Sundeep didn’t appear convinced, but he saw Berdie to the nearby door.
She noticed a wire-coat-hanger-DIY lock of sorts. “You made this?”
“Got a book at the library that explained how to do it. Not bad, yeah?”
Berdie didn’t have the heart to say a gnat could break it open. “Very resourceful.”
“You have to be when you live in the Ritz.”
“Yes. Well, God go with you.” Berdie offered it as a prayer as much as an admonition for the lad as she stepped outside and he closed the door behind her. She could hear him fiddle with the lock and push an object against the door. “Safely circle him, Lord,” she prayed.
She and Lillie went to the van.
Lillie paused. “It’s not going to blow up, is it?”
“Oh, Lillie,” Berdie stormed. She got in and started the engine.
Sheepishly, Lillie got into the passenger seat.
****
“I had my mouth set for a vindaloo. Fish and chips lack that curry wow factor.” Lillie pushed a couple more chips in her mouth as Berdie drove the van amongst the vehicles about them on the motorway.
“The chippy was handy, Lillie, and I wanted to push on.” Berdie glanced at the nearly empty takeaway container in Lillie’s lap. “Yes, I can see it was a real struggle for you to eat the lot.”
“You’re doing rather well driving this beast.” Lillie licked her fingers. “Our cabby wouldn’t attempt that narrow passage back at Sundeep’s, but you maneuvered it with skill.”
“I’m practiced.”
“Yes, I suppose you are.”
Berdie sighed. “Lillie, you don’t still think Sundeep planted that bomb now, do you?”
Lillie looked ahead out the front windscreen. “He’s got guilt written all over him.”
“Oh yes, I agree there. But for what?”
Lillie took a deep breath.
“I saw the money on the floor near your perch back there, the ten-pound note.”
“Oh?” she said feebly and shifted in her seat.
Berdie laughed. “Lillie, how many mad bombers ask you to return their uncle’s work van with apologies and promise of reimbursement? Do they offer to pay for the food they’ve eaten from your grocery order? He’s not responsible for the blast.”
Lillie sighed. “OK, I doubt he did it,” she snapped.
“Lillie?”
“It’s just that, well, I usually love the excitement of a good nose-about. But this situation is different. I hoped it would be all over, done and dusted, when we returned home. The commander’s still critical, those starchy investigative fellows are still all over our village, and gossip and rumors swirl about like North Sea winds.” She pursed her lips. “I had hoped we’d corner Sundeep, he’d confess, and then the village would be one step closer to life as normal. As it is, we’ve caused more questions than answers.”
“Oh, Lillie, I’m sorry you feel that way.” Berdie removed a hand from the steering wheel and gave Lillie’s arm a quick squeeze. “I know it’s not easy. There’s no one in Aidan Kirkwood who doesn’t want this to be resolved. And it will be, soon, I should think. Good people are working hard to crack it.”
Lillie nodded.
“We’ve narrowed some things down. Think of it as forward progress.”
“Berdie”—Lillie sounded cautious—“just how fast is our forward progress at the moment?” She pointed at the speed indicator.
Berdie glanced downward. “I’m just barely over.”
Lillie nodded at the passenger-side mirror of the van.
Berdie glanced in the mirror on her own side.
Red and blue flashes of light whirled.
She could just make out the edge of a police vehicle directly behind. “Do you suppose they want to pass?” Berdie asked with little hope.
Lillie lifted her brows. “If wishes were fishes, we’d have a feast.”
Berdie slowed. The police car slowed. Berdie felt a grumble in her stomach. “This could be awkward,” she breathed as she pulled to the verge of the motorway. She brought the vehicle to a stop.
The police car stopped behind and another pulled up in front of the van.
Berdie looked at Lillie, who looked at Berdie. “Oh dear” was all Berdie could think to say.
“Armed police. Turn the engine off, and get out of the vehicle,” a loudspeaker blared. “Keep your hands in plain sight, in the air.”
“Berdie, what’s happening?” Lillie pushed her empty takeaway onto the floor and raised her hands above her shoulders.
Armed police? “I’m not sure, Lillie, but do exactly what they say and don’t make any sudden moves. Lord have mercy,” Berdie breathed.
****
The officer in charge gave a snappish nod with tightened lips toward Berdie and Lillie. “We’re done with them.”
The harsh glare of ceiling lights, combined with gray walls, made the reception room of the police station completely uninviting. The wood bench that Berdie and Lillie occupied could have been stone, for the comfort of it. Despite the flourishing potted plant by the lone window, nothing really appealed, and especially now.
“They’re all yours, Chief Inspector,” the officer said. “Must admit, we’ve not had a vicar’s wife terrorist before.” The uniformed policeman clucked as if scolding and left the area.
Chief Inspector Kent folded his arms. “Well, well, well.”
Berdie felt an odd mixture of relief and stomachache.
“Chief Inspector Kent, please accept our deepest apologies for this to-do,” Berdie offered.
His jaw tightened slightly.
“Did you travel all this way”—Lillie cleared her throat—“just for our situation?”
“Your situation, as you call it, caused a national alert.” Jasper Kent was prickly. “They thought they were onto an insurrectionary.”
Berdie worked to calm the blush she felt rushing to her cheeks.
“And no, I was already here on other business. Just as well for your sakes.”
“Why a national alert?” Berdie realized the answer as she said it. “It’s the van. You’ve reported it as missing, driven by a dangerous suspect, approach with caution.”
Kent lifted his chin.
“Has Mr. Raheem reported it missing?” Lillie asked.
The chief inspector uncrossed his arms. “He didn’t have to.” He looked at Berdie. “It doesn’t take an Einstein to twig it when the Raheems are observed making shop deliveries in their family car, knowing their nephew is ‘somewhere off visiting friends in London.’”
“No,” Berdie admitted, “I shouldn’t think it would take an Einstein.”
The investigator’s right eye went into a squint. “A lecture and lunch, you said when you left. Why didn’t you tell me you were contacting Sundeep as well?”
“As well?” Berdie’s shoulders tightened.
“We didn’t know for certain that we would find him,” Lillie blurted. “It was a stroke of divine intervention, really.”
“Find him?” Jasper Kent wore a hint of a smile. “That implies intentional searching, doesn’t it, Miss Foxworth?”
“Wait a moment,” Berdie interrupted. “Let’s go back a step. What do you mean by ‘contacting him as well’? How do you know we indeed did attend the lecture or even saw Sundeep?”
“You had the van.” Kent made a quick glance out the window and tapped a finger against his thigh.
“You followed me from the village, the whole time,” Berdie exclaimed.
Lillie’s jaw dropped.
“Not me personally, per se.”
Snap! “The chum Goodnight deposited at the train. You had me followed then—what’s the difference?”
“Us followed,” Lillie corrected.
“You know any inspector worth their salt would have done the same. It’s procedure,” Kent said unapologetically.
As much as she wanted to carry on, Berdie reined in her displeasure. He was right. He was doing his job. Even though the
re was a certain professional friendship between them, and even if there was a sense of personal intrusion, he was right to do what he had done, and she, for whatever reason, had not considered the possibility of him doing it. “Point taken,” she miffed.
“Now, permit me to ask,” Kent said in a mannerly tone, “why the clandestine snooping?”
“Snooping, as you call it, is second nature to Berdie.” Lillie went on. “If you know her at all, you know she’s rather gifted, rather good at it.”
“It’s OK, Lillie,” Berdie calmed. “And it wasn’t snooping,” she defended, “and it wasn’t so much clandestine as confidential. More related to church work actually.”
The inspector appeared to be amused. “I can’t say I’ve ever known anyone to use that line of reasoning before. Nosing round being church work.”
“It’s all a bit tricky.” Berdie took a deep breath and came to her feet. “I was asked by a parishioner, who was aware of my past detection background, to see if I could locate Sundeep. I was not aware of his being a suspect in your investigation when I agreed to do it, and certainly not a primary one. And as a church representative, there’s a certain confidentiality in these matters.”
Kent put the matter in a non-confidential nutshell. “So the Raheems asked you to locate their nephew, and you didn’t tell me what you were about.” Jasper Kent glanced aside, as if in thought. “Well, as you say, church matters are in play. You would have told me on your return, I assume. Anyway, as it turns out, you led us right to him.”
Berdie pursed her lips. Sundeep would no doubt think she and Lillie “grassed him up.”
Kent looked Berdie in the eye. “I know you’re a woman of character and above board on making sure there’s no withholding of evidence?”
Berdie glowered. “I would not withhold anything I considered pertinent to your investigation, and you know that.”
Now Lillie stood. “I can tell you absolutely that Berdie respects the law,” she snapped. “And she trusts your skills. She’s told me that more than once.”
“Right.” Inspector Kent paused. “You can take the woman out of investigating, but you can’t take the investigating out of the woman. It takes a certain amount of guts, going off like that on your own to locate a suspect that had done a runner.”
Berdie straightened. “Run he did, but he didn’t plant any devices, Chief Inspector Kent.”
“No? What makes you so sure?”
Berdie held her stance. “He told me he didn’t.”
Kent looked at Lillie. “There’s a new one, hey?”
“And I believe him,” Berdie finished with zest.
“Do you? Would you still say you believe him if I were to tell you he spent three months in northern Pakistan recently?”
Berdie tried to hide her surprise. She studied Kent. “All that really tells us is that he traveled outside this country.”
“Perhaps.” Kent tipped his head. “Or perhaps not.”
“He’s guilty of something,” Lillie burst out. “We don’t know what it is, but he’s hiding something.”
Berdie glared at Lillie.
“Now, that seems helpful,” Inspector Kent crowed. “I’m sure we’ll find out all about it. Local officers should have him in tow by now.”
“You will give him a fair hearing?” Berdie admonished as much as asked.
“A fair hearing.” Berdie heard an all-too-familiar voice say, only to turn and see Hugh, who had just entered the room.
Loren was with him, face like thunder.
“We have a bit of fair hearing of our own to do when we get home, don’t we, Berdie?” Hugh’s left eyebrow skyrocketed as a flushed pink danced at the edge of his white collar. “Chief Inspector Kent, I appreciate your time and trouble on this matter. With your permission, we’ll take the remorseful parties home. Please accept my assurances that nothing like this will happen again. Ever.”
Kent’s face wore a doubtful expression. Still, he tipped his head to Hugh. “As it turns out, your wife and her friend have assisted our investigation.”
Hugh’s blue eyes steeled as he glowered at Berdie. “Have they now?”
“Hugh.” Berdie knew her husband could hear the tension in her voice. “It’s all perfectly simple. I can explain.”
10
Berdie and Hugh went to the Raheems’ straightway when they returned to the village, and Berdie explained all that had happened with Sundeep, the work van, and the police. To Hugh’s chagrin and Berdie’s delight, the Raheems expressed real gratitude to her and even thanked Hugh for letting Berdie exercise her extraordinary talent in detection work while in the midst of busy preparations for the Whitsun regatta. Hugh didn’t appear completely won over.
While Hugh and Hardeep continued in deep conversation, Berdie entered the kitchen, where Sharday was in the midst of making tea for all gathered.
“Sharday, if I may,” Berdie lightly prodded, “I understand Sundeep made a recent visit to Pakistan, yes?”
“Oh yes, to visit his dead father’s parents. His grandfather has been very sick, very sick.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“His grandmother called my sister for Sundeep to come to help her care for him. Sundeep stayed until his grandfather’s better.” She smiled and stirred the teapot. “He tells me he feels the fish in no water there.”
“Fish in no…oh, like a fish out of water.”
“That’s how you say. Yes. He’s happy to be home, he said.” Her smile slipped. “But now this.”
“Pray, Sharday, that all goes well for Sundeep.”
“Yes. Our Sundeep is a good boy. He just needs the good path.”
“We all do, really.”
Now, twenty-four hours past that conversation, and despite the slight frost toward her that still clung to Hugh’s shoulder, Berdie was delighted that the dinner party was in full swing and had generated a warmth all its own.
And a great deal of that warmth was due to the fact that Hugh had promised that he would share an exciting surprise when all guests were present.
“It must be good news,” Lillie prattled on whilst helping Berdie arrange another tray of canapés.
“Whatever it is, it seems to be lifting everyone’s spirits, and that’s good enough in itself. The weather is cooperating as well. It’s lovely in the garden.”
“Let’s see, who’s yet to arrive?” Lillie replenished little puffed cheesy bits in a circular pattern on the tray, being sure not to drop any crumbs on her melon-colored silk dress. “Tillie and Doug just arrived. Rollie and Joan are here, Sandra and Natty. And, by the way, doesn’t Sandra look lovely?”
“Indeed,” Berdie sparked. She placed fresh slices of a chicken-liver peppercorn terrine on a platter emblazoned with summery patterns. “Natty told me Sandra bought a new dress for the occasion.”
“And it suits her.” Lillie nodded. “It makes the best of her figure. She’s had her hair done up as well.”
“I do believe she’s quite hoping to impress someone.”
“And I shouldn’t be at all surprised if indeed she does,” Lillie agreed. “Doug cuts a fine figure this evening as well. Did you notice how his dark blue jacket shows off his broad shoulders and blond hair?”
“Oh yes.” Berdie added thin slices of rye bread to her tray. “And with the moon’s cooperation tonight, a romance can surely spark.”
“Or inflame an already-existing one.” Lillie raised a brow and glanced at Berdie.
“You noticed Hugh’s coolness then?”
“Moonlight can be magic,” Lillie purred. “Now, back to who’s here.”
“Carl and Barbara Braunhoff are present. And of course, your Loren.”
“My handsome Loren.” Lillie sighed. “That moon could do us some romantic favors as well. He was not pleased about all that happened yesterday.”
“At least the Raheems are pleased.” Berdie wiped her hands on a tea towel. “I assured them that Jasper Kent would give Sundeep fair treatment.”
“Nor Chad,” Berdie added, taking the filled tray from Lillie.
“Chad? He’s coming?” Lillie sounded surprised.
“He is a member of the rowing team, Lillie, and currently staying under Dave’s roof. His chums are very fond of him, even though he’s sometimes a bit indelicate.”
“Indelicate?” Lillie went to the sink and washed her hands. “Rude and horrible, I should think, and suspect besides.”
Berdie removed one of the cheese puffs from the tray and popped it in her mouth. “Yes, well, if Chad is brave enough to come, and that may say something about his innocence, we must remember the past is behind us. I shouldn’t think we’ll get an apology for his outburst at the picnic, but I expect he will be on his best behavior.”
Lillie simply humphed as she dried her hands.
The familiar sound of the front-door chime sang out.
Berdie gave the laden canapé tray back to Lillie. “Speaking of. Do you mind taking both trays out to the garden? Offer them about and I’ll get the door.”
“Seeing as it’s very likely to be Chad who has arrived, I’d be delighted to go to the garden.”
“Be kind, Lillie,” Berdie reminded.
Berdie’s shimmery, gathered-at-the-waist taffeta skirt rustled as she walked the hall to the entrance. Something about the sound of it made her feel exceptionally feminine. She graciously opened the door.
“Dave, Chad, so pleased you’ve come,” she greeted as the two stepped inside. “I’ll just take you through to join the others in the back garden.”
“Grand.” Dave smiled, but Chad’s square jawline looked rather taut, with the hint of a scowl creeping onto his brow. While Dave walked on, Berdie gently wrapped her arm round Chad’s elbow. “I’m glad to see you’ve become friends with your razor again,” she ribbed, noting the lack of any gin scent.
The smartly dressed Chad allowed the corners of his mouth to rise slightly. A good sign, Berdie thought.
“Look who’s joined us,” Berdie announced, still linked in Chad’s arm. Dave stepped onto the stone-flagged terrace of the back garden, Berdie and Chad just behind.
Enigma of Fire Page 14