Dead Woman's Shoes: 1 (Lexy Lomax Mysteries) (23 page)

Lexy stretched luxuriously and took another glug of beer.

Then she spotted her notebook, where she’d scribbled a couple of telephone numbers when she had been at the Internet café earlier. Checking her watch again, she reached for the telephone, and dialled a number in Cornwall.

“Hello – is that Mrs Bullen? Sorry to call you on a Sunday, but I’ve got some information that might interest you. Yes – about a cat.”

Lexy made a lot of notes during her telephone call, and when she rang off, she tapped her pen thoughtfully against her teeth. She was on to something here. Looked like her hunch about Princess Noo-Noo had been spot on.

It meant that the cat had almost certainly been abducted, and if Lexy’s theory about the identity of the thief was correct, there was a very good reason why Guy Ellenger thought the kid in the hoodie had seemed familiar.

But she needed proof, and for that she would have to be patient until the following evening.

She looked up eagerly at a knock on the door, grabbing a handful of notes and coins.

She would allow herself a leisurely meal, and then afterwards try to make sense of the other peculiar events of the last couple of days – the ones concerning Avril Todd.

She pulled open the door.

“Miss Lomax? One Thai red curry, one fragrant rice, one vegetable tempura, one crispy noodles,” gabbled the grinning delivery man.

But Lexy’s returning grin had stuck on her face. Beyond him stood an ominous presence.

Resignedly, Lexy paid for her meal, and the delivery man was replaced on the doorstep by DI Milo. His eyes were as sombre as a winter lake.

“Can we talk?” Unlike the previous occasions they had met he was dressed casually, in faded jeans and an open-necked shirt, but he still managed to look official.

“I’ve given you my statement,” Lexy growled. “What else do you want?”

He gave her a complicated look. “Just let me come in.”

Reluctantly, she pushed the door open wider and stood back.

“By the way, did you know about...?” He jerked his head behind him to where a group of men in combat gear were crouching at the far end of her garden, telescopes trained on a hawthorn tree.

“Yeah. Long story.”

“I see.” Looking around curiously, Milo settled himself on an easy chair with an orange and brown striped velour cover.

“Have a seat, why don’t you?” Lexy dumped the bag of food on the coffee table.

“So – you decided on Thai tonight after all,” he observed, ignoring her jibe.

“They didn’t make you a detective inspector for nothing.”

“Funny you should say that.”

If he wanted her to ask why, she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.

Kinky walked in, jumped on to the sofa and perched on the arm.

They all sat facing each other over the aromatic bag.

“Don’t let me stop you eating,” said the detective.

“I wasn’t intending to.” Lexy delved into the bag and began laying the dishes out with more defiance than she felt.

Milo’s mouth twisted briefly. “So – that reporter who turned up earlier – did you manage to send him packing without him getting anything on you?”

“Yeah, thanks.” Lexy spooned rice on to her plate, not looking up.

“I’m amazed that anyone from the press would quit so easily,” he went on, shrugging his shoulders. “They usually set up camp.”

She remained silent, spearing a battered cauliflower floret. OK, so he’d sussed out her misunderstanding over the twitchers. What did he want – an apology? In your dreams, copper.

“Anyway,” he continued, “the official release went out this lunchtime, so it’ll appear in the dailies tomorrow, but I’m guessing that Avril Todd’s husband has probably told his friends and family by now, so most of the village will know already.”

Lexy acknowledged this grudgingly. “He called the director of the am-dram group this afternoon while I was there. Um... did the press release go out without my name in it, by the way?”

“Your assumed name or your real one?”

“Either,” she said tightly.

“Don’t worry. You were just a passing dog walker. And hopefully it won’t cause much national interest, anyway.” He paused. “Does
anyone
know you’re here? From your previous life, I mean?”

Lexy shook her head, chewing.

“Not even your friends or relatives?”

“Nope.”

No one to tell. Lexy’s dad was dead, her mother hadn’t been in contact since she went off crusading, Lexy hadn’t seen her grandmother for years and as for her friends...Friends? She hadn’t really got any. Just Gerard’s TV show hangers-on and a bunch of regulars in the local wine bar who were impressed by his minor celebrity status. She was a real Billy-no-mates.

“I felt a bit bad after you left the police station on Friday night,” DI Milo said, in his matter-of-fact way.

Lexy stared at him, a battered mushroom half-way to her mouth.

“I think... well, obviously, I realise now, after our phone call this morning, that it might have looked like I was trying to coerce you into coming out for dinner with me tonight.”

“You were,” Lexy pointed out.

“I didn’t mean it in the way you must have thought. Not in the man, woman way, that is.” Did he give her a slightly pitying look? “I needed to get you somewhere where we could talk. I... just kind of made it difficult for you to refuse. I’m sorry.”

Lexy popped the mushroom into her mouth and chewed it slowly. So he hadn’t been planning on having her for dessert. Fine. “Talk about what?” she said, indistinctly.

“The murder, of course. You obviously knew more about it than you were saying. But I couldn’t ask you officially.”

Lexy didn’t like the sound of this. Why was it obvious?

“I’m not part of the investigation, for a start,” he continued. “I should never have got involved in the first place, actually – I’m meant to be convalescing from an... accident...” Lexy just caught the stricken look in his eyes. “As my DCI took great pains to point out to me on Friday, after you’d gone. While he confiscated my warrant card.”

“Confiscated your ...?”

“Yes. He’s a tetchy little sod.”

“So you’re not here on duty?” Lexy was beginning to feel alarmed.

“Nope. In fact, I’ve been suspended. Long story.” He gave her an ironic smile. “But let’s just say I’m not expecting a bonus this year.”

“So, if you’re suspended,” she said slowly, “what
are
you doing here?”

Milo leaned back in the stripy chair, as if this was the question he’d wanted to answer all along. “That’s easy. Right from the time I ran into you at the vet’s, I had a feeling – call it a policeman’s instinct – that you were up to something, and...”

“Up to something? Just because I’ve got a tattoo and...”

He shook his head firmly. “Nothing to do with your appearance, so forget that. Anyway, I thought I’d keep tabs on you.”

Lexy bit her lip. He’d been following her. Her eyes flicked to Kinky. He gave her a sidelong glance.

“What were you doing at the vet’s anyway?” she said, playing for time.

“What did it look like? Taking my niece’s rabbit for a check-up while she was at school. Her mother – my sister, that is – thought it would give me something to do.”

Lexy frowned. Somehow, she hadn’t expected the policeman to have a family. A niece with a rabbit. “What was that stuff about investigating the vet, then?”

“I made that up. I wanted to get your details.”

She felt outmanoeuvred at every turn. “Isn’t that illegal? Anyway, you’ve been suspended, now. Why do you care what I’m up to?”

“As I said, I think you know more about this Avril Todd thing than you’re letting on.”

“And if I do?”

He sat up. “I might be suspended from the Force, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want track down whoever brutally killed a woman on Friday evening. If you’re sitting on information that will lead me to this murderer, I want to hear it about it. Off the record.” A flash of fire in the grey ice.

It was a better answer. It hinted at a compromise that allowed Avril’s killer to be netted, but let Lexy slip through the fine mesh.

“OK. What makes you think I’m holding out on you?” Might as well get him to spit out what he knew.

“I tailed you to that field on Friday night,” he said, quietly. “I know you were following Avril Todd.”

Ah.

“I
need
to know everything that you can tell me about this.”

“Definitely off the record?”

“I’ve just had my warrant card confiscated and I’m suspended from duty. And my notebook’s at home. I just want information.”

“What will you do with it?”

“Give my colleagues in the Force an anonymous tip-off.”

Lexy raised her eyebrows. “
I
was going to do that.”

Did he look briefly impressed? Relieved? What had he thought she was going to do – find the murderer and tackle him herself?

“Let’s trade information, then,” he said. “The more we can give them, the sooner they can nail this scumbag.”

Lexy felt herself relax slightly. “So you’re going to tell me what you know, too?” she asked.

He nodded impatiently. “Yes, of course. OK – why were you following her?”

Lexy hesitated.

“Right,” said Milo, “let me make this easy for you. You’re a private dick, aren’t you?”

Lexy choked on a noodle.

The policeman remained silent, waiting for her to recover.

“Not intentionally,” she rasped, trying to get her breath.

“Go on then, tell me. You might as well.”

Lexy sighed. He asked for it. “All right, from the beginning,” she said. “I was broke. Still am. I’d just moved here and I was wondering what I was going to do, and suddenly I had this guy on the phone leaving a message that he wanted... well, there was a bit of confusion about what he wanted, but I called him back, and it turned out he wanted his wife followed. He was, er, offering quite a bit of money. He seemed to think he was talking to a private detective and I put two and two together and guessed that the person who owned the place before me must have been one, at which point it occurred to me that it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to pretend that I was her, and to agree to follow this guy’s wife about for one night. So I said OK.”

So much for her agreement with Roderick Todd.

“I know it was wrong,” she gabbled on, “but I was really desperate for cash and the dog needed...”

Milo raised a finger. “So you bought this place from Glenda Doyle?”

Lexy stared at him. “Not directly from her, obviously.”

“Why obviously?”

“I’d have had to dig her up first.”

“She’s dead?”

“Knew her well, did you?” Clearly not, if he didn’t know that Glenda had bought the farm six weeks ago. At least Edward had had an excuse.

“Our paths crossed from time to time. What happened to her?”

“Heart attack.”

“Oh. I see.”

He thought for a moment, then suddenly turned on Lexy. “So you thought you’d just step into her shoes, did you?”

“Well... yeah...”

“That was an incredibly stupid thing to do.”

“You don’t have to tell me.” Lexy felt her temper rise. “It was a spur of the moment thing. A mistake. Haven’t you ever made one? If I’d have known it was going to be like that – Avril getting her head caved in and everything...”

“Welcome to my world.”

“You are.”

“And in answer to your question, yes, I have made mistakes. Plural,” Milo added.

They sat wordlessly for a moment.

Milo started again. “So you say that you were following Avril Todd because you thought her husband thought she was having an affair?”

Lexy nodded.

“But I’m getting from this that he wanted you to follow her for a different reason?”

“Yeah. Not that he told me at the time – idiot. It turns out that she was a... oh crap... she was a poison pen writer, OK? And a blackmailer.”

Milo digested this information. “Gives us a slightly clearer reason why someone might want her out of the way.”

“All right,” said Lexy. “Your turn. What have the police found out?”

“Well, being off the case, I haven’t been able to glean much. A friend of mine in forensics told me, on the quiet, that they’ve had some initial tests back on Avril Todd’s stomach contents sampled at the post mortem.”

Great. Lexy put a battered baby sweetcorn back on the plate.

“It seems she’d taken a strong sedative shortly before she was killed. It was surprising she was able to drive, actually. She must have had a death wish.” He paused. “That is...”

Lexy nodded understanding.

“Now,” he went on, “I followed you to Windmill Hill that evening and parked down the bottom, waiting for you.”

“Oh, did you?” Sneaky git.

“You see Avril Todd get into her car?”

Lexy nodded.

“Did she seem unsteady or faltering?”

“Like she was on drugs?” Lexy thought back to that evening. Avril slamming her front door shut as she had driven past. Nothing faltering about that. By the time Lexy had turned the Panda around and arrived back opposite the house, Avril had been backing her Volvo out of the garage. She had then got out, marched up to close the garage doors, and got back into the car again.

Lexy shrugged. “I didn’t notice her swaying about or anything.” She pondered. “Although she did take a couple of minutes fussing about with her seatbelt.”

Milo nodded and glanced down at the crispy noodles. “You didn’t notice Avril eating or drinking anything when she was driving along?”

“You’re joking, aren’t you? Most of the time I only just had her car in sight. Are you sure she was on sedatives? It was more like she’d taken a humungous snort of coke.”

“True,” he agreed, reflectively.

“Oh, yeah. You were right behind me.” She couldn’t believe she hadn’t even noticed him following her.

“Until you both took a sudden turn up the Nudging lane,” went on Milo. “That’s when I lost you. I took the next turn, intending to head you off. Which I did.”

He glanced down at the crispy noodles again.

Lexy thrust a spare fork at him.

“Thanks.” He almost smiled, but didn’t quite make it.

“So, this sedative?” said Lexy, finally eating her sweetcorn. “Can they tell when she took it? I mean, couldn’t she have taken it when she got there?”