Murder in House (35 page)

There was a general movement to follow him. No one thanked the Priors for inviting them; no one spoke to their host and hostess, making arrangements to see them again. Anthony's friends, men and girls, left one by one, almost running to get away. Ursula ignored them as they passed in front of her.

No one spoke to Ursula either, as she stood with her bodyguards, one on either side of her. The photographer took one last shot of her, close to. She didn't even blink. He left too.

Daniel got to his feet, and looked across at Ursula, hands outstretched, begging for forgiveness? She looked right through him. He made as if to speak, but decided against it. Shoulders slumped, he, too, went out into the night. He didn't close the door properly, and it blew open again, letting in the cold night air.

Anthony staggered to his feet holding his nose, which this time really was broken. Timothy sank into a chair, head in hands. Each member of the family stared into space, contemplating a bleak future.

DI Willis had been listening even as she talked on her mobile phone. Now she shut it off with a click. DC Milburn's sister asked in a low voice to be taken home, but this was no time for a policewoman to leave. ‘I'll get a cab to take you home,' said DC Milburn. She was staying.

DI Willis finished her drink and set down the empty glass with precision. Looking first at Ellie and then at Ursula, she said, ‘I promise you this will not be swept under the carpet. I shall need names, statements.'

‘Tomorrow,' said Ellie.

Only then did Ursula relax. Hawk-face put his arm around her shoulders and steered her to the door. Judo collected the mask she'd dropped. Ellie led the way out to the cars, making sure to close the front door behind her. No sense in wasting heat on such a cold night.

Judo would have opened his car door for her, but she shook her head.

‘Ursula will break down in a minute. I'd better go with her.' She climbed into the back of Hawk-face's car, and accepted the girl into her arms. Ursula hardly seemed to be breathing. And she was cold, so cold.

Ellie chafed Ursula's hands, murmuring ‘It's all right, you're a brave girl. It's all over now.'

NINETEEN

H
ome at last. Everything seemed quiet, but there was a strange car in the driveway. Ellie saw that Hawk-face had noticed it too. He parked to one side, with Judo close behind him. Ellie helped Ursula out of the car. The girl was as stiff as a Barbie doll.

Everything looked normal as they approached the front door, but Ellie couldn't help remembering that Charlie had not been at the drinks party, and therefore might have been somewhere else, making mischief. She remembered Deep Throat's last threat to make Ellie pay.

She used her keys to let them in. Everything still seemed normal. In fact, there was a burst of laughter from the kitchen. With one arm around Ursula, Ellie followed the noise, to be confronted by as cosy a domestic scene as anyone could wish.

Kate was breastfeeding her baby, while the toddler lay in the pushchair, fast asleep. Rose was dishing out helpings of her beef casserole, while Armand and his large colleague from school were helping themselves to mugs of tea.

Rose, pink with pleasure, cried, ‘What goings-on! Just like the old days!'

‘Ah, food!' said Judo, sliding into a chair at the table.

‘Come and join us!' cried Armand. ‘The enemy came, broke in through the back door, and were conquered. They thought we'd be easy, so they'd hardly brought much of an arsenal with them. Just knuckledusters, a baseball bat and a rather wicked knife. But we were ready for them. I tripped one up, Kate swept the legs from under another who bumped his head against Rose's frying pan, Big Man here sat on them, and after that they didn't have such an optimistic view of life.

‘We tied them up and put them in the larder, thinking we could finish our supper before we rang the police, but they made so much noise we had to get rid of them first. The police thought they were a couple of ordinary burglars till they saw the arsenal of weapons they had with them. They were, as they say, known to the police already. One is called Charlie, the other was someone he recruited in a pub just for this evening's little foray. All been tidied away now. So, how did the drinks party go?'

‘Very well,' said Ellie. The girl within her arm shivered and gasped, all the stiffness leaving her body. As she sank to the floor, so Ellie found Ursula's weight had been taken off her.

Hawk-face lifted Ursula up. ‘Where shall I take her?'

‘I'll show you.' She led him into the sitting room, only dimly lit with sidelamps at that time of night, and pointed out the settee. He laid her down with care. Ellie took the girl in her arms, and Hawk-face left them to it.

Ursula wept till she was too tired to cry any more.

Rose came in with a tray of hot drinks and tiny sandwiches, saying that Denis and Diana had eaten with them earlier and now gone back to her flat, if you please, and who did they think they were, treating Ellie's home like a boarding house.

Ursula lifted her head, and blearily tried to smile. ‘You've been so good to me. If it hadn't been for you they'd have got away with it. But what I'm going to do about Mia, I don't know.'

How like Ursula to think she had to shoulder her friend's burden! Ellie passed the cup of tea to her. ‘I'll look after Mia.'

‘Will you?' Ursula seemed doubtful. ‘I'd like to, but I don't see how I can manage it, living down in Portsmouth.'

‘Leave it to me,' said Ellie, thinking that perhaps this was God's way of making sure she used more of the vacant rooms in the house. And why not, anyway? Rose would love to cosset Mia, and if the girl had some IT skills they could pay her a wage of sorts for helping Thomas now and then, or she could work for Stewart, helping tenants to downsize or whatever. Just till she was strong enough to go back to university. Surely Thomas wouldn't object.

‘Try to eat.'

Ursula took a few sips of tea, but couldn't eat.

Armand and Kate poked their heads around the door and said they rather thought they'd go home now, if it was all right with Ellie. Their large friend went with them, saying he'd doss down on their settee again as it was too late for him to get a train back home that night.

Judo came in, and hovered. Ursula gave him a weak smile, and a weaker ‘Thanks'. He said he might ring her tomorrow, if she liked. She nodded, though not with any great enthusiasm.

Midge the cat came in, sniffed at Ursula's shoe, decided she was an all right person, and sat on a stool nearby so that she could stroke him if she felt so inclined. Which she did, eventually.

Hawk-face appeared with another hot drink, this time for Ellie, and a hot-water bottle for Ursula's feet. He removed himself to a chair in the shadows. Ellie considered that Hawk-face had more common sense than most.

At last Ursula roused herself. ‘I must look terrible. So sorry. Made a complete fool of myself.'

‘Bed, my dear. If you can bear to sleep in your mother's sheets.'

‘I'd prefer, if you don't mind, and you'll probably think me very silly, but I'd like to go home to the flat, to my own bed.'

Hawk-face stood up, yawning. ‘I'll see you home then. Sleep across your bedroom door.'

She giggled, weakly. ‘Silly. I'd fall over you in the night, going to the bathroom.'

‘Any time.' He smiled, and in smiling revealed himself to be a man of considerable charm. Which, added to his common sense, made him a rare bird in Ellie's book. And in Ursula's, too, it seemed.

‘No funny business.' Ursula struggled to sit upright. ‘I'm not in the market for a man.'

‘I know.' He continued to smile, and Ellie speculated how long it would be before he made a move on Ursula. A week? Two? An hour?

He spread his hands, speaking to both Ellie and Ursula. ‘A bachelor: gainfully employed, honest and well intentioned.'

‘A third-year student, with her eyes on a career,' said Ursula, tossing back her hair but smiling. A tinge of colour returned to her face. Ellie considered that this exchange argued well for the success of a future relationship between them. Of course, there was an age gap, probably of about ten years. Did that matter? Probably not. Ursula had outgrown boys of her own age.

Hawk-face bent over Ellie. ‘Are you all right, Mrs Quicke? It must have been quite a strain, all this. And your husband's away tonight, I understand. Can I lock up for you, or something?'

Ellie wasn't sure she liked being relegated to the status of being a weak and elderly grandma, but he was quite right; she did feel like one at the moment. ‘I'll be just fine. You take Cinderella here home, and look after her. But I wouldn't move on her too quickly, if I were you. Give it time.'

‘Oh, wise woman.' He picked up Ellie's hand and kissed it. Then gathered Ursula up, cloak and all. Ellie saw them out of the front door, making sure the deadlock was on and the bolts shot home. And did the same for the kitchen door, which wouldn't shut properly due to the ministrations of Charlie and his mate, so she put a chair under the doorknob to keep out intruders.

Rose was already in bed, with the television on.

Ellie returned to the sitting room to turn out the lights, thinking that this was the first night she and Thomas had spent away from one another since they'd got married. She missed him. There was so much she wanted to tell him about the evening, and how Ursula had acted. She needed to talk to him about Mia too. Would he agree to their giving the girl a home till she was able to return to university? She ought to be with people who cared for her and could help her back to normality.

She looked at the phone. She couldn't ring him now, could she? He would be busy with colleagues, discussing all sorts of important things that she would never understand. She had a horrid feeling that some day he would be drawn away from her into the upper reaches of academia, where she would never be able to follow him.

The phone rang. It was Thomas. ‘Are you all right, my dear? I've been so worried about you.'

‘I'm just fine. How about you?' She sank down on to the settee. ‘How did the paper go?' Midge decided Ellie had settled down, so jumped on to her lap.

‘They seem to approve. How's your cold? Mine seems much better.'

They went on talking, the house quiet around them, and the cat purring.