Remember Me Page 13

  Peter says he got married because it seemed like a good idea at the time. All of their friends were getting married and he didn’t think that much about it. It was something one did, got married, bought a house, had kids and got on with your life. Very ordinary and dull and he figured that’s how it was supposed to be. It wasn’t bad, but there certainly wasn’t any of the four types of love like Maggie had just described. Peter smiles, and Maggie bites her lip.

  ‘So why did you stay?’ Greene asks.

  ‘It wasn’t really that bad, or so I kept telling myself. I stayed with Eric only because of the children and because I really didn’t have an alternative. My own career plans of becoming a history teacher had disintegrated when Lizzie came along. Before we had moved to London, I had finally managed to graduate, but I never became a teacher. As far as Eric was concerned it was waste of time anyway, I wasn’t bright enough for much of anything. Eric had been very keen to get on with his career, full speed ahead. And the older we got, the less time we spent together; we had largely separate lives. He left the house early in the morning and came home late in the evening. After we had moved to London, there were more social obligations, but I didn’t know how to dress for those, didn’t know how to talk with important people as Eric pointed out. And I had to take care of the girls and attend to their events. Eric attended his events on his own.’

  ‘And yet you stayed?’

  ‘Since he had his life and I had mine, it didn’t feel that bad really. I had a roof over my head. When you are constantly being told you are not good for anything, you start believing it. Besides, where would I go, I had no money of my own, no job? Eric loved the girls, and occasionally we travelled as a family. When he wanted to, he could still be good company. But then I started hearing about other women. Initially I didn’t believe what I heard, but when I heard it too many times, I confronted him. He just shrugged his shoulders and told me to take it or leave, he didn’t care.’

  ‘He didn’t touch you, did he?’

  ‘No, it was all verbal. It is so strange thinking back now how you can actually get used to it, you get used to being a nothing, a worthless nobody.’ Maggie sighs deeply. ‘Would you like some coffee?’

  ‘Yes please. That would be nice.’

  Maggie leads the way to the kitchen, Peter finds the seat in the corner. While she gets things together for coffee she continues her story.

  ‘Karen drowned in Collioure in southern France, on April eleventh, 2009. I remember it like it was yesterday. We were visiting Eric’s mother for the Easter holidays, and Eric wanted to keep the “happy family façade.” His mother had recently retired and moved there. We were all on the beach that afternoon, it was nice and sunny, very warm although it was only early April. The water was not very warm, but you know kids. I was sitting on a beach chair, drinking a pastis, Eric was talking with his mother and her boyfriend, discussing plans for dinner. Lizzie and Karen had gone in the water for a swim. Karen loved being in water, being weightless. Lizzie, being the eldest, was supposed to keep an eye on Karen although Karen was actually the better swimmer. I was trying to keep an eye on both of them but I kept looking at Lizzie who wasn’t swimming – she was more interested in the boys who were clearly interested in her too. It was so fun to watch her preen, and all the boys doing their best to get her attention.’ Maggie sighs and continues.

  Maggie leans her back against the oak worktable in the middle with her hands gripping the edge. Her green eyes look like deep wells. She speaks very quietly.

  ‘We all sort of forgot about Karen. Karen was a good swimmer, she had swum out a bit, and next time we looked, her bright yellow swim cap was nowhere to be seen. Lizzie started yelling, I rushed out into the water, as did Eric. The lifeguards were alerted and they found Karen’s body ten minutes later by the rocks outside the swim area. They pulled her out of the water and tried to resuscitate her, they tried for twenty or thirty minutes, Eric kept yelling at them to keep trying, keep trying, I was paralyzed, just standing there, praying. Eric’s mother held onto Lizzie, who was hysterical, crying how she should have seen her. Lizzie and Karen were close. Karen was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. She had just turned eleven.’

  Maggie sighs deeply and turns away. Greene gives her time.

  ‘After Karen’s death, something changed. I finally found enough courage and decided to leave him. I just couldn’t accept Eric’s infidelities, bullying and temper tantrums anymore. We divorced, not amicably, but Eric was keen to display what a wonderful person he was and keep me from sharing his infidelities on record due to a morality clause. Eric moved out and I stayed in the house with Lizzie who would visit Eric every other weekend. After Eric married Estelle, I didn’t want to stay there anymore, so I sold the house, moved to Penzance and opened the B&B. Initially it was a very successful. But then competition moved in, now there are three B&Bs in this row. Lizzie started spending more time in London visiting Eric and Estelle. And then she started blaming me for Karen’s death. She claimed I hadn’t kept a proper eye on Karen when Karen had gone swimming, that it was all my fault Karen had died. Lizzie and Karen were close.’

  ‘I am so sorry to hear that. And I am sorry that I have to keep asking you all these questions.’

  ‘It’s ok; I know you are just doing your job, unlike that one journalist who keeps calling me.’ Maggie blew her nose. ‘I think the coffee is ready’

  ‘Can I help?’

  ‘No, please sit, I’ll get it.’

  Greene sits and thinks how it must have felt to stand there on the beach in a foreign country and watch your daughter die. How terrible it must have been. He hopes never to face anything like it himself. He has dealt with murders and other deaths, but they have always, with a few exceptions, been adults. The death of a child is the worst thing to happen to any parent.

  ‘Actually the sun seems to be out again and it’s warm outside. How about if we sat outside in the back garden? We can talk more there.’

  ‘Sure.’

  Maggie picks up a tray with coffee mugs, a French press coffee pot, and a small plate with madeleines and some petit fours. Peter opens the door and Maggie carries the tray to a small table in the corner. She was right: the sun is shining and it is warm outside. They sit down.

  ‘I do have to ask you about the “herbal concoctions” your daughter claimed you used to kill Eric.’

  ‘Let me be clear, I didn’t kill Eric, with herbals or anything else, no matter what Lizzie says. She is just very distraught about losing her father’, Maggie says.

  ‘Why would she think you killed him?’

  ‘I have no idea. I assume she knows that this place isn’t a big money maker exactly. She most likely heard about a row I had with Eric in April when I went to see him in Exeter.’

  ‘You went to see him in his flat there?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What was the row about?’

  ‘About Lizzie and about that flat. Eric claimed he had bought the flat for Lizzie three or so years ago. He claimed that she was going to have it when she started at Exeter University. Since Lizzie wasn’t going to Exeter, but London, she was going to need a place to stay there. Lizzie had planned to go to London to stay with Eric and Estelle, but when he decided to move from London, she no longer had a place. I couldn’t afford to pay for a flat for her in London. So I asked Eric if he was planning to sell the Exeter flat to buy another one for her in London. He said no, claimed she was my responsibility, and said that if I hadn’t had spent all the money I got from the divorce on the B&B I would have had the money to get her a place in London. We ended up having a huge row, with no resolution. The girl worships the ground he walks on and that’s how he treats her? Just to get to me?’ Maggie sighs deeply.

  ‘So why would Lizzie claim you poisoned him?’

  ‘I have no idea. I had no reason to. I in no way benefit from him being dead.’

  ‘So why poisons and herbs and cooking bad smelling concoctions?’

/>   Maggie sighs and laughs, shaking her head.

  ‘Because she’s angry at me and wants to hurt me. Her father who she so adored is dead and she needs to blame someone for it. I have recently completed a course on herbal tisanes and ointments. The local Women’s Institute had a course which ran all spring on herbal tisanes, teas and how to use different herbs and plants from your garden to make hand creams and the like. And as her father was into herbal medicines and had stated many times that herbs can be poisonous, she’s just put two and two together and got five. While she is obviously right that many plants are poisonous, what I was doing had nothing to do with poisons. I was using the plants from my garden to make salves, body lotions and hand creams. Let me show you.’

  Maggie goes back inside, and when she comes back, she has a couple of jars with her and a diploma from a course in Herbal Healing from the WI. Maggie also tells Peter that there are no poisonous plants in her garden. She has occasional guests with children; she couldn’t have anything that could be potentially harmful.

  Peter thanks her for the coffee and drives back to Faukon Abbey. It starts to rain half way there, but he doesn’t even notice. He keeps thinking of Maggie.

  Friday 30th of May

  DI Peter Greene and DC Terry Ford

  The detectives get a warrant to search Eric’s flat and drive to the Exeter address Greene had received from Robert Hughes. They find Eric’s one-bedroom flat on the third floor in a Georgian building in the St. Leonard’s area. One of the keys Eric Warner had on him when he was found opens both the outer door and the door to the flat. All the walls are painted in light grey, and it is furnished with very modern and very expensive-looking furniture. In the living room, there is a large desk, a pair of leather chairs, an ottoman and a leather sofa in front of a fireplace. To the side of the fireplace, a huge flat screen TV hangs on the wall. In the bedroom, a closet full of clothes and a large bed. A few abstract paintings line the walls of both rooms.

  ‘It’s very clean, isn’t it sir? And no clutter, no papers or pens or books on bedside here either.’

  ‘Indeed, no dust anywhere.’ Peter swipes his finger on the desk. ‘He must have had someone who took care of it; I can’t imagine Lizzie coming over here to clean it. Let’s ask Pratt. Maybe he hired her to clean the place once a week.’

  In the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, as well as in a large drawer in the bedroom closet, the detectives find all kinds of supplements and vitamins, along with some dried bad smelling herbs in paper pouches with Chinese lettering on them and some homeopathic medicines. ‘We’ll take these with us,’ Greene says. They also find some Playboy magazines in the bathroom.

  After completing a thorough search of the flat, Greene is satisfied there’s nothing more to be found. They knock on doors and talk to the neighbors. They show them pictures of Estelle, Maggie and Elizabeth. The neighbor living opposite confirms having seen Elizabeth a few times, Maggie at least once, and there was also some unknown woman who came once or twice, but he’d never seen Estelle. He’d remember her, he winked. Other neighbors mentioned seeing Lizzie quite a few times albeit not recently. And indeed, there was a woman who came and cleaned the place once a week on Monday or Tuesday afternoons, a somewhat frumpy looking one, never spoke to anybody. There were also a couple of men who came as well as some “ladies” who came with them. The other neighbors also confirm having seen both Elizabeth and Maggie. A neighbor on the bottom floor claimed he had seen Estelle there too, but when asked for specifics, he said he couldn’t be sure after all.

  ‘Now that was interesting,’ Greene says as they walk back to their car. ‘It seems that Mr. Warner had a secret life here.’

  They get into the car and drive back to Faukon Abbey.

  ‘We need to talk to Pratt and find out if she’s indeed the one who cleans the place and if so, what does she know about it. Also we need to question Estelle, Maggie and Lizzie about when and why they visited Eric here. I can understand Lizzie coming here to meet with her father if she didn’t want to go all the way to Faukon Abbey, although mostly they apparently met in London. Maggie Warner did say she’d been here; they had fought about the flat. And if Estelle has been here, now that would be very interesting.’

  ‘Lizzie claimed Maggie was in financial trouble and had wanted help from Eric. Eric had refused it. And because of that, Maggie killed Eric,’ Ford says.

  ‘I know people kill other people for ten quid, but I don’t see what Maggie Warner would have gained by killing Eric – they were divorced.’

  ‘She could have pressured him and something went wrong?’

  ‘No, I don’t really see how that could have worked.’

  ‘According to Lizzie, the real reason for Maggie killing Eric was that once Eric is dead, and as long as Lizzie is under twenty-one, Maggie would get hold of Lizzies inheritance until she turns 21.

  ‘Ok, while that is very convoluted reasoning, let’s find out the facts on that. We need to get the phone records for Maggie and Lizzie, and we need to get them going back for a year at least to see who was talking to who, when and how often. Let’s also check their finances as well. And we need to see Eric Warner’s will. According to what Robert Hughes told me, Lizzie would get the flat, but he didn’t say anything about requiring her to be twenty-one. Did Lizzie say anything about how she knew about the age limitation?’

  ‘I was just to ask her when she saw the bus heading to London and bolted. Frankly I don’t think she knew what she was talking about. Why would she have to be three years above normal age of inheritance?’

  ‘Maybe it’s one of those trust fund things? You know how rich people pile money in a trust and the kid can’t get it until they’re at a certain age? Be that as it may, we still need to question all the parties again.’

  It begins to rain and the traffic slows to a crawl.

  ‘Since it’s getting late, put together the requests for phone and financial records as soon as possible, so I can get Mullan’s approvals before he leaves for the weekend.’

  As soon as they get in the office, Ford sets about finding the proper info for each and filling the forms. He prints the main form and emails the rest to Greene and Mullan. Greene walks downstairs and sees Mullan just closing his office door.

  ‘Sir, can I take a minute of your time please, before you leave?’

  ‘Sure, come in.’ Mullan turns around and goes back into his office. ‘Is this about the Warner case?’

  ‘Yes sir. We drove to Exeter and inspected Eric Warner’s flat. We found some strange herbal and homeopathic meds. Slater has them now so he can check them out. We also interviewed the neighbors. It seems that both Lizzie and Maggie Warner had been there, and one of the neighbors claimed he’d seen Estelle Warner there too.’

  ‘Really? Did he say when Estelle had been there?’

  ‘No. I think before we go back and get them to make formal statements, Terry and I are going to interview all the involved parties again. None of them had mentioned knowing about the flat, but then since we didn’t know about it, we didn’t ask. I’m requesting your approval for the phone records for the past year for Estelle, Eric, Maggie and Lizzie Warner, and their bank records too. We only received records for the current year for Eric and Estelle so far.’

  ‘You caught me just in time then. Has Terry created the requests?’

  ‘Yes sir, they should be in your inbox.’

  ‘Very well, let me log back on, and I’ll approve them. Anything else?’

  ‘Not really. I’d like to be able to see the full details of his will, but his lawyer friend, Robert Hughes, insisted that he cannot do that until it has been shared with the family.’

  ‘When is the funeral?’

  ‘Next Saturday, the seventh.’

  ‘Then you’ll just have to wait until then. Anything else? Was it murder?’

  ‘It is starting to look more and more that way. Just need to be able to prove it.’

  ‘I’ll be off then. Have a good weekend. Is An
drew coming home again?’

  ‘Yes he is. And I hope he’ll bring his girlfriend too.’

  ‘The girlfriend?’ The Chief Inspector raised his eyebrows.

  ‘Yes, the latest one is an expert in American-style barbecue. She promised to show me how the Yanks make those amazing barbequed ribs. I had some when I was in New York and Florida a couple of years ago. She was here with Andrew last weekend, and we had some amazing food.’

  ‘Does Andrew approve of your interest in his girlfriend?’ Mullan asks half seriously.

  ‘Oh, my interest in her is purely barbecue-related and her interest in me is typical of the younger generation, that of the barely tolerant kind.’ Peter chuckles. ‘You know the kind when you ask them some question about apps or computers? How they try very hard not to roll eyes and treat us old fogeys of lesser comprehension with eternal patience while laughing behind our backs?’

  ‘Indeed, I know that feeling.’ Mullan, who has three teenagers himself, chuckles. ’Enjoy your weekend then.’

  ‘Thank you, sir, you too.’

  Greene goes back to his office. Ford has already left. Greene picks up his jacket and mobile and drives to Asda to get some American-style spare ribs. He had to order them in specially - he hopes they are the right kind. As they have wrapped the ribs in layers of paper, he has no way of finding out before he gets home. He also picks up a cabbage, onions, carrots and some mayonnaise for the coleslaw. A few beers and a bottle of white wine go into the basket too. Greene is humming a song as he drives home.

  He is not entirely clear why he bought the white wine, a very nice bottle of Sancerre. It wasn’t for Andrew’s girlfriend, she drank beer. Peter tells himself that he bought the wine for future guests as it was on sale. He refuses to admit even to himself that the only guest he hopes to see is Maggie Warner, who is a suspect in a murder case. He sighs. She is still the first woman in a long time who interested him enough to make him consider seeing someone again.