by Alana Ling
‘If you’re certain.’
‘I am. She’s nothing compared to you.’
‘What about Poppy?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Tom told us you had a crush on her. I wouldn’t want to…work for you if you still had feelings for a…dead woman.’
Robert cursed. ‘I can’t believe he told you that.’
‘Is it true then?’
Robert paused for a moment. ‘What does it matter?’
‘It will matter to the police if they go looking for a motive. Disgruntled love-struck best man kills his crush so his best friend never gets her?’
I heard a chair roll and hit something big. A wall, perhaps?
‘That is ridiculous. I didn’t want to kill Poppy. I barely even cared for her. Just fancied her a bit, that’s all. Why would I kill someone I didn’t care about?’
‘I don’t know,’ Sam mumbled.
‘Why don’t you ask the Blakelys? They might know a thing or two about hating Poppy.’
‘Excuse me? Can I help you?’ It took me a moment to realise the voice had come from my side of the room and I found the secretary tapping her foot on the floor and her hands were folded in front of her chest. It felt like I’d taken a shot of vodka and my temples throbbed at the idea.
‘I—uhm—was waiting for my assistant. She’s still in there with Mr Law,’ I said.
Tania stormed into the office and I followed behind her. She shrieked. Sam was sitting on the desk, looking at Robert passionately while he stood behind his desk.
‘What the hell, Rob? What do you think you’re doing?’
Robert apologised to Tania and Sam got off the desk, coming next to me. ‘I think it’s time to go,’ she told me and we left the secretary to scold her boss.
‘The Blakelys, huh?’ I murmured.
‘Next stop, the Blakely Estate.’ Sam jumped. She was far too enthusiastic about murder for a sane person.
I parked at the Blakely mansion and walked up the steps. I rang the bell. The maid showed us in and Jack and Tia Blakely met with us promptly.
They fit well together.
Him, a plump man on the tall side, with grey hair and a balding middle; her, a woman who wasn’t scared of her age and gladly let her white hairs show, letting them fall in-between dyed strands of chocolate brown. She was almost as tall as him and they came in hand in hand. Even their flavours went well together. Jack left a dry and moist taste in my mouth with bread and butter; Tia, a smoked cheese I couldn’t define, the two together were like a cheese platter on legs.
Tia kissed both my cheeks and Jack kissed both Sam’s and my hands. They sat down opposite us and rang a small bell to call the maid back. They offered us brandy and I kindly declined.
‘I’m driving. Some water would be great though’
Sam accepted a glass and sipped it quietly.
‘I’m afraid Rory is out,’ Tia said. She was wearing all black as opposed to her husband who was brandishing a grey suit.
‘I actually came to see you.’
The maid gave me a glass of mineral water with ice and lemon and I drank it in one swift go. Investigating murder made me thirsty, and not only for water.
‘How can we help?’ Jack asked.
I smiled. ‘We wanted to see how you are doing, after the tragic incidents of last week.’
Tia closed her eyes solemnly while Jack’s eyebrow twitched.
‘Poppy was a lovely girl. I couldn’t wait for her to be my daughter-in-law. I cannot believe this whole, horrid affair happened to her.’ Tia sniffed.
She looked genuinely upset. Jack on the other hand looked passive. ‘Why are you interested?’ he asked.
‘Jack!’ Tia exclaimed. ‘What kind of question is that? The girls are showing an interest in our wellbeing.’
‘I’ve been visiting the family, making sure they’re coping okay and I’ve heard some rumours…’ Tia jolted and looked at me.
‘What kind of rumours?’ she squealed.
‘I think people think you were somehow involved with Poppy in some capacity,’ Sam commented, dismissing the idea with a wave of her hand. ‘But, you know people; they will say the worst things at the worst times.’
‘What?’ Tia exclaimed. ‘Who would think that of us?’
‘Well, Robert thinks you were somehow involved in Poppy’s—ending.’
Tia gasped. ‘Why would he think that?’
I shrugged. ‘He mentioned you were doing business with the Guildfords. I’m not sure what would make him think that you wanted Poppy dead. What would you even gain?’
‘It’s time,’ Jack started, ‘for you to leave, girls. You come in here accusing us of murder. You have no business in this house and in our affairs. Please,’ he said and his hand stretched towards the door.
‘Jack, the girls aren’t accusing us of anything. That Robert Law is. The cheek of it,’ Tia wailed. A tissue appeared in her hand out of her bosom and she blew her nose.
‘That foolish boy. We practically raised him and this is what he thinks of us? Why would we kill Poppy when she was working for us?’
‘Oh, what kind of work was she doing?’ I asked.
Jack turned his head towards me. He was red as a beetroot, even started tasting of it, and saliva was dripping from his arid lips. And just like that, his bread and butter went stale.
‘You need to go!’ He ground his teeth.
Sam ducked from her chair to the exit. I followed her.
‘Thank you for the brandy,’ Sam muttered under her breath and we rushed back to the car.
‘We really didn’t mean to upset anyone’ I attempted a smile and Tia smiled back at me, before shooting an evil glare at her husband.
‘Okay, there is something seriously wrong with these two,’ Sam exclaimed.
‘Jack especially. The eyes of a killer,’ I said and Sam shrugged. ‘I think we need to speak to Daniel.’
Thirteen
I drove us to the station, which took ten minutes, and asked to speak to Daniel. We waited for him next to a man in handcuffs and athletic wear and Daniel appeared with confidential envelopes in his hands.
‘Joanna?’ He smiled and came over.
‘We need to talk to you,’ I told him and he turned around to Sam before he gestured us towards his office.
‘How are you doing Miss Tully?’
Sam grinned at him. ‘You can call me Sam,’ she said. My feet were going crazy bouncing on the floor.
‘How can I help, ladies?’
I burst out with my information. ‘I think I know who killed Poppy. Both Robert Law and Lloyd Blakely admitted that Poppy had a plan. Robert thinks the Blakelys were involved so we went around their house to ask why, and Jack Blakely acted so weird, a sleeve short of a raging fit, but he did admit that she was working for them. I think Jack killed her because he didn’t want to pay her anymore, or maybe she wasn’t doing whatever job she was hired to do well.’
Daniel stayed silent.
‘Well?’ I asked.
‘First of all, when you say Jack Blakely had a raging fit, what do you mean? Did he hurt you?’
Sam cut in. ‘No, no, but he looked like he could have. He went red and we didn’t even accuse him of anything.’
‘All right, good. Second, why are you looking into Poppy’s murder?’ he asked.
The tension left my body and I deflated on top of Daniel’s desk. ‘I had an inkling and I followed it to get back to you with more information,’ I said.
Daniel lifted my head with his gentle fingers and looked into my eyes. His own green ones were not blinking. ‘What you did is dangerous and you could get into trouble. You go snooping in murder and next thing you know you are also dead. And I wouldn’t forgive myself if anything happened to you…two,’ he said and looked at Sam.
‘We know. We are being careful. But we’ve learnt so much,’ Sam explained and she told him all the information we had uncovered.
In the meantime, I sat up, straightened my
clothes and fixed my short hair behind my ears as much as possible. By the time Samantha had finished, I looked like a businesswoman again, rather than a madwoman on a leap.
‘Thank you for this, but I repeat, stay out of it. This is police work and it’s dangerous. Promise me.’
Sam looked at me and I looked at Daniel. ‘Okay,’ I replied.
‘By the way, Jack and Tia Blakely were busy the whole morning. Jack spent the entire morning at the bar outside, drinking, and Tia was drinking champagne with her girlfriends celebrating her son’s upcoming nuptials. And both their alibis check out, by the way.’
‘Oh,’ I said.
‘Indeed.’ He smirked.
Silence crept into the room as embarrassment hit me like shots of tequila the morning after.
‘Busy morning?’ asked Samantha.
‘Actually, I just came back from the coroner’s office. The toxicology has come back. It seems that Poppy was poisoned with conium maculatum, more commonly known as hemlock.’
‘Is that what killed her?’ I asked.
He shook his head. ‘The coroner has found that by the time she died, Poppy would have only been paralysed.’
‘And then someone choked her with a bouquet of flowers,’ I commented. ‘So we’re looking for two killers.’
‘Or a very impatient murderer,’ Sam suggested.
Daniel slapped his hands on his desk. ‘We are not looking for anyone. I am. My team is. I only told you as a courtesy. You need to promise me you’ll stay out of this. Joanna, promise me,’ he pleaded again.
‘I already did,’ I said.
‘Joanna!’
I breathed out long and hard. ‘Sure,’ I said, knowing full well that I wasn’t going to stop now.
After our brief meeting with Daniel, both Sam and I agreed that we were starving, so we headed to the Oak Tavern and sat at the very back of the empty pub with menus in one hand and gin and tonics in the other.
‘I can’t believe she was poisoned. How on earth did they manage that?’ I asked.
Sam put down both the menu and her drink and looked at one of our bags containing our suspects map. ‘I don’t know,’ she said, pulling it out and opening it on the table. ‘Maybe she was having drinks before she died, or someone gave her a snack before she got ready.’
I shook my head. ‘Before I met you to rehash the wedding rehearsal I was with Poppy the whole morning, remember. No one came in. She didn’t want to see anyone.’
Sam grabbed her phone and I placed our order with one of Jamie’s colleagues. He was busy making a cocktail at the bar but promised he’d come over in a moment.
‘It says here that hemlock acts almost immediately. So it must have been someone that visited her in the hour that she died.’
‘I think if there was someone, Daniel would have caught them already,’ I said.
Sam twisted her lips, looking into our suspects. She wrote the word poison under Poppy’s picture and the word choke. ‘That gives us two means, but doesn’t really help us narrow it down, does it?’
I shook my head. ‘Put it away, we’ll get back to it tomorrow. We need to clear our heads. We won’t figure anything out now.’
Sam agreed and she started to roll the map when Jamie came to our table with his drink.
‘What have you been up to, ladies?’ he asked, his eyes falling on the half-rolled map. ‘What is this?’
‘Wedding stuff.’ I waved my hands over it so he couldn’t see, but he slapped my hands away.
‘Is this—?’ He unrolled the whole thing and looked at it. ‘Is this about Poppy’s murder? I thought I told you it was dangerous to get involved.’
‘So did Detective Anderson,’ Sam added.
Jamie’s eyes opened wide. ‘See. What more reason do you need?’
‘I know, I know,’ I told him, taking a big gulp of gin.
His eyes rested on the map. ‘Hold on,’ he said. ‘Who is this? I know this guy.’ He pointed at Tom.
‘You do?’ Sam asked with a lilt in her voice.
‘He is the groom’s best man. One of them. We thought he had a crush on Poppy, but turns out he hated her,’ I offered.
Jamie looked at the picture of Robert and recognition turned into relief. ‘Ah, yes. Yes, that’s it. They were here last weekend. Hey, you were here too,’ he said.
I exhaled. ‘Is that it?’
Jamie shook his head. ‘Well, you’re saying you thought he had a crush on Poppy. I could have told you that’s not possible.’
‘Why?’
‘After you left, the boys got a bit drunk. Nothing to do with me, I swear,’ he started with a knowing smirk on his face. He often offered free drinks to men he fancied and I assumed those two were no exception. ‘This guy, Robert,’ he said reading the name under his picture, ‘was snogging a girl that had come in with a different guy. Let me tell you, the other man wasn’t pleased. Had to kick him out because he threatened Robert, while he was all laughs and jokes.’
Sam winced. ‘Not surprised. He hit on me in the presence of his secretary-slash-lover.’
‘There was a whole fight inside and eventually the security guys came in and took the other guy out. He shouted at his girlfriend to follow, but she stayed behind, ignoring him. I went to check on them, offer the girl some water, but she was already down Robert’s throat so I gave…Tom a drink.’
‘Yes?’ I urged him.
‘Oops, one second,’ he said and went away leaving us both in agony. He came back shortly after with our food, which he slowly put down on the table. Then left again to get us sauces.
‘I’m going to kill him,’ Sam muttered.
‘Get in line,’ I told her.
‘So where was I?’
‘You gave Tom a drink,’ I said.
Jamie sprang back to life. ‘Ah, yes. So we sat there talking. He’s a handsome man you see. I was star-struck. While Robert and his chick were necking each other I asked him if he wanted another drink. And he accepted it. So I went to get another drink.’
‘Is that it?’ I asked.
‘No, silly. Let me finish.’
‘Then do it already,’ Sam spat.
Jamie raised his eyebrow at her and shook his head. ‘Young ones. So impatient.’
I growled. ‘She’s not the only one, you know.’
‘All right, all right. So, we had a few drinks. Then Robert decided to take his chick home and Tom excused himself. One moment,’ he said and left us again to talk to Kit.
Kit looked at us and grinned while Jamie whispered in his ear.
‘He’s doing it on purpose, isn’t he?’ Sam hissed.
He returned and asked us how the food was.
‘Jamie! If you don’t sit your arse down and finish your story, I’m going to shower you with cottage pie. It’s scalding hot, too.’
Jamie laughed. ‘Fine, fine. Before he left, I asked him for his number. He said he was flattered, but that he was in a relationship and his boyfriend wouldn’t appreciate him giving me his number.’
‘Well, that proves nothing other than the fact that he’s gay, which has nothing to do with our murder investigation.’
‘We’re back to square one.’ I sighed.
Fourteen
The next morning I received a phone call at the strike of nine.
‘Good morning, Joanna darling. It’s Sarah Guildford,’ she said on the other end with an extra force of cheer that I was sure was for the benefit of others and not herself.
‘Hello, Mrs Guildford. How can I help?’
‘I was hoping you could, actually,’ she said. ‘You see a delivery of flowers has arrived and they won’t take them back. And now I’ve had Poppy’s wedding cake delivered.’
I slapped my forehead. ‘Oh, my goodness, Mrs Guildford. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say. I thought I’d sorted everything out. I’ll be right over and I promise I’ll fix this.’
‘No problem, darling. See you soon.’ She hung up.
I got in my car and dialled
Sam’s number to tell her I was going to be late and started my trip to the Guildfords’ house.
As soon as I got there I had to battle with furniture men who would not take no for an answer when Mrs Guildford was begging them to stop transferring the benches to the back garden for the wedding. I managed to get rid of them and called up the cake decorator to arrange a pick-up later today. The florist declared they were too busy to collect anything. After phoning a collection agency to come and collect any nuptial remnants from the house, Sarah took me inside and offered me tea and cake to thank me. I was too embarrassed to admit fault, so I divulged in her generosity.
‘How are you, my darling? I hope you don’t have any more of this—stuff—to busy yourself with.’ She pointed to the direction of the garden and I nodded in understanding.
‘No, don’t worry. I’m planning a birthday party for next month,’ I explained.
She chuckled. ‘I hope they’re less demanding than my Poppy.’ At the mention of her daughter’s name, her voice dropped. Her eyes glistened and she wiped them with a napkin.
‘You’d be surprised.’ I laughed it off and managed to get a smirk out of her. ‘How are you? Do you need any help with the funeral arrangements? I know it mustn’t be easy—’
‘Don’t worry, my darling. Detective Anderson has finally released her body back to us. We’re having her funeral on Sunday. We were going to do it tomorrow, but we thought it might strike people off if we did it on the wedding day.’ Sarah collapsed into her napkin again.
‘I see. Has he told you any more news about her passing?’
Sarah shook her head. ‘He told us she was poisoned and asked if we had seen her consume anything or if we’d seen anyone, but we didn’t. We were getting ready in our room.’
I pursed my lips and glanced at her with sad eyes. ‘I remember. I saw you in the hallway.’
Sarah’s eyes closed in agreement.
‘Was Lesley happy with the wedding, Mrs Guildford,’ I asked.
‘Of course he was,’ she said with a faint smile.
‘It’s just, I heard him the day of the rehearsal and he didn’t seem too keen,’ I pushed.