Cleo locked the office and walked home, devastated by what
she had just done. Robert was glad to see her and tried to ask a lot of
questions. Cleo had phoned and told him briefly about finding Sybil and the
plan to drive her to the vicarage.
“Gary is charmed by Sybil,” she told him.
“Isn’t she a call-girl?” Robert asked.
“Was, Robert. She has been working on her parents small-holding.”
“I though Gary once said that prostitutes stayed that way
even if they took time out.”
“Sybil is beautiful and has a daughter. She wants to get
somewhere to live and a respectable job so that she can get Anna back,” said
Cleo.
“Separate living accommodation does not mean separate lives,
Cleo. You should know all about that.”
Robert had mixed feelings about Gary being interested in someone
Cleo would normally have called a hooker. One half of him was sorry for Cleo, the
other was smug and self-satisfied. Cleo would l soon learn that Gary was a
scamp.
“By the way, Julie and Gary are no longer together, Robert,
so Gary is free to do as he chooses.”
“Oh,” said Robert. “But Gary always does as he chooses,
doesn’t he?”
“I wouldn’t know, Robert, and to be honest, you are not up
to date on anything else, either.”
“Go on then, tell all!”
“I think Julie’s been cooling off Gary for some time, and
they were only friends. It never got past the platonic stage.”
“How do you know that?”
“She told me, Robert.”
“She didn’t tell me.”
“I don’ suppose it was important enough.”
Robert wanted to ask Cleo if she had also cooled off Gary,
but didn’t.
“Julie has been showing interest in Chris recently.”
“The pathologist? Isn’t he… You know?”
“He’s both, he said.”
“That isn’t possible.”
“It is, Robert. Some people love men and women equally.”
“That’s not in my Bible, Cleo. It’s wicked.”
“Whatever. Julie and her friend Jenny have been working with
Chris on various cases and Gary has been preoccupied with himself.”
“Julie could have confided in me.”
“What good would that have done? I think she was tired of
Gary long before our wedding.”
“But at our wedding she was all over him.”
“Theatricals, Robert. I was not the first to spot what was
going on.”
“Don’t tell me. Dorothy Price has had one of her hunches
again,” said Robert.
“She has a long antenna for other people’s emotions.”
“Then it’s a pity she didn’t catch on to Laura Finch’s.”
“She did, too, but Laura was hiding away and Dorothy was too
hurt and angry that she had not taken her into her confidence about Jason.”
“Are Julie and Chris now a what’s it…. item?” said Robert.
“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask her. I only know that the
affair with Gary is all over.”
“My poor little girl,” was all Robert could think of to say.
“That’s rich!” exclaimed Cleo. “I didn’t think you even like
Gary.”
“Oh, he’s OK. Now we’re married I’ve no reason to be
jealous.”
“Why would you be jealous, Robert?”
“Because …well, because.”
“Out of date again, Robert,” said Cleo, not wanting him to
spell out an accusation she would have to answer to. “Gary seems to be taking
up with Sybil.”
“Who the hell is Sybil, anyway?”
“I’ve just told you. She’s Anna’s mother.”
“So our adoption is off,” said Robert.
“Was it ever on?” said Cleo.
“Is it just the two of us for supper?”
“Yes, Robert.”
***
At about 9:30 p.m., when Cleo and Robert thought their day
was ending, the phone rang.
“Don’t answer it!”
“I must, Robert. It sounds urgent.”
“To me it sounds like a damn phone interrupting our peace
and quiet!”
“Hilda, what’s up?” Cleo was saying, trying to get a word in
edgeways into Hilda’s garbled message.
“There was a lot of noise and screaming, then silence. Is
that what you’re saying, Hilda! Calm down, for heaven’s sake!”
“Yes, that’s it. What shall I do?”
“Nothing, Hilda. I’ll take care of it. Don’t open the door
to anyone except me. We’ll be over as soon as we can get there. Don’t go
anywhere near any windows.”
“Thank you, Cleo.”
A thought occurred to Cleo.
“Has that noise just happened, Hilda?”
“Well no, not exactly, but I was waiting for something else
to happen.”
“How long were you waiting?”
Hilda thought it must be about two hours.
Since there was no point in berating Hilda for not phoning
immediately, Cleo merely told her she would see to things. Hilda seemed
satisfied.
“Then I’ll watch TV again if there’s nothing else.”
“Are you sure the noise wasn’t on the TV, Hilda?”
“Of course not. I was watching a cookery show. They don’t
scream like that during cookery shows.”
Cleo would not be surprised if Hilda had been watching TV,
nodded off, then thought the noise from her TV was next door, but she was
hardly likely to admit that even if it was true. After the phone call, Cleo
caught herself shaking her head the way Dorothy did when she was disgusted.
“That Bone woman sat in her house for two hours after
hearing strange noises next door,” Cleo explained.
“Most people hear noises next door all the time and just get
on with their own lives,” said Robert.
“Not Hilda. She’s really nervous waiting for the next delivery
of snakes.”
Robert laughed out loud.
“Is she afraid of snakes crawling up the drainpipes or black
widows knocking at the door?”
“Don’t make fun. Get your shoes on. We’re going there to
investigate.”
“Not tonight, Cleo. What about our evening?”
“To hell with the evening! This could be anything. It’s you
or Gary, Robert.”
“I’ll go with you, Cleo. You can phone the police later,
then you need not meet up with them.”
Cleo and Robert almost ran through Upper Grumpsfield to
Oakwood Road.
***
“High drama is getting to be a habit in this village,
Robert.”
“It must feel quite like home then.”
“I’d rather it didn’t.”
“The car would have been quicker,” panted Robert.
“But conspicuous.”
“Why are we going there, anyway? Isn’t that a job for the
police?”
“There’s supposed to be a patrol car nearby. I’ll just ring
Gary and check on that.”
“Do you have to?”
“Of course.”
While Robert was sitting on a convenient wall getting his
breath back, Cleo called Gary’s mobile number on her mobile. A patrol team was
already watching the house next door, Gary confirmed in a frigid voice.
“Hilda Bone thinks she heard something next door. We’re
going to look,” Cleo said.
“There’s been no report. Just be careful and let me know if
there is anything,” Gary instructed. “I’m staying at the vicarage for a bit.
Parsnip has gone to church for his all-night vigil, so I must protect the
household here.”
“Very convenient,” said Cleo. “Frederick Parsnip couldn’t protect anyone
even if he was at home. I’ll call you back when we’ve looked round at the Singletons,
unless I’d be disturbing you.”
“I’m not going to bed with her, in case that’s what you are
thinking, Cleo.”
“I’m not thinking anything, Gary.”
***
Meanwhile, they had reached Hilda’s house and Cleo told
Robert to walk round the Singleton place to make sure there was nothing amiss. There
were no lights shining in the windows and no sign of the patrol car and officers.
It was all deadly quiet in the neighbourhood. Cleo thought Ruby Singleton might
have gone to bed early.
“Or fallen into a drunken stupor,” suggested Robert.
“Then she’d have left the lights on, wouldn’t she,” reasoned
Cleo. “I’ll check that Hilda’s OK then join you.”
Robert found it unpleasant to have to prowl round someone’s
house. As he got to the side of the bungalow, flood-lights immediately went on.
The light embraced the swimming-pool. Robert thought he was having
hallucinations when he saw that someone was half-floating, half lying face down
at the edge of the pool. He could see at a glance that the unfortunate person
was probably dead. He took a couple of photos with his mobile phone. Cleo had
told him to do that if ever he saw something suspicious. Then he dragged the
body out of the water and turned it over. It was Ruby Singleton. She doesn’t
look drowned, he mused. Must have been drunk, fallen over and hit her head, he
concluded.
Robert phoned Cleo with the news rather than leaving the
dead woman. Cleo knocked on Hilda’s door and told Hilda there had been an
incident and she was to keep out of danger by staying inside her house. Cleo’s
call to Gary elicited expletives and the promise of support. He would have to
stay at the vicarage until his replacement turned up but would notify HQ. Barbara
Fielding was prepared to take over although she was rather tired. Cleo was to about
to find out why the patrol cops Gary had said must still be at the Singletons’
house not noticed anything.
“What patrol cops?”
“Didn’t you walk past the car?”
“Yes, but it was empty,” said Cleo. “So they missed the fun.”
“That’s one way of looking at it,” said Gary.
“You didn’t tell me they would be there tonight,” said Cleo.
“I got the impression that you had given up on that.”
“I still make decisions on my own,” Gary said.
“Then decide to employ responsible patrol cops. I would have
spotted them if they’d been anywhere near.”
“Who do you mean, Cleo?”
“Aren’t we talking about patrol cops? We walked here and
noticed the car, but there was no one in it.”
“I’ll get onto it. There must be some misunderstanding.”
“Or none, Gary,” said Cleo.
***
Cleo dashed round the Singleton house. Robert was standing
at the pool next to the corpse of Mrs Singleton Two young police officers were
standing on the veranda munching away at chips out of newspaper.
“Where’ve you been, you guys?” Cleo asked. “Gary’s after
your guts.”
“We were – elsewhere,” explained one of them. “We saw the
lights and came around.”
“Straight from the chip shop?”
The two young guys nodded ashamedly.
“This was your assignment, wasn’t it?”
“Nothing ever happened.”
“But it was going to, and has,” said Cleo. “Why weren’t you
here? If someone sent you here, it was so that you could deter this kind of
thing.”
It was an exceedingly uncomfortable moment for the two
patrol officers, but knowing that they would be found out anyway, they had to
answer truthfully.
“We popped to Delilah’s,” they admitted. “Tuesday’s sausage
and chip night.”
“Oh, that’s rich! The person you are supposed to be
protecting is found dangling in the swimming pool, and you are at the bistro
for sausage and chips.”
“It’ll go cold if we stop eating the extra portions Delilah
gave us to take out. Not eating them will not raise the dead,” said one of them
disrespectfully. “Like a chip?”
Cleo thought she had never encountered such insolence. Without
considering whether she had the authority to do it, she shouted at them to get
back to their car and wait for instructions.
They sidled off, leaving Cleo and Robert to look after the
corpse.
“Since when do they employ juveniles to patrol someone in
danger?” Cleo hissed.
“Who the hell were they? They looked as if they should be a
school.”
“Patrol cops, presumably on their first mission,” said Cleo.
“That explains why a neurotic guy like Gary could get that
funny burnout illness,” said Robert. “The whole set-up is a bit bonkers, if you
ask me.”
For a moment, Cleo was actually in tune with Robert, like in
the early days of their relationship. Gary was still more than just a phantom
between them, but Cleo could now even imagine coming to terms with her
marriage.
“I just hope the whole new generation of police are not all
like those scarecrows,” said Robert.
A few minutes later Chris arrived in his forensics van with
a couple of his team.
“Gary told me to get here,” he said. “Upper Grumpsfield is
getting to be a habit. I’ll phone for an ambulance. It doesn’t look as if she could
use a hospital, but a doctor will have to pronounce her officially dead before we
heave her onto the slab. I could do it, but it’s better if we have an A& E
doctor.”
It was indeed business as usual for Chris.
“She didn’t drown,” he said. “That’s obvious.”
“I thought as much,” said Robert, who’d actually been trying
not to think about anything. “Murder?”
“I don’t think she dangled face down in that pool of her own
volition,” said Chris.
“Did you take a photo of her in the water, Robert?” Cleo
asked.
“I thought I should. There are a couple on my mobile.”
“You’re learning fast, Robert,” Chris said. “Your new wife
is a good teacher!”
“I’m a fast learner,” said Robert, giving Cleo a look that
disconcerted her.
By the time the ambulance and doctor arrived, Chris had
taken more photos of Mrs Singleton. The woman was duly pronounced dead and the
paramedics lifted Mrs Singleton onto a stretcher, covered her with a blanket
and wheeled her to the ambulance that was parked on the road.
“No coffin?” said Chris.
“No one told us there would be a corpse,” replied one of
them.
They drove off leaving the doctor to fill in the obligatory
form for Chris. The corpse would be delivered to pathology at HQ.
“You might also take
a look at the rockery further down the yard, Chris,” said Cleo. “Mrs Bone next
door says stones marking the front path were recently taken up and heaped on it.”
“I wondered what that pile of stones was,” said Robert. “It
looks like a funeral pyre and I don’t remember it being that high last time.”
(Robert’s previous visit had been the incident concerning
the Devonport corpse.)
“It’s not my business,” he said now, “but I thought police
patrols were meant to observe and protect their targets. They missed out on
that, in my opinion.”
“It is your business, Robert,” said Cleo.
“It looks as if we pay taxes so that daft young lads can fail
to guard the safety of endangered persons,” said Chris.
Robert was catching on to the cathartic quality of viewing
the whole ghastly business as routine. If Chris thought there was a bit of
over-dramatization going on, he didn’t say so, but nodded to his assistants to
take a look at the rockery. That would satisfy everyone’s curiosity.
Five minutes later they were all staring down at a large
blue rubbish sack that had been dragged from under the stones. It was not hard
to deduce that there was a body inside it.
“I’ll take a quick look at it,” said Chris. “Stand back,
everyone. It’ll smell of decay.”
He slipped a filter-mask over his mouth and nose. Moments
later he was able to report that it was as he suspected. The emergency doctor
who had been summoned to deal with Ruby Singleton was sent for again to take a
closer look at the corpse in the blue bag. The doctor, an friend of Chris’s,
was astonished that he had been called out to two corpses at the same address
on same day.
“Been dead for quite a while,” he diagnosed. ”Aged between sixty
and seventy, I would say. Could have died of natural causes, but you can never
be sure. Get him to HQ and do an autopsy, Chris. I’ll fill out the form
confirming the decease and you can put the rest in later.”
Two of the forensic team carried the gruesome cargo to their
van after sealing the bag so that the stench could not escape.
“Assuming those two were husband and wife, they will probably
be as near as they have ever been in recent years when we put them in the
mortuary,” said Chris. “Pity there aren’t any double-coffins.”
“Do you know who the man could be, Cleo?” Chris asked.
Cleo glanced at the body.
“It isn’t Akbari, so I guess it’s Mr Singleton.”
Cleo wondered who had been upstairs in the Singleton abode when
she called. Mr Singleton had been dead for quite some time so it was not him.
She did not voice her thoughts.
The corpse would be examined and prepared by Chris and more photos
taken. Apart from that, there would be photos in the bungalow that confirmed
the identity of the man. A forensic team would comb through the contents of the
house next morning to see what else they could come up with.
A quick look round at Cleo’s request revealed that the house
was empty. If someone had been hiding there, he was not there now. They would
find any evidence of a guest next day. Fingerprinting the rockery stones would
be too difficult in the dark, Chris decided, apart from which, the team had
been at work long enough. The whole area was cordoned off and the patrol
officers were ordered to keep watch. They were not amused.
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