4 Death at the Happiness Club (12 page)

Chapter 16 Conversations in the dark

After the police had gone, Maisie Sue wandered through the house, not entirely sure what to do with herself. If she had been feeling more energetic, she could have gone out to the back yard and done some gardening. Or picked up her knitting or one of the five quilts she was working on. But somehow this wasn’t the time to indulge in these creative pursuits. Or in housework, for that matter.

Eventually she cooked herself corn on the cob followed by a batch of pancakes. The corn wasn’t nearly as nice as it was back home, but you could never eat too many pancakes and they usually tasted the same wherever you were.

The door-bell rang just as the long light evening was turning to twilight. She was in two minds about answering it, but just as she had made up her mind to ignore it, Amaryllis appeared from the back of the house again as she had done the last time.

‘It’s all right,’ she said. ‘It’s only Christopher round at the front – and Jemima and Dave. We met them down at the Golden Peach and they wanted to come along.’

Maisie Sue made up her mind to tell Amaryllis in no uncertain terms never to break into her house again. But for the moment she was quite glad to have company, for she now realised what she really wanted to do this evening was to talk to someone about the visit from the police and a few other things that were bothering her. She missed Pearson for the company: at least he pretended to listen to her most of the time, even if he was secretly storing away the information in case he needed it for some reason connected with his career.

‘Sorry to call so late in the evening,’ said Jemima as Maisie Sue opened the door for the others. ‘But at least it hasn’t got dark yet. I didn’t think you’d mind opening the door when it wasn’t dark, but Amaryllis thought you might, that’s why she went round to the back.’

‘It’s fine,’ said Maisie Sue. ‘Good to see you. Come into the living-room. Can I get anyone a cup of tea?’

She was pleased with herself for remembering the local rules: start with tea and then offer alcohol if necessary.

They all declined tea.

‘But if you’ve got any beer –,' said Dave hopefully.

‘It’s chilled, I’m afraid,’ said Maisie Sue, who had learned other things about Pitkirtly hospitality. ‘Or there’s whisky.’

After she had sorted out all their drinks orders, she joined them in the living-room, which already looked a lot smaller with Dave sitting on the sofa.

'Has something happened?' she said, perching on a small chair and looking round nervously at the assembled company.

'We think somebody's been shot,' said Jemima.

'Ah,' said Maisie Sue, with a sigh. 'So that's why!'

They waited.

'I had a visit from two police officers,' she explained. 'They asked if I had a gun.'

Jemima jumped slightly. Maisie Sue noticed Dave putting his hand over hers. Now wouldn't it be just dandy to have a man like Dave around to take care of you? But she would never fight Jemima for him. That wouldn't be at all neighbourly.

'Why on earth should they think you had a gun?' said Amaryllis.

Maisie Sue was rather insulted by her tone, but she said politely, 'Maybe they were thinking of Pearson. I guess he had one.'

'I'm sure he did,' said Amaryllis, and frowned. 'No, what I really meant to say is, what made them come and ask you that today?'

'They asked about my Happiness Club form too,' said Maisie Sue. 'They said they'd found it.' She thought about this a bit more and added slowly, as the thoughts formed and crystallised in her mind, 'Does that mean - do you think someone was shot at the Happiness Club?'

'That was what one of the neighbours said too,' said Jemima.

'Oh, my!' said Maisie Sue. Perhaps she should have a slug of whisky, just this once. But she didn't want Amaryllis and her friends thinking she had a drink problem.

'Did you send your form in or hand-deliver it?' said Amaryllis.

'Well, I finished filling it out and then I thought it was such a nice day I would walk down to the place and hand it in,' said Maisie Sue. 'But there wasn't anyone there - the front door was unlocked, and I went in. There was nobody there, not in the café bit. I wondered if they were in back so I took the liberty of opening the door and going through, and I looked out in the yard, but there was no-one around at all. So I tried the other door and I found a desk in there. I put my form on the desk and left. I didn't see or hear anything the whole time - no, wait a minute, I heard a kind of rustling sound. Just before I went into the office. I thought it was vermin. I guess you don't have raccoons over here?'

'I guess not,' said Amaryllis. 'What made you think of raccoons?'

'Well,' said Maisie Sue, thinking back to that afternoon, 'it sounded a bit too loud to be a mouse or even a rat. So I kind of imagined it as being bigger.'

'What time was that?' asked Christopher suddenly. Maisie Sue had almost forgotten he was there; it was almost as if he didn't want anyone to notice him. He was sitting on a chair near the window on his own, apart from the others, even from Amaryllis, whom Maisie Sue knew was his special friend. She didn't think of them as sweethearts because that seemed horribly inappropriate. Amaryllis in particular had nothing sweet about her.

'Why, let me think,' Maisie Sue said. 'I guess it must have been about four-thirty?'

'And what time did you see the police cars, Jemima?'

'Oh, quite a bit later. Around half past five I think, dear.'

'Was there an ambulance too?' he said.

'Not that we heard,' said Dave.

'And when did the police come and see you, Maisie Sue?' asked Christopher.

'I guess it was around six-thirty.'

'So whatever happened must have happened during that hour between half past four and half past five,' said Christopher slowly, summarising.

'Did you see anyone else on your way to the place or on the way back?' said Amaryllis.

Maisie Sue considered this carefully. Then something struck her. 'Oh, my! Penelope!'

'Penelope Johnstone?' said Christopher.

'How many Penelopes are there in Pitkirtly?' said Amaryllis, just a tad scornfully. She'd better watch that tongue of hers, thought Maisie Sue. One of these days Christopher will have had enough and go off somewhere. Oh, yes, said the other, more self-critical part of her mind, to Gdansk, with a blonde floozy, for instance?

'Yes! Penelope Johnstone rushed past me,' she told them, trying not to blush about what she had been thinking.

'When was that?' said Christopher.

'Well, that was after I had been to the Happiness Club - I was on my way home. I guess it must have been about four-forty or thereabouts?'

She saw now that Christopher was writing notes.

'So where was Penelope going?' said Jemima.

'She seemed to be headed straight for the Happiness Club,' said Maisie Sue. 'She almost knocked me over, and I thought it was odd that she didn't stop to say hello or to apologise. Then…' She closed her eyes to picture the scene, but opened them almost at once in startlement, remembering. 'She didn't get as far as the Club itself. She turned down a side opening.'

'Into the yard behind the row of buildings!' said Amaryllis gleefully. 'Penelope's the killer! I always thought there was something evil going on under that quilted body-warmer.'

'Oh, dear, I don't think so,' said Maisie Sue, feeling guilty that she had even mentioned Penelope's name.

'But surely,' said Christopher, 'she could just as well be the victim?'

Jemima gasped. Dave patted her hand again. Amaryllis stared at him in amazement. Maisie Sue, realising her mouth had dropped open, closed it quickly in the hope that nobody had noticed.

'Has anybody seen her since then?' he asked.

They all shook their heads in unison. Maisie Sue wondered whether to pour another round of drinks.

'Did you see anyone else?' Amaryllis asked her. ‘Or hear anything?’

'I don't think I did,' said Maisie Sue. 'No, wait. There was something.’ She frowned, trying to remember. ‘A big car passed me, going quite fast, when I was almost home. But I don't know who was inside.'

'Did you see what kind of car it was?' said Amaryllis.

'Oh, yes,' said Maisie Sue happily. Pearson had been into designer cars and had constantly grumbled about not being able to afford one because of Maisie Sue's hair styling habit using up all his money - which was of course a gross exaggeration. 'It was a cream Porsche - I can't recall what model.'

'Are you sure?' said Amaryllis doubtfully. Maybe she was wondering if Maisie Sue knew the difference between a cream Porsche and a custard cream cookie.

‘Yes, I’m sure… There was a cream Porsche in the yard at the Happiness Club too. I don’t know if it was the same one, but there aren’t too many Porsches in Pitkirtly, right?’

‘Right,’ said Amaryllis.

‘There aren’t too many people pretentious enough to have one, either,’ said Christopher. The others nodded and made little sounds of agreement. Maisie Sue looked round at them all. There was something missing. She had often noticed a dissenting voice when they were all together like this. Then she remembered about Jock McLean.

‘I guess this can’t be connected with what happened to the boat?’ she said tentatively.

‘Hmm,’ said Amaryllis. ‘That seemed to be an accident. And yet…’

‘Was it not just a build-up of gas in the water-heater though?’ said Dave.

‘And a spark from Jock McLean’s pipe,’ added Jemima. ‘I always knew that pipe couldn’t be healthy.’

Amaryllis had begun to pace up and down. ‘We need to find out more about the police investigation,’ she muttered.

‘That isn’t usually a problem for you,’ said Christopher. ‘And now you have Charlie Smith as your best friend it should be even easier.’

‘Who’s Charlie Smith?’ said Jemima.

‘Detective Chief Inspector Smith to you,’ said Christopher. ‘But thanks to the magic of the Happiness Club, he and Amaryllis have become quite close.’

Amaryllis glared at Christopher, and for a moment Maisie Sue wondered if she was going to attack him physically. But she just kept pacing and said, ‘No need to introduce red herrings. I’m trying to think straight.’

‘I hope this won’t mean the tea-dance being cancelled,’ said Jemima suddenly.

Maisie Sue recalled seeing the tea-dance on the Happiness Club programme. She hadn’t been sure about it. Fine for Jemima and Dave, who would presumably go together, but going to something like that on her own was a daunting thought. Would it be like a high school dance with boys or men sitting in a line down one side of the room and girls (women) at the other? A barn dance might have been better as a way of mixing people up. But if someone had been shot, it wasn’t very seemly to talk about dancing, was it? She had another unpleasant thought straight after that one.

What if the shooting victim should be Sean or Dee or Dilly?  What if one of them was in hospital even now – or worse? Wouldn’t the others want to give up on the Happiness Club in that case? Or at least move to another town and start again? She couldn’t imagine the two sisters carrying on without their brother. And how upset would he be if one of his sisters had been shot?

But Amaryllis was right: they needed to know exactly what had happened, and to whom, before they could start wondering how it would affect anything.

'We don’t even know if anyone's died yet,' Christopher pointed out. 'If it was just a case of shots being fired, the police might investigate. But there'd be no victim. And no ambulance.'

'I know,' said Jemima. 'I think we've come to expect there to be a victim.'

'There's bound to be a victim,' said Amaryllis. 'And how can we help to solve the case if we don't know anything?'

'Maybe the police have had enough of our help,' suggested Christopher.

Amaryllis frowned.

‘I guess we’ll have to wait till it gets in the papers,’ said Maisie Sue uncertainly.

Amaryllis glared at her.

‘I never wait to see things in the papers,’ she declared with a magnificent disregard for the truth. ‘We need to find out now – tonight.’