Lois Meade 14 - Suspicion at Seven (8 page)

H
azel was pleased to see Lois, as always, and asked about the family and Lois’s friend Mrs. Black.

“She’s still in shock, I think,” Lois said. “Seems very calm and quiet, and carrying on the bakery on her own. I don’t know what will happen about the jewellery business, though I know she helped Donald with it. She might decide to continue with it on her own, but it would be a lot of extra work.”

“Have you bought any of the stuff? I went to one of his parties, and it was really nice. Very tasteful, but sparkly and nice, I thought.”

“I bought a present for Josie. A real pearl, set as a pendant. I think my mum and her friend were thinking seriously of being Donald’s sellers, setting up their own parties and so on. I think that’s how it works.”

“Would he have taken a percentage of what they sold?”

“No, they paid a membership fee, so they were members of the scheme. At their first party, they would get a starter pack at a big discount, and this was for demonstrations. Then they would take orders, and again take a cut as they sold the stuff. It’s complicated, but I know there are incentives to get more and more recruits to sell jewellery. There were cleverly disguised things like having to find a set number of recruits in your first month of membership. After that, I’m not sure how it worked.”

“You must have been a bit worried about your mother. Sounds like one of those notorious pyramid party ideas.”

“Yeah, well, I think Donald must have found a legal way. He’s been doing this scheme for some time, ever since he worked for the chiropodist. Fortunately, and according to my mother, no money had changed hands, except the membership fee, and that has a get-out clause.”

Lois looked at Hazel, who was frowning. “And no, Hazel Thornbull! I did not drown him to extricate my mother from a crooked scam!”

Hazel laughed. “As if you would,” she said.

“But someone did, unless he was in trouble, and jumped,” said Lois, serious now. “Though for reasons unknown, at the moment. But the police are on to it.”

They left the subject now and switched to New Brooms business. “There’s a possible new client,” said Hazel. “She phoned this morning. Lives over in Fletching, in a posh house by the river. I know it, from when John had a Prentise friend in the village. A Mrs. Prentise.”

“Spelt with an
s
? It’s an old Tresham name, but most people spell it with a
c
. I expect they get fed up with people getting it wrong. Well-known family in the seamier side of Tresham life. Go on.”

“She said she was getting old and no longer able to keep the house as clean as she would like. I told her you would be in touch. Okay?”

Lois said she would go over tomorrow morning, so she would be able to sort out a rota for her with the others at the meeting.

After they were through with business matters, Lois asked if all was going well on the farm. Hazel’s husband, John, was an old friend, and their little daughter one of Lois’s goddaughters.

“John’s very busy. He’s bought new stock. A beautiful rare-breed bullock with curly hair, and a few heifers. You must come up and see them, Mrs. M. Any time. You’re always welcome.”

Lois thanked her, and gathered her papers together. “Better be off now. I have to call in at the police station at three, to be grilled by Inspector Cowgill on what I know about the Blacks. Not something I look forward to.”

“Take care, then. See you later.”

*   *   *

Inspector Cowgill was waiting in reception, and escorted her up to his office, where he sat down behind his desk and smiled broadly at her.

“What’s new, then?” Lois said. “You look pleased with yourself this afternoon.”

“You know perfectly well that you are the person I most want to see at any time of day or night. But . . . First of all, how are you coping with Mrs. Black and her sad loss?”

“I’m all right, but poor Aurora is coping much too well.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning that she is quietly back into her usual routine in the bakery, and does not speak of the accident unless the subject is brought up by someone else. I suppose that’s natural, but she looks like she’s holding on tight and might give way any minute.”

“Let me know if you need any help with her. She doesn’t seem to have any helpful relations. No mother or sister. There is a daughter, I believe? Training to be a nurse? No, our Aurora’s background is a bit of a puzzle. But she might like to talk about that to you? And then there’s Donald. Neither of them seemed to have brought any friends or relations with them when they turned up in Brigham.”

“I’ll have a go. But first you can tell me something about that woman who was strangled in the hotel. What happened to the necklace? Does it go into a strongbox in the police station, or what?”

“Why do you ask? Do you want to see it? It is a valuable piece of evidence. I can probably get a photograph of it to show you, but I cannot allow you to keep it. The case is still very much open.”

“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think it was important. I remember Donald saying they could order more of the same. Paperwork might be interesting, if this is the one ordered to replace Josie’s. Customer’s name, et cetera?”

“Best to find a photo now; then it won’t leave the station.”

Cowgill lifted his telephone and made a call. “It’ll be here in a few minutes,” he said. “There will be prints, of course.”

They exchanged pleasantries about Josie and Matthew until a constable came in, bearing a folder with a photograph inside. Lois looked at it closely. It was a largish pearl, set into a slender silver chain.

“Oh dear,” she said. “I think it’s the same.”

“Same as what?”

“Same as one I bought from Donald Black for Josie’s birthday. Didn’t you see it at that lunch we had in the hotel? I think she was wearing it then. She may be reluctant to keep it now, especially because it looks the same. Anyway, I don’t suppose she is likely to see Sylvia’s, or even this photograph.”

The inspector took the photograph and looked at it for several seconds. Then he returned it to the folder. “Someone was very keen to silence poor Sylvia,” he said.

G
ran woke early, and after washing and dressing quietly, she went down to make herself an early cup of tea. She had planned to go round to see Joan mid-morning, so that they could privately work out how to retrieve their sizeable membership fees, already showing paid out of her bank account, and presumably Joan’s, too. Now she needed to look for the documentation they had received from Brigham Jewellery, and then all would be well.

She found the folder they had been given by Donald and, to her chagrin, could find nothing relating to the membership fee. This was the first time she had really looked at the pieces of paper carefully. She had previously assumed anything Donald had given her would be bona fide.

“Mum? Are you all right?” It was Lois, standing in the doorway in her dressing gown, rubbing her eyes. “You’re up early, aren’t you?”

Gran slid the folder under a cushion and said she had only woken up and thought she’d make an early start. “It’s your New Brooms meeting at twelve, and I like to be ready to supply refreshments.”

Lois knew this was an excuse. Her mother had been making trays of coffee and biscuits for the Brooms staff for several years now, and needed only about half an hour’s notice.

“Why don’t you go back to bed, and I’ll bring you and Derek your cups of tea. By then it will be time for me to start on breakfast. Best smoked-back bacon with mushrooms this morning.”

Lois frowned and shook her head. This was not the usual Gran. She was customarily full of doom and gloom at this time of the morning. She’s hiding something, thought Lois. And I bet I know what it is.

“We’ll be fine, thanks,” she said. “I’ll tell Derek about breakfast, and he’ll be down like a shot.” She smiled at her mother and disappeared upstairs.

Gran pulled out the folder, took it into the kitchen and put it in a large shopping bag, meaning to take it to Joan’s. She had worried away a couple of hours before going to sleep last night, and in the end come to the conclusion that people don’t get murdered for no reason. Donald Black was obviously up to no good with his mistress, and in Gran’s book that made him untrustworthy. Before sleep finally came, she had decided she wanted no more to do with it, and would encourage Joan that the two of them should get out as soon as possible.

Between the two of them, they should be able to crack it. She supposed she should ask Derek for help, or even Lois, who, after all, ran her own business efficiently. Well, if all else failed, that is what she would do, and put up with the lectures and I-told-you-so’s.

She turned up the Rayburn and began to heat the frying pan.

*   *   *

Joan, meanwhile, had another plan. She suspected that Donald was running a dodgy pyramid enterprise, and had been given a push into the mill water, where he would be drawn by the current approaching the mill wheel. Quite clever, really, she thought, as she washed her few breakfast dishes and swept the kitchen floor. And all cooked up by someone with a taste for the dramatic!

Next, a daily chore that she quite enjoyed. She had a beautiful ragdoll cat, and every day she brushed its fine long coat. This morning, the cat, named unimaginatively Hairy-puss, stood beside the heap of fur, meowing loudly for its saucer of milk, a reward for standing still as Joan brushed.

“There you are, then, puss,” she said. “And there’s Elsie coming down the passage, looking as if the end of the world is nigh!”

Gran waved through the kitchen window, and came on in, clutching her large bag, and steering well clear of the cat, which was inclined to make her sneeze.

“Morning, gel,” she said. “I’ve come to get us sorted out. Are you ready?”

“I’m more than ready,” said Joan. “I’ve thought of a master plan, which will not only get us out of trouble with our nearest and dearest, but should make us a bit of pocket money on the side.”

Gran stared at her. “It had better be good, Joanie,” she said. “My only concern is to get our money back as soon as possible and hear no more, ever, about such plans. Are you going to get the kettle on? Sounds as if we shall need a coffee or two before we’re finished.”

When they were settled in Joan’s comfortable sitting room, Gran said that she would set out what she planned to do, and then Joan could tell her about the fancy ideas she seemed to have dreamed up.

Joan agreed, smiled at the sarcasm, and told Gran to get going.

“Well, as you know, my Lois is working with the police on trying to find Donald’s killer. If there was one. One of my guesses is that he had got himself in such a financial tangle that he jumped into the water, thinking someone would fish him out before he drowned and then he could confess why he’d done it and everybody would be sympathetic and helpful. We need to know if anyone was standing around and saw him jump.”

“Maybe not, if he didn’t get fished out in time?”

Gran nodded. “Got it in one,” she said. “And then, there’s the other possibility, that someone was there, and that same someone had a grudge against him and gave him a shove.”

“Could he swim?” asked Joan.

“Dunno. Something else to find out. Lois knows his wife pretty well. We can get her to find out. You can bet the police have been on to that right away.”

“So when we’ve found out all of this, how does it help us get our money back?”

Gran looked doubtful. “When we have all the information we need on who’s behind this jewellery thing, we go straight there and demand our money back. There’s bound to be money in the kitty somewhere. Now, can you do any better? I’m all ears.”

“Right. First of all, we get our money back, minus a few pounds. We do this by finding out from Lois’s friend Aurora who is taking over the jewellery business. I suspect she will do it herself. She must know all aspects of it off by heart, judging from the way she held the whole thing together that night when they did a party in Farnden. Then we get in touch and say we wish to remain in the scheme, but on our own terms.”

“What d’you mean, on our own terms? You have to agree to the whole bit when you become a member.”

“Ah, but that was in Donald’s day. Now, say, it is Aurora. She will be only too pleased to listen to my plan, I am sure. We start in the same way, except we do it straight. That is, we give a thank-you fee to Aurora for putting us in touch with the suppliers, and then we buy direct from them. As extra inducement, we say we will give her a small cut on any future orders we produce. Then, we carry on as and when we feel like it. No new recruits. Just us. And thanks to the good old Women’s Institute, we’ve both got enough savvy to do the organising, and a ready-made network of contacts to boot!”

Gran frowned. “I see a fly in the ointment,” she said. “Supposing Aurora is not the boss, and the Blacks never have been? Suppose Donald was never top of the pyramid, never made the rules but just obeyed them?”

“Easy,” said Joan. “We don’t bother. It would be a bit of fun, but nothing else. We’ve both got enough to live on, and there’s plenty of other things to do. A craft afternoon, for instance.”

“And what craft were you thinking of taking up? I remember your last effort, Joan. A jersey with an ever-expanding neckline.”

Joan began to laugh, and then Gran joined in, and they both agreed to meet again and never to take the whole thing too seriously.

“But we’ll give it a go,” Gran said, not wanting to hurt her friend’s feelings. After all, Joan had given it a great deal of thought.