‘I need to get up.’
‘Ow!’
‘Hold on!’
Suzie tried to step up, got one foot onto the back of the wheelchair and both hands firmly onto the windowsill. She was halfway there. Or was she? With her weight pressing down on the back of the wheelchair, it was only Judith’s mass in the seat that was stopping it from tipping over, and it was precariously balanced, they could both feel it.
In fact, the front two wheels on the old wheelchair rose gently into the air as the whole thing started to tip backwards, but Suzie was able to shift her weight so that it didn’t topple over.
‘You remember the end of The Italian Job?’ Judith found time to ask.
‘Don’t make me laugh!’ Suzie wheezed, and then they both gasped as a door at the back of the building crashed open and people started to emerge. Bloody hell, what was going on?
It was precisely the impetus Suzie needed to push down on the wheelchair and launch herself through the open window, where she landed with a whoof! of expelled air on the other side as the first office workers turned and saw Judith sitting on her own in a wheelchair under the open window of Andy’s office.
Judith smiled to them like the old lady she was. But then she saw Andy Bishop emerge, with Becks stepping out from behind him so she was blocking his direct view of her. Judith knew she had only seconds before Andy saw her, so she turned the wheelchair around and began to wheel herself away from the car park.
Becks glanced across with a sinking heart as she saw Judith leaving in her wheelchair. The plan had been for Suzie to get the shredded paper and slip back out of the window before anyone discovered what had set off the fire alarm. But with all of the staff milling about in the car park, how was Suzie going to get out of the building now?
Suzie wasn’t thinking that far ahead. Instead, she was in a panic of fear inside Andy’s office, her senses overloaded by adrenaline, the fire alarm screaming loudly in her ears as she went over to the shredder. It sat on the table by the window that overlooked the High Street, just as Judith had said, and she’d crossed the room and was inspecting it when a fire engine pulled up on the pavement outside, fire officers jumping out with their yellow helmets on.
Suzie dropped to the floor. Bloody hell, she thought to herself, and now the fire brigade have turned up? She only had a matter of seconds before she would be discovered, and she saw that her hands were shaking. She had to make herself go through with the plan. With a force of will, she reached up onto the table and ripped the clear cellophane bag from the back of the shredder. Pulling it down to the floor, she then opened a leatherette handbag they’d also bought that afternoon from the charity shop and yanked out a carrier bag. Becks had stuffed it full of shredded paper that she’d got from her son’s hamster cage. Putting this bag of hamster-shredded paper to one side, Suzie tipped all of Andy’s shredded paper into the handbag and clicked the clasp closed. Next, she grabbed up thick handfuls of hamster-shredded paper and stuffed it into the clear cellophane bag from the shredder until it looked about the same.
But how to re-attach the bag to the shredder?
There was only one way.
Suzie stood up, clear as day, and was relieved to see that there were no fire officers in the High Street looking into the building to see her.
As she re-attached the bag to the back of the shredder, the fire alarm stopped blaring.
Her ears rang from the sudden silence.
Suzie grabbed up her handbag and returned to the window that overlooked the car park, but when she looked out, there was no sign of Judith. And she could see the clump of office workers starting to re-enter the building, marshalled by a fire officer who was holding two blackened pieces of toast in his hands.
Suzie knew her only hope was to leave by the front door before everyone returned to the reception area and discovered her presence. She only had seconds to act, but as her hand reached for the handle to Andy’s office door, she stopped.
She could see that his computer was on. He’d not locked it before he’d left, and she had a sudden idea.
She pulled out her mobile phone and dashed across to the desk. She could hear voices in the corridor outside. Everyone was discussing who the idiot was who’d left toast to burn in the upstairs kitchenette.
Using Andy’s mouse, Suzie found his Office applications, and then clicked the Calendar icon. The door half opened, her heart leapt, but she just had time to use her camera to photograph the screen before dropping to the floor like a marionette who’d suddenly had its strings cut.
Andy entered, and it was only then that Suzie realised how badly she’d messed up. She was on the floor, partially hidden by the desk, but she’d be discovered the moment he came to sit down. Worse still, her mind was completely blank as to what she could possibly say that would explain her position on the floor. She was about to be discovered hiding in an office having committed theft. She was going to prison!
As Andy headed over, the door banged open again.
‘Mr Bishop?’
It was Becks.
Andy turned back to look at who had entered his office.
‘Mrs Starling,’ he said, delighted.
‘I wondered if you could help me after all,’ Becks said, doing her best impression of a ‘little girl lost’. ‘You see, you were right, I’m here on a very personal matter. It’s life or death to me, but I don’t want my husband to see me visiting your office. Is there any chance you and I could go for a walk together?’
‘What’s that?’
‘I worry he’ll see me here. Could we go for a walk? Just you and me?’
‘Well,’ Andy said, pretending to consider the offer. ‘It’s not every day a pretty young woman asks me out for a stroll. I’d be glad to.’
‘At once,’ Becks added.
‘Oh. I see. And when you say at once …?’
‘I very much mean we need to go right now. Please.’
Peering from behind the desk, Suzie could see the look of innocent damsel-in-distress pleading on Becks’ face. Andy never stood a chance.
‘Of course. Lead on.’
With a grateful smile to Andy for being her knight in shining armour, Becks stepped to one side and caught Suzie’s eye as Andy left.
Thank you, Suzie mouthed, but Becks pretended not to notice. She was too busy playing the role of a distressed wife. As soon as she closed the door behind herself, Suzie dashed across to the back window and was relieved to see that, now the coast was clear, Judith had returned to her position. Suzie chucked her handbag down, Judith put it on her lap, and then Suzie climbed out of the window and onto the back of the wheelchair, before once again using Judith’s head as scaffolding to help her get down.
As Suzie pushed Judith away, she realised that her knees were shaking.
It had been nip and tuck, but they’d done it. They’d managed to break into Andy’s office and steal the shredded paper!
Chapter 24
The plan was for the three women to rendezvous back at Judith’s house, but when Judith and Suzie got there, there was no sign of Becks – not that Suzie much cared.
‘We did it!’ she said as she dumped the handbag of shredded paper onto Judith’s card table.
‘We did, didn’t we?’ Judith said with quiet satisfaction.
‘Although we so nearly got caught!’
‘But we weren’t, and that’s what matters,’ Judith said as she sat down at the table and began oh-so-carefully removing the shredded paper from the handbag.
‘Me in particular. I mean, why did I go back to Andy Bishop’s desk like that? I should have got out when I could.’
‘Well, no harm done.’
‘I mean, what an idiot!’
‘Not a bit of it. We got away with it, and that’s what matters.’
‘But that’s me all over, isn’t it?’ Suzie said, self-doubt entering her voice. ‘I never think things through.’
Judith could see that her friend’s ebullient mood was crashing.
‘What’s that?’
‘I’m too impetuous, that’s the problem.’
‘What on earth are you talking about? You did brilliantly.’
‘But I didn’t, did I? I wanted to look at his computer, so that’s what I did. When I should have just got out, like we’d agreed. I didn’t consider the consequences. To me, or to you or Becks. I never think of others.’
‘I don’t agree with that at all.’
‘My daughter Rachel’s right. I only ever think of myself.’
As she said this, Suzie subsided onto Judith’s sofa.
‘That’s not true.’
Suzie was lost in her memories, too downhearted to continue the conversation.
‘And what does your other daughter say?’ Judith asked, trying to lift Suzie out of her gloom.
‘I wouldn’t know, I’ve not spoken to Amy in over a year.’
‘Why ever not?’
‘We fell out.’
‘Oh. I see. Then why don’t you pick up the phone to her?’
‘I can’t,’ Suzie said, the logic of her situation unassailable. ‘We’re not talking.’
Judith’s heart went out to her friend. The faded photos in Suzie’s sitting room had suggested that all wasn’t well between her and her family, but Judith knew that raising children was about the hardest job in the world. She could only imagine how challenging it must have been to do it as a single parent.
An intervention was required.
‘How about I make us both a nice cup of tea?’ Judith said. ‘With a teaspoon or two of sugar to replace our energy.’
‘Yes,’ Suzie said. ‘That would be nice. Thank you.’
Judith bustled out and Suzie was left on her own with her thoughts. She looked at the room; at the shocking mess of newspapers and magazines that lay everywhere; at the Blüthner grand piano by the oak staircase.
There was also the door to the side of the drinks table that Judith had told her she couldn’t go through.
Hearing the sound of clattering cups and saucers from the kitchen, Suzie got up, went over to the door and tried to open it. It was locked, as it had been the time before, but what was behind it? She put her eye to the keyhole, but the other side was shrouded in darkness.
Before she was discovered snooping, Suzie returned to the sofa and tried to take in the room again. Just who was Judith Potts?
‘Here we are,’ Judith said, returning with a tray that was laden with mismatched bone china cups and saucers, milk in a jug and a steaming pot of tea.
‘Can I ask you something?’
‘Of course,’ Judith said, pouring out two cups of tea and stirring in heaped teaspoons of sugar.
‘You said you were a widow.’
‘That’s right.’
Judith poured the milk and handed over a cup and saucer for Suzie.
‘This is exactly what I wanted, thank you,’ Suzie said, taking a sip.
‘Good.’
‘But I don’t see any photographs of your husband anywhere.’
Judith didn’t want to talk about her past. In fact, she never talked about her past, it was one of the rules she lived by. But Suzie had shared some of her family history with her, so she realised it was only fair that she do the same.
‘No, I suppose not. But then, it wasn’t a good marriage,’ she said as she sat down in her wingback with her cup and saucer of tea.
‘It wasn’t?’
‘You know what they say. Marry in haste, repent at leisure. And I was young.’
‘What happened?’
‘You really want to know?’
‘If you don’t mind talking about it.’
‘No, it’s fine. I don’t often think about it these days, that’s all. Anyway, I’d just come down from Oxford, and I didn’t know what to do with my life.’
‘You were a student?’
‘It was the 1960s and love was in the air, as they say.’
Judith took a sip of tea and Suzie could only imagine what scrapes the student Judith might have got up to. She smiled at the thought.
Judith saw Suzie’s smile.
‘Indeed,’ she said. ‘But when I left Oxford, the rest of England wasn’t quite as advanced. Women were still expected to keep home, to marry well, to help their husband in his career, and none of that appealed to me. Not one bit. But what could I do? And that’s when my mother told me about her aunt in Marlow, who was something of an invalid and was looking for some live-in help.’
‘This would be your great aunt Betty?’
Judith smiled at the mention of her name.
‘We hit it off right from the start. You see, she’d never married and was fiercely independent. The only thing we ever argued over was Philippos.’
‘Your husband.’
‘My husband. He worked for a Greek tour operator and I’m afraid I fell for him hook, line and sinker. He was so very handsome. Strong in mind, word and deed. And he was a terrific sailor. I don’t know the first thing about boats, but he’d take me to the sailing club at Bourne End, and it was so thrilling. Whizzing across the Thames on a little sailboat, the wind in my hair. You see, Philippos had grown up on Corfu, and he was one of those people who had the sea in his soul. He could read the wind and the tides. Really, our affair was hugely romantic.’
‘How old were you?’
‘Twenty-six when we met. And I was still twenty-six when we married. In Corfu. That’s when Betty and I fell out. You see, she said Philippos was a wrong ’un. That I couldn’t trust him. Oh, you should have seen the arguments we had in this room,’ Judith said, looking sadly about herself. ‘But I was in love, and as far as I could tell, Betty was being selfish. She knew she’d be losing her home help if I married. She was just trying to poison my mind so I’d never leave her. Fool that I was.’
‘She was right?’
‘More than you can imagine. I moved to Corfu once we married, and things went wrong almost from the start. You see, Philippos was a drinker. And he’d always been fiery, and somewhat controlling. But he only revealed himself fully when he got home.’
Judith stopped speaking as she lost herself in her memories.
‘It was bad?’
‘It was bad,’ she said simply, but Suzie could see the oceans of pain those simple words covered. ‘But you make your bed in life, don’t you? Sometimes you just have to lie in it. I endured.’
‘What happened?’
‘Providence, that’s what happened. You see, no matter how good a sailor you are, the Ionian Sea is capricious. Squalls can whip up from nowhere, and one day Philippos was out on his boat. It wasn’t anything grand, just a single sail, a cabin with a bed, and a little galley kitchen. This was in the days before mobile phones and GPS whatnots. And we still don’t know what happened for sure, but he didn’t come home that day. Or the next. I thought he’d gone off with his fancy lady. You see, I knew by then he’d been having affairs throughout our courtship and marriage. But the day after he’d gone, his boat was found wrecked on some rocks. No sign of Philippos anywhere.’
‘Where was he?’
‘There’d been something of a storm the night before and the authorities thought he must have fallen overboard. His body washed up a week later.’
A silence settled between the two women.
‘Bloody hell,’ Suzie eventually said.
‘Yes. Thank you. But it was decades ago. And it was all my own fault, really. Anyway, I came back to the UK, my tail firmly between my legs. I only got through it all because Betty didn’t ever ask me about it. We simply picked up where we’d left off. That’s when I started compiling crosswords. They helped me keep my equilibrium.’ Judith took a moment to regather her focus. ‘So that’s the sad story of Judith and Philippos. Not exactly Pyramus and Thisbe. More tea?’
‘No, I’m fine, thank you. But can I ask something?’
‘Of course.’
‘You say you weren’t happy with your husband?’
‘I was not.’
&nb
sp; ‘Then why do you still wear your wedding ring?’
The question caught Judith unawares. She smiled, but Suzie could see that it was a touch forced.
‘It’s to remind me,’ Judith said.
‘What of?’
‘Of mistakes.’
There was a coolness to Judith’s response that made Suzie think of thick ice on a winter pond. It might look solid, but it could crack at any moment, and there would be whole swirls of dark water underneath.
Judith could sense that she’d somehow revealed too much, and she was grateful to hear the jangle of the front door bell.
‘At last!’ she said, putting her cup and saucer to one side as she stood up. ‘That will be Becks. Let’s go and find out what happened.’
Judith and Suzie went to the front door and opened it, but it wasn’t Becks who was standing there.
It was Detective Sergeant Tanika Malik.
She looked like she’d seen a ghost.
‘Tanika, are you all right?’ Judith asked.
‘Judith, I’m so sorry, but there’s been another murder.’
Chapter 25
Judith recovered first.
‘It’s not Becks, is it?’ she asked.
‘Becks?’ Tanika asked, surprised. ‘You mean Becks Starling?’
‘That’s right. She’s okay?’
‘As far as I know. Why wouldn’t she be?’
‘No reason,’ Judith said quickly, before she implicated herself any further. ‘But someone else has been murdered?’
‘Liz Curtis,’ Tanika said. ‘The woman you saw on Mr Dunwoody’s property.’
‘Liz is dead?’ Judith said, horrified.
‘We need someone to formally identify the body. And I was wondering if you could do it. After all, you’ve recently seen her. Twice, in fact.’
Judith had the good grace to look awkward.
‘It’s three,’ she said under her breath.
‘What’s that?’
‘I met Liz a third time.’
‘When?’ she said.
‘Well, you remember when you told me I absolutely shouldn’t talk to her?’
‘Of course. You promised.’
‘Well, the only problem was, I was at the rowing centre when you told me that. So I couldn’t very well not talk to her, seeing as I was already there.’
The Marlow Murder Club Page 17