Edward Marston - Timetable of Death

‘I haven’t been anywhere near the place,’ yelled the other.

‘There’s no need to shout.’

‘I don’t like being accused of something I didn’t do.’

‘Where were you on the day that the murder took place?’

‘You know quite well,’ said Burns with exasperation. ‘I played cricket in Ilkeston then went to Derby in the evening.’

‘But you refuse to say what you were doing there.’

‘I went to see a friend.’

Eyes glinting, Tallis put his face close to that of the other man.

‘Was it a friend or an accomplice?’

The directness of the question made Burns recoil slightly. For the first time, he looked uncomfortable. As Tallis glared at him from close range, the gardener lapsed into a bruised silence.

The visit to the Quayle house had been profitable. Colbeck had learnt far more than he’d managed on the first occasion when he called there. It was the conversation with John Cleary that had been revelatory. He’d made some illuminating comments about his former employer. Colbeck was interested in the news that Quayle often stayed away from home at some unknown location. If the man had been crying on his way to the station on his last day alive, it was highly uncharacteristic. After taking soundings from a number of quarters, Colbeck had built up a picture of a man who savoured power and exercised it mercilessly. It was an image reinforced by the portrait of Vivian Quayle that hung in his house. The man in that, Colbeck recalled, looked as if he’d never shed a tear in his life.

Against the excitement of finding new and important information, Colbeck had to set the discomfort of having Tallis as an unwanted assistant. Apart from the fact that the superintendent would insist on leading the investigation, there was the certainty that he would get under the feet of Colbeck and Leeming. The inspector had devised strategies of dealing with Tallis but the sergeant had not. As long as the older man was there, Leeming would be working with reduced effectiveness, always looking over his shoulder. With the arrival of the superintendent, a complicated case had instantly become even more difficult to solve. If there was some way to dispatch Tallis back to London, it had to be seized.

Colbeck was still enjoying fantasies about how to get rid of him when his cab rolled up outside Nottingham railway station. After paying the driver, he went onto the platform and looked up and down. At the far end, a smartly dressed woman was perched on a bench. She looked so much like Madeleine that he stared at her for a minute before deciding that it couldn’t possibly be his wife because he didn’t recognise the hat she was wearing. He was about to turn away when she glanced in his direction for the first time.

‘Robert!’ she exclaimed, jumping to her feet.

Fired by his good fortune, he ran the length of the platform to embrace her.

‘What on earth are you doing here?’ he asked in disbelief.

‘I came with Miss Quayle. She’s decided to return home.’

Bolstered by Madeleine’s presence, Lydia Quayle had felt confident that she would be given a welcome at the house. As soon as her cab turned in through the main gates of the estate, however, that confidence was replaced by apprehension and, in turn, by cold fear. Her break from the family had been so dramatic and final that she couldn’t imagine that any member of it would wish to see her, let alone be delighted by her reappearance. Lydia was tempted to abandon the visit altogether and ask the driver to take her back to the station. Somehow she fought off that temptation. Memories flooded back to please and unsettle her simultaneously. She passed a glade where she and Gerard Burns had often met in secret, and there were other places that brought their romance fleetingly alive again. It died instantly as the grotto where she and Burns had been discovered together appeared in her mind’s eye. Her memories darkened at once and she shook her head in an effort to get rid of them but they were too vivid to be dislodged. She had returned to an estate that had held joy and terror for her. When the house came into view, her heart sank. It looked so forbidding.

The cab drew up on the gravel in front of the portico and she needed time to compose herself before she stepped uncertainly out of the vehicle. As she stood alone in front of what had once been her whole world, she felt lonely and unwanted. Someone must have seen her through the windows but nobody came out. The door remained closed as if delivering a blunt message. Lydia waited for minutes. She was on the point of leaving when the door suddenly swung open. Her brothers and her sister stepped out together, staring at her as if she was a complete stranger. The sense of rejection was like a physical blow.

In a flash, the mood changed. Her younger brother suddenly ran out to greet her and threw his arms around her.

‘Welcome home!’ cried Lucas. ‘Thank God you’ve come at last.’

There was so much news for Colbeck to hear that it wasn’t until the train arrived, and she sat opposite him in an empty compartment, that he noticed how pale his wife was.

‘Are you unwell?’ he asked in concern.

‘No, no, I’m just tired after the journey. Trying to keep up Lydia’s spirits has put a lot of strain on me. I do hope that the effort was worthwhile.’

‘She obviously has great faith in you.’

‘I don’t think she’d have come back without me.’

‘I’m glad that you were able to offer her support, Madeleine. The murder of a father — even if one dislikes him — is bound to have a profound impact. She needs to be with the rest of the family at such a time.’

‘Only if they want her there,’ she pointed out.

He peered at her. ‘You’re wearing a new hat.’

‘I bought it the day you left. I needed something to cheer me up.’

‘It’s wonderful to see you again,’ he said, beaming.

‘I had no idea that you’d be in Nottingham today, Robert.’

‘It’s a case of happenstance, my love.’

‘What stage is the investigation at now?’

‘After my visit this morning,’ he explained, ‘it’s moved forward in the right direction. But there’s still a long way to go.’

‘In your first letter, you mentioned that Mr Haygarth was a possible suspect.’

‘He still is, Madeleine.’

‘If he’s the acting chairman of the Midland Railway, you ought to ask him why Nottingham isn’t on the main line. Lydia told me that her father had plans to make it easier to reach by train.’

‘Quayle was a man with vision. Haygarth is merely a man with a vision of power and monetary gain. The one loved railways for their own sake and the other loves them for what they can deliver to him.’

‘Lydia spoke very harshly of Mr Haygarth — but even more so of her father.’ She pursed her lips. ‘Oh, I do hope that she’s reconciled with her family.’

‘What will happen if she isn’t?’

‘Then she’ll try to join me in Derby. Having come this far, I wasn’t going to miss the chance of seeing my husband. I know it was presumptuous of me but I hoped I’d stay with you at the Royal Hotel.’

‘I can’t think of anything nicer, Madeleine.’

She saw his brow corrugate. ‘Is there a problem?’

‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘and I’ve just remembered it. But it’s an obstacle we can circumvent. Superintendent Tallis turned up out of the blue. You can imagine how Victor and I feel.’

‘Doesn’t he trust you to run the investigation?’

‘He always thinks he can do our job better than we can. Stay at the hotel with me, by all means,’ said Colbeck, ‘but be on your guard. With the superintendent on the prowl, you may have to play a game of hide-and-seek.’

Lydia Quayle was so touched by the warm reception she was given that she burst into tears. Her brother Lucas was the most demonstrative of her siblings, putting an arm around her to shepherd her into the house. Agnes rose to a kiss on the cheek and even Stanley, aloof though he was, abandoned his earlier hostility and raised no objection to her return. The domestic servants who glimpsed her were thrilled to see her and rushed off to spread the news of her return. But the major test was the reunion with her mother. Having heard from the others how poorly the old woman was, she went upstairs on her own and tapped on the door of her mother’s bedroom. Since there was no response, she let herself in and heard a gentle snore. Not wishing to disturb her mother’s sleep, she sat beside the bed and waited, noting the bottles of medicine and boxes of tablets on the bedside table. Her mother was even older and feebler than she remembered.