Murder at High Tide (The Ralph Chalmers Mysteries Book 4)

by P. J. Thurbin

  It had been an eventful day. Once they dropped Peter and Marcia off at their hotel Ralph and Katie headed back to the cottage to put their feet up. It seemed that Devon was not quite the sleepy backwater that the holiday brochures projected.

  -----------------------------

  Chapter 11

  The four friends spent a few days being typical tourists. They visited historic castles and beauty spots, polished off numerous strawberry jam and clotted cream teas, and relaxed listening to brass band concerts on the promenade. With sunshine and a cooling breeze they all agreed that Devon was almost perfect. It was the last day of Peter and Marcia’s visit when Ralph looked up from his writing as he heard the crunch of gravel on the driveway to the cottage. Peter and Marcia were not due to arrive until after lunch and opening the front door he was met by the police inspector he had met at the police station in Bideford.

  “Sorry to drop in unannounced like this, but I was driving down to Hartland and thought I might have a word with you, Professor.”

  “No that’s fine, Inspector Fletcher. I was just going to take a break. Please come in. I’ll make some coffee.”

  “Very kind of you, Professor. Coffee would be nice.”

  As the officer entered the cottage Ralph could see that he was taking a good look around.

  “It’s a lot tidier than when I last saw the place. Those ruffians who broke in after Wakely’s death certainly made a mess trying to find whatever they were looking for.”

  “Well I can’t take too much credit for the improvements. The property manager had it redecorated after the break-in and we’ve just been trying to keep it up to scratch by putting things away before they accumulate.” The Inspector smiled at Ralph’s choice of words.

  As soon as Ralph heard himself say the words ‘put away’ he realized that it was Fletcher’s job to do just that. He wondered why this unexpected visit made him so uncomfortable. They settled in the overstuffed chairs set each side of the fireplace. Ralph could see that the Inspector tried to avoid sitting too deeply in his chair. He probably realized from past experience that getting his bulky frame out could be problematic.

  “I’ll come straight to the point, if I may sir. I hear that you were involved in an altercation earlier this week between Mr. Willard and two Turkish men at his restaurant in Hartland?” Ralph was a bit taken aback.

  “Well I did try to break up a misunderstanding between Mr. Willard and two of his patrons.” He wondered if Miles had complained to the police but wanted to avoid painting too black a picture of what had happened.

  “Well you see, sir, there has been an unfortunate incident involving Mr. Willard. His vehicle apparently spun off the road late last night and went over the cliff. I’m afraid it was too late by the time the fire and rescue services managed to get down to the vehicle.”

  Ralph found it difficult to take in what he had just heard. Now it was apparent why the Inspector was probing into the altercation at the restaurant.

  “That’s terrible news Inspector. But are you suggesting that the disturbance at the restaurant may have something to do with it?”

  “I’m not suggesting anything, Professor. A tractor was found in the road near the scene of the incident. It was from Mr. Horton’s estate and no one knows why it was stuck half out in the road late at night . There was no trace of who might have been driving it or who had left it there. We’ve spoken with Mr. Horton’s workers and they all have an alibi. I just wanted to hear from you what the altercation may have been about and if Mr. Willard seemed upset beyond what would be normal following such an incident?”

  Ralph realized that if he mentioned the threats Miles had received from the villagers it would open up a whole can of worms. But he had no choice, and as the Inspector sipped his coffee Ralph explained what Miles had told him about the threats he had received. He also told the Inspector about Miles’ involvement in smuggling wine and that there was a third party involved, although he didn’t know who it was. The Inspector paused for a moment, then leaned forward and asked, “Would you say that Mr. Willard was likely to have been contemplating taking his own life over it?”

  Ralph had the feeling that the Inspector was trying to find a neat explanation for Willard’s death. It would be convenient to turn it into a suicide and at the same time clear Horton of any involvement.

  “He was upset of course, as his life had been threatened. But he talked about selling up and going back to France, so he had a plan for the future.”

  The Inspector smiled.”Plans for the future. Well we all have those, sir. But it depends of course on what they include.” He laughed at his attempt at irony.

  Ralph could see that the Inspector had made his point and gleaned some useful information about Miles Willard’s state of mind prior to his accident. The big policeman struggled up out of the armchair.

  “Well, thank-you for the hospitality, Professor,” he said gasping a little at his exertions. “You’ve been very helpful. Now I must get on to Hartland as there are some other people I need to talk with. Just a gentle reminder, Professor. Please leave the detective work to the police. I know you have a reputation with the London police up where you live, but in Devon we have our own methods.” Ralph thought it wise not to reply.

  ***

  Katie returned from Bideford with all the fixings for a farewell barbecue lunch for Peter and Marcia, and while she was sorting everything out Ralph told her about Inspector Fletcher’s visit and about Willard’s unfortunate accident.

  “What puzzles me, Katie, is why Miles was driving along the cliff road from Hartland at that time of night. The only house up there is the one owned by that couple who run that antiques business.”

  “Jason and Barbara Anderson.”

  “Yes, that’s the name. Perhaps Miles was going to see if they wanted to buy any of the furniture and fittings from Chez Liz.”

  “That doesn’t make sense, Ralph. Surely he would have phoned them and they would have come down to Hartland to look at what he had. Your sleuthing logic is a bit out of kilter. No, there must have been some other reason.” Katie was interrupted when they heard Peter’s Land Rover pull into the drive.

  It was a hot sunny day but with a mild Westerly breeze. The friends sat in the garden and helped themselves to a freshly tossed salad while Ralph barbecued the chicken on the open hearth grill.

  “I see your hand’s not healed yet. Any more barroom fights and you’ll have to find a different instrument to play,” Ralph observed as Peter grimaced when he inadvertently knocked it on the edge of the table while gesticulating about some daring escapade or other while he was a student at the Royal College of Music.

  As they chatted and relaxed over their strawberries and cream, Ralph told them about his visit from the local police. When he had finished, Peter shook his head.

  “That poor bastard. But surely the police don’t think that little scuffle the other night had anything to do with Willard’s death?”

  “Inspector Fletcher seemed to want to go down the suicide route with it, but I’m not so sure,” Ralph said. “It’s much more likely it has something to do with that smuggling activity he seemed to have got mixed up in.”

  “It seems to me that you’re treading on dodgy ground, old boy. From what I’ve heard, these country policeman might appear slow but they have a fantastic network of informants. He has probably only told you half the story. It’s all well and good to try and help Wakely’s daughter find out if someone killed her father, but all that talk of gangs of smugglers and the shooting of those poor fishermen seems a bridge too far. Can’t you talk some sense into him, Katie?”

  Katie was busy trying to swat a wasp that seemed determined to share her strawberries and cream. “You know Ralph. If there’s a chance of getting involved in a murder mystery then there is no stopping him. At least I haven’t found a way yet,” she said as she slammed a magazine down on the offending wasp with a loud clatter that narrowly missed her teacup. “Besides, I’m afraid I’
m as guilty as Ralph for snooping around with the people at Bay View.”

  “Look. Why don’t you two pack your bags and we can all head off back to London together?” said Peter. “We can stop off at Winchester for the night and take a look at that Round Table hanging in the Cathedral and see who is clever enough to name all of King Arthur’s Knights. What do you say?”

  “Nice try Peter, but you forget that I came down here to finish that report for the Foundation and so far I’m only halfway through.”

  “A case of too many diversions, old boy, what with smuggling, pirates, murder and mayhem, and now having to act as tour guide for Marcia and me. We’ve acted like those 1970’s couples on their seaside holiday,” said Peter. They laughed at the picture he was painting of their time together over the last few days.

  “Come on Peter,” Marcia said, pushing her chair back and standing up. “They are both stubborn as mules and there’s no way the promise of a nice tame visit to Winchester Cathedral is going to pull them off the scent. Let’s just hope there are no more murders at high tide.”

  “Good luck, Ralph,” shouted Peter as he wound down the window.”For my money ‘it was the vicar what done it’. With a toot and a crunch of gravel they were gone, leaving Katie and Ralph wondering if they should have high-tailed it back to London with their friends.

  ________________

  Chapter 1 2

  Later that week Katie drove into Hartland to meet Margaret.

  “What do you say I give Clarissa a call and see if she wants to meet up for a ride at Bay View?” Katie asked over lunch at The Lamb.

  “I’m not sure,” Margaret said. “She must know about me from Dad. Won’t she wonder why I want to meet her now?”

  “I’ll just tell her you’re in town and wanted to meet her; seems pretty straightforward to me.”

  A phone call to Clarissa had resulted in their arranging to go riding for the day at Bay View Farm. When they arrived at the stables everything looked the same except for some new faces around the big table in the breakfast room. Katie was pleased to see at least one other familiar face. Hans Clim had decided to stay on for an extended holiday and she introduced him to Margaret while the others got acquainted. The two Turks were, she assumed, back on the Island of Lundy working on their installation contract and hopefully not holding a grudge against Peter or Ralph. Within a short while everyone was chatting as though they had known each other for years. A love of horses was a great ice breaker. Clarissa arrived just as they were going out to get their horses and Katie introduced the two women.

  Amanda had presumed that Margaret would want to ride Majestic, as technically she owned him as part of her father’s estate, but Margaret insisted that Katie ride him,

  explaining that she preferred a quieter mount, and that in any event she was planning to sell him as soon as possible. After a challenging morning with few breaks between canters they stopped to eat their packed lunch. Katie felt by then that it was safe to ask Clarissa about Wakely’s accident without it seeming too contrived.

  The three sat apart from the rest and spread their lunch out on a flat rock by a slow running brook. It was an idyllic setting and perhaps not the most appropriate for a conversation about the possible murder of Margaret’s father and Clarissa’s lover. But Clarissa seemed anxious to talk about her relationship Richard Wakely. She told them how they had planned to get married once she was sure that her husband would agree to a divorce, but that after Richard’s accident it was made clear to her that the divorce was not going to happen. When she brought the matter up her husband had become violent. During one of their rows she had accused him of having been involved in Richard’s death. He had threatened to kill her if she mentioned it again and that if she went to the police he would tell them that she was mentally unstable. “He’s in pretty tight with the local police and magistrates around here,” Clarissa explained, “and I would hate to get carted off to an asylum.”

  “He sounds a brute to me,” said Margaret. “How on earth did you get mixed up with someone like that?”

  “When you are young and in love it all seems very different. Then there are the children to give you a common bond for a few years. It’s only when they leave home that you realize that you hardly know the person you have been waking up next to for the past thirty years.”

  Katie wanted to pursue some things that had been puzzling her about Wakely’s interest in the movement of fishing boats at Clovelly and Hartland.

  “Clarissa, I don’t know if you heard, but Ralph and I found some diaries that Margaret’s father had kept and they contained all sorts of data about boat movements in the local harbour. The police have the diaries now, but I wondered if he had mentioned anything about his suspicions about those boats being involved in smuggling activities around here?”

  “He was convinced that there was smuggling activity going on. But there’s something else.” Clarissa looked around as though someone might overhear, but their only companions were some sheep that had wandered over to investigate strangers on their patch of grass. “I haven’t mentioned this to anyone, but I found some papers on my husband’s desk showing large amounts of money paid into an off-shore account that he had set up when he was in the industrial chemicals business. He always said it was our retirement fund. I think it’s what they call a tax avoidance scheme.”

  “But what’s unusual about that?” Asked Katie. “Seems like most businessmen do that nowadays. Some people may think it’s immoral, but it’s not illegal.”

  “Yes, but then I saw some of the bills that he’d paid. They were to a company that he used to do business with. They were payments for installing two induction furnaces in a new building next to the Manor House. I think it also said that they had installed something called a metal chlorination device or something like that. Now I think about it, he spends an awful lot of time in there, and he has forbidden me from going in it. He said it was because the chemicals were dangerous, but I’m not sure that’s the real reason. He employs some men from the local area to work there and sometimes they’re there for weeks on end. He told me it was for a new industrial process that he hoped to patent some day.”

  “Hopefully you didn’t tell your husband what you had discovered,” gasped Margaret.

  “No, I daren’t. He’d kill me if he knew I was snooping around in his office. But I’m afraid I had to tell someone, and so I confided in your father, Margaret. I just hope it didn’t have anything to do with his death.”

  “Surely not,” interjected Katie. “He certainly wouldn’t have jeopardized your life by telling anyone.”

  The horses were by now getting restless, no doubt wondering when they would start the ride back to their comfortable stables and home. But Clarissa had one more surprise for her attentive audience.

  “I made copies of all the correspondence and accounts and gave them to Richard. I realized that Max was involved in something that was dangerous and maybe even illegal, and I also couldn’t understand how he was making so much money if it was just something experimental. There was more than five million pounds in the account according to those papers.”

  Katie could see now that Horton was a prime suspect in Wakely’s murder and maybe even the shooting of the fishermen, although the reason for the shooting was a bit less clear. She wondered what had happened to the documents that Clarissa had given to Wakely. The people who broke into the cottage after his death must have been determined to keep them out of police hands, she mused.

  “Why didn’t Dad go to the police once he knew something illegal was going on?” Asked Margaret.

  “He said he was waiting until my divorce had gone through and we were together. It was partially to protect me, but also because I couldn’t give evidence against Max as long as I was still his wife. But then Richard had the accident and I don’t know what happened to the documents I gave him. Frankly I don’t know what I should do.”

  “We’ll think of something,” said Katie.

  They
untied the horses and joined the rest of the group who were already mounted up. It was time to make their way to Upton Ridge and the long canter they had all been looking forward to.

  ***

  Jakes stood in front of Clarissa’s horse as she dismounted. He held the reins in his hand and was leering up at her. Then all hell broke loose.

  “I know that my husband paid you to murder Richard, you evil swine. When I saw you at his funeral I realized you were just the fool that did the dirty work. Admit it. How much did he pay you to do it?” She was now shouting and raised her riding crop as if about to strike him in the face. Everyone stood as if rooted to the spot. Jakes started to tremble and his face turned ashen. He let go of the reins and stepped back but was now flattened against the whitewashed stable wall where a hook protruded; the blow propelled him forward.”

  “I only meant t’ scare ‘im. Mr. Horton told me he would get a fright if the wire tripped the horse an’ e come orf. It were all because you went and did the dirty on yor old man. Then the silly bugger went an’ broke ‘is neck. The ‘orse likely stepped on ‘im fer all I know.” Jakes was now starting to regain control of himself.

  “You’ll never see the light of day or a horse again,” shouted Clarissa as she struck out again at Jakes who was by then cowering in the corner of the stable.

  “No you don’t,” he shouted as the thought of being locked away for the rest of his life registered in his small mind. With that he ran out of the yard past the startled riders and jumped onto an old motorbike that was leaning against a low brick wall. The bike started with a roar and Jakes disappeared down the lane that led away from the stable. A peculiar silence settled on the group of riders and it seemed ages before Amanda took charge.

  “Right. I’ll get the police and with luck they’ll catch him before he gets too far. One thing I know about Jakes is that he will have less than a quarter of a tank of petrol and he won’t get far in this bracken if he has to go on foot.” With that she called 999 on her mobile phone and the police reassured her that Jakes would be caught within the hour. Katie told Clarissa that she had best wait at Bay View until the police came and suggested that after she spoke with them she should go and stay with Margaret at the Lamb until things were sorted out. Then she phoned Ralph and told him that he had better put his work away before she got there because her day had been quite eventful and she wanted his undivided attention when she got back.