Melody of Murder

by Stella Cameron

  With Bogie under his arm, Tony led Katie into the room. Predictably she went to sit between her chums in front of the fire. ‘Sit down,’ Tony told Alex. ‘I’ll put this one on your lap. He’s fine but probably sore.’

  Alex took Bogie and he gave a grateful sigh. Hands behind his back, Tony remained standing. ‘You shouldn’t have sat outside like that.’ He looked thunderous.

  ‘We couldn’t get you on the phone at either of your houses and we decided we were better waiting here than at home. Lily said you were looking after Bogie so we knew you’d be back. Poor thing. Dogs don’t belong on bicycles.’ Mary paused for a deep breath and carried on: ‘We’ve heard so much, we’ve got to make sure you know about it all. We have a theory, don’t we, Harriet?’

  ‘Oh, yes. Money,’ she replied, sitting very straight.

  Tony got up and went to the cupboard where he’d found the brandy earlier. ‘I think I’ve got a bottle of sherry,’ he said, rooting around inside. ‘Ha! Harvey’s. I know that will warm the cockles of your hearts.’

  Pleased murmurs met the announcement and Tony soon had the ladies sipping the sweet sherry. ‘Now, what’s this about money?’

  ‘You know that horrible Giggles – no Giglio man. He turned up at the Dog and rambled on about all sorts of things I’m sure he wasn’t supposed to mention,’ Harriet said. ‘One of our friends called to tell us about it. She was there. But I can’t give her name. She doesn’t want to be mixed up in any of it but she knew we would want to know. That man was drunk when he got there and he drank two more drinks. Could hardly stand up. Went on about “the money” and how some people didn’t have what everyone thought they did. Didn’t make much sense, but for what it’s worth, he told the entire bar about how the Quillam’s pecuniary state – I should have liked to hear him get that out in his condition – would change now. He was talking about the Quillams going through too much money. Living too high, he said. All right when they had it but their habits didn’t change when they didn’t. He kept on about “salvation in the nick of time”. Anyway, we’re worried it’ll all get muddled up by the time the police hear it and you’re the ones to keep that lot straight.’

  Alex met Tony’s eyes. What the devil was it all about? Could Wells have been the anonymous tipster, deliberately trying to point the police in someone’s direction? Or even away from it, as in away from himself? She felt Tony asking himself the same questions. It made sense.

  ‘The reporters there were flapping their ears, or so we were told. One of them asked Giglio what was changing the Quillam’s fortunes and he just tapped the side of his nose and said, “You wait and see. They’ll be found out.” Mary and I wonder if it’s something to do with young Laura being dead. You never know how things are tied up, do you?’ Harriet’s eyes only grew brighter.

  ‘No, you don’t,’ Alex said. ‘I feel disaster on its way. Do you know if there were a lot of people in the bar.’

  ‘Sounds like it,’ Mary said.

  Tony sat down and hung his hands between his knees. ‘O’Reilly will have a fit if it’s all across the papers tomorrow.’

  ‘And on the telly,’ Mary said. She didn’t sound unhappy at the prospect.

  ‘What was the reaction to the news about Mrs Meeker?’ Alex said.

  Blank faces met the question.

  Tony gritted his teeth. ‘Of course, Wells wasn’t there for that. Or he was too shattered to realize anything had happened.’ He saw the women’s empty glasses and refilled them while they made weak protests.

  ‘We need a couple of accomplices don’t we, Tony.’

  They looked at each other again and Tony nodded. ‘You’ve got to help us keep the rest of what happened tonight from getting out before the police want it to.’ With his hands pushed into his curly hair, he added, ‘We owe Dan O’Reilly that much. He’s a good egg and we shouldn’t let him get sabotaged if we can help him. Are you with us?’

  Both old faces pinned him. ‘What’s happened to Mrs Meeker? Nice woman. She came into the shop for some good tea. She thinks the way we do about important things.’

  ‘Are you with us?’ Tony repeated.

  ‘Of course,’ Harriet said, crossly.

  ‘Mrs Meeker was found dead tonight,’ Alex said. ‘She’d gone to bed. The police have been at the house again, doing a search, and she got tired of being in a room with everyone else, so she went upstairs. That’s where they found her.’

  Mary shook her head slowly. ‘Poor woman. She’s been under a lot of strain, I’m sure.’

  ‘Laura’s death was a murder,’ Tony said, meeting Alex’s eyes.

  She could see him wondering if she’d try to temper what he’d said. She didn’t. ‘Yes, and from what we saw and the police reaction, we wouldn’t be out of line thinking what happened to Mrs Meeker was just about the same thing.’

  ‘Poisoned,’ Harriet said under her breath.

  ‘What makes you so certain about that?’ Alex asked.

  Both ladies sipped at their sherry, careful as always about what they said. ‘There’s been talk,’ Harriet said. ‘Not that talk means very much, or it doesn’t most of the time. But then Giglio said at the Dog last night that Laura was poisoned. Everything we say is second-hand but do you know if Laura had a lot of her own money? Not our business, of course.’

  Elyan had said Laura was waiting to leave home when she came into her trust fund. ‘I don’t know how much,’ Alex said.

  Katie had grown too warm by the fire and moved to lie on Tony’s feet. He stroked her absently. ‘I have a feeling it wasn’t insignificant. I wonder what happens to it now.’

  How, Alex wondered, did you find out something like that? She had another, more disturbing thought. Tentatively, she said, ‘Dan O’Reilly and the lovely Bill will know how to find out those things. There couldn’t have been provisions for it to go to Mrs Meeker, could there?’

  Massaging his temples, Tony said, almost under his breath, ‘It could be that Wells was romantically involved with Laura, or thought he was. He could have planned for her to be his route to big money and a permanent seat at the Quillam table. Disappointment leads to spite in some people.’

  TWENTY-SIX

  What a hell of a night. Hugh Rhys stood in his sitting-room window, watching dawn break. He hadn’t undressed from the night before. Below him the car park at the back of the pub was empty. There was a promise of a sunny day but cloud still shielded the gold to come.

  He looked at his mobile. It had been in his hand for hours. He didn’t want to call Sonia Quillam, but could he watch her being devoured by whatever was going on in that family and not attempt to do anything, or should he reach out and see if she was in trouble and, if so, if he could help in some way.

  She had made sure he had her mobile number.

  He had not given her his.

  Had they ever been happy together? He supposed so, in between the kind of misery he finally couldn’t take anymore. But that had been years ago. He should have moved on by now, really moved on.

  Slowly, he punched in the numbers to reach her. By now the police would have given them all some time to at least rest up at Green Friday, in which case Sonia would be fast asleep. That had been something she was good at, sleeping when she didn’t want to face reality.

  Her phone rang; it rang six times and he was about to hang up when her voice, hoarse and whispery, said, ‘Hugh? Is it really you?’

  ‘How are you holding up?’

  Silence.

  ‘Sonia, Wells Giglio came in last night and—’

  ‘I know,’ she said. ‘Now it’s like waiting for the guillotine. Please tell me the place was empty.’

  The milk truck pulled in close to the kitchen door and he heard the clinking of bottles as the delivery man stacked them in their crates near the building.

  ‘It wasn’t empty.’ The truck made its noisy exit. ‘Full would be closer. By now there will be talk about Laura being murdered – poisoned, as he put it – all over the village. We had a bat
talion of press, too.’

  She moaned. ‘It’s horrible here, just horrible. I’ve got to keep it together for Elyan, but all I want to do is run away.’

  ‘Keep it together for Percy, too, right.’ Silently, he cursed his careless mouth. He didn’t want her to think he cared. ‘I can understand,’ he added.

  ‘Have you come to an understanding with your family?’ The lift in her voice told him she was trying to change the subject by putting him on the defensive.

  ‘We’re fine,’ he said. Not far from the truth.

  ‘Really? Now that’s a surprise.’

  ‘Sonia, what’s happened? Don’t fool around or this conversation is over.’

  ‘Hugh, be kind for once. It’s hell here. I don’t know what’s happened except Laura’s death has been ruled a murder and now Meeker has been found dead in bed.’

  He sucked in a breath. ‘Another murder?’

  ‘I’m praying it was a heart attack.’ She added, ‘I don’t mean that the way it sounds. I mean I hope they don’t say it was another murder. Sebastian says they will. Wells is too drunk to have an opinion, and so is Percy. Elyan is busy suspecting everyone and hating everyone – except his Annie. I can’t talk to him.’

  ‘Calm down and think,’ Hugh said. ‘Think about when Mrs Meeker died and who could have done it – the time, the opportunity.’

  ‘I don’t know. She was fed up and said she’d go to bed. She told the police they could search her rooms around her if they liked. All through that time Wells was in and out – most likely drinking in one of the bathrooms before he took off to the Black Dog. Sebastian was gone for a while but it seems obvious he was with Daisy, driving her to Tony Harrison’s clinic to ask if he could offload the girl – not that I blame him. This has been no place for a child.’

  Hugh took a breath. ‘How about Percy?’

  She was silent for a while before saying, ‘Percy isn’t the murdering type. He’s capable of other things, but not murder.’

  ‘And Elyan?’ He hated asking but he hadn’t cared for her defense of Percy, either.

  Sonia took so long to answer that Hugh’s heart beat faster and harder. ‘Elyan couldn’t have anything to do with things like this. He’s really gentle and all he cares about is his music. And he loved Laura.’

  ‘Who do you think did this?’ This was pointless. He didn’t think she’d tell him if she did know.

  ‘Well, Wells has a lot to lose with Laura’s death. I think he hoped they’d marry and he’d be on the inside of the Quillam family – and get his hands on Laura’s money. Elyan’s the gold mine Wells dips into, but this is a long season of practice and more practice, so the flow from him is more of a trickle. Laura could have changed his life, given him independence from us, and from anyone else.’

  Hugh thought about Wells’ appearance the night before. Perhaps the man had been too drunk to give any kind of accurate reading, but he hadn’t behaved like a man involved in murder – quite the opposite. ‘How about Sebastian?’

  ‘Sebastian is a sweetheart, really. Daisy is the center of his life, Daisy and guiding Elyan. I don’t know why he’d do it.’

  ‘Do you have any ideas about why Mrs Meeker was killed? She wasn’t likely to inherit from Laura’s death, was she?’

  Sonia gave a short laugh. ‘She knew everything. That’s the only reason I could come up with for someone killing her. It would be whoever killed Laura, wouldn’t it? Trying to make sure she didn’t give away any incriminating details.’

  Hugh squeezed his gritty eyes shut. ‘I don’t know. Sounds plausible – if anything about this mess sounds plausible.’

  ‘Is Birnam Bricht the label of your whisky?’

  ‘My father’s, yes.’ As she well knew.

  ‘But it comes to you when he dies.’

  ‘I won’t discuss that.’

  She gave one of her conspiratorial little laughs. ‘Why should you. You’re already rich, thanks to your grandfather. Why did you choose a place like this to settle down?’

  ‘I’d like to know how you tracked me down here,’ he said.

  ‘I always know where you are.’

  Irritation could send him over the edge, only he wouldn’t let that happen. ‘I’ll leave you to work out my reasons for coming here, Sonia. I called to see if you were all right. For old times’ sake.’

  ‘I knew you hadn’t really forgotten me,’ she said, her voice a whisper again. ‘And I’m so proud to watch Birnam Bricht do so well.’

  He shouldn’t have called. ‘You’re fine, then, Sonia?’

  ‘Why would you think that? Without you I can’t be fine. I need you. I need you to help me keep Elyan safe. He’s brilliant, Hugh, an incredible prodigy. Whatever happens, we must make sure nothing gets in the way of his reaching full potential.’

  Hugh narrowed his eyes. As usual, she was trying to tie him up with the knots of her subterfuge. ‘What does that mean?’

  He heard her short breaths. ‘I know something horrible has happened here. The blame needs to be placed where it should be. There’s more than one who wanted to benefit, really benefit, out of Laura’s trust. One of them killed her but I don’t know why. When we find out who that was, we have the whole case solved. Will you help me?’

  If he were completely honest he’d tell her he couldn’t be sure she hadn’t a reason for trying to get her hands on that money. ‘Who gets the money now Laura is gone?’

  The silence went on far too long.

  ‘Sonia?’

  ‘I don’t know, but I’ll try to find out. Percy keeps those things pretty close to him and he doesn’t like it when I ask questions.’

  ‘But we need to know, don’t we?’ Hugh would bet plenty that the police were already following up that question.

  ‘Why did you call me, Hugh? What do you really want?’

  He put the back of his hand over his mouth so she would not hear his irregular breathing. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked when he settled down a little.

  ‘You don’t care about me. You’re probing, using me to get answers. Why do you want to know all this?’

  He set his teeth, remembering why he’d left her. ‘What possible reason could I have to call and ask you these things – if I don’t care about you?’

  She made an odd, choking sound and said, ‘You know the truth, don’t you. You’ve always known. Some things can be ignored for a long time – but not forever.’

  Hugh cut her off.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  Alex didn’t say a word while Hugh paced back and forth across the kitchen. From time to time he raked his dark hair and she realized that despite his hefty frame, he looked thinner, and very strained.

  ‘Sebastian Carstens came for his daughter about an hour ago?’ he said at last. ‘He left her with you all night?’

  Alex didn’t know what point he was making. ‘Yes. That was a good thing, right, Tony. Green Friday was no place for a child to be last night.’

  Tired as he had to be, Tony watched Hugh with interest. ‘No, it wasn’t. We’re supposed to remain at the clinic until the police tell us otherwise but you know Alex. She has to make sure everything’s all right here.’

  Coffee was brewing. Alex sniffed appreciatively.

  ‘Good business people keep their hands in,’ Hugh said. ‘That’s why this place is such a success.’

  He didn’t seem totally present. ‘You make a big difference, Hugh.’

  ‘I forgot the milk. I saw it delivered then just forgot it. Excuse me while I—’

  ‘It’s fine where it is until some kitchen staff arrive,’ Alex said quickly. She knew the milk delivery time and for him to see it meant he was up considerably before he needed to be. ‘I’ve wanted to ask how you came by a Welsh name when you’re a Scot.’

  ‘My father’s Welsh. My mother’s Scottish. I was born and grew up in Scotland – it’s home to me. Did you hear anything about that Wells Giglio coming in last night? He was three sheets and rambling on. It won’t make anyone at th
e Quillams’ happy, or the police.’

  Alex got three mugs and filled them with coffee. She took a carton of cream from one of the refrigerators and left it out for the others to use.

  ‘Mrs Meeker died last night, I’m told. That’s turning into an unlucky place.’

  ‘Who told you that?’ Tony turned sharply toward Hugh.

  He brought his hands down hard on the central chopping block. ‘Loose lips,’ he muttered. ‘I was told in confidence. I can’t say any more.’

  Cops in for a pint when they came off duty had been known to say too much. Casual people who got small pieces of information could hardly wait to pass it around. Alex looked at Tony. His brows were drawn together. He gave his head the slightest shake, warning her not to pursue the topic.

  Tony said, ‘We all know that in a close-knit place like Folly, fresh gossip is pounced on.’

  ‘Morning all.’ Dan appeared from the passage between the main kitchen and this one behind the pub. The other end of the passage opened into the back of the restaurant and once he left his room and came downstairs, it was an easy thing for him to find his way to either kitchen. ‘Stopped in for a couple of hours’ kip and clean togs. Can’t be falling asleep on the job. Did you not remember being told to stay at Tony’s clinic?’

  He ran so smoothly from one topic to the next, Alex didn’t think to bend the truth. ‘We remembered. I wanted to check things here, then we intended to go back.’

  ‘I heard you mention the death last night, Hugh. I’ll expect you to give me your sources a bit later. I’ve some things to go over with Alex and Tony first. Give me your mobile number.’

  Hugh, obviously on edge, dictated and O’Reilly put the information in his own mobile.

  ‘I’ll ask you to drive over to the parish hall with me,’ Dan said. ‘Someone will bring you back for your vehicle later.’

  ‘It’s not here,’ Tony said. ‘We walked from the clinic.’

  They reached the front door to the inn and went outside into struggling sunshine. ‘Did you talk to anyone on your way?’