She introduced herself and mentioned that she was Laura Thyme’s friend. “Laura had the unpleasant job of driving poor Mr Boon to hospital on Christmas Eve. You met her earlier, of course.”
“That’s correct,” he said. “And now she’s been picked up by the police, I hear.”
“Word travels fast,” Rosemary said.
“Fields have eyes, and woods have ears, as the saying goes.” He got down from his ladder. “But all of us can see a police car with the light flashing. What do you want to ask me?”
“It’s about the man who died, Douglas Boon. Could anyone have predicted that he’d take one of the mince pies my friend offered round?”
He shrugged. “Doug liked his food. Everyone knew that. I’ve rarely seen him let a plate of pies go by.”
“So he had one at every house that evening?”
“Every one except Miss Appleton’s.”
“Gertrude’s? Was there a reason for that?”
A slow smile. “Have you met the lady?”
“No.”
“Have you sampled her cooking?”
“No.”
“If you had, you’d understand.” He closed the pruning shears in a way that punctuated the remark.
She said, “I thought you all exchanged pies with her.”
“We do, but we don’t have to eat them. My wife always makes a batch and I prefer hers any day.”
Rosemary ventured into even more uncertain territory. “Did Douglas have any enemies around here?”
He mused on that for a moment. “None that I heard of.”
“His dairy farm was the last in the village, I heard. What will happen to it now?”
“Kitty isn’t capable of running it alone. Likely it’ll be bought for peanuts by Ben Black and turned into another nursery. That’s the trend.”
“Sad to see the old farms disappearing,” Rosemary said. “It happened to yours, I was told.”
“Bad management on my part,” Colin said without hesitation. “I’ve no one to blame but myself. Doug acquired the herd and my three fields.”
“Would you buy them back if they came on the market?”
“I’m in no position to. Ben is the only winner here.”
She asked where Ben was to be found.
“This time of day? I wouldn’t know. Last I saw of him was yesterday morning.”
She decided instead to call on the village Lucretia Borgia.
The cottage could have done with some new thatching, but otherwise it looked well maintained. Gertrude Appleton must have seen Rosemary coming because the door opened before she reached it.
Tall, certainly. She had to dip her head to look out of her door.
And she was holding a meat cleaver.
“What brings you here?” she asked Rosemary. The eyes fitted Laura’s description of them as about as sympathetic as wet pebbles.
“I’m staying next door.”
“You think I don’t know that? What do you want?”
A little Christmas cheer wouldn’t come amiss, Rosemary thought. “My friend Laura has been taken to the police station for questioning about the death of Mr Boon.”
“So?”
“So she can’t keep her promise to bring you a mince pie. We had some left, but the police have seized them.”
Those cheerless eyes widened a little. “She baked me a pie?”
Rosemary sidestepped that one. “She was saying it mattered to you, something about good luck for next year.”
Gertrude’s face lightened up and she lowered the cleaver to her side. “Did she really?”
“She said you generously made her a present of some pies of your own, and advised her that the carol singers were coming round.”
Abruptly, the whole look reverted to deep hostility. “Was it one of my pies she fed to Douglas Boon?”
“I believe it was.”
“And now They’re saying he was poisoned? Are you accusing me?” Suddenly the cleaver was in front of her chest again.
Rosemary swayed out of range. “Absolutely not.”
“You said the police seized some pies. Were any of mine among them?”
“Actually, yes.”
Gertrude took in a sharp breath. “I’ve made pies for twenty years and more, and never a word of complaint.”
“So we’ve got to find out how some taxin – that’s from a yew bush or a tree, the seeds, the foliage or the stems – found its way into that pie, which apparently killed him.”
“One of mine? How could it?”
“Can you remember making the mincemeat? Did anyone come by while you were mixing the fruit?”
“Not a living soul.”
“Could anyone have interfered with it since?”
“Impossible. This isn’t open house to strangers, you know. No one crosses my threshold.”
That much Rosemary was willing to believe. “You don’t have a yew bush in your garden, I suppose?”
“I wouldn’t. It’s the tree of death. It kills horses, cattle, more animals than any other plant.”
“Yes, but this was deliberate. Human deaths from taxin are rare. Someone added seeds of yew, or some part of it, to the mincemeat Douglas Boon consumed on Christmas Eve. Don’t you see, Gertrude? We’ve got to discover how this happened. I’m certain Laura is innocent.”
“They’ll pin this on me,” she said. “That’s what they’ll do, and everyone in the village will say the old witch deserves it.”
“Will you do something for Laura’s sake? For your own sake?” Rosemary said. “Will you think about everything connected with the making of the mincemeat? The chopping of the fruit, the source of all the ingredients, sultanas, currants, raisins, peel, nuts – whatever went into it. Go over it in your mind. Did anyone else contribute anything?”
“No.”
“Please take time to think it over.”
Gertrude sniffed, stepped back and closed the door.
Late that afternoon, Wilbur’s barking brought Rosemary to the front door before Laura emerged from the police car that returned her to The Withers.
“What a relief,” Rosemary said. “Have they finished with you?”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” Laura said as she scratched behind Wilbur’s ears. He’d given her a delightful, if slobbery, welcome.
Over a fortifying cup of tea, she told her tale. She had been interviewed three times and kept in a room that wasn’t quite a cell, but felt like one. She’d told the detectives everything she knew and provided a written statement. “I’m sure they would have charged me with murder if it wasn’t for Gertrude’s pies. They had them analysed and got the results back this afternoon.”
“Poisoned?”
“No.” Laura smiled. “They were harmless, all of them.”
Rosemary pressed her fingers to her lips. “I find that hard to believe.”
“So did the inspector. You should have seen his face when he told me I was free to leave.”
“That’s amazing. Gertrude is innocent.”
“And so am I.” Laura glanced across the room. “What’s he eating? Wilbur, what have you got in your mouth? No, Wilbur, no!” She dashed across and forced open the dog’s jaws. A small piece of mincemeat fell into her palm. “Rosemary, look. There are crumbs on the carpet. I think he’s had a mince pie.”
Rosemary was already at her side fingering the pastry crumbs. “It can’t have come from inside the house. The police spent over an hour searching the place.”
“The garden, then,” Laura said. “He must have found it in the garden.”
They went to the front door. “Let him show us,” Rosemary said. “Find it, Wilbur. Good dog.”
Wilbur knew what was wanted. He went straight to a lavender bush and lifted it with his nose. A brownish conical thing was exposed.
“A death cap,” Rosemary said.
“Do you mind?” Laura said. “That’s pastry. That’s one of my lids.” She picked it up and turned it over. “How on earth did this get here?”
The question hung in the air unanswered. Wilbur’s co-operation could only go so far.
“Should we get him to a vet?” Laura said.
“Let’s give him water first.”
Rosemary filled his bowl and brought it to him. He lapped it obediently.
“He doesn’t seem to be suffering,” Laura said. “The onset was rapid with Douglas Boon.”
“Taxin is one of the quickest of all the plant poisons,” Rosemary said. “I doubt if we’d get him to a vet in time.”
“He looks all right.”
Wilbur licked her hand and wagged his tail.
“I think he wants some more.”
An hour later, he was still all right.
Rosemary and Laura allowed themselves the luxury of fresh tea. They didn’t get to drink it because Wilbur unexpectedly barked several times and ran to the door. Someone was outside holding a flashlight.
Laura looked out. The evening had drawn in and she had difficulty seeing who it was.
The voice was familiar. “You’d better call the police,” Gertrude Appleton said. “I’ve gone and killed another man.”
“This can’t be true,” Laura said. “You’re in the clear. Your pies were analysed today and there’s nothing toxic in them.”
With a stare like the condemned woman in a silent movie, Gertrude said, “Follow me,” and started towards the gate.
Laura looked at Rosemary. They’d been in dangerous situations before. Rosemary shrugged. At least Gertrude wasn’t wielding that cleaver. They went after her.
She paused at her garden gate and turned the flashlight beam on Rosemary and Laura to check that they were behind her. Then she led them to her greenhouse and unlocked the door.
The place would have been creepy even in daylight, with a huge overhanging vine that still had some of its leaves, brown and contorted. Other skeletal plants in pots had been brought in for the winter. Gertrude edged around a raised flowerbed in the centre and directed the flashlight at a dark shape on the floor.
A man’s body.
“I killed him,” Gertrude said with a stricken sigh. “I never looked here when I smoked out the pests on Christmas Eve. I just put down the stuff and set light to it.”
“He is dead, I suppose?” Laura said.
Rosemary leaned over for a closer look. “Well dead, I would say.”
Gertrude was still reliving the experience. “I made sure it was smouldering and got out, locking the door behind me. Opened it an hour ago and found him. I can only suppose he was drunk and crept in here to sleep it off.” She paused. “Will I go to prison?”
“Let me have the flashlight,” Laura said. She edged past Gertrude for a closer inspection. “I can’t say I know him intimately, but isn’t this one of the carol singers, the tall one, Balthazar?”
“Ben Black? It is!” Gertrude said in despair. “God forgive me. What have I done?”
“Unless I’ve got my facts muddled, you haven’t done anything at all,” Laura said. “You fumigated on Christmas Eve after visiting me, am I right?”
Gertrude nodded.
“That was in the afternoon? You locked the door and didn’t open up until today? You left the key in the lock?”
Another nod from Gertrude.
“Think about it,” Laura said. “Ben was alive and singing carols that same evening. He couldn’t have been trapped in here. See, there’s dried blood on the back of his scalp. It looks as if someone hit him over the head and dumped the body in here. Yes, we will call the police, but I don’t think you’re in any trouble.”
Over cocoa that night, with the dog asleep in front of a real log fire, Rosemary summed up the case. “What we have are two impossible crimes. One man poisoned by a harmless mince pie and another bludgeoned to death in a locked greenhouse.”
“The second crime isn’t impossible,” Laura said. “The key was in the door. Obviously the killer could get in and out. They put the body in there and locked it again thinking it might not be found for some time.”
“They?”
“Could be a man or a woman. That’s all I mean.”
“Then are we agreed that there’s only one killer?” Rosemary said.
“Let’s hope so.”
“So why was Ben Black bumped off?”
“Because he knew something about the first crime?”
“Very likely. And why did the first crime take place?”
“The death of Douglas Boon? It could have been a mistake,” Laura said. “Maybe he ate a poisoned pie intended for Ben Black.”
“I don’t think so,” Rosemary said. “Remember, Douglas was a gannet. He was guaranteed to take any pie that was offered except one of Gertrude’s.”
“Hers were on the heavy side,” Laura recalled.
“So if we assume Douglas’s death was planned and carried out in cold blood, what did Ben find out that meant he had to be murdered as well?”
“It’s got to be something to do with the mince pie Wilbur found under the lavender bush,” Laura said.
“Another harmless pie?”
They were silent for some time, staring into the flames. “Do you think that young vicar is all he seems?” Rosemary said.
Laura frowned. “I rather like him.”
“A bad sign usually,” Rosemary said. “Let’s go and see him tomorrow.”
“Won’t the police say we’re interfering?”
“They’re going to be ages getting to the truth, if they ever do. For them, it’s all about analysing DNA evidence, and we know how long that takes. A good old-fashioned face-to-face gets a quicker result.”
Overnight it snowed and they both slept late.
“It’s the total silence, I think,” Laura said. “I always get a marvellous sleep when there’s a snowfall.”
“Whatever it is,” Rosemary said, “I’ve had a few ideas about these deaths and I’d like to try them out on you.”
After breakfast they put on wellies and took Wilbur for his longest walk yet. He was more frisky than ever, bounding through the snow regardless of that mince pie the day before. People might spurn Gertrude’s cooking, but this hound had thrived on it. Along the way, they kept a look out for yew trees, and counted five in and around the village, and three yew hedges. Over a pre-lunch drink in a quiet corner of the pub, Rosemary unfolded her theory to Laura and it made perfect sense. They knew from experience that theories are all very well, but the proof can be more elusive. They decided to go looking for it late in the afternoon.
“Are we clear about what each of us does?” Rosemary said. “All too clear,” Laura said. “You get the inside job while I wait out here with Wilbur and freeze.”
“He’ll be fine. He loves the snow and he’s got his coat on. Just stroll around as if you’re exercising him.”
They had parked outside the village church.
Rosemary went in and found the vicar slotting hymn numbers into the frame above the pulpit.
“Busy, I see.”
He almost dropped the numbers. “You startled me. I have a choir practice shortly.”
“I know. We had a walk this morning, and I saw the church notice board.”
“We meet earlier when the schools are on holiday.”
“A smaller choir now.”
“Sadly, yes. Plenty of trebles and altos, but only one tenor remaining. I’m going to miss Ben and Douglas dreadfully.”
“Would you mind if I stay and listen?”
He looked uneasy. “I don’t know what sort of voice they’ll be in after Christmas. There’s always a feeling of anticlimax.”
“If it’s inconvenient, vicar, I’ll go.” She watched this challenge him. He was supposed to welcome visitors to his church.
After a moment, he said, “Stay, by all means. But I must go and turn up the heating. I don’t insist they wear vestments for practice, but I don’t like to see them in coats and scarves.”
“Of course.”
Little boys started arriving, standing around the vest
ry on the north side, chattering about their Christmas presents. The choirstalls gradually filled. Two women choristers appeared from the vestry and so did Colin Price. He recognised Rosemary and smiled.
The practice was due at four. Some were looking at their watches. It was already ten past. The organist played a few bars and stopped. Everyone was in place except the vicar.
There was a certain amount of coughing. Then, unexpectedly, raised voices from the direction of the vestry. The vicar was saying, “Outrageous. I can’t believe you would be so brazen.”
A female voice said, “I’ll be as brazen as I like. I’ve got what I came for and now it’s up to the police.” It was Laura.
“We’ll see about that,” the vicar said.
“Get your hands off me,” Laura said.
Rosemary got up from the pew where she was sitting and walked quickly around the pulpit to the vestry. The door was open. Inside, the vicar was grappling with Laura, pressing her against the hanging coats and scarves.
Rosemary snatched up a brass candlestick and raised it high.
Over the vicar’s shoulder Laura said, “No, Rosemary!”
Distracted, the vicar turned his head and Laura seized her chance and shoved him away. He fell into a stack of kneelers.
He shouted to Rosemary, “Don’t help her. She’s a thief. I caught her going through people’s clothes.”
Laura said, “You were right, Rosemary. There were pastry crumbs in his pocket. Oh, get out of my way, vicar. I’m going to make a citizen’s arrest.”
She dodged past him and ran into the main part of the church in time to see a small figure making an exit through the west door.
Rosemary, some yards behind her, called out, “Laura, that man is dangerous.”
“So am I when roused,” Laura said.
She dashed up the aisle and out of the church to the car park. There, the runaway, Colin Price, was standing by his pick-up truck. But he’d shied away from the door because a dog was baring its teeth in the driver’s seat.
“Wilbur, you’re a hero,” Laura said when she’d recovered enough breath. Before going in to search the vestry, she’d noticed the door of the pickup was unlocked, so she’d installed Wilbur in the cab as a back-up.
Colin wasn’t going to risk opening that door and he knew he wouldn’t get far through the snow on foot. He raised both hands in an act of surrender.
Murder on the Short List Page 21