Murder at the Altar

by Veronica Heley

  ‘What? You dare to stand there, with Frank only just in his grave …’

  ‘… cremated …’

  ‘… and tell me that you are entertaining someone of the opposite sex …’

  ‘Either a policeman. Or someone from the charity shop. Or both. Which would you prefer?’

  ‘You are getting above yourself, my girl! I’ve never been so insulted in all my life! If my poor dear Frank were here …’

  ‘But he isn’t!’ Ellie spoke more sharply than she had intended. She felt angry and tearful. She ushered Aunt Drusilla out into the hall, and handed her coat to her while opening the front door.

  Rose McNally stood on the doorstep, under an umbrella which seemed to have broken a spoke since they last met.

  ‘Come in!’ Ellie threw the door wide. ‘Miss Quicke is just leaving!’

  Flustered though she might be, Aunt Drusilla was not beaten. ‘We will continue this conversation later, when you are less overwrought. I can assure you that I shall not give way to your crude blackmailing tactics. There is no way that I can allow you to dispossess me of what is rightly mine. Now, will you please call me a taxi!’

  Rose’s mouth had fallen open. Aunt Drusilla’s ravings would be all round the neighbourhood by nightfall.

  Ellie considered letting the old bat walk. It was only the other side of the Avenue, after all. Then she thought that really would be mean of her, so she gestured to Rose to come in and remove her coat while she rang for a taxi. And as she did so, the doorbell went again. This time it was Chloe from the café, with her stolid-looking young policeman friend, Bob. Ellie invited them in, too, took their coats and ushered them into the living-room.

  Rose had shed her coat and umbrella but hovered in the hall, still clutching several interesting-looking boxes from the bakery. ‘You won’t want me to stay, if you have guests.’

  ‘Oh, but I do,’ said Ellie, smiling at her. ‘Do stay. The others won’t be long, and then we can have a really good chat together.’

  Aunt Drusilla was furious. ‘Do you actually propose to leave me here in your hall like a servant, while you entertain these people?’ It was clear she had placed all three of ‘these people’ in the slave class.

  ‘Of course not,’ said Ellie, with a smile. She had had more than enough of Aunt Drusilla. ‘Of course you’d prefer to wait for your taxi outside.’ She opened the door wide and ushered Aunt Drusilla out on to the porch. She rather hoped that the taxi driver who responded to the call might be the one who was refused a tip by Aunt Drusilla earlier.

  ‘Cup of tea, everyone? In a minute, perhaps?’ She smiled at the others’ startled faces. ‘Rose, let’s put the shopping on the kitchen table and your umbrella in the sink. There. Now come and join us, there’s a dear.’

  Her visitors all looked uncomfortable as Ellie went around putting on side lamps and drawing the curtains. Rose hovered, hardly daring to sit on the edge of the seat of an upright chair. Ellie stifled impatience. Rose was a timid soul who always wanted to fade into the background, but had the irritating knack of becoming more visible in proportion to her wish not to intrude.

  Chloe said, ‘Oh, Mrs Quicke, I hope you don’t mind my coming with Bob, but we’re going out for the evening afterwards.’ She sounded aggressive. Ellie wondered why. Did policemen usually take their girls on police business?

  ‘Of course not, dear,’ said Ellie.

  Chloe threw herself back on to the settee, watching her boyfriend the while. Ellie identified tension between them, and was put on her guard.

  Bob seemed very sure of himself, sitting with knees apart and beefy features set in stone, the very picture of a small-minded policeman about to book an old lady for inadvertently parking with one wheel on the pavement. Ellie was not sure she liked him.

  But she did like Chloe, so she said, ‘Well, this is a nice surprise. Are you sure no one would like a cup of tea?’

  Bob produced a notebook and pen and squared his elbows. His attitude proclaimed that he was still very much on duty.

  Chloe said, almost sulkily, ‘Mrs Quicke, when I told Bob you had some business at the station, all I was thinking was that he could save you a journey. But now he’s started to go on about people withholding information—’

  ‘Let me do the talking, if you please,’ said Bob. Ellie wondered if he were just showing off in front of Chloe by playing the heavy policeman, or if he were naturally heavy. ‘Mrs Quicke, may I have a word in private?’

  ‘Well, no,’ said Ellie. ‘I really don’t see the need. What I have to tell you is not private in any way.’

  ‘Are you sure about that?’

  ‘Yes, perfectly,’ said Ellie, perplexed. ‘In fact, the more people who know about it, the better.’

  ‘You want the matter cleared up as soon as possible, then? You’re prepared to co-operate now?’

  ‘But of course. I don’t understand. It’s really quite trivial. No harm was done.’

  ‘You regard murder as trivial?’

  ‘Murder? No, of course not. But I assure you, the man did not gain entry to my house, and nothing has been stolen.’

  Rose and Chloe were turning their heads first this way and then that, as if they were watching a tennis match.

  Bob pushed himself further forward in his chair. Frank’s chair. He was a large man, and more than filled it. He said, ‘Who mentioned theft?’

  Ellie was bewildered. ‘I did. Wasn’t that what the man was after?’

  ‘I don’t know what you are talking about, Mrs Quicke. I’m referring to the knowledge you’ve been withholding about the murder of Ferdy Hanna.’

  ‘What?’ Ellie changed colour. She glanced at Chloe, who was looking up at the ceiling, divorcing herself from the conversation. Rose gave a little whimper of excitement. Ellie drew back in her seat, and folded her hands before her.

  ‘I’m so sorry. We seem to have been talking at cross purposes. I intended going to the station to report an attempted crime. A man presented himself twice at my door and tried to gain entry to the house, saying that he had to investigate a reported gas leak. He had a halfsmoked cigarette butt behind his ear and I thought his manner suspicious. The second time he came, a neighbour was here and challenged the man’s credentials. This neighbour subsequently rang the gas board and discovered that they had no such man working in this area, and no gas leak had been reported. We are always being warned to check on IDs and to report anything suspicious. So he reported it, and now I am reporting it, too, formally.

  ‘You’ll need a description of the man. He was taller than me, about five ten, bony rather than thin, about forty years old, sandy-ish hair, wearing blue overalls under a denim jacket, carrying a black holdall. He had some kind of photo ID dangling from his overall bib, but I couldn’t see that properly. I think that’s all I can tell you.’

  Bob hadn’t taken down a word of this, but sat with pen suspended over his notebook, stolidly waiting until she had finished.

  ‘So let’s talk about the murder.’

  Ellie gestured helplessly. ‘I don’t know anything about the murder.’

  ‘Yet you say you were standing at the window, looking out over the churchyard, when it happened.’

  ‘I believe I may have been. But as I explained to Inspector Clay …’

  ‘Explain it to me … if you can.’ His tone was menacing.

  Ellie opened her eyes wider. ‘Why should I have to go on repeating myself all the time? I explained to Inspector Clay that I was on medication at the time. I cried a lot. I wasn’t really aware of anything that went on around me. Yes, I probably was standing at the window looking out at the time, but I don’t remember seeing anything odd until Kate came rushing down from the church and dashed along the alley.’

  ‘Ah. Yes. Now we come to it. We have your statement to that effect. Do you wish to alter it in any way now?’

  ‘No. Why should I?’

  ‘Perhaps because you really saw a little more than you said you did …’

 
Ellie understood that she was meant to be flustered by Bob’s methods. Instead, she felt amused. Almost. If she hadn’t been through so much that day already, she might well have been alarmed. Instead, she just felt annoyed, and rather tired.

  She turned off the main light and one of the side lamps, drew back the curtains overlooking the garden and the church and beckoned Bob to join her at the window. The lights were on around the church and in the alley. The side lamp in the living-room was reflected in the window, but Ellie could clearly see what was happening around the church. ‘It was about this time of day. Now you can see what I saw,’ she said. ‘No more, and no less. Satisfied?’

  For the first time she felt … exposed, standing there and looking out over the garden. She drew the curtains to, with a shiver. It was cold out there. She hastened to put the main light on again. Should she turn the central heating up a notch?

  ‘No, I am not satisfied,’ said Bob. A stubborn man.

  Chloe made a sudden movement. She dropped her eyes from the ceiling to meet Ellie’s glance and shrugged, conveying that she wanted no part of what was going on. Of course Chloe had known Ellie for many years. She knew Ellie wouldn’t lie. Possibly she had already given Bob the benefit of her opinion on the subject, and he had rejected it.

  Rose was crouched down in her chair, frightened eyes darting from Bob to Ellie and back again. More grist to the gossip mill …

  Ellie looked straight at Bob. ‘You’re a bit of a bully, aren’t you? If I saw anything else, it didn’t register. Believe me, if I could help, I would. I liked Mrs Hanna, and was sorry for her.’

  ‘So you say. But you helped the murderess to escape, didn’t you?’

  Ellie felt short of breath. He was threatening her! And she did feel threatened. She thought of calling for help. She could terminate this interview by ringing Bill Weatherspoon for guidance. Or she could face the music herself.

  ‘If you are referring to Kate,’ she said, slowly, ‘then no, I did not help her to escape, as you put it. And before you ask, I do not know where she is, and I do not know how to contact her. Let me also go on record as saying that I do not believe she killed Ferdy.’

  Bob barked out a laugh. ‘How can you be so blinkered? If she didn’t kill him then why did she run away? Why has she cleared out her current account and gone into hiding when any innocent person would have stayed around to help with enquiries?’

  Ellie thought, I must not let him rile me, because that’s what he wants. I must be calm and reasonable, even if I feel like having hysterics. She said, ‘Kate ran away because someone tried to kill her by blowing up her car.’

  ‘She staged that “accident”, to give herself an alibi.’

  ‘Nonsense! She was as shocked as I was!’

  He sneered. ‘Face it. She conned you. We have reason to believe that you sheltered her after the explosion and helped her escape. Also, that you are still in touch with her.’

  ‘It sounds to me as if Armand has been making wild accusations again. He’s a jealous, perhaps unbalanced man.’

  Bob shifted his legs further apart, leaning forward even more. ‘All right. Let’s look at it another way. We think she killed Ferdy and one of his friends then tried to get even by blowing up her car …’

  A slight hiss escaped Chloe. Ellie wanted to say, ‘Well, you were one of his oldest associates. Did you blow him up?’ She refrained with an effort. She said, ‘I suppose that is possible. Have you investigated his circle of friends yourselves?’

  ‘Yes.’ Stolidly. ‘It led nowhere. So why do you think her car was blown up?’

  ‘It couldn’t have been an accident?’

  ‘No, it couldn’t. So who did it, Ellie?’

  She did not care for his use of her first name. She supposed he did it to throw her off balance. Maybe he would make an effective policeman, some day. She said, ‘I really don’t know. At first I thought Ferdy must have got mixed up with some drug people …’

  ‘No way. I can vouch for that.’

  ‘… then I thought it might be Armand …’

  ‘The husband? Don’t make me laugh.’

  ‘… but I think now it must be something to do with his car sales. A dissatisfied customer, a sudden quarrel that blew up out of all proportion? A blow struck in haste that wasn’t meant to kill, but did? I wondered about his cars …’

  ‘His van was found in a lane twenty miles away. Burned out. No fingerprints possible.’

  ‘Ah. Well, what about the other cars he was working on by the church? They’ve been disappearing at intervals, haven’t they?’

  This was clearly news to Bob. ‘What makes you say that?’

  ‘The vicar told me they’d been disappearing. Somebody’s pinching them, don’t you think? Maybe he had a quarrel with one of his latest exgirlfriend’s new boyfriends …’

  She gave Bob an innocent-seeming look. Chloe smiled slightly.

  Bob reddened. ‘If you continue to refuse to co-operate, then I must ask you to accompany me down to the station.’

  Ellie felt her heartbeat quicken. ‘Have you a warrant? No? Then I fear I must refuse. I’ve told you all I know. Go away and do something useful for a change.’

  Is this really me, she thought, telling this man off?

  Bob’s face went lopsided and ugly. His high colour did not fade. He put his notebook and pen away and thrust himself off the chair. ‘Come on, Chloe!’

  Chloe looked away. ‘You go. Mrs Quicke was so kind as to offer us a cup of tea earlier. I sure could do with one now.’ She sounded as if she were suppressing tears. It looked as if his bullying tactics had put an end to their romance.

  Bob was appalled. He obviously had no idea how he’d alienated his beloved. He said, ‘But …!’ He looked furious. ‘Well, I’ll pick you up later at your place, right?’

  ‘No, thank you,’ said Chloe, in a muffled tone.

  Ellie pushed herself upright. ‘I’ll show you out, then.’ She ushered him out into the rain, and carefully didn’t quite bang the door after him.

  ‘Wow,’ she said. ‘Next, let’s have some tea, and see what goodies Rose has brought us to eat.’

  Chloe and Rose followed her into the kitchen.

  ‘What can we do to help?’ said Chloe, blowing her nose on a piece of kitchen towel.

  ‘Wouldn’t you like me to go now?’ said Rose, opening cake boxes to display a tempting array of eclairs, doughnuts and frangipani tarts.

  ‘Bless you both, no,’ said Ellie. ‘It’s been a perfectly horrid day so far, so let’s indulge ourselves, shall we?’

  Chloe said, somewhat indistinctly, ‘I’m sorry I brought him. I’d no idea he was like that. When he said he was going to see you, to question you, he sounded so grim that I got cold feet and thought I’d better come along, too. I wish I’d never said anything to him in the first place. As if you could possibly have sheltered a murderer … What a nerd! I won’t be seeing him again, I can tell you!’

  Ellie patted her arm. ‘He was just doing his duty, I suppose.’

  ‘What dreadful manners …’ twittered Rose.

  Ellie grinned. ‘Yes, if he hadn’t been so pushy, I might have shared a couple of thoughts with him. So, ladies, perhaps we three could put our heads together after tea, instead?’

  16

  The errand boy’s eyes crossed with resentment at the telling-off he was getting down the phone. He’d failed again. He was worse than useless. Interspersed with a good many words of Anglo-Saxon origin. And he had to take it in silence. He ground his teeth, took out a cigarette, lit it, puffed, stubbed it out on the dashboard.

  He didn’t need telling that every day they were letting big money slip through their fingers. You-know-who was ready to move as soon as she gave the word. The territory was wide open, the stock had been moved into the derelict house, and Ferdy’s best car was in the garage – a vintage Bentley which would fetch a nice penny. As for the Mondeo, he knew a man at the pub who’d buy it off him, no questions asked.

  On
e frail woman stood between each of them and a fortune. The errand boy said, ‘Look, I’ll stage a burglary tonight. Break in. Bash her head in before she knows what’s what. Yeah, I know she’ll be on her guard, but she’s gotta sleep, ain’t she? … Yeah, I know she throws the bolts back and front, but her French windows is flimsy. A coupla kicks on the side of the hinges, a quick wrench with the tyre lever and I’ll be in, no problem. I do the job, take the telly and video and stuff to make it look like a burglary, and that’s it. Just another interrupted burglary gone wrong.’

  He switched his mobile off, sweating. This job was getting to him. He’d better find a stocking or a child’s mask to wear tonight.

  Ellie, Chloe and Rose drew their chairs close to the electric fire. The wind was sweeping hard pellets of rain against the windows and screeching down the chimney. It was no night to be out on the streets. They’d eaten all the cakes and downed two big pots of tea. Chloe was sprawling across her chair, showing an extraordinary amount of denimed leg. Rose was flushed, a little giggly.

  Ellie leaned back in her chair and then pulled herself upright. If she wasn’t careful, she would drift off to sleep.

  She said, ‘Well, ladies, shall we hold a council of war? I really do not know who killed Ferdy, though believe me, it wasn’t Kate. I think it must have been some business associate of his – something to do with the car business. Joyce said something about Ferdy being made an offer for the business. Maybe it’s something to do with that. Or more probably it was a dissatisfied customer. I do feel the police are the best people to solve his murder, but there is another little mystery which I think we may be able to solve between us. The supposed abduction and murder of Mrs Hanna.’

  Chloe gaped. ‘Supposed? Didn’t they find her body in the park?’

  Rose said, ‘No dear. That was some poor woman from the loony bin. Mrs Hanna’s still missing.’

  Ellie nodded. As usual Rose’s information was accurate. ‘I think the three of us ought to be able to work out how she went, and where. Rose, do you remember telling me about Mrs Hanna coming into the shop just after the murder with her little dog under her arm, causing all sorts of upsets to the staff?’