew something like this would happen one day. He’s been so up and down this year. You’d have thought he was on a roller-coaster. He’d get so angry and then he’d be weeping. He’s been burning papers and letters.’
Lucy said sharply. ‘This Irishman that came to visit – had you ever seen him before?’
Agnes shook her head. ‘He did say his mother had called earlier and got no joy from the master.’
‘He did?’ Lucy frowned.
‘Maybe they had something to do with them letters addressed to you,’ said Agnes. ‘The master got angry about them. I remember he mentioned your mother’s name and when I asked was he going to send the letters on to you, he threw a paperweight at me.’
‘Letters,’ murmured Lucy, wondering who could have sent them letters from Ireland who knew their mother?
‘Will you be all right, lovey, while I make you a nice hot sweet cup of tea? Perhaps you’d like to go to bed and I’ll bring it up to you there? The master never did that to your face, did he?’
Lucy touched her jaw. ‘I don’t want you blabbing about it, Agnes.’
She looked indignant. ‘Why, miss? It’ll be all over the neighbourhood in no time that he killed his brother’s wife!
If I hadn’t needed this job I could have told everybody he wasn’t the plaster saint they all thought him. Not that he wasn’t a lovely man at times, generous and kind. Still, you can’t go around killing people without it affecting you. Conscience, you see? It won’t leave you alone.’
‘You mean, you knew he killed Winnie?’ said Lucy in disbelief.
‘Not know exactly. I didn’t have any proof or anything. It’s just as I said,’ muttered Agnes, ‘he was no angel.’
Lucy nodded. A fallen angel perhaps? she thought miserably.
‘Shall I get you that cup of tea now?’
‘Yes. I’ll have it here in front of the fire.’ She had decided to stay where she was until Rob returned with the doctor. She spent the time waiting, thinking about Callum and Aunt Mac and her mother.
It seemed a long time before Rob reappeared and when he did, he had not only the doctor with him but a uniformed police constable and a detective inspector. The doctor duly pronounced Barney dead and arrangements were made for the removal of his body to another room. Lucy was asked to verify what Rob had said about Barney’s confessing to the killing of Winnie Jones.
When she had finished making a statement the inspector said, ‘I suppose we’ll never know where he hid the gun but at least now we can close the case.’
‘There’s still my mother’s disappearance,’ put in Lucy.
‘DC Jones has an idea about that,’ said the inspector gravely. Lucy glanced at Rob, a question in her eyes, but he wasn’t giving anything away. ‘I suggest you return to Yorkshire,’ continued the inspector. ‘Once all this gets out you’ll be plagued by the newspaper hounds.’
Lucy saw the sense in what he said and agreed with it. Some things would have to wait. She had promised her grandmother she would be back in a couple of days and intended to keep her word. Besides, she had to speak to Timmy. Even so she could not wait to hear what Rob had to say. As soon as they were alone she asked him what it was he was so keen to follow up.
‘I’d rather not say.’ He was slumped in a chair and looked at her from beneath drooping eyelids.
‘That’s mean,’ she protested.
He smiled and said softly, ‘Who didn’t tell me what she was up to, finding out Shaun O’Neill’s brother’s whereabouts? You go off to Yorkshire. I’m not sure what’ll happen about a funeral for Barney yet. It could be that he might have got off with manslaughter. He said he didn’t intend killing Winnie and yet he knew he’d get the property if she was dead…’
Lucy saw what he meant and shuddered. ‘I know what he felt like. What he suffered! Not meaning to kill someone.’
‘I know you do but you’ve got to put it behind you.’
‘I was living on ill-gotten gains.’
‘That’ll teach you to have delusions of grandeur.’
She shook her head at Rob. ‘You’ve never been really poor so you don’t know how tempting it is to do things for money.’ She paused. ‘I’ll go to Yorkshire. Hopefully I’ll be back within the week.’
‘I’ll tell you then if I’m right or wrong about my idea.’
If he was thinking along the same lines as herself then he could be right, she thought, and that heaviness which had been in her heart for so long lifted. ‘You are a pig, Rob, about that!’ She got up and went and sat on his knee. He groaned and pulled himself higher in the chair before putting his arms round her. ‘Aren’t you worried what I might get up to with Wesley?’ she said with a smile.
Rob licked the side of her face which was swollen. ‘I trust you won’t go marrying him before returning here. Barney’s will might prove interesting.’
‘He might have left everything to Blodwen,’ she muttered, frowning.
‘I doubt he was taken in. Anyway we’ve unfinished business to discuss.’
‘You really fancy your chances with me, don’t you?’ she said, exasperated because he wouldn’t be drawn.
He kissed her before pushing her off his knee. ‘I’ll have to be going if I’m to get back as quickly as I want to.’
Lucy knew she wasn’t going to get anymore out of him but that didn’t really worry her; she was feeling better by the minute. ‘Then I might as well see you out and pack my suitcase,’ she said, trying to sound cheerful but knowing she would miss him terribly. She would have to come back even if Stan and Myrtle were depending on her to be there for them.
Chapter Twenty One
Lucy sat beside the bed, gazing down at Stan. On her arrival he had still been conscious and they had talked a little but since yesterday he had been in a stupor and she knew that he only had a couple of days to live. Her grandmother had gone out for some fresh air but had been missing for hours. Lucy was worried about where she could be. Myrtle had been delighted when she’d arrived back from Liverpool but had asked her no questions about her time there. Lucy presumed it was because she was so concerned about her husband.
It was to her brother that Lucy had unburdened herself. Timmy hadn’t sounded a bit surprised that Barney had done away with Winnie or that he had not sent on letters addressed to them. Lucy’s suspicions as to why she was keeping to herself for the moment, not wanting to raise any false hopes in case she was wrong.
There was a sound at the door and her grandmother entered the room. ‘No change?’ she said, tiptoeing over.
Lucy shook her head, noticing Myrtle’s cheeks were rosy and her eyes serene. ‘Your outing’s done you good.’
‘I went to the farm with Timmy to see my brother. I’ll sit with Stan for a while. You go and get some fresh air.’
Lucy hesitated. ‘Have you seen Wesley? He’s been missing for hours, too.’
‘He’s nothing for you to worry about, lass. You go and have some fresh air,’ urged Myrtle. ‘There’s nothing more you can do for Stan.’
Lucy went but
didn’t go far. With an invigorating wind in her face she stood on the parade where they had stopped that first day with Stan in the wheelchair and seen Wesley on the beach feeding the gulls. The waves were fierce today, crashing on to the shore as if they were angry. She thought of Barney and Stan. So different, yet alike in so many ways. Both had been kind to her and both had wanted something from her. Barney had failed her and she suspected had lied to her as well. Was she going to fail Stan? If Rob asked her to marry him, could she say no? Having people depend on you was a difficult thing to cope with when you loved more than one person.
‘Luce!’
Hearing her brother’s voice, Lucy turned and guessed from his expression that Stan had gone. Timmy put his arm round her. He was bigger than her now. ‘Come on. Granny Myrtle needs you right now. Wesley turned up at the end and he’s howling the place down, but don’t you worry,’ said Timmy firmly. ‘Me and Gran’ll sort him out.’
Lucy hoped he was right but wondered what the pair of them could do to keep Wesley in check now his father was dead, not that Stanley had been able to do much anyway.
She found out after the funeral when her grandmother told her to sit down as she wanted to speak to her. Myrtle was making lists and Lucy presumed it was to do with getting rid of some stuff and setting up the house as a summer boarding house.
‘You can have the wireless if you can get someone to take it to Liverpool for you,’ said Myrtle.
Lucy put down the record she was dusting and sat at the table opposite her. ‘What would be the point in that?’ she said carefully, pleating the duster between her fingertips. ‘You need me here.’
Myrtle smiled and said briskly, ‘I don’t want you being unhappy, Lucy. Timmy’s told me what’s been going on in Liverpool and as I’ve other plans you might as well go home to that young man of yours.’
Lucy’s emotions were suddenly in a worse muddle than they had been. ‘Why don’t you want me? You’re going to need help to run this place.’
‘I have no intention of turning this house back into a guest house,’ said her grandmother firmly. ‘That was Stan’s idea and I allowed him to think I’d fall in with his plans because it was easier than arguing with him and making him unhappy.’ She removed the duster from Lucy’s hand. ‘I’m getting shut of the place. I’m going to buy a smallholding near my brother’s farm – there’s one just come up on the market – and Timmy and Wesley will help me run it.’ Lucy went to interrupt her but Myrtle held up her hand. ‘Wesley might be backward but he’s strong and I reckon half his trouble is he needs a proper job to do. Stan would never allow it. He believed him incapable, you see.’ Lucy’s spirits soared and so did her admiration for her grandmother. ‘You’re probably right. I hope everything works out for you.’ She jumped to her feet. ‘I’d love the wireless! I’ll think about Great-uncle Stan every time I use it. Although,’ she hesitated, ‘nothing’s settled yet back in Liverpool. There’s something else that needs sorting out – but whatever, I’ll be back to see you before too long.’ She smiled. ‘Life’s never dull, is it? The unexpected’s always happening.’
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