Four Silences Broken, page 16
“Finally, you’re here! We thought you’d got lost,” she said, then paused, taking in their serious expressions. “Has something happened?”
“Rob’s been arrested for Rupert’s murder,” said Jo, bluntly.
Lucy stepped back as though she’d been punched. “What? Why?”
“They found the spade I threw down the well,” said Rachel.
The room had gone very quiet, but there were no gasps or exclamations of surprise. Lucy felt as if all the air had been sucked out of her. She sank down on to the arm of one of the sofas. Her mind was a whirl.
“Perhaps you should telephone Harrowell,” suggested Caroline instead, calmly placing her teacup back on its saucer.
“I don’t think he wants you to. I don’t think he has any intention of defending himself. He told us to tell you he’s okay with this,” said Rachel, quietly.
Lucy felt her heart racing. She turned to Jo, who was looking unusually worried and had flopped down on the sofa next to Joan.
“Can’t you do something, Jo? Tell them they’ve got it wrong.”
“Of course I could,” she almost snapped. “As soon as Dawson and Spencer appeared looking so smug with that stupid spade—but like Rachel said, Rob didn’t want me too. I think he’s prepared to go down for it.”
“You all seem convinced he’s innocent,” said Caroline still as composed as ever. Lucy’s mind suddenly stopped racing. She knew exactly what she needed to do. She was going to have to confess everything that happened that night. There was no way she could let Rob go to prison for her and he would—she was sure of that. Rachel and Jo were right, he would admit to killing Rupert to protect her. She took a deep breath and turned to her mother-in-law.
“I’m so sorry, Caroline. I haven’t been honest with you. Rupert and I argued on the night he disappeared, and I hit him with a spade…”
Caroline held up her hand to interrupt her. “I know. He told me.”
“What? When?” stammered Lucy.
“That evening. He arrived at my door, blood dripping down his face and ranting like a madman. He demanded I hand over his father’s guns. He kept saying he wanted to teach you a lesson.”
Lucy’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my God! He wanted to shoot me.”
“I believed so, yes. I tried to calm him down. My first idea was to put some sedatives in his whisky. I only had a small amount, enough to make him drowsy, but he knocked it back and threw the glass against the wall. Then he barged his way into the study. He knew the code for the gun cabinet. He wouldn’t stop ranting. I really did think he would kill you and probably me, if I tried to stop him. I simply couldn’t let him get hold of the guns. I was pleading with him, pulling his arms, begging him to calm down, but he pushed me away and started threatening me.” She paused. The room was deadly silent. Caroline looked Lucy directly in the eye. “I picked up the marble paperweight from the desk and I hit him. He fell to the floor and that was it.”
To Lucy it felt as if time was standing still. “It was you who killed him. I don’t believe it,” she whispered, although even as she spoke the words, she knew Caroline was telling her the truth.
“I had to stop him. It was history repeating itself. My son was going to become a murderer just like his father.”
Lucy looked at her guests. Rachel and Jo appeared to be as shocked as she felt, but the three older ladies were amazingly composed.
“Wait! Who did Alexander kill?” asked Rachel.
“Joseph. His name was Joseph Tarrant Baxter.”
“The archaeologist buried in the churchyard? He committed suicide. Sarah knows all about it.”
“No, he didn’t. Alexander shot him and made it look like suicide. I couldn’t stop him and like a coward I remained silent, but I wasn’t going to stand by and let a Hanley take another innocent life.”
“Why did Alexander shoot Joseph?” asked Lucy.
“Because I was in love with him and was going to leave Alexander to be with him.”
Lucy felt her brain needed to speed up to understand everything she was being told. She was still trying to process the fact Caroline may well have saved her life.
“What did you do next?” she asked.
“Yes, how did he end up in the cave?” added Rachel.
Caroline took a sip of her tea and Mary gave a small cough. She glanced around the room before turning to her daughter.
“We helped Caroline. When she told us what she’d done, Shirley, Joan and I went to the dower house.”
“You moved a dead body? Rupert’s body? I don’t believe it,” said Rachel, shaking her head incredulously.
“We had to help her. She’s one of our oldest friends and she needed us, love,” said Shirley softly, reaching out to pat Caroline on her shoulder. Caroline gave her a weak smile.
“They helped me just as they had once before, when I found out I was pregnant with Joseph’s baby.”
“Rupert wasn’t Alexander’s?” asked Lucy.
“No, of course he was, Lucinda,” tutted Caroline, for a second looking more like herself again. “Rupert was almost identical to Alexander, in all ways sadly. When I discovered I was pregnant by Joseph, I planned to leave Alexander, but he must have realised something was going on before I could speak to him.” She took a deep breath. “He was working for the foreign and commonwealth office at the time. After killing Joseph, he was posted overseas for six months. I hid myself away here with Rupert, but when the time came, I went down to London.”
“What happened to the baby?” asked Jo, who had remained silent, but whose eyes hadn’t left Caroline’s face.
“I think you probably already know,” said Caroline, returning her gaze.
It was Joan who gently laid her hand on Jo’s arm. “Mary and I went down to London with Caroline, and Shirley stayed up here at the Hall with Jack and Rupert in case Alexander telephoned,” she began to explain. “You know how good she is a mimicking people. She could do an excellent impersonation of Caroline—still can.”
“It wasn’t difficult. The line from the Caribbean wasn’t great in those days and a conversation with Alexander rarely lasted longer than five minutes,” added Shirley.
“The three of us went to stay with Annabel Marsden,” continued Joan. “She had a flat in the tower and Hugh was away on manoeuvres with his old regiment at the time. He had no idea what was going on. When the time came Mary and I delivered the baby.”
“How did I end up outside Great Ormond Street?”
“I left you there with a note asking you to be called Jo after your father,” said Joan quietly. “I’d worked there as a student nurse and knew the entrances the staff were most likely to use.”
“And the Hartwell noble?” said Jo quietly. Her face was impossible to read.
Joan nodded. “Yes,” she said, “perhaps it was silly and sentimental of me, but I knew by then Bill and me would never have any children of our own to leave it to. For a little while, I wondered if we could adopt you and maybe raise you as our own, but Caroline was terrified Alexander would find out. He really wasn’t a very nice man. Still, I wanted you to have something, to show that we did care about you.” Joan wiped a tear away from her eye. “I think part of me even believed it might help keep you safe. I waited in the phone box across the road. I was going to make an anonymous call to the hospital, but I didn’t need to. Only a few minutes after I left you two nurses came outside and found you and took you inside.”
Lucy’s gaze flicked anxiously between Jo and Caroline, but both women had their eyes fixed on the floor and wore the same inscrutable expressions. She couldn’t imagine what they both must be thinking. It was so terribly sad. Jo growing up without a family and how on earth did Caroline cope with giving away her baby? She gave her head a shake. Right now, she needed to focus on Rob.
“I can’t let Rob take responsibility for killing Rupert,” she said quietly.
Caroline looked up finally and cleared her throat. “He won’t have to, Lucinda. I’ll do what I should have done a long time ago. I’ll go to the police.”
“No, Caroline!” protested Mary, who looked close to tears. “It’s bad enough you won’t accept any treatment because you think you don’t deserve to live.”
“She’s ill,” explained Shirley. “If they send her to prison, she could die there. It isn’t fair. She’s been through such a lot.”
“But this isn’t only about Caroline. The police won’t believe she could move a body without any help. They’ll start asking questions. What about the other three? They could get into trouble too. They could be charged with, I don’t know, assisting an offender, concealing a body. My mum can’t go to prison,” said Rachel a note of panic in her voice.
“She might not have to,” said Jo. Everyone turned to look at her. “There might be a way that we can get Rob released without anyone here getting into trouble. Jack said Rob was in the pub with him that night. Can you confirm that too, Shirley?”
“Yes, definitely,” replied Shirley looking more serious than Lucy had ever seen her. “It was the night the first lockdown was announced. The place was heaving. Jack was worried about what would happen to the business and Rob was trying to cheer him up. They had a lock-in after closing and played snooker. When I came back from helping Caroline, they were both fast asleep in the games room. I locked the door and went to bed.”
“Good, but if anyone asks, don’t mention the bit about helping Caroline,” ordered Jo. “Lucy have you still got those photographs I found in Guy’s safe?”
“No. I burnt them.”
Jo looked at her in astonishment. “What the hell did you do that for?”
“Because Devizes had a copy of them and was threatening to give them to the police or press. When I told Rob, we thought the fewer copies the better. Have I messed up?”
“Not necessarily. Are you positive the photos were the same? Did they have the time and date on like the ones you had?”
Lucy screwed up her face as she tried to recall that day in the courthouse. “Yes, definitely. In the bottom right-hand corner, just like mine did.”
“Good! And actually that might explain what those two were doing together.” Jo seemed to be almost talking to herself, then she stood up suddenly and pointed at Lucy and Caroline.
“I want you two to come to the station with me in case this doesn’t work out. Shirley, you and Jack phone the station and tell them Rob was in the pub all night. See if you can get anyone else who was there that night and saw him to ring too. Try to create a bit of a fuss.”
*
Lucy climbed into the passenger seat of Jo’s car while Caroline sat in the back.
“Don’t you think the two of you should talk about, you know, everything?” ventured Lucy as they sped away from the hall in silence.
“No,” snapped Jo, “I’ve got more important things to think about right now. I need to have what we say to Spencer clear in my head. Let me concentrate and I’ll tell you what I want you to say.”
Lucy managed to remain silent for ten whole minutes. She could feel the panic rising inside her as she thought about Rob languishing in a cell, prepared to go to prison to protect her. Her eyes flicked anxiously between Jo’s determined face and Caroline’s shell-shocked expression staring back at her in the rear-view mirror. Finally, she couldn’t stand the tension any longer.
“So what’s the plan, Jo?” she asked tentatively, fully expecting to have her head bitten off.
Instead, Jo took a deep breath and began to explain. “Spencer is going to try to say you killed or at least knocked out Rupert with the spade and that Rob either finished him off or moved his body. He’s probably going to make out that the two of you were already in a relationship.”
“But we weren’t!” protested Lucy, but Jo ignored her.
“Listen to me, it is very important that we deny knowing the photos exist and that when they show them to you, you say you took a swing at Rupert with the spade in self-defence but did not make contact and he stumbled and fell. Have you got that?”
“Yes,” replied Lucy obediently, feeling more nervous than ever.
“If they ask you why you never mentioned the spade in your statement, you’ll have to say you were confused or too upset at the time and forgot. In this instance, you being a dizzy blonde might actually work to our advantage. But remember, if anyone asks you a question say the bare minimum, like when you were in court. Don’t start twittering on. We need them to believe that Rupert was alive when you left him, that it was not you, but Guy who was the last person to see him alive. Those damn photos show he was there and his obsession with you gives him a strong motive. That combined with Shirley backing up Rob’s alibi should be enough to get him released.”
“And if it isn’t?” asked Lucy quietly.
“Then we’ll have to tell the truth. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” replied Lucy.
Jo raised her eyes to the rear-view mirror, looking at her back-seat passenger for the first time.
“Agreed,” replied Caroline so softly that Lucy could barely hear her.
They arrived at the police station and Lucy and Caroline almost had to run to keep up with Jo as she marched up to the office where Dawson and Spencer were sitting. They both looked startled as the three of them barged in without knocking.
“What are you playing at?” Jo demanded. “Rob Harrison was questioned when Rupert disappeared. He’s got an alibi. He was in the pub all night.”
“It was his best mate who gave him that alibi. He wouldn’t be the first person to lie for a friend. You know that, even if you are sleeping with him,” replied Spencer.
“That’s irrelevant,” snapped Jo.
Spencer shrugged. “When he was questioned last time, he didn’t have a motive. Now he’s living with Hanley’s widow, and we only have their word for when that relationship started.”
Lucy felt herself flush. She hated the way he spoke as if she wasn’t there, but Jo had told her very firmly not to say anything unless she was directly asked a question.
“What’s more,” continued Spencer, “we now have a possible weapon that belongs to him. He’s got a previous conviction for assault and, most importantly, he hasn’t denied it. He hasn’t even asked for a solicitor.”
“Why did you suddenly become interested in Rob? You’ve been hanging around the Hayloft for a few days,” asked Jo, her tone a little less challenging.
“A hunch. All good coppers act on them or have you forgotten that?” asked Spencer sarcastically.
Before Jo could respond, Dawson reached under his desk and handed her a folder. “Devizes gave him these.”
Spencer’s smug grin had disappeared, but Jo gave Dawson a grateful smile as she opened the folder and pulled out the photos Devizes had shown Lucy.
“He got them from Guy Lovell’s safe. You remember, you said you thought someone had been there before when we searched his place,” said Dawson. Spencer was scowling now, and Lucy thought he might actually thump Dawson.
Jo raised an eyebrow. “Do you think that falls under assisting an offender or tampering with evidence?”
“You tell me,” Spencer snapped back. “According to Devizes you gave copies of these photos to your friend here.” He pointed at Lucy, but kept his eyes fixed on Jo, who had a look of surprise on her face.
“I’ve never seen these photos before in my life. You are welcome to search my cottage and Hartwell Hall if you don’t believe me.”
At that moment, the chief constable arrived in the doorway. Jo, Spencer and Dawson all sprang to their feet.
“Good afternoon, Lady Hanley,” the chief constable said addressing Caroline, then nodding to Lucy, “Lady Hanley,” before turning to his officers. “Can one of you tell me what is going on? The switchboard is practically jammed with phone calls from residents of Hartwell.”
“Spencer has arrested Rob Harrison in connection with the Rupert Hanley case, but he has an alibi.”
“I thought you were here to find a connection to the two London gangsters who used Hanley’s guns in a robbery,” said the chief constable.
“I was, sir, but I’ve been working on a theory,” said Spencer switching his charming smile back on. “Recently, some photographs came into my possession. They show Lucy Hanley arguing with her husband the night he disappeared and brandishing a spade. There is no way his wife could have moved Hanley’s body on her own. I think Harrison helped her. The spade belonged to him and the two of them are now in a relationship.”
“It’s all just speculation,” argued Jo.
“What about the spade we found hidden down the well? I bet it’s the same one she’s holding in those photos. The right expert would be able to confirm that, and I think it could tie in with the fracture to Hanley’s skull.”
“Anyone could have thrown it down the well. We don’t even know how long it has been there. I take it forensics didn’t find anything incriminating, like blood?” argued Jo.
“No, nothing. That mark was only rust,” confirmed Dawson.
The chief constable was now studying the photos. “Where did these come from?”
“Seb Devizes gave them to me,” said Spencer.
“He took them from Guy Lovell’s safe, before we had a chance to search the place,” added Jo.
“I see,” replied the chief constable. He looked up and fixed his eyes on Lucy. “Lady Hanley, when you reported your husband missing, I recall you mentioning an argument, but not that you hit him with a spade.”
“I’m terribly sorry,” stammered Lucy as her cheeks burnt under the gaze of four police officers. “I must have forgotten. It was such a muddling time, and Rupert and I did argue rather a lot. He could be quite violent. I know that photo shows me swinging the spade, but it didn’t make contact. He just stumbled and fell,” said Lucy, repeating the words Jo had told her to use.
“I see,” replied the chief constable as his eyes returned to the photo. He tapped the bottom right-hand corner. “The time shown here is ten minutes past ten. At ten thirty, your housekeeper, erm Jane?”
