Out Comes the Evil Page 17

  ‘After the dog took off last night,’ Lamb said, ‘you took a call on your mobile from Lily Duggins.’

  ‘Yes, she wanted to know why Katie had gone to the pub. I asked Lily to keep Katie for me and she agreed.’

  ‘But you’d already been attacked?’

  Radhika closed her eyes and breathed through her mouth. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why didn’t you ask for help?’

  Tears slid free again. ‘I wanted to manage on my own. I forgot I had my phone until it rang. I didn’t want help.’ Her voice rose. ‘I don’t want help now. I will be well and then I will leave Folly. It will be best.’

  ‘Listen,’ Alex said, drawing closer to Radhika and dropping her voice even lower. ‘When there’s trouble – and that’s what we have now – it’s best to stick together. We’ll help one another. Harriet and Mary Burke are ready to take you into their home. They have a bedroom ready. You can be safe and recover.’

  ‘I could not put them at risk. No, I must not accept their kind offer.’

  ‘I don’t see how you can refuse. Everyone knows you’ve said you’ll go back to the cottage on your own. We would never be comfortable with that.’

  ‘We’ll guard the cottage round the clock,’ Lamb said. ‘That’ll be best. You wouldn’t want to deal with the stairs at the sisters’ place.’

  ‘You could put a guard on Harriet and Mary’s place. How would that be different? Except that Radhika would have company all the time.’

  For an instant Lamb looked on the verge of an outburst, but he shuttered his face and stood up. ‘I have some calls to make. Please understand that you must not go anywhere without informing us of your plans, Ms Malek.’ He walked out quickly, leaving behind an air of annoyance and determination to orchestrate what each of them did no matter how they felt about that.

  ‘The police are a danger to me,’ Radhika said.

  TWENTY-NINE

  For seconds after Lamb left, they remained, holding hands and in silence.

  Alex couldn’t help asking, ‘What do you mean about the police being a danger to you?’

  ‘Forget I said that.’ Radhika gave Alex a small smile. ‘Thank you for being with me. How charming it feels to be peaceful at last. So much pushing and anxiety all these people make. So much determination to get what they want.’

  ‘They?’ Alex asked.

  That brought a long look from Radhika’s dark brown eyes. ‘The police, the good people around me … and … just people.’

  ‘Can you tell me who the “just people” are?’

  Radhika looked away and said nothing.

  ‘Am I just people?’

  ‘You are different. I feel that. Also I trust Tony.’ She reached for her mug of tea and frowned. ‘And others, of course.’

  Alex lifted it to the other woman’s lips and waited while she took several sips. ‘Would you like a biscuit. There are digestives and garibaldis.’

  ‘I like currants.’ Radhika drew up her shoulders. ‘If you unwrap a garibaldi I can hold it with my right hand.’

  The blessing of opposable thumbs. Alex popped the biscuit into the pincer Radhika made. ‘Tell me when you want more.’

  ‘You are not responsible for me. Not in any way. If I can ask you to help me – and I would not take advantage – but it would be good if I could call or come to you for some small thing I cannot accomplish myself.’

  A nurse bustled in and the bed curtains billowed. They jangled against their metal hooks. ‘Are you all right, Ms Malek? I thought the policeman was with you.’

  ‘He left. This is my dear friend Alex. She has traveled to see me.’

  Alex saw the slight sideward shift of Radhika’s eyes. Yes, ‘travel’ was a broad term.

  The nurse nodded. ‘I’ll be back before long to settle you down for the night. No more visitors. It’s nice to see you looking a bit better.’

  Once they were alone again, Radhika stared into Alex’s face. ‘Please listen. I don’t know how long it will be before she returns and I want to finish.

  ‘There is much I shall not tell you – or anyone. It wouldn’t be safe. One day, and I promise this, I will return and share everything with you. That will be when it’s all over. If it is ever over.’

  ‘Is this anything to do with Pamela’s death?’ Alex felt breathless. The room wasn’t cold but it was airless and the barren walls and floors made it feel like a cell.

  ‘Nothing to do with poor Pamela. She was wonderful to me and there was no reason for her to do so much.

  ‘I have to get away from here. First I must get well and make a plan, but then I shall lose myself.’

  A frisson of excitement tightened Alex’s hands into fists. No, she didn’t believe Radhika’s story had nothing to do with Pamela, or other elements in play around here. The woman in the bed, who looked at her with honesty, might not know exactly what she was caught up with and that made it all the more imperative that she be watched and kept safe. Alex wondered what it would take to shake loose the whole story, but now wasn’t the time to push.

  ‘I’ll help you, but I will have to let Tony know what you’ve said to me.’

  The worried frown came back but she said, ‘Of course. I know he will understand the problem.’

  I doubt he’ll understand it anymore than I do.

  ‘I forgot. There is an envelope in the drawer here. Could you show it to me, please?’ Indicating the bed stand, Radhika swiveled in that direction. ‘I was glad the nurse put it there when she saw the policeman looking at it.’

  Alex made it around the bed. She moved more easily all the time – probably because she had not had the opportunity to be still and stiffen up.

  ‘In this drawer?’ she said and when Radhika nodded, opened the top drawer in a metal bed stand made of scarred, white-coated metal. ‘The envelope on top – it’s the only one here.’ A heavy vellum envelope, creamy ivory.

  Alex turned it over and frowned. ‘Warren, Frankel and Gidley-Rains. I recognize Gidley-Rains. He’s Pamela Gibbon’s solicitor.’

  ‘Why would they write to me?’

  ‘I don’t know. You’d better open it.’

  Something rattled against the wall in the corridor and both women stopped breathing. When the sound of receding rubber wheels came, Radhika said, ‘Quickly, please. You open it for me.’

  Of course, the splinted and bandaged hands made the task impossible.

  The seal was well closed. Alex ran a finger under the flap and slid out a heavy sheaf of paper and a cover letter. ‘What does it say, Alex? What is all that, please?’

  ‘William Gidley-Rains is a solicitor in Bourton-on-the-Water. He was Pamela’s solicitor and he writes to tell you he’s enclosing a copy of her will for you to read because you’re a beneficiary.’

  ‘Pamela mentions me in her will?’ Radhika seemed puzzled. ‘Perhaps she wanted me to do something for her. She had been very kind to me.’

  ‘You’re named as a beneficiary, that means she left something to you.’

  Radhika took the papers. ‘She should not give me anything more.’ She sucked in a breath and hissed it out, and her eyes overflowed. ‘Being in Folly has brought me happiness and peace, and horror. I do not know what to do next.’

  ‘We’ll work it out,’ Alex said and hoped she sounded more confident than she felt.

  ‘Will you read the rest of this for me?’ Radhika pressed the papers on her again. ‘Or read it yourself and tell me what I need to know. It makes me so sad to think about.’

  ‘I’ll read as quickly as I can and gloss over the big words. We’re going to get interrupted any time now.’

  Radhika pressed her head into the pillows and said, ‘Thank you.’

  ‘OK. The solicitor will expect to hear from you. He’ll want to see you when you’ve read all this.’ She turned to the first page of the will and skimmed over the verbiage at the beginning. ‘Wow. There’ll be talk about this when it gets out. And it will. Harry’s the first beneficiary. All manner of financial
stuff … it goes on for a couple of pages, single spaced. She had a house at Kew in Cornwall and that goes to Harry.’

  ‘I didn’t know she kept it. We met while I was working there.’

  ‘Harry gets a bundle. Money, houses, investments – it’s endless.’

  ‘You mean he will also own Cedric Chase?’

  ‘Not mentioned here. She had a cottage in Windermere and some sort of place in Switzerland. And rental properties, residential and office.

  ‘Next is Jay Gibbon.’ She read through the bequest to him. ‘In accordance with her husband’s wishes, Jay gets Cedric Chase if he’s turned forty and should Pamela as well as Charles pre-decease him. This is only for Jay’s lifetime – unless he has children. If he dies without issue, the house goes … good grief … it goes to Harry, too.’

  ‘Surely … well, it would seem that he had a reason … I shouldn’t say that.’

  ‘Plenty of others will,’ Alex told her. ‘Vivian is to have and look after the horse Pamela rode all the time, and a racehorse she owned. There’s a bequest to cover the care of the horses. Also jewelry.’

  ‘Radhika Malek is to receive the sum,’ Alex dropped her voice and whispered close to Radhika’s ear. ‘My, my, my. You are going to be a wealthy woman. And Harry and Mr Gidley-Rains are to give you whatever help you want to do whatever you want. Mr Gidley-Rains is executor of the will.’

  ‘But if I’m gone, it goes to Harry, too?’

  Alex, nodded, yes. Radhika was too intelligent not to see the potential drawbacks.

  ‘I would wish that this not be known. I will not speak of it since … I am in the way for some.’

  ‘The spotlight will be on all this, Radhika. It’ll get out. But it can work in another way to your benefit rather than the way you’re afraid of. No one would be foolish enough to hurt you now.’

  ‘No? Perhaps this is why someone already hurt me – badly? I was told I must disappear. Permanently.’

  Platitudes wouldn’t help. Neither would pointing out that beneficiaries of Pamela’s will were all suspects in her murder.

  THIRTY

  ‘You could just come home with me,’ Tony said. After a rapid drive from the hospital they were entering Folly-on-Weir. ‘You’ve got staff to take care of things like this.’

  She had been called by Lily and Hugh about a disturbance at the Black Dog. ‘Someone’s about to get a punch up the bracket,’ as Hugh said, striking fear into Alex.

  ‘It’s my responsibility to make sure people are safe at my pub,’ she said. ‘I don’t want anyone driving drunk – or getting into a fight and hurting other customers.’

  ‘What would you do about it? Throw Jay out?’

  ‘You can be so facetious. I want to get there and assess what’s going on.’

  ‘And Hugh can’t do that?’

  ‘Yes, but he works for me.’ She fidgeted, ready to pull off her seatbelt. ‘I’m the one in charge. I told Hugh not to do anything until I get there.’

  ‘You aren’t up to this,’ Tony said, but rather than make the left turn uphill toward the Dimple and home, he carried on and turned into the alley that led to the parking behind the Black Dog.

  The moonless, blustery night seemed ominous. Each gust brought a smattering of big raindrops. The wipers intermittently screeched across the windshield, leaving streaks that didn’t improve visibility. The colored lights outlining the pub’s roof didn’t lift Alex’s spirits, but glowing windows, curtains drawn, were patches of familiar reassurance.

  ‘I’m not going to hesitate to call the police. I don’t understand why that hasn’t been done already.’

  ‘Don’t you? Come on, Alex, everyone’s treading on broken glass at the moment. They’re all afraid of making waves. Anyway, aren’t O’Reilly and Lamb still staying at the Dog?’

  That was true. ‘They are.’ Alex frowned. ‘If there was a disturbance, wouldn’t they go down and do something about it?’

  Tony pulled into a parking spot behind the building, the vehicle tires grinding through damp pea gravel. ‘I would have thought so. Unless they’ve got some rule about not interfering unless they’re asked to.’

  ‘I am so tired,’ Alex said, leaning against the headrest for a few seconds before pushing the door of Tony’s car open. The back of the building was a hulking dark outline. ‘I’m going to take my mum up on her offer of sleeping at Corner Cottage tonight. I think I’ve just about got what it takes to totter across the street with Bogie and collapse.’

  She didn’t look at Tony, but felt him withdraw.

  ‘You don’t need to go into the pub at all,’ he said. ‘Stay here and let me deal with it.’

  Alex shrugged upright. ‘Thank you for being my rock, Tony, but I’ve got to go in and see what’s up with Jay Gibbon. He’s been through a lot, too. I don’t think it’s anymore than his getting drunk and some others who shall remain nameless enjoying the mix up. Probably mixing it up some more.’

  He sighed loudly. ‘You haven’t even told me what happened after I left Radhika’s room tonight.’

  She felt guilty about that but she had needed the time to think about her conversation with Radhika. Just what she should and should not say wasn’t clear yet. ‘We’ll talk about it later. Maybe tomorrow. Depends on how long this takes.’ What she already feared was that the will had something to do with Jay kicking up a fuss in the bar.

  Tony’s silence said more than if he had complained about her withholding information. He had to assume she knew more than she was saying.

  Alex slid from the vehicle, propped herself on the crutch and made her way into the building via a back door. Tony followed closely behind her.

  The kitchens were empty but a buzz seeped through from the bars.

  ‘Let me do this for you,’ Tony said.

  ‘I’d feel as if I’d wimped out. Mum called me and so did Hugh. I’m supposed to come and take over. You understand, don’t you?’

  Tony pulled her to face him. When she wobbled, he caught her against him until she found her balance. ‘I understand because I understand you. I suppose you’re strength is one … one of the things I love you for.’

  Afraid to speak, or not to speak, Alex held him by the arms, looked up into his face. She had to respond. ‘Careful, good friend. I might take something you say seriously.’ Making a joke out of a serious moment might be a coward’s way out but it was the best she had for now. ‘We’re both strong. That’s what makes us a pretty good team. I’m going in there now. It may be nothing at all. People overreact sometimes.’

  She felt his reluctance to release her but kept straightening, moving away from him.

  The first thing she noticed was that no one was working behind the bar. The next was the absence of music. No constant pinging came from the fruit machines. But there was no lack of noise, although there were only one or two voices that rose repeatedly, angrily, from the main bar.

  Alex swung and hopped her way through until she could see the bar. Lily stood in the entrance to the restaurant as if guarding it from intruders. She saw Alex and pointed toward Jay Gibbon, who sat at a table next to Harriet and Mary’s – who would normally have left a long time ago – and gripped the handle of a beer glass in one hand and a large, crumpled and grimy white handkerchief in the other.

  Approaching from her right, Hugh stepped lightly but with purpose, his features set. ‘Just give me the word and I’ll get the coppers in,’ he said when he got close to Alex. ‘There’s a search going on around the Ebring Manor area though I don’t know what they’d find at this time of night. O’Reilly and Lamb are up there. They left here as if they were going to a fire. Now that we don’t have a local constable anymore these little scuffles turn into bigger deals than necessary if we’re not careful.’

  ‘Someone should be behind the bar,’ Alex said absently. ‘I thought Juste was here.’

  ‘He just saw two women to their car – they were anxious because of all this, I suppose. He should be right in. Too bad Kev doesn’t lea
ve. That man enjoys a dust up a bit too much. Any excuse will do.’

  Kev Winslet never changed. Alex supposed he must be irreplaceable as the Derwinters’ gamekeeper or he would have been fired long ago. He was a loud, argumentative tough when he’d had a drink or two. A big, florid man, the more intense he became, the lower his bushy brows descended toward his eyes. He made the picture of a quintessential country man. Tonight he’d probably had a good deal more than two drinks. Rolling on the heels of the rubber boots he wore with corduroy trousers tucked inside, he thrust his red face forward, his attention firmly on Jay.

  An abrupt stream of garbled words poured from Jay who appeared to address the bar in general. His closest listener was Major Stroud, his face a fearsome shade of purple, who hovered beside Jay’s table, listening and swaying slightly in his suede brogues.

  ‘Do you think Harriet and Mary are too afraid to get up?’ Alex asked Tony quietly.

  He gave a short laugh. ‘I think they’re too afraid that if they do get up they’ll miss something.’

  ‘Those dogs are as bad as they are.’ Alex inclined her head at Katie and Bogie who sat, one beside each sister, looking bright-eyed and pleased with themselves. ‘You’d think they’d be over here giving us a mad greeting.’

  Tony laughed. ‘Ungrateful pair. Everything seems suspended to me. Can you make out anything Jay’s saying?’

  Alex shook her head, no. ‘But I think he’s said plenty already. Look at these people. They’re straining for what he says next – that they can understand, that is.’

  ‘If he was a man he’d come and meet me,’ Jay said clearly.

  ‘Pissed as a newt,’ Kev hollered and staggered about snorting and shedding tears at his own witticism.

  Ignoring Kev, Major Stroud said, ‘And listen to a drunk calling him out? I bloody don’t think so, Gibbon.’ He raised his voice. ‘I ordered a drink, where is it?’

  Juste came in at that moment, bringing a rush of unkind night air with him.

  ‘Keep an eye on things,’ Hugh said, going behind the bar to pour a double Glenlivet.

  A tight knot of regulars stood a short distance behind the major and Kev. Liz Hadley’s husband Sam – Liz only came in when she was due to work – Frank Lymer from Underhill, another Derwinter worker, and several members of the dart team who had played earlier. Mary Burke still held a place on that team, throwing, Alex believed, almost purely from instinct and with her walker placed firmly to the side.