Springtime for Murder

by Debbie Young

  3 Doctor’s Orders

  For a moment, I thought it was Auntie May calling me from beneath the turf, but the sound was coming from behind me. Bunny Carter was rallying.

  I dashed back to kneel beside the open grave, peering down into its depths for signs of movement. While her breathing was not strong enough to make the heavy fabric of her fur coat rise and fall, she was definitely beginning to regain consciousness.

  I shouted down into the hole. “Don’t worry, Mrs Carter, help is on its way. Just lie still. The doctor will be here soon. Until then I’ll look after you.”

  A skinny hand reached out from within a furry sleeve to twitch acknowledgement.

  Just then, the lychgate clicked open, signalling the arrival of the doctor, carrying his black bag, and followed by Tommy and Sina. I was relieved that Dr Perkins was willing to attend despite his retirement. He even looked pleased that we’d summoned him. After a lifetime of doctoring, perhaps he was missing his old routine. Would I ever find a job that brought the same satisfaction as well as paying the bills? The career I craved as a writer still ranked as an unpaid hobby.

  Dr Perkins crouched down beside me to bellow into the grave. “MRS CARTER?” He turned to me apologetically. “Deafness runs in her family.”

  Tommy and Sina stood on the opposite side of the hole, Sina hopping about from foot to foot and Tommy clicking his fingers impatiently.

  Something within the fur coat stirred, and Bunny’s exposed hand twitched once more.

  “Good, she’s still with us,” said the doctor. “But we’d better not move her yet in case anything’s broken. Hips, limbs, pelvis, whatever – all quite likely to go at her advanced age.” He looked up. “Tommy, please run next door to the vicarage and ask Mrs Murray for some blankets. Mrs Carter may be wearing a nice warm fur coat, but we don’t know how long she’s been there. Lying motionless on damp soil in the shade could quickly induce hypothermia. Ideally, we should insulate her from the cold ground by putting a blanket underneath her, but I daren’t risk moving her till I’ve checked for broken bones. We can certainly cover her up, though.” As Tommy ran off, the doctor turned to me. “Have you any idea how long she’s been down there?”

  I shook my head. “No, sorry. First I knew was when Sina came running into the shop just now to alert us. She could have been there all morning for all I know. Billy didn’t notice her when he was working in the churchyard earlier today, but the open grave would have been covered up.” I pointed to the crumpled artificial grass sheet beside the grave.

  The doctor removed his jacket and rolled up his shirt sleeves. “I’ll go down to check her out while you phone 999 for an ambulance.” He pulled his mobile phone from his trouser pocket and gave it to me. “It’s the first number on my speed dial list. Sina, once I’m down there, please pass me my black bag.”

  I hesitated with my finger over the call button. “Just an ambulance? Don’t you want the police as well?”

  As he ventured carefully down the ladder, he sent a shower of dirt across Bunny’s fur coat. “My dear Sophie, this is a medical matter, not a crime scene.”

  I wasn’t yet convinced that foul play wasn’t involved, but bowed to the doctor’s greater experience.

  “It’s probably just a case of her disobeying my advice not to venture out unaccompanied,” he continued. “I don’t know what her daughter was thinking, letting her go out alone.”

  “And in such an unsuitable outfit too,” I said as I waited for the emergency operator to answer. “She’ll ruin those pretty slippers wearing them out of doors.”

  The doctor reached up to receive his medical bag from Sina and pulled out his stethoscope. “Ruining her slippers is the least of her worries.”

  As I gave our location to the operator, Sina settled down at the end of the grave as if to supervise the proceedings. She dangled her skinny legs over the edge, drumming her heels against the dark earth walls. Crumbs of rich soil fluttered like confetti on to the doctor’s back.

  Just as the operator told me an ambulance was on its way, Tommy raced back with a pile of crocheted blankets and threw them down into the grave. One landed over the doctor’s head, like a hunter’s net trapping a wild animal in a pit. The doctor swatted it crossly away as he put his stethoscope to Bunny’s chest. We all fell silent. I held my breath.

  “I’ve got a steady heartbeat,” he said after a few moments.

  “Yes, but what about hers?” said Tommy.

  I was still wondering how and why Bunny Carter had got into the grave in the first place.

  “Why did she come here? Was she in the habit of going for a solitary stroll?”

  The doctor pulled the earpieces from his ears, leaving the stethoscope dangling round his neck like a mayor’s chain of office.

  “Not lately. When she was steadier on her feet, she used to go for regular walks on her own around the village to be sociable. Then when she became too frail to go alone, Billy would accompany her.”

  “Is Billy her carer?”

  If so, that was news to me.

  The doctor pressed his lips together as if about to give bad news. “No. Her daughter Kitty has been, ever since she came back to live with her mother some years ago.”

  He reached into his bag for a digital thermometer. “Not long ago, one of her sons, Paul, bought her a wheelchair, and Billy offered to take her out in it.”

  “Why didn’t Kitty?”

  “Kitty seldom leaves the house. But Bunny said if she couldn’t go out on her own two feet, she wouldn’t go at all. So she hasn’t been anywhere beyond her own garden walls for years.”

  He inserted the thermometer into Bunny’s right ear. “She’s done well to get to this age without needing frequent trips to hospital or even to the GP.”

  “Strong genes?” I asked. He gave me a cynical look.

  “Lucky enough to have a family doctor still prepared to make house calls.” He pointed to himself. “I don’t know whether my replacement will be as obliging. However, she’s about to start making up for lost time. I need to get her into hospital and on a drip as soon as possible.”

  He looked at his watch and raised his voice to speak to her again.

  “Are you in any pain, Mrs Carter? I don’t think you’ve broken any bones, but there’s some nasty bruising.”

  She didn’t reply.

  “Mrs Carter, did your daughter bring you here today?”

  Silence.

  He straightened up to speak to me again. “In one way, if this was Kitty’s doing, it would be a good thing, as it would mean she was getting over her agoraphobia. But it would be pretty damning of her suitability as a carer.”

  “Whoever it was, they must have had some form of transport to get her here,” I said. “I wonder what they used?”

  “Her wheelchair, obviously,” said Sina brightly. “We wondered what that wheelchair was doing here.”

  “Where is it, then?” said the doctor, stepping on to the ladder and popping his head up to look around at ground level like a meerkat.

  Sina pointed to the compost heap in the far corner of the churchyard. From behind a mountain of rotting weeds and dried-out bramble cuttings, a single aluminium wheel glinted in the sun. A wheelchair would account for the tramlines in the grass, especially if wielded by two lively young people like Tommy and Sina.

  “We found it this morning when we got here after breakfast,” said Sina. “To start with, it was good fun, but Tommy got fed up after I tipped him out accidentally on purpose, so he stuck it on the compost to get it out of the way. Then Billy came, so we helped him for a bit. Then we decided to play hide and seek, and Tommy moved the fake grass out of the way so he could get into the grave. And that’s when we found the Easter Bunny.”

  “Moved the fake grass?” I echoed. “Even if Bunny had come to the churchyard alone and climbed down the ladder into the grave, she couldn’t have reached to pull the fake grass across the top of it once she was inside. Someone else must have done that. But why?�
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  Tommy ignored my question. “An empty grave usually makes a very good hiding place,” he said. “But the Easter Bunny beat me to it.”

  “Oh, for goodness’ sake, how old are you two?” The doctor wagged a finger at them. “If you’d have looked properly, you’d have easily seen it wasn’t the Easter Bunny, but a human being, and you could have fetched me sooner. Every minute makes a difference in a situation like this.”

  “I’m always better at hiding than seeking,” Tommy admitted, his face falling.

  The doctor did not relent. “Besides, didn’t you wonder who the wheelchair belonged to?”

  Sina shrugged. “How am I supposed to know? It’s none of my business. People leave things here all the time. It’s not like this is my back garden. But I did notice it said ‘The Manor House, WB’ on the back of the seat.”

  “Well done, Sina, that means it must be Mrs Carter’s.” I spoke in a gentler tone than the doctor. As a trained teacher, I’m much more attuned than Dr Perkins to what motivates children to cooperate. “Now, are you sure you didn’t see Mrs Carter sitting in the wheelchair at any time? Nor anyone else? Whatever you tell me, I promise no-one will be cross with either of you. Tommy, are you sure you hadn’t been paid to take her out in it?”

  Tommy, an instinctive entrepreneur, offered dog-walking services in exchange for pocket money, so adding granny-walking to his repertoire would not have surprised me. He could be reckless too. One false step beside an open grave with an unstable wheelchair, and—

  “No, honest, miss, I never.”

  Sina sprang to her brother’s defence. “No, Sophie, he honestly didn’t. Anyway, Mrs Carter’s still alive, so I don’t know why you’re complaining.”

  The doctor coughed. “Yes, she’s alive all right. Always a good outcome after a doctor’s visit. But whoever abandoned her here has some tricky questions to answer. Leaving an elderly lady outdoors alone in a solitary place, even upright in a wheelchair, amounts to serious neglect.”

  Tommy stared at me. “More likely someone’s tried to murder her. Especially since they replaced the fake grass afterwards. It’s like they didn’t want her to be found.”

  Sina shook her head. “Maybe the grass was meant to keep her warm while they went for help. Or she did it herself to make a den. I like making dens, don’t I, Tommy?” She peered down into the hole again. “A grave would make a good den, if you put a few cushions and snacks down there. And took a torch and a blanket and a good book. If that’s what it’s like to be dead and buried, maybe it’s not as bad as people make out.”

  “That’s enough speculation from you two,” said the doctor, more brusquely than they deserved. “Now, run along and play somewhere else, somewhere a bit more appropriate, such as the playpark. It’s a glorious day, so make the most of the sunshine before the weather breaks.”

  I looked up at the cloudless blue sky.

  “And Sophie, no need for you to stay here either. I’ll deal with the emergency services when they arrive. And no doubt Hector will be wanting you back at work.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to call the police before I go?”

  “Or the fire brigade to winch her to the surface,” said Tommy. “And how about mountain rescue? If they bring ropes, I could abseil down into the grave to help you.”

  “What’s wrong with using the ladder?” I said, trying not to laugh. “Besides, I don’t think we have a branch of mountain rescue in the Cotswolds We’ve no mountains.”

  Tommy was undaunted. “Perhaps I should start one up.”

  The doctor straightened the blankets over Bunny and passed his bag up to Sina. “Actually, Tommy, I’m sure this will all turn out to be a simple domestic issue between Bunny and Kitty. No need to make a drama out of it. The paramedics will be quite sufficient without calling in our boys in blue, or anyone else for that matter.”

  I held the top of the ladder steady as he clambered out of the grave.

  “Boys in blue? Why blue?” asked Sina. “Does wearing blue clothes make you think better?” She looked down in disappointment at her purple top with its pink sequinned flamingo.

  “He means the police,” said Tommy. Then he beamed at me. “But who needs the police when you’ve got us to solve the mystery, eh, miss?”

  The doctor brushed loose earth off his trousers.

  “So are you self-appointed Neighbourhood Watch now, Tommy?”

  “We don’t just watch,” said Tommy proudly. “We do things, don’t we, miss?”

  4 Door to Door

  “What have you done with Billy?” Hector kept his voice low so as not to be overhead by browsing customers. For the sake of confidentiality, I went to join him behind the trade counter.

  “He went to fetch Kitty, Bunny’s daughter. She’s also her carer.”

  “I know who Kitty is, thank you. I see Bunny and Kitty most weeks when I deliver their book orders.”

  “Yes, of course. Though I confess I wouldn’t recognise either of them if I saw them in the street, even though they live next door but one to me, in the Manor House.”

  “Anyone as new to the village as you are probably would never have seen Bunny out and about, nor Kitty. The Carters keep themselves to themselves behind the high garden walls of that big old house. Why do you think I always take her books to her house rather than her coming to the shop? Though I admit, I enjoy her company. She’s a feisty old stick.”

  I thought for a moment. “Do you think she wore the bunny ears as a means of identification? So that anyone who didn’t know her by sight might at least guess her name?”

  Hector looked scornful. “It would have been easier to wear a name badge, or to carry a piece of ID on her, such as her purse. Still, I’m glad Bunny’s survived her ordeal intact. An alarming number of elderly people die after a fall.”

  “Do you really think it could have been an innocent accident? I don’t.”

  He frowned. “It’s certainly odd. What did Billy make of it?”

  “He seemed cross with her at first, as if she was just up to mischief.”

  “Did he persuade Kitty to come to the churchyard?”

  “I don’t know. They hadn’t come back by the time I left. I hope they got there before the paramedics arrived. No doubt Kitty would want to go in the ambulance with her mother. In the meantime, Dr Perkins stayed to wait for the paramedics, so Bunny was in safe hands.”

  It wasn’t the first time I’d seen the doctor in action in a village emergency. “He couldn’t have been more caring. He even got down into the grave with her. But he clearly wanted us out of the way before the ambulance arrived.”

  “I’m not surprised. Medical examinations aren’t a spectator sport. She might be an old lady, but she still deserves to be treated with dignity. Besides, I wouldn’t put it past Tommy and Sina to try to stow away in the ambulance.”

  As if I’d summoned it up, an ambulance whisked past the shop, blue lights flashing, sirens blaring. Customers looked up from the books they were browsing and began speculating about its mission.

  “Must be serious if they’ve got the sirens on,” said a lady in the cookery section.

  “Poor soul, whoever it is,” said a man in maps.

  At that point, Billy stumbled in, stern-faced, followed by Tommy. Sina must have taken the doctor’s advice to go to the playpark.

  “I call that downright rude,” said Billy. “They couldn’t even wait for me to get back before they took her off. Me, her own nephew!”

  Several customers whispered about this clue as to the passenger’s identity.

  “Go and help yourself to a cookie, Tommy,” I said, so we could speak out of his earshot. Then I turned to Billy. “Nor Kitty either? She must be pretty miffed.”

  Billy leaned towards us across the trade counter.

  “Between you and me, I couldn’t raise Kitty. I stood knocking at her front door, shouting like a fool, and she didn’t answer. Even deaf old Joshua next door came out to see what the racket was.”
r />   “Maybe she’d gone out,” I suggested. “And Bunny escaped in her absence.”

  “Bunny’s not exactly held prisoner,” said Hector.

  “Besides, Kitty never leaves the house,” said Billy. “She doesn’t like the outdoors, not since a nasty encounter at some festival a few years ago. That’s why she came back to live with her mother. She was in there all right. I tracked her down indoors eventually.” He lowered his voice. “But now I’m worried she might be back to her old tricks with the sleeping pills.”

  I gasped. “She drugged her mother?” I’d pictured Kitty as a gentle, harmless person because of her sweet old-fashioned name.

  Billy edged closer to me. “No, drugged herself. We all thought she’d got over her old problem, and good thing too, because if she relapses, she won’t be allowed to look after her mother no more.”

  Hector’s brow furrowed. “That’s a serious accusation, Billy. Are you sure?”

  Billy shrugged. “Maybe.”

  Tommy returned, crunching a gingerbread man and dropping a trail of crumbs in his wake. “Wow, how did you get into her house, then? Did you have to smash the door down? I’d have helped if you’d asked me.”

  I bet he would. I wanted to remind them both that this would have been a criminal act. “You broke in? I hope no-one saw you.”

  “What do you take me for, girlie? I’ve got me own key to the Manor House. Me being Kitty’s cousin, she says it makes her feel safer knowing I could let myself in if there was an emergency. Mind you, I couldn’t find my key just now. Must have left it in my other jacket, the one I was wearing when I was there gardening yesterday. So I went round the back and climbed in the open kitchen window.”

  “So was Kitty okay?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “The house was quiet as the grave, and as soon as I was in, I found out why. There she was, with her head on the kitchen table.”

  Tommy’s mouth fell open. “Where was the rest of her?”

  Billy tutted. “I mean she was sitting at the kitchen table and had rested her head on it for a nap. I gave her a good shake, but she was out for the count. She must have been up for hours, as the pot of tea she’d made for herself was half drunk but stone cold.”