Classic In the Pits--A Jack Colby classic car mystery (20 page)

‘I did. I rang him before that disastrous meeting. Glenn called that, and I knew there'd be trouble of some sort.'

Which explained my urgent orders from Arthur to attend it. I was puzzled by the fact that Jessica had pre-empted Glenn over Tim and why Arthur hadn't stepped in. ‘What did he say?'

‘That Glenn was in charge and would be making his report to him in due course.'

Not the Arthur I thought I knew. The one I knew was decisive, clear-minded and believed in action. Had Miranda Pryde thrown more of a spell over his judgement in the last day or two than I had realized? With Mike's death that was entirely possible. It might also explain his reluctance to tell Glenn and Fenella about Mike. He and Miranda were currently together in a separate compartment of his life. Even so, Arthur liked being in control, and I wondered uneasily whether his reaction to Jessica's call had been a move on his chessboard? If I was right, what other moves might he have up his sleeve and did they relate to Mike's murder?

That took me back to Doubler and his warning (or threat) that murder might not stop with Mike. And that was a very unpleasant thought. Now another one occurred to me. If it had been a warning then – as Doubler was not going to be concerned over the Howell family, only Mike's – that meant, as I'd feared, that Jason or, much more likely in the circumstances, Arthur could be the target.

Jessica looked exhausted, so we called a halt on Old Herne's, and when Tim, Len and Zoe had departed we turned to more private matters. The late afternoon seemed to call for a walk over the fields to a country pub where we could feed the ducks on the village duck-pond and then ourselves. Idyllic. And so, as Samuel Pepys so famously said, to bed.

I rang Nightmare Abbey early on Friday morning in some trepidation, and was glad that Jason answered not Arthur. I shot questions at him. ‘Is Arthur OK? When can I come over? I take it you've told him what happened at the meeting?'

Jason didn't sound surprised at the question. ‘Some of it, and yes, he's here. Visitors. Dust needs to settle. Lots. Come tomorrow.' A pause. ‘Should I be there?'

‘I'd like to see you, but I need a chat with Arthur alone.'

‘Up the airy mountain, down the rushy Glenn,' Jason misquoted cheerfully. ‘Glenn's
very
rushy, isn't he? We daren't go a-hunting, for fear of Great Big Men. Such as you, Jack.'

‘I don't terrify people.'

‘Perhaps you should. Don't you want to know the truth about my father's murder?'

I was getting used to this jack-in-a-box style. ‘Jason,' I said patiently, ‘what time should I come?'

‘Nightmare Abbey looks its best in the late afternoon sun. Not too many ghosts walk then.'

There was no point asking whose ghosts these might be, so I said I'd be along about four o'clock, and Jason informed me he'd have the cucumber sandwiches ready.

‘You took your time,' Arthur observed as soon as I arrived. As it was exactly four o'clock I presumed he was referring to the gap since the Old Herne's meeting. The two-day gap must have been Jason's choice, perhaps to give Glenn and Fenella first shot at protest or perhaps Jessica. Arthur was in his own rooms, which were on the first floor overlooking the gardens at the rear of the house. No moat though; just a trickle of a stream wound its way through the gardens into the distance.

‘I was giving you dust-settling time,' I replied.

‘One thing I've found in life, Jack. Dust seldom settles, it merely rests before the next swirl.' Arthur looked buoyed up rather than flattened by the storm that must have erupted around him in the last couple of days. ‘Jason's bringing tea in later. We'll get the talking done first.'

‘Old Herne's,' I began. ‘You asked me to go to that meeting, but that wasn't why you employed me or why I'm still involved. You wanted me to investigate Mike's death.'

‘And that is what it's about, Jack,' he replied. ‘Old Herne's, the people who run it, whether it should be run at all – that's all nothing beside the loss of my son. Not for one moment is that not in the foreground. All this crazy stuff that's going on at the club – it's a way to find out whether what happened to Mike had anything to do with Old Herne's itself. Even I can't foresee everything though. I didn't see Ray Nelson's coup coming. I've heard about it now from Glenn, Peter, Ray himself, Jason and Jessica. Now I want to hear from you, the outsider, about every blow, every move, every word that you can remember from that meeting.'

I was prepared for this, having made notes when I returned to Frogs Hill, so I made a good job of reconstructing what had gone on. When I finished, Arthur nodded slowly. ‘That more or less fits in with the other accounts, all of which unsurprisingly had different slants. You've put it together well. Now tell me what's bothering you, Jack. I can see something is.'

I chose the easier of the two issues. ‘First, Jason. He said he was in control of Old Herne's as well as you. What did he mean by that?'

‘I'll explain but tell me the next problem before I do.'

‘Why hadn't you told Glenn about Mike? It would have avoided all that uproar on Thursday.'

‘Because I reckoned – and still do – that he already knew.'

‘
What
?' I was exasperated. ‘Then why not tell me that?'

He'd had time to prepare his answer of course. ‘Because it was me Glenn was mad at. It had nothing to do with Mike's murder.'

Surely he could see it had everything to do with it. Removing a trustee-cum-manager from control was one thing, removing the trust founder's son was in a different league.

I tried to keep calm. ‘And Fenella? Did she guess too?'

‘Probably. Glenn couldn't keep his own bank password a secret if someone pressed him hard enough.'

My face must have betrayed my reaction.

‘Surprises you, eh?' Arthur continued. ‘I'm a billionaire, Jack, and I didn't get that way by putting my heart instead of my head first. I love Glenn, don't think I don't, but a businessman he'll never be.'

‘But –' I struggled for reason, wondering if Arthur had taken leave of his senses – ‘you've just put him in charge of Old Herne's.'

‘Correct – or nearly. That's what I need to explain. I don't believe some passing maniac killed Mike – which means it was someone close to Old Herne's, including the Nelsons and Howells. You think I'd go back to the US with my family with Mike's murderer not yet found? No way. I've appointed Glenn manager, not trustee, for three months or so to keep him quiet until Mike's murderer is behind bars. It will keep them busy. Glenn assumes he'll be staying on but all I want is to find out who murdered my son, which won't happen if I scatter the players. I'm not leaving until it's sorted out, and nor is my family. This is the way to do it. Understood?'

‘Loud and clear.' This was no time for all the ‘buts' rushing through my mind, chief of which was Jason.

‘Right. Next. This matter of Tim and the other volunteers that Jessica's told me about. That's off centre. Tim's staying on at Old Herne's. Paid, this time.'

‘Working for Glenn?'

‘No. Answerable to Jason.'

Back to the joker in the pack. The cards in my hand seemed far fewer than I had realized. It was Arthur who held all the kings, queens and aces – and now it appeared the joker too.

‘Jason has a watching brief on my behalf,' Arthur continued, ‘on what's going on with Old Herne's. As for Tim, his official role will be Curator and Track Manager.'

Excellent. ‘Paid by Jason privately?'

‘No, by Old Herne's.'

Arthur was playing a dangerous game. ‘Isn't that awkward if Glenn's CEO for three months?' I asked. ‘At this rate there'll be no Old Herne's left to save. You know Glenn's planning to chuck out a lot of the automobilia from the hangars? Can you and Jason stop that?'

‘I have. I guess even I can get old, and thinking about Mike I took my eye off the ball and let it get away from me. But I'm back on top now. I've told Glenn that from now on he's only in charge of the clubhouse, including bookings, reunions, renovations – it needs that. Fenella can do her makeover.'

He saw my expression. ‘It's crying out for it, Jack. The hangars won't be touched without Tim's agreement.'

‘Good.' I tried not to sound too clipped. I felt I'd been working on this case as an assistant junior rather than an independent sleuth, and if it wasn't for Mike and Jessica I'd throw in my hand completely.

Arthur came near to an apology. ‘Too used to keeping things to myself, Jack. I like working on a need to know basis, but I got it wrong. Here's how it works. Glenn is temporary CEO but Jason is effectively in overall control until we get a new trust agreement signed. He'll be in it. Jason feels as strongly about the place as I do – and, incidentally, as strongly about Mike's murder. Trust agreements have to cover what happens in emergencies if the trustee is incapacitated or dies as Mike has. So as well as the trustee, a successor trustee had to be named. Mike was the successor trustee to Miranda. Only Mike, myself and more recently Jason knew what was in the existing trust agreement which was drawn up when Miranda died.

‘As you know,' he continued, ‘I came over here with the intention of closing Old Herne's down, but when the family and the Nelsons came to the Cricketers for drinks the evening before Swoosh I was still in two minds. There were questions about what would happen when Mike retired so I told them how the agreement worked, with the successor being his wife and, after her, Jason. With Mike's death, and Lily no longer being in the picture, Jason will be the trustee under a new agreement. Unless, of course, I change the terms or revoke the trust completely.'

And therein, I thought, could lie a threat to Arthur. ‘Does Glenn know about this?'

‘Only what I said at the lunch. In view of Mike's death, he knows only that he's acting manager and that Jason's representing me in overall control.'

I had to ask. ‘And Jessica?'

Arthur smiled. ‘Miss Hart will forge her own way.'

A polite rebuff. ‘Does she know the situation?'

‘Only as much as Glenn does.'

‘What about Anna Nelson's position?'

Arthur sighed. ‘Leave her to me. I'll see she's all right. She's out to please at present. She insisted we had a family gathering at High House last evening to decide about Mike's funeral. Not that we've any idea when that will be yet. Ray was not pleased, but he had to be present, of course.'

At that moment Jason arrived with the tea and cucumber sandwiches as promised and the ensuing conversation centred on the hangars, on Tim, and on possible fund-raising events for Old Herne's – for which they both claimed my input would be invaluable. The Porsche was not even mentioned, so I asked whether the registration had gone smoothly.

‘Thank you, yes,' Jason told me.

‘And it's running well?

‘Perfectly.'

Another stone wall. ‘Will you take it back to Old Herne's?'

‘Not yet.' Jason picked up a sandwich. ‘I grow the cucumbers myself. Did you know that?'

It all sounded great, but whether it would work out in practice was another matter. I decided to let the dogs of Old Herne's lie for a day or two in the hope they were sleeping off the effects of the rows, and Frogs Hill seemed a comparative haven for the next few days – I say comparative because Len and Zoe had the Lea-Francis to finish and it was clear from the set look on their faces that it wasn't going well. For me, it represented a stretch of clear road, however, after the recent gridlock at Old Herne's. There's something about looking out at the rolling hills beyond and the peaceful fields that does wonders for putting matters into perspective. Common sense might tell you that these peaceful fields are hiding a mountain of woes and centuries of crime and that even chalk downs have their sinkholes, but for me the sight was blissfully reassuring.

I had my doubts over Arthur's plan, partly because it seemed too full of possible pitfalls. I had to choose between thinking of him as a great brain now bowed down with grief and age and trying to figure out if something else lay behind his plan. Glenn manager for three months, Arthur wanting everyone under his eye while Mike's killer was hunted down … did the two mesh? Was Arthur pinning his hopes on me by keeping the group closest to Mike together? Hopes were surely too vague a basis for Arthur to work on, unless he was indeed too tired and sad to cope. Did he
expect
a result? I couldn't see any grounds for it so far. I realized it was much more likely he had his own ideas on who killed Mike. Was he guessing, though, did he know, or did he
fear
? What if the result he feared was that his own son Glenn was the culprit? That would fit the plan. Glenn had motivation if he'd been counting on the club closing down. To me that translated into a need to eliminate all other possible factors in Mike's death – including any remaining doubt over the Porsche's involvement.

Accordingly, on Friday I drove the Alfa to Lewes, with Brandon and Dave's reluctant permission. Alex Shaw had been traced, arrested, charged and released on police bail. I'd come alone which made me feel as though I were leading a Charge of the Light Brigade, every man jack of which had turned round and gone home except for me. I figured that it would not be in Alex Shaw's interests to tell Doubler of my visit on the grounds that Shaw had little hope of proving his innocence in the case, which meant that the further he kept from Doubler the better for his health.

My plan today was to behave as though Shaw was not aware that the car had been stolen, thereby hoping for an indication of whose idea it had been to steal it in the first place. I had rung him on this basis, telling him I'd come from the Kent Police Car Crime Unit and angling it that it was in his interests to see me if he was an innocent party.