Barbara Cleverly - The Bee's kiss

‘Thank you, Westhorpe,’ said Joe, unbalanced once again by the girl’s forthright expression. ‘I hope it won’t be necessary to tear you from your valued work.’

As she turned with a curt nod to leave, he called after her. ‘One thing before you leave. . you were going to tell me why you came up to see Dame Beatrice. .’

She paused with her hand on the door knob. ‘I was going to seek her assistance in a project of mine,’ she said mysteriously. ‘I was going to ask her advice on joining the navy. I was hoping to become a Wren, sir,’ she said and smiled with satisfaction on seeing his surprise.

‘You, Westhorpe? A Wren?’ Joe couldn’t disguise his astonishment. ‘But surely you were aware. . they were disbanded after the war?’

‘I am perfectly well aware that the Wrens are no longer officially in being as one of His Majesty’s auxiliary services, of course,’ she said stiffly. ‘Perhaps you didn’t know that the association continues in an informal way? Dame Beatrice was gathering about her an elite and useful group of girls like me, a group whose abilities will be valued in the event of a future war. The armed services appear to know how to make intelligent use of their recruits. Goodnight, sir. Shall I send up. . Armstrong, was it?’

‘Armitage. Thank you, Tilly. Yes. Please do that.’

She left, dragging Joe’s thoughts after her. He was left feeling uneasy with his decision to retain the services of Armitage at the expense of Tilly and began to rehearse his explanation to Sir Nevil. There was no obligation to justify himself — after all, it would have been most irregular (unprecedented even) to make use of a woman constable in the way Tilly had apparently assumed she would be used. He recognized and admired her intelligence and strength and, unusually for a man in his profession, did not feel threatened by her presence. He was aware of a general hostility from the other men in the force to the employment of women but, while he could understand and allow for this, he could not share it. His own mother and older sister Lydia were cut from the same cloth. He had grown up in a family where females were regarded as, at the very least, the equal of males. Delightfully different, occasionally intimidating, but always competent and reassuring, was Joe’s experience. His mother had for years managed the family estates in the Borders following his father’s crippling accident while Lydia, he knew, helped to run a suffragist group which had splintered from Emmeline Pankhurst’s. Married to a wealthy, indulgent, charming but lazy man with a grand house in Surrey, she led a life which suited her exactly. While raising her two children and running a hospitable household with an indoor staff of twenty and an outdoor staff so numerous Joe had never counted them, Lydia found time to involve herself with the advancement of women, with prison reform, the welfare of retired pit ponies and other good causes. Quaker blood, Joe thought. It led to Quaker conscience and a belief in the redeeming nature of hard work. Could be a curse.

‘Still here, sir?’ Armitage’s brisk voice cut through his increasingly rambling thoughts. ‘Why don’t you go off home and leave me to clear up the bits and pieces?’

‘Thanks, Bill, but we’re almost done for now. Look, I’ll be telling my boss that I want you moved from whatever you were doing to join me in this case. It would be good to be working together again.’

Armitage allowed a flash of eagerness to light up his stern features for a moment and then he replied soberly, ‘I’d consider it an honour. And a pleasure, Captain.’

They smiled at each other with mutual regard.

‘Before we both head off into the night, Bill, one last thing. You were very quickly on the scene. . on patrol outside, I understand? Did you notice anything untoward? Crash of breaking glass too much to hope for, I suppose?’

‘I’ve been going over and over it, sir.’ Armitage almost ground his teeth with frustration. ‘Didn’t hear a thing. I could have been round the other side of the building and it’s a windy old night, sir. Sorry I missed it. I circled the building using my flashlight at intervals. I gave the ledge outside a good dowsing. It runs all the way round and I’d marked it as a useful platform for anyone wishing to gain unlawful entry.’ He paused for a moment. ‘I saw nothing. Not even a stray moggie. Disappointing that. I was. . hard to explain. . keyed up the whole evening. Sure something was about to happen.’

Joe nodded.

‘And I’d persuaded myself that if there was going to be trouble it would come from outside.’ Armitage succinctly filled Joe in on his observations of the company in the party room. ‘I’d ruled out that lot as pretty useless. Couldn’t see any man jack of ’em staggering further than the nearest taxi.’

‘You say no one left the room immediately after Dame Beatrice except for old Lady What’s-er-name and Westhorpe?’

‘That’s right, sir. Of course, I’d no idea at the time she was a lady policeman. She was just a pretty girl in a rather revealing silver frock to me. It must have been about ten past midnight when she went out. That would have been five minutes after the Dame. I went out on patrol at twelve fifteen and got back inside about twelve fifty by which time there was quite a stir-about in the manager’s office and I was sent straight up here with Robert to keep the lid on, sir.’

‘So thirty minutes, near enough, separate your last sighting of Dame Beatrice and Tilly’s finding her body?’

‘Yessir. I beg your pardon, sir, but. .’ Armitage was uncharacteristically hesitant.

‘Go on, Bill.’

‘Well, I’ve learned in this business to trust no one. And I did come upon the young lady bold as brass standing over the corpse. . no real idea of why she should have been in the room at that hour. . nothing she was prepared to confide in me, anyhow. I checked up on her movements downstairs.’ His tone was of defiance rather than pride.

‘Quite right. And?’ Joe was serious but encouraging.

‘Well, I thought it was a bit off, her taking nearly half an hour to get up here, so I asked about that. She was observed rendering assistance to the old lady who was feeling a little unsteady and that took up some of the time. She finally turned the old dear over to the care of an attendant whom I have interviewed, sir, then she went up to the reception desk where she joined a queue for some minutes to find out the number of this room — as she said, a large theatre crowd had just come in. Then she went up by the stairs. The lift boy has no recollection of a young lady in a silver dress taking the lift but he can’t swear to anything much as every lift load was a full one around that time. It would have taken her inside ten minutes to get up here and locate the room. I’ve just timed it, sir. Though she is a rather. . um. . athletically built young lady. She could have sprinted up.’

‘You’d really like to pin this one on Miss Westhorpe, wouldn’t you, Bill?’ said Joe, amused.

Armitage flushed. ‘I can’t deny the thought has its attractions, sir.’ He grinned suddenly. ‘And wouldn’t you give a lot to hear her exchanges with the judge! Can’t say I haven’t tried to work out how she could have done it but. .’

‘But you keep coming back to the picture of Tilly Westhorpe in spotless gloves and gown (apart from the hemline) snooping around the crime scene?’

Armitage sighed and nodded. ‘We’re looking for someone covered in blood, sir, with an emerald necklace, a jemmy and a bloodstained poker concealed about his person.’ He grinned. ‘Constable Westhorpe’s get-up didn’t even conceal Constable Westhorpe!’

‘No indeed. As you say — an athletically built young lady! But how likely is it that it was the murderer who got in through the window?’