Authors: Lesley Cookman

Murder in the Green (37 page)

‘What happened, then?’ asked Peter. ‘Libby’s told us more or less everything, but we don’t know any of the whys and wherefores.’

‘As long as you don’t have your journalist’s notebook out,’ said Ian, and Peter looked down his patrician nose. ‘OK,’ he said, and took a swallow of whisky. ‘When Libby called us to say she was at the barn and Elizabeth Martin and Richard Diggory were there, we’d already found a couple of clues in the offices of Frensham Supplies. It appears they were a distribution centre only, so we still haven’t got anywhere near the major players, but Frensham and Diggory had a nice little business going. And you were right, they did a lot of business down in Cornwall. Malahyde is a distributor, too.’

‘What about Bernie Lee?’ asked Libby.

‘His name hasn’t come up,’ said Ian, ‘but it looks as though the – er – undercover arm of the morris dancers were a cover for drugs. Diggory will be done for supplying, as will Martin. They were keeping the business going after Frensham’s death, though both of them suspected each other of murdering him.’

‘What about Barry Phillips? Why did Martin say she wanted to kill him?’ asked Libby.

‘Best guess? He was as straight as a dye, and when he suspected something was going on and tried to interfere she wasn’t having any. I feel sorry for the bugger. He’s going to be left with the whole mess.’

They all looked solemn for a moment.

‘Then of course, Monica. She told you most of it this afternoon. She’ll be unfit to plead, I suspect.’

‘Those poor kids,’ said Fran. ‘What on earth will happen to them?’

‘They’re both over eighteen,’ said Ian, ‘so they won’t go into care.’

Fran shuddered. ‘It doesn’t bear thinking about.’

‘When you went to see her after Frensham’s body had been discovered,’ said Libby, ‘there must have been traces of blacking in the house. Didn’t you search the house? And what about the hammer?’

‘She was clever. We saw traces of the blacking in the cloakroom sink, and she said it was from her husband last night. She hadn’t time to clear it up yet. And the clothes she simply said were his other outfit. She hadn’t had time to do anything with them. The hammer she just replaced in the garage. No one suspected her of course, so no tests were made.’ He made a face. ‘It would have saved us a lot of trouble if they had been.’

‘What about Lethbridge’s car?’ asked Fran.

‘In the woods near the Tyne Chapel. She must have driven it there after she killed him. She told us that, too.’

‘And no one really questioned her much after Frensham’s murder?’ said Ben.

‘She really did collapse,’ said Ian. ‘Obviously because of what she’d done, but at the time she appeared prostrated with grief. All the doctors agreed she’d had a sort of breakdown. Which she had, and when she heard about Libby and Fran investigating, it began to send her over the edge again.’

‘But she didn’t look as though she intended to murder me,’ said Libby.

‘No. I don’t think she would. Wilhelmina, on the other hand –’ Ian grinned at her.

‘Yes,’ said Libby, putting a hand up to the bump on her head.

‘What will happen to Wilhelmina?’ asked Fran.

‘She definitely knew about the drugs, and took part in the parties, but other than that she’s guilty of nothing but bad judgement.’ He grinned. ‘And throwing a picture at Libby.’

‘How did you know where I was though?’ said Libby. ‘You turned up like the god from the machine in the nick of time.’

‘Diggory started talking. Not about Monica being the murderer, but saying she knew all about the drugs. We decided we’d better round her up as well. When we arrived and saw your car, and what we now know is Wilhelmina’s – almost as bad as yours, Libby – we changed tactics and crept in. In time for me to hear quite a bit of your rather one-sided conversation.’

‘And did she know about the drugs?’ asked Fran.

‘We think so. There wasn’t actually much she didn’t know about the business, she just pretended not to. We think she could keep tabs on her husband that way.’

‘But she asked me to help.’ Libby frowned. ‘Wouldn’t she have been better keeping quiet?’

‘As far as we can tell, she wanted to point the investigation in a different direction, and she couldn’t do that with us – the police – so she picked on you. Like a good many people in the area, she’d heard about your adventures.’

‘Interference,’ corrected Ben.

‘Humph.’ Libby scowled at him and turned her attention back to Ian. ‘But why did she go ahead and marry Bill if she knew that they were brother and sister?’

‘She’s an obsessive personality, isn’t she? I expect by that time she’d set her heart on him and wasn’t going to give him up. They were both adopted and she didn’t think anyone would find out. That’s what she said to us.’

‘I still don’t understand why she had to snoop round Frensham Holdings if she already knew about the drugs,’ said Fran.

‘She wanted proof. Then she could have held it over Martin and Diggory and either cut herself in or exposed them.’ Ian shrugged. ‘She wasn’t making much sense when we got to that point.’

‘Well,’ said Ben getting up to fetch another bottle of fizz. ‘I suppose all’s well that ends well, and I’m glad I wasn’t wrong about Bill Frensham and his company.’

‘Are we still going to have a retirement party?’ asked Libby. ‘I think I need something like that.’

There was a sharp rap on the front door and a scuffle in the hallway.

‘Hello?’ Harry put his head round the door. ‘Have we missed Poirot’s explanation? And did I hear something about a party?’

About The Author

Born in Guildford, Surrey, Lesley spent her early life in south London, before marrying and moving all over the south-east of England. Lesley fell into feature writing by accident, then went on to reviewing for both magazines and radio. She writes for the stage, she has written short fiction for women’s weekly magazines and is a former editor of
The Call Boy
, the British Music Hall Society journal. Her first Libby Sarjeant novel,
Murder In Steeple Martin,
was published to much acclaim in 2006, followed in 2007 by
Murder At The Laurels
and
Murder In Midwinter
. In 2008, Lesley’s ever-increasing number of fans welcomed the publication of
Murder By The Sea
. 2009 saw the publication of
Murder In Bloom.
In addition to
Murder In The Green, Murder Imperfect
will also be published in 2010.