Hard Going

by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

  But what Slider saw most immediately was that Joanna was already tired and fraught and the last thing she needed was to start worrying about childcare this far ahead of the game.

  ‘We’ll sort something out,’ he said. ‘Don’t start worrying about it at this stage.’

  She looked at him sidelong. ‘Have you any idea what childcare costs these days? Even if there were childcare to cover our particular set of fractured circumstances. Neither of us works a nice tidy nine-to-five.’

  ‘We’ll work it out,’ he said firmly. ‘People do, all the time, all over the world. Even if it’s a juggling fest. It’s worth it, isn’t it?’

  There was a brief pause during which his blood ran cold. He was afraid she was going to say, we should never have had this baby. In the end what she said was not much better. ‘Worth it, even if it means I have to stop playing? Because that’s the bottom line, isn’t it? My career isn’t as important as yours.’

  ‘I’ve never said that.’

  ‘But that’s what it’ll come down to. I’ll have to give up playing and take a job that will fit round the childcare.’ She made a grimace. ‘Giving violin lessons in the sitting room.’

  He managed not to say that lives went through different phases or that lots of people enjoyed teaching and found it rewarding. ‘We’re a long way from that point yet,’ he said instead, ‘and we may never reach it. If Dad and Lydia do get together, they might both really like babysitting, have you considered that? Two for the price of one.’

  She shook her head at him. ‘Oh Bill! What is all this chirpy Dalai Lama optimism? “Everything’ll be all right, everything’ll be fine!”’

  ‘It will be. Trust me,’ he said. ‘Never trouble trouble, till trouble troubles you.’

  She began reluctantly to smile. ‘Jiminy Cricket, that’s what we should call you.’

  ‘No, that was conscience – a different sort of getting into trouble.’

  She put her mug aside and turned to him. ‘Well, why don’t we try that sort instead, just for a change? I’m already pregnant, you can’t make things worse. Enjoy the free ride while you can.’

  He put his own mug down and kissed her tenderly. ‘Nothing about this is trouble,’ he said, hand on her bump. The world he inhabited by day was a variously unpleasant and hostile place, and Joanna was his tranquil garden of refreshment. But she might not want to hear that just now, so he used his lips without words instead.

  Morning brought Bob Bailey, calling in himself with the fingerprints. This was not kindness or especially good service, more that he was running a campaign of trying to get into Connolly’s pants. He was recently separated and keen to get back in the saddle. He wasn’t a bad-looking bloke – though not as good-looking, according to the women in Slider’s firm, as he thought he was – and evidently reckoned he had a chance with Connolly, despite her undisguised hostility.

  Slider’s door was open and he heard the exchange from the CID room. Bailey’s opening gambit was straightforward. ‘Where’s the lovely Rita? Lovely Rita, meter maid,’ he warbled. ‘When are you going to give me that date?’

  Connolly managed to be quite robust without raising her voice. ‘Go out with you? What are you, headless? I wouldn’t date you if it was gold plated.’

  ‘Ah, come on. I’m not talking about a cheap date. I’m ready to spend money on you. Anywhere you like. You can name your place.’

  ‘And you can feck right off with yourself,’ Connolly returned firmly. She crossed Slider’s vision as she went out of the room.

  Bailey appeared in Slider’s doorway.

  ‘There are baboons with more subtle mating rituals,’ Slider said, glaring at him. ‘How many times does she have to say no?’

  Bailey was unabashed. ‘She’ll come round. Persistence pays.’

  ‘Not if you call her a meter maid. She’ll deck you, and I for one will cheer.’

  ‘I like a girl with spirit,’ he said with a mixture of lust and sentiment.

  ‘Well, I won’t have you harassing my staff.’

  ‘Asking a girl out isn’t harassing.’

  ‘It is in the workplace,’ Slider warned, and saw it sink in. Bailey was a civilian and not under his command, but employment law applied to him just the same.

  Bailey became brisk and professional. ‘Right, I’ve got the lifts for you. The place is very clean – that housekeeper does her job all right – so there aren’t as many marks as you might expect. A lot of marks and smudges up the staircase wall and the handrail. Marks on the desk that may be the victim’s. Recent marks in the kitchen look like a woman’s, so probably the housekeeper’s. And a lot of marks on the door of the Murder Room.’

  ‘Can we not call it that,’ Slider intervened in a pained voice.

  Bailey shrugged. ‘Whatever. Study, if you like. Like I said, madam housekeeper cleans and wipes, but nobody polishes up a door, do they? Now the doorknob’s been wiped clean, both sides, but on the edge of the door there’s quite a few marks, and about shoulder height there’s a fresh thumb and all four fingers which are over the top of anything else, making them the latest. Like this.’ He demonstrated the position on Slider’s office door.

  Slider got it. ‘He gripped the door to steady it while he wiped the doorknobs?’

  ‘In my humble opinion,’ said Bailey with an unhumble smirk.

  ‘So,’ said Slider, ‘if they were left by the murderer, he didn’t wear gloves, but having done the deed, tried to cover himself by wiping the weapon where he’d held it, and the door knobs. He managed to think that far, but not far enough.’

  ‘It’s a fair assumption,’ said Bailey.

  It wasn’t as much as that. Anyone could have gripped the door by the frame in the act of closing it, and the fact that there were no marks over the top of these didn’t give any evidence about when they had been made. But it was something. And if they came up with a match in records …

  ‘It’s a lead,’ Slider allowed. ‘Possibly.’

  Bailey shrugged at such parsimony. ‘I thought you’d be happy.’

  ‘I’m ecstatic,’ said Slider.

  Bailey trickled out, hoping for Connolly to come back. ‘Contents of the safe and the desk are on their way. And I’ve brought the diary and address book, and his wallet.’

  The phone rang. It was Cameron to say that he had nothing yet to add to yesterday’s conclusions. Death had been caused by the blows to the head: three of them, forceful and probably delivered rapidly given the small spread of the injuries – which by the way matched the superficies of the bronze statuette, so there seemed no doubt it was the murder weapon.

  While Cameron was talking to him, Slider saw, through his open door, Connolly come back in, and beckoned to her. She came in and waited until he finished the call, then said, ‘Did you want something, boss?’

  ‘Yes – is Bailey annoying you?’

  ‘No, boss. He’s just an eejit.’

  ‘I can give him a formal warning.’

  ‘God, no – no need. I can take care of it.’

  ‘I won’t have you harassed.’

  She grinned. ‘I know some fellers who wouldn’t be long putting manners on him for me, if need be. I’ve only to ask.’

  ‘Now I’m wondering whether he needs protection from you,’ Slider said.

  ‘Female of the species, sir,’ she said, and went perkily out, leaving Slider feeling better about her.

  Nicholls, the relief sergeant on duty downstairs, rang through. ‘Bill, there’s a bloke come in, says he’s a friend of your deceased. Says he was supposed to have seen him last night. Any use to you?’

  ‘Could be,’ Slider said. ‘Might be a chance to get a handle on the man, maybe even some leads. We don’t even know the next of kin yet.’

  ‘Shall I put him in an interview room?’

  ‘What’s he like?’

  ‘Like a 1950s BBC newsreader.’

  ‘Better not, then. Might fry his circuits. Can you have someone bring him up here?’


  ‘Will do.’

  FOUR

  Private Citizen

  The man who was escorted upstairs by a uniformed officer was one Reginald Plumptre. He spelled it for them carefully. ‘But it’s pronounced “plumter”. Most people try to make me a plum tree,’ he added with a shy whimsy.

  He was tall and thin, what Slider’s father would have described as ‘a long drink of water’. He appeared to be in his sixties, or perhaps older – it was harder to tell these days, when old people were so much more active. He was bald on top but had good thick linings all around at ear level, making it look as if he’d stuck his head in a bowling alley ball-polishing machine. He was wearing a conventional grey suit and a red tie, both of which seemed to have seen long service, but his cufflinks and watch looked quietly expensive and he spoke with an RP accent. Slider put him down as one of the army of office workers who had retired on good pensions before the bottom fell out.

  ‘I’m Detective Inspector Slider, and this is Detective Sergeant Atherton. How can I help you, Mr Plumptre? Won’t you sit down?’

  Plumptre hesitated, looking at Slider but not at him, his eyes absent with some suppressed agitation. ‘I have to ask you first,’ he said, ‘is it true? I saw something in the paper – I can’t believe – it seems too … Is Lionel really dead? Someone killed him?’

  ‘I’m afraid it’s true,’ Slider said. ‘Please sit down.’

  Plumptre’s legs took the initiative, and he collapsed into the chair. He put hand to his head as if steadying it. ‘I can’t believe it,’ he muttered shakily.

  ‘Would you like a glass of water, or a cup of tea, or something?’ Slider asked.

  Plumptre visibly pulled himself together, sitting up straighter, licking his lips, clasping his hands together across his front. One of the old school: he was here to do his duty and would jolly well do it. ‘No – thank you – no. I’m quite all right. It’s a shock, that’s all. You never expect something like that to happen to someone you know.’

  ‘You knew Mr Bygod well?’ Slider asked, to get him started.

  ‘He was my friend,’ Plumptre said. ‘A good friend and a very fine man. I can’t believe anyone would be so wicked as to harm him. I was supposed to be seeing him two nights ago, but even when there was no answer at the house, it never occurred to me …’

  ‘You went round to his flat in Shepherd’s Bush Road on Tuesday night? What time was that?’

  ‘It was just after ten to seven. I rang the bell and waited for him to answer, but he didn’t. That’s when I looked at my watch, to see if I was on time. I waited until seven exactly, in case he had been in the bathroom, perhaps, and rang again. When there was still no answer, I stepped back to the edge of the pavement and looked up, and saw there was no light in any of the windows. So I thought he must have forgotten, or gone out and been delayed, or had something urgent come up, so I went home. I telephoned later from home but there was no answer. I expected him to ring me the next day and apologize – he was punctilious about such things. But when I walked down to the corner shop yesterday afternoon to get some milk, I saw the item in the newspaper. I was so shocked, I had to go straight home and have a cup of tea and lie down. And then, in the middle of the night, I woke up wondering whether I ought to tell anyone that I’d been there. Not that there’s anything I can tell you, really, but I thought it might be useful to know that there was no answer to the doorbell at seven o’clock. A terminus ante quem, so to speak.’ He gave a faint, apologetic smile. ‘I am rather fond of golden age detective stories.’

  He stopped. Talking seemed to have steadied him, and he looked less shaky.

  ‘You did quite right to come in,’ Slider said. ‘What were you going to see Mr Bygod about?’

  ‘Oh, just a social meeting. He was going to cook supper – he enjoyed cooking – and then we planned to play a little piquet. We’re both keen card players. We used to play bridge together regularly until my wife died two years ago, and at about the same time his partner, who was quite an elderly person, went to live in Northampton with his son and daughter-in-law, so our little meetings lapsed.’

  ‘His partner?’ Slider queried.

  Plumptre gave him a questioning look. ‘Bridge partner,’ he elucidated. ‘It’s harder than you might think to find an agreeable person to play with, someone at the right level of skill who takes the game seriously enough but not too seriously. So we rather gave up bridge. Since then, when we meet, just the two of us, for cards, we play piquet, or sometimes bezique.’

  ‘How long have you known Mr Bygod?’

  ‘Oh, it must be ten or eleven years now.’ He looked to see if Slider wanted more, and seeing his receptive look, went on conversationally: ‘We first met at a Residents’ Association meeting. He’d just moved into the area. We got talking, and took a liking to each other. He said he wanted to busy himself with useful things now he’d retired, so I persuaded him to volunteer for the Home Visit Club – it’s a charity I’m involved with. You visit housebound people and read to them, or talk, or do little errands, whatever they want. He helped with the office work, too. And it went on from there. He got himself involved in local campaigns, and charity things. Various committees. We’re both collectors for the Royal British Legion. I suppose there isn’t much charitable or volunteer work around the area that he isn’t involved in. He’s that kind of man – a genuine pillar of the community.’

  In his enthusiasm he had slipped back into the present tense, and his face was relaxed and happy. He’d forgotten why he was talking about Bygod, here and now.

  ‘You haven’t mentioned a wife. Was he married?’

  ‘No – well, never since I’ve known him. I don’t know much about his life before that. He didn’t talk about himself, really. But he never mentioned a wife.’

  ‘What about family?’

  Plumptre shook his head. ‘I never knew he had any. He never mentioned anyone.’

  ‘So you can’t help us with who his next of kin might be?’

  ‘Oh dear, I’m afraid not.’ He put a hand to his cheek. ‘It hadn’t occurred to me – of course you would want to … but I really don’t know. I could ask some of our other friends if they know. Perhaps he might have mentioned someone at some time.’

  Slider digested this. Men were, in any case, deeply incurious about each other’s private lives, and probably the older you got the more entrenched the habit became. It might not even be remarkable that Plumptre didn’t know whether Bygod had ever had children.

  He moved on. ‘So was he already retired when you first met him?’

  ‘Yes – we had both retired early, which was another bond between us, I suppose. I worked in the salaries department at Beecham’s on the Great West Road. I was there before the SmithKline takeover, but when Glaxo took over the lot, I was eased out, so I took an early pension.’

  ‘And what did Mr Bygod do before he retired?’

  ‘I believe he was a solicitor. I don’t know why he retired early – as I said, he didn’t really talk about himself. Perhaps he’d just had enough. He seemed very happy with his life the way it was.’

  ‘You knew about his habit of giving advice to people who came in off the street?’

  ‘It wasn’t quite like that,’ Plumptre said. ‘They were people he’d met elsewhere, or who were introduced by other people he knew. Word got round, of course, but he didn’t let complete strangers in.’

  ‘What sort of advice?’

  ‘Legal and practical – how to deal with the local council, what your rights were in disputes, faulty goods, that sort of thing. Who to go to and where to find information – rather like the Citizen’s Advice Bureau. Not lonely hearts stuff,’ he added, permitting himself a small smile. ‘He wasn’t an agony aunt.’

  ‘Talking of lonely hearts,’ Slider said, ‘did he have any women friends?’

  ‘Oh, there are women in our group all right – of course there are. But if you mean in the romantic sense – I don’t think so. I never saw him with a
nyone.’

  ‘Your group?’ Slider queried.

  ‘Of friends,’ Plumptre said with a clear look. ‘We’re on committees together and meet for drinks and meals and go out sometimes. It’s a very nice circle. Of course, we’ve all known each other for years. Everyone was so kind and supportive when my wife died.’

  Slider was feeling his way towards an idea he couldn’t yet see. ‘Have you met any of Mr Bygod’s friends from outside that circle? Maybe people he knew before you met him?’

  Plumptre considered, and a little frown pulled down his brows. ‘Well – no. Now you come to mention it. He does like to entertain, and he gives wonderful parties, but whenever we go to his house, it’s all the same people – my friends, and friends of theirs. Someone from before?’ He pondered again, apparently fruitlessly, for he concluded, ‘I think he said that he lived in Islington.’

  Islington. Famous place, squire, Slider thought. London was not one place but a series of villages, and Islington was a long way, at least in spirit, from Hammersmith.

  ‘Of course,’ Plumptre said, with an air of being satisfied by the conclusion, ‘he might have seen his old friends separately. No reason we should know everything he did.’

  ‘Of course,’ Slider agreed. And it was true – he wouldn’t be the only person to have separate circles of friends which didn’t intersect. He might even have gone back to Islington to see his Islington friends. But it was, at the lowest reckoning, odd that there should have been no mingling of the groups, if groups there were, at social gatherings he initiated. When you asked people to your house for a party, would you segregate so rigidly?

  He wasn’t sure where the thought was leading, so he left it to mash at the back of the stove, and asked, ‘The people that he gave advice to: were there any – how should I put it – suspicious characters among them? People you felt he should be wary of? Criminals out on bail, or ex-convicts on parole?’