‘Oh, she did — no question about that.’
‘Don’t worry about her,’ said Fry. ‘Elaine had plenty of rest last night. In fact, she went to bed almost as soon as we got back yesterday. She sleeps like a baby for ten or eleven hours at a stretch.’
Dalley sipped his tea. ‘I wish that Nancy could do that,’ he said, soulfully. ‘She’s exhausted. She hasn’t had a proper sleep since we heard the news. And that means
‘You could always take another day off.’
‘No thanks, Perce. I’m like my brother-in-law. I’m only happy when I’m doing something. If I stay at home, I have to listen to Nancy saying the same thing over and over again. That’s why I’m so grateful to your wife.’
‘What about that other lady?’ asked Fry, before draining his cup with a loud slurping noise. ‘Is Mrs Skene going to be there today?’
‘I’ve no idea,’ replied Dalley. ‘I never expected her to turn up yesterday. Caroline is a good-hearted woman but we haven’t seen all that much of her in the past. That’s not to say she isn’t welcome,’ he added, quickly. ‘Nancy told me how kind she’d been.’
‘Elaine said the same thing about her.’
‘Women are so much better at comforting someone in distress. Like most men, I suppose, I just don’t know what to do. I always feel as if I’m in the way. My nephew was battered to death yet somehow I couldn’t find the right words to say to his father.’ He hunched his broad shoulders. ‘I felt sort of embarrassed. That’s why I prefer to leave the comforting to people like your wife and Nancy’s cousin. It seems to come naturally to them.’
Caroline Skene was in need of comfort herself at that moment in time. Pacing up and down the front room, she kept pausing to peer out of the window. Her teeth were clenched, her brow corrugated and her mind ablaze. She couldn’t understand why her summons had not been answered. Putting her trust in Marmion, she expected him to respond instantly. Yet it was almost two hours since she made the phone call and he still hadn’t appeared. Was he deliberately keeping her waiting? Or could it be that he’d ignored her request altogether? The thought went through her like an electric shock. Marmion was the one person who could help her. If he abandoned her, she would have nobody to whom she could turn.
It was only when she was alone that she was able to mourn properly. In front of her husband, all that she could show was her natural grief over the death of a relative. Marmion was the one person who’d had some insight into the intense pain she felt over the loss of a young lover. He’d been sympathetic and refrained from even the slightest criticism of her adultery. His sole interest was in solving the crime. He was not there to question her behaviour. That had enabled her to confide in him things that she would never divulge to anyone else.
As she was hit by another wave of grief, she sank down onto the settee. A second later, she jumped to her feet as she heard the sound of a car pulling up outside the house. Caroline ran to the window, saw Marmion getting out of the vehicle and went straight to the front door. When she opened it, she didn’t even hear his apology for being delayed. She simply burst into tears and went into his arms. Easing her gently back, he closed the door then guided her to the front room. He lowered her onto the settee and sat beside her.
‘Thank God you came!’ she said, grasping his wrist.
‘I wish I could have been here earlier, Mrs Skene,’ he said, looking into the frightened eyes. ‘Why did you want to see me?’
‘It’s a long story, Inspector.’
‘I’ve got plenty of time to listen.’
‘Something terrible happened yesterday,’ she told him. ‘I spent some of it with my cousin, Nancy, trying to calm her down. Then I called on Gerald — that’s Cyril’s father — and stayed a couple of hours with him. I must have left around eight o’clock to make my way back here.’
‘Go on, Mrs Skene,’ he said.
‘I was followed. I didn’t notice anything until I got back to Lambeth, but then I had this prickly feeling that someone was watching me. When I got to the corner of the street, I turned round sharply and saw him move behind a lamp post. I lost my nerve completely then,’ she admitted, ‘and ran all the way here. It was the most awful feeling, Inspector.’
‘Was your husband at home?’
‘Yes — Wilf was here. He’s on early morning shifts this week.’
‘Did you tell him what had happened?’
‘Of course not,’ she said. ‘He didn’t even notice that I was upset. If I’d told my husband, I’d have had to explain why I was followed.’
‘A woman on her own is always at risk of arousing someone’s unwanted interest,’ said Marmion, disappointed that she had nothing more serious to report to him. ‘I’m sorry that you were bothered in that way.’
‘You don’t understand, Inspector. It’s not the first time.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘It’s happened before but … I never really noticed it then. When you’re with someone you love,’ she went on, eyes filming over again, ‘you block out everything else. All I could see — and all I
‘How do you know that it’s happened before?’
‘I began to remember odd incidents. For example, there was a time when Cyril and I met in a church. I know you’ll think badly of me for doing something like that,’ she said, hastily, ‘but it was the only place we could be together for a little while. We just sat in a pew at the back and held hands — there was nothing more than that.’
‘You don’t have to justify it, Mrs Skene. Tell me about being followed.’
‘It was as we came out,’ she recalled. ‘I saw someone on the opposite side of the road who looked vaguely familiar and it crossed my mind briefly that I might have seen him earlier when we first met that evening. But,’ she continued, ‘I was enjoying the pleasure of being with Cyril so much that I thought no more about it.’
‘And you say that there were other instances?’
‘I think so, Inspector, but I can’t be sure.’
‘What about yesterday? Was the person who stalked you the same man you saw when you came out of that church?’
‘I couldn’t say. On both occasions, I only got a glimpse of him. But there was no doubt about what happened yesterday. I was followed back home. It can only mean one thing,’ she concluded. ‘Someone
‘Yet you took great care to be discreet.’
‘Maybe we weren’t discreet enough. Maybe someone saw him coming into this house or leaving it. We were certainly seen together outside that church.’
Marmion pondered. He’d been tempted at first to dismiss her tale as coming from an overheated imagination. The note of hysteria in her voice suggested a woman on the verge of nervous collapse. The more she talked, however, the calmer she sounded and he came to accept that there could well have been recurring instances of surveillance that might have culminated in the murder of Cyril Ablatt. She’d released his wrist now and sat there awaiting his advice.
‘I’d like you to do something for me, Mrs Skene,’ he said. ‘Get paper and pencil then rack your brains. I want you to write down a list of other times when you thought — or had a fleeting suspicion — that the two of you were being watched. If there are enough occasions, we may be able to see a pattern.’
Her face crumpled. ‘I’m terrified, Inspector.’
‘That’s understandable.’
‘As soon as my husband left for work this morning, I went to the police station to ring you. When I lost Cyril, I didn’t think that anything could be worse. But it looks as if it can. Someone has already killed Cyril,’ she said with a shiver, ‘and now he’s after
Keedy had been dropped off at the cemetery. He thought it would be an easy task to locate and arrest Horrie Waldron but he was mistaken. The problem was that the gravedigger saw him first and played hide-and-seek with him. His detailed knowledge of the cemetery allowed him to stay one step ahead of the sergeant. When he realised what was happening, Keedy pretended to give up and walked towards the main entrance. As soon as he reached cover, however, he doubled back in a wide circle. Concealing himself behind a statue, he bided his time until Waldron eventually came back in sight. Keedy gave him a few minutes before sprinting across the turf and grabbing
