A Cotswold Mystery Part 11

'Not Cleodie Mason, I guess. She doesn't look as if she'd know what to do with a painting. So where's this Upton place?' Jessica switched subjects as if one was no more interesting than another.

Thea dug the map out of the bag on her shoulder, and carefully located the right section. 'Two more fields and down to the right.'

Jessica looked over her mother's shoulder. 'That's not a right of way,' she pointed out. 'We can't go down there.'

'We'll say we're lost if anybody sees us. It probably happens all the time.'

'How would you like it, if it was your land?'

'We're not doing any harm. Just let's see if we can recognise anything, OK?'

They walked for ten more minutes, pa.s.sing a small Dutch barn on the track leading to Upton. A few yards further on, Jessica baulked. 'We'd be able to see by now if there were ruins or anything,' she objected. 'And all there is is a field, the same as any other field. I'm tired. Let's go back. It's going to rain again, as well, look.'

Forced to admit that there was truth in every word, Thea allowed herself to be turned around and marched back the way they'd come. 'Imagine it, though,' she attempted. 'Living up here in neolithic times. Like being on top of the world.'

The way back felt longer than before, despite it being downhill. Thea talked about abandoned villages, and the various theories concerning them. Inevitably they reverted to the topic of Julian Jolly, archaeologist. 'Maybe he made a stunning new finding, and was murdered because of that,' she suggested, in a gothic sort of tone. 'They didn't just abandon their homes because there was no more work but some terrifying disease struck them down.'

'Or they were abducted by aliens,' said Jessica, reviving somewhat.

'Or they were removed forcibly by some agency of the government who wanted to conduct some kind of secret activity here.'

'Did they have agents of the government in medieval times?'

'Definitely,' said Thea, with much more conviction than she really felt. All she could recall was Aphra Behn, spying in the seventeenth century, which was completely irrelevant.

'More likely they couldn't stand the weather,' said Jessica, facing into a sudden squall, shoulders hunched. 'Look at that cloud. It's going to pour.'

'We'll be home in ten minutes if we bustle,' said Thea.

A minute later, the cloud had pa.s.sed by, to the south, and flickers of sunlight were forcing their way through the thinner covering overhead. 'We can slow down now,' panted Thea. 'I want to savour the view for a minute.'

Jessica stopped her headlong march, and sighed. Wind tossed her light brown hair. Her moods appeared to be every bit as changeable as the weather, and for the first time in over an hour, she smiled. 'It is rather impressive,' she conceded. 'All this open countryside miles and miles of it. You never think about it, do you? It's just a kind of background blur that you see very vaguely from the motorway or the train.'

Thea said nothing, trying to adjust to the change of temper.

Jessica turned in a slow circle, scanning the woods between themselves and Blockley, the wide rising fields to the north and west, the vanis.h.i.+ng path over the brow of a hill to the south. 'I can see precisely two buildings,' she announced. 'No roads. A few telegraph poles. It's a whole different world from where I live now.'

Thea and Carl had regularly taken their daughter on country walks from her earliest years. Carl had been a naturalist, eagerly showing her birds and flowers and fis.h.i.+ng newts out of ditches. 'Yes,' said Thea. 'You knew that already.'

'I forgot,' said Jessica simply. 'You forget.'

'Oh,' said Thea. 'Maybe you do.'

'The point point is,' said Jessica patiently, 'that there's stuff is,' said Jessica patiently, 'that there's stuff happening happening out here.' out here.'

Thea still hadn't quite caught the drift. 'What nature red in tooth and claw, you mean? Things eating each other in the hedges?'

'Not really. I was thinking of people, tucked away in those houses, completely private. They could be doing absolutely anything, and n.o.body would know about it.'

Thea felt a cold s.h.i.+ver run through her. This was the voice of a police officer, imbued with the necessity of surveillance around the clock. Every moment doc.u.mented, recorded, monitored. People forbidden from covering their heads, for fear the CCTV couldn't register their faces. People scanned with electronic devices to see what was in their pockets. People stored on databases by their iris patterns and their DNA. People filmed as they drove in the illusory sanct.i.ty of their private cars, not even able to pick their noses in peace.

'And good luck to them,' she said with feeling. 'Little do they know that Big Brother is working as we speak to discover a way to watch over them.'

'There's the satellites,' said Jessica, thoughtfully. 'They can read the headlines on a newspaper from up in s.p.a.ce. DEFRA pays them to report people digging holes where they shouldn't, or growing the wrong crops.'

'G.o.d help us,' said Thea, feeling suddenly painfully middle-aged. 'Where will it all end?'

'If they've nothing to hide, then they've nothing to worry about,' said Jessica.

'That's all very well, but show me the person with nothing to hide.'

'Nothing illegal illegal, I mean.'

'And who's to say where the line comes? Today's little bit of eccentricity might be tomorrow's criminal act.'

'Not my problem,' said Jessica. 'I'm just meant to be enforcing the law as it stands today.'

'But that makes you no better than an automaton. You'd willingly go on one of these terrible dawn raids, would you? Hundreds of armed police battering down doors of totally innocent people?'

'Of course I would.' Jessica turned to give her mother a fierce look. 'That's my job. And they're not totally innocent.'

'Often they are,' Thea insisted. 'What about neighbours of the suspects? They get "evacuated" at gunpoint, smacked on the head if they're slow or argumentative. Jess, it's happening every week, here in this country. Stories that ten years ago would only be told about the KGB or Saddam Hussein.'

'I didn't think you'd gone so political,' said Jessica stiffly. 'When did this happen?'

'I haven't gone political. I just don't like the way things are going. And it upsets me to think you've joined the enemy.' Even as she said it, she knew she'd gone too far. 'Sorry, sorry,' she said urgently. 'I didn't mean that exactly. Although...' she paused wretchedly. 'I do wish you'd give it some objective thought.'

'We do, Mum. We have whole mornings in the cla.s.sroom thinking about it. We know what people like you think of us, as it happens.'

'People like me,' Thea echoed slowly. 'That's most of the legal profession and the House of Lords these days.' She forced a laugh. 'Not the sort of company I ever expected to keep. But, darling, don't you see what that means? How far wrong the legislators and law enforcers have gone?'

'I think we'd better stop this conversation,' said Jessica. 'If you must have your say, then use Phil as your punchbag, not me. I'm still learning the job. Talk to me again when I've been on one of your dawn raids.'

'OK, sorry,' Thea managed, through a throat that was suddenly thick with distress. Where had all that bile come from? Through no more than a normal casual interest in the headlines, a few Radio Four discussions, increased awareness of the ubiquity of cameras no more, surely, than the bulk of the population? She hadn't known the strength of her own feelings until this moment. 'Sorry,' she said again. 'That was awful of me.'

Not a word was uttered as they walked back down to the High Street. Thea a.s.sumed Jessica felt much as she did herself: aware of a gulf between them that had to do with some very basic divisions. But she had got it completely wrong. As they crossed the bridge on the eastern edge of Blockley, the girl said, 'I have a dreadful suspicion about the murder, you know.'

'What? I mean is that what you've been thinking about for the last ten minutes?'

'Mainly, yeah. I started off thinking about that ding-dong we just had, but then I got onto crime solving, and the fact of a murder a few feet from where we're staying. That's the reality of my work, you see. Anyway, I ran through it all again, the bits I know about the people here. And I had a very nasty idea, that won't go away.'

'Which is?'

'It'll sound completely stupid. Remember I haven't done any sort of detective work yet. So I'm not exactly thinking as a CID officer here.'

'Right. Go on.'

'First point-' She held up a forefinger, '-the Montgomerys are away, so the routine is sure to be different.'

Thea nodded wordlessly.

'Second point-' another finger '-that means the body could have been undiscovered for up to ten days.'

'Does that follow? I suppose Ron and Yvette could have popped in to see Julian every day when they were at home, but n.o.body's said they did. And don't you think I might have noticed a smell after a week or so, across the garden fence?'

'Doubtful. Anyway, then I started thinking about that door, and the key in Julian's pocket. It means he had free access to the house. That he probably popped in to see Granny through the Montgomerys' section. And that that means he must have also been able to open the connecting door whenever he liked.' means he must have also been able to open the connecting door whenever he liked.'

'Obviously he could,' said Thea. 'The key was right there, hanging on a hook above the door.'

'Oh yes.' Jessica was deflated for a moment. 'In which case, we seem to be making it all much more complicated than it really is.'

'It seems pretty complicated to me,' said Thea. 'But I keep going back to Sat.u.r.day morning. Granny was obviously expecting Julian then. She was worrying about him. And why did they hire me, if Julian usually did what they were asking me to do?'

'Precisely,' said Jessica, casting no illumination onto Thea's confusion.

'Precisely what? It's still all a hopeless fog to me.' Thea felt herself wanting to withdraw from the whole conversation. She did not want to discuss murder, or hear Jessica's horrible idea. She wanted to get away from anything nasty and enjoy the spring with nothing to trouble her. She had had enough of trouble over the past two years, and was starting to resent it.

'I think Granny did it,' said Jessica, loudly, her voice deep and blunt. 'I think she's faking a lot of that senility. And I'm not sure I believe she's really ninety-two. Who told you that?'

'Giles Whatnot. On Sat.u.r.day evening. Why would he tell me a lie like that?'

'He probably believes it's true.'

'But darling, it is is a stupid idea. How could she have the strength, for one thing?' a stupid idea. How could she have the strength, for one thing?'

'We don't know how strong she is. Maybe he more or less fell on the knife while she was holding it.'

'A suicide pact something like that? He wanted her to do it?'

'That's possible. But it wouldn't fit with the lamp being knocked over. That suggests some sort of struggle in the living room, before he died in the kitchen.'

'Wait,' begged Thea. They were standing at the front door of the Montgomerys' house, and Thea fished in her pocket for the key. 'I still don't follow any of your reasoning. I'd be more likely to think it was that Giles or even Thomas. When we met him on Sat.u.r.day, the first thing Granny said to him was "What have you done with Julian?"'

'Really? Remind me which is Thomas?'

'The old gent with the beer gut, who came to Granny's door this morning. She told me she didn't like him.'

Jessica went into the house and dealt with the burglar alarm. Thea glanced around for the dog, only to see her a foot away, nosing intently up and down the pavement to either side of the front door. 'Somebody's been standing here,' Thea noted. 'Somebody she recognises.' And then, as if to confirm her words, a man emerged from a car parked further down the street, slamming the door deliberately loudly, to attract attention. The spaniel bounded ecstatically up to him, leaping at his legs, scrabbling at his thighs with sharp toenails.

'Good G.o.d, it's Phil,' said Thea, surprised at the way her heart had started to pound, and the blood to rush to her cheeks.

They ushered Detective Superintendent Phil Hollis into the living room. 'How did you find me?' Thea asked, with a giggle.

'Easy,' he said. 'You're next door to the scene of a murder.'

'And that address is on the police computer,' said Jessica. 'Otherwise you'd have a job to find us. There's no yellow tape across the front door, and no sign of any police activity.'

'There is if you know where to look,' he corrected her. 'But never mind how I found you are you both all right?' He gazed into Thea's eyes. 'You must be feeling a bit persecuted.'

'Not really,' she disagreed robustly. 'I don't feel particularly affected by it, to be honest, except for the difficulties over Granny that's the old lady next door who I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on. I never met the man when he was alive, and I'm still finding my way around the village. It feels as if I only just got here, in a way. And the really weird thing is that n.o.body in Blockley seems very bothered by the fact of a murder in their midst. There's a sort of collective denial going on, and I seem to be included. If it wasn't for Jess, I think I could more or less ignore the whole thing.'

Phil looked at Jessica. 'So you're rocking the boat, are you?' He knew Thea well enough by this time to recognise her st.u.r.dy refusal to admit fear. Even after some alarming experiences in Frampton Mansell where he had woefully let her down she had managed to reason herself back to fearlessness. It was a trait he knew he was always going to find unsettling.

Jessica rolled her eyes at him, and sighed. 'Not at all. But it was me who found the body. I can't pretend it never happened. It's funny you turning up like this I expected it to be Uncle James.'

'Don't worry. He'll be along,' said Phil. 'Sooner or later.'

'Are you part of the investigation?' Thea asked him.

He shook his head. 'Definitely not. There's a big operation ongoing in Birmingham, and my team's been sent in to help. I ought to be there now, by rights. But-' he twinkled boyishly at Thea, making her wonder whether she could find some excuse to go upstairs with him. Could she send Jessica out for some more shopping, perhaps?

'It's good to see you,' she breathed. 'And such a surprise.'

'I'm pleased to hear it. I wasn't sure what my reception would be. Women can be funny about surprises.'

Thea did not do flirtation. She did not say Oh, Oh, and which women are you referring to? and which women are you referring to? She did not play the usual games, or tell the usual lies. 'I don't mind them,' she said. 'Actually, the whole point about a surprise, surely, is that n.o.body knows how they'll react until it happens.' She did not play the usual games, or tell the usual lies. 'I don't mind them,' she said. 'Actually, the whole point about a surprise, surely, is that n.o.body knows how they'll react until it happens.'

'Oh, Mum!' groaned Jessica, meeting Phil's amused eye. 'You're so-'

'What? What am I?' Thea genuinely wanted to know.

'Literal,' said Jessica. 'That's the word. You take everything at face value.'

'Sorry,' said Thea. 'Although, to be honest, I'm not really sorry about that at all,' she added. 'You'll just have to take me as I am.'

'Oh, I know that that,' said Jessica. 'I was born knowing that.'

'Girls!' Phil reproached them. 'Enough. Go and make a pot of tea, one of you. It's nearly four o'clock.'

But the tea was barely made before Phil happened to glance out of the window and observe a man in his late thirties hovering near his car. 'Oh-oh,' said Hollis. 'That looks like somebody for me.' He went to the door and called out to the man.

'Sorry, sir, but you're needed,' came the reply.

'Why didn't they just use my phone? Where's your motor?' Phil asked him.

'They phoned us at the Incident Room up the hill, a.s.suming you'd be there. I'd heard a whisper that your...friend...was in Blockley, so I took a gamble and trotted down here. I thought...I mean, it gave you a bit more time, that way. I knew your car when I found it.' He deliberately avoided looking at Thea, his face slightly pink.

Phil sighed, and turned to meet Thea's gaze as she stood in the hallway behind him. 'Sorry,' he said. 'Duty calls. It was good to see you, if only for a few minutes.'

'It was wonderful,' she said unguardedly. 'An unexpected treat.'

'I know I'm wasting my breath, but stay out of trouble, OK? How long are you here?' he asked Jessica.

'Till Thursday, all being well,' she told him. 'It's a bit uncertain, but that's the general idea.'

'So keep an eye on your old Mum, right? I don't want to hear about any heroics from either of you. The chances are the old fellow next door interrupted a burglar, and the bloke's back in Solihull or somewhere long since. Nothing to sharpen your detective faculties on. Rotten thing to happen, but no great mystery.'