Caroline Graham - The Killings at Badger's Drift

Barnaby, who had a very good idea of the murderer’s motive, arrived again at the apricot-coloured farmhouse. Katherine Lacey opened the door. She looked very pale and, even if Barnaby had not witnessed the earlier scene at Holly Cottage, he would have known that she had recently been crying. Distress did not mar her remarkable beauty. Her violet eyes looked very large with tears as yet unshed. She was wearing a white dress of spotless linen and flat sandals. She gazed at them unsmiling and said, ‘We’re in the kitchen.’

Henry turned his chair around as the chief inspector entered, and wheeled it across the floor. ‘What has really happened, Barnaby? Surely it can’t be true that the Rainbird boy has attacked his mother?’

‘Mrs Rainbird has certainly been killed, sir. In a very violent and unpleasant manner.’

Henry turned a stunned face to his fiancée. ‘You see, darling.’ She sounded gentle but firm. ‘We can’t ... now ...we’ll just have to wait.’

‘Katherine thinks we should cancel the wedding. It’s ridiculous. A hundred invitations accepted. The catering organized. The marquee’s being put up tomorrow. The house is bulging with presents -’

‘I only meant for a week or two. Until all this awful business is sorted out. And perhaps by then Michael will have come round.’

‘Since when has your brother -’ He broke off. He was not the sort of man, Barnaby judged, to even admit to familial discord much less display it in front of complete strangers. He appeared older today. There were liver-coloured rings beneath his eyes and he looked distrait. ‘I simply won’t hear of it, Katherine. It’s out of the question. After all, this is nothing to do with us.’

‘Could I ask you both what you did this afternoon, Mr Trace?’

‘Us? Well, we’ve been organizing for Saturday,’ said Henry. ‘I didn’t go over to the office today. Katherine and I spent the morning arranging the wedding presents in the main dining room, then we had lunch, finally decided on the placing for the marquee, then Katherine went mushrooming -’

‘Mushrooming?’ Barnaby remembered the little pile on the doorstep of the bungalow.

‘Yes. There are some flat open ones not far from Holly Cottage,’ said the girl. ‘And some girolles . They taste wonderful. Not like those awful things you buy in the shops. I wanted to do an omelette for supper.’

‘There were some on Mrs Rainbird’s step.’

‘Yes - I was coming to that. The last time I saw her -’

‘When was that?’

‘Yesterday at the Parish Council meeting. She gave me a recipe for mushroom and anchovy ketchup and I said next time I gathered some I’d let her have a few. So I went round and knocked but no one answered so I just left them on the step and came away. Now I can’t stop thinking about it ... he must have been in there ... perhaps even ... but it was so quiet ... I thought she’d gone out, you see.’ She repeated the words, her voice suddenly jangled and shrill. ‘I thought she’d gone out.’

‘Kate.’ Henry held out his hand and she gripped it, crying, ‘Everything’s going wrong ... just like I said the other day ... it’s all slipping away from us.’

‘Now you must stop this, darling. All right? You’re talking nonsense.’

Barnaby crossed to the table and the mushrooms. He picked one up and sniffed it. There was a large basket, only half full but still holding a lot of mushrooms. ‘It must have taken you quite a while to pick all these?’

‘Not really. About half an hour, I suppose.’

‘When actually was this?’

‘I left here ... when was it, darling? About quarter past three and was back three quarters of an hour later ...’

‘You say the place where they grow is quite near Holly Cottage. Did you happen to call in at all?’

‘Yes I did. I thought Michael might have -’ She broke off, catching Henry’s eye. ‘Anyway it was a waste of time because he wasn’t there.’

‘Was this before or after you did the picking?’

‘After.’

‘Between four and half past in other words?’

‘I suppose so.’ She did not mention her later visit and the spectacular row and, as the timing made it irrelevant to his present inquiry, Barnaby saw no need to mention it either. He had no doubt that it would not meet with her fiancé’s approval.

‘And you were here when Miss Lacey returned, Mr Trace?’

‘Yes. I was with Sam ... he’s the boy who does bits and pieces of maintenance and helps with the garden. I was unpacking Katherine’s roses, he was mixing peat and bonemeal, preparing the ground. We made some tea. Kate rang the cottage to see if Phyllis would like to join us but she wanted to carry on doing her curtains and unpacking stuff.’

Barnaby asked, ‘Has Miss Cadell moved out for good then, sir?’

‘Not quite. She’ll be sleeping here tonight. For the last time, I believe.’ Barnaby was hard put to disentangle the mixture of emotions in Trace’s voice. Relief, satisfaction and more than a little worry.

‘Perhaps you’d be kind enough to direct us to the cottage?’ asked the chief inspector.

‘It’s a bit difficult to describe,’ said Katherine, ‘I’ll take you there.’

As they left the house Barnaby said, ‘I’ll leave Miss Cadell to you, Sergeant. You know what I’m looking for. And then you can try Holly Cottage again. I’ll be in the pod when you’re finished.’ He watched them go off across the lawn towards the grove of poplars, the girl’s shoulders bowed slightly, her dark hair stirred by the evening breeze. Troy walked a little closer to her than was necessary to deliver the animated stream of chatter that his lively profile suggested. Every now and again he pulled down his black leather blouson and smoothed his hair. Barnaby made his way back to the pod.

Here all was activity. A certain amount of simple forensic work had already been done. The exhibition officer had logged a fair bit of detail. All the blood came from Mrs Rainbird. There were filaments under her nails, not yet analysed, which suggested the murderer had worn a stocking or tights over the face. Soap in the bathroom was marbled with streaks of blood, indicating that a shower had been taken. Barnaby got on to the station and briefed Inspector Moffat to handle communications for the case. As he did so a TV pantechnicon drew up outside and a uniformed scene-of-crime officer entered the pod.

‘Oh - you’re back, sir. A message from a Mrs Quine. Said to tell you that she saw a Michael Lacey in the spinney approaching the bungalow and acting in a highly suspicious manner -’

‘Actually we also saw Mr Lacey in the spinney acting in a fairly ordinary manner. But thank you. Has the body been taken away?’

‘They’re just bringing it out now, sir,’ the man replied unnecessarily. You could have heard the gasps and murmurs half a mile away.

‘Are you on to the outbuildings?’

‘Not yet, sir. Just starting on the kitchen.’

‘Right.’

Barnaby left the pod, set the newshounds (the two original plus five more and a television team) on to Inspector Moffat and returned to his car to wait for Troy. He took an armful of Mrs Rainbird’s folders, sentimentally pink and blue, and one of the notebooks, locked himself in the back seat and started to read.

He flipped first through the notebook. Each page was pretty much like the one he had already read. People identified only by initials and, occasionally, sporting a red star. No one seemed to be doing anything out of the ordinary. Walking, talking, visiting, using the phone box. Every one skewered by the omniscient beam from Mrs Rainbird’s powerful optics.

Barnaby put the notebook aside and started on the files. He realized immediately that his previous supposition when first checking out the loft had been the correct one. Mrs Rainbird appeared to have a fresh and not unreasonable approach to her profession. Barnaby hesitated to use the word Marxian to describe such an individualistic, anti-social business as blackmail, but there was no doubt that the woman’s demands were nothing if not sensible. People paid what they could. From each according to his abilities.