Murder in House (30 page)

Uh-oh, thought Ellie. Not a good idea to call the police ‘plods'. Even if they were. And yes, a quick look informed Ellie that both members of the thin blue line were better equipped with brawn than brain.

‘Now, now,' said the larger of the two paramedics to Anthony. ‘If you'll just hold steady for a minute!'

Anthony managed to break the hold the paramedic had on him, and kicked Denis where it hurt most. Denis bent over with a yell, one arm covering his tender spot, the other flailing. The flailing arm caught Anthony on his nose, making it bleed. Denis must have caught Anthony in the same place as Armand had done. Diana screamed, naturally. Ellie wanted to laugh, but didn't quite dare.

Heavily breathing, the two men were dragged apart by the sorely tried paramedics, with the slightly tardy aid of the police.

Denis sank to the floor, writhing. Diana tore into the kitchen and came back with a wet cloth to apply to Denis's face, which was not where he was hurting most. Anthony covered his own face with both hands, moaning.

At least they weren't all shouting now.

‘Now,' said the male officer, breathing hard. ‘Just what's going on here?'

Neither of the fighters seemed capable of talking, so Ellie volunteered an opinion.

‘Judging from previous behaviour, I imagine that Mr Prior – that's him with the bloody nose – came to elicit some information from Denis – that's him on the floor. Mr Prior, finding himself met with a refusal, set out to wreck the place, whereupon Denis objected, as one would, wouldn't one?'

‘He's broken my arm!' That was Anthony.

‘I don't think so,' said his paramedic. ‘But let's have a look, eh?'

‘He pushed past me,' gasped Denis, still holding on to himself. ‘Said I had his sister here.'

Paramedics and police turned to look at Diana, who said, ‘Don't be stupid! I'm not his sister. I'm Diana Quicke, and this is my flat!'

Again, Ellie had to subdue a desire to laugh out loud. ‘Suppose we all quieten down and let the paramedics do their job?'

The television set, which had been teetering on the brink for some time, now descended to the floor with a crash. Diana burst into tears. ‘My beautiful new telly!' She aimed a kick at Anthony, and missed.

Anthony laughed. ‘Serves you effing well right.' His eyes were watering, blood was pouring down his chin, and he looked far from the well-groomed young man of the photographs Ellie had been toting around.

‘Bastard!' cried Diana, and would have tried to kick him again if she hadn't been pushed back and down into a chair by the woman police officer. Everyone's eyes then went to Diana's bare feet and legs. And then to Denis's bare feet and unbuttoned shirt. And back to Diana's unzipped black skirt. Ellie could almost see the thought balloon over everyone's heads, ‘They were at it in the bedroom.'

‘Harrumph! Well, now!' said the male officer, notebook to the fore. ‘Anyone need to be taken to hospital?' He cocked an eye at the paramedics.

‘No great harm done,' said Denis's paramedic. ‘Superficial cut to the head, bruise on chin, possible concussion, have to watch it for a few hours.'

Anthony's paramedic had been stemming his nosebleed and moving his arm around. ‘A bloody nose and possible sprained elbow for the other.'

‘He broke my arm!' insisted Anthony. ‘It needs to be X-rayed. I'm going to sue the pants off him and get damages, as well.'

‘It's not broken,' said the paramedic, packing up to go.

Anthony turned to the police. ‘I insist you arrest this man. He assaulted me and broke my arm. You all saw it.'

‘No, we didn't,' said the woman police officer.

‘My father,' said Anthony, ‘knows your chief constable well. You'll lose your badge for this.'

‘Your father,' said the male police officer, looking wooden, ‘may be King Canute for all I know. We can't report what we didn't see. Now, let's have it from the beginning.'

Ellie suggested that everyone sat down, and with the departure of the paramedics, they righted the furniture and found themselves seats.

Diana eased herself closer to Denis. ‘I don't know this man from Adam, but the other day I was showing some people round a house I own not far from here and he came to the door and said was I Ms Quicke, which of course I am. He said I was hiding his sister, which of course I wasn't. He was wearing an animal mask, and he really frightened me. When I said I didn't know what he was talking about, he started to hit me. You can still see the marks.'

And indeed, the police could.

Anthony jeered. ‘How did you recognize me, when I was wearing a mask?'

‘I didn't recognize you then, no. Luckily a friend intervened and you ran away, but—'

‘You're quite mad.'

Diana raised her voice. ‘I recognized your voice when you came to the door here today and started yelling to be let in.' That stopped him for the moment. Diana continued. ‘When you assaulted me the other day, I reported the incident to the police and the case must still be on file. After that, I went to stay with my mother. This flat is mine, but recently I lent it to my partner here. I'd been told that this madman – whatever his name is – has been asking around trying to find me, and it occurred to me that he might come here because my name and address is in the phone book. So this morning I came here to talk to Denis about moving out for a while, perhaps coming to stay with me at my mother's.'

Here Diana almost blushed. Meeting Ellie's eye, she said, ‘Well, I told Thomas I was going to fetch Denis, and he said he'd speak to you about it, so I thought it would be all right.'

Ellie ground her teeth. The effrontery of the girl! She could twist facts for England!

‘But when I got here we, well, got sidetracked.'

To their credit, the police didn't even snigger.

Diana continued, ‘When this man started thumping at the door and ringing the doorbell, we were a little slow to answer it, I suppose. I got to the door first and looked through the spyhole. I saw this man, a complete stranger. He was yelling that he knew I was in here and had his sister, and I realized I'd heard him say those words before. I'd already had a taste of his fists, so I rang the police.

‘Denis didn't understand what the man was like. He thought he could reason with him – show him around, prove to him that we didn't have his sister in here. I told him not to, but he opened the door, and got knocked down! Can you believe it? This man walked straight in and threw a punch, and Denis went over, just like that! I was so frightened. I ran out into the road in my bare feet, and grabbed the first person who was passing, and got them to phone for an ambulance.

‘I didn't go back into the flat till the paramedics came and they got here long before the police, and by that time my beautiful flat was wrecked, and this man was trying to slap Denis back to consciousness, and then they started fighting. Why don't you arrest him and take him away and lock him up and make him see a shrink because I don't know where his sister is, and I don't care, either!'

‘I can't believe it!' mumbled Denis. He didn't look his usual well-polished self either, but his cold, grey eyes burned as he focused on Anthony. Holding one hand to his jaw, he waved the other arm at the destruction around him. ‘Criminal damage. Assault. Throw the book at him.'

Anthony said, ‘My father's solicitor will tear you to pieces. The police can bear witness you assaulted me; broke my arm and my nose.'

‘A householder has the right to self-defence,' said Denis, valiantly trying to rise from the floor, and falling back again.

‘You did the damage yourself,' said Anthony, very sure of himself. He added an insult designed to hurt. ‘Old man!' Next he turned on Ellie, eyes narrowed. ‘So you are the original Mrs Quicke, are you? It's you I have to thank for wasting so much of my time?'

‘Yes, it's me,' said Ellie. ‘And if we're going to play childish games, my husband's bigger than you and I know where the bodies are buried, which is more than you do.'

He made a convulsive movement as if to attack her, but Ellie merely smiled. ‘Oh, please do hit me. I'd love that. So would the police. That would give them all the evidence they need to haul you off down to the police station and charge you with grievous bodily harm.'

‘We're doing that, anyway,' said the policewoman.

Anthony flushed. ‘What? You daren't lay a finger on me! My father would—'

‘Whoever he is, your father is not above the law, and neither are you,' said her colleague. ‘We'll get the police surgeon to look at your arm at the same time. So let's be going, shall we?' He turned to Diana and Denis. ‘We'd like you both to come down to the station with us now, to file a complaint. Are you prepared to do that?'

‘When we've got some shoes on,' said Diana. ‘Oh, and mother, it's all right if Denis stays with us tonight, isn't it? I mean, he can hardly stay here in this mess.'

Ellie told herself that she could bear it, if she had to. And obviously she did have to. ‘Of course, dear. He can have Mrs Belton's room.'

Anthony simply couldn't believe that he was being hauled to his feet by two police officers. ‘What? You, you fellow! Let go of me! It's me that's going to swear out a complaint against these two. And . . . what was that you said, woman? Mrs Belton's been staying with you?'

Ellie said, ‘She's moved on, now. I'm afraid I don't know where so it's no good you trying to batter the truth out of me. Mia is out of your reach too.'

He spat at her.

‘Now, now!' said the woman police officer. Her colleague gave Anthony a shake, and thrust him towards the door.

Ellie murmured to their departing backs, ‘Have a nice day.' She reflected that some policemen and women were all the better for being ‘plods' because they knew black and white when they saw it, and never bothered about shades of grey. She wondered how long they'd hold Anthony. Overnight, perhaps?

Time for a council of war.

Back at home, Ellie threw together some sort of meal between making and receiving phone calls – one of which left her feeling disorientated, and inclined to retire to bed to weep. But she couldn't do that, not with a houseful of people. Besides, she wasn't made of paper, was she? Once she'd calmed down, she'd be able to think of a way through this horror.

Thomas was distracted, trying to drag his attention away long enough from his conference on the morrow to listen to what Ellie was saying, but not succeeding terribly well. After all, it was a really important event in his life. Ellie told herself she mustn't be selfish, demanding his attention all the time.

Denis and Diana were all over one another. Yuk!

Rose sniffed at regular intervals, driving everyone crazy.

They ate round the kitchen table, but at Ellie's suggestion, took their coffee into the big sitting room at the back of the house. The front doorbell rang now and then, ushering more people in for the council of war. Denis received a phone call on his mobile and was last to join them, looking furious and muttering to Diana.

Finally, all were seated. Even Rose, who Ellie insisted should be included.

Thomas gathered everyone's attention. ‘It's been a terrible time for all of us. We're going to need cool heads and courage to get through what's coming, so before we start, I'm going to ask you all to join with me in a couple of minutes of silent prayer, asking God for protection, and for the courage to outwit evil.'

No one objected. Not even Denis, who Ellie thought was probably an atheist if he was anything.

A moment of calm followed, which was much needed. Ellie even managed an arrow prayer herself:
Dear Lord, save us. Please
.

Thomas came out of his moment of prayer with a smile. ‘Over to you, Ellie.'

‘Aren't you going to chair the meeting, Thomas?'

‘No, no,' he said, settling back comfortably. ‘You have all the information at your fingertips, so bring us up to date. Start with the phone call you had this evening which upset you so much.'

Of course he'd noticed. She looked round at the anxious faces of her friends and family. ‘I suppose you could say we're all under attack, one way or another. I know I am. Yes, Diana? What is it?'

‘Someone knows we're here. Denis had a phone call on his mobile just now.' She was controlling herself with an effort. Denis slumped forward, holding an ice pack to his chin. Ellie had never seen him anything but totally in command of himself and the situation, but now he seemed shrunken. Humiliation at being knocked out in front of Diana? His eyes still burned with fury, but it was a banked-down fire.

Diana said, ‘Denis and I laid a formal complaint against Anthony Prior this afternoon at the police station. He, in turn, laid one against us. The police were very polite to him. More so than they were to us. A solicitor arrived at the station to represent Anthony before we left, and now –' she swallowed but continued – ‘they've traced us here. I don't understand how they seem to know our every move. How did they know how to contact us?'