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“OKAY, OKAY, SETTLE down everyone, please,” said Sam, as he thumbed through the sheets of paper in his hand.
“I’ve got the results of the pathology report for the remains found under the floor of the bridal shop, as well as the dental records, which confirm that the remains are those of Bruce Connery, and that he’s been dead for the entirety of the forty-seven years he was missing.
“The body was wrapped in a thick rubber sheet before being dropped into the concealed space in the floor, after which it was covered in concrete. It’s hardly surprising that no one knew he was there.”
“I hope he was dead before the concrete went in,” said Trudy, with a grim expression. “Do we know the cause of death?”
“Thankfully, he was dead prior to being buried,” said Sam. “And death was caused by a blow to the head with a blunt object which caused a fracture just above the right temple, and internal haemorrhaging. There was quite a dent in the skull, so the weapon must have been heavy and hard. I know that doesn’t narrow it down much, but nothing about this case is going to be easy.
“For a start, Mr Connery’s disappearance was only ever investigated as a missing person’s case—foul play was never considered—and Mrs Connery didn’t report it until a year after he first went missing, so there’s very little historical information on file that’ll help us this time around. It’ll be like starting from scratch.”
“The puzzling thing is,” he said, pointing to the photos on the board of a fat wallet and a gold ring, “is that these were both found with Mr Connery. The wallet is full of cash, mainly £50 notes, and the gold ring must be worth around £2,000.”
“Not a victim of a robbery, then?” said Paul.
“It would appear not,” said Sam. “But whatever the motive, why was he buried under the basement of what used to be his wife’s boutique?
“Martha said Bruce had something to do the day he went missing, didn’t she?” said Trudy. “Maybe he met someone at the boutique, they argued, Bruce got hit, he went down...” She shrugged. “Sounds like a likely scenario to me. He didn’t bury himself, did he? There was obviously someone else there with him.”
“I agree,” said Sam. “It sounds like a very likely scenario. The question is, who was the other person?”
ººººººº
“I could get used to you being around more often,” Megan said to Lizzie, who’d turned up at Kismet Cottage on an impromptu visit the night before. “It’s lovely to see you again so soon after the last time you were here.”
“Yeah, well, we’re still waiting to hear back after our interviews, but we’re keeping our options open. Shaun’s got another interview tomorrow and I’m waiting to hear about another next Tuesday. Anyway, I don’t have anything lined up for the next couple of days, so I thought I’d come and see my favourite peeps. Don’t get too used to it, though, I’m just making the most of the free time I have while I’m not working.”
“Are you sure you weren’t too hasty in handing in your notice?” said Claudia.
“We didn’t hand in our notice, Mum. We took voluntary redundancy. And we’re both fine. I promise. You know we’re already going for interviews and we’re both optimistic, so please try not to worry—everything will work out for the best.”
“Are you still not going to tell us about the jobs you’re going for in case you jinx them?” asked Megan.
“That’s right. I’m not saying another word in case I jinx them.”
“Odd, isn’t it? When you’ve never worried about jinxing anything before,” said Megan. “You’re the least superstitious person I know.”
“Yes, well, this time, Shaun and I feel like we want to keep things to ourselves until we’ve got something to tell, Miss Nosey Parker,” said Lizzie, with a grin. “Anyway, what a week for me to visit! Martha’s husband turns up wearing a concrete overcoat and I get a sneak preview of what your veil’s going to look like on the big day.”
At Snip Happy, the local hairdressing salon, Megan sat in front of the mirror, trying out hairstyles with her veil, and Lizzie and Claudia sat beside her, sharing a bag of cheese puffs and reading from the local newspaper.
“Listen to this,” said Lizzie, licking orange dust from her fingers. “Following the explosion that shook the village of Bliss Bay ten days ago, dental records have identified the skeletal remains found below a basement shop floor to be those of Bruce Connery, who disappeared in 1974.
“A post-mortem revealed that Mr Connery died following a blow to the head with a blunt object resulting in a skull fracture, and police have opened an investigation to establish the events that led up to his death, and the perpetrator responsible.
“His wife, Martha, had owned and run the shop as a boutique since 1973, until selling it last year to current owner, Lydia Berman. Following the incident, extensive renovation work will be necessary before Miss Berman’s bridal shop is open for business again.
“Police have opened an investigation to establish the events that led up to his passing, and the perpetrator responsible. However, taking into account that Mr Connery hasn’t been seen for almost half a century, they will be relying heavily on the recollections of any members of the Bliss Bay community who may have seen or heard anything that will give them their first lead in the case.
“Miss Berman, who spoke to us about the gruesome discovery, said, ‘I can’t believe that poor man was under the floor the whole time. I had no idea, of course, although he would have been discovered eventually because, prior to the explosion, I was about to embark on a major renovation project.
“I didn’t actually know there was an air-raid shelter in the basement, because there was a heavy chest over the door, but whoever put him in there is wicked. This is a terrible blow for my business, but it’s Martha I feel sorry for. All these years, she thought her husband was still alive, so fancy her running the boutique for decades and not knowing he was right there with her, just a few feet below. It makes me shiver to think about it.’
“A representative from South Western Gas told us, ‘The cause of the blast was established as a broken gas pipe which, following an inspection by a team of engineers, has been repaired and the site declared safe to return to. We believe the age of the pipe was a major contributing factor to the damage it sustained prior to the incident.’
“The discovery of Mr Connery’s body will finally put an end to years of anguish suffered by his wife, friends, and family, who have been left speculating about his whereabouts for the last forty-seven years. Mrs Connery was unavailable for comment.”
Lizzie passed the paper to Claudia and the bag of cheese puffs to Megan. “Want one?”
“No thanks. Cheese puffs and ivory organza aren’t a good match. What a terrible story. Poor Martha. I can’t imagine how she’s taken the news.”
“Well, as awful as it is, there could be a tiny part of her that’s relieved to finally know that Bruce is dead,” said Claudia. “The not knowing must be absolutely terrible. Although to know he didn’t pass from natural causes will be difficult to learn. She’s going to need William’s support more than ever.”
ººººººº
Following recent developments, Sam and Harvey were back at Martha’s cosy home.
“We know this might be difficult for you, Mrs Connery, but we need to ask if you can tell us everything about the day your husband went missing,” said Sam. “I’m aware that you’ve already gone over this multiple times before, but not with myself and DS Decker, so if you wouldn’t mind?”
Martha composed herself and told them everything she’d told Des and Megan before.
“And that’s everything, I think, detectives,” she said. “But I’ll do my best to help if there’s anything else you need to know.”
“Did anyone else have access to the shop?” asked Sam.
Martha shook her head. “No one. Only Bruce and I had keys. We had a spare set at home, in the case of emergencies, but otherwise, no one else had access. Which reminds me, will I be able to have Bruce’s keys back?” She wiped her eyes with a well-used tissue. “The ones he was found with, I mean.”
Sam looked at Harvey. “I’m not aware that any keys were found with him. DS Decker?”
“There were none, according to my notes,” replied Harvey, looking back in his book. “Your husband’s wallet and his ring were retrieved, but no keys. If they’d fallen from his pocket, it’s possible they were missed, but the recess in the floor is relatively shallow, so I’d have thought it unlikely. I’ll certainly ask the question, though.”
“It was a large bunch of keys. Everything was on it; the house keys, the car keys, the garage keys, the keys to our garden shed, so I doubt they’d have been missed,” said Martha. “He used to hang them from the belt loop on his trousers and I’d call him Bruce The Jailor because of them.” She gave another little sob and dabbed her eyes again with a fresh tissue from the box William handed her.
“They must be hidden under the rubble. When William drove me back here that afternoon to look for Bruce, the car was on the drive, but the keys weren’t in it, nor in the house, so where are they? I had to get the spare set from indoors to open it. I wanted to see if there was anything in the car that might give a clue to where Bruce was and...” She gasped. “Oh my, I’ve just remembered something!” She looked at William. “The sand, do you remember the sand?”
William gave a disinterested shrug. “Vaguely.”
Martha turned to Sam and Harvey. “When I eventually opened the car, I saw sand on the floor—in the footwell on the driver’s side—so we went to look for him on the beach. We asked everyone we saw if they’d seen him, but no one had. So after a while, we drove back to the chalet. There was no point in hanging around here.”
“You didn’t speak to any neighbours to ask if they remembered seeing him?” asked Harvey.
“You spoke to one of the neighbours, didn’t you?” said William. “Remember, Martha?”
She nodded. “Oh, yes, I did. She said she’d heard Bruce pull onto the drive earlier in the day. The car had one of those loud exhausts, so she couldn’t have mistaken it for anyone else. She said it must have been around two o’clock because it coincided with one of the feed times for her baby.”
“And did she speak to your husband?”
“No. Like I said, she was feeding her baby.” Martha tapped a finger on her lip. “But I’ll tell you who did see Bruce—Eddie Landon. He lives in the residential home now.”
“He’s Vince Berman’s father-in-law, isn’t he?” said Harvey.
“Yes, that’s right,” said Alison. “Well, on the way back to the chalet, we saw Eddie, didn’t we, William?”
“He was fixing the post at the end of his driveway... again.” William gave a disapproving sniff and pursed his lips. “Janet—she was his wife—had reversed her car into it when she stormed out during one of their many arguments.”
“And he saw Mr Connery that day?”
“That morning, apparently,” said Martha, “when Bruce took round some money he owed Eddie for work he’d done for him. Eddie told me he’d asked Bruce where I was and he said he’d sent me off with William and Irene because he had something to do, and wouldn’t be joining us until later.”
“And did your husband tell Mr Landon what was so urgent that it kept him from travelling with you?”
Martha shook her head. “I asked, but Bruce didn’t tell him.”
“And you’re sure you have no idea what it could have been?” asked Harvey. “This thing that he had to attend to?”
“I told you, I have no idea,” said Martha. “He probably told William more than he told me.”
“Don’t bring me into it!” snapped William. “I didn’t kill Bruce. I wasn’t even here. I was an hour away, on holiday with you and Irene, if you recall.” He turned to Sam. “And as he was found dressed in the same clothes he was wearing the morning we left for our holiday, I assume he was killed the same day. That being the case, I was most likely playing golf when the deed was done. So I could hardly have been his killer, could I?”
“No one’s accusing you of anything,” said Sam. “As you were friends, I’m merely asking if you can recall whether or not Mr Connery gave any clues as to what prevented him from travelling with you.”
“No, he didn’t give any clues,” said William, the exasperation evident in his voice as he clasped his fingers on the table and twiddled his thumbs. “And, no, I didn’t ask what it was he had to attend to. If you knew what was good for you, you didn’t ask Bruce too many questions about anything. Especially not when he was under pressure, or after he’d had a couple of drinks, when his behaviour became very unpredictable, and he was liable to lash out with those great dinner-plate hands of his with fists the size of small melons.” He shuffled uncomfortably in the chair and cleared his throat.
“And we weren’t friends, he and I, we were acquaintances. I wouldn’t have chosen to fraternise with someone with a temper like Bruce’s on a regular basis, I can assure you.” William put up a hand to stop Martha’s protest. “Sorry, dear, but it’s true. You might have thought the sun shone out of his nether regions, but I most certainly did not. It was only because our wives were friends that Bruce and I socialised at all, DI Cambridge. We had absolutely nothing else in common.”
“Apart from golf,” said Martha.
“What? Oh, yes, apart from golf.” William nodded. “Although even that became tiresome after a while, what with Bruce going on and on and on about his hole in one on a par-five to everyone we met. How he lined up the shot, took the swing, how his caddy broke down in tears, how he bought the entire golf club drinks for the rest of the day... believe me, he never let us forget it. Eventually, it was all I could do to hide the yawns,” he said, cracking his knuckles and fiddling with his ear hair. “Anyway, detectives, I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful.”
“On the contrary, this chat has been most helpful,” said Sam. “But I have one more question for you, Mrs Connery, if you don’t mind.”
Martha spread her hands. “Not at all.”
“The last time we spoke to you, after Gordon Campbell’s death, you said... sorry, if you could just give me a minute,” said Sam, looking back in his notebook. “Ah, here it is, yes, you said, ‘Gordon remembered Bruce. He reminded me that all the kids were scared of him back then. And all the dads too.’ What did you mean by that?”
“About the kids and the dads being scared of him, you mean?” Martha smiled. “Well, Bruce was a big man. He was tall and broad, and I suppose he looked quite menacing to children, which kept them at bay. People thought he was mean and tough, but he loved kids. And the joke about the dads was just because—as William’s already told you—he was so good at golf, no one ever wanted to play against him.”
Sam scribbled in his notebook and nodded. “Okay, well, thanks for now. We’ll be in touch again if there’s anything else we need to ask. And if your husband’s keys come to light, I’ll be sure to let you know.”
As they walked down the path to the car, Sam said, “Before we go to see Eddie Landon, I want to go back to the shop. I’m sure the keys would have been found by now if they were there, but I want to look. Just to satisfy my curiosity.”
At the bridal shop, Sam and Harvey found Lydia surveying the damage with an insurance assessor.
“Do you mind if we have a quick look in the basement, Miss Berman? It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.”
Lydia nodded, her glum expression tinged with frustration. “Take as long as you like,” she said, with a shrug. “It’s not as though you’re interrupting anything.”
Sam and Harvey made their way downstairs and rummaged amid the rubble surrounding the air-raid shelter.
“I think it’s safe to say there are no keys anywhere,” said Sam, straightening up and dusting off his hands. “I just had to see for myself.” He looked around, his eyes searching the piles of debris.
“You looking for something else, boss?”
Sam nodded. “I’m looking for the door that covered the shelter. There must have been one, because you can still see two of its hinges in the frame left behind, but where is it?”
They continued their search, focusing on the larger pieces of debris which had been cleared to the side of the basement.
“Here, I’ve found it. It’s a heavy old thing,” said Harvey, pulling the buckled steel door from the pile to take a better look. “It’s still got a locked padlock on it.”
Sam nodded. “That’s what I was looking for. I’ll bet you any money that Bruce Connery’s bunch of keys has the key to that padlock among them. Which is why whoever put him down there took it with them after they’d buried him—they wouldn’t want anyone else opening the door, would they?”
“Well, unless Martha’s been practicing her poker face, she seemed genuinely surprised to learn that the shop had an air-raid shelter,” said Harvey. “And that Bruce’s keys weren’t with him.”
Sam put his hands at the base of his spine and arched in a stretch. “They’re probably long gone by now. But if we knew who had them, I reckon we wouldn’t be a million miles away from Bruce’s killer.
In the meantime, let’s go and see Eddie Landon.”
ººººººº
“Do you mind if we have a word, Mr Landon? It’s about Bruce Connery.”
In the lounge at the Bliss Bay Residential Home, Sam and Harvey’s visit to see Eddie was causing quite a stir.
Eddie shook his head. “Not at all. Although I think it’ll be better if we talk somewhere more private,” he said, chuckling at Wilf, Gladys, and Ethel all craning their necks and turning up their hearing aids.
He led the way to his room and nodded to two armchairs before perching on the edge of the bedside cabinet which lurched to one side like a boat in a storm. “I’m okay,” he said, when Harvey lunged forward to stop him from taking a tumble. “It’s a bit wobbly on account of one of its legs being a bit shorter than the others, but once it finds its footing, it’s quite steady. Now, you say you want to talk to me about Bruce?”
“Just a few questions, if you don’t mind,” said Sam.
“I don’t mind at all. We’ve talked about nothing else in here since the poor chap popped up again like a bad penny. Of course, I was the first to find out what had happened, what with Lydia being my granddaughter.” Eddie puffed out his chest a little. “Not that I took any pleasure in sharing the news, mind you, especially as it came so soon after Gordon was killed.
“It’s upset a lot of people in here, I can tell you,” he said, with a scowl. “I mean, two dead bodies in as many months? You can see how that might be unsettling to some of us, can’t you? Do you know how he ended up down there, under the floor?”
“Well, that’s what we’re trying to find out,” said Sam. “And we believe you might be able to help us because on the day Mr Connery went missing, his wife said you told her you’d seen him.”
Eddie nodded. “I did. I’d forgotten about it until Bruce was found, and then everything came flooding back. It’s funny the things that lie dormant in your memory bank until something happens to make you recall them, isn’t it? I was only telling the others about it yesterday.”
“And when you saw Mr Connery, did he say anything that would explain why he hadn’t gone away with his wife and friends?” asked Sam.
“Nothing. Although some people around here think he probably upset the wrong person and that’s how he paid for it. You know, up to his neck in concrete. We never really knew what kind of business he was involved in, but I got the feeling it was shady.
“Between you and me, though,” said Eddie, beckoning Sam and Harvey a little closer, “a lot of us were relieved when he didn’t come back. It’s been better since he’s been gone. Not for Martha, obviously—I mean, we were all upset for her because she was devastated—but we rallied round and saw her through the bad times. Eventually, she took up with William and I think we’ve all been a lot happier since Bruce has been out of the picture.” He shrugged. “Just my opinion, but if you ask around, I’m sure I won’t be the only one who feels that way.”
“And why have you been happier without him?” asked Harvey.
“Because he wasn’t a very nice man, DS Decker. He had a hellish temper on him. Not that he ever took it out on Martha, because he wouldn’t have laid a finger on her, but he wasn’t the kind of man I’d choose to socialise with. I mean, I was grateful to him, don’t get me wrong. He kept me in work after I lost my job, and he paid well, but he thought he was a little better than everyone else, and that used to get right up my nose. Not that I’d wish what happened to him on anyone, mind you, but he was only bearable in very small doses.
“Now, Martha, on the other hand, was wonderful. There was always a line with Bruce that I didn’t cross, because I knew he was the boss, and I was the worker, but it wasn’t like that with Martha. On the contrary, she became a good friend over the years.”
Harvey nodded. “Out of interest, did you know Gordon Campbell?”
Eddie lifted a shoulder. “Vaguely. Not well enough to have recognised him like Vince did that night we were in the pub—I’m a bit older than he was, y’see. Why d’you ask?”
Harvey snapped his notebook shut. “Just curious. Thanks for your time, Mr Landon. If we have any more questions, we’ll be in touch.”
