Murder in Bloom

by Lesley Cookman

  ‘So where did you come into the picture, then?’ asked Libby, clambering up into the high vehicle.

  ‘Told you. I knew Gerry in London. He come down to visit, saw old Creekmarsh and bought it. Tony was part of the crowd. Told you that, an’ all.’

  ‘Yes, you did.’ Fran settled herself comfortably. ‘So his mother can’t have been Amanda?’

  Frank frowned over the steering wheel. ‘We-ell,’ he said. ‘See, I don’t know. Bit funny, ain’t it? Both of them keeping quiet about it if it was all legal like.’

  ‘I suppose so,’ said Libby. ‘So do you think he fathered Tony before he was married to Amanda?’

  ‘Must have done,’ said Fran. ‘It looks as though he was very young when Tony was born. Perhaps he didn’t know about Tony until he was grown up.’

  ‘You mean Tony traced his real father, sort of thing?’ said Libby.

  ‘Maybe,’ said Fran. ‘In which case it might have been bad publicity if it came out. Things weren’t quite as enlightened as they are now.’

  They arrived back at the pub and thanked Frank for taking them. He shook hands with them both, still looking stunned.

  ‘I’m going to tell them about this,’ said Libby. ‘Coming?’

  ‘No, I’d better get back and play at being a bride-to-be,’ said Fran.

  ‘You’d guessed, hadn’t you?’ said Libby, watching her friend unlock her car.

  Fran nodded.

  ‘That was why you kept asking how old Tony was?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Fran. ‘Just one of those things.’

  ‘Oh, right.’ Libby frowned at her. ‘But I still don’t quite see what difference it makes.’

  ‘Tony is probably Gerald’s heir. If the police have got to the will by now they’ll know that.’

  ‘So Cindy killed him to remove the obstacle to her inheritance? I said before, that doesn’t make sense. Gerald was still alive and she thought he still owned the house.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Fran, ‘Gerald was still alive. I think she had expected to come home and find Gerald dead, so would walk into Creekmarsh as Kenneth’s wife – or widow. I don’t suppose she thought much further than that. Then she found out about Tony.’

  ‘How? She went and killed him after she heard about the skeleton. She must have known already that he was Gerald’s son.’

  ‘I expect she went to see him to ask what she should do before she turned up officially. Then he would have told her Creekmarsh had been sold and, anyway, it was all his. I don’t suppose she thought about what she was doing. Probably just lashed out.’

  ‘With Lewis’s mallet.’ Libby nodded. ‘But then, who killed her?’

  Fran shivered. ‘That’s the worrying part, isn’t it?’

  Libby let herself into the kitchen and called out. Katie appeared and went straight to the kettle.

  ‘Tea, lovey?’ she asked.

  ‘Oh, yes please, Katie,’ said Libby. ‘Do you know where Lewis is?’

  ‘Out there with his telly mates somewhere,’ said Katie. ‘Did you want him for anything?’

  ‘No, not really,’ lied Libby. ‘What about Adam? I’ve got to give him a lift home tonight. I mean, I know he won’t be ready yet, but I thought I’d let him know I’m here.’

  ‘Him and that Mog were over towards the wood last time I saw them,’ said Katie.

  ‘How’s Edie?’ asked Libby. ‘Is she still here?’

  ‘Having a lie down,’ said Katie, pouring tea. ‘She’s bit frail, poor thing. Seemed really shook up when that Cindy died.’

  ‘Well, it can’t be very nice knowing someone’s been found dead in your son’s garden,’ said Libby, taking her mug.

  ‘No, and she was already worried about him.’ Katie tutted. ‘I don’t know what the world’s coming to, I really don’t. Murders and skeletons. I’m not so sure I want to stay down here, meself, now.’

  ‘Oh, Katie, you can’t leave him,’ said Libby. ‘He really needs you.’

  Katie looked doubtful. ‘I dunno,’ she said. ‘He can get other staff if he needs them. I’m getting on a bit, after all. I should think about retiring. I’m not as strong as I was.’

  ‘But he relies on you,’ said Libby.

  ‘Hmm,’ said Katie, and sat down with her mug looking thoughtful.

  ‘I’m going to find Adam and Mog,’ said Libby after a moment. ‘Can I take my mug with me?’

  ‘Long as you bring it back,’ said Katie with a smile. ‘Those boys are always leaving them places.’

  ‘I’ll tell them off,’ said Libby and went out into the grounds.

  Adam and Mog weren’t far away. In fact, they were at the back of the house, very carefully loosening turf away from the wall.

  ‘What’s going on?’ said Libby.

  ‘Told you, didn’t we?’ said Adam. ‘Look!’

  And sure enough, a curved row of bricks was showing in the wall just above the ground.

  ‘That’s what Fran and I were looking for the other day,’ said Libby.

  ‘Where?’ asked Mog.

  ‘At the church and on the other side of the house. Near that little side door no one uses.’

  Mog looked dubious. ‘Newer part of the house,’ he said.

  ‘Well, you won’t be able to break in from here,’ said Libby, bending down to get a closer look. ‘Can you work out where it is on the garden plan?’

  ‘It doesn’t show the interior of the house, Ma,’ said Adam scornfully.

  ‘All right, all right,’ said Libby. ‘But I bet I know where it is.’ She straightened up and looked up at the building. ‘See that window? The tall one?’

  Mog and Adam looked up.

  ‘Yes,’ said Adam.

  ‘That’s over the staircase in the other part of the house. What’s the betting that there’s a staircase down as well?’

  Mog nodded slowly. ‘But how would you find it? It’s almost derelict in there isn’t it?’

  ‘There was loads of rubble at the foot of the staircase, yes,’ said Libby.

  ‘In which case, Mother, Cindy wouldn’t have been able to get down there, let alone you.’ Adam was triumphant. Libby gave him a look.

  ‘If we could get down there we could find out where tunnel came out. Where else the tunnel came out,’ she insisted.

  ‘We’ll have to tell Lewis,’ said Mog. ‘And it’s getting a bit late to do it today.’

  ‘OK. I’ll see if I can find him and have a quick chat,’ said Libby. ‘By the time I’ve done that you’ll be ready to leave, won’t you, Ad?’

  Adam and Mog agreed and returned to their self-imposed task, although Libby wasn’t quite sure why, if they weren’t going to be able to knock it through. Just boys’ curiosity, she supposed.

  She met Lewis on the drive waving off a car load of “telly people”.

  ‘Got a minute?’ she asked him.

  He looked nervous. ‘What for?’ he said.

  ‘Oh, Lewis, what’s the matter?’ Libby tucked her arm through his and turned him back towards the house. ‘Come on. It’s almost over, all this, and you’ve got your new series on the way, and the original garden designs. What’s the problem?’

  ‘You,’ said Lewis. ‘I’m beginning to get nervous about you. Something always seems to happen around you.’

  ‘That’s not true,’ said Libby, shocked. ‘And you asked me into it in the first place, after all.’

  ‘I know,’ sighed Lewis, ‘but that was before Tony was killed and I was worried.’

  ‘And you’re not worried now?’

  ‘’Course I bloody am. I don’t understand any of it. What did you want, anyway?’

  ‘Can Adam and Mog and I do a bit of excavating in the old part of the house tomorrow?’ Libby led the way into the kitchen
and put her mug on the table with a wink at Katie.

  ‘Excavating? What d’you mean?’

  ‘Where the old staircase is, you know? There’s a lot of rubble there. We thought there may be an entrance to the cellars of the tunnels there. Mog and Adam have found signs of an old window bricked up below ground level.’

  ‘Have they?’ Lewis’s expression brightened. ‘Where’s that then? Are they there now?’

  ‘Yes, or they were. They’ll be finished soon. Do you want to go and see?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Lewis grabbed her arm. ‘Come on, nuisance. You always get your way, don’t you?’

  Libby looked back at Katie and raised her eyebrows. Katie shook her head and picked up her magazine.

  Adam was carefully rolling the turf they’d removed while Mog watered it thoroughly. They showed Lewis the window and the indications that there were others along the same wall.

  ‘Do you think they are cellars?’ Lewis asked.

  ‘Sure of it. We’ll probably find stashes of brandy and baccy down there,’ said Libby with a grin.

  ‘What?’ Lewis looked puzzled.

  ‘Don’t take any notice of her,’ said Adam. ‘Can we look in the house tomorrow, Lewis?’

  ‘Yeah, I’ll come with you.’ He straightened up and gave Libby a squeeze. ‘Sorry I called you a nuisance.’

  ‘Why are you sorry?’ asked Adam. ‘She is!’

  ‘Come back to the house while they finish up,’ said Libby, ‘I’ve got something else to tell you. I think Fran will have told the police by now, but don’t mention it to anyone else.’

  Adam and Mog looked interested, but Libby pulled a puzzled Lewis away towards the house.

  ‘Now,’ she said. ‘You’re never going to believe this, but –’

  Chapter Thirty-four

  ‘I DIDN’T TELL THE police,’ Fran said on the phone. ‘I’ll talk it over with Frank first, I think. He seems to be the only one left who cares about Gerald, and he might not want him bothered.’

  ‘But we’ve got to tell the police! You said yourself it gives a motive for Tony’s murder.’

  ‘But you said it’s a pretty shaky one,’ said Fran.

  ‘I know, but it explains such a lot, doesn’t it? You’ll have to tell them.’

  ‘All right, all right. So what did they say up at the house?’

  ‘I only told Lewis. I didn’t think it was right to tell the others. But they’ve found windows to what could be cellars. We’re going exploring tomorrow. Want to come?’

  ‘I’d love to,’ said Fran wistfully, ‘but I really can’t. I’m picking up the dress tomorrow – yours as well, I might add – and doing all sorts of last-minute things. You’ll have to ring me later.’

  ‘OK. I’ll have the others there, so I won’t do anything stupid,’ said Libby crossing her fingers.

  The following morning Libby drove Adam to Creekmarsh in the Renault and left him to find Mog while she went in search of Lewis.

  ‘He had to pop out, lovey,’ said Katie, when Libby put her head round the kitchen door after looking in the solar. ‘Don’t know where he’s gone. Said he wouldn’t be long though.’

  ‘OK, thanks,’ said Libby, and wandered off to find Mog and Adam, who now seemed to have disappeared. They weren’t standing over the pile of turf near the uncovered window, nor were they at the parterre. Libby scowled and began to walk towards the ha-ha. But the view down to the little sailing club’s boathouse was clear – no one was down there either. Heaving an irritated sigh, she retraced her steps and went back into the house. This time even Katie wasn’t there, so, with a shrug, she went through to the uninhabited part of the house and came to the blocked staircase.

  She wandered round the hallway aimlessly for a while, then decided she might as well make a start and began moving the smaller of the pieces of fallen masonry that blocked the stairwell. After a few minutes, she stepped back wiping the back of her hand across her forehead. And heard a sound.

  It was little more than a rumble, a bowling ball thrown down a gulley. Then it stopped. Libby took another step backwards and, as if the movement had started an avalanche, the pile of masonry began to fall away.

  She stepped even further backwards and pressed her back against the wall as suddenly the whole staircase began to fall.

  She crouched down and covered her head with her arms, feeling the dust settle on her head and arms, terrified that the whole floor would give way. Eventually the noise stopped, and, after waiting a minute, Libby stood up.

  In front of her lay an open stairwell. The remains of the upper staircase hung melodramatically in the air.

  ‘Now this,’ she said out loud, ‘is where the stupid heroine goes down those stairs and meets the murderer. Only I’m not going to. Except…’

  She took a step nearer and managed to peer down into the hole. As far as she could see it was indeed a tunnel which led both ways away from the broken steps. She turned round and began to make her way shakily back to the kitchen, where she hoped Katie would offer her a restorative cup of tea before she set off once more to find Adam and Mog.

  But when she got to the kitchen Katie was still nowhere to be seen.

  ‘Bloody Marie Celeste,’ muttered Libby and went to Katie’s private door and knocked.

  There was no answer, but the door swung slightly open. Libby looked inside. No one was there.

  Feeling even more rattled and definitely worried, Libby went back outside and called. No one answered.

  ‘Phone,’ she said to herself and took out her mobile.

  ‘Ad?’ she said when he answered. ‘Where are you?’

  ‘Nethergate,’ he said. ‘Why, where are you?’

  ‘Nethergate? What are you doing there? I’m at Creekmarsh. You went off to find Mog and after that I couldn’t find you. I’ve just caused a landslide inside the house and I can’t even find Katie, now. What shall I do?’

  ‘A landslide? What are you talking about, Ma? Look we’ll be back when we’ve picked up this stuff. Katie gave Mog a message from Lewis when he arrived. Don’t know where Lewis has gone, but he wanted to look into the cellars with us, didn’t he?’

  ‘Yes, and I think I’ve found them,’ said Libby. ‘But I don’t want to go down there on my own. I’ll go back inside and make myself some tea.’

  However, after she’d rung off, she changed her mind. Fetching her torch from the glove compartment of the Renault, she set off down to the ha-ha and made her way to the opening of the tunnel where she’d found the document case.

  ‘This isn’t stupid,’ she told herself. ‘This tunnel is perfectly safe. The police have checked it out.’ She flashed the torch to the left and right and saw large well-rounded tunnel roofs that looked solid. ‘Towards the house,’ she said loudly, in case there was anyone around, and set off.

  The tunnel was much lighter than she had anticipated, running fairly straight, slightly uphill towards the house, the opening under the ha-ha still visible if she looked back. It wasn’t until she was a good way along that she realised there was also light coming from ahead.

  ‘Odd,’ she muttered. ‘The police said there was no opening at all this end.’ And her heart gave a leap.

  ‘The stairwell,’ she gasped, ‘it must be.’

  As she drew nearer she could see that it was the set of steps she had discovered only half an hour earlier. And that there was another door just beyond the steps. And it was open.

  Libby froze. Now what? What would she find beyond that door? Nothing, she thought, because she wasn’t going to look. She just wished she was back in the kitchen with Katie making her a cup of tea.

  Why hadn’t she stayed there? Katie wouldn’t have been long. Or even Edie. She must be around somewhere.

  She began to walk stealthily backwards, cursing herself for being a
fool. ‘I said don’t be a stupid heroine,’ she whispered to herself. ‘Now look what’s happened.’

  Not daring to turn her back on the open door, she continued to walk backwards until the opening under the ha-ha was only feet away, when she turned and ran. Out in the open, she made for the bench where she’d sat with Lewis, collapsed on to it and rang Adam again. Between panting breaths she told him what had happened.

  ‘OK, Ma, just stay put. We’re coming back right now,’ said Adam firmly. ‘Has Lewis turned up yet?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Libby, her stomach doing a rather nasty swoop. ‘Do I have to look?’

  ‘Have you tried ringing him?’

  ‘No, have you?’

  ‘Yes, we did, but his phone was off,’ said Adam, sounding rather more perturbed. ‘You just stay there, and we’ll be right over. Ten minutes tops.’

  ‘OK,’ said Libby and turned back to the house. She shivered involuntarily and wondered whether to go and risk making herself a cup of tea, or to go and sit in the car. The car won, partly because she was fairly convinced there was a rogue packet of cigarettes lurking in the door pocket.

  However, as she got to the drive she saw Katie waving from the house.

  ‘Where did you get to?’ she asked. ‘I thought something had happened to you. I heard this crashing noise and when I came down to look you’d gone. I thought you were underneath all that rubble.’ She put a hand to her chest and Libby saw how pale she was.

  ‘I’m sorry to worry you,’ she said. ‘I came looking for you, too. How did we miss each other?’

  Katie shook her head. ‘I’ve put the kettle on,’ she said. ‘Come and have a cuppa.’

  ‘I phoned the boys,’ said Libby, hovering by the door. ‘They’re coming right away. They said you gave them a message.’

  ‘Yes, Lewis wanted them to pick something up from Nethergate.’ Katie put out mugs.

  ‘Did you see him this morning?’ asked Libby.

  ‘No, he left me a note.’ Katie looked up, alarm in her face. ‘Why? Do you think something’s happened to him now?’

  Libby wasn’t sure what she thought, but she gave Katie a wobbly smile and said she was sure nothing had.