Moorcroft - the Possession: Book One of the Moorcroft Trilogy (32 page)

Fred watched her as he pulled down his sleeves and buttoned up his tunic, something was very wrong here. He sat in the chair opposite. “Now, Mary, are you ready to tell me what’s happened.”

Tears sprang to her eyes as she related her discovery of Richard Gardener. Fred stood up and tugged at the bottom of his uniform, there was going to be some nattering in this village tonight with a murder on their doorsteps. “Right, I’ll get in touch with Preston and then we’ll go back up to Moorcroft and contain the scene of the crime.”

Mary looked up at him. “Must I go back up there Fred; I need to be with my mother?” Fred had heard of her mother’s illness and felt sorry for the poor caring woman. “You go home Mary, but don’t leave the house because I’m sure the big bods from Preston will want to talk to you.”

Mary thanked him and left him talking on the phone. As she turned into the lane to her cottage she watched as Fred passed her in his police car heading for Moorcroft.

By lunch time the name of Richard Gardener was on everyone’s lips, so when Mary heard banging on her front door she ignored it, she was fed up with her nosy neighbours. She sat looking down at the sleeping face of her mother, listening to the crackle of her chest as she breathed. The banging persisted and Mary stormed downstairs and was ready with a mouth full of abuse as she opened the door. She was taken off guard as she looked upon a tall gentleman in an overcoat and wearing a trilby pulled down over his eyes. For once Mary was speechless and looked up at the man and then to the young woman constable stood behind him.

“Are you Mary Shaw?”

Mary nodded.

“My name’s Inspector Crawley, I wonder if we may come in, I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

Without saying a word Mary opened the door wide and beckoned them in. The Inspector had to bow his head so as not to bang it on the low beams; the smile from the young woman was not missed by Mary. “Why don’t you take a seat and I’ll put the kettle on.” Before the Inspector could object she was already in the kitchen filling the kettle.

Once they were all three settled with a cup of tea, the Inspector looked at the young officer and she took out a pad from her pocket and was poised ready to take notes. He cleared his throat and looked directly into Mary’s eyes. “Right Mrs Shaw, could you start by telling me why you were up at Moorcroft this morning, and then we’ll move onto your discovery of the victim.”

Mary bristled. “Mr Gardener you mean, that’s the name of the gentleman.”

The Inspector nodded. The young woman smiled at her and Mary began her tale. By the time she was through she was wiping the tears of grief from her face and the young constable was patting her hand.

“I have just two more questions to ask you. One, did you touch your employer or anything other than the back door and two, can you think of anyone who would want to harm the gentleman?”

Mary thought a while and shook her head. “I stroked his face that’s all, as for enemies, I can’t think of any.”

“I believe he lay off a lot of staff, would any of them bear a grudge perhaps?”

Again Mary shook her head. “You’re barking up the wrong tree there, everyone understood why he had to lay them off, it was the only way to prevent him going bankrupt, besides that was all a long time ago.”

The young man stood up and looked at Mary. “We’ll be off now but we may be back to talk to you at a later date.” As he reached the door he turned. “Mrs Shaw, would you have an address for Miss Gardener, the deceased sister?”

Mary’s hand went to her mouth and she sank into her chair. “Dear Lord, I had forgotten poor Miss Sarah, she must be told.”

The Inspector waited.

“I don’t know her address but Master Richard recently got a letter from her, he showed me the photographs of her and her husband and her little boy.”

He came and stood by her side. “So his sister married and now has a family, do you know her married name?”

Mary looked up at him and nodded her head. “When she left Moorcroft, she was in the company of Mr Charles Wesley; they were sweethearts at the time. They later got married and now she has a son, a lovely looking little boy, but where they live I only know it was further south, midlands I think.”

The young man thanked her and opened the door. Mary watched them as they got in the car, then she closed the door and rested against it. She cleared the cups away and wearily climbed the stairs to sit with her mother.

Moorcroft was soon flooded with cars and policemen and after the scene had been examined Richard’s body was unceremoniously placed in a black body bag and taken to the police mortuary. A congregation of nosey onlookers had started to collect at the gates, along with the usual reporters and village gossips and all had to be held back. The Inspector looked down the drive; he would never understand these morbid intruders on death. He summoned a group of officers and together they went to the rear of the house, while other policemen scoured the surroundings for clues. With Mary’s key he unlocked the door and pushed, it didn’t give an inch. Mary had said that there were bolts to top and bottom, but that they were seldom used now that she had a key of her own. He gave the nod and two burly men charged the door, it took several attempts before the bolts gave way and Moorcroft was open for inspection.

As they walked slowly into the house, the young inspector took a handkerchief from his pocket and opened each door in turn and briefly looked around, what looked like the pantry was undisturbed so he walked onto the next room, he opened the door to discover the kitchen, it looked like every cupboard had been opened and it’s contents thrown to the floor, broken china and food stuffs were scattered everywhere. The Inspector moved on until he reached the great hall, he stopped and looked up at the magnificent staircase, the chandelier and the wood panelling with envy. He gathered his men around him and gave them his instructions.

“Right you two, I want you to look in every room and to make sure that no one is hiding, that means looking in cupboards and wardrobes, anywhere a person could hide, don’t forget the attic rooms and boys, try not to disturb anything and wear gloves.”

He opened the door to the dining room, the table had been overturned and the chairs thrown against the wall. Leaving his men chatting he opened the door to the drawing room, this room too was in chaos, the seats had been ripped and the inners spewed out, pictures on the wall had also been slashed and furniture scattered and gouged. He moved onto the next room and opened the door to the study, from the doorway he could see that this room had suffered the same attack, furniture ripped apart and papers torn and scattered.

Back in the hall his attention was then on his men. “Right you lot, let’s get organised.” He looked at the young constable with the camera. “I want you to go into each room and take photographs, I want everything captured so that I can study them later.” He turned his attention to the other officers. “Now when he’s done his bit, I want each one of you to take a room and I want you to look for any kind of weapon or implement that can do this kind of damage and if you find any kind of paperwork which might have an address on it let me know, we’re trying to find out his sister’s whereabouts, and wear gloves all of you we don’t want the powers that be on our backs.”

He looked at his sergeant. “This looks like a robbery gone wrong to me, but I don’t understand all this vandalism, it’s vicious. You come with me upstairs to the bedrooms; we might find something there that will tell us just how that fellow ended up on his drive that way.”

He looked at his men chatting to each other and clapped his hands. “Well come on, get yourselves moving, the sooner we find the bastards that did this the better.” His men scattered and with a smile on his face he began to climb the stairs.

As they reached the landing two constables came towards them and stood to attention. He looked at them. “Well, I take it you didn’t find anyone?”

They shook their heads. “There’s no one in the house, sir, but apart from that bedroom over there, nothing seems to have been disturbed upstairs.”

“Did you go into the room?”

“Yes Sir, we looked in the wardrobes and the bathroom but we didn’t go further into the room or disturb anything but we did find that the clothes have been ripped and thrown to the floor and the mirror in the bathroom has been smashed.”

“I don’t suppose there was any blood on the mirror?”

“None that we could see Sir.”

The inspector nodded. “Right, go downstairs and help look outside, we’re looking for footprints, fag ends, anything, you know the drill.”

The two men looked pleased and rushed down the stairs.

Just inside the bedroom door the inspector stopped and looked around the room. “Well, Tom, what are your first impressions?”

The sergeant looked at each corner of the room and nodded towards the bed. “If it wasn’t for all the chaos downstairs I’d say this was a crime of passion, the rooms in disarray but just look at the destruction of that bed.”

The inspector nodded. “That’s just what I was thinking, but could a woman have caused all the other damage?”

“Well she was strong enough to push that poor sod out the window and he wasn’t a little bloke.”

The young man crossed to the window and looked down on the pool of blood below him and turned and looked around the room again. “You might be right Tom. Listen I’m going to see that Mary Shaw woman, see if she knows if this guy had a lady friend. Keep an eye on this lot; they’ll be off for a quick fag if you don’t watch them.”

The sergeant nodded and watched as his inspector ran down the stairs and out the back door.

Mary was nodding in the chair when she heard the knock at the door. She opened it a couple of inches and peered out, seeing the young inspector on her doorstep she opened the door wide.

He took off his hat and smiled down at her. “I’m sorry to disturb you Mrs Shaw but I just have a couple of questions for you, may I come in?”

“Please do, I’m just about to put the kettle on it’s milk and two sugars isn’t it?”

He took a seat as Mary pottered about in the kitchen. The young man smiled as Mary placed the tray on the table and began to pour the tea.

“Now before you start asking your questions, let’s get one thing clear, it’s Miss Shaw, the only Mrs Shaw is upstairs in her bed not long for this world by the looks of her.”

The inspector looked embarrassed and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry Miss Shaw.”

Mary nodded. “Now what do you want to know?”

“Can you tell me if Mr Gardener had a woman friend?”

Mary sat back deep in thought. “Well I couldn’t say for sure.” She saw the man frown. “You see, he never told me as much but I think he did.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well I never saw her see, but suddenly he had a twinkle in his eye, you know what I mean, and things would get moved in my kitchen, put back in the wrong places and a couple of times my cooker was switched off when I was baking, I had to tell Master Richard what for over that.”

“So you never saw the woman, it’s just a feeling, is that right?”

“That’s right, call it woman’s intuition if you like but Master Richard seemed to change overnight, more kind natured, gentle like.”

“So Mr Gardener hadn’t always been good natured then?”

“Well the poor man had a lot of tragedy in his life, took to the bottle for a while, but he pulled himself together and got Moorcroft back on its feet.”

The inspector nodded he had heard most of the family history from the local plod. “So as far as you’re aware you think he had a woman but no one had ever seen her.”

Mary nodded. “That’s right.”

He stood up and thanked Mary for the tea. At the door he turned. “By the way, there are two horses in the stables do you know if anyone attends to them?”

Mary’s gave a heavy sigh. “Oh Lord, Dancing Lady and her colt, I had forgotten all about them. No, the only person who looked after those was Master Richard himself. The poor things will want turning out and fed.”

“I’ll get one of the farmers here about to look after them, thank you Miss Shaw.”

As he reached the gate, Mary called out to him. “Get in touch with Bill Walters up at Great Meadow Farm, he was a good friend to Master Richard, he’ll look after those horses until Sarah’s found.”

The inspector doffed his hat and got into his car.

Back at Moorcroft he was met by an excited sergeant. “Glad you’re back sir. We’ve made some discoveries in the study, what looks like a letter from a detective agency and some torn up photographs. We’ve also found a letter addressed to a Mrs S. Wesley. Could that be the missing sister?”

The inspector patted him on the back. “Good work Tom, let’s go and have a look.”

In the dining room the furniture had been put back in place and several bags of evidence were piled on the table. Tom walked in and held up a folder.

“Take a look at these.”

He passed him a polythene bag containing a patchwork photograph of a young man and woman sat on a park bench and one of a young boy. The Inspector took them over to the window; there was a definite likeness to the deceased.

“This was found close by the pictures.” Tom handed him an invoice, headed Parker Investigations, and read the information. He handed it back to Tom.

“Get on to the office and get someone to ring this bloke, see what he knows of our Mr Gardener and if he goes on about client confidentiality tell him I’ll have the VAT man go over his books, see if that loosens his tongue. Now where’s the letter?”

Tom reached for an evidence bag and handed it to the inspector. He looked at the address. “Mrs Wesley, I think Mary mentioned that name. West Midlands, this could be our missing sister alright, where was this found, in the study?”

“No, sir, it was wedged at the back of the bureau, looks like it had slipped down the back and got hooked up, when we righted the piece of furniture it fell out.”

He nodded. “Tom, pass me a pair of rubber gloves, I’m going to have to read it, see if it sheds any light on this enquiry.”

Tom watched as his superior read the letter.