Strangled in the Sauna

by Oliver, Marina

  'At least there's been no murder for her to gloat over. Can you imagine it, having her dogging my footsteps asking if I'd found any clues?'

  'Or bringing you scraps of paper she'd scavenged from some waste paper basket and thought a significant clue?'

  'Or hairs from inside a sauna, which she wanted me to match up with all the ones left on pillows?'

  They giggled. 'Oh well, I'll have to suffer it,' Dodie said. 'But I wonder if she knows you have been with me a couple of times?'

  'I shall deny it, say Phyllis was confused. So what have you found? I have no more sensible ideas.'

  Dodie spread out some sheets of paper. 'These are the lists Sheila made for me. They help to some extent, they eliminate a few people for the theft of the ring, but what if there are two of them?'

  Elena groaned. 'How? It gets more complicated.'

  'We know Tansy's ring had to be taken during just one hour while she was swimming. All the therapists and beauticians had appointments during that time, and Sheila is positive the clients all attended. They, the therapists, keep a list each day with their appointments, and if anyone doesn't turn up they cross off the names. The lists are put in the office at the end of the day. Everyone was present.'

  'So that eliminates the five therapists and beauticians?'

  'For the ring, yes. But the other jewels could have been taken at any time during the whole day. I'm assuming Phillipa's brooch was stolen, as she said, the day before she reported it.'

  'And if there are two working together, the therapists could be involved. That makes it far more difficult.'

  'And one of them might be someone who goes to the guest rooms only occasionally.'

  Elena nodded. 'What else do you have?'

  'Sheila was very thorough with her lists. Felicity works here Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. She didn't change her days during the weeks of the thefts. The ring was stolen on Wednesday, the necklace on Monday, and the brooch on Friday.'

  'Oh dear. That puts her in the frame. What about the maids?'

  'Rosie and Mandy have their days off on Saturday and Sunday, when the other four do their rooms as well as their own.'

  'So they were working on the top floor each day of the thefts.'

  'They do the same for the other floor maids, on their days off.'

  'But it seems the others are in the clear?'

  'Unless they had any reason to go into the upper floor.'

  'Did anyone else go there?'

  'Brian did, the day the ring was stolen. He's the only one I can be sure of. There was a problem with one of the showers, no hot water getting through, I think, and he went up to see to it that afternoon. He does a lot of the odd jobs. It was in the room next to Tansy's. A connecting room, like ours were.'

  'With a simple lock like the one we had, I suppose. Were the maids still on duty?'

  Dodie frowned. 'The maids, yes, turning down beds and so on. Sheila says the connecting doors are always locked unless the rooms are being used by friends or a married couple, and they ask for them to be open.'

  'Was Brian on his own? Apart from the maids in and out of other rooms?'

  'Not all the time. Mrs Jones was there at times, because apparently she wanted to leave early to visit a friend who is in hospital and was trying to make him hurry. But Brian insisted on checking all the other showers on that floor in case the problem was wider than he'd been told. A couple of the rooms were empty that week, too, so no one could have reported a faulty shower from them.'

  'Was she with him all the time, in these other rooms?'

  'Sheila thinks she would have been, at least in the ones that were occupied, but unless we ask her, and that means saying why, we can't be certain.'

  Elena sighed. 'It's hopeless. We can't eliminate anyone for all three thefts, and if there are two thieves, it adds to the difficulty.'

  'There is just one other possibility, but I think it's unlikely.'

  'What?'

  'Tansy might, unknowingly, have dropped her ring and it's still hidden in the room, rolled under something.'

  Elena thought about this, imagining possible circumstances. 'The ring was in the safe. Could it have rolled out when she opened the safe? It could have fallen to the floor of the closet and perhaps caught up in something without her noticing? Is that what you mean?'

  'Only as a remote possibility. She did seem to take great care of it. And it doesn't explain the other thefts.'

  'And it's likely another guest using that room, or one of the maids, would have found it.'

  'We assume they'd have reported it.'

  'True, But surely most people are honest? We can eliminate the gardeners, I suppose. That's a start.'

  'Well, not really. They couldn't get into the rooms, it's true. It's not as though they were on the ground floor and had windows someone could climb through.'

  'I don't believe this!' Elena groaned. 'How do they come into it?'

  'Rosie is engaged to one of the gardeners. They'll live in his flat above the old stables, but they might want to buy a house. The cash from selling the jewels could come in very handy.'

  'A sudden unexpected legacy from an old aunt? Yes. They could have a motive. And if she is stealing the jewels, he'd have to know. I suppose we can eliminate the kitchen staff and the contract cleaners? Terry and Darren too?'

  'I'd like to include Terry! Do you know what he said that shower gel cost?'

  *

  'Let's concentrate on the keys,' Dodie said. 'Anyone could take a photo of the safe master key in the office, and could have had a duplicate made. It could have been done weeks before the thefts.'

  'And we can't be sure there haven't been other thefts no one reported.'

  'I hope not! A duplicate of the room master key would be easier to make, it's a simpler key, but if the maids hand in the keys they use after they have done the rooms, I can't see how they kept one long enough to get a duplicate.'

  'I suppose they hand them in after they have cleaned the rooms in the morning, and take them out again when it's time for turning down the beds in the evening? They don't keep them all day?'

  'No, I checked that with Sheila. She is confident Mrs Jones keeps good track of those master keys.'

  'I wonder? They could have been photographed too. Or, these are simple locks to the rooms, perhaps a set of skeleton keys might be used?'

  'It's looking more and more like a professional job, not opportunistic thefts. How easy would it be to get hold of a skeleton set?'

  'I could ask Jamie. I've been thinking I ought to phone him and let him know how we are getting on, but my mobile is being temperamental.'

  'Or not.' Dodie suddenly grinned. 'It would be dangerous to use the switchboard here in case the wrong person overheard, so why don't we go and have lunch at the local pub tomorrow?'

  'And you can avoid the persistent Hazel?'

  'There is that, too!'

  'Are you booked in for sessions tomorrow morning?'

  'A gentle reflexology with Jenny, then a pedicure with Fiona. I'll be finished before twelve.'

  'Will you have spoken to all the therapists?'

  'Not Natalie yet. I have to work up towards a massage, and no way can I attempt yoga. But you have seen her. And this is a partnership.'

  Elena laughed. 'Coward. I'm swimming in the morning, then having my hair done after coffee.'

  'To phone Jamie?'

  'To talk to Susie! Now go to bed, Mama.'

  'Not yet. We are getting nowhere, so I mean to go to London tomorrow and talk to Phillipa and Lady Carter. One of them might give us another lead. When you speak to Jamie can you ask him to make sure they are available and willing to talk to me? If they are not in London there'll be no point in my going.'

  'Of course.'

  'I'll order a car to pick me up in the village, after lunch at the pub, and take me to the main line. There are plenty of fast trains to London from Middlesborough. Back to the fleshpots, if only for one night!'

  *

/>   Dodie grinned and went to her own room, but not to sleep. She had enough information now, she thought, to be able to make lists setting out the order of probability for the thieves getting into the rooms. She would consider who else might be involved when she'd done that and had her prime suspects.

  The contract cleaners and the gardeners, the kitchen staff, Terry and Darren, would have little or no opportunities of getting into a bedroom, even less into three on separate occasions. She could virtually clear them, at least of the actual thefts.

  The therapists had to be omitted for the theft of the ring, as they had been busy, but not for the other jewels. That implied a therapist and someone else working together, both able to get into the rooms at the various times.

  Felicity had been working on each of the three days of the thefts, so must be considered a possibility. If, as she had claimed, her husband was a computer expert and did a lot of DIY, it was feasible he might have made the duplicate keys.

  Frank and Brian might have had cause to go to the rooms, so might the waitresses. They must all be included, probably on the same or a slightly lower level as Felicity.

  That left Mrs Jones and the maids, always the most likely culprits. The thefts had all been from the upper floor, where Rosie and Mandy had been working on the days of each theft. It was possible one of the other maids could have gone up to that floor on some excuse, but they only worked there on Saturdays and Sundays. On the whole these three had the most opportunities and were the most probable. They could have been working alone, if they were able to make a duplicate of the safe master key, but somehow Dodie didn't think that likely.

  So who might be the accomplice? Rosie's fiancé Sam was the obvious one in her case, but for Mandy and Mrs Jones it was most likely someone outside, someone she had not met and was unlikely to.

  Now, Dodie sat back and chewed the end of her pencil, what motivations could they have, apart from general greed? Rosie was getting married, probably in more need of cash than the others, but she couldn't be sure of that. Mandy lived out, but Dodie did not know what were her home circumstances were, except, she suddenly remembered, her father had recently died. And Mrs Jones had a friend in hospital. Did she want to buy this friend some private treatment?

  Dodie slowly prepared for bed. She had more questions to ask. She carefully stowed her lists inside her handbag, in the side pocket that was so hard to see unless the other contents of the bag were turned out. Perhaps sleep would bring enlightenment.

  *

  CHAPTER 5

  The village, a mile inland and lying in a shallow valley, consisted of one straggling main street and several small groups of houses behind. There were two inns, one, The Black Bull, a prettified stone structure, long and low, with a board outside advertising today's menu, the other, less than a hundred yards away, a nineteenth century brick edifice implausibly named The Cottage Inn, that looked, Dodie said, like some Masonic hall. There were half a dozen small shops, a building society, a filling station at one end of the street, and an eclectic mix of houses, from squat thatched cottages to square Georgian mansions adorned with pedimented entrances. Many of the latter had highly polished brass plaques advertising, no doubt, professional services.

  The houses behind, straggling up the far side of the valley, were all more modern, a group of executive style four and five-bedroom, mock Georgian detached houses, an estate of small semi-detached houses which were considerably older, and another cul-de-sac of small bungalows, with what looked like a row of tiny warden-controlled houses at the far end.

  'A well-provided village,' Elena commented. 'We have fewer shops back at home.'

  'But you have big towns nearby. The nearest big town to here must be quite a distance. Let's see what the Bull can give us.'

  Inside several small rooms connected by archways led out from one another. The pub was well patronised, both by men standing round the amply-stocked bar at one end, and diners at several of the tables. A young girl looked across and smiled as they entered.

  'Are you for lunch?' she asked.

  'Yes please, but first a double gin and tonic for me, and for you, Elena?'

  'A large glass of house white, please.'

  The girl nodded, led them to a table beside one of the windows, and handed menus, on single sheets of paper decorated to look like parchment scrolls, and clearly printed off that day.

  'I'll get your drinks.'

  'Is there a public phone?' Elena asked. 'I need to make a call and my mobile is on the blink.'

  'Reception's not so good sometimes around here. Yes, the phone is at the other end, by the rest rooms. I can get you change if you need it.'

  They consulted the menus, and looked around them.

  'Isn't that Terry?' Elena asked, nodding towards the group of men round the bar. 'So this is where he spends his lunch times.'

  'Perhaps we should wait until he leaves before you phone.'

  'Will do. I wonder who that is he's talking to? He doesn't look like a local. Too smartly dressed. And he has a big briefcase down by his feet. He's got it between his legs, must be precious.'

  'Good clothes, too good for a door-to-door salesman,' Dodie said. 'You're right, he can't be a villager. Is he just a casual passer-by? Oh, now they've moved along the bar, out of earshot of the others. Terry looks to be trying to sell him something. Interesting.'

  'Probably owns that big Mercedes outside. Not one of the solicitors or bankers, I think. They would dress more casually, surely, country tweeds, not an expensive suit.'

  'But he and Terry seem to be on good terms. I'm sure they know one another. It's not casual pub chat. Oh, how I wish I could lipread! Terry is carefully not looking our way, but the other fellow keeps glancing at us.'

  The waitress came back at that moment and they ordered. Dodie, saying she needed to make up for her recent healthy meals, ordered fish and chips.

  'The fish should be fresh,' she said, 'being so close to the sea!'

  'Bought at the quay this morning,' the waitress said. 'And for you, Madam?'

  'I'll have fish too, sole meuniere please. And a bottle of number 5.'

  As they waited they surreptitiously watched Terry and the smartly dressed man. He was in his forties, Dodie judged, with abundant dark brown hair and a thin moustache, and he kept glancing round whenever someone came into the bar. When anyone went past them to the rest rooms he stopped talking, and once, when Terry was speaking, he hushed him with an abrupt wave of his hand.

  'Curiouser and curiouser,' Dodie said. 'I wonder if there is anyone else from The Crags here?'

  'None we'd recognise. Maybe they come in the evenings? There may be one of the gardeners, I suppose. I haven't seen them.'

  'I must try and meet them, even if we don't think they can be involved in the thefts.'

  'Not directly, anyway, but if Rosie is guilty her fiancé could be.'

  'There are two, I believe. Sam, who is engaged to Rosie, has a flat above the old stables, and the other one is called, I think, Walter. I am sure Sheila said Walter lives in the village.'

  Their meals came, and soon afterwards the smart man, with a final steady look in their direction, left. Terry moved back along the bar and began to talk to a couple who looked like farmers.

  'Everything OK?' the waitress asked as she came to top up their glasses.

  Dodie grinned at her. 'More substantial than at The Crags. Do you get many of the guests from there? Sneaking down for a drink and some real food?'

  She laughed. 'Not many. We get more of the staff.'

  'Yes, I recognise Terry. I hope he doesn't give us away. Was the chap he was talking to a regular, or just a passer-by?'

  'I'm not sure. I've seen him before, and I think he stayed at The Crags once, but I don't know who he is. He has a London accent. Oh, not Cockney, what do they call it, Estuary? He must have recognised Terry.'

  Soon afterwards Terry, not by a single glance indicating he recognised Dodie and Elena, left the bar, and Elena went to make her p
hone call.

  *

  'Jamie will speak to Phillipa and Lady Carter. Give him a ring when you get to London. He also says it's dead easy to get a set of skeleton keys,' Elena reported as she came back to the table. 'Put out the word in some dubious back street pub in Leeds or Middlesborough, flash a few fifties, and go back the next night. You'll have a choice.'

  'That sounds more like a man's work than a woman's. It begins to look like a pair of crooks, but do both of them belong to The Crags or is one of them some outsider we have little chance of identifying?'

  'Who do we have? I'm inclined to discount Darren. He's not the sort to go looking for fellow crooks in sleazy pubs. Terry, I'd think, is the most likely, but who could he be working with? One of the maids?'

  'If we want a man to do business in pubs, apart from him we have Frank, Brian and the gardeners.'

  'Don't forget the chef.'

  Dodie groaned. 'It gets more complicated every day.'

  'What we want is another theft. I wonder if there have been small items stolen, that the owners didn't think worth making a fuss over? They might feel guilty if they left things out in full view, and blame themselves, or might feel embarrassed complaining to Sheila, accusing one of her staff, especially if they were regular guests.'

  'It's a thought. But I am too full for solving mysteries, I won't be doing anything other than sleeping on the train this afternoon.'

  'Too many chips! Shame on you, Ma, you'll have put back whatever weight you've lost.'

  'More!' Dodie said, and laughed. 'But it was worth it. Those chips were some of the best I've ever had. I'm tempted to come here – '

  'Then you'll have to walk,' Elena cut in, laughing. 'I won't encourage you.'

  'Not even in the course of detection? You let me drive your car.'

  'Some of the maids have bicycles,' Elena said. 'I'm sure they'd be willing to lend you one.'

  'Do you want to give your poor old mother a heart attack? The very thought sends my blood pressure rocketing.'

  'Now you are sounding like Gran!'

  'Heaven forbid! That was unkind. OK, I'll beg and provide a cast-iron excuse, and a written promise to have no more than a single G and T.'