Cold Wrath, page 3
‘It’s all happening in the Vale today,’ Hennessey growled. ‘Very well, thank you, Thompson.’ He noted the solidly late Victorian building that was The Grange, and the neatly mowed expanse of lawn which he thought was ready for another cutting. ‘Do we know which pathologist is going to be attending?’
‘I’m sorry, sir,’ Ventnor mumbled, ‘I didn’t ask. It never occurred to me to do so.’
‘No matter.’ George Hennessey continued to look at the building that was The Grange; he especially noted how well maintained it appeared to be. ‘It was just a matter of idle curiosity on my part; I dare say that we’ll find out quite soon enough. So … tell me … what have you done? Where are we … at what stage of this investigation?’
‘Well, I’ve secured the location, sir,’ Ventnor stammered. ‘I’ve conducted a rapid search of the premises, calling from room to room as I went in the company of two constables. There appears to be no other person in the house, nor any other bodies. I have not yet been in the cellar or in the attic.’
‘Understood.’ Hennessey nodded and then commented with clear interest, ‘This house has a cellar, you say?’
‘Yes, sir.’ Ventnor smiled. ‘I know that cellars are quite rare in the Vale of York, but as you see, this particular building is upon a slight rise, or a hillock, or what the Victorians might have described as being a slight “eminence” … which has permitted cellarage to be included in the house’s design.’
‘Yes, so I see.’ Hennessey nodded. ‘An eminence …’ he echoed. ‘I like the use of the word … yes, it has an appeal. So, who found the body? Who found the deceased?’
‘The gentleman standing over there, sir.’ Ventnor pointed with a bent arm, so his finger was at waist height, to the solitary figure of Miles Law who was, at that moment, standing to Hennessey’s left and in the shade of the shrubbery which stood at the top of the driveway and to the left of The Grange as viewed from the road.
‘All right,’ Hennessey growled. ‘Have you taken a statement from him yet?’
‘Not yet, sir,’ Ventnor offered, ‘just his details, but he does seem very willing to cooperate. I searched the house in the first instance. I gave that priority. It seemed to be the correct thing to do.’
‘Fair enough.’ Hennessey brushed an annoying fly from his face. ‘Anything of note within the house?’
‘Not that I could see, sir,’ Ventnor replied. ‘I was just concerned to determine that no other person, alive or deceased, was in the building, and it appears that there is not, although, as I said, the cellar and the attic both need to be searched. I was about to do that when the constable at the door announced the arrival of yourself and Sergeant Yellich. So the house still needs a detailed forensic examination.’
‘Understood.’ Hennessey nodded once more. ‘What do we know about the deceased? What have you been able to find out?’
‘Very little, I’m afraid, sir.’ Ventnor consulted his notebook. ‘The post in the mailbox, all of it, appears to be addressed to one Anthony Garrett. I have requested a criminal records check but the collator hasn’t come back with any results yet. The collator has also agreed to check with the land registry as to the registered owner of the property.’
‘Right.’ Hennessey further looked at the house. ‘Right,’ he said again, ‘you two, Somerled and Thompson … I want you two to please undertake a thorough search of the house, room by room, cupboard by cupboard, drawer by drawer, basement to rafter. Stay together, you know the drill. Meanwhile, I’ll have a little chat with the gentleman who found the body. What is his name?’
‘Law, sir,’ Ventnor replied. ‘Mr Law gives his age as fifty-three years and his occupation as being that of “general labourer”.’
‘General labourer,’ Miles Law confirmed. ‘I’m just that. Nothing special. I never amounted to much in life. I had a modest start and it looks like I am having a modest end. But that’s better than falling from grace, I always think.’
‘General labourer is good enough.’ George Hennessey spoke softly so as to try to put Miles Law at ease. The pinched face, the gaol-house tattoos, and then he knew, as previously observed, that he was talking to a member of the criminal class. He knew that Law knew that he knew, and he also sensed that both he and Law were happy with that recognition having been made. There was a mutual understanding, even a mutual respect. Just so long as each stayed on his side of the fence, then they were both content.
‘That job title can cover a multitude of sins.’ George Hennessey continued to speak softly and he smiled warmly as he looked down benignly at Miles Law, whose head was level with George Hennessey’s chest.
‘Well, it’s the honest truth, governor, that’s what it is, and it’s all I’m really good for. I reckon it’s all I’m good for.’ Miles Law shrugged. ‘So that’s me … lifting things, carrying that, fetching the other, so I reckon “general labourer” sums me up quite well … quite well enough, me and my little old life.’
‘Very well, but do you think that you could be a little more specific, Mr Law, if you please,’ Hennessey pressed, though he still spoke in a calm and a gentle manner. ‘I mean, can you tell me what you do for Mr Garrett? What is your specific area of responsibility here at The Grange?’
‘Do you mean “did”? What my job was?’ Miles Law looked to his left and sighed. ‘I mean, I don’t think I’ll be doing much for Mr Garrett now, do you? Well, anyway, if you must know I was the “donkey gardener” here. That’s me … that was me … the “donkey gardener”. It’s all I amounted to.’
‘The “donkey gardener”?’ Hennessey parroted. ‘“Donkey gardener”? What on earth is one of those? I confess I have never heard of such a beast.’ He brushed another persistent fly from his face.
‘That’s probably because it’s a name I gave myself.’ Miles Law shrugged. ‘My proper job title is the “under-gardener”, sometimes I’m the “second gardener” and sometimes I am the “assistant gardener”. I do the easy work … hard work in a sense but unskilled, the jobs that just need brute strength, just a bit of honest to God muscle. Like, I may not be clever but I can lift things. So today I was to mow the lawn. I like that job.’ He pointed to the lawn. ‘I did that a week ago. I came here this morning to do it again. That’s one of the “donkey” jobs in this old garden.’
‘Yes.’ Hennessey viewed the garden. ‘Very neat, if I may say so, the alternate light and dark strips. I really do like that effect. It’s very easy on the eye.’
‘Up one way and back down the other way,’ Law explained. ‘It’s very easy with the power mower. I also trim the edge of the lawn with a pair of long-handled shears, all round the edge, inch by little inch by little inch until the whole edge is neatly trimmed, just as Garrett wants … or wanted it. I like doing the lawn, I must confess – I can easily lose myself in doing the lawn. And you can see when the job is done. I also pull up the weeds from the flowerbeds and sharpen the tools and I wheel the cuttings to the compost heap in the wheelbarrow. I do all those things, so I do. But the pruning of the fruit trees, the grafting of saplings, the potting of new growth in the plant pots in the potting shed, all that sort of stuff is done by the head gardener. He should have just returned from his holiday about now. Him and his family.’
‘I see,’ Hennessey grunted. He was content to let Law talk, and the more Law talked the more Hennessey was prepared to accept that the man was no longer criminally active. No active criminal would be relaxed enough to speak to a police officer in the manner in which Miles Law talked about his job. ‘I get the picture. I was going to ask of the whereabouts of the head gardener, but now you’ve told me.’
‘Well, that’s me, the old “donkey job” man out here in the garden of The Grange, working … or rather did work for Mr Garrett.’
‘What did you intend to do today?’ Hennessey felt the need to get Law on his side. He intuitively felt he was going to need the man’s cooperation. ‘I mean, it all still looks very neat. The lawn could possibly do with a trim, as you say, but it’s far from being overgrown and untidy. So what brought you here today?’
‘The heat,’ Miles Law smiled briefly, ‘the heat and the need to do something. I woke early, the sun woke me and it can get very hot in my little cottage. I knew I’d get fed up with my own company so I thought that I’d cycle over to The Grange and mow the lawn and water the garden.’
‘And there’s plenty of dry-looking soil at the moment, I see,’ Hennessey grinned, ‘plenty to point your hose at. It looks like it could do with a good drink; the whole lot of it looks a trifle thirsty.’
‘Yes … well, any old and sad and stupid fool can water a garden and so that’s why it’s on my “to do” list. So I have a reason to leave my house and to do my job at The Grange. So I am felling two birds with one stone.’
‘Yes …’ Once again Hennessey brushed a persistent fly from his face. ‘So you have no set working hours to adhere to?’
‘No … nope … none,’ Law replied, ‘and I confess that that suits me nicely, suits me down to the ground, suits me very well indeed. It was as Garrett said when he first set me on, “You can always tell when your gardener’s working, or not, as the case may be.” So long as I put in my hours, that’s thirty hours a week in the summer months, do my “donkey” jobs, then I lift a reasonable pay packet on the Friday. But, of course, I only get paid in the summer when there’s work to be done. So for me it’s the old gardener’s song, “Cigars in the summer and roll-ups in the winter”. Such is the lot for we poor sons of the soil.’
‘So what happened this morning?’ Hennessey asked. ‘Just take me through the events of this morning, please.’
‘So … this morning … well, this morning I arrived on my old bike, like normal, like I said.’ Law pointed to his bicycle which stood by the steps of the house. ‘I arrive and I hammer on the knocker, using the knock that Garrett gave me … one knock and then a long pause and then two knocks in quick succession.’
‘That’s your knock?’ Hennessey queried. ‘You have your own knock?’
‘Yes, I have my own knock. That’s how Garrett knows … or knew it was me who was at his door. He gave all his employees their own special knock. The head gardener’s knock is three knocks in quick succession, a pause, then two more knocks in quick succession. It let him know who had arrived at the house without him having to get out of his chair and have a look see.’
‘I see.’ Hennessey nodded. ‘I can see the value of that arrangement.’
‘The house cleaners also have their own special knock. They have a key to let themselves in if he is not at home, but he likes them to knock anyway.’
‘Interesting,’ Hennessey mused, ‘so Garrett was clearly a man who liked to be in control. He was a man who liked to know what is … or was … going on about him.’ Then he asked, ‘What do you know about Garrett? Much? Anything at all you can tell me will be useful.’
‘Garrett.’ Law shrugged and glanced to his left. ‘Not much, to be honest with you, Guv, not much at all. He always struck me as a bit of a cagey sort of geezer, well cagey, did Mr Garrett. He didn’t seem to want to let anyone in his house, so far as I could tell … except the folk who needed to be in there, like the cleaners. They’re called The Maids and they arrive in their little yellow van once a week, so they’re not known personally to Garrett … or were not known … and so far as I could tell it was not always the same women who called. It was different women from week to week, it seemed to me. They arrive and he lets them in and they do their thing – they vacuum and dust and polish and clean the bathroom then they drive away again. If he’s not at home then they let themselves in anyway, like I said, but they have to knock first. He was very insistent on that point. Once they let themselves in without knocking and I heard him shouting at them from where I was down there by the gateposts. He had quite a temper, did Mr Garrett.’
‘I see,’ Hennessey nodded. ‘So no personal visitors that you know of and he liked to keep people at a distance?’
‘It seemed that way to me, sir … but I am not here all the time and The Maids, well, they’re in and out in about an hour each time that they visit.’
‘Just an hour, for a house of this size?’ Hennessey gasped. ‘And just how many cleaners each time?’
‘Two, just two women. Well, I mean he was a single bloke, living alone. He probably only used just one bedroom, one bathroom, the kitchen and the lounge, or drawing room if you’re posh,’ Law offered. ‘So, yes, I can see why they only needed to stay for an hour, probably keen to get away – he wasn’t the world’s most pleasant old boy. In fact, The Maids once asked me about his routine.’
‘His routine,’ Hennessey repeated. ‘They asked you about that recently?’
‘No … no.’ Law shook his head vigorously. ‘No, this was a year ago now, last summer. I was just finishing as they were leaving the house and it was their last job of that day so we just got chatting … nothing special … just about this and that, a sort of end of the working day natter between working-class folk. It happens all the time. Just a bit of a chinwag.’
‘I see.’ Hennessey nodded. ‘But do go on, please.’
‘Well, it was then that they told me that he shuts his house down at night because, on the few occasions that they have called in the morning, like it’s their first job of that day, he lets them in while he is still wearing his pyjamas and his dressing gown and unlocks all the inside doors – locked so that if the house is burgled the felon cannot get past the room he has broken into, and they wanted to know if he has the some sort of security arrangement in the garden. They were just curious, you see – anyway, I told them it didn’t seem that he did. There were no security features that I knew of outside the house, apart from the gravel drive … no alarms, no CCTV cameras. The outbuildings are kept shut by a latch but are not locked as such. He probably felt he didn’t need CCTV – he thought he was safe. It’s quite a remote house, difficult to approach without being seen. In the city … yes, he might need CCTV, but not out here. He wasn’t particularly bothered about local villains poking around – he could live with that.’
‘I see,’ Hennessey repeated. ‘So he is a single man who lives alone?’
‘Yes … yes, I think he is that.’ Miles Law again glanced to his left, then paused and turned to Hennessey. ‘Look, governor, there’s no use beating around the bush … you’ll know him. You will definitely know him.’
‘We will?’ Hennessey raised his bushy eyebrows. ‘You mean that he is known to the police? We would have checked anyway, but it’s interesting that you say that. So tell me, how do you know that Mr Garrett has a criminal record?’
‘Well … because it takes one to know one and you’ll know him all right,’ Law replied, ‘just like you know me. Me and Garrett, we’ve both been inside. We both have criminal records.’
‘You do?’ Hennessey feigned surprise. ‘So we’ll know you, Mr Law?’
‘Look, I’m trying to help you so don’t pretend to be surprised,’ Law replied sourly. ‘I know you clocked me for an ex-con the very moment you set eyes on me, just like I could tell that you were a copper if I saw you walking down the street. You and me, we don’t need no uniforms and labels stamped on our foreheads to recognize each other for what each other is … or for what we are. So I may as well tell you because you’ll be checking up on me anyway, won’t you?’
‘Yes,’ Hennessey nodded, ‘yes, we will. As you say, we’ll be checking on you anyway.’
‘See, I know how the cops work. I know very well how the police work.’ Miles Law spoke softly. ‘If I ever learned one thing in life it’s how the boys and girls in blue work. I picked it up along the way. But I have not done no crookin’ for a long time. I mean nothing that you’ll be wanting to hear about. I’ve gone straight, been straight for a while, but I’ve done some things in my past and while I could work for Garrett, I could keep on going straight. This is the only job I can get now and now he’s gone … well, this job is not a position of responsibility – no position of trust is part of being a “donkey gardener”. I got paid in hard cash so it kept me out of trouble, but now it looks like I’ll have idle hands and we all know who makes work for idle hands. Don’t we all know that?’ Law paused. ‘Well … I’ve got a plan hatching.’
‘All right, so we’ll have your name and address on file?’ Hennessey asked. ‘Your current address, I mean?’
‘Yes, you will, but only because I gave it to the other detective – the younger geezer who arrived first, the one with the drink problem.’ Law held a defiant eye contact with Hennessey. ‘I gave my current address to him.’
‘Why do you say that?’ Hennessey growled. ‘I mean about the drink problem?’
‘Those bloodshot eyes, governor, the breath heavy with the smell of strong mints to cover up the stale breath caused by last night’s beer.’ Law smiled. ‘Come on. Don’t tell me that you haven’t noticed it, or are you pretending not to notice it? Is that it? What’s that term, “an elephant in the room”, something so big that it’s more comfortable to ignore it … pretend it’s not there? Anyway, that’s your business not mine, but you’ll have my address on your file,’ Law continued, ‘or in your computer, and you’ll have my real name – you’ll have that also. I don’t use an alias. I was just a very silly boy. I was never a major player, just a petty crook, that’s the term to describe me, or to describe what I used to be. Just a petty crook.’
‘Fair enough,’ Hennessey murmured, though he still felt stung by Miles Law’s reference to Thompson Ventnor’s drinking habit. It was, though, an issue which he was uncomfortably aware of. ‘So what,’ he asked, ‘makes you think that we will know Anthony Garrett, deceased?’
‘Believe …’ Law replied with a glint in his eye. ‘There is just no thinking about it, squire. It’s a belief, a dead certainty, a knowledge.’ Law took a deep breath. ‘Well, let’s just say it was like love at first sight. It was like that. You know the way? The way it is when two people first set eyes on each other and there is an instant connection? Well it was like that with me and Garrett. Just like that. The moment we saw each other we knew that we’d both been inside. I figured him for an old lag, and he figured me for an old lag. Different league maybe, but old lags just the same. I knew that he saw me as a minor player because he sort of sneered at me with his eyes … like I was beneath him, which I probably was, so I reckon that’s fair. But that’s the answer to your old question, governor, just like two ex-servicemen can recognize each other as being ex-military, so me and Garrett recognized each other as both being ex-cons.’
