Close to Death

‘You run a bookshop selling crime fiction,’ Dudley said. ‘That seems like a strange occupation after all those years in a convent.’

‘Well, we had to do something to keep ourselves busy,’ May replied. ‘I used to like Gladys Mitchell when I was a girl. She wrote over sixty novels, you know. But they were never violent. They were never horrible like so much modern fiction. And lovely Dorothy, too. And Agatha. All this modern interest in dead bodies and women being killed – and children too! Why would anyone want to read stories like that? That was what gave me the idea for The Tea Cosy. We never stock books with bad language, and I’m afraid there are a lot of writers we simply won’t touch. The truth is, we don’t make a lot of money out of it, but that isn’t the point.’

‘We used to love walking up there with Ellery,’ Phyllis said sadly.

Khan turned to Hawthorne. ‘Is there anything else you want to ask?’

‘One thing.’ He turned to May. ‘You had a spare key to the Brownes’ home.’

‘That’s right.’

‘Who else knew you had it?’

‘Nobody . . . apart from Sarah. Mr Browne told her I had it so she could get into the house if a pipe burst or something. But she didn’t know where it was kept. I had it in my medicine box in the bathroom cabinet. Nobody knew it was there.’

‘Sarah told us that she only got employed here thanks to you,’ Hawthorne said.

‘It’s true.’ May pulled a face, as if she had just sniffed sour milk. ‘She was knocking on doors, looking for work, and we took her on. You have to give young people a chance these days. Once she started working for us, we recommended her to other people in the close.’

‘We wouldn’t have gone anywhere near her if we’d known what she was going to do,’ Phyllis said, fresh tears welling in her eyes.

‘You blame her for the death of your dog.’

‘How could anyone do anything as horrible as that – and to an animal that had never done any harm to anyone? I wouldn’t have believed it – but she had scratches on her arms. I asked her about that. She said she’d been clearing a dead rose bush for Mr Strauss, but that’s not what it looked like to me.’

‘Does she still look after your garden?’

May paused. ‘We have no choice. It’s not so easy to find help around here.’

Hawthorne smiled at Khan. ‘No further questions,’ he said.

3

No tea or butter cookies were served at The Stables this time. Adam Strauss was slumped in an armchair, his hands clasped between his knees, a look of utter defeat on his face. For a man who guarded his emotions, who had learned to do so professionally, he had clearly taken a beating. He barely looked up as his wife showed Detective Superintendent Khan, Hawthorne and Dudley into the room.

‘Mr Strauss . . .’ Khan tried to get hold of his attention.

Strauss looked up dully. He was wearing a loose bottle-green velvet jacket and a wide-collared shirt, as if he had just come back from a late-night party, albeit one that had taken place in the nineties. ‘I thought I’d see you again,’ he said eventually.

‘I’m sorry, sir. I know you were close to Roderick Browne.’

‘He was my dentist.’

‘He was more than that, as I understand it.’

‘Oh, yes. We were friends. He was the one who introduced us to Riverview Close in the first place. He was thinking of buying Woodlands and he showed me the brochure. That’s how I came to acquire the Lodge. I saw him last night, you know. I suppose I must have been the last person to see him alive – unless Sarah Baines came in this morning?’

‘She arrived too late, sir.’

‘Well, it’s all down to me, then.’ Strauss fell silent.

‘He called you and asked you to come round,’ Khan said.

‘That’s right. That was just after he came back from the police station.’ Suddenly, Adam was angry. He looked at Khan accusingly. ‘You really put him through the wringer, didn’t you! Did you have to interview him at such length?’

‘He was a suspect in a murder investigation, sir, and he was treated with the utmost courtesy . . .’

‘We were all suspects, Detective Superintendent. God knows, I had as much reason to kill Giles Kenworthy as anyone.’

‘His children did thousands of pounds’ worth of damage,’ Teri cut in. She had taken a seat next to her husband. Now she reached out and took his hand. ‘They smashed my husband’s beautiful chess set. And their father didn’t give a damn.’

‘But it was Roderick Browne’s crossbow.’

Strauss shook his head. ‘Anyone could have taken it . . . including me! I was in and out of his house all the time. There’s a corridor at the back, next to the kitchen. It leads straight in. Roderick would be upstairs half the time, fetching and carrying for Felicity. It would have been easy to walk in and take it.’ He stared at Khan. ‘You picked on him and you browbeat him and although it pains me to say it, you may have been responsible for his suicide, Detective Superintendent. He was a middle-aged man with the worry of a very sick wife and then you come barging in, making false accusations. I think you should be ashamed of yourself.’

‘I didn’t accuse him of anything, sir.’