Common Murder

“I’ll go along with that,” Willow added. “I’ll pass the word around that you’re on our side.”

“Care to supply some quotes before you go?” Lindsay asked as Willow and the other woman seemed about to leave.

“Jane can do that. She’s good with words.” Willow said over her shoulder as they went out, closing the van door on Jane and Lindsay.

“There was something else I wanted to discuss with you,” Jane said hesitantly. “I know a lot of the women would disagree with me, so I didn’t raise it at the meeting. But I think we need someone to investigate this on our behalf. We are going to be the centre of suspicion over this, and while they’ve got us as prime candidates, I don’t think the police will be looking hard for other possible murderers. Will you see what you can find out?”

For the second time that morning, Lindsay was taken aback. “Why me?” she finally asked. “I’m not any kind of detective. I’m a journalist, and there’s no guarantee that my interests aren’t going to clash with yours.”

Jane parried quickly. “You’ve told me you’d cleared a friend of a murder charge. Well, I figure if you did it once, you can do it again. Those features you wrote for the German magazine seem to have a feel for the truth, even if you don’t always choose to report it. You can talk to the cops, you can talk to Crabtree’s family and friends. None of us can do that. And you’re on our side. You can’t believe Deborah’s guilty. You of all people can’t believe that.”

Lindsay lit a cigarette and gazed out of the window. She really didn’t want the hassle of being a servant of two masters. Jane sat quietly, but Lindsay could feel the pressure of her presence. “All right,” she said, “I’ll do what I can.”

By noon Lindsay had dictated her story and spoken to Duncan who, never satisfied, started to pressurise her about an interview with Deborah. Disgruntled, she was walking back from the phone box when a car pulled up alongside. Suddenly, Lindsay found herself enveloped in a warm embrace as Deborah jumped out of the car. Nothing was said for a few moments. Judith leaned over from the driver’s seat and called through the open door, “I’ll see you up at the camp,” before driving off.

“Oh, Lin,” Deborah breathed. “I was so afraid. I didn’t know what was going on. The bastards just lifted me, I couldn’t even do anything about Cara. I’ve been so worried. I haven’t slept, haven’t eaten… Thank God you had the sense to get Judith on to it straight away. God knows what I wouldn’t have confessed to otherwise, just to get out of there. There was a big blond Special Branch bloke, but he was no big deal, they’re always too busy playing at being James Bond. But the superintendent is so fucking clever. Oh Lin.” And the tears came.

Lindsay stroked her hair. “Dry your eyes, Debs. Come on, Cara will be wanting you.”

Deborah wiped her eyes and blew her nose on Lindsay’s crumpled handkerchief, then they walked back to the camp, arm in arm. Behind her, to Lindsay’s astonishment, came Cordelia, looking cool and unflustered in a designer jogging suit and green wellies, her black hair blowing in the breeze.

As mother and daughter staged a noisy and tearful reunion, Cordelia greeted Lindsay with a warm kiss. “I couldn’t sit in London not knowing what was happening,” she explained. ”Even if there’s nothing I can do, I had to come.”

Lindsay found a smile and said, “It’s good to see you. I appreciate it. How long can you stay?”

“Till Wednesday lunchtime. Jane’s filled me in on what’s been happening. What’s the plan, now that you’ve been appointed official Miss Marple to the peace women? Do I have to rush off and buy you a knitting pattern and a ball of fluffy wool?”

“Very fu

Lindsay swallowed the emotional turmoil triggered off by Cordelia’s appearance and told her lover all she knew about the murder over a bowl of soup in the nearest pub that accepted peace women customers-nearly three miles away. Cordelia was fired with enthusiasm and insisted that they set off immediately in her car for Brownlow Common Cottages which, in spite of their humble name, were actually a collection of architect-designed mock-Georgian mansions.

There could be no mistaking the Crabtree residence. It was a large, double-fronted, two-storey house covered in white stucco with bow windows and imitation Georgian bottle-glass panes. A pillared portico was tacked onto the front. At the side stood a double garage, with a fifty-yard drive leading up to it. In front of the house was a neatly tended square lawn which had been underplanted with crocuses, now just past their best. The road outside was clogged on both sides by a dozen cars, the majority new. At the wrought-iron gate in the low, white-painted wall stood a gaggle of men in expensive topcoats. A few men and women stood around the cars looking bored. Every few minutes, one reporter peeled off from a group and ambled up the drive to ring the door bell. There was never any reply, not even a twitch of the curtains that hid the downstairs rooms from view.

“The ratpack’s out in force,” Lindsay muttered as she climbed out of the car and headed for her colleagues. She soon spotted a familiar face, Bill Bryman, the crime man from the London Evening Sentinel. She greeted him and asked what was happening.

“Sweet FA,” he replied bitterly. “I’ve been here since eight o’clock and will my desk pull me off? Will they hell! The son answered the door the first time and told us nothing doing. Since then, it’s a total blank. If you ask me, they’ve disco

“What about the neighbours?”

Bill shook his head wearily. “About as much use as a chocolate chip-pan. Too bloody ‘okay yah’ to communicate with the yobbos of the popular press. Now if you were to say you were from the Tatler-though looking at the outfit, I doubt you’d get away it.” Lindsay looked ruefully at her clothes which still bore the traces of her headlong flight the night before, in spite of her efforts to clean up. “You been down the peace camp yet?” he added. “They’re about as much help as this lot here.”

“So I’d be wasting my time hanging around here, would I?”

“If you’ve got anything better to do, do it. I’d rather watch an orphanage burn,” Bill answered resignedly with the cynicism affected by hard-boiled crime reporters the world over. “I’ll be stuck here for the duration. If I get anything, I’ll file it for you. For the usual fee.”

Lindsay gri

“To Fordham nick,” she said to Cordelia. “And stop at the first public toilet. Desperate situations need desperate remedies.”