‘So what do you think he was saying and trying not to really say?’ she finished.
Tony looked at the tall grass beside the road, standing straight with no breeze to move it, and the scattering of wild flowers. He put the side of a fist to his mouth and went through what she’d said in his mind.
‘I think we’d better take notice of what Dad’s said. Stay away from any of the Green Friday crew.’
‘Why? I have my own theories but I want to hear yours.’
‘You’re first, Alex.’
She looked up into his face, her green eyes intense and unhappy. ‘Okay, but no laughing. I think Mrs Meeker saw Doc because she’s got some sort of heart problem, too. And I don’t care how sneaky we have to be, I’m going to find out if that’s true. I already know the liquid digoxin is used mostly with children or for people who can’t swallow pills. And if you think back over everything that’s been said, we don’t know for sure that Mrs Meeker didn’t have pills and not the other stuff. Dan only said the death was much the same as Laura’s. But what if Mrs Meeker was one of those with swallowing problems and she was the one who had the stuff that killed Laura? What if she caused Laura’s death deliberately, someone found out and killed her, too, out of revenge?’
‘We don’t know if any of that is right,’ Tony told her. ‘But I think some of it could be. How can we find out if Mrs Meeker had trouble taking pills? They found a bottle on the floor by her bed. I assumed it was a pill bottle, but it could have been the liquid.’
‘Tony!’ Alex grabbed his upper arm in both of her hands. ‘That’s it. Mrs Meeker depleted her own drug supply on Laura then had to get a refill prescription from Doc. Let’s go straight to … to O’Reilly. I was going to say, Dr Molly Lewis but she probably wouldn’t even see us.’
‘I want to know what Dad prescribed – or even if he prescribed at all. Making fools of ourselves may not be very important, but we can’t do this, not walk in and state facts we don’t have.’
She took his face in her hands and made him look at her. ‘Come on, my love, let’s just do it. Or the chemist’s. There’s only one in Folly.’
‘We … no, we can’t waltz in and ask them.’
‘Mm … nope, we can’t. Especially since the prescription was probably filled by a chemist in a bigger town.’
‘This may seem inappropriate timing, but I think it will help us relax.’
Kissing Alex had never relaxed Tony, quite the reverse, but it always chased any other thoughts from his mind, thoughts other than how much he enjoyed kissing her – and what a perfect prelude to the real event it was.
Deciding to avoid any acts of public indecency, they eventually sat, leaning together and very disheveled.
‘You take Doc,’ Alex said when her breathing slowed down. ‘We just want to know if Mrs Meeker used the same stuff Laura took.’
He rolled his head toward her. ‘And you think he’ll give me a straight answer?’
‘If you wiggle around the question he might give a hint. If he doesn’t, plead about what a nasty position we’re in. Say you’re worried about me and how someone could slip me a mickey.’
‘Don’t even say that.’ He looked angry.
Alex coughed to hide a smile. ‘We have to do it, Tony. I’ll find Elyan and remind him we were supposed to have a chat. When I saw him this morning, he said he’d like that. I’ll just find a way to mention Mrs Meeker and pills, and hope he corrects me. He’d know what she took, wouldn’t he?’
‘He might. Why are you so determined not to leave it to the police to figure all this out?’
Why? Alex glanced at Tony. ‘Because I can’t. I don’t trust them to get to the bottom of it quickly enough. And it’s my responsibility. I was there when she left … I mean, died. I found Laura’s body and I can’t stop feeling I should find out who killed her.’
THIRTY-FIVE
‘They’re picking us off one-by-one,’ Elyan said. ‘Wells is back. They couldn’t have had grounds to hold him any longer. He’s as shaken up as hell, and now they’ve taken Sebastian. How do you try to think about people you’ve known forever as murderers?’
‘I don’t think you do,’ Alex told him. ‘If there was anything that stood out, you’d remember.’
She had called him and he picked up on the first ring. And he’d been so eager to get out of the house, he had suggested they meet at the public library in Broadway, a few miles away, as soon as they could get there. He’d found it on an earlier visit when he was researching abandoned railways and he said there were very few people there on that occasion, but they could always go somewhere else if it was busy this time.
The library was modern and on Leamington Road with its rows of fresh detached houses and flower-filled gardens.
In the library, half a dozen people seemed to be holding a reading group and were completely engrossed in their whispered discussion.
Alex and Elyan sat at a table with great chunks of silence hanging between them.
When she got there, he already had several books in front of him. ‘I’ve been a railway nut since I was a kid. Or I have when I could steal the time to get into them,’ he said. ‘The Cotswolds are criss-crossed with disused tracks.’
His enthusiasm made her smile. ‘I can see that being interesting. I suggested we get together because we’d mentioned having a chat. If I can help you in any way, all you have to do is say so. I get the feeling you’re pretty much alone in all this – apart from Annie, of course.’
‘She’s wonderful. I wish she wasn’t going through such a bad time. It’s bad for her as well as for me and her parents aren’t helping. They don’t think she should come to see me until it’s all over.’ He rested his chin in his hands. ‘I’ve been told not to go up to London. I asked that O’Reilly chap and he said, no. What does he think I intend to do on a little run up to London?’
‘I’ve seen this with the police before,’ Alex said. ‘They like to keep all the case principals in one place, or as much as possible.’
‘Annie and I are going to get married just as soon as we can.’
Alex couldn’t help smiling. They seemed so young but she’d felt the force of their feelings for one another. ‘I think you’ll make a great couple.’ She barely managed not to say, When you’re older.
‘Yes.’ His eyes looked into the distance. ‘Poor old Meeker said that. She was a good person but I took her for granted. I took Laura for granted too, come to that. She thought Annie and I should just run off together but she didn’t know any more about the ins and outs of that than we do. Annie’s got school anyway and she loves her parents.’
‘Had Mrs Meeker been ill?’ Alex asked, feeling like a snake. ‘She looked so fit, didn’t she?’
With a forefinger, Elyan made lines on the table. ‘I suppose she did. She took medication regularly, I know that. But from what the police say, it can’t be anything to do with that. Do you know if parents can do anything to stop a marriage, or nullify it?’
Alex’s heart sank. ‘I’ll try and find out.’
‘Would you? Thanks. I’d do it but I wouldn’t put it past my father, or even Sebastian, to have ways to follow whatever I do on the computer.’
‘There are computers here,’ she pointed out, nodding to the stations in the library.
‘I just don’t want anyone to know it’s on my mind. If someone decided to follow what I’ve been doing lately, they could find out I was here and even if I used a computer. They’d flip out and find ways to make our lives impossible. Look, I haven’t asked Annie to do it, yet, so you won’t …’
‘Of course not. You must miss having Laura to talk to.’
He blinked rapidly. ‘Of course I do. She was healthier than when she was younger. She told me that. The past couple of years she’d seemed much stronger.’
She scrambled for the right response.
‘My father didn’t seem to recognize that. He just kept on treating her like an invalid. Sometimes I’ve wondered if she really neede
d the medicine anymore.’
‘Perhaps illness frightened him. Some people are like that.’
When he seemed lost in thought, Alex gave him time. Outside, darkness was settling in, leaving streetlights to illuminate flowers along the pathway and pick out dogs trotting ahead of their owners.
‘Meeker said that was the problem,’ Elyan said. ‘And she thought he was frightened of losing Laura. Meeker never mentioned her illness to him.’
Alex could have kissed him. ‘Not her own, I’m sure.’
‘Oh, no. He’s almost paranoid about getting sick himself.’
‘Did you say Mrs Meeker had to take pills regularly? What was wrong with her? She seemed to be on top of everything.’
‘I saw her take pills,’ Elyan said. ‘But it wasn’t something you’d think of asking about. But how would I know? Just pills to me.’
Alex weighed her response. She must not alert him to her fact-finding mission. It was clear Elyan didn’t know exactly what had killed Laura, or Mrs Meeker, but there was nothing to suggest the housekeeper had any difficulty taking pills. The methods of the two deaths didn’t sound as if they matched – but they could, couldn’t they? There was no way of being sure until they knew what killed Mrs Meeker.
‘Did Wells talk about the police questioning?’ She frowned in what she hoped was a distant, thoughtful way. ‘This all needs to be over so things can get back to normal for all of us.’
‘All Wells said was that his fingerprints weren’t found on anything in the church. He said they wouldn’t be since he’d never been inside the place. But he’s still not allowed to leave Folly. He’s back at the house and my mother is all jumpy about that. She’s scared someone will try to hurt her and I suppose she’s already tried Wells and found him guilty of murder. She won’t listen to me.’
Alex’s mobile vibrated and she excused herself to take the call when she saw it was Tony. She went outside the library and stood under a streetlight where Elyan would see her and know she saw him, in case he was tempted to slip out.
‘Tony,’ she said. ‘I’m at the library in Broadway with Elyan. The police let Wells go but now they’ve taken Sebastian in.’
He let out a sigh. ‘The trouble is they may be looking in the right places but without evidence to back up theories.’
‘What does that mean?’ A Land Rover was parked at the corner. Dark blue and very muddy. It reminded her of the accident on the hill. ‘Tony, what did you mean?’
‘Mrs Meeker died of a digoxin overdose. She was already taking the drug regularly. Then she ingested a big additional dose – and a fairly hefty amount of whisky.’
‘The cocktail tumbler …’
‘Yes. Sounds as if she might almost have been drowned with the stuff. She had bruises consistent with someone strong holding her by the base of the skull, and her arms were bruised as if she fought.’
‘Doc told you this?’ Alex saw Elyan get up and start toward the door.
‘No.’ Tony cleared his throat. ‘He left a set of records open on his desk and left the room for water.’
‘Are you telling me they were Mrs Meeker’s notes?’
‘Yes. Not a lot there but enough to tell us what we want to know.’
‘Elyan told me she wasn’t well. He’s coming out, Tony. I’d better go. At least, we’d better not say anything telling. Here he comes. Hi, Elyan, are you leaving?’
‘I should get back. My father will be foaming at the mouth again by now.’
‘Right,’ Alex said. ‘Let’s touch bases again. I’ll see what I can find out about what we discussed.’
‘Thanks.’
‘Is he still in earshot?’ Tony asked.
‘No, he just walked to the corner and got into a dark blue Land Rover.’
THIRTY-SIX
The instant he realized Sonia was attached to the Quillams who wanted to lease Green Friday, he should have backed out of the agreement.
If he was honest with himself he had to admit he’d been curious at the thought of seeing her again. That made him a stupid git who still let his dick get the better of him. He’d never stopped recalling sex with Sonia, even after she’d left him without so much as a note. She’d been nineteen and a knock-out – and he’d actually thought he loved her.
Damn, why hadn’t he stuffed his curiosity away with the rest of the best-forgotten memories?
‘Hugh! Over here!’
He turned, deliberately slowly, to watch her clack her backless high-heels up the center aisle of the tiny church she’d designated. Not far from Naunton, she had told him. Still, he hated meeting her there and feeling the specter of dead Laura Quillam as if she were watching. And he had loathed the way ancient gravestones had been leaned against crumbling walls around the churchyard like so many discarded and forgotten lives. The dark green lushness of the grass seemed somehow ominous. A sparse scattering of dandelions were all that was mildly cheerful.
‘Hugh, thank god you came.’
‘I said I would. But why here? It looks as if pieces of the place could cave in at any moment.’
She laughed and hitched a handbag over her shoulder. A sleeveless deep blue dress swirled around her pretty legs and her hair was loose. ‘If you had Norman bits, they might fall off at any moment, too,’ she said, reaching him. ‘I chose it because I remember it from a visit to Naunton as a child, with my father. He loved searching out old churches. Said trying to find some of them was like being a detective following clues.’
Her father, whom he had never met, was of no interest to him. ‘I’ve been away from the pub too long already,’ he told her. ‘What is it you must talk to me about, in complete privacy?’
‘This will be difficult for both of us,’ she said, pressing the palm of one hand against his chest. He felt the warmth through his cotton shirt. ‘I’ve borne it all alone as long as I could. Now I need help – from you.’
‘You might as well be speaking another language, Sonia. I don’t understand you.’
‘You will. When Percy married Laura’s mother he went from pretending to be rich to being filthy, stinking rich – sort of. She let him have whatever he wanted but she had come into a huge inheritance.’
Hugh selected a rough-hewn stone pew and sat down with a wary glance at the roof. ‘What does this have to do with me?’
‘Just listen. In her will she left three quarters of her estate to her then baby daughter, Laura, and the rest to Percy. When she died, Percy was in easy street, only he can spend money like no one you’ve ever seen. Elyan’s been a big help but he’s not at the top of his game and there’s been a fairly dry period.’
He crossed his arms. ‘Laura was worth—’
‘She would have been when she turned twenty-five but she pre-deceased Percy so it all went to him.’
It was impossible not to stare while he stumbled around for the next answer.
‘Exactly, if Percy isn’t the main suspect in her death, he should be. And Meeker knew all those details which made her a danger.’
‘Percy wouldn’t be so stupid. He’d know the police would look at him first.’
She swung around, sending her skirts whirling. ‘He told them all about the will right away, as soon as Laura was killed. You’re right, he isn’t stupid. And he talked about Wells trying to get Laura to marry him so he could get his hands on the money. I don’t know if that’s true but it might as well be. Anyway, they’ve let Wells go so they’re back where they started.’
Hugh slapped his knees and got up. ‘I don’t come from a planet where I can think about a man killing his daughter for money and that’s what you’re suggesting.’
‘Yes, it is. Percy gets very drunk and says more than he should – to me. He didn’t say he poisoned Laura, not that, but he told me about the will. And he told me that after him, everything goes to Elyan, for his music.’
‘Which leaves you, where?’ That hadn’t been the best card to play now but he couldn’t stop himself. ‘Or surely there’s a nice fat accommo
dation made for you so why worry?’
‘Why are you being so mean to me?’
He didn’t answer.
‘Nothing for me. It would be up to Elyan to look after me. I’d be dependent on my son for an allowance and a roof over my head.’ Tears glittered in her eyes. ‘It’s not fair. I gave up everything for him. I gave up you. I never loved anyone but you, Hugh.’
‘Stop it. You’ll always land on your feet. There are more immediate things to worry about. Do you really think there’s a chance Percy is responsible for the deaths of Laura and Mrs Meeker.’
She held her head high and sniffed. ‘Yes.’
‘Then why haven’t you gone to the police and made sure you got Elyan away?’
‘He would never hurt Elyan. He reveres him. His prodigy. He made him – that’s what he says. No, Elyan’s safe and he won’t hurt me because that would really focus all eyes on him. Sebastian’s wife overdosed, did you know that?’
‘Oh, my god, I’m in Neverland. Are you sure of that?’
‘Sure enough. He hasn’t said this but Percy let the police know about it and that’s why they’ve taken Sebastian in. Never mind that the woman had serious mental health issues and had tried before. And she’d just lost her mother. Apparently she adored her mother – something I can’t imagine.’
‘Forget yourself and your family, Sonia. This has to go to the police. Now.’
She rushed at him and flung her arms around his neck. ‘No, we can’t do that. For Elyan’s sake.’
‘You’ve just explained why he’ll be fine, except for the crippling trauma he’ll go through when he finds out his father’s a killer.’
‘I don’t want to stay with Percy.’
He almost laughed. ‘You’re not going to have the chance. He’ll be behind bars – unless you’re making this all up.’ And it wouldn’t be the first time she’d spun him a fantastic yarn.
‘You’ve made things up with your family, haven’t you? I’m glad, Hugh. You deserve real peace and happiness.’
Melody of Murder Page 23