Death on the Downs

Forty-Nine

Jude had rung the police on her mobile. Brian Helling offered no resistance when Ted Crisp tied him up with the orange nylon rope. The murder of Lennie Baylis seemed to have calmed him down, perhaps provided a resolution to emotions that had tortured him throughout his life.

The police arrived in a convoy of Range Rovers. They were very solicitous, and a female officer looked after Carole. Respectful of the state she was in, they kept their questioning to a minimum and, once reassured that Brian Helling hadn’t touched her sexually and that she really did feel all right, allowed her to fulfil her fantasy of ending up that night in a hot bath back at High Tor.

There would be more questions later, but, they implied, not until Carole felt ready to answer them.

Jude went back with Carole, but neither felt like talking. Carole promised Jude she’d ring through if she woke in the night feeling bad, but she didn’t think it’d happen. The emotions of the previous twenty-four hours had left her so drained she didn’t feel anything, except extraordinarily tired. She could sleep for a week.

The police were back to Carole earlier than she’d expected. The very next morning, in fact. But her visitors weren’t from the teams investigating the three Weldisham murders. They comprised an assistant chief constable, resplendent in his uniform, and a female detective constable in designer plain clothes.

They were polite, but went straight to the purpose of their visit. “Mrs Seddon,” said the assistant chief constable, “we’re here in connection with the late Detective Sergeant Baylis.”

“Yes. It must be dreadful for his family.”

“Of course.” He dismissed the family with a perfunctory wave of his hand. “I need to understand, Mrs Seddon, how much you knew about Detective Sergeant Baylis.”

“Not a lot. I met him first a few weeks back. He was called out to Weldisham when I reported my discovery of the bones in South Welling Barn.”

“And you saw him after that occasion?”

“Yes, once or twice. He encouraged me to let him know how my thoughts were going about the…well, I suppose I have to call it the ‘case’. He seemed very concerned that I should keep him up to date with anything I’d observed round the village.”

“Didn’t you think that was odd?”

“Well, I suppose a bit…He did seem to take a very personal interest in the case.”

A look passed between the assistant chief constable and his sergeant. It seemed to confirm some conjecture that they’d shared before the meeting.

“Did Detective Sergeant Baylis say anything to you about drugs, Mrs Seddon?”

Some instinctive caution made Carole decide to forget the conversation that she had overheard at Fort Pittsburgh. “Well…He did say that Brian Helling had got involved with drugs…that Brian owed a lot of money to some men in Brighton.”

“Nothing else?”

“No.”

Her answer seemed to satisfy the assistant chief constable. “Mrs Seddon, I must request your complete confidentiality in this matter. Please don’t talk about it to anyone, least of all the press. The fact is that Detective Sergeant Baylis had been under internal police investigation for some time…”

“About drugs?”

“Yes. Baylis used to be based in Brighton and there were allegations that he…got rather more friendly than he should with certain club owners…That he from time to time turned a blind eye to deals that…As I say, these were only allegations, which were in the process of being investigated when he died…”

“Yesterday.”

“Precisely. Now what will happen to that investigation in these new circumstances…Well, who can say at this point? Obviously, if the investigation is wound up, that will save Sergeant Baylis’s family a good deal of suffering…”

Might also save you a good deal of adverse publicity, thought Carole.

“As yet, as I say, no decisions have been taken about the inquiry, but, because of its sensitive nature, I hope I can rely on your…absolute discretion.”

“Of course.” Carole’s cases were solved. She had no interest in the unsavoury past deeds of the late Detective Sergeant Baylis.

One thing she did wonder, though…Had Lennie Baylis been tempted to supplement his income so that he could one day afford a property in Weldisham? Was he another wistful local boy, like Harry Grant, who wanted to demonstrate his success by moving back into the village where he had grown up?

“Thank you very much, Mrs Seddon. We appreciate your cooperation. Now there’s someone else we have to see nearby…What was the address, Sergeant?”

A rustle of papers consulted. “Woodside Cottage.”

“It’s right next door.”

So Jude was going to get the same request to keep her mouth shut.