‘Nasty business,’ James said. ‘What’s next?’
‘I want feather samples taken from the Anchor Hotel, where Ethan Jenson was staying, as well as any other place he was known to have spent a night or several hours,’ Lachlan said. ‘I’ll get both Peter Middleton and Dr Hayden to examine them to see if they match the feathers from the lung biopsy Dr Hayden took.’
‘Yes, Chief. Anything else?’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I want you to find out where Molly Beale is.’
James lifted his brows. ‘Isn’t she staying at Trevallyn House?’
‘No, apparently she left the day Dr Hayden arrived. She didn’t leave a forwarding address.’
‘You think she’s got something to do with this?’ James asked.
Lachlan drummed his fingers on the desk for a few seconds. ‘I don’t know. I know Molly’s done a runner before but I want to know if her bank account has been accessed.’
‘Have you checked with her mother?’
‘I spoke to Maisie Beale earlier,’ Lachlan said. ‘She threw her daughter out of the house a couple of months ago. Apparently she found Molly in bed with Maisie’s new boyfriend.’
James grimaced. ‘That must have gone down a treat.’
‘It sure did. Maisie insists she never wants to see her daughter again.’
‘You don’t think…?’
‘Molly took her belongings with her when she left Trevallyn House. She didn’t have much, mind you, but it always pays to keep an open mind. Our Molly had a bit of reputation with the lads, as I’m sure you know.’
‘Did she have a fling with Ethan Jenson, do you think?’ James asked.
Lachlan recalled his daughter’s distress at hearing Molly Beale had been one of Jenson’s conquests so soon after her. ‘Yes, I have reason to believe she did.’
James Derrey came back to the station a couple of hours later and took the seat opposite Lachlan.
‘Chief, Molly Beale hasn’t accessed her bank account or any of her credit cards for over a week,’ he said. ‘The cards are all up to the max in any case. No one seems to know where she went. She didn’t have many friends—I suppose no one trusted her with the silver, not to mention their husbands or boyfriends.’
‘I’ll go and speak to Beatrice Trevallyn,’ Lachlan said. ‘It sounds like she was the last person to see her. She might be able to tell me something. You’d better come with me.’
They drove the short distance to Trevallyn House but as they got out of the car the first person to greet them was Arnold Price, who was coming back from a stroll.
‘Ah, Chief Inspector, just the person I was hoping to see. How’s the investigation going?’ Mr Price said with a beaming smile. ‘Have you found a suspect yet? I have some suggestions if you haven’t. You see, I have this theory—’
‘Hello, Mr Price.’ Lachlan smiled to take the sting out of his interruption. ‘We’re here to see Mrs Trevallyn, actually. Do you know if she’s about?’
‘I think she might be having a nap. I haven’t seen her for a couple of hours but, then, I’ve been out walking thinking through my plot,’ he said. ‘Shall I get Davey to fetch her? I think he’s usually in the garden at this time of day.’
Eloise turned into the gate of Trevallyn House just then to see Lachlan and a junior constable talking to Mr Price, her heart sinking when all three men turned to face her.
‘Dr Hayden.’ Mr Price was the first to speak. ‘How delightful you are all here at the same time. This is absolutely marvellous for my research. Chief Inspector D’Ancey wants to interview Mrs Trevallyn.’ He turned to look at Lachlan and added entreatingly, ‘I don’t suppose I could listen in?’
Lachlan shook his head. ‘Sorry, Mr Price. Although this is a routine enquiry, I’m afraid it will have to remain closed to the public.’
‘I’ll see if I can find Davey,’ Mr Price said with another affable smile. ‘I don’t like to go to Mrs Trevallyn’s room on my own. She’s bit old-fashioned that way.’
‘I understand,’ Lachlan said, and once the elderly gentleman had gone round the side of the house he turned to Eloise. ‘Dr Hayden, this is PC James Derrey. James, this is Dr Eloise Hayden from Australia.’
Eloise shook the younger man’s hand. ‘It’s nice to meet you, James.’ And with a little glittering glance cast in Lachlan’s direction she turned back to James and added, ‘And you can drop the Dr and the bit about coming from Australia. I prefer to be called Eloise.’
‘Oh…right, then,’ James said, looking a little flustered as he took in the silent exchange between his chief and their international guest.
‘What did you want to see Beatrice about?’ Eloise asked Lachlan after a short, tense pause.
‘I want to interview Molly Beale, the cleaning maid who worked here previously. So far we haven’t been able to locate her.’
‘You think she’s somehow involved in this?’ Eloise asked, not realising she was practically repeating verbatim with what James had asked not half an hour earlier.
‘It’s too early to say,’ Lachlan answered. ‘I would like to know her movements on the night in question and take it from there.’
‘You’d better come in and wait in Beatrice’s sitting room,’ she said, unlocking the front door, but as soon as she stepped inside she reeled backwards from the strong smell of gas.
Lachlan had smelt it too and dragged her backwards and called out for James to call the fire service.
‘What if Beatrice is inside?’ Eloise asked, frowning in concern.
‘Stay here and I’ll check,’ he said.
‘No, I’m a trained doctor,’ she said. ‘She might be unconscious.’
‘We’ll all be unconscious if we don’t take care. Now, stay here.’
Eloise stood her ground, whipping her hand out of his iron hold. ‘No, I will not stay here. If she and Davey are unconscious, they’ll need to be moved, and you can’t do that on your own. We can put handkerchiefs over our mouths and see where they are.’
Mr Price came up the front steps, puffing heavily. ‘I can’t find Davey and the back door is locked.’ He sniffed the air and frowned. ‘Is that gas?’
‘Yes, it is. Please, stay well back until the fire crew gets here,’ Lachlan ordered. ‘Eloise, take this handkerchief and double it over your mouth. If at any stage you feel faint or nauseous, you are to leave the building immediately—is that understood?’
She nodded, folded the cloth over her mouth and followed him into the guest-house.
Lachlan checked each room, opening every window he came to while keeping a close watch on Eloise a step behind him.
They found Beatrice first. She was lying on the floor of one of the smaller rooms upstairs. Lachlan rushed to the window while Eloise dropped to her knees and checked for a pulse. ‘She’s alive,’ she said.
Lachlan found Davey the other side of the single bed, still with tools in hand in front of the faulty outlet.
‘Davey’s over here,’ he said, and bent down to examine him. ‘He was obviously trying to fix the leak when he lost consciousness.’
Eloise came over and examined Davey quickly, relieved to find a pulse, although it was a little thready. ‘We need to get them both to hospital or the clinic at least in order to give them oxygen.’
James appeared at the door with a couple of firemen, who had already turned off the gas at the mains.
The patients were soon transported to the clinic and after Nick Tremayne had assessed them, they were given oxygen until the ambulance arrived to transport them to St Piran Hospital.
Kate came over to where Eloise was awaiting a final decision by the fire crew about the safety of staying at Trevallyn House.
‘I’m afraid they’re going to close it down temporarily,’ Kate said. ‘It seems the gas pipes have needed replacing for years but poor Bea never had the money. You can stay with me. Jem will love it.’
‘That’s very kind of you,’ Eloise said. ‘What about Mr Price?’
‘Lachlan�
��s taken care of that,’ she said. ‘He’s got a spare room.’
‘Mr Price will be beside himself,’ Eloise said with a wry look in Lachlan’s direction, where he was still speaking to Nick.
Lachlan turned as if he’d felt the weight of her stare and came over to speak to her. ‘Dr Hayden, I’ve organised for some pillows from the Anchor Hotel and a couple of other places, as well as Trevallyn House, to be tested for a match with the feathers found in Ethan Jenson’s lungs.’
‘Thank you, Chief Inspector,’ she said in a crisp, professional tone. ‘I was just about to suggest we take some samples from the guest-house.’
One of his brows lifted in surprise, or was it admiration? Eloise couldn’t really tell. ‘Were you, now?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I smelt gas the other day and it occurred to me there might be a connection, but so far I haven’t been able to establish one. Not unless Molly Beale secretly took Ethan Jenson up to her room. Beatrice Trevallyn was adamant he had never been there but that’s not to say…’
He glanced at Kate, who was hovering near by. ‘Let’s leave our discussion till you examine the samples,’ he suggested. ‘Give me a call when you’re done at the lab.’
‘Right.’
He strode away with a brief nod and smile at Kate on his way past.
Kate whistled through her teeth as she came back to Eloise. ‘I’d say he was done like a dinner.’
Eloise frowned. ‘What on earth do you mean?’
‘The way he looked at you just then,’ Kate said with a knowing smile. ‘I’d say you’d better organise for the rest of your things back home to be sent over straight away. That man is in love.’
‘That man is a jerk,’ Eloise said irritably. But she couldn’t help glancing in his direction when she hoisted her bag over her shoulder and made her way outside to her car.
Dr Middleton looked up from the lab’s microscope some hours later. ‘They found a match,’ he said. ‘Have a look and see what you think.’
Eloise came over and examined the samples carefully for several minutes and eventually came to the same conclusion. ‘You’re right, Dr Middleton. The sample from Trevallyn House exactly matches the feather particles I took from the lung biopsy. We’ll ask them to do a cross-check to make sure, but I think it’s starting to add up.’
After a series of cross-checks were done and the results documented, Eloise called Lachlan on his mobile and arranged to meet him in his office. Her tone was matter-of-fact but inside she was a jangling mess of nerves, hurt and heartache.
When she arrived at his office, she stood outside his door for several moments, trying to get her chest to loosen enough to breathe. You can do this, she reminded herself sternly.
She clenched her hand into a fist and raised it to the door’s surface, but it suddenly opened and her hand landed on Lachlan’s chest with a little thump.
‘Maybe I should think about getting a doorbell,’ he said with a twisted smile.
Eloise’s hand dropped back to her side but she could still feel the warmth of his chest against her knuckles and her chest gave another flutter.
‘I have a match,’ she announced briskly, once they were both seated. ‘Trevallyn House—in fact, the very pillow from the bed Molly Beale used.’
‘I thought you might.’
She looked at him closely. ‘Have you found out what happened yet?’
‘Davey woke up a couple of hours ago,’ he said. ‘He told us everything. It seems Molly asked him to distract Beatrice so she could bring Ethan Jenson up to her room that night. It hadn’t been the first time either. The arrangement was that Ethan would wait upstairs in her room while Molly finished the dinner things downstairs. Then she would come up and they would presumably have sex and then with Davey’s help Ethan would be escorted off the premises, all without Beatrice finding out.’
‘Did he tell you what happened that particular night?’ she asked.
‘Yes he did. Poor chap. He’s distraught, of course, but Molly threatened him so much he did what she suggested. He was terrified his mother’s home and livelihood would be taken from her. You remember I told you about a salmonella outbreak a while ago?’
She nodded.
‘Well, Davey was frightened he might have to be institutionalised or something if his mother could no longer keep the guest house going. You have to remember he thinks like a young child.’
‘Yes, I realise that. It’s very sad.’
‘Apparently the arrangement went as planned. Ethan Jenson left the Anchor Hotel around seven-thirty and Davey let him in and locked the door to Molly’s room with Jenson inside. That was to stop other guests inadvertently opening the wrong door apparently. Jenson waited upstairs but Molly got held up with some extra work. When she got to her room Ethan was lying face down on the bed and there was a strong smell of gas. She told Davey she quickly turned off the gas at the wall and opened the window before she tried to find a pulse, but when she couldn’t find one she hatched a plan to get them both off the hook.’
‘Clever of her,’ Eloise remarked cynically.
He gave a shrug. ‘Molly isn’t exactly a rocket scientist and certainly Davey wouldn’t have been much help. Why they didn’t call an ambulance at that point I guess we’ll never know. Ethan might have been able to be resuscitated. He may have only just lost consciousness.’
Eloise inwardly winced at the thought of Ethan’s parents being informed of the possibility their son might not have died if help had come sooner. ‘What happened next?’ she asked.
‘Molly told Davey if he didn’t get rid of Jenson’s body he would be charged with murder because he was the one who brought him into the house and locked him in the room. So that’s what Davey did. He took Ethan down under cover of darkness and dumped him in the ocean.’
Eloise frowned as she tried to take it all in. ‘And no one saw him? Ethan Jenson was five eleven and of average weight. It would have been hard to disguise him as something else.’
‘Davey is often seen about at odd hours carrying old bits of rubbish about the place. He does some gardening jobs for a couple of retired folk down near the harbour. If anyone saw him, they’d think nothing of it. He’s often got a sack of some kind on his back.’
‘But what about the smell of gas at Trevallyn House?’ Eloise asked. ‘Surely Beatrice would have been able to smell it that evening if not some of the other guests.’
‘Beatrice Trevallyn has no sense of smell. She had a mini-stroke a couple of years ago and as a result lost her ability to smell. As for the other guests staying there…well, there weren’t any at that time. Mr Price hadn’t yet arrived and you didn’t come until early June. The place is often empty as it’s a bit run-down. Davey did his best but really he should have contacted the gas people much earlier. One can only assume he was worried about the expense of refitting the pipes.’
‘Have you located Molly Beale to get a statement?’
‘Yes, she was found about an hour ago in Glasgow. She gave a frank and full confession. She was lying low, hoping things would settle down. That was why she left the day you arrived. When she heard a police doctor was coming from Australia she knew she had to get away, and fast, and not leave a trail. She used what cash she had on her but, of course, it eventually ran out. We got her on her first cash-card transaction.’
‘She was taking a very big risk, trusting Davey to keep quiet,’ Eloise commented.
‘Davey’s been infatuated with her for years,’ he said. ‘He would do anything for her. It’s my guess she played on it for all she was worth.’
A silence swirled around them for several long seconds.
‘Will charges be laid against both of them?’ she asked.
‘I would hazard a guess that Davey won’t be charged on the basis of his disability. Molly will be charged with perverting the course of justice. She’s already pleaded guilty. The coroner’s going to reopen the inquiry at short notice on account of you being here from abroad. He’ll ne
ed you to present your findings. I think the inquiry will be in about ten days’ time.’
‘So we were both wrong,’ Eloise said after another small pause. ‘You thought it was drowning and I thought it was a straight case of murder.’
‘Yes,’ he said, looking at her mouth. ‘We were both wrong.’
Eloise swallowed as another protracted silence thickened the air.
‘Eloise, there’s something I want to ask you.’
‘No, please,’ she said, forcing herself to meet his gaze. ‘Don’t.’
He frowned at her. ‘You don’t want to even consider the possibility that we could have a relationship, do you?’
‘I live in Sydney, you live in Penhally Bay.’
‘You could move.’
She tightened her mouth. ‘Why don’t you move?’
His frown deepened. ‘Because I have a daughter and an exwife who expects to see her reasonably regularly, that’s why. I also have a grandchild on the way. I can’t move…or at least not right now.’
‘And yet you expect me to drop everything and take up with you—for how long? Six months, a year?’
‘I hadn’t got as far as putting a time frame on it,’ he said. ‘We’ve known each less than two weeks.’
Eloise wondered if he was having a dig at her for falling into bed with him so readily. She hoped not. She desperately hoped not. ‘Lachlan…’ She moistened her lips and tried to get her voice to co-operate by sounding normal instead of choked up with emotion. ‘I think I made a mistake…I mean, I know I made a mistake by sleeping with you. I gave you completely the wrong impression. It was a mistake, one of my biggest, actually.’
He frowned at her. ‘The biggest mistake you’ll ever make is walking out that door without giving me a chance to put things right between us.’
‘You can’t put things right that were wrong from the word go,’ she said, steeling herself for his counter-attack, which she knew was going to undo her completely unless she kept her emotions under tight control. ‘I was a fool to be tempted. I’m ashamed of my weakness. It’s totally unprofessional and it could have jeopardised the whole investigation.’
Brides of Penhally Bay - Vol 2 Page 46