by Ali Carter
‘Dead?!’ yelled George.
‘Yes, I’m afraid so.’
‘How?’ asked Stanley.
‘We don’t know yet,’ said Archie. ‘There’s an ambulance on the way.’
Primrose was shaking her head. ‘It can’t be true, it can’t be.’
‘It is,’ said Charlie sympathetically. ‘I’m afraid it is.’
Tatiana stood up. ‘I want to see for myself.’
‘No,’ said Archie. ‘We must respect Hailey’s privacy.’ I admired the integrity of Archie’s comment. ‘I am going to take Officer Wilson up there now solely because he is a member of the police force.’
‘It just doesn’t make sense,’ snivelled Charlotte looking at George.
‘You’re telling me,’ said Daniel.
‘I reckon she drank too much,’ said Primrose. ‘Americans aren’t good at holding their drink.’
‘That’s because their minimum legal age is twenty-one,’ said Stanley.
‘Not like us,’ said George. ‘I was allowed a glass of wine at dinner when I started prep school, that’s what got me in training.’
‘Was she ill?’ Charlie asked Charlotte.
‘I have no idea. She’s a new friend.’ Charlotte raised her head and cried out, ‘I was the one who brought her here. This is all my fault.’
‘No, it isn’t,’ said George firmly.
‘Try not to think about it like that,’ said Charlie. ‘It’s not anyone’s fault.’
‘It certainly isn’t,’ said Archie coming downstairs with Officer Wilson trailing behind.
The room fell silent. Archie sat down on the arm of the sofa and stared at the blue Peking rug onto which Charlotte was dripping tears.
Officer Wilson unclipped his mobile from his belt pouch, held it up and gently waved it at those of us watching him. He then left the room and disappeared into the hall.
Silence prevailed. I looked across at the other sofa. George’s concerned face was fixed on Charlotte, Tatiana’s head was bowed into her linen dressing gown and Primrose was curled up against her forlorn husband whispering something in his ear.
‘Right,’ said Officer Wilson coming back into the room. ‘I called for an ambulance but they tell me one is already on its way.’
‘You blithering idiot,’ said George. ‘Archie already told us there’s an ambulance on its way.’
‘Now, now,’ said Archie. At which point thankfully the front doorbell sounded and he leapt up and ran out, followed at no great speed by Officer Wilson.
Two paramedics came rushing through the sitting room following after Archie up the stairs. Officer Wilson didn’t reappear.
Charlotte shot up to standing, leaving me fearing for her bump. ‘I must go too.’
Charlie reached for her hand. ‘Stay here Lotty, it’s better you don’t go.’
‘But I’m the only person who knows Hailey well.’
‘I know, but they won’t let you in.’
‘How come Archie gets to go?’
‘He’s only showing them the way. He won’t be allowed in either.’ Hearing Archie come down the stairs everyone shut up as if he was their only hope for a miracle. He stood looking through us, motionless, the whites of his eyes leaving the others in no doubt – Hailey was definitely dead.
‘What’s going on?’ asked Charlotte.
‘The paramedics have confirmed Hailey’s death and a senior police officer is on the way here.’
‘What? The police?’
‘It’s only sensible,’ said Daniel.
‘Yes,’ said Archie. ‘They need to seal off the bedroom, and this is something a senior officer must supervise.’
‘How ridiculous,’ said Primrose.
‘It’s just how it is with an unexpected death.’
Officer Wilson appeared in the hall doorway, ‘Best if I continue to wait here?’ he asked, at which point the doorbell rang and Archie strode past him without answering.
‘This way, Sergeant,’ said Archie as he quickly led a uniformed woman upstairs, no time for introductions.
‘To call the police to the scene all sounds a bit suspicious to me,’ said Stanley.
‘Why?’ asked Daniel.
‘Well, wouldn’t the paramedics just take Hailey to a hospital?’
‘She’s dead!’ cried Charlotte.
‘When someone dies,’ explained Charlie, ‘and they don’t know how they died, the police are called.’
‘Always?’ asked Stanley. ‘Even in the company of friends?’
‘Yes,’ said Charlie.
‘How did she die?’ asked Primrose.
‘We don’t know yet,’ said Daniel.
‘The mushrooms!’ blurted out Charlotte.
‘It can’t be,’ sniped Tatiana. ‘I bet Vicky didn’t cook them properly,’ accused Primrose.
‘I cooked them,’ said Tatiana.
‘Delicious they were too,’ said George.
‘Perhaps she ate one raw,’ suggested Charlie.
Charlotte gave a great gasp. ‘Hailey was in the kitchen before dinner, getting the leftover punch.’
‘But you can eat them raw,’ said Tatiana.
‘Of course you can eat them raw,’ confirmed Daniel. ‘Boletus edulis means edible.’
‘Are you sure they were ceps?’ asked Primrose.
‘Yes,’ said Tatiana defensively. ‘Ceps have a brown cap, the flesh is white, the pores small and round. They have a faint white net pattern on the stem and when you cut them lengthways the inside remains white. They also have a distinct smell reminiscent of fermented dough.’ Her knowledge of mushroom picking was deep rooted.
‘Is anyone else feeling ill?’ asked Daniel looking round the room. ‘Well,’ he concluded, ‘it’s not the mushrooms then.’
At which point the police officer, well ahead of Archie, hurried down the stairs and addressed us all.
‘I’m Sergeant Ayari,’ she said catching her breath, ‘and I am sorry we meet in these circumstances but I’d like to help you all get through this as best I can. If I could please have your patience and co-operation for the time being I’d be very grateful.’
‘Of course,’ said Archie. Charlotte sniffed into the sleeve of her oversized cardigan and Sergeant Ayari began.
‘Is this everyone?’
‘Yes,’ answered Archie proceeding to introduce us individually, as Sergeant Ayari wrote down the names in a small notebook.
Officer Wilson appeared in the doorway. ‘And me,’ he added.
‘Come in,’ said Sergeant Ayari.
He took a step forward, stopped, and clasped his soft podgy hands over his waistband.
Sergeant Ayari continued, ‘The paramedics have confirmed Miss Hailey Dune dead but as of yet we’re still waiting to hear any early information as to the cause.’ She nodded at Archie, the only one of us privy to the goings on upstairs. ‘I’m sorry to say that, right now, as insensitive as it may seem, I would like to deal with the question of the alarm. That’s what brought Officer Wilson here.’
Other than mentioning his name Sergeant Ayari wasted no time in including Officer Wilson in her approach. She stood with her back to him, not remotely inhibited about hurting his feelings.
Why on earth was Sergeant Ayari focusing on the burglar alarm? Very odd, but I certainly wasn’t going to try and pull her up on it. She clearly knew what she was about. Energetic, direct, she spoke in complete sentences and rapidly got to the point – obviously a very bright spark indeed. Maybe her unconventional approach was a cunning tactic to get people talking, and perhaps she suspected this had more to it than she let on.
‘Now let’s get to the bottom of this. A false alarm you say Mr Wellingham?’
‘Yes, Sergeant.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I double-locked all the doors myself before I went to bed and none of them have been tampered with,’ said Archie, eager not to waste her time. ‘The alarm was isolated to the billiard room.’
‘Who set foot in the billiar
d room?’ asked Sergeant Ayari with a soft smile that took away any harshness in her tone.
‘The Cotmans!’ screeched Daniel.
‘The Cotmans?’ said Sergeant Ayari looking at the list of names on her pad.
‘He’s referring to,’ said George, expanding his chest, ‘the largest collection of John Sell Cotman’s watercolours in the country, which are kept in a plan-chest safe in Archibald’s billiard room.’
‘Nothing is missing,’ confirmed Archie, much to Daniel’s relief. ‘Nothing has been tampered with and the safe is untouched.’
‘Please take me to the billiard room Mr Wellingham.’
Archie got up, opened a closed door under the minstrel gallery and led the sergeant in.
‘Whoever set off the alarm must have been in the house,’ said Tatiana.
‘I happen to know,’ said Daniel, ‘that all the ground-floor windows and external doors are alarmed at night so, if none were triggered, Tatiana has a point.’
Charlie suggested that the burglar might have come in earlier and could still be in the house. Primrose pulled Stanley closer and Daniel decided, ‘If Archie’s sure it’s a false alarm then so am I.’ Stanley reassured his wife that he did too.
With a good sense of my surroundings I knew my bedroom was at the top of the wing opposite the billiard room and I knew for sure there was a man in striped pyjamas in there when the alarm went off. Or at least I had been sure.
Archie and Sergeant Ayari came back into the sitting room, followed by a clean-cut paramedic, whose pockets rattled as he walked down the stairs.
‘Sergeant,’ he said. ‘I’d like to have a word with everyone if I may.’
‘Of course, please proceed.’
‘My colleague and I have found an organic red substance on Miss Dune’s cheeks. Can any of you explain this?’
I looked at Daniel, who answered without an ounce of hesitation, ‘That was my influence doctor. I encouraged Hailey to rouge her cheeks with the berries of the bella-donna plant on the doorstep.’
Archie gasped, ‘You what?’
Sergeant Ayari and the paramedic exchanged a quick glance.
‘Don’t worry Archibald, I can assure you she didn’t eat the berries.’
‘Certain?’ asked Archie staring at his friend.
Confidently Daniel flicked his fringe off his forehead. ‘I’m absolutely certain, Susie’s my witness.’
Archie turned to me and I nodded.
‘What is this plant you’re discussing?’ asked Sergeant Ayari.
‘It’s on the doorstep,’ said Archie.
‘More commonly known as deadly nightshade,’ said Daniel. ‘Ingesting the berries can be fatal but no need to worry, Hailey rubbed them on her cheeks and none went anywhere near her mouth.’
Archie took the paramedic and Sergeant Ayari outside.
When they returned the paramedic went straight upstairs with the clipping and Sergeant Ayari told us she needed to make a call and that in the meantime we should, ‘Get dressed but please no one enter Miss Dune’s bedroom.’
Officer Wilson followed the sergeant out into the hall.
‘Why was the alarm only set in the billiard room?’ perked up Tatiana.
‘Because you were all staying,’ said Archie, ‘I disabled the alarms everywhere apart from the plan-chest safe, the ground-floor windows and the external doors.’
‘Was the door to the billiard room unlocked?’ I asked.
‘Yes,’ said Archie.
‘George,’ said Charlie. ‘Did you go to bed?’
‘No,’ he answered with coyness hard to believe he had. ‘I passed out in that armchair.’ He pointed at a chair under the stairs whose seat cushion certainly looked like it had been under a considerable weight for some time.
‘Did anyone see George?’ asked Charlie.
‘I didn’t,’ said Charlotte. ‘I went to bed first.’
‘Primrose and I were next,’ said Stanley. ‘And Susie you followed us upstairs didn’t you?’
‘Yes, the clock struck one as I got into my room.’
Neither Charlie nor the rest of the late-night crew could remember when and in what order they hit the sack, but Tatiana assured us she had gone at 2.52 a.m. How she could be so exact I had no idea but it would do for now. After much discussion, it was agreed that Hailey was next, swiftly followed by Charlie, Daniel and then Archie, after he had taken Yin and Yang outside to the kennel. As for George, at what stage in the early hours of the morning he ended up in the chair, it is unknown.
‘You were drunk, George,’ accused Charlotte. ‘How do you know you didn’t open the billiard-room door thinking it was your bedroom?’
‘When I woke that door wasn’t open,’ insisted George.
‘Even if he had opened the door,’ said Archie, ‘the alarm wouldn’t have gone off. In order for it to sound you must intercept the laser beam from the ceiling to the chest.’
‘Did you?’ Charlie asked George.
‘No!’
‘A moth,’ said Stanley.
‘What’s that?’ asked Archie.
‘A moth could have set off the alarm. We were told this weren’t we darling when ours was fitted?’ He looked at his wife nestled in his armpit. ‘Don’t you remember, darling?’ Primrose looked up and nodded at Archie.
‘Enough of this speculating,’ said Archie. ‘Now we’ve got to the bottom of it I reckon we should all go and get dressed.’
I was first to stand up, eager to put my clothes on, but when Archie said, ‘The paramedics would like a cup of tea,’ I changed my mind and volunteered to make it – that gave me the perfect excuse to try and find out why they weren’t taking Hailey’s body away.
Officer Wilson and Sergeant Ayari were in the hall and as I passed through to the kitchen I caught the end of their fraught discussion.
‘I was summoned here due to the burglar alarm,’ grovelled Officer Wilson as I eavesdropped from the other side of the kitchen door.
‘But this young lady is dead,’ said Sergeant Ayari.
‘Yes Sergeant, that’s why I called for an ambulance but one was already on the way.’
Sergeant Ayari huffed. ‘You go now, I’ll take it from here. There’s a scene of crimes officer and a detective chief inspector on the way.’
I froze on the spot. I couldn’t believe it. I can’t believe it. A SOCO and a detective chief inspector – this means Sergeant Ayari suspects Hailey’s death is criminal. But, surely not. Archibald Wellingham’s friends might not be my type but I wouldn’t ever suspect any of them capable of this level of foul play.
Bang! went the front door as Officer Wilson left without a word, and a split second later I very nearly let out a squeal as the kitchen door flung towards me and Tatiana entered.
‘What are you doing?’ she said.
‘Oh! Silly me. I wasn’t thinking straight, you caught me about to put on an apron from the back of the door.’
She grimaced and asked if I wanted some tea.
‘I was about to make it for the paramedics.’
‘Do you want some?’ came her inflexible response as she took control of the kettle.
All I wanted was to be in Hailey’s room but my discombobulation at the situation got the better of me, so I perched my bottom on the solid oak table and gave in to this haughty knyazhna. ‘I’d love a cup, but I must make some for the paramedics too.’
‘They can wait, we shall have ours first.’
‘I can’t believe what’s happened,’ I said.
‘I want to leave,’ replied Tatiana.
The kettle whistled.
‘I’m sure we’ll be able to soon.’
‘I should never have come here.’
‘Have you been here before?’
‘No, and never again.’
‘Are the rest of the house party friends of yours?’
‘I haven’t met any of you before.’
I thanked her as she put a mug in front of me.
‘Not even Archie?
’
‘Yes Archie, but I don’t know him.’
‘Oh I see. How come you’re here then?’
‘I met Archie recently at a Sotheby’s sale of Russian Modernist paintings. I was only there because it’s a good place to search for a husband. He took me for two dinner dates in London and when he invited me for the weekend I accepted. He seemed so perfect: rich, single and shared my taste in art…’ (I applauded her honesty) ‘but now I visit his house and there are no paintings anywhere. Absolutely none.’
‘I’ve seen a few,’ I said meekly, feeling sorry for Archie.
‘None of any worth. He knew all about Russian Modernism when he took me out in London and now I see he has no taste.’
‘You must have men falling at your feet,’ I flattered her in an attempt to take the sourness out of the conversation.
‘You too,’ she smiled and briefly I warmed to her.
Time was short: I drank my cuppa as fast as I could in the hope that my tea-lady duty would give me a chance to revisit the scene before the detective arrived.
The paramedics hovering in the corridor outside Hailey’s room gave me the impression that their work here was done.
‘Here you go,’ I said handing over the mugs of hot tea and making sure I got myself to a spot where I could see over the cordon into the room. ‘I’m sorry it took so long.’
They both thanked me.
‘Absolutely terrible isn’t it?’ I said.
‘Yes, very sad to have such a young death.’
‘So sad,’ I found myself repeating as my eyes scanned the room as fast as they could. A dressing table of make-up and face creams, clothes hanging in the open cupboard and bath towels strewn over a wooden towel rack. On the far bedside table was a lamp whose shade was skew-whiff but other than this (and the glass of water I had accidentally knocked over) nothing appeared unusually out of place.
‘Any news?’ I asked.
‘We’re waiting for permission to take the body away.’ The very fact they needed permission further suggested something was awry and if so I didn’t want to be noseying around ‘the scene of the crime’ when the detective appeared, that’s for sure.
In haste I turned to go, stopping for a moment as a loose nail on the outer doorframe snagged my jumper. Carefully, I wiggled it free. A strand of burgundy thread came with it and I rolled this between my thumb and middle finger as I went to investigate whose bedroom was next down the corridor.