A Killer Wedding, page 15
part #2 of Charleton House Mystery Series
‘What are you waiting for?’ asked Mark.
‘I don’t want to break into the wrong building,’ I whispered.
Mark removed the lid of the nearest bin and pulled out an empty envelope. He shone his torch on the address revealing Nathan’s name.
‘I think we’re safe.’
I rattled the window frame, hoping the catch would be loose, but it was solid. There were glass panels in the door, but they were narrow and there was no way either of us could fit through them, not even Mark who could vanish from view if he turned sideways. Then I felt my foot dislodge something and looked down to see half a brick. My luck was in.
I raised the stone over my shoulder and got ready to throw it through the window.
‘Stop!’ hissed Mark. ‘What if there’s an alarm, or someone hears us?’
‘Get ready to run,’ I advised. I threw the brick and cringed as the window smashed. We ducked down and perched on our heels in silence, waiting for activity from above or the wailing sound of an alarm.
Nothing.
I knocked the remaining glass out of the way, and then pulled myself up. The window was shoulder height so it didn’t take too much effort.
‘Give me a shove.’
There was a couple of seconds’ pause, during which I imagined Mark trying to figure out where he could safely put his hands without facing a sexual harassment case, or having his sexuality questioned. In the end he wrapped his arms around my knees and hoisted me up. I landed in a heap on a pile of opened boxes, rolled over onto my back and opened my eyes. Mark was standing over me, staring down with a look of smug satisfaction.
‘Alright down there? Need a hand?’
‘What the…?’
‘The door was unlocked.’ He looked at me like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
‘Why the hell did you let me break in?’
‘It was funny.’
‘You’re an evil man, Mark Boxer. Help me up.’
We spent the next twenty minutes in darkness, rooting through drawers and searching through bags. I checked inside books in case anything had been hidden. I knew there was no point in even trying to look at Nathan’s computer; the police would have combed through every email and its entire web history. Fortunately, Nathan’s filing cabinets were unlocked so Mark searched through those. Every time a car drove past, we dived out of sight.
‘Won’t the police have done this already?’ Mark asked, starting to sound a bit bored.
‘Yes, but they’re only human. They might have missed something. Even if we don’t find anything that shows he was being threatened, we might find out something else useful about the man.’
‘Well so far I can tell you he spent more on one suit than I spend on my entire wardrobe over the course of a year. He also owned at least one pair of shoes that would fund the cost of my next holiday…’
‘What was that?’
I stood stock-still; Mark froze. There were voices coming from the door where we’d entered – well, where Mark had entered, at any rate. Mark waved in my direction and pointed towards the tiny walk-in wardrobe in the corner of the room that he’d been focusing his search on. We scrambled in and pulled the door shut behind us.
‘Maybe we’ll find Narnia,’ he whispered in my ear.
I held my breath. Someone had entered the room and was going through the drawers, just as we had been. They finally settled on the filing cabinet opposite the wardrobe as I cracked open the door and peeped out. I’d given up holding my breath and now felt like I was breathing so loudly, they could have heard me inhale and exhale back at Charleton House.
I peered through the darkness until the intruder moved out of the shadows. It was Ralph Veazie. There was a clatter behind me and I froze as a number of coat hangers hit the floor. Mark muttered ‘Bugger’ in a rare moment of understatement. Ralph spun round and I stepped out. There was no point hiding anymore.
‘What the hell?’ he exclaimed.
‘We could say the same thing,’ Mark replied calmly, pushing past me and grabbing the handle of the filing cabinet. He yanked it open and reached in with his gloved hand, pulling out a large professional camera. There was no lens attached. ‘This wasn’t in here a moment ago, and I’m sure I remember something about Nathan having a third camera that went missing. Want to fill us in, Ralph? I’m sure you’ve some excuse you can regale us with!’
Ralph looked back and forth between the two of us. He seemed to be struggling for words.
‘I just took the chance… I saw it and…’
‘Saw what? The chance to get back at someone who was destroying your career?’ Mark was doing a great impression of ‘bad cop’. His height and strong voice made him quite an imposing figure. Unfortunately he’d rested one hand on his hip, which was eroding some of the impact, but he seemed to be enjoying himself. ‘So when did you just “take the chance”? After you’d killed Nathan? Was this a souvenir? Something you planned to carry with you as a little reminder when you got all his wedding gigs?’
‘Dear God, no! I didn’t kill him, I swear.’
‘I don’t believe you.’ Mark was edging closer to the terrified Ralph and I started to feel sorry for him. Mark was one of the least threatening people I knew, or so I’d thought, but throw in some atmospheric lighting and a costume of sorts, and he appeared to be in his element.
‘What are you doing in there? Come on.’ The second voice we’d heard earlier was shouting through the door. ‘Just dump it somewhere and let’s go.’
Ralph looked at us and started to smile.
Chapter 21
We listened as footsteps made their way closer and we were joined by Derek. So this was a father-and-son evening out. Derek looked at me and forced a smile; it made him look particularly creepy in the orange gloom.
‘You again. Making a habit of breaking into other people’s property now, are you? I’m already aware you love to stick your nose in where it doesn’t belong.’
The four of us were facing off. We were all in the wrong, being in Nathan’s studio, but when it came to gathering further information, Mark and I had succeeded in a way we hadn’t expected. But we weren’t murderers, nor had we ever been under suspicion, so I felt like we were the ones who had the upper hand. I also knew that Derek was incredibly supportive of his son, so decided to use that as a point of weakness.
‘Why are you returning the camera, Ralph, if not to avoid being caught by the police and having your even bigger crime discovered? Not many people knew where Nathan’s spare camera was – how did you find it…?’
‘You don’t have to say anything,’ Derek interrupted.
‘It’s fine, Dad, I’ve got this. Everyone knew where it was, we saw him leave his bag. It was just waiting for someone to take something, so I took a chance, spur of the moment…’
‘Ralph.’ Derek tried again to interrupt his son, but Ralph just waved his hand in his direction to silence him. I knew Ralph was lying. The wedding guests had no reason to go anywhere near the Antler Gallery and they’d have had no idea where Nathan had stashed his camera bag. Even Ralph wouldn’t have known, unless Derek had shown him.
‘How do you think it looks, Ralph? Someone you have a history of discrediting online is killed and you’re found trying to return his property. The only reason you’d do that is you had something major to hide.’
‘Okay, I stole his camera. He’s been trying to destroy my business for years. I saw an opportunity to get my own back, and I took it. How was I to know someone was going to kill him?’
‘Call the police, Mark,’ I ordered without looking away from Ralph. I wasn’t serious at this point, but I hoped he’d think I was. I heard Mark step towards the phone on the desk.
‘Stop this, Ralph, you don’t have to do this.’
‘Shut up, Dad, I told you I’d take care of it.’
‘I screwed up, son. I won’t have you take the blame.’
‘Dad, please.’
It seemed like once again we were dealing with family members who couldn’t help but argue. First it was a newly married husband and wife, now it was a father and son. What had happened to just getting along? Being nice to one another, or at least not airing your laundry in public, and particularly not killing people?
‘If you hadn’t stuck your nose in, no one would have known,’ Derek snarled at me.
‘Known what? That you killed Nathan because he was destroying your son’s business and sending your investment down the drain? Only he wasn’t; he was just incredibly talented and you couldn’t compete.’ I was looking at Ralph now and could have sworn I saw his eyes glow with rage. ‘Jealousy, a common motive for murder.’ I saw Ralph flinch and thought he was going to come flying across the room at me, but Derek stepped in front of him, blocking his path.
‘He had nothing to do with this. ENOUGH, RALPH! Back off, it’s over.’ With a steely anger spreading across his face, Derek stepped forward. ‘This is nothing to do with Ralph, but think about it.’ He looked around the room. ‘I don’t think your mate Joe would be happy to know you broke into a murder victim’s premises. No one needs to know any of us were here, do they?’ He grimaced, but I guessed it was meant to be a smile. He was giving me an opportunity to do a deal.
‘Too late for that,’ chimed Mark. We all turned towards him with the synchronised motion of curious meerkats. To the side of Mark and on the other side of the window was a man and his dog. The man had his phone out and was, I assumed, interrupting his evening stroll with a call to the police.
‘Joe’s going to kill us,’ Mark muttered. ‘This will go down as well as a horse’s head birthday cake at a child’s party.’
Mark and I watched as Derek and Ralph were loaded into the back of a police car. Derek had alternated between ‘This is all a misunderstanding, officer’ and a furious ‘I have friends in very high places, your job is in jeopardy’. Neither tactic had worked their magic, and father and son were now on their way to the police station, Derek facing a murder charge. Derek had always seemed like a possibility, but his reputation and genuine reasons for being able to wander freely around the house meant he’d kept ducking below the radar. Not anymore, though.
Sadly, Mark and I had also found ourselves on a different kind of radar.
‘I can’t keep covering for you, Sophie, and this time – well, there’s nothing I can do. Harnby is on her way here and she’s probably going to have you arrested and throw away the key.’ Joe shook his head in weary exasperation. ‘Breaking and entering? What were you thinking?’
‘We didn’t break in,’ Mark pleaded. ‘The back door was open. You can check, it’s not been forced.’
‘Then how did the window get broken?’
Mark put his hands up in mock defeat. ‘No idea, but why would we do that if the door was unlocked?’
I decided to stare at my shoes for a moment.
‘I’ll try and prevent Harnby from pushing through charges. We’d never have known about Ralph and Derek if you hadn’t been in here playing hide and seek, but she might not see it that way.’
Mark bowed as if to an appreciative audience. Joe flicked him a look and Mark stopped messing around.
‘Don’t push your luck. Family or not, you’re still a living nightmare for me right now.’
‘This can’t be good for Derek,’ I commented, trying to swing the conversation away from Mark and me. I didn’t like lying to Joe, but I wasn’t going to argue with Mark, and the door had been unlocked so we were only half lying.
‘No.’ Joe smiled. ‘Derek knows his way round the house like a full-time member of staff, so getting to the Antler Room wouldn’t have been a problem for him. He wears gloves for his job and he’d driven Amelia to the wedding, so chances are he still had his gloves on him. We have multiple pieces of evidence that tie him to the camera and therefore the studio. Not that any of that is quite so important now he’s admitted to stealing the camera.’
‘Which you’d never have been able to prove had we not been in the right place at the right time,’ added Mark.
Joe hesitated. ‘Alright, I’ll give you that, but don’t let it go to your head. You’re still in trouble.’
‘Plus he had motive,’ I continued.
‘What about a lack of fingerprints, or is there anything else tying him to the Antler Room?’ Mark was starting to take more of an interest.
‘We should have enough evidence to mean that’s not a problem. Hopefully we can get hold of the suit that Derek wore on the day and there might be some blood on it. Even if it’s been dry cleaned, there’s a chance that some evidence remained. Then there are his gloves which will also be seized for forensic examination. But even without that, we’re building a pretty strong case now.’
I started to think about how easy Derek had had it. Talk about being presented with the ideal opportunity.
‘The wedding was the perfect backdrop,’ I mused out loud. ‘They’re the kind of events where if you’re not with someone, they just assume you’re mingling with others. No one misses each other, no one is suspicious of someone’s absence. He could have been gone for an hour, and so long as he was back in time to sit down for dinner, no one would have noticed.’
‘Apart from the photos,’ Mark added. ‘You’d be missing from the usual group shots.’
‘Agreed,’ replied Joe, ‘only they’d already been done. Everyone was mingling before the meal was served, so everyone was distracted.’
‘This is going to open the field up for local chauffeur companies. Derek did a lot of work at the house,’ Mark said.
I thought about the Mayor, and how Derek sometimes drove the Duke and Duchess if they were in a tight spot. ‘It’s rather sad. A lot of people treated him like a member of Charleton staff. He had a lot of friends in the security team.’ I looked at Mark. He was scruffier than usual in black jeans and an old waterproof jacket, but he was usually perfectly attired in a suit with a waistcoat and tie. It was easy to picture him with a chauffeur’s hat, his neatly groomed moustache the ideal finishing touch. ‘You could embark on a new career, Mark.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well Derek’s business will probably be up for sale once he’s been sentenced. You could offer tours of Derbyshire from the warmth of the Rolls. You’d also make the perfect driver for people heading to the house – you could fill them in on its history before they arrived…’
‘Stop right there,’ Joe interrupted. ‘Have you been in a car with him? He’d be hitting deer like they were bowling pins and knocking over old ladies. We’d be scraping tourists off the bonnet.’
‘Oi, what happened to family loyalties? And there’s nothing wrong with my driving…’
‘Oh hell!’ Joe exclaimed, cutting Mark off and looking at us like we were troublesome teenagers. ‘Harnby is here. Please go home, both of you, and stay out of trouble. I’ll talk to you in the morning.’
We had a quick glance in the direction of the police car that had just pulled up and watched as DS Harnby got out. Before she had a chance to spot us, I grabbed Mark and pulled him in the direction of our cars. It was time to go home. Joe had his man, and without us there, there was a chance Harnby would focus on that, rather than our own foray into a life of crime.
Chapter 22
I didn’t work every Saturday and today was one of those blissful weekends when I didn’t need to be anywhere near Charleton House, but I had promised the Duchess I would deliver a gift basket to Amelia and Patrick before they left, so I stirred my tired joints and rolled out of bed. I was only in my mid-forties, but I had already started groaning whenever I attempted to get out of a low sofa or armchair. I’d also taken to sitting on the edge of the bed for a second, gathering the strength I needed before standing. I was turning into an old woman.
Bleary-eyed, I made my bed and pulled the duvet over Pumpkin. She didn’t stir. We had reached the time when the bed officially became hers, and as a result I wasn’t worthy of any kind of acknowledgment. It was a timeshare arrangement. By eight o’clock in the morning, the bed became Pumpkin’s property, and I’d quickly learnt that she wasn’t keen to negotiate the time of handover. It was amazing how she could be sweet and happy to be cuddled at 7.59am, but if I didn’t leave her alone at eight, she’d look at me out of the corner of a half-closed eye and emit a low growl. I knew my place.
Last night’s dinner had been pork and apple sausages, so this morning’s breakfast was… cold pork and apple sausages! As I munched my way through them, I ground some coffee beans, and then made myself a mug of coffee so large it would have been better described as a jug. I had opted for jeans and a cosy Fair Isle sweater that had been a gift from a favourite aunt many years ago. Wearing it meant I had finally succumbed to autumn and given up all hope of a final blast of heat before we rolled into winter.
My hiking boots were next to the front door, along with the basket that Joyce had helped me fill. It was overflowing with Charleton House goodies: bags of coffee, boxes of chocolates, three bottles of wine that had been made exclusively for sale in our shops by a friend of the Duke. There was jam and chutney, biscuits, sweet and savoury, and my favourite honey that came from beehives on the estate. It weighed a ton and I had been pleased to hear that Amelia and Patrick were going to his mother’s for the night rather than heading straight to the airport, so at least they could leave it there and enjoy it on their return.
I sat at the kitchen table with my feet up on the chair in front of me. I didn’t have a sense of victory or even mild satisfaction after Derek and Ralph had been picked up by the police last night. It was clear that Derek in particular had motive and more opportunity than anyone in the house; the means had just fallen into his lap, so to speak. But I felt sorry for everyone who had trusted him over the years. He had spent time alone with the Duke and Duchess, and he was able to wander the house more freely than many Charleton House staff because he had been trusted and liked. Yet he was capable of the kind of anger and spur-of-the-moment action that saw him take advantage of someone’s moment of weakness, and instead of helping Nathan, he had killed him. It was sad, but with hindsight, incredibly simple.
