‘And we shouldn’t intrude on police work,’ said Stephanie, feeling very grown up.
‘That’s right,’ said Thea with evident regret.
The electric gate was partly open, and when Thea pushed it, it shifted quite easily. ‘They’ve disconnected the electrics,’ she realised. ‘Mrs Blackwood won’t like that. Though I suppose she’s got other things to worry about.’
Stephanie had never seen Mrs Blackwood, but had heard plenty about her from Ant. She privately thought it very likely that she had killed her husband in a fit of rage. But the whole business of the murder was still very confusing. ‘How exactly did Mr Blackwood die?’ she asked Thea now, as they walked the hundred yards or so up to the cottage.
‘I probably shouldn’t tell you. I’m not really meant to know. It’ll all be made public soon enough, I expect.’
‘We haven’t been very good detectives, have we? Not like you usually are. We haven’t actually done anything. And we don’t know very much, either.’
‘We know he was wearing pyjamas when he died.’
‘Oh.’ Stephanie wasn’t sure that this was a pertinent detail. ‘And a dressing gown?’
‘Probably, at this time of year.’
A car came up behind them and hooted. It turned out to be Gladwin, obviously heading for the cottage as well. She put her head out of the window, her expression stern. ‘Not a good time to be visiting,’ she said.
‘Oh? Why not?’ asked Thea.
‘We’re here to arrest Mrs Frowse,’ came the stunning reply. ‘I’m told she arrived home five minutes ago.’
Chapter Nineteen
Ant had the presence of mind to ask his two questions almost before his mother was out of her car. He paused only to check that she was not damaged in any way, mentally as well as physically. She appeared drawn, apprehensive even, but perfectly steady. ‘What did you mean when you said “He’s dead and I can’t come home”?’ he burst out. ‘That’s what you said to me on the phone.’
She shook her head in puzzlement. ‘What? What are you talking about? Where’s your father? What are all those cars doing in the driveway?’
‘You said those words. You must remember. What did you mean? Who was dead? It’s important.’ He wanted to shake the answer out of her.
‘Oh. Is that what you thought I said? I was talking about Digby. “He’s dead to me” is what I said, or something like it. It was quite a bad line. You must have heard it wrong.’
Ant fell silent, running the phone call through his head yet again. ‘No,’ he decided. ‘I didn’t hear it wrong.’
‘You’ve been thinking I killed someone?’ She looked back at the police activity in the woods. ‘That I killed Rufus Blackwood, in fact?’ The smile that went with these words made Ant even more terrified than he was already.
‘I’ve got another question,’ he went on hurriedly. Digby was standing in the doorway, waiting for them to join him. And there was a strong sense of events closing in, leaving no time to spare. ‘Why did you take Aldebaran’s ashes with you?’
‘Ah!’ Beverley stepped back to her car. ‘They’re quite safe – I strapped them into the passenger seat.’
‘But why … ?’
‘I didn’t want your father to have them,’ she said simply.
Which only left two more minutes for Digby and Beverley to confront each other, with a minimal exchange of words. Those they did utter were gibberish to Ant.
‘I saw you,’ said his mother. ‘I came back on Thursday and saw you.’
Digby did not flinch. ‘Whatever you think you saw, you got it wrong,’ he said.
‘Nobody’s ever going to convince me of that.’
‘So what do you think happens now? There’s trouble, whichever way you look at it.’
‘Visitors,’ said Ant, pointing down at the gate.
Although they kept well out of the way, Thea and Stephanie did not go home despite the knowledge that they were intruding on matters that were none of their business. They saw Gladwin supervising the arrest of Beverley Frowse, and taking her away in the back of the police car. ‘We’re taking you in for questioning,’ the senior detective intoned. ‘With regard to the unlawful killing of Mr Rufus Blackwood.’
Ant and Digby stood at the gate watching the departing vehicle with blank faces. Percy came out to rub noses with Hepzie, both dogs subdued and watchful.
Ant belatedly took notice of them and beckoned. ‘You’d better come in,’ he said. ‘We might need some distraction.’
‘I hope you’re going to tell us everything,’ said Thea. ‘This has got to be a mistake, surely?’
‘There’s hardly anything to tell. We only spoke to her for a minute before you got here. And you saw what happened then.’
‘So where has she been? What was she doing?’
‘She was at her friend Winnie’s,’ said Ant. ‘Which will be very easy to prove. The police really are wasting their time, you know. If they’re looking for a murderer, they’d be better off concentrating on me and my dad. At least we were right here. My mother was miles away.’
‘Steady on, lad,’ said Digby. ‘Don’t go confessing to something you haven’t done.’
Ant blinked, and then laughed awkwardly. ‘Th-that isn’t what I meant,’ he stammered.
‘No. Well,’ said his father repressively. He turned to Thea. ‘They’d be better off interrogating Carla and those daughters of hers. They’d soon find out that things are a lot more complicated than they think.’
‘Really?’ said Thea. ‘I suppose they’ll be doing that anyway.’
Digby was suddenly much more active than he had been for days, pacing around the kitchen, watched worriedly by Percy. He was muttering, more to himself than the other people in the room. ‘Makes no sense. Why do they think she came back, if she’d killed bloody Blackwood? Arresting her is ludicrous.’
‘The way they see it, they want to know why she went off like she did if she didn’t kill him,’ said Ant.
‘And how do they think she did it, then? With a crowbar or what?’
Thea spoke before fully engaging her brain. ‘Oh, no. He
