Murder for Good

by Veronica Heley

  Ellie sighed. ‘A cup of tea?’

  ‘No. This is serious. Sit down.’

  Ellie followed her in and sat.

  Diana said, ‘I have never made any secret of my feelings about your marrying a penniless man—’

  True, thought Ellie.

  ‘But I never thought he was quite such a low-life as he has turned out to be. You do realize he’s been cheating on you, right? Or are you the last to hear about it?’

  Ellie subdued an impulse to have hysterics. Or to hit Diana. Or both. Perhaps she could hit her first, and then lie on the floor and scream? ‘Don’t talk nonsense, Diana.’

  ‘Oh, it’s true. I don’t know what else he’s been concealing from you all these months, but once a man starts lying to you, you need to look into what else they’ve been doing. I suspect that what we’re seeing now is only the tip of the iceberg. The awful truth is that he only married you for your money and now he’s going to take you for what he can get.’

  Ellie told herself to relax. She put her hands on the arms of her winged, high-back chair and hooked a stool into position. She put one foot up, and then the other. She breathed deeply. In and out. In and out. Only then did she say, ‘Rubbish.’

  Diana flushed. ‘How can you be so blind! Everyone knows—’

  ‘Everyone knows what?’

  ‘You denied it this morning so I went back to my informant and it is perfectly true. Thomas has been left a large sum of money from a former friend of his. Twenty thousand pounds! What do you say to that?’

  ‘That’s true,’ said Ellie. ‘I didn’t know about it this morning, but he received a cheque in the post at midday. Twenty thousand pounds from an old friend. He doesn’t want to keep it. He plans to return it to sender, or rather, to the solicitor, so that it can be redistributed to the other heirs.’

  Diana did a tee-hee laugh. ‘If you believe that, you’re even more stupid than I thought! That man has you so bamboozled you’d believe him if he said he was penniless. He’s got you right where he wants, hasn’t he?’

  Ellie suddenly felt very tired. ‘Diana, Thomas has not deceived me in any way. Now, you really must tell me how you came to know about this bequest before we did. Somebody has been indiscreet, somewhere along the line. Solicitors are not supposed to talk about such things, are they?’

  ‘Of course they ought to be discreet but the information is available to everybody once probate has been granted and the will is in the public domain.’

  ‘So who told you about the twenty thousand? And when?’

  ‘My own solicitor, who’d heard about it from a friend who knew the link to you. He chanced to hint at it when he was advising me about, well, this and that.’

  ‘About the unwise investments your husband has been making? You asked your solicitor where you might find some more money and he told you that there was money coming my way? He shouldn’t have done that.’

  ‘There’s no harm in it. He’s friendly with lots of professional people who go to the golf club.’

  ‘They drink too much, and then they talk too much. Is that it? What other nuggets of information have you been gathering? Don’t some of our town councillors foregather at the golf club, too? Don’t you hear what building applications are likely to be passed before they come up? Doesn’t this give rise to the possibility of corruption on a grand scale?’

  Diana gasped. ‘Are you accusing Evan of corruption?’ She flushed and dabbed at her throat.

  ‘No. But your reaction shows me there’s something in what I said. Diana, I can’t help you out here. The cheque arrived after we spoke this morning. Thomas doesn’t want it and is going to return it. I have no money to lend you, and neither has Thomas. And no, for the umpteenth time, I am not going to ask the trustees to pay your debts, which they wouldn’t agree to doing, anyway.’

  ‘As I’ve already said, you can downsize. You can put this white elephant of a house on the market and let me have half the value.’

  ‘No. We like living here. It suits us very well.’ Ellie crossed the fingers of one hand under her skirt so that Diana should not see what she’d done. Yes, the house did need a lot of maintaining. Yes, there were rooms she didn’t enter for weeks at a time. And yet … and yet … the garden, the space … they liked it. They were accustomed to high ceilings and large rooms. They were comfortable in them.

  Diana wasn’t giving up. ‘That twenty thousand. You say Thomas doesn’t want it. Well, let me have it, then.’

  ‘Why would he do that, when you have just accused him of theft and corruption?’

  ‘He doesn’t need to know that. I tell you, I’m desperate.’

  ‘Sort it out with your husband.’

  ‘He’s … not well.’

  ‘You told me he’d twisted his ankle or something. He’s back in his wheelchair for a while? So what!’

  ‘I said, he’s not well.’

  Ellie narrowed her eyes. ‘Drinking too much? Not going in to work? Making bad decisions, work-wise?’

  ‘I … yes.’ Her voice sounded strangled. ‘His temper is … He’s forgetful. I want to get him to the doctor’s but he’s refusing. He says there’s nothing wrong with him, but there is. I tell him there’s tests that he should take to rule out … But he’s not being reasonable about this.’

  ‘You suspect something major?’

  Diana’s hands twisted one around the other. ‘No, of course not. But if there is, then the sooner we know the better. He’s unliveable with at the moment. I suspect … No, I don’t know what to think, I really don’t. What I do know is that he can’t seem to walk any more and he’s incapable of making decisions at work. He hasn’t been to the office for some weeks.’

  That sounded serious. Ellie sank back in her chair, thinking that Diana did have bad luck, with two children under five years of age, and a husband no longer capable of running the business.

  Diana said, ‘You see why I need the money.’

  Ellie tried to think clearly. ‘You must take steps to protect yourself and the children. Get Evan to give you power of attorney.’

  ‘I tried. He won’t do it. He says there’s nothing wrong with him and he’s not going to submit to any tests. I don’t know what to do.’

  Was he that far gone? If so, Diana did indeed have a problem. Ah, a thought. ‘Why don’t you go to see Monique? She’s a good businesswoman, runs her own group of estate agencies. Even though she’s Evan’s first wife, she’s still fond of him, and he respects her. She might help you out by investing in Evan’s estate agency.’

  Diana gulped. ‘What! How dare you! You really are the limit!’

  ‘What? What’s the matter? What have I said?’

  ‘But you knew! Evan rang and told you!’

  ‘Told me what?’

  ‘Monique. She had a fall, broke her thigh, went into hospital and died within a few days. Surely you knew!’

  Ellie felt as if she’d been punched in the stomach. She’d liked Monique. They hadn’t met often, but Ellie respected and admired the woman and believed that her feelings had been reciprocated. ‘I didn’t know. When is the funeral? I’d like to go, unless … Has it been held already?’

  ‘I suppose Evan forgot to tell you.’ Diana was coldly furious. ‘He does that a lot nowadays. I can’t rely on him for anything. The funeral’s tomorrow, some church up in North London. I don’t know the name but it’s on her road, at noon. I suppose you have her address somewhere. Afterwards we’re invited back to her house for the reading of the will. That is, you and Evan are invited, but I’ll have to go with him, or he might well wander off and … Anyway, he can’t be trusted to drive nowadays, so I’ll have to take him.’

  Her frown eased. ‘I’m hoping, well, he’s hoping, that Monique will have left him something substantial, which would be only right and proper considering that they’ve always been on such good terms in spite of his marrying again.’

  Ellie hid a smile.

  Evan had been married four times, and Diana thinks Mon
ique didn’t mind?

  Diana bit her lip, calculating the odds. ‘At the very least, she’ll have left him the freehold of our house, won’t she? She’s leased it to us for so long. Yes, I’m sure she’ll have done that. Then, she’s more or less adopted Evan’s daughter, the one he had by his second wife. Monique took the girl straight from university into her business so she’ll be well provided for as well. Yes, I’m sure she’ll have left us something. It’s all a question of how much, and how soon we can get it. I believe it takes about six months to lay your hands on the money, and we need it now, not then. The only thing is, we’ll have to borrow against expectations. Mother, you’d back me up on a loan, won’t you?’

  EIGHT

  Thursday afternoon, continued

  Ellie was only half listening to Diana.

  Monique was dead? Ellie struggled with conflicting feelings of grief – yes, she really did feel sorrow at Monique’s departure – and amazement that the woman had died so young. Yes, Monique had been suffering from back pain and had been walking with a stick. Yes, her last operation had not gone well, but she’d still had all her marbles and if she’d only lived longer then Monique and Ellie might well have become good friends.

  Ellie mourned what might have been.

  ‘Mother, you’re not listening!’

  Ellie said, ‘I’m truly sorry to hear Monique’s dead. I liked her and I thought she was very fair in her dealings with Evan. Even if they were only married for a short period of time, they did have a child together. I wonder how the boy has taken the news of her death.’

  ‘Him? The mental case? Forget him. He’s in a secure unit, and not likely to be released. She wouldn’t have left him anything.’ Diana’s lips curved into a secret smile. ‘I’m thinking, hoping, she’ll have left the bulk of her fortune to Evan. That’s what he thinks, too.’

  Ellie tried to make sense of what she’d been told. Poor Monique! She hadn’t had much of a life, had she?

  Diana frowned. ‘The problem is that Evan’s stopped listening to anything I say. He’s making grand plans to buy up more brown sites for redevelopment and frankly, his judgement’s gone. I’ve argued him with him till I’m blue in the face. He can’t face the fact that we haven’t the money to conclude the sale for the river site. He says I don’t think like a successful property developer, that we ought to borrow money to invest in more properties, and that way we keep ahead of the game. He won’t listen when I say we’re short of money to pay the gas bill this quarter, and he’s bought a new car and there’s the bill for the nursery and, well, everything. That’s why I came to you. I need you to tide me over. Give me the cheque Thomas received today. That would help.’

  Ellie was still thinking about Monique. She’d had a difficult life. She’d not been a pretty woman, but she had had a good head for business. Her one-night stand with young Evan, the up-and-coming estate agent in her father’s firm, had resulted in pregnancy and marriage, followed by a divorce and long years of watching their only son deteriorate.

  Ellie mused aloud, ‘Monique was a fighter. She made the best of a bad job. Thank you for telling me about the funeral. I’d like to go.’

  ‘You’re not listening to me, Mother. I’m desperate. Whatever Monique has left to Evan, he won’t be able to lay his hands on it till probate is granted, and I need money now to pay the household bills. Otherwise we’ll be having the bailiffs in, and how will you like that! You have to help us out or at the least, guarantee us a loan.’

  Ellie took a deep breath. ‘Diana, how many times have I said that I can’t access the trust fund to pay your debts? Even if I wanted to, the other trustees would veto it. Thomas and I manage well enough if we’re not extravagant about holidays and the like, but I personally don’t have spare cash to lend you. I’m probably going to put off changing the boiler this year, which I had meant to do, and … Look, you aren’t really so badly off, are you? The agency must be bringing in some money so—’

  ‘The property downturn has meant I can hardly pay myself anything.’

  ‘I gave you our old house outright. You could have rented it out to give you an income. You sold it and what you’ve done with the money I do not know.’

  ‘I invested it. It’s not my fault that—’

  ‘It’s never your fault!’

  Diana shouted, ‘You’re sitting on a pot of gold, and you won’t help your only daughter when she’s facing disaster!’

  Ellie felt as if her head were going to explode. She tried to keep calm. ‘Diana, be reasonable.’

  Diana’s eyes switched to and fro. Some thought grew in the back of her mind. She nodded once, sharply. ‘I’ve got it. Your trust has money to burn. Get them to buy the site down by the river for us. They could easily get the land re-zoned for development. We’ll go halves on the profit.’

  ‘You told me yourself it was an unwise investment because the council will never permit building on a flood plain.’

  ‘You’ve never had a business mind, Mother. You don’t understand how these things work.’

  ‘Do you mean that you think you can bribe some of the council to give you permission—’

  ‘Did I say that? Would I ever say such a thing?’

  Ellie thought, No, you wouldn’t say it. But you might well connive at it happening. She stood up, slowly, stiffly. ‘Diana, your best bet would be to get your doctor to set power of attorney in motion. It takes time, but it can be done. Then you’d be able to control your husband’s affairs.’

  Diana also stood. She was very pale. ‘Is that your last word?’

  ‘I can’t help you.’

  Diana spat, ‘You silly, stupid, old woman!’

  ‘Diana, that is more than enough!’ Thomas, looking bleak, was standing in the doorway.

  Diana turned on him. ‘You keep out of this, you … you creep!’

  Thomas didn’t reply but turned sideways and stepped back so that she had a clear run to the hall. She swept past him, her head held high.

  The front door opened and then clonked shut.

  Ellie sank back on to her chair and held out her hand to Thomas. He took it, drew up a chair nearby and sat beside her. He stroked her hand, or she stroked his. They took comfort from one another.

  Ellie thought of saying that Diana didn’t mean it. But Diana had meant it. Ellie knew it, and so did Thomas.

  He said, ‘Are you listening? Rafael rang. He’s got a bit of gossip for us about one of my many benefactors. He said he’d collect Susan from work and drop in on us later. He said he’d bring some food with him. I said he didn’t need to do that, but he insisted.’

  Ellie struggled to concentrate. ‘It must be something important. We only saw them the other night.’

  Rafael had married Susan as soon as she’d finished her training as a chef. Originally they’d planned she would work full-time in a local restaurant, gaining experience as she did so, but her pregnancy had put paid to that. Nowadays she liked to work the odd shift and was currently learning what she could from the pastry chef at a good local restaurant. If Susan brought them supper, they’d be one happy family sitting round the kitchen table. Slobbing out.

  Oh, but Hetty had insisted on cooking that night, and she’d planned something indigestible. Poor Thomas had been suffering so much from his stomach of late! Ellie told herself she must take back control of the household, no matter how difficult that might be. Oh, the tyranny of the weak!

  Thomas continued to stroke Ellie’s hand. ‘I told Rafael about the latest dollop of money. He asked me to hold off taking it to the police for the time being. I said I would, but only till tomorrow. This business of the cheques is not going to go away. We have to deal with it.’

  Ellie thought Thomas was probably right. She was exhausted. She must tell Hetty that there would be guests again tonight. Hetty wouldn’t like that, especially since Rafael and Susan had been here earlier in the week. Worse, Hetty must know that Susan had been a great success as her predecessor. And Susan was younger, prettier
and newlywed.

  How did Ellie deal with that?

  And how could Diana say such things?

  Thomas said, ‘Do you want to talk about it? Diana’s frightened, isn’t she? Is she really in such a bad way?’

  ‘Yes, probably. There’s a pattern. She and Evan are two peas in a pod. They make a pot of gold and invest it, but it’s fairy gold and melts away in the sunshine. They like to take risks with their investments but are not clever enough to tell brass from gold.’

  ‘Poor creatures. They used to call it fool’s gold, didn’t they?’ He patted her hand. ‘We’ll manage, Ellie. We always do.’

  It was good to share their troubles. She said, ‘Evan is sinking into an irascible old age. He’s becoming forgetful. She thinks he’s losing his judgement.’

  He nodded. Didn’t comment. They both knew how hard it was for the elderly to accept the gradual loss of what they had once been. Perhaps it was even worse for those who loved them and had to watch their deterioration.

  Ellie stirred. ‘Diana says Monique died a while back. The funeral’s tomorrow, and she’s going to make sure Evan gets there. I’d rather like to go, too. Are you free to come with me, or shall I take a cab? Don’t worry if you can’t. I know you must be tied up with the magazine.’

  ‘Do you mind going by yourself? I’m just about on schedule. Two more days and I can put the magazine to bed and turn my attention to other matters.’

  ‘You want to get the magazine out before you go to the police?’

  His lips twitched. ‘Yes, I must do that, before they arrest me for murder and screwing money out of my friends.’

  ‘You’re not going to be arrested for anything. Look, over the weekend I’ll see if I can find out some more about the people who’ve sent you money. When we go to the police, it will be a point in our favour that we’ve tried to work out what’s been happening.’

  He held her hand to his bearded cheek. ‘Ellie, my love.’

  That’s all he said. It was enough.