“Oh dear,” said Carol. “Maybe Shep was going to tell you for your birthday, Helen. ‘I’ve bought you an old folks’ home, darling.’ Elisa, you couldn’t let that happen, could you? You’d worked so hard to get everything in place. When the police had lost interest,you’d find a way to knock off Giles, and this place would be yours. But him saying he’d sell it to Shep, well, that was a spanner in the works. The timing was far from ideal, Polly was at the police station, but you had to kill him before he sold it off. You knew he’d burn through the money he got for it in weeks and then there’d be nothing for you in the will.”
Elisa tried to scream, but her vocal cords were tight and it came out like a whimper. “I didn’t kill Giles!”
“No, you didn’t. Maybe it was just a case of someone beating you to it, or maybe two murders was one too many for you. Lightweight.”
Margaret laughed at her serial killer friend’s joke.
“Elisa didn’t kill Giles Temple,” said Carol. “Detective Chief Inspector Bob Beattie did.”
Audible gasps hit Carol in stereo. Bob felt Laura’s gaze on him and looked away.
“Giles Temple only ever had one successful business: growing marijuana on the Sheldon Oaks roof. Rather a lot of it, in fact. Much of it ended up in cakes. Good to know that the baking group and I weren’t the only ones using the communal kitchen. Running an operation that big in the middle of London required help. Giles was a pampered posh boy. He didn’t have connections in the underworld. How would he sell all that dope? Jim…Jim still had a foot in a local operation and was able to help Giles get his crop out to the market. Some of my old prison friends were able to confirm that one for me.
“Jim gave him a connection in the underworld, but in order for Giles’s little business to work, he needed one in the—I don’t know, what would you call the police? The overworld? You can’t growthat much weed on a Hampstead roof without paying off the cops. Right, Detective Chief Inspector Beattie? The only way you could afford to put your mum in here is because it didn’t cost you a penny. There’s a reason why the roof was cordoned off, why you never let Laura up there, and it was nothing to do with how Desmond died. You just didn’t want Laura to know about your dodgy side hustle. I hope you at least get the rounds in at the pub, Bob.”
Laura’s jaw dropped.
“But Giles had real money problems and they were driving him crazy, making him do silly things. Like blackmailing you. Did he threaten to tell Internal Investigations that you were just another dodgy cop? Whatever he said, you knew you had to get rid of him. You know what they do to cops in prison. Things had got out of hand. Giles was too chaotic, couldn’t be trusted. So you did it then. You burned him alive. I had Catherine check for me, and you signed the Sheldon Oaks visitors’ book just before Giles was locked in the sauna. I’m sure, being a man on the inside, you had your own key.”
Bob, now chewing on nicotine gum, was fighting for his life. “I was visiting my mum! You can’t prove nothing! I was visiting my mum!”
Carol spoke softly: “But, Detective Chief Inspector Beattie, your mother wasn’t here. She was on the trip to seeMamma Mia!I watched her getting into the minibus.”
Bob Beattie slumped, crumbling into himself, another man beaten by Carol Quinn.
“I hope you enjoyed the show, Agatha. What’s your favorite ABBA song? I always liked ‘Does Your Mother Know.’ I feel for you, Bob, I really do. I’ve always tried not to get involved in otherpeople’s murders, but the only way I could keep my friends was by clearing my name. You see…” Carol looked at Margaret, Catherine, and Geoffrey, who all smiled at her in admiration. “My friends mean a lot to me.”
The room sat in stunned silence. So much information, all of it shocking.
“That’s how you do a dénouement,” said Margaret.
“Let’s have some music, shall we?” said Carol, leaning over Tyler’s desk and pushing up the volume, karaoke panpipes from the opening bars of “My Heart Will Go On” filling the room. Laura stared daggers at Bob Beattie. Elisa stepped behind the bar and poured herself a large whiskey. Tyler continued to sob. With no one knowing quite what to do, Carol chose to sing the song.
Forty-Six
The guard hitthe switch and the fluorescent lights flickered on. If there was one criticism to be leveled at prison visiting rooms, it was the lighting. Too bright. Yes, yes, this is a correctional facility but there is such a thing as cruel and unusual punishment. Come on, she thought. No one looks their best here. Dim the lights.
The twenty or so inmates each shuffled to a table. They were all so young. It happens so quickly. One minute you’re the new kid, next you’re the little old lady in the corner, the one who’s seen it all before.
The guard on the other side of the room opened the door, and the visitors made their way in. Some nervous, taking it all in, tears already flowing.How had it come to this?Some on their thousandth visit. Just another errand, another day in the month, the one where you visit Stephanie, your daughter, the one who shot the postman.
Carol heard her visitors before she saw them. Geoffrey wasadmonishing a guard for the lax security. “I could be smuggling any number of things in my downstairs cavity but you wouldn’t know, would you? Why? Because you didn’t check.”
Carol gave them all a smile as they arrived at her table. A guard helpfully found an extra chair so there were enough for three.
They were silent for a moment, contemplating the events that had led them to this.
“How are you?” said Margaret.
“I’m good,” said Carol lightly. “The menu’s changed. Used to be pasta on a Thursday. Now it’s chicken curry.”
“Oh dear,” said Margaret. “Any good?”
“Oh no, it’s an improvement. Can’t complain.”
“Well, that’s nice.”
Margaret filled Carol in on all the gossip. Belinda and Marco were no longer a thing, Belinda having decided that she wasn’t ready to settle down. Polly had gone cold turkey, made a return to writing, and had a new book coming out later in the year. A murder mystery set in a retirement home. There was a market for that sort of thing now, apparently. DCI Bob Beattie had been arrested for murder and “given up smoking.” Detective Sergeant Laura Welsh was now Detective Inspector Welsh and hoping to find time for a beach holiday. Margaret had heard she was dating a man and said it would be nice if they got married so her accent didn’t clash with her surname anymore. Catherine said not everyone took their husband’s surname now. Margaret said she’d be silly not to, “unless his name is English!” and they all laughed.
