Chameleons and a Corpse Read online

  It was a relief when the three of us managed to slip out of the meeting without encountering any further judgemental rich men. I shook my head and opened my mouth to say something along those lines, but Auryn shot me a sharp sideways look. He was already on thin ice here and expressing my views to Jon, a member of the group, would do him no favours. I decided that Auryn and I were going to have a serious talk about this ridiculous club later on when we had some alone time. For now, I kept quiet.

  Jon started up the car and it wasn’t long before we were zipping along the country lanes that connected the villages caught in orbit Gigglesfield. Timmy Marsden lived in a sizeable country house down a quiet lane next to a handful of other large houses. I knew from the barbecue that the back of the property extended out a long way before turning into fields and woodland.

  “What could possibly have kept him? Timmy doesn’t even lift so much as a finger around the house. He has a housekeeper who comes in every other day to do all of that stuff,” Jon complained as we drew into the driveway. I noted that Timmy’s navy blue BMW was still parked just inside the garage. “Auryn, can you go inside and find the devil? I need some time to cool off. Timmy has done stupid things in the past, but this trumps them all! He knew I was sticking my neck out by recommending him to the club. When his old man passed on a few years ago, he should have been invited then, but he was deemed unsuitable. Like a complete fool, I swore to the elders of the club that he’d changed his ways.”

  Auryn got out of the car and I followed suit. Anything was better than staying in the car with a brooding man, and I was also very curious as to what could have possibly been more important than an induction into a smug boys’ club. My foot landed on something that had been left on the drive. I picked the item up and discovered it was a hand-tooled leather dog lead. With a sinking heart, I realised I recognised it. I signalled to Auryn to wait and placed the lead back in the car inside the handbag I’d brought with me. Jon looked back with curiosity. His expression closed as soon as he saw what it was, and he went back to staring at the sky through the windscreen.

  I caught up with Auryn and we made it to the front door. Some sense of foreboding must have taken over Auryn, too, as instead of knocking, he reached out and gave it a push. The door swung open. We exchanged a look, both silently thinking that Timmy was probably not alone.

  Various snatches of gossip at the barbecue had informed me that Timmy wasn’t exactly big on fidelity. His wife, Scarlett, was apparently just as bad, if not worse, if you took what some of the barbecue lads had been saying as the honest truth. I’d taken it all with a big fat grain of salt, but if Timmy did have a lover round, it could explain why he hadn't shown up at the club.

  There was the sound of clattering paws before Rameses appeared around the corner, his tail wagging back and forth like an overexcited rudder. He rushed straight up to me and thrust his head into my hands so I could pat his head. He made a lousy guard dog. Timmy had talked to me about him at the barbecue, and I’d learned that the breed had originated from Malta and were bred to hunt rabbits. But whilst Rameses had apparently cost an arm and a leg to buy, due to his rarity, he’d turned out to be more of a lapdog than a hunting hound.

  “Where’s your owner, hmmm? Where’s Timmy?” I asked the tan dog, bending down to talk to him. I froze when I saw something dark around his mouth. Had Rameses been injured? I looked at my hand and discovered there was a big red smear across it.

  “Auryn…” I held up my hand so he could see. “I don’t think it’s his,” I said after a brief inspection of the dog. “I’ll check upstairs.”

  “I’ll look down here.” Auryn’s mouth was set in a grim line. “Shout if you see anything.”

  I walked up the stairs with Rameses on my heels. I tried not to think too hard about the red stains around his mouth and instead kept my wits about me. The unlocked door could mean an intruder and there was every possibility that someone was still in the house…

  I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw the mirror. My own scared face looked back at me. My wavy hair had puffed out a little and my cheeks were drained of colour. Although it was July and baking hot outside, I felt icy cold. But it wasn’t the chill that made me look like a ghost. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something dreadful had happened.

  I walked into the bedroom and looked at the unmade bed. Covers were strewn around. The housekeeper clearly hadn’t been by today. The door to the ensuite bathroom was open. I walked in to the lavish room and touched a finger to the bottom of the jacuzzi-style bath. It was bone dry. No one had bathed or showered in it recently. Rameses nudged against my leg, probably staining it with blood. I looked down and he whined nervously.

  Then I heard Auryn calling for me. My feet felt especially heavy when I walked back down the stairs with Rameses leading the way. It was as if they didn’t want to carry me to find out what it was that had made Auryn’s voice sound so strange when he’d shouted my name. I steeled myself for the worst and walked into the kitchen. My eyes fell on a mug of tea that had been left out on the side. I reached out and touched the side. It was cold. With great reluctance, I turned my attention to the violent splash of red that drew the eye better than a well-thought out flower arrangement.

  Timmy Marsden’s body was partially concealed by the kitchen counter. He was lying on his back in a pool of blood with his feet facing the glass double doors that led out onto the long garden. A spray of red coated the side of the kitchen unit that faced the doors. Rameses pushed passed me, stepping in the crimson liquid. His paw prints showed he’d tracked through the blood once already. He scratched at the glass door, spreading the mess even further. Auryn covered his hand with his sleeve and then gingerly reached out and compressed the handle on the door furthest away from the body.

  “Don’t slip!” I warned when Auryn’s foot got dangerously close to a patch of water on the floor. The door proved to be unlocked and swung open, letting Rameses run free to do his business.

  I looked out of the open door down the garden after the disappearing dog. The sounds of a radio playing and splashing indicated that Ethan Pleasant was out in his hot tub. He’d been out in the tub on the day of the barbecue. After Timmy had good-naturedly called over the fence and asked him to turn his radio down, Auryn had told me that Ethan was something of a cyber wiz kid. He’d made a million by the time he was twenty and now that number was assuredly much, much higher. Auryn had then embarrassedly admitted his father had turned Ethan away when he’d come to the zoo to suggest a hi-tech admissions system. According to Auryn, it had been beyond his father to imagine something like that working, in spite of the money it would save longterm on staffing. My fiancé had then added that he himself wouldn’t consider it because the thought of firing a group of people who’d helped the zoo to rise up out of the ashes of failure was incredibly harsh. I personally thought that when people visit a zoo, the first thing they should see is a friendly, helpful face. Sometimes there are more important things than efficiency.

  In the distance, I heard a dog bark and then Rameses’ response. I shook my head at the innocuous sounds and then pulled the door shut. Life continued as normal all around us, unaware that death lurked inside the house.

  “We have to get out of here,” Auryn mumbled.

  I glanced at him and realised his face had turned the colour of curdled milk. “Come on. Let’s go outside and tell Jon what’s happened. Someone’s got to call the police.” I held a hand out and Auryn took it gratefully. I led him back through the house and out through the front door, where the smell and feeling of death faded to nothing.

  “He was only a few years older than me,” Auryn muttered, the horror of death touching him.

  I nodded and patted his arm. I was getting to be fairly well-versed in this kind of thing.

  Jon got out of the car when he saw our grim faces. “What happened? Where’s Timmy?”

  “Dead,” Auryn managed and then went to sit in the car with his head bowed.

  Jo
n looked at me for clarification.

  I nodded. “It looks like someone killed him. I’m going to call the police.”

  I took out my phone and dialled the emergency number before asking for the police. Then, I recounted what I’d seen and checked the address with Jon. The rest was a blur that I answered on autopilot. When I hung up, Jon was looking from me to Auryn and had questions written all over his face.

  “What happened?” he asked again.

  “I think… I think someone might have stabbed him,” I managed, feeling faint all of a sudden. I took a couple of deep breaths and tried to focus. Fortunately, by the time the police arrived, I was feeling a little better. I’d seen bodies before, but this one had been really awful. All of that blood…

  I blinked and nodded my head when the police asked to be shown the scene. This time, Jon followed me into the house - although he gasped and shrank back before turning and walking back outside as soon as Timmy’s corpse came into view. I first focused on the cup of tea, never to be drunk, before my eyes shifted to the garden outside of the glass doors, so fresh and alive and unlike the death that lurked inside. I remembered letting Rameses out and moved to open the door to call him back.

  “Don’t!” a police officer warned and I lowered my hand an inch shy of the handle. “This is a crime scene,” he reminded me.

  What had I been thinking anyway? Letting Rameses back in would only cause the police more trouble, and he was probably far happier outside anyway. I was sure that someone would come to collect him later.

  “You should probably go back outside. Someone will be along to take your statement. I’ve called for backup,” the officer said in gentler tones.

  I nodded, still looking out at the garden and the blue sky before tearing my eyes away and managing to not focus on the body on the floor.

  Jon and Auryn were both standing by the car with Officer Miles, whom I recognised from the incident around Christmas time that had taken place at Avery Zoo. If I were being truly honest, I had hoped I wouldn’t be seeing him again for a long, long time.

  After we’d all briefed the officer on what we knew, we were sent along to the police station.

  “I’ve got to call Timmy’s family. They deserve to know,” Jon said when we were sitting in the reception area of the station, waiting to be called in.

  “Who’s going to tell his wife?” Auryn asked.

  “Heavens! Scarlett! She must still be at work! Someone should tell her right away. You know what gossip is like in this town…” Jon said, running a hand through his sparse, spiky dark hair.

  “I hope she is at work, for her sake,” I contributed.

  Both men turned to look at me.

  “Well where else would she be? It’s a Sunday. She works on Sundays. Actually, I think Scarlett works all of the days,” Jon supplied.

  “‘Works’… right.” I wasn't so naive.

  Right on cue, the receptionist beckoned us over. “I’ve just received word that officers are trying to contact a Mrs Scarlett Marsden. Do any of you have contact details for her?”

  “I think I’ve got it here,” Jon said, pulling out his phone. I silently raised an eyebrow wondering why Jon would have those details to hand. I knew he’d been friends with Timmy for a long time… but had he been even more friendly with Mrs Marsden?

  “There you go… my wife wanted some of that fancy shaping underwear that Scarlett’s company makes. She said she’d send us over whatever my wife wanted if I gave her a ring,” Jon explained when the receptionist eyed him with the same scrutiny I’d felt.

  I nearly rolled my eyes. I should have known there would be nothing salacious about Jon having Scarlett’s details. With Jon, all you had to do was eliminate all of the interesting possibilities and you’d be left with the correct boring and sensible one.

  “Typical Timmy. He even died in a way that attracted attention,” Jon muttered, and then looked horrified he’d said it out loud.

  The receptionist cleared her throat and returned his phone. “Thank you. We’ve already tried that number. It was listed online. I suppose none of us imagined she’d put her personal number on there, but it sounds like a personal voicemail when it goes through.”

  “Scarlett Marsden’s work colleagues claim she left work early today,” a man I’d never seen before announced, striding through the double doors that led into the main station. He had short cropped blonde hair, serious blue eyes, and a lean physique. I also didn’t fail to notice that he wore a uniform which was decorated with quite a few stripes and what looked like medals.

  “I’m Detective Alex Gregory. I just transferred from Brighton to take over Detective Treesden’s post now that he’s sought early retirement.”

  “Early retirement?” I enquired.

  “For personal reasons.” Detective Gregory threw me a long speculative look when he said it. I thought I could probably have a stab at what Treesden’s personal reasons had been.

  “I wonder where Scarlett could be? She’s so dedicated to her work,” Jon prattled on whilst Auryn and I avoided making eye contact. “Timmy was so proud of her. She had this idea and he put some money into it, and now she’s worth far more than he is. Was,” Jon amended, looking downcast once more. “Suck-It-In is everything Scarlett ever dreamed of achieving. There’s no reason at all for her to have killed Timmy, if that’s what you’re all implying right now. She already has everything she ever wanted.”

  “No one is implying anything. We’re hoping to contact close relatives and family of the deceased in order to inform them of what has happened. After that, we will be looking to establish whereabouts in order to ascertain if there were any witnesses to the suspected crime and to further our investigation,” Detective Gregory explained in a far more reasonable manner than Treesden would have done. “If you could all come this way, we’re ready to take statements.”

  “Oh my golly gosh!” Jon said, looking perhaps even more horrified than he had when he’d seen the body. “How could I forget? There was a contract at the house - a really important one. I was supposed to look it over as a favour to Timmy and Scarlett. Timmy was going to give it to me today. I’m a solicitor,” he clarified. “It was the final draft of a merger between Suck-It-In and another fairly well-known clothing company. Her big company lawyers have already looked it over but she asked me to just give it the once over right before she made her mind up. To be honest, I think she just wanted a reason to delay. I wouldn’t find anything that the kind of lawyer she can afford wouldn’t have already spotted. She said it was the only signed copy and that it also contained all kinds of confidential financial information. It’s really important that it’s found!”

  “I’ll send an alert to the officers at the scene and will make a note to ask Mrs Marsden, once she has been located,” the woman behind reception said.

  Jon’s shoulders slumped a little but I noticed there were beads of sweat on his forehead that hadn’t been there before. Just what was in the mysterious contract that was important enough to cause this kind of panic? Only a few moments ago Jon had claimed that Scarlett already had everything she’d ever wanted… but the existence of this merger might hint otherwise. Jon hadn’t mentioned who was taking over who, and it also seemed evident that Scarlett herself had been less than certain about making the final decision. Could Timmy’s death be tied up with this mystery contract?

  “Why don’t we go through?” Detective Gregory prompted when the drama seemed at an end. We followed him through into the bustling office.

  “You’re Madigan Amos, aren’t you?” The detective was still looking at me speculatively.

  I wondered what exactly Treesden had told him about me. I was willing to bet it wasn’t anything complimentary, and I wanted to commend Detective Gregory on keeping a straight face. “I am, yes.”

  “I’ll start with you. Officer Ernesto and Officer Becky, please take statements from the other two witnesses,” Detective Gregory said with practiced ease. I had assumed that this job w
arranted a promotion for the new detective. He looked to be in his mid-thirties but it was obvious he already had experience of giving orders. Perhaps he’d come from a military background, I speculated.

  “Ms Amos, over here if you please.” The detective sat down behind a cluttered desk. My surprise at his rather humble station must have shown. “As I already said, I’m new. Things are still being sorted out in Detective Treesden’s old office.” He dug beneath one of the piles of folders, causing it to teeter threateningly on the verge of collapse. I was feeling something similar myself right now.

  “How are you finding it so far?” I enquired, hoping to start off on the right foot with the new detective.

  “Everyone here has been very welcoming. I was warned that due to it being a more rural area, things were likely to be a lot quieter than it was at my old workplace. However, that remains to be seen…” He shot me a pointed look before shuffling the papers he’d isolated from the pile.

  “What were you doing when you found Timothy Marsden?”

  “It’s okay! It’s safe!” Jon suddenly announced, standing up from the booth he was in with another officer. There was a look of relief on his face. “I messaged my wife and she messaged back to say that Scarlett delivered the contract to my place this morning. She still has it.”

  “Send someone over to collect it,” Detective Gregory said to a passing member of the admin team. He bobbed his head and hurried off.

  The detective turned back to me with a look of exasperation just starting to take hold.

  “Excuse me, Sir. Sorry… can I just…” a young woman I didn’t recognise, but who wore police uniform, inserted herself between me and the detective. With a flourish, she produced an all too familiar book from behind her back. “I can’t believe you’re here in our station! This is beyond cool. Would you mind…?” She passed over a pen and I obligingly scribbled my name on the title page, pausing only to ask to whom I was dedicating the comic.