‘Sit,’ she told Bogie, ‘and stay.’
He flopped into a dejected heap beneath pink and coral rose bushes and turned reproachful black eyes up to her face.
Inside the church it took moments for Alex’s eyes to adjust to the dim light. She entered behind the choir risers and skirted them until she could see the back of the piano. The woman had gone, darn it. Disappointed, Alex wandered out into the ambulatory, avoiding stepping on memorial brasses set into large, side by side flagstones. She studied the knight and his lady depicted there, as she had often done before. Years of enthusiasts spreading their rolls of paper over the eerie likenesses, taping them down, rasping the raised images with rubbing wax to capture the images and later frame them, had taken a toll on the brasses. Rubbings were banned now.
Alex took a backward step to get a better angle on the knight. His toes were pointed and his chain-mail enclosed arms crossed over his narrow, concave chest. In the stone beside him … Her heel caught something that shot away, her body keeled backward, one leg doubled under her, arms flailing. Alex cried out. The landing was painful as her elbows and bottom let her know, but at least she didn’t jolt all the way back and hit her head.
Very carefully, she stretched flat on the cold floor and waited for her breathing to calm. She ached but moved her limbs, flexed her spine until she was sure she hadn’t broken anything. All of her parts worked even if her body did throb. The leg that had bent backward felt achy at the knee but she could move the joint easily enough.
The sound of something rolling back and forth, slowing and coming to a stop, brought her to a sitting position. A red plastic thermos bottle had come to a standstill where it had slewed away from sharp contact with her trainer. ‘Who would leave that here?’ she muttered, gingerly getting to her feet and picking up the unintended weapon. Probably a choir member. There were one or two who carried water bottles and wrapped yards of scarf ostentatiously around their necks like opera singers protecting priceless voices.
Bending to grasp her knees, Alex waited for her heart to resume its usual position in her chest. Parts of her would definitely bear bruises. The thermos was an old, well-used one that should have a screw top that doubled as a cup, only that was missing.
Not far from the piano a stained-looking white lid, probably the cup belonging to the thermos, rested on its side.
She breathed through her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them again, her heart gave another huge bump. A thin trickle of blood ran like an emaciated scarlet snake from beneath a piano leg – from beneath a wing of glistening, pale blond hair spread in a blunt sweep over the feet of a brass music stand and gray flagstones.
One hand, fingers outstretched but still, appeared to reach for the lid of the bottle.
TWO
Alex wouldn’t appreciate finding out that Harriet Burke had called from Leaves of Comfort to suggest Tony ‘might’ want to walk past St Aldwyn’s this morning. Tony would do his best to make it believable that he’d wandered by while walking his dog, Katie.
That tale wouldn’t pass the smell test. So what? He needed to spend real and personal time with Alex, and soon.
‘Sitting at the back of the church, against the wall facing ours,’ Harriet had told him. That had been some time ago and he hoped he hadn’t missed her. He arrived at the spot. And there was no sign of Alex, but Katie took off as fast as her arthritic hips would allow, and he followed. The dog gave a single, excited bark, joined by a familiar yipping. He quickly found Katie with Alex’s Bogie, gamboling joyfully through rose bushes near a side door to the church. The door stood slightly open.
He heard Alex’s voice before he saw her. Her tone sent him striding into the building and past the choir risers. She spoke on her mobile, urgently, breathlessly, calling for help.
At her feet lay a young woman who seemed vaguely familiar. Blonde, her blue eyes open and dimmed, her rounded features seemed flaccid. Tony felt the emptiness of death.
He dropped to his knees and felt for a pulse. Nothing. But she was warm, soft, and he started CPR. Her head gradually lolled before he could return to her mouth for a second time and a glance at her eyes confirmed his fears. Her lips were blue, a little puffy even, and saliva had drizzled from her mouth and across a cheek. He looked more closely at her clothes. Her shirt stuck to her body as if she had sweated heavily. He sniffed and realized she must have vomited although he couldn’t see any evidence. Carefully, he shifted back, stood and looked around, desperate not to move or even touch anything the authorities would want to deal with.
Alex’s free hand reached for him. He squeezed her fingers and saw tears pouring down her cheeks from oval green eyes that glittered with confusion. ‘Yes,’ she said into the mobile. ‘What? She’s at St Aldwyn’s, Folly-on-Weir, near the organ. Hurry, please. Yes, I’ll stay here until they come.’
‘Tony,’ she said, slipping the phone into a pocket in her green jacket. ‘How did you know to come?’
He swallowed. ‘I didn’t. I just came looking for you and here you are. I’m glad I’m here. Do you know who she is?’
Alex angled her head. ‘I think I’ve seen her somewhere.’
‘My dad was going to see Harriet and Mary this morning.’ He pulled out his own mobile. His father was the local GP. ‘We can hope he’s already there.’
It was sensible Harriet Burke who answered, ‘Leaves of Comfort.’
He asked if Doc Harrison was there. ‘Yes,’ she said promptly but couldn’t resist asking, ‘is there a problem over there?’
So they had been watching to see if he went looking for Alex. ‘Please ask him to come to the church – use the door behind the organ, the one closest to where the choir stands,’ he said firmly and clicked off.
‘Tony.’ Alex stared at him. ‘Is this … Tony, did someone do this to her?’
He looked up into the rafters high above and swallowed. ‘I don’t know.’
‘But you think so, don’t you? It’s her head. Oh, my god, someone hit her over the head.’
‘Or she fell,’ he said quickly. ‘Onto the bottom of the music stand, do you think?’
Alex shook her head. ‘I don’t know what to think. An ambulance is coming.’
Their eyes met again and Tony grimaced. ‘What’s that?’ He nodded to the red thermos she held.
She sniffed it. ‘Smells like berries – and perhaps cloves – but it’s sharp. I don’t recognize the stuff. Could be a cordial. It was over there. I tripped and fell on it. I think that’s the top of it near her hand.’
He nodded. ‘I’d like to take a closer look at the body, but we must not move her. Dad will get here. Alex, you shouldn’t have moved that thermos, or touched it.’
‘It’s empty.’ She set the thing on the piano stool and wiped her hand on her jeans. ‘I didn’t think about anything like that. I hadn’t noticed … her. Tony, why? She’s so young. You’re sure she hasn’t just passed out and cut her head?’
‘I’m sure, darling. I wish I weren’t.’
‘Morning,’ his dad said briskly, coming through the side door, bag in hand. ‘Are you two volunteering for the choir? It’s been a bit thin lately but are you sure you’d be an asset, Tony? If I remember …’ He saw the girl and didn’t miss a step before going to kneel beside her. He felt her throat for a pulse and pulled his stethoscope from the bag.
It all felt hopeless.
‘Have you phoned for an ambulance?’ he asked sharply.
‘Yes. She was singing in here when I was sitting out there. Then she stopped but I didn’t hear her call out.’
Doc James Harrison leaned over and moved the stethoscope over the girl’s chest. He pulled off the scope and set it on the ground while he felt her neck again. After a few moments he sat back and looked steadily down into her face. ‘How long ago did she stop singing?’
‘I don’t know.’ Alex looked near tears again. She checked her watch. ‘I was out there a long time, I think. She stopped singing several times as if sh
e were practicing, or trying to get the song right. That was before I went around the churchyard. I walked around for a bit, thinking, and eventually went back to sit again. It was as if she’d been in here figuring something out but she suddenly got frustrated. She banged the piano keys hard. After that it was quiet. I was thinking about something else.’
‘She hasn’t been dead long at all,’ Doc said. He had been a physician most of his life but he hadn’t lost empathy in the face of tragedy. Looking at him, Tony saw what Alex had often pointed out, an image of himself in his sixties; tall, straight-backed, his dark blond hair turned grey but still thick and wavy, and the same dark blue eyes.
Tony gave all his attention to Alex. He could almost see her thoughts. She shook her head and said, ‘I wandered around out there while she died.’
‘Best not think about that,’ he said. ‘There was nothing you could have done.’
His father produced his own phone. ‘I need to call the police.’
THREE
Soft-soled shoes squeaked on tiles in the vestibule.
‘Thank goodness,’ Alex said.
‘If it’s the ambulance they’ll have to stand down until the police say otherwise,’ Doc told her.
Alex breathed out loudly. The old church seemed to press in on her. Sunlight caught the very tops of the single stained- glass window and dappled incongruous cheery colors on the girl’s body, her pale face. That wasn’t right, bright chips like a kaleidoscope frame had no place here and now.
‘Hello!’ A male voice accompanied the arrival of a young man with hair as dark and curly as Alex’s, although Alex’s was probably shorter. When he was halfway down the center aisle, he saw them and halted. ‘Excuse me,’ he said, and changed an empty-looking backpack from one shoulder to the other. ‘I didn’t expect anyone else to be here, except … I mean …’ He frowned and searched around the church.
Doc glanced from Tony to Alex and went to meet the newcomer who could be in his late teens or early twenties. His angular frame suggested he might still be a teenager, although a very tall one.
‘Doc James Harrison,’ Doc said, walking with his hand outstretched. ‘I’m the local GP. We haven’t met.’
‘Elyan Quillam,’ the young man said, close enough now for Alex to see intelligent dark eyes and a thin but classically handsome face.
Doc had paused. ‘The pianist?’ he asked.
‘Yes. Pleased to meet you.’ No awkward sideways looks or heightened color here, or self-consciousness – or arrogance. ‘We’re staying at Green Friday for a few months. We got here a fortnight ago.’
Alex couldn’t move. The body on the cold stone seemed as if it must be visible to everyone, but this Elyan couldn’t see it from where he was and she desperately wanted him to leave before he did. He seemed more inclined to look around as if he were searching for something.
‘That’s Hugh Rhys’s place,’ Tony said. He looked as edgy as Alex felt. ‘The house he bought above the Dimple. The Dimple is the local nickname for the oval valley you look down at when you leave Green Friday. He said he was leasing it to a family for the summer. Hope you’re comfortable there.’ The Dimple was a shallow indentation in a nearby hill where both Tony and Alex had homes.
Elyan nodded and gave a lopsided smile.
Doc seemed momentarily awestruck. ‘I heard you at Wigmore Hall – wonderful.’ He studied Elyan. ‘I didn’t realize you were the people taking Hugh’s house. You must lead a very busy life. Green Friday will be a nice retreat for you. Beautiful grounds.’
The body. Alex’s eyes flickered to the dead girl. Where’s the ambulance? Where are the police? Her head ached. Only then did the thought of Detective Chief Inspector Dan O’Reilly come seeping in. No, not this time, not again. The first time she’d met him it had been over a dead body, frozen in the snow on a hill outside the village. She gritted her teeth. Then there had been the next time …
‘I’ll wait here for my sister,’ Elyan said, walking in Tony’s direction.
He went around Doc and headed straight for the piano, but from the opposite side from where his sister lay. ‘Look at this—’ he picked up the thermos – ‘I think this has been around since primary school.’ His lips started to move without sound. The glisten of congealing blood had caught his attention.
With a hand on the side of the piano, he stared at the darkening trickle, and took a slow step forward, and another.
‘Best not look, Elyan,’ Doc said. ‘Come and sit over here.’
If the boy heard him he showed no sign. Another step, deliberately avoiding touching his sister’s clothing with a shoe, and he stood looking down at the woman’s lifeless face.
‘Laura,’ he whispered, then yelled, ‘Laura. Laura. Get up. What’s the matter with you? Laura.’ His voice broke and he reached out as if he would try to haul her into his arms.
‘We’re waiting for the ambulance,’ Tony said, and more softly, ‘and the police.’ He went to the boy and rested a hand on his shoulder.
‘It’s Laura,’ Elyan said vaguely, thudding to his knees.
‘Best leave her be,’ Tony said. He crouched beside him. ‘Come and sit down. Help will be here soon.’
‘No!’
They both stood up together, Elyan crashing into Tony who held the boy close as if he were a hurt child. ‘I’m not going to tell you anything’s okay. It’s not. Just hang in with us. Please.’ Tony, solid and familiar, his dark blond hair too long, as usual, his big, capable hands gripping Elyan’s shoulders, sharing his own vitality and strength when the other sagged, spent and crushed … and stunned.
‘My sister,’ Elyan said. ‘She’s my sister. She isn’t always well, but she was fine earlier.’ He wrenched away, his face white and still, his eyes huge. ‘Who did this? Someone’s hurt her. I was going to play for her but I got late. Oh, my god, I’m late. I should have been here.’
Alex found her voice. ‘This is not your fault. It’s an accident.’ It had to be an accident.
‘Damn it all,’ Elyan shouted. ‘One more time. They always want me to practice one more time. If it’s not Sebastian, it’s my father. They won’t let me live my life. Percy wanted me to … I hate him. I hate them all. She’s been so quiet and they didn’t care. Most days she doesn’t leave her room. She said she’d … she said she would become so silent she’d disappear. They never said anything about it. But last night she was happy. She called me and said she wanted to come here and sing. But … Why didn’t I just walk out and come when I said I would? Minutes make all the difference in how an accident turns out. She’s got a heart condition. Seconds could make a difference.’
And she could have made that difference, Alex thought.
Heavy shoes with loud heels clipped on stone and two uniformed police officers approached quickly from the front of the building. Two other men and a woman followed dressed in something resembling surgical scrubs. Alex saw a folded gurney and large bags of equipment.
‘What have we got?’ one of the men said.
‘We need to keep you back till we’ve had a look,’ a young, blond policeman said. ‘Where is it?’ he asked of no one in particular.
‘It?’ Elyan shouted. ‘She, you moron.’ He clapped his hands over his face and staggered backward. Tony guided him to the nearest choir riser.
‘I’m Constable Bendix,’ the copper said. ‘This is my partner, Constable Wicks. Sorry if I said the wrong thing.’ He directed this to Elyan’s hunched over form.
‘Here,’ Doc said, leading the way. ‘By the piano.’
Tony sat beside Elyan and put an arm around his shoulders. The young man shook visibly.
Bendix bent over the body, felt for the pulse they all knew he wouldn’t find. He looked around the area. ‘Who found the body?’
Elyan moaned and when he lifted his face his eyes didn’t seem to look at anything.
‘I did,’ Alex said. Her eyes met Tony’s and he gave an encouraging little smile. ‘She was like this. I called for the ambulance. I
knew it was bad but I didn’t think she was dead.’ Was that true? Or had she just not wanted to believe the woman might be dead?
‘I’ve got to call our family,’ Elyan said, fumbling for his mobile. ‘They need to come.’ He patted his pockets with a shaky hand.
‘That’s not a good idea, son,’ Bendix said. ‘Leave everything to us. The fewer people disturbing the scene, the better. They’ll want everything as it is.’
Alex didn’t need to ask who ‘they’ were but she could hope for fresh faces, as much as she’d come to respect O’Reilly.
An accident, she kept reminding herself. She was overreacting. They didn’t need detectives for an accidental death.
They were told to stay where they were and the two policemen withdrew a distance. The ambulance crew continued to hover in the aisle.
Doc paced, glancing frequently at Elyan who looked close to collapse. He pointed to his sister and struggled to speak.
‘Look at her mouth.’ He got out at last. ‘That color. It’s happened before. Something to do with her heart. She had a shock, that’s what happened. I don’t believe she just fell over. You don’t hit hard enough to do that just by falling over and bumping your head. Someone pushed her and her heart gave out. I … I … someone wanted her out of the way.’
‘No, no,’ Tony said, avoiding his father’s stare. ‘She could have fallen very hard, especially if she’d passed out. I think she hit the music stand and it’s very solid.’
The police came back before Alex thought they should. They couldn’t have explained much in that length of time. It couldn’t be that it was all going to start over again, the watching, the questions, the suspicion.
‘There’s a team on the way. The divisional surgeon will be along shortly, too. SOCOs on their way.’
Melody of Murder Page 3