Tony parked behind the Black Dog and turned off the engine. ‘I thought we’d walk to Harriet and Mary’s from here,’ he said.
Alex’s mind wouldn’t leave Hugh and the case but she tried to concentrate. Harriet and Mary Burke, the septuagenarian sisters who lived above their tea shop, Leaves of Comfort, phoned while Alex and Tony were still making their way back to the Range Rover. They had already left Dan, Hugh and the strange doctor to climb the rest of the way to the death scene.
‘You’ve been quiet,’ Tony said. ‘Is there anything you want to say before we go to see them?’
‘I’m not sure. They’re usually here at the Dog by now. Harriet sounded upset … or perhaps, anxious more than upset. She said she wanted you to take a look at Lillie Belle but I don’t think that’s what’s really on her mind.’
‘So you already said,’ Tony said, turning toward her. ‘What else are you thinking?’
‘Well, I already said it really.’ Alex couldn’t sort out her thoughts from her feelings. ‘It’s Hugh who is completely confusing me. He obviously has no idea we know he’s hiding something. What he said tonight about not going to the police when he should have – that could mean anything or nothing. He went up to Green Friday with Sam and me and didn’t call the police first? Hugh could say that’s what he meant. Until he finds out he was seen last night, he could think he can pretend he was never there before today. If I could only figure out how to make him open up. Why don’t I tell him I saw him?’
‘We’ll have to come back for the dogs after we see Harriet and Mary,’ Tony said, not looking at her anymore.
Alex pulled her heels onto the seat, wrapped her arms around her shins and studied him in the shadows. The vehicle was warm inside, yet she shivered. ‘What does coming back for the dogs have to do with anything? We always come back for them. Why don’t you tell me what you’re thinking?’
‘Because you won’t like it.’
‘Try me. You’ll tell me in the end, so you might as well get on with it.’ She rested her chin on her knees. ‘I can be so pushy, I make myself sick sometimes.’
His laugh diffused some of the tension. ‘I’m not touching that,’ he said. ‘We can’t be sure Hugh hasn’t done something wrong. Even very wrong. He’s a great guy, at least that’s what we think, and we’ve known him a long time. Or a fairly long time. But what do we really know about him? Why did he show up in Folly and interview for the Black Dog job when he’d never managed a pub before?’
‘He had plenty of previous business experience. He ran a successful whiskey distillery. I’d never managed a pub and I bought one,’ Alex said, starting to simmer.
‘You’ve never mentioned why he left the distillery. Bit of a comedown – and I don’t mean to be rude. And it’s none of my business. But Lily worked at the Black Dog for years and you’d been around the place since you were a baby. You knew what you were doing.’
‘I don’t know why he decided to change his occupation,’ Alex said. This was getting them nowhere. ‘I didn’t ask because he impressed me and I’ll always be glad I followed my instincts.’ Please don’t let anything make her change her mind. ‘I think Hugh and Neve have slept together.’ She sucked in a breath through her teeth. ‘I shouldn’t have said that.’
Tony leaned down until Alex looked at him. ‘OK, your turn again. What makes you think that?’
‘Darn my flapping mouth. The day she came, I heard Neve suggest she share Hugh’s room. At least that’s what it seemed like. I couldn’t see his reaction, but he sounded furious when she reminded him that it wouldn’t be the first time. But I don’t really know what she meant by that, do I?’
‘I think you do. OK, sweetheart, out we get. We’ll see what the sisters are dying to tell us and I’ll take a look at the pup.’
‘Any thoughts about who the missing woman is, Tony?’
He paused. ‘I’ve wondered … hell, what do I know?’
‘Tell me.’
‘It’s only because she’s the first one who comes to mind, but I’ve wondered about Sonia Quillam. She and Hugh have some history and she tried to attach herself to him when all the trouble happened with her family.’
‘I don’t think that’s one bit off base,’ Alex told him. ‘I’m wondering the same thing. If she was at Green Friday, he could have gone to see her. Who knows what might have happened? They seemed like oil and water.’
‘She’s also the one woman we know Hugh was involved with.’ Tony turned his face away and was quiet for a moment. ‘I don’t think we should be giving any opinions on this, do you?’
‘No! We could make trouble where there isn’t any. Let’s get to the sisters, shall we?’
As they walked to the forecourt of the pub a line of powerful motorcycles roared in to park, one and two deep along the grass verge. The Gentlemen Bikers were a noisy bunch but they spent freely and were pleasant enough. At least they were fairly well behaved.
Coming down the path with several others Carrie Peale’s husband, Harvey, laughed as loudly as the others and swung his own crash helmet over one arm. He saluted Tony and Alex on his way past.
‘Odd fellow,’ Tony said. ‘Bit of a chameleon.’
Alex muttered agreement and, arm-in-arm, they carried on. The walk to Leaves of Comfort, on Pond Street, took them past cottage gardens thick with flushes of roses. Creamy clematis, luminous in the near darkness, climbed in mounds over door canopies. Lavish scents saturated the evening.
A single weak streetlight shed a bluish nimbus.
Alex held Tony’s arm tighter and closed her eyes a moment, reluctant to let the peaceful moment pass. She had to. ‘Hugh’s explanation of how he came to be with Dan and that psychologist today didn’t wash. I believe he met them deliberately.’
‘Meaning?’
‘Don’t you think it looks good for him if he had a friendly encounter with Dan and volunteered to walk them up to the pond? If he were trying to avoid police questioning, he wouldn’t do that. Or he might be trying to plant the idea that he wouldn’t be likely to seek them out if he had any reason to feel guilty.’
The warm windows of Leaves of Comfort lay ahead. Tony pulled Alex to a stop. ‘I thought of that, too. Wouldn’t you like to know a lot more about Hugh? I’ve never thought of him as avoiding questions but I’m wondering if he’s so good at the persona he wears that we buy it without question.’
‘Then why doesn’t he just cut and run?’ Alex shook her head. ‘If there’s any reason why he could end up in big trouble here, why not get out while he can? And he could probably do it. As you’ve mentioned more than once, he’s wealthy, so money isn’t a problem. Lease a private jet and go anywhere he wants to until everything blows over. That or never come back at all. You can bet he’s got funds outside the UK.’
She could almost feel and hear Tony thinking that over before he said, ‘He won’t do it. I don’t know why – or not yet – but he won’t run.’
‘That’s what you want to believe.’
‘Yes, I do. But I’m not happy about the way I feel. He’s going to shock the hell out of us, I can feel it. The question is, will we come to hate him?’
From the instant Alex and Tony climbed the stairs inside Leaves of Comfort and walked through the door, the Burke sisters’ rosy-colored upstairs living room felt wrong.
Rather than sitting in her big, overstuffed, chintz chair, Harriet stood, a lamp with a deep pink silk shade turning her fine white hair into a blush aura. Her smile looked forced.
‘Hello, ladies,’ Tony said, frowning. ‘Sorry if we’ve kept you waiting. It’s been quite a day.’
Mary, also standing, gripped her walker and nodded at Tony and Alex, whose stomach began revolving. She needed to practice managing that one of these days. Mary wore her hair in a bun with an ivory Spanish comb holding her wispy waves back. Both women had powdered their noses but their naturally pink complexions were too pale and they darted glances at one another every few seconds.
‘Sit down,’ Harriet said at last. ‘Lillie Belle’s under the weather. I’m wondering if some more of her teeth need to come out.’
‘I’ll take a look.’ Tony made a move to lift the elderly Maltese from her cushion. ‘She has very few teeth left.’ The little dog’s long, pink tongue lolled from the side of her mouth and she looked up at Tony with adoring black eyes that shone with health. The sisters had adopted her a few months ago after her owner died.
‘Let me hold her,’ Alex said and Tony put the dog in her arms.
‘The teeth can wait,’ Mary said, much too quickly. ‘Sit. We haven’t seen the two of you for a chat for far too long.’
Harriet cleared her throat. She turned awkwardly, facing them with her back to the kitchen and one of the two tiny bedrooms. ‘Mary’s right,’ she said. ‘It’s been too long.’ With her right forefinger, she made an elaborate pointing motion that seemed to indicate something behind her.
Alex looked from one to the other of the three doors in the room, other than the one that led up from the tea rooms below. Harriet raised her eyebrows and gave a single nod.
Someone was here, in one of the rooms.
Listening hard, Alex sat on the lumpy, rose, velvet-covered couch reserved for visitors and kept on straining to hear. These old buildings had thick walls meant to keep out cold in winter and heat in summer. They also rendered rooms almost soundproof.
‘What am I thinking of?’ Harriet suddenly announced. ‘I haven’t offered you anything. Have you had dinner?’
They hadn’t but Alex quickly said, ‘We’ve been nibbling all day. I don’t think we need anything.’ She was starving now that she thought about it.
‘I know what you won’t say no to,’ Mary said, a little color returning to her cheeks. ‘Harriet, you know what to give them. And those cheese balls. The ones in a tin. This is the perfect time for them. There’s a box of Turkish Delight in the cupboard over the stove, too.’
Harriet hurried away, clearly grateful to do something, anything. Alex met Tony’s eyes but he gave a slight shake of his head. He read her too well. He would know that she was thinking of asking what was going on.
Then Alex heard it – a hiccup and a loud sniffle. It came from the bedroom beside the kitchen.
Mary took a deep breath and stared at the worn, rose-covered carpet. It was soft and beautiful but had definitely served a number of owners well. ‘It’s warm,’ she said, still not looking at them. ‘I hate these days when opening windows doesn’t do a thing.’
They all made noises of agreement and the moments stretched.
The kitchen door opened and Harriet backed out. She faced them triumphantly with a silver tray bearing sherry glasses and a bottle of the ladies’ favorite Harvey’s Bristol Cream. She set this on a small antique mahogany table polished to a mirror shine. ‘Do the honors, please, Tony,’ she said, sounding much more normal. The Turkish Delight, pink and white and smothered with powdered sugar made a small mountain on a glass plate beside a bowl of what had to be the cheese balls. The latter resembled miniature footballs wrapped in yellow wafer. ‘There,’ Harriet said. ‘A bit like Christmas.’ She laughed but the laughter faded away and she all but downed the glass of sherry Tony gave her.
In a stage whisper, Mary said, ‘Harriet will tell you what’s going on. Stay by her, but don’t look as if you’re telling secrets in case …’ She looked at one of the bedroom doors.
‘What?’ Alex said.
Mary put a finger to her lips. ‘Hush. Go by Tony and let Harriet explain. I’ll get it all wrong. And don’t fall over Max or Oliver – they get so angry if you do.’
Grey tabby Oliver and one-eyed, orange Max slept peacefully on either side of the hearth, far away from Alex. She put the sleepy little dog on the couch and went to stand beside Tony. They both bent close to Harriet who looked quickly over her shoulder but didn’t say anything.
At last Alex said quietly, ‘I heard someone in your bedroom.’
‘Nothing feels right,’ Harriet whispered. ‘She was crying after they left. Sobbing so hard we made her come up and lie down. When she fell asleep we called you but you took so long … well, if she was awake now, she’d come out, wouldn’t she?’
Tony leaned closer. ‘Who? Harriet, please explain while you can.’
However long that’s likely to take.
‘Those people … we had never seen them before … they walked into the tea rooms late. She had stayed on to talk to Mary and me but she saw those two and looked shocked. She stared at them and they moved to her table. They talked to her, or the woman did. The man didn’t say much. We overheard some of it – not everything – but bits and pieces.’
‘Mm.’ The sisters, Alex thought, had a way of overhearing all manner of things.
‘We don’t think it would do to press Annie. She’s too fragile. We think she trusted us once and she could trust us again – all of us. Then it will be easier for her to confide in us. But something is definitely very wrong.’
‘Harriet …?’ Tony hesitated.
‘Annie, who?’ Alex asked.
‘I don’t remember her last name. She was … she still refers to herself as Elyan Quillam’s fiancée even though he’s in jail, a psychiatric place. He may never get out.’