Episode 28 - Dorothy's mission

About an hour later Colin rang Cleo’s office.

"We need to talk to Delilah, Cleo. Can you arrange a meeting for tonight?"

"That's short notice, Colin, but it's usually quiet at the bistro early in the week. Or we could use the snug. I'll call her. Who else do you want to invite?"

“Dorothy and Gary, of course.”

”Gary’s here now. Colin.”

“And we should ask Robert. Shall I do that?”

“Yes, please.”

Cleo checked back with Delilah. The snug was free and she was curious.

***

Cle called back to confirm and Colin expressed satisfaction that a meeting had been arranged even at such short notice; Robert was reluctant, but too curious not to be in on it. Gary told Cleo that it was a good idea to exchange ideas and views. He would phone HQ and send Nigel home. He then used Cleo’s PC to call up any reports he had not read.

***

Cleo called Dorothy and said Gary would there shortly. There would be a meeting at Delilah’s that evening and she should be there, of course. Dorothy anticipated that something was at last happening in the Burton killing. Cleo did not say that she knew who Kelly’s double was. Maybe they could ask Kelly about that.

***

Finally, Cleo phoned Mrs Badger to avoid having to see her again.

"It was a good idea to send the girl away to school," Cleo told her. "If I were you, I'd stop worrying now. Your daughter had no idea what was going on and will get off with a reprimand from the magistrate if the case comes to court."

"Are you sure, Miss Hartley? I'm so afraid of Barbara having a criminal record."

"She won't have. Leave her at that boarding school till the Christmas holidays then visit relatives somewhere. You have relatives in Scotland, don't you, Mrs Badger?"

"Yes. That's a brilliant suggestion. They'll love to have us there again."

"So that problem's solved, too, Mrs Badger, and if you can afford for Barbara to stay at that new school, do it."

"We're going to. I'm going back to work to pay for it."

***

Cleo found it tedious to have to go on talking to this woman and glad that and there was a satisfactory long-term solution to her daughter’s situation. It did not solve the drug problem at the school, but saving a victim was a start.

"I have an appointment soon, Mrs Badger. Phone me if there's a problem."

"Oh I will and thank you again."

***

Cleo was heartily glad that the drugs case was over for her. There would be a massive inquiry into the drugs problem at that school, but it was no longer her problem. Now she could concentrate on other things, including the activities of Patrick Kelly, who now seemed to have gone to ground. Was he guilty of something? If so what? Could she send Dorothy to look for him? Would they ever know the truth about the car accident that had killed Magda? Was it a perfect murder? Well, almost. You didn't hear anything at all about the perfect ones. These and other questions crowded in and were duly entered in a new list.

***

Gary eventually drove to Dorothy’s, dropping Cleo off at her cottage on the way. Gloria mercifully had plans for the whole evening, so Robert came back from the shop alone, glad to take a quick shower then sleep for an hour in anticipation of a long evening at the meeting. Cleo worked on her laptop for a while. Colin had cracked the simple code to get into the Wellness Centre computer and Cleo was scrutinizing the list for members she might need to know more about. Sure enough, Roger Stone's wife was among the regulars.

Elinor Stone was 51 years old, a heavily lifted botox fan running after youthful good looks that resulted in a mockery of them. She apparently liked to have a good time. Pamela Norton had made a note of all that. She had in fact made notes about all the clients and added recent photos for good measure.

Was Elinor Stone also a friend of the Norton woman? The Nortons were a criminal organization. Stone would surely have prevented his wife from associating with such dubious characters. On the other hand, he may not have known anything about his wife's extramural activities, or may have simply ignored them. He might even have condoned them in the hope of catching one or other of the Norton clan.

Cleo mused that thanks to expensive clothes, face-lifts and elaborate makeup, Mrs Stone looked like an actress in US crime soaps: twenty years younger from the back than from the front, and a face that could have been anybody's, so little did it resemble the one she had been born with. Exercising was part of her daily routine, as were outings to hotels with call boys and clients, which were difficult to follow up because Mrs Stone was adept at subterfuge.

Cleo would need to find out where Mrs Stone had been at the time of Shirley's murder, but that was pointless until the weapon had been identified. Colin would check out her regular hotel for dates of her rendezvous. If she was there with a man all night, she could hardly have been on Upper Grumpsfield common shooting Burton. Or did she give the man knock-out drops? Sneaking out of a hotel at the crack of dawn might be noticed. Would she take such a risk?

***

If Dorothy Price had known that Cleo was dubious about sending her on a mission to find Patrick Kelly, she might not have been quite as enthusiastic, but she could not get rid of the vision of Kelly's double lying in a coma at the hospital.

Dorothy thought a lot about Kelly. Having made a plan that would fit in with the meeting, she was hoping to say something constructive. She set out from her cottage with the affirmed intention of finding Kelly and having a heart to heart with him. Since she walked through Lilac Drive and took the country path to Kelly’s farm because it was quicker that way, she did not see Gary drive up in his red car, so he did not know where she was. He would have prevented Dorothy’s excursion, so it was just as well for Dorothy, though she herself had no idea what was going to happen. She had loaded her father’s revolver. just in case, and put it in her rucksack.

***

Magda's death had not been confirmed as misadventure, though according to the local press she had been the victim of a wilfully induced car accident. Setting aside the fact that Bertie Browne, editor of the local Gazette, was prone to exaggerate and dramatize stories, did someone know who cut the brake leads and hadn’t told anyone except him? Could Kelly have known someone else was in that car? He and the man in a coma were so alike that Dorothy wondered if Kelly had a brother. She would ask him. She had not speculated about this idea openly, even with Cleo. It was time she did some sleuthing of her own Getting results before that all-important meeting would also confirm her ability as a private eye.

***

Dorothy Price was intent on getting her own results. She was dressed in what she liked to call her snooping outfit, which consisted of navy blue slacks, matching sneakers and anorak with a cloche hat. A rucksack was preferred, not least because she was not Miss Marple. Handicrafts in handbags were not Dorothy Price’s thing.

Dorothy set off at a brisk pace, using her Nordic walking sticks as a further camouflage to her private eye get-up. Since she was posing as a Nordic walker, she argued that it would be quite logical to knock on the door of a friend. She had known Kelly for quite some time and bought eggs and potatoes from him in the past. She could get some eggs now, she decided. Her rucksack was almost empty.

But though anyone could see her approaching the farmhouse via the pebble track that led to it from the main road, no one answered Kelly's door. She called through the letterbox, shouted "You who" at the upstairs windows, and peered through the window next to the front door. The place looked tidy, but there was no sign of Kelly. Dorothy decided to walk all round the rest of the buildings. Kelly might be busy in the farmyard.

Everything was still. There was no noise at all, not even hammering. It was quite creepy, since it was now getting dark. Dorothy consulted her watch. Seven o'clock already. She would have to get a move on if she wanted to arrive at the bistro on time. The barn was barricaded. It had fortunately not burned down completely, but where you might have got in, wooden slats had been nailed on for security reasons and in case the forensic team wanted to take another look. There was no way you could get into the barn without removing them.

Dorothy was just peeping though one of the few small windows at the back of the barn when she was grabbed from behind and a hand over her mouth stopped her from screaming.

"What do you think you're doing," a rough voice said and its owner shook her violently.

She was swung round and pressed against the barn wall. A torch-light dazzled her.

"Oh, it's you, Miss Price. What the hell are you doing here?"

"Let me go and I'll tell you," she retorted. After she had carefully smoothed her anorak sleeves and planted her Nordic walking sticks firmly in the soft earth, she informed him that she had come for some fresh eggs.

"But you didn’t answer the door so I had a look round. I didn't walk all this way for nothing," she added.

Kelly laughed heartily.

"It's not funny," said Dorothy.

"Yes it is. I've caught stalkers before, but none of them wanted fresh eggs at the back of the house."

"You've got only yourself to blame," said Dorothy.

"What do you mean by that?"

Dorothy decided at that moment to go on the defensive.

"Letting your brother drive Magda home when you knew the brake leads had been cut."

Kelly was astonished.

"Brother. What brother?"

"You know who I mean."

"I damn well don't. I've never had a brother in my life."

"Well, someone looking just like you was in that car. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen him myself."

"You must be talking about an old friend of Magda's," said Kelly, now quite wary of what this old busybody was implying.

"Am I? What kind of old friend? The paying kind?"

Dorothy thought she was doing rather well considering she hadn't anything to go on.

"Now, now," warned Kelly. "Better not get involved in anything we don't understand."

"I understand all right."

"Keep your nose out, Dorothy Price," Kelly shouted.

"Out of what? Explain yourself, Patrick Kelly," Dorothy shouted back.

Kelly tried to find words that would satisfy the old girl and send her packing.

"Magda was a very attractive woman and she had a lot of friends. One of them drove her home that night because she had drunk too much to drive and I had business to see to."

"You had business to see to? Tell that to the marines."

"For a woman who's lived in London all those decades, you are surprisingly naïve," said Kelly.

"A man doing business of the sort you do should be thoroughly ashamed of himself," scolded Dorothy.

"Look here. Magda enjoyed herself and it helped us financially. What's wrong with that?"

"So what about Burton, Mr Kelly? Weren't you jealous of him?"

Kelly grabbed Dorothy's arms again and shook her.

"You mention his name again and I can't answer for what happens," he said. "I only found out about him after he was dead."

"After he was dead? What did you find out? So you didn’t shoot him, after all."

Dorothy was pretty sure he had not killed Burton. She was tantalizing him. On reflection, she wondered how she'd had the nerve.

"You old bitch. Get the hell out of here!"

Dorothy had been wondering how to get away. Now Kelly had even solved that problem.

"OK Mr Kelly, I just wanted to be sure. Just tell me you didn't arrange for those brake leads to be cut, and I won't bother you again."

"Why does any of this mean so much to you, Miss Price? Want to turn me in?"

"No. I just want to know the truth."

Kelly decided that if he told her what she wanted to hear she would go away. And if it was also the truth, that would be good for him.

"I swear that I didn't cut the brake leads. Did you know that other cars in that street had their brakes tampered with that day?"

Dorothy was nonplussed. Did Gary know that? If so, why hadn't he told them?

"No, I didn't."

"There, you see. But the police put two and two together eventually. That's why I'm a free man."

“Who released you, Mr Kelly?”

“No one you’d know.”

“Roger Stone? A tallish older man with authority?”

“Could be.”

***

Dorothy thought Gary was probably not taking Cleo seriously enough if he hadn’t told her that important fact. Or was he too busy sorting out his private life? Now was not the time to ponder.

***

"I didn't know the police were so naïve," she commented. "What a brilliant prank that must have been."

"But not mine."

"Do you swear that on Magda's grave?"

"I do, so help me. And now get the hell out of here before I do commit a murder."

Kelly reached for his shot-gun, which he had leant against the barn wall.

"Trespassers are legal targets in this part of the world," he said.

***

Dorothy put as much space between herself and Kelly as she could as fast as possible. She was sure Kelly was innocent of anything as drastic as murder, though he no doubt had a few other shady deals to his credit. He could have killed her and buried her body somewhere where no one would have been any the wiser, since she had not had the wisdom to tell anybody where she was going. But he hadn't. He had let her go. Kelly was in reality a broken man, Dorothy decided. She almost felt sorry for him, though he had threatened her life.

And she had forgotten all about the eggs.

***