‘In a second.’ He drew his hand over his face. ‘They were in the kitchen. The fire started in the workroom.’ He seemed to be picking his words carefully and painfully. ‘I could smell the petrol. It never goes away. Petrol in the workroom, Dave. It got me thinking. That morning Collis died, I went in there. I’ve got a mental image...one of his picture frames was empty.’
‘A ten by eight?’
‘His drawing of the log house. Dave, he couldn’t have been playing cloak and dagger with Amanda, surely. You tell me he wasn’t. Tell me he didn’t send her that drawing to say where he’d meet her.’
He had reason to be exhausted, but he was too beaten for the fire to explain it all. Sometimes you have to treat George like a frightened child, and encourage him.
‘I’m afraid that’s what it means.’
And Delia saw it was missing, too?’
‘I’m sorry, George, but it’s the only explanation.’
He turned and looked at the blazing house, close to total destruction now. He spoke with wonder in his voice. ‘She did that, just to hide the fact? Just because she couldn’t put the drawing back.’
‘Let’s go and ask her, George.’
He dragged himself into action, and I followed him round to the front. We could hear the fire engines fighting their way up the rise.
She was lying moaning on the lawn, Major panting beside her. At first he wouldn’t let us touch her, but I saw the cat and gave him to Major to play with. Major nuzzled him. Delia was bad, having been wearing artificial fibres. On her legs, parts of the slacks were embedded blackly into the flesh. George knelt and lifted her head.
Men ran past us. An officer stopped and shouted was there anybody inside, and I said no but we’d need an ambulance.
‘My beautiful home!’ she whispered.
‘It wouldn’t have been the same,’ said George softly. I glanced down at him. His eyes looked naked. ‘Not without Adrian. Your home, your husband...’
She smiled weakly. Her eyes were black, her hair singed. ‘My marriage,’ she agreed softly.
It had been like a package to her, one that came all wrapped neatly at the altar. All she had had to do was cut the string.
She coughed, gently at first, then rackingly. George waited for it to cease.
‘Nothing was going to break it up, was it? The more the difficulties, the more you dug in your heels. Not even a rape. Not a murder. Not three. You could put that behind you, because Adrian was yours.’
‘Together...’ she protested. ‘Both of us together. We could have done anything.’ Her voice was harsh.
But George was reaching for her motivation. ‘You’d hate him for the murders. That was a threat to your beautiful marriage, and it was his doing.’
‘No, no!’
‘The ambulance is here, George.’
All right,’ he snapped. ‘Delia — didn’t you care? Didn’t you feel anything against him for those killings?’
‘He couldn’t help himself. Dear Adrian. I could have given him anything. I tried. He never blamed me when I couldn’t give him that. Not truly. I tried. Believe me, I tried.’
‘George! You’ve only got a minute.’
‘Delia,’ he said softly, bending close, ‘we know you tried. It didn’t change a thing. To Adrian you were precious, and not to be hurt. He cherished you.’
Her eyes narrowed. The blistered lips tightened with pain and distress. ‘Then why did he go to Amanda? He should have come to me. I would have comforted him and calmed him and protected him. But he went to Amanda.’
‘After all three?’
‘He should have come to me!’ she tried to scream, but it came out as a shrill whisper. ‘Me, to cry to. Me...to appeal to. Not to her. Not that bitch.’
‘So you’d never understood why he hadn’t seemed distressed after the three murders. It’d worried you and disturbed you. You’d have preferred him to come crying on your breast. But then you found out about the affair. Is that it?’
‘I hated him, then.’
‘And you saw the significance of the missing drawing?’
‘Excuse me, sir. If you’ll just stand clear.’
George glanced up impatiently. ‘A second. The drawing,’ he repeated. ‘You saw the meaning, and realised where they were going to meet. You went there and waited, with Adrian’s gun. And there, because he had not come to you in his troubles, you shot him.’
‘Didn’t he deserve that?’
‘I don’t know. We should have guessed earlier, then we might have saved your home. We could have saved you burning it to hide the fact that the drawing was missing.’
‘I wanted...to burn...his workroom. Only that.’
I should have realised. Andy Partridge...such a straightforward chap. He’d found out about the affair, and naturally he’d do just one thing. He’d tell Delia.
‘Really, sir, you must move. The lady needs attention.’ The man sounded shocked at George’s lack of feeling.
George got to his feet. He grasped my elbow, but couldn’t find the words. I helped him.
‘They’d never sentence her, George. They’ll let you give evidence. Don’t worry. I blame myself. I should’ve realised that Andy would tell her about the affair — and it’s knowing about it that’s driven her to kill him.’
They picked up the stretcher. Delia made a small protest, and they paused. Only her face was visible, now, the burns growing into fierce red blotches. She had heard what I said, and gestured weakly to me. I bent my head close to her.
‘So stupid...stupid of you. Of course Andy didn’t tell me. She did. Phoned that morning. Said I’d never see him alive again.’ Her smile was suddenly grimly angelic. ‘But I did.’
We watched the ambulance drive away. George stood stolidly beside me.
He spoke wearily. ‘Did you know, Dave?’
I wiped my sweating face, and the handkerchief came up black. ‘No more than a feeling on the motivation side of it. I reckoned she’d forgive Adrian anything except his going to Amanda after killing those three girls. Never that. But I couldn’t see how she’d found out about the affair, unless Andy had told her. But he didn’t give one hint of that. And I couldn’t see any way at all that she’d know where to go.’
I couldn’t put into words the fact that it had been my suspicion of George which had come between us and an earlier realisation of the truth. But I could see from George’s eyes that he saw what I was thinking.
‘Think about something else,’ he said quietly. ‘How about deciding what we’re going to do with one Great Dane and one grey cat.’
We considered them. They sat mournfully beside us, apparently aware of the precariousness of their position. We looked at each other.
Amanda?’ I suggested.
‘Why not?’ But he wasn’t giving it all his thought. ‘Fletcher...’
‘Not while he was in such a murderous mood. Not now, George. Let’s get rid of the animals first.’
The flaring light reddened his face. He straightened his shoulders and looked beyond me at the frantic activity. ‘Animals first,’ he grunted.
Major was no trouble. He got in the back at the first invitation. Smoke was more reluctant. I don’t suppose he fancied being stuck in there with a big dog. We persuaded him. We chased him and caught him — when he was good and ready — and heaved him in. He stuck five claws in Major’s nose, just to establish who was boss.
It was very late when we reached the flat. The fog on the motorway was bad; it heads for motorways. There were no lights on in Flat 27. We rang a number of times, and Amanda was not in a good mood when she opened up.
‘We wanted to ask you a favour,’ I said, and we marched right in.
She was wearing a heavy dressing gown over pyjamas. She saw me looking at it, and laughed, slightly apologetically.
‘Adrian’s. All I’ve got left of him. What was the favour? And please be quick — you woke me up.’
Yet the dark chestnut hair was perfect. ‘Two favours, r
eally. The first is to tell us why you lied when we saw you before.’
‘If you’re going to be offensive...’
‘Not at all. I was perfectly polite. Let me explain something. Your sister is in hospital with severe burns. When she’s fit enough, she’ll be charged with the murder of her husband.’
She eyed me levelly. Only by a small grimace did she display any emotion.
‘It seems to me that you’re proving I told you the truth. I said I found him dead in the MGB. I did. I had to put him in his own car.’
‘That wasn’t what I meant. You told us that he came to you from three rape-murders. That you comforted him and tidied him. That was a lie.’
Now the mouth was expressing emotion — contempt. ‘You suggested it yourself. I merely went along with it.’
‘I hadn’t got all the evidence then. I didn’t know that Tina’s suitcases were found less than half a mile from her home.’
‘And?’ She raised her eyebrows challengingly.
‘We’ve had some talk about what it means, Miss Greaves. I’ve already used the fact to show that it makes the question of Collis’s guilt doubtful. But I’m not going to bore you with that, because it shows something else much more interesting — to you, anyway. You see, it is quite unacceptable that Collis would offer a lift to a young girl he knew — a reasonable enough action under the circumstances — and immediately throw out her cases. It would alarm her. It would be stupid and gain nothing for him. So, assuming it was Collis, we’d have to accept that he threw them out later.’
George prowled. He paused and glanced at me, and then smiled.
‘What’s this getting to?’ Amanda demanded.
‘I’m wondering when, exactly, later. Imagine it. The cases on his rear seat, say. The obvious place to dump them was at Filsby, with her body. But say he forgot. Say he was simply driving home, and then remembered...well, he might toss them out then, and by coincidence near her own home. But he wasn’t driving home, was he? He was coming here. And here is around thirty miles from Filsby. Thirty miles, in which to remember and dump them. Then there’s a period here, also in which he might remember, and work out where to unload them. Twenty-five miles back home, during any of which he could have successfully disposed of them. But they were found near her home! I’m saying, Miss Greaves, that those cases might not have any great relevance as to Collis’s guilt, but by heaven they show that if he was guilty, he certainly didn’t bring his guilt here.’
‘You must enjoy listening to yourself.’
‘Do you deny it?’
‘Deny what?’ she snapped. ‘That he came here — or that he was guilty?’
‘Both,’ I challenged.
But she was considering my intensity with tolerant amusement. It was wasted on her. Then she moved a hand negligently.
‘Of course he didn’t kill them.’
I was a little rattled. ‘Then you’ll be amused to hear why your sister killed Adrian. It was simply because of that, because she believed he’d murdered them, and then had run to you with their deaths on his hands. When he should have gone to her.’
‘Delia was always a fool.’
I have often marvelled at the intensity of hatred that can exist between two sisters. George was looking as though he was sucking something sour. He didn’t want to speak to her.
‘But not you. You’re no fool,’ I said. ‘A very clever woman like you, you’d detect that. You’d understand her worry and puzzlement, and you’d prod at it with implications, driving her mad. But she didn’t know. She didn’t even know of the affair with you, until you phoned her up that morning. You couldn’t resist that. There was going to be an end to all the farce. You told her she wouldn’t see him again alive. You intended to kill him.’
‘Really, this is quite absurd.’
‘Why trouble to deny it? You’re not going to be tried for anything. At least, nothing to do with the murder. Perhaps something in the past, though.’
‘I don’t see why I should listen to this.’
‘You were quick enough to seize on it when I suggested he’d come to you with murder on his hands. It sketched you in as a romantic figure — sympathetic. That mattered to you, I’d suggest, if your real motives were unpleasant, and even degrading. I’m guessing here, I admit, but I think I could persuade a police fraud squad to look into it. I wonder what they’d find if they look back at the County Council contracts that Adrian Collis acquired, and who wangled them for him. And then, what a splendid hold you had over him. You stood to lose your job, perhaps be prosecuted for corruption, but he stood to lose everything, his career, the lot.’
‘I loved him,’ she cried. ‘He loved me.’
‘I think not.’ I was very tired and my head was singing. I concentrated. ‘Delia said there was one thing she couldn’t give him. Something you could — his sex life. Give him, and demand from him. I get the feeling that it palled for him, but you’d got both, then, to command him with, your sex and your hold over him. You called the tune. You said when and where, and he’d come running, half fascinated, half afraid.’
‘Damn you, I’m not listening to this.’
‘Oh, but you are. If my friend has to hold you down, you’ll listen. And how did it end, Amanda? Did you have a flaming row and he told you to go to hell?’
‘Who told you this?’ she screamed.
‘And did you, perhaps, get your own back by phoning the police and putting them on to Adrian as a possible sex murderer? That’s a bit wild, even for you, my dear. You couldn’t have done that.’
She laughed wildly. ‘Oh, couldn’t I!’
‘No wonder he didn’t want you to give evidence. A fine alibi you’d build for him! But I forget, you build a good alibi. That was yours, the day he died, your whole, detailed design. He refused to meet you again, but you’d threaten and cajole and plead, and in the end he’d agree, just for a bit of peace. But he’d got two lumbering private eyes watching him. Tell him how to get away from them, and he’d see you one last time. So you told him. It was going to be his last time, right enough. You intended to kill him.’
‘With that thing!’ she cried hysterically. ‘You said yourself...’
I shook my head. ‘The one you showed us, Amanda? No. But what you produced was one of a presentation pair. I expect the other’s quite serviceable.’
I stood and waited. George did not move. She challenged me with her eyes, and she knew I was laughing at her. She couldn’t stand that. With a sudden bound she pounced on the same drawer. We did not move. She turned, waving the gun.
George laughed. ‘Poor Adrian. He didn’t stand much chance, caught between two fighting sisters.’ It had been a nerve-tingling, painful laugh.
‘We’d better go,’ I said.
‘You’re not leaving here,’ she shouted.
I put my hand on the door. ‘The second favour,’ George remembered.
‘Oh yes. Delia’s dog, and her cat. We thought you’d look after them for her.’
‘You must be insane!’
‘Perhaps you’re right. You could be in custody, yourself, very soon. Good night.’
We left. I closed the door behind us. The shot from inside seemed a great distance away, and I heard the bullet strike the door panel. It did not penetrate.
‘Fletcher,’ said George, who never gives up.
‘Let me drive, George. I just want to make one apology on the way. And then we can go home.’
After a few miles I said:
‘Collis expected it, George. He was trying to shake free of Amanda, but she forced the meeting. He expected trouble, and when he took me up there it was to clue me in — just in case.’
But George was still sore at his misjudgement of Collis.
‘You don’t let anything drop, do you! I suppose now you’re thinking about who killed the girls, if he didn’t.’
‘The police will be.’
He grunted. And I bet you won’t let that drop.’
‘Not very far, George,
I’ll promise you that.’ He was silent, thinking that one out.
Major sat on the seat behind him. From time to time he licked George’s neck.
‘Get a move on,’ he said.
Andy was just wheeling his bike out of the gate as we approached. I swerved in, cutting him off, and got out. He looked startled. There were two suitcases strapped on behind.
‘You’ll never get your leg over that lot,’ I told him.
‘I’ll manage.’
‘Going away? No need to leave the district, you know, just because I proved you couldn’t have killed Collis.’
He was confused. The crash hat hung over his handlebars.
‘I can’t stay here.’ The fear in his eyes might have been from a memory of how I’d treated him before. ‘What did you want?’
‘To apologise.’
He frowned. ‘I’d better be going.’
‘No. please. Hear me out. Back there, in the pub, I pulled out a few stops. It happened to be very important to me to remove you from the list of suspects for Collis’s death. I’m sorry, Andy. I knew I was hurting you, snatching that triumph away. But I didn’t realise how important it was to you in another way. I see now. If everybody accepted that you’d killed Collis, it’d have to be because you thought he’d killed your wife. Revenge. Just that. I see now that you were desperately trying to hide the fact that you knew damn well he hadn’t.’
He wasn’t saying anything. I went on: ‘It’s why I want to apologise. I really didn’t know I was robbing you of so much. It was stupid of me, missing the meaning of Tina’s cases. She was leaving home. You might even have known it. She’d accept a lift from you, but how could you carry the girl and the cases? You’d put ‘em on your tank, Andy, but it wouldn’t do, and you’d toss ‘em away. And if Tina protested, what good would that do her on a bike? She couldn’t jump off if you were going fast, not until you stopped, and that’d be too late for her. They’re the quiet ones, Andy, the genuine sex maniacs. They go from one extreme to the other. Poor Madge Goldwater was the first, and then little Tina, coming to your house, and ignoring you. That would’ve been the worst thing she could do.’
The Bright Face of Danger Page 15