The Main chance

14

Tweed had a shock as he climbed out of the car now parked at the foot of the steps leading up to the entrance of Hengistbury Manor. Standing at the top of the steps, arms folded, a smirking expression of triumph on his ugly face, was Chief Inspector Hammer. He couldn't wait until Tweed with Paula, Marler, and Newman close behind him reached the terrace. `You can all go home now,' he gloated. 'I've solved the case. The murderer was Crystal Chance. Caught her red-handed.' `Be more specific,' Tweed suggested. `Come with me, then,' Hammer commanded.

He led them up the wide staircase, almost swaggering. They arrived at Crystal's apartment. The door was closed. Outside stood Sergeant Warden. `I've left another junior officer inside with her,' Hammer announced.

'Junior officer?' Tweed glanced at Warden, who raised his eyebrows. Warden was regarded as a highly experienced officer.

With a flourish Hammer opened the door, entered the apartment. They were in the bedroom. Crystal was seated on the bed, her green eyes glowing with fury as she combed her hair. Seated on a chair facing the bed was a uniformed policeman. Hammer turned to him. `Well, Parrish, has she moved from the bed since I left? To go to the lavatory, for example – or should I say the loo in these exalted circles?' `It's called the loo in most places these days,' Crystal snapped at him.

Not talking to you,' Hammer told her. 'Well, Parrish?' `Since you left she has remained where she is now… sir,' he added after a pause. `Then shove off. Join the others in searching. Although it's a waste of manpower after what I've discovered.' `So what have you discovered?' Tweed enquired when Parrish had left the room.

With another flourish Hammer opened the double doors of a wardrobe equipped with old enamel ball- shaped handles. `Stop!' Tweed ordered. 'Were you wearing gloves when you first opened those doors? You're not sure? Which means you didn't. So it will be useless checking for fingerprints. Yours will have smeared the original ones.' `He wasn't wearing gloves all the time he was in here,' Crystal said viciously. `No one was talking to you-' Hammer began, glaring at her. `Concentrate,' Tweed ordered. 'After you'd opened these doors, what did you do next?' `Bent down, removed that pile of stuff I've dropped on the left. Hey presto! Look at that.'

Tweed crouched down. He saw two collars of wire with savage-looking spikes protruding. They seemed to him to be replicas of the ghastly collar which had ripped Bella's throat open. Each was complete with a pair of wooden handles to jerk the wire tight. He looked to the left where a pile of blouses had presumably concealed the collars. The top blouse was badly torn and strips of it were attached to the wire of one collar. `Chief Inspector,' he said, to calm down the officer, `you were in quite a hurry when you searched this wardrobe.' `I'll say he was,' Crystal screamed. 'Those are pure silk, those blouses. I bought them in a sale at Harvey Nick's but they still cost a small fortune. I'm suing that policeman.' `From a police cell?' sneered Hammer as he stood up with Tweed. `Chief Inspector,' Tweed said grimly, 'I think it's time you joined the others and helped the search. Now! Please.'

Crystal calmed down the moment Hammer had left. She said with conviction, 'Isn't it obvious that someone planted those beastly things on me? Hammer had ordered all apartment doors should be left unlocked. I was working on accounts in the upstairs library when Hammer summoned me back here. Anyone could have slipped in.' `It's a possibility,' Tweed agreed. `Something I want to tell you,' she said, lowering her voice.

Would you sooner I was not here?' suggested Paula. `No, I want you to hear too. It's about my half- sister, Lavinia. I hate her, but that's not why I'm going to tell you about the secret scandal no one else will tell you.' `Sisters often don't get on,' Paula mused. 'Sounds as though that's the case with you and Lavinia.' `Lavinia is the chief accountant. I'm only her assistant. We're both forensic accountants and I could do the top job as well as she does.'

She brushed a curl of red hair away from her face and Paula studied her. She looked perfectly calm, perfectly normal. Perhaps more than Tweed, Paula could understand her fury when Hammer had torn and ruined her new silk blouses. `Maybe,' Crystal suggested, 'I could meet you both in the library downstairs and tell you what I know down there. I feel the police may come back to search again.'

Tweed knew Sergeant Warden would soon check Hammer's search. He opened the door. At the far end of the corridor Marler and Newman were staring at Pike's Peak. The summit was now covered in cloud. He walked along to them. `Bob,' he said to Newman, 'a long job for you. I think those fiendish collars – two more have been found in Crystal's room – could have been created from a length of wire taken from the top of the wall guarding this huge estate. Snape probably has a telescopic ladder which could reach the top. Could you check the whole wall?' `Snape has a cottage in The Forest,' Marler said. 'I'll join you. I know the way to his cottage now…'

Tweed and Paula arrived in the library to find Lavinia the only occupant. She greeted them cheerfully, pulling Newman's leg. `Well, did you climb Pike's Peak? I imagine you could hardly resist the challenge.'

Newman laughed. 'I took one look up and decided I wanted to live a little longer.' `Then some time you should visit Marshal's hideaway at Seacove down in Cornwall.'

Seacove? Sheebka, Tweed muttered under his breath. The weird name Calouste had scribbled on the screwed-up bit of paper found under the cooker at Heather Cottage. Confirmed also by the Ordnance Survey sheet of Cornwall they'd found with the county circled. `What's down at Seacove?' Newman asked. `Nothing!' Lavinia laughed again. 'It's minute and wild. He, that is Marshal, has the most amazing small luxury yacht. Designed by Marco Shepherd, the unorthodox designer of ships.'

At that moment Marler appeared at the door. He beckoned to Newman, who sighed. `Have to go. Work to do. Talk about climbing Pike's Peak.' `You must excuse me too,' said Lavinia. She gave them her flashing smile. 'A load of accounts to check and they won't wait.'

When they had both gone Tweed and Paula settled at the round table. In a few minutes Crystal slipped into the library, clutching a notebook. She raised her eyes to heaven. `The library is usually empty mid-morning. Today it was just like Piccadilly circus. I was hiding at the top of the stairs until they'd all gone. This is so secret. It is all about my cousin-' `What do you mean?' queried Tweed, puzzled. `Don't interrupt me or I'll lose the thread. Before Lavinia was born, Marshal and his wife had tried hard to have a child. I heard this from my so-called aunt on her deathbed. Long before, Marshal had been quietly fooling around with any attractive woman who took his fancy. One affair lasted for months and she became pregnant. Marshal told his wife, who was desperate for a child. You can guess the rest but I'd much prefer it if you heard it from her. I think Marshal has been paying her huge sums of money to keep her quiet.' `Blackmail; Tweed rapped out. `Definitely. I found a secret chequebook. He's been paying the real mother twenty thousand pounds a month for ages.' `Good Lord,' Tweed said. "That's nearly a quarter of a million a year.' `It is,' Crystal agreed. 'But, like Warner, my father, he's very rich. The name of the woman is Mrs Mandy Carlyle. She lives at Baron's Walk, Dodd's End, a village this side of Tunbridge Wells.You will go and see her?' `No time like the present. And you come with me, Paula.' He took the sheet with the address Crystal had torn from her notebook. `Does Lavinia know this woman is her real mother?' Paula asked. `I don't think so. It was all done very quietly.' `Time we set off for Dodd's End,' Tweed decided, standing up. 'If anyone wants to know where we've gone we've made a quick visit to London.'