A Body in Seaview Grange by Dee MacDonald (jenna bush book club TXT) 📗

Kate looked up to the top of the stairs but couldn’t see any flex.

‘I disconnected the cord,’ said Edgar Ellis as he slowly descended, ‘in case Cornelius or David tripped over it. Should I have left it in position?’

‘Just tell the police when they get here,’ Kate said, realising for the first time that David Courtney was there as well. ‘Were you here when it happened?’ she asked him.

‘I was sorting out some of Edina’s things,’ David Courtney said defensively, ‘and, like everyone else, I knew nothing about it until I heard Ollie’s cry. I thought it seemed odd that she didn’t scream or something.’ He looked horrified, or else he was a damned good actor, Kate thought.

Everyone was looking at everyone else except Stan, who was still weeping over Sharon’s body. Somebody here killed her, Kate thought. And wasn’t it very strange that this should have happened at the exact time David Courtney was in Edina’s flat? Sharon had phoned from the landing upstairs when she called Kate. Was it David Courtney who had overheard Sharon and prevented her from telling Kate what she’d found?

Kate was only too conscious of the fact that Sharon had been doing what Kate had asked her to do. She felt wracked with guilt and desperately sad. But somehow or the other she needed to struggle to keep it all together and preserve some sort of professional demeanour. To prevent herself from breaking down she turned her attention to the two Potter ladies and Hetty Patterson, who were grouped together in a state of shock.

‘We were just watching television, weren’t we, Daisy?’ said Violet. ‘Lovely programme about someone buying a house…’

‘Yes, and we didn’t hear a thing until we heard everyone talking out in the hall,’ added Daisy.

‘And I’d been on the phone to my poor sister,’ said Hetty, ‘and I didn’t hear a thing either.’

‘I don’t feel safe here any more,’ wailed Daisy.

‘We must all try to be sensible, Daisy,’ said her sister.

‘And watch you don’t trip if you go upstairs,’ added Hetty, wiping her eyes.

‘Well,’ said Violet, ‘if it was Sharon who was positioning that flex at the top of the stairs, it’s not likely to happen now, is it?’

‘Of course it was her! She’s got her just deserts,’ Hetty snapped.

Kate was appalled at Hetty’s remark. ‘She’d hardly trip herself up, would she?’

Hetty snorted, then asked Kate, ‘Do you think the police will protect us, Nurse? I shan’t feel safe in my bed at night now.’

‘You’ll have to ask them,’ Kate said shortly.

Five minutes later they could hear the police siren and Bill Robson dashed in, followed by two uniformed officers.

‘Mrs Palmer,’ he said, ‘well, well, well, fancy seeing you here!’

‘It’s Nurse Palmer today,’ Kate said through gritted teeth. She wished fervently that it was Woody who was there, and not Robson. Then again, had it been Woody, she’d probably not have been able to resist falling into his arms and bursting into tears. Then, for sure, her professional credibility in the village would be lost.

She stood back as he bent over Sharon’s body. He said something to the two officers, who promptly began to photograph the body from every angle.

‘She tripped over the flex upstairs,’ Gloria supplied.

‘Where have I heard that before?’ Robson looked around. ‘Nobody leaves here until they’ve been questioned. Is there somewhere you can all wait?’

‘There’s a residents’ lounge,’ Kate said.

‘OK, everyone, into the lounge please. You too, Nurse Palmer.’ Kate was glad that he plainly intended to remain on formal terms.

‘I have something I must tell you,’ Kate said to him as the others shuffled into the lounge. ‘Sharon phoned me a couple of hours ago to say she thought she’d found some evidence, and was about to say whose flat she found it in.’

Robson stood stock still. ‘She did?’

‘Yes, she did. I told her to phone you immediately and to text me, but the person concerned must have appeared and obviously overheard her because she had to change the conversation rapidly before the call ended.’

‘What time was that?’

‘Eleven o’clock.’

‘We didn’t get any call. Why did she phone you first and not us?’

‘I don’t know.’ But I can guess, Kate thought. ‘But she seemed convinced that she knew who the killer was. And that person has to be one of the residents, or David Courtney, who was here at the time. He or she must have been listening.’ Kate sighed. ‘If only she’d had a chance to tell me who it was.’

‘So where’s her phone?’ Robson asked. ‘If she’d been talking on it shortly beforehand then she obviously had it with her. Was it found on the landing, the stairs, the hallway?’

He marched into the lounge and called out, ‘Has anyone got Sharon Starkey’s phone? Has anyone seen the phone?’

There was silence while everyone looked at everyone else and shook their heads sadly.

Then Kate remembered. ‘It shouldn’t be difficult to find,’ she said, ‘because it was bright pink. But let me ring her number and see if we can hear it anywhere in the building.’

Kate clicked on Sharon’s number and let it ring, and ring. After a minute she shook her head sadly. ‘Couldn’t hear anything anywhere, not even an answering service.’

‘I’m going to need a detailed statement from you all,’ Bill Robson said, making a note. He thought for a moment before turning to Kate. ‘I suppose it stands to reason that she could have tripped over the flex which, I’m told, was stretched across the top of the stairs. Again.’

‘But I told you that was how Edina broke her ankle, and she was convinced that someone wanted to kill her, which they eventually did. And now, poor Sharon.’ Kate felt her eyes fill up again.

‘Sharon was the cleaner, right?’

‘Yes, and that’s her husband there, being comforted by the paramedic. Poor Sharon – everyone pointed the finger at her, but she was hardly likely to do it to herself, for God’s sake!’

Kate made a vow to herself that she would do everything in her power to