Хилари Боннер - Wheel of Fire

‘The old man, he’s dead, isn’t he?’ queried Grey at once.

Vogel nodded. ‘We believe so,’ he said. ‘His body has yet to be retrieved, but we know that both Sir John and his nurse were inside the house when the fire broke out, and that there have not been any survivors.’

Grey’s narrow shoulders slumped. His full lower lip trembled.

‘That wasn’t supposed to happen,’ he muttered.

‘I’m sorry, Mr Grey?’ queried Vogel.

Grey said nothing more, his expression indicating that he might regret what he’d already said.

‘What wasn’t supposed to happen, Mr Grey?’ Vogel persisted.

‘I’m just sorry, that’s all,’ said Grey. ‘I tried to help, you see. I tried to get to him. But I couldn’t do nothing. I couldn’t get through.’

‘Mr Grey, I need you to tell me exactly what happened, and what you witnessed in the early hours of this morning,’ Vogel began.

‘Yeah, sure,’ responded Grey, in what Vogel, himself a Londoner, considered to be an unusually strong Cockney accent nowadays.

Vogel waited. But Grey failed to continue. Instead he slumped further back against his pillows and closed his eyes. Clearly, he was not going to volunteer any information if he could help it.

‘Mr Grey,’ Vogel prompted, raising his voice. ‘I realise you must be feeling unwell, but I am conducting a murder inquiry. You can either answer my questions here or at Taunton police station. But you really have to cooperate.’

There was no way, of course, that Vogel could insist on taking George Grey anywhere in his present condition. However, his empty threat seemed to do the trick.

Very slowly, Grey opened his eyes. ‘A-all right,’ he muttered falteringly. ‘What do you want to know?’

‘For a start, when were you first aware that fire had broken out at the manor?’ asked Vogel.

‘Not until Sophia, the nurse, phoned me,’ Grey replied. ‘I had no idea until then. It was the middle of the night, or it felt like it anyway. I was at home, in bed with the wife. Anyway, there wasn’t much to see before the gas tank blew.’

‘And I understand you told Sophia that she and Sir John should stay where they were, in his bedroom, because it was fire proofed. Is that so?’

Grey nodded. ‘Yes. And Sir John wasn’t good on his feet. I thought they would be safer.’

‘You also told her that you would try to get to them, to assist them?’

‘I did.’

‘But you didn’t dial 999, did you?’ Vogel enquired.

‘Well no, I knew Sophia was going to do that.’

‘And did you set off immediately to go to their rescue?’

‘Pretty much, yes.’

‘Yet, there is another 999 call from Sophia, logged thirty-four minutes later, at 2.05, in which she says you had yet to get to them.’

‘Well, I couldn’t get through, could I? There were intruders, with guns I’m almost sure, proper big guns, rifles, or maybe shotguns. I told Sophia that.’

‘When she called you a second time?’

‘Yes.’

‘But, why didn’t you call her as soon as you thought there were armed intruders on the premises?’

‘I was watching, wasn’t I, waiting for an opportunity to get into the house. I hid in that clump of rhododendrons by the side of the pond.’

‘How many intruders were there?’

‘I don’t know, I saw at least three. Maybe four.’

‘The manor is protected by large electrically operated gates, Mr Grey. How did these people get in?’

‘The storm, it damaged the electrics. I managed to open the gates yesterday, but I couldn’t close them again. In any case, there was a bloody great oak tree across the drive, nobody could drive in. They must have been on foot.’

‘But you didn’t notice the arrival of these intruders, even though you say you were at home in The Gatehouse at the time we can assume they arrived at the manor. Is that right?’

‘I told you, I was in bed asleep. With my wife.’

Vogel glanced at Saslow. It was her invitation to join in.

‘You are in hospital suffering from what appear to be quite serious injuries, Mr Grey,’ she said. ‘Would you please tell us how you came by these injuries?’

‘Yes, I was attacked, by the men with guns I told you about. The armed intruders, as you call them.’

‘And would that have been before or after you received the second call from Sophia, Mr Grey?’ asked Saslow.

‘After. I wasn’t in no condition to be having telephone conversations afterwards, I can tell you. In fact, even though I had my phone on silent, and I barely spoke above a whisper, I think it might have been that call that alerted them to me being close by.’

‘It would seem that, during that last call, you still told Sophia that she and Sir John shouldn’t move, this time because there were armed intruders on the property. Is that correct?’

‘Yes, he’s an important man, Sir John. I mean was. His sort always has enemies. He always said he felt secure at Blackdown. But I was afraid they may be after him. That they’d started the fire in order to smoke him out so that they could kill him. That’s what I thought, anyway...’

Greys voice tailed away.

‘Any idea who they might have been, Mr Grey?’

The injured man shook his head.

‘Right. So you continued to advise Sir John’s nurse that they should both stay where they were, in his bedroom, knowing, surely, there was a fair chance the fire would kill them. Is that it?’

‘No,’ said Grey. ‘No. Of course not. Like I said, the fire still didn’t look like much. I said they should stay where they were until either I or the emergency services got through. And I was hoping they’d get here pretty quick after what I’d seen, I can tell you.’

‘But you didn’t even dial 999 then?’

‘No. I didn’t get the chance, to tell the truth. I was attacked almost straightaway. Two, or maybe three of them, I think. Overpowered me and stabbed me. After that I didn’t have any hope at all of getting through to Sir John. Then the tank blew. It was awful. Horrible. But I couldn’t do nothing about it.’

‘Look,’ Vogel interjected. ‘You realise none of this seems quite right, don’t you?’

‘Well, I can’t help that, it’s what happened,’ said Grey stubbornly.

‘After you were attacked, what did your attackers do next?’

‘They ran off.’

‘Did they speak to you at all?’

‘No.’

‘Not a word?’

‘No. Nothing.’

‘Do you think they knew who you were?’

‘No. Why should they?’

‘I have no idea, Mr Grey,’ said Vogel. ‘But you are telling me that they didn’t know you and you didn’t know them, is that it?’

‘Yes. Anyway, like I said, it was dark.’

‘You feel you were attacked simply because you were getting in the way, is that it?’

‘Yes. Yes. That’s it.’

At that moment a nurse arrived. Vogel turned to face her, enquiringly.

‘Dr Carlisle will speak to you now, detective inspector,’ she said.

‘Right,’ said Vogel. He turned back to the man in bed. ‘We will need you to give a formal statement, and we will want to talk to you again, very soon,’ he said.

Grey nodded. His complexion seemed to have grown even more pallid.

‘And we will need to speak to your wife too, I understand she has visited you here already?’

‘Yes,’ said Grey. ‘She came as soon as she realised I’d been hurt and brought here. But she’s gone back home now... She can’t tell you nothing, anyway.’

‘I’ll be the judge of that,’ said Vogel.

As they left the ward, following in the wake of the nurse, Vogel spoke quietly to Saslow. ‘Did you notice his hands?’ he asked.

Saslow shook her head, surprised.