Brian Freemantle - A Mind to Kill

‘We?’ queried Hall.

‘There’s a housekeeper who also cooks and a daily lady and a gardener. And there’s another man who comes in to help the gardener…’ She gestured behind her. ‘There’s a lot of ground.’

‘Mr Lomax stayed in London during the week?’ coaxed Perry.

‘Rarely more than two nights. And when he was away he always telephoned. As I say, they were devoted to each other.’

‘Did Mrs Lomax ever talk to you about someone named Rebecca?’ asked Hall.

There was another frown. ‘I think she’s a friend of Mrs Lomax. Came here a long time ago.’

‘But Mrs Lomax didn’t mention her more recently?’

‘In what way?’

‘Just talk about her,’ shrugged the barrister, refusing to lead.

‘No.’

‘What about illness? Was Mrs Lomax ever ill?’

‘Hardly ever caught a cold.’

Hall searched for a way to ask the most important question without doing so directly. ‘Did she ever complain about headaches?’

The girl shook her head. ‘Not that I can ever remember.’

‘Anything about her head at all?’

‘Has she gone mad?’ demanded the forthright girl.

‘It seems there’s an illness,’ said Perry.

‘Will she get better?’

‘She’s been examined by specialists,’ said Hall. ‘You didn’t answer my question.’

‘She never complained about anything to do with her head.’

‘Or behave strangely.’

Annabelle hesitated. ‘Only the day it happened.’

‘Tell me about it.’

‘There’s hardly anything to tell, really. She went to collect Emily from playschool: she usually did. They came home excited because Emily had learned a letter of the alphabet and Mrs Lomax said they were going to the zoo. There’s a zoological park nearby. We went into the kitchen and then almost at once Mrs Lomax walked out.’

‘Did she say anything?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Was she walking normally?’

‘I suppose so. I was sitting Emily up. I was scarcely aware of Mrs Lomax leaving.’

‘You didn’t see her take a knife?’

Annabelle shuddered, slightly. ‘No. I didn’t even know she’d left the house. I thought she’d forgotten something in the car or gone to the bathroom or something. It wasn’t until I went looking for her, when our lunch was ready, that I saw the car had gone.’

A woman in a black dress that also looked like a uniform appeared at the door and said, ‘I’ve let the people from the council in the gate.’

‘Mrs Jenkins, the housekeeper,’ identified Annabelle. ‘Can she help you at all?’

‘I don’t think so,’ said Hall. ‘Thank you.’

From the bureau by the window, Johnson said, ‘It’s difficult to believe, isn’t it?’

‘What?’ asked Perry.

The other solicitor waved several letters. ‘All from the charities Jennifer worked for and supported…’ He looked down at the topmost one. ‘“In view of recent circumstances we will, of course, have to ask you to stand down from the committee”,’ he quoted. ‘Charity certainly seems in short supply, doesn’t it?’

There were two cars carrying a total of five people, two of them women, one of the men in the uniform of a police inspector, that drew up outside. Annabelle met them at the door as she’d greeted Hall and Perry. The housekeeper directly followed the group into the drawing room with more coffee, which Annabelle distributed while everyone else exchanged cards.

‘I hope this preliminary meeting is useful,’ declared the county solicitor, Stewart Baxter. ‘You’ll agree our concern about the child is justified?’

‘No,’ said Hail. ‘I won’t.’

The man blinked. ‘In the circumstances-’

‘The only circumstances that need concern you is the welfare and safety of a four-year-old child,’ broke in Hall. ‘Emily Lomax is being cared for by a certificated nanny, living in a house with a full-time staff. It is her mother’s wish that she remains so…’ he looked towards the two women, a doctor named Maureen Snare and social worker Victoria Pryke. ‘… Emily is here, for you to see and speak to, if you wish.’

‘The local police were summoned to protect her,’ said the social worker.

‘Quite properly so,’ agreed Hall. ‘But not to protect her: to remove from the estate trespassing journalists who could have terrorized a child as young as Emily…’ He crossed demandingly to Johnson, hand outstretched for the appropriate letters. ‘These followed, when the journalists were expelled. And will be produced by me when I protest to the Press Complaints Commission. As I will protest about those blockading the gate and by whom you were doubtless confronted…’ The pause was perfectly timed. ‘I sincerely hope none of you co-operated to provide a headline about Emily being taken into care. Because she isn’t. And if any such stories appear I shall officially complain to your authorities and not only demand a full and public retraction but an explanation for why people in your position commented upon a matter that has sub judice implications…’ The second pause was as well timed as the first. ‘… But as you were accompanied by an inspector from the local force to which the press complaint was initially made it is, I’m sure, unnecessary for me to have that concern.’

Humphrey Perry guessed immediately there had been co-operation at the gate from the look that passed between Victoria Pryke, the fair-haired man described as a member of the same division named Eric Pringle and the hot-faced police inspector, Paul Hughes. It was a passing realization. Perry was far more interested in Jeremy Hall. On this showing he wasn’t by any means the cheeky bugger of the previous night’s judgement: he was an extremely aggressive advocate who appeared to possess another essential weapon in a lawyer’s armoury, the ability to seize a weakness and hammer it into defeat.

‘This isn’t at all the sort of meeting I’d hoped it would be,’ said Baxter. He was a large, self-satisfied man accustomed to deference and was disorientated at not getting it now.

‘How, then, can we help you?’ smiled Hall.

‘We have to take into account the fact of Mrs Lomax’s arrest. And the reasons for it,’ insisted Baxter. He was red faced too, although from irritation, not guilt, at what had happened at the gate.

Hall made much of examining the exchanged cards before coming up to the man. ‘You’re a lawyer?’

‘You know I am!’

‘I accept that criminal law may not be your field, but we can surely agree the principle of innocence until the proof of guilt?’

‘Yes,’ said the man, tightly.

‘Then aren’t you acting prematurely?’

‘Our only concern is Emily’s welfare,’ persisted Victoria Pryke, a prim, cardigan-and-pearls woman.

‘Then we’re all on common ground,’ said Hall. ‘You’ve seen the circumstances in which Emily is living…’ He gestured towards Annabelle. ‘And you’ve met the nanny in whose care she is: I’m sure Ms Parkes will be only too pleased to show you her certificated qualifications and diplomas…’

He hadn’t expected it but Annabelle returned at once to the bureau in which she’d kept the media offers and came back with several documents, offering them generally to the group. Victoria Pryke took them, passing them one by one to the doctor who in turn offered them to Baxter.

‘You have a nursing qualification?’ queried Maureen Snare, looking up.

‘Specifically in paediatrics,’ elaborated Annabelle, triumphantly.

‘… and we’d be pleased to assure you of Emily’s care and well being in any other way we can,’ finished Hall, finally.

‘We’d like to see Emily herself,’ said the fair-haired social worker.

As Annabelle left the room Baxter said, ‘This is obviously a matter that will have to be considered after Mrs Lomax’s trial.’