Sunday
Dorothy could not resist the temptation to call Gary and
rebuke him for allowing scaremongering it the Gazette and Cop’s corner. She
thought it was frightening people to write vague hints about being in danger of
being eaten – possibly alive.
Dorothy thought that even vague hints at cannibalism should
not be allowed. She was also very cross that she was not informed properly and
would not even have a chance to discuss the matter.
Gary told Dorothy not to be irate because it was all just a
flash in the pan!
Is that what you call freeing Mike Curlew as well? “You
should be protecting Mia” she told Gary, “or are you expecting Greg Winter to
do that?”
Gary told Dorothy to consult Cleo about that and rang off.
Dorothy made bread, punishing the dough by pounding it fiercely.
Baking bread has a cathartic quality, she told herself.
***
Irritated by Dorothy’s phone-call, Gary phoned Cleo and
asked her to put the record straight with her. He thought Dorothy must have
been doing a bit of detection on her own, so it would be a good idea to involve
her in future investigating to avoid her getting herself into a sticky
situation – it would not be the first time, and he did not fancy prising her out
if she had been meddling.
Cleo said she would do what she could, but that Dorothy had
a mind of her own and after all, he had previously praised her to the skies for
getting back on the sleuthing track.
***
“What’s up, Dorothy?” was Cleo’s unambiguous start to her
phone.
“I phoned Gary,” she replied. “I think that he thinks that
I’m up to something.”
“Well, are you?”
“Of course not, Cleo, but I’ve made one or two
observations.”
“Want to tell me about them?”
“I could come round when my baking’s baked.”
“OK. For lunch? I don’t think Gary will appear. He’s on the
Sunday rota.”
“Lunch sounds good.”
“There’s a casserole from last night. You should have come,”
said Cleo.
“I didn’t know the video conference was going to fall by the
wayside.”
“No need to bring anything, Dorothy.”
“I want to.”
“OK. See you in about an hour.”
***
Lunch proved to be a lively occasion at the Hurley cottage.
Dorothy was happy to help feed the little ones and get them cleaned up for
their siestas.
When she and Cleo finally got round to shop talk, Dorothy decided
to pre-empt questions. Cleo was fussy about what her agency did, but Dorothy
was still a partner, though you might not have thought it these days. Cleo had
virtually closed down while she gave birth to what she said would be her final
set of twins, the third. There was also Dorothy’s promise – or was it a threat
– to retire, a promise she never stopped regretting.
***
“The point is that I still run about making observations,”
she said. “I know Gary doesn’t approve, but that won’t stop me being curious.”
“I don’t think he disapproves. He just doesn’t know whether
to count you in or out.”
“If it’s a case of the protection of innocent people and
children, I’m in, Cleo.”
“Gary was puzzled because the case has top priority and
there is an urgent need for discretion. Dorothy.”
“Farmer Bailey and his setup,” said Dorothy.
“That’s a no-go area until the mystery of Brad Bailey’s
disappearance has been cleared up.”
“So why did Secret Service guys go there and kill the two
dogs?”
“They were fighting dogs and should not have been kept where
they could attack people,” said Cleo.
“And what else?”
“Nothing else,”
“I don’t believe you. You don’t usually tell me lies, Cleo.”
“I’m sorry, Dorothy. I can’t say any more.”
***
“What if I were to tell you that Brad Bailey is alive and
kicking?”
“I’d be astonished. Where would he have been all this time
without getting in touch with his father?”
“Who says he hasn’t been in touch?”
“Everyone.”
“No, Cleo. That’s not good enough. The regulars at the rock
café claim to have seen him now and again.”
“I wonder what Gary would say to that claim?”
“He would NOT say that the Norton brothers have been hiding him
because the Norton brothers have been keeping a low profile, but that’s where
he’s been for some of the time.”
“But Brad Bailey has been gone for over two years,” said
Cleo.
“So what if Bailey knew where his son is?”
“But that would mean….”
“Exactly…”
“I don’t think Gary has gone down that track.”
“It’s a bit like crime fiction,” said Dorothy. “The
gangsters get together. The Norton brothers are blamed for something they
haven’t done, thus taking suspicion off the Baileys who did perpetrate whatever
crime the Nortons are accused of. There is no proof, so the Nortons are
released.”
“Then the police do some more investigating and get the
right guy,” said Cleo.
“Or they don’t get anyone and the crime goes unsolved.
Didn’t Gary say there were piles of unsolved local crimes in the archives?”
“Wow. I’d better make coffee. You’ll have to reason all this
out with Gary.”
“I will, won’t I, when he is over disapproving of my sleuthing
beyond what he obviously thinks is retirement age.”
“You said you were retiring, Dorothy, and Gary has taken you
by word.”
“More’s the pity,” said Dorothy, “because if my hunch is
right, the Nortons and the Baileys work together and Farmer Bailey is the
mastermind!”
***
It would be an understatement to say that Cleo was surprised
at just how much thought and energy Dorothy had put into a case that was well on
the way to baffling Gary.
***
“So why did the son go underground rather than brazening it
out?” said Cleo.
“Father Bailey thought his son had overstepped the mark, I
heard. Bailey does not do his own killing by the way.”
Cleo’s astonishment spurred Dorothy on.
“And Brad does?” she asked.
“I’m sure he was responsible for the corpse at Monkton
Priory,” said Dorothy.
“So the Nortons took him in after he had disposed of his
murder victim in the most horrible way you could imagine.”
“We can’t rule that out. It does solve at least two
mysteries, Cleo.”
“Two?”
“At least. It also implies that the Nortons now have a hold
over the Baileys.”
“It all sounds like one of those movies you watch, Dorothy.”
“Gary might get some of those old crimes solved if he could
prove that the Baileys committed them and the Nortons played decoy and were
blamed as part of the con. You can’t blame someone for anything if they no
longer exist, so Brad played along with his ‘disappearance’.”
“We need to prove a connection between those guys, Dorothy.
We can’t base our conclusions on theories.”
“I can stay for a while if Gary’s coming home for tea, Cleo.
He should at least know about my hunch.”
“I can tell him.”
“I’d rather do that myself – face to face.”
“I can hear the car outside, Dorothy. Give him a few minutes
to vent his anger at whatever he’s angry about, and then we’ll do a melt-down.”
***
The reason for Gary’s anger soon became clear.
“Mike was given to think that Mia was having an affair with
me,” Gary said, “and that is why he knocked her about.”
Dorothy looked perturbed from one to the other. Gary was
thought to have had an affair outside his enormous household? She supposed that
some men would not consider their families, but was Gary like that? Mike Curlew
must have been mistaken.
“Who told him that?”
said Cleo.
“Mia herself.”
“Mia ratted on you,” said Cleo.
“No. She told him a lie because he had told her she was
unattractive.”
“Mia turns out not to be such a nice colleague after all.”
“That’s why Mike has to get a second chance.”
“But he beat her up.”
“He won’t do that again.”
“Mia really paid you a compliment, Gary. I wouldn’t have
thought you had the energy to take a – what’s it called - concubine!”
“Meaning you take all mine?” Gary retorted.
Dorothy hoped Cleo would not be too explicit.
“No, Sweetheart; meaning that if you decided seven kids and a
fiercely passionate wife did not provide enough stress in your life, you would
look for a more dramatic off-peak alliance rather than run around with a timid
colleague looking for refuge.”
“Have you quite finished?” said Dorothy, seriously ruffled.
“Don’t read between the lines, Dorothy,” said Gary.
“But if you….”
“I do not have anything to do with Mia outside a
professional relationship. The woman of my dreams is standing over there
looking daggers at me and spouting vitriol.”
Cleo’s face broke into a grin.
“You asked for that, Gary. If you want to go off with
another female, just let me know. We can divide the twins down the middle and
I’ll give her helpful tips on how to iron your shirts.”
“Don’t say any more, you two. Let’s get down to business,”
said Dorothy, who had once again not caught on to the nature of squabbles
between her two friends.
I’ll inspect the kids and then I’m all yours, Dorothy.”
***
Gary listened wordlessly to Dorothy’s account.
At the end of it he stood up so suddenly that both Cleo and
Dorothy stood up too.
“Fisticuffs, Gary?” said Dorothy.
“Hugs, Ladies,” he replied, and swept them both into his
arms.
A minute or two later he announced that he now felt better
and could he have a fresh coffee since the one he had was cold.
“We haven’t done that for ages,” he announced.
“Does that mean you approve?” said Dorothy.
“Welcome back!” he replied. “You may just have solved the
priory case.”
“Really?”
“That was exaggerating a bit, I admit. But the ideas that
Brad Bailey is still alive and the Nortons are part of the scheme are so much
off my beaten track that they must be investigated immediately. With hindsight,
we should have consulted you sooner.”
“I’m flattered,” said Dorothy, “I formed my theories because
I could not rest with so many untied knots. My visit to the rock café yesterday
settled it.”
Dorothy paused.
“Go on,” said Gary.
“Just breathing, Gary….Rumours should not be ignored, and
there are plenty being bandied about it Lower Grumpsfield. The locals never
liked Paddy Kelly, but their antipathy did not drive him away and they eventually
even accepted what they called his ‘den of iniquity’.”
“The women of the village were relieved when he was
murdered,” said Cleo.
“So they were, but Bailey’s den of iniquity took over the
notoriety, and observers were starting to get loose tongues about it.”
“Bailey was secretive. He did not flaunt his activities,”
said Gary.
“He didn’t, but Brad Bailey did when he was not sober.”
“What did he flaunt?” said Gary. All this was new-land to
him. He had not really given Lower Grumpsfield much thought.
“That business of a cannibal cult for instance,” said
Dorothy. “That had to be top secret, but the locals started wondering where some
guys came from and went to?”
“Was that a club?” Cleo asked. “You didn’t mention that
before, Dorothy.”
“I would have if Gary had not arrived,” said Dorothy.
***
“Let’s sum up,” said Gary. “One of the guys visiting the
‘club’ was killed by Brad, who organized the disposure of the victim – we must
assume the worst on that – after which Brad must have told his father what had
happened and been sent to the Nortons to be hidden.”
“It’s possible, although there are other possibilities, of
course. But I think that whatever version you go for, at the time the aim was
to mislead anyone looking for the dead man by saying, for instance, that the
club was not meeting for a few weeks,” said Dorothy. “Normally the victim would
not have been found, grass would grow over the tragedy of the missing friend,
and things would get back to normal.”
“But they didn’t,” Cleo continued for Dorothy. “The corpse
was found and exhumed. So some other plan was needed.”
“I assume that the nasty group around Brad disbanded. No one
talks about strangers going to the farm. Brad had been back there a few times,
but was instructed to stay out of sight for a while longer,” said Dorothy.
“Then the business of the corpse came up and Bailey thought his son should
disappear in case a connection was drawn between him and the dead person.”
“It occurs to me that Bailey took in those dogs to protect
himself from his son,” said Cleo.
“So if he knew that Brad is still alive he we would be terrified,
now, wouldn’t he?” said Gary. “If that’s
all accurate, we should now be looking for Brad Bailey, alive or dead.”
“Would Bailey kill his son?” said Cleo.
“I wouldn’t put it past him,” said Gary. “On the basis of it’s
him or me, it would even be self-defence.”
“We need a to-do list, don’t we?” said Dorothy.
Gary was so nonplussed by Dorothy’s accounted that he
complied.
“What’s to be on it?”
“Look for witnesses to the death of the nameless young man,
Gary,” said Dorothy. “Probably at the rock café. The members of that weird, ritualistic
setup must have known his name.”
“OK. What else?”
“Find Brad Bailey, though you should bear in mind that the
guy might just be a scapegoat. If his father does not know where he is, also
charge him with the priory murder because he had a motive and probably enough
opportunity, and you have the corpse to uphold that theory. Bailey senior would
have to produce his son to save his own skin.”
“OK. But if none of that works, what then?”
“I think it will, and you need Brad as a witness.”
“But if he’s a killer he won’t come forward voluntarily,”
said Gary.
“He might if he can involve others.”
“It’s a lot of ifs, Dorothy,” said Gary. “But it’s a fair
assessment and it’s opening up the investigation. And I thought it was going to
end up on the unsolved shelf.”
Dorothy nodded rather smugly.
“Another suggestion,” said Dorothy who was now her old
sleuthing self. “Find out when the Norton brothers were taken into custody and
then released because of lack of evidence.”
“You should have been a lawyer, Dorothy.”
“Thanks, Gary. To continue…Get the parallels between the
Nortons and the Baileys sorted.”
“Anything else?”
“If I think of anything, I’ll let you know.”
“I’m glad you’re back,” said Gary.
“I haven’t been anywhere,” said Dorothy.
“I mean out of retirement.”
“That was a silly idea. Why didn’t you talk me out of it?”
“You were adamant about it, Dorothy,” said Cleo.
“Well, observing that scene at the priory changed my mind
for me. Have you looked into Sloane yet?”
“He’s just a harmless nut,” said Cleo.
“No nuts are harmless,” said Dorothy. “Remember Betjeman
Crighton? Mad as a hatter, but not too mad to murder.”
“You can’t go round suspecting anyone with peculiar
behaviour of being a killer,” said Gary.
“He terrified everyone – except Laura Finch – and look what
happened to her?” said Dorothy.
“She made the mistake of communicating with the guy; probably
made him think she was attracted to him and then refused his advances. We don’t
know what she said that provoked him, but it must have been something quite
direct and probably truthful,” said Cleo.
“Laura was not a truthful person, but a bitchy one,” said
Dorothy. “But let’s not talk badly of the dead.”
“Let’s cut the small talk and get back to Bailey,” said
Gary. “But not till after my mother’s casserole!”
“We ate most of it” said Cleo.
“Isn’t there another one in the freezer?”
“We ate that, too.”
“Beans on toast, then. Charlie thrives on them. Where is
she, by the way?”
“Next door. I’ll get her back to share the repast,” said
Cleo.
I’ll pop home to feed Mimi,” said Dorothy.
“Back for 7, Dorothy? Sirloin steaks and fries for anyone who
can eat them.”
“Count me in, Sweetheart. Beans on toast is only to put me
on.”
***
Two hours later, Gary announced that he had made
progress on the connection between Bailey and the Nortons. Charlie and Lottie
had partaken of the beans on toast and gone to visit Cecilia, who had bought
herself a lipstick and was going to show them how to apply it to full effect .
Gary had been preoccupied with his laptop before realizing that the girls were
almost young ladies, and being shocked.
“They are too young for lipstick,” he protested.
“They are almost grown up, Gary. 14 is a maritable age in
some countries.”
“But not in Britain!”
“One lipstick doesn’t make a bride,” said Dorothy, who had
just arrived back.
“Is that an idiom?” Cleo wanted to know. “We didn’t say that
in Chicago.”
***
“The Nortons had three confrontations with the police this
year,” said Gary.
“That’s not very many,” said Dorothy. “If they are working
together, there must have been more.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” said Gary. “If your theory is
right, they would have avoided too many arrests to exonerate Bailey, apart from
which, both parties will have had other axes to grind.”
“So as not to be suspicious, I suppose, as if they weren’t already
suspects in one case or another,” said Dorothy.
“Anyway, the Nortons were released without charges. They had
insisted on their innocence all along and did not budge from their stories.”
“Were the crimes solved?” Dorothy asked. “What crimes were
they that Bailey might had been committing them?”
“A jewellery theft; a prostitute killed; car theft from a
prodigious dealer. That sort of thing.”
“Almost harmless compared with cannibalism,” said Dorothy.
“There was no mention of Bailey,” said Gary. “The truth is
that Bailey has probably got away with numerous felonies.”
“I expect he uses several aliases, too,” said Dorothy.
“He might have done. There are unsolved records of women
prostituting themselves on the streets looking frightened and bemused, who
could not speak English and were extradited without us finding out who brought
them into the country.”
"That's reckless, seeing that the women were brought in
by criminals and paid dearly for the privilege," said Dorothy. “What sort
of men pick up such women?”
“It takes all sorts, Dorothy. Some come from places like
Oxford. They would be less likely to be spotted in Middlethumpton. The women
and underage girls complied because they had no choice. Some men actually preferred
them because they could not communicate.”
“Terrible.”
"The women had often been kidnapped and smuggled into
the country to earn good cash for the kidnappers who were often also hired.
Everyone except the poor women stood to gain," said Cleo.
“Valuable cars have also disappeared without trace,” Gary
continued. “We know about the drug-trafficking, of course, but could never
identify the top brass in that category, either.”
“And I thought Middlethumpton was a quiet market town.”
“So did I, Dorothy,” said Cleo.
“It’s exactly the right sort of place to work from if you
want to be anonymous, and Bailey had it down to a fine art,” said Gary.
“I suppose he has some kind of hold over the Nortons,” said
Dorothy. “Isn’t the woman who owns the Wellness Centre on the road to Lower
Grumpsfield also a Norton?”
“That’s another bone of contention,” said Gary. “We know that
money-laundering goes on there, but we have not been able to pin anyone down.
The book-keeping is spotless.”
“Is that what Henry says?” said Dorothy.
There was a pause while Gary thought about that.
“He might have done her a favour or two,” he said finally.
“Nigel can get onto that. I’d hate to think that one of our superintendents is
corrupt, but you never know.”
“Wow! But that might explain the excessive drinking,” said
Cleo. “If the guy has a guilty conscience or maybe even being blackmailed after
doing the Nortons some kind of favour...”
“Is HQ riddled with corruption?” said Dorothy.
“High time to find out,” said Cleo.
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