‘Five years ago? I thought the present owners bought it more recently. Oh,’ he said, recalling something Rina had told him, ‘it was a country house hotel or something, wasn’t it?’
‘Run by morons,’ was Chandler’s opinion.
‘But didn’t they need staff? What was it before, then?’
‘Believe it or not it was a horticultural training college. The gardens were bloody fantastic.’
‘So, what happened?’
‘They leased the place. The company that owned the lease refused to renew. The place stood empty for a year, and then the hotel lot moved in, started ripping the place apart, lost money, moved out, this lot arrived with full fanfare, promising to employ local people and turn this into some kind of five-star wedding venue.’ Chandler laughed derisively.
‘From what I’ve seen, it could work.’
‘Could, but where’s the investment? Where’s the staff? Where’s the local jobs? Anyway, before the gardeners it was a private school. Constable Brown’s parents worked for them too. Before that, long before, it was leased by a family who used it mainly for summers, Christmases and entertaining their friends. Brown’s grandparents worked for them.’
‘It must have been a wrench to leave,’ Mac commented.
Chandler nodded. ‘But the odd thing is, no one has actually owned this place since old Albert Southam’s time. It’s been a lease, managed by some trust or other. Then, suddenly, they up and sell. More than a century and a half after old Albert died, and suddenly the place is for sale.’
‘Could there have been some legal reason? Some codicil of the will?’
‘Who knows? Anyway, this lot take over, all big plans, and open up Albert’s room, and suddenly we’ve got bodies all over the place.’
Mac was laughing. ‘I’d never have taken you for a superstitious man.’
‘And I’m not. I just don’t like that kind of coincidence. It’s got to mean something, that’s what I think.’
‘Hang on,’ Mac said. ‘Albert’s room? Why do you call the seance room that?’
‘Everyone who knows Aikensthorpe calls it Albert’s room. There were silly rumours that he died there. Locked himself in and shot himself, according to some of the stories. He was poisoned by a servant, according to another. Died of grief after his wife left him or he heard his daughter had died, according to others. Actually, he died in his bed. Nothing more dramatic than pneumonia, I understand.’
‘Just a minute,’ Mac interrupted. ‘Daughter?’
‘Rumour is Elizabeth was pregnant when she took off for Italy.’ Chandler shrugged. ‘Who knows? The fact is, this house is not a settled place. It’s a sad old pile – and now this.’
‘You sound as though you think some places attract tragedy,’ Mac observed.
Chandler just shrugged again. ‘So,’ he said. ‘Who do we have in a position to kill Simeon Meehan on January first?’
‘Well, as I understand it, Gail Perry and David Franklin. Melissa, of course. Edwin Holmes, I suppose, though from what you’ve told me the blow took considerable force.’
‘And Edwin was killed shortly after,’ Chandler said.
‘But different MO. His killer asphyxiated him.’
‘Obvious method, maybe, seeing as the old boy was asleep. He’d have been an easy target. Plus, if it hadn’t been for your sharp eyed girl, it might well have been passed off as natural causes. He was under the doctor, had a heart condition.’
‘True. There was also Rav Pinner here over New Year. That’s it, I think,’ Mac said.
‘That’s where you’re wrong. It seems Toby Thwaite and the kid, Robin Hill, were here too. They’d called in to do some of the set-up and get a first look at the room.’
‘I didn’t know that.’ Mac was thoughtful. ‘I don’t think Tim or Rina knew that either. So, who admits to seeing Simeon last? Melissa’s sighting apart, of course.’
‘Well, Melissa also says she went up to speak to him before he left. She was worried, she says, because he’d had rather a lot to drink at lunch and she wasn’t sure he should be driving. He apparently told her he was fine and that it was none of her business. Rav Pinner says he passed Simeon’s room on his way down; Melissa was just leaving, and he spoke to Simeon briefly. Then he went for a walk.’
‘And the others?’
‘Well, they’re keen on tramping about the countryside, this lot. David Franklin also reckons he went out. Gail Perry was in her room – meditating, apparently.’ Chandler rolled his eyes. ‘Boy, but she’s a funny one.’
Mac smiled, but said nothing.
‘Melissa then retreated to the kitchen; Edwin sat in the library and read.’
‘The library? So he might have seen Simeon leaving. Or rather, whoever was posing as Simeon.’
Chandler steepled his fingers and tapped the tips together slowly. He had very bony, crooked fingers, Mac thought. ‘He might indeed, and if he did, he might have seen the face or noticed something Melissa couldn’t see from the back.’
‘And Toby and Robin?’
‘Might have been in the back room, Albert’s room, talking about camera angles, or they might have been in the kitchen with Melissa, or they might have been exploring the house.’
Mac raised an eyebrow.
‘Quite,’ Chandler said. ‘Toby not being here, we have only Robin’s recollection of events, and he is, shall we say, somewhat vague. The only thing they can all agree on is they had tea at four and that Rav was late getting to it.’
‘And Simeon, or someone dressed as Simeon, was seen leaving at three. The car was driven away. How far is it back across the field?’
‘Too far and too uphill. The timing is too tight. Me or the lad, Constable Brown, we could probably do it. But we know the lie of the land and where you can cut across. A stranger—’
‘We’re assuming everyone here is a stranger.’
‘True. We’re also assuming Melissa got the time right. Half an hour earlier, gloomy weather, half dark outside—’
‘And that would give someone time?’
‘Well, they might be a bit late back for high tea, but I’d say so. Yes.’
TWENTY-FIVE
When Mac wandered back upstairs a while later it was to find that his bedroom had been invaded. Joy and Miriam knelt on the bed, spreading documents and newspaper cuttings, while Rina and Tim had taken some of them over to the dressing table and seemed to be trying to collate them.
He reported back what Chandler and he had discussed.
‘Toby and Robin were here? I didn’t realize that. Do you think it’s relevant?’ Tim said.
Tim looked hopeful that Mac would say no, but Mac didn’t think he could. ‘Possibly. It’s worth having a word with Viv and Robin together, see if they can add anything not in the statement. I’ve noticed that Viv is good at helping Robin get his thoughts in order.’
‘Toby and Viv had a real set-to the night of the seance,’ Joy said. ‘She really doesn’t like him.’
‘I’ll bear that in mind. What are you doing, anyway?’
‘Trying to put all of this in some kind of order. Did you know Elizabeth had a baby?’ Miriam said.
‘As of about fifteen minutes ago. Yes. Chandler says she died?’
‘Nothing about that here. She was born seven months after Elizabeth left. There’s a letter here to Albert, telling him he has a daughter, but it isn’t from Elizabeth. But here’s the thing, Mac, she called the baby Grace.’
‘Edwin is supposed to have based the ghost on a real person,’ Joy said. ‘What if he deliberately based her on Elizabeth and Albert’s child?’
That seemed logical. ‘What else do you have there?’ he asked, eyeing the newspaper clippings and foxed papers they had unearthed. ‘Was all of this found in the seance room?’
‘In the deed box Melissa is supposed to have found just inside the door, yes.’
‘You don’t think she did?’
‘I don’t know. We’re trying to piece the story together. Meli
ssa was right, though. This stayed in the news for months.’
‘So, what happened then?’
‘So far as we can make out –’ Tim was shuffling papers on the dressing table – ‘it started with that death of the gamekeeper. It was supposed to be accidental, but there were rumours that his wife had been in a relationship with a man called Rico Spinelli. He was a vicar or something, but he held seances, and Mrs Creedy, that’s the gamekeeper’s wife, is supposed to have been involved. Creedy is reported to have spoken Spinelli’s name before he died and there’s the inference that if the shooting wasn’t accidental then Spinelli might have done it. Anyway, Albert Southam heard the rumours and brought in a private detective to investigate, but he wasn’t able to get to the bottom of it. Albert Southam then seems to have taken care of the widow and her children, and she lived in a cottage on the estate.’
‘Then there’s this George Weston person. He’s the estate manager,’ Joy said. ‘He more or less took over after Elizabeth left and Albert seems to have gone to pieces. When Albert died, George Weston goes missing with a large amount of cash and some diamonds. Or at least, they go missing at the same time he does.’
‘Then this place is leased out,’ Rina added. ‘Neither Elizabeth nor the daughter ever seem to have come back here.’
‘It was still being leased until about five years ago,’ Mac said. ‘Chandler says it had never been sold until the people who tried to start the hotel bought it. He says he thinks there was some kind of trust administering the place. It’s a terrifically long time for something like that to continue, don’t you think?’
‘Nothing about Aikensthorpe is what you’d expect,’ Rina said quietly. ‘My question, I suppose, is what happened to Elizabeth and Grace?’
‘And why did she leave, and why did Edwin model his ghost on her?’ Joy wanted to know.
‘All very interesting,’ Mac said. ‘But the questions we need to be asking right now are who killed Simeon Meehan and Edwin Holmes and where on earth has your friend Toby got to? More to the point, is the killer still here? Most likely, I’d have said. In which case, does he have anyone else he wants to be rid of?’
The CSI team had been roaming the house, fingerprinting and taking photographs. Miriam showed them the attic rooms, and Melissa found an old map of the Aikensthorpe Estate and the cottages the farm workers and other employees had used over the years.
Finally, with the darkness closing in somewhere behind the white-out, they had to concede nothing more could be done that night. Jay and Rina helped Melissa set out a buffet in the dining room and find bedding and spare mattresses for the unfinished bedrooms so that people could camp out in relative comfort. No one said much; the police presence, small as it was, seemed to intimidate everyone – that, and the constant reminder of Edwin’s body still lying upstairs, though enclosed now in a white sheet and body bag, ready to be moved. Although the police presence should have spelt security for the other guests, Rina felt that it just intensified the sense of threat. There was a murderer among them, and no one but the killer themselves knew who.
Rina found she was examining everyone with unwarranted closeness. Was the bracelet on Rav’s wristwatch sharp enough to have caused the scratches on Edwin’s neck? Was Gail’s psychic persona just an act after all? Could Melissa be tempted to put something unpleasant in the food? (Unlikely, as she tasted everything she prepared, but still.)
Mentally, Rina gave herself a good shaking and an even better telling off.
She was lucky; there were people here she knew unquestionably that she could trust. Could any of the others now feel the same way?
No one had yet spoken to Robin and Viv about New Year’s Day, and when Viv waved rather pathetically as Rina entered the dining room, she decided that now would be a good moment to try.
‘Do you want anything more?’ she called as she helped herself from the buffet.
Viv shook her head. Robin was pushing food around on his plate, but didn’t seem to be eating, so Rina assumed a no from him too. She joined them at one end of the long table. Miriam was chatting to the CSIs at the other; their conversations seemed to be about a television series rather than work, Rina was relieved to note. She didn’t think Viv was up to forensic conversations over the supper table.
‘How are you holding up?’ she asked.
‘I was doing OK until I called my mum,’ Viv said. ‘She’s all anxious and fussed, and that set me off.’
‘She’s bound to be,’ Rina said. ‘Have you called your family, Robin?’
‘I . . .’
‘Robin doesn’t really have family,’ Viv said.
‘I’m sorry to hear that.’
‘Oh, it’s OK,’ Robin said. ‘My mum died when I was young. Dad remarried, and I didn’t get on with his new wife. I went to uni and sort of moved out completely. We don’t really talk now.’
‘That’s sad,’ Rina said.
He shrugged. ‘It happens. My half sister is planning on going to uni next year. She phoned me and asked advice. That was nice. I like Fliss.’
He didn’t seem to want to pursue this topic, so Rina introduced her own. ‘You were here with Toby at New Year, I understand.’
Robin nodded. ‘Just for the afternoon. I’d been at Viv’s for New Year’s Eve. Toby said we should drive up to see the place. Viv wasn’t keen, so I came up with him on my own.’
‘It’s a long drive from London, isn’t it? Just for a few hours?’
‘Not really. Well, it is, but we were going back to uni then anyway. Toby had been down in London visiting friends or something; he said he’d give me a lift, and it saved on train fares. Viv came up the next day.’ He grinned suddenly and unexpectedly. The smile transformed his face. ‘She was too hung-over to drive up with us, anyway,’ he added.
‘Was not! Well, maybe, yeah, but it was a good night, wasn’t it?’
‘I spent the holiday with Viv’s family,’ Robin said. ‘Christmas and New Year. It was nice being with people.’
Rina nodded sympathetically. ‘Robin, what was the mood like that afternoon? We know Simeon had quarrelled with everyone, but it would be good to hear an outside view.’
Robin thought about it, nudging the food on his plate with the tines of his fork. ‘We didn’t really get to talk to anyone except Melissa and Edwin,’ he said. ‘Or, at least, I didn’t. Melissa was nice, she showed us the seance room and made sure we had a sandwich before we headed off. Edwin was lovely. He came with me into the room, and we talked about camera angles and so on, and then we went back into the library. He said he’d found some books he wanted to use in his new research. Then he laughed and said he was probably being a bit ambitious, planning another book at his age, but that he couldn’t seem to break the habit. I liked him. I can’t understand how anyone would want to kill someone old like that.’
It happened all the time, Rina thought. ‘What was Toby doing while you were in the seance room?’
Robin shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I left him in the kitchen with Melissa. He came and checked what I’d decided, but I did the main survey.’
Rina nodded, recalling the impression she’d had at the start of their stay that Toby and Melissa knew one another well already. ‘Did Toby give you any indication he wanted to leave here before he vanished?’
Viv and Robin looked at one another. ‘No, not really,’ Viv said.
‘You don’t like him very much, do you?’
Viv wrinkled her nose. ‘It was like he thought he was God,’ she said.
‘Thought?’
‘Yeah.’ She didn’t seem to have noticed her own change to past tense. ‘When I asked if he’d be my supervisor for the MA, he was like, well, of course you’re going to ask me, I’m the best. Then when I got more involved with him, you know, he got kind of like—’ She looked at Robin.
‘Possessive,’ he said.
‘He’s been better since we came here,’ she added, changing back to present without a blink. ‘Or at least he was, then he sta
rted acting like we were all, well . . . Like he was too good for all of us. I can’t make him out.’
Robin nodded. ‘Viv had a row with him, said she didn’t want him to be her supervisor.’
‘It’s pointless, of course. I’m much too far through to switch to anyone else, but he made me so mad, just the way he talks to everyone.’
‘I hope he’s OK,’ Robin said quietly. ‘I mean, where’s he gone?’
They both looked at Rina as though she might be able to provide the answer. Where indeed, Rina thought. And was he still all right? She doubted that very much.
TWENTY-SIX
Rina had locked her doors that night and been glad that Mac and Miriam were literally next door. Mac and Chandler had insisted that no one be alone, and he’d included the CSI and his own people in that directive. Melissa had reluctantly agreed to share her room with two of the female CSIs, and Constable Brown had bedded down with the crime scene manager. The degree of paranoia had seemed to increase exponentially through the evening, and by the time Rina finally made it to her room, she had practically been twitching.
‘Pull yourself together, woman,’ she had told herself sternly and allowed a moment of amusement that no one had suggested she required company that night.
Morning brought clarity. Bright skies clear of threatening snow clouds, frozen ground; the layer of frost clearly visible overlaying the covering of snow. Clarity of mind, too, Rina thought, waking with the – probably unfounded – sense that today would bring solutions. Unfounded or not, it made her feel better.
Over breakfast, Chandler divided them into search teams: a police officer or CSI as lead and the rest allocated to one of four groups. The hope was that the roads would be clear again by midday and Edwin’s body could finally be moved.
By half past eight, decked out in warm clothes and borrowed wellingtons, Rina was with her assigned group, led by DI Chandler himself, and joined by Rav they set off across the fields towards Aikensthorpe woods on a search for any sign of Toby.
The Dead of Winter Page 17