Shades of Murder Read online

  He'd stashed his rucksack between the seats and as the train drew out, he looked eagerly from the window, clearly seeing it all for the first time. Meredith, as curious about him as he was about the world through which the train gently rocked, made the most of her chance to assess him further, instead of concentrating on the Evening Standard crossword as she usually did.

  She judged him in his late twenties or early thirties; it was hard to tell. His skin was very sunburned as if he spent a lot of time out of doors, his hair dark and curling and faintly touched at the temples with early grey. His bare forearms were dusted with fine black hairs as were the

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  backs of his loosely clasped hands. His face was oval. He had a long straight large nose and those huge dark eyes. A medieval face, she thought, stepped from a church fresco, but whether belonging to saint or sinner it was impossible to say.

  The, without warning, he turned his head to look straight at her. He smiled.

  'There are a lot of people on this train,' he said. His accent was marked, but his voice was pleasant and easy. Any concern he'd had about his journey had vanished. He reclined in the seat in a relaxed way, apparently unbothered by the lack of room which resulted in other passengers being huddled like sardines in a tin, stiffly conscious that elbows clashed and feet became entangled. It occurred to Meredith that even though he appeared so relaxed, it disguised an underlying energy, ready to be switched on in an instant. She was reminded of a big cat, sunning itself on the savannah, yet watchful and always ready to spring.

  In reply to his comment, she said rather more brusquely than she intended, 'There always are. It's the rush-hour.'

  'Yes? I'm not used to big cities.' He smiled again in a confiding, disarming manner and revealed a gold tooth, the left canine. Somehow this touch of continental dentalwork added to the air of harmlessness and Meredith felt her earlier misgivings fade. 'I'm a countryman, isn't that what you say?'

  'Which country?' she asked, before she could stop herself.

  'I'm from Poland.'

  Now was the moment to mumble, 'Oh, really?' and stop the conversation right there or she'd be stuck with his chat-up line for the rest of the journey - depending how far he was going. She wondered where he was going and, just as if he'd read her mind, he said, 'I'm going to a town called Bamford. Do you know it?'

  She couldn't deny it and at once he became eagerly attentive, leaning forward and asking, 'What is it like? Do you know it very well, the people there very well? I've never been there.'

  There was a kind of childish urgency in his request for information. Far too late now to hide behind the Evening Standard. Other passengers had opened paperback novels, fished office work from their briefcases, were muttering into mobile phones or had fallen asleep. She was on her own. She did her best to give a thumbnail sketch of Bamford.

  'It's only a small place, some nice old buildings, but it's a workaday town, not on the tourist circuit. There are a lot more picturesque places not far away, like Bourton-on-the-Water, Chipping Camden. You'll find

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  it all in tourist literature or guidebooks. Bamford hasn't really got much to offer in that line.'

  He listened to all this, nodding, and when she stopped speaking, he asked, 'You appear to know it very well - you live there perhaps?' His voice expressed only a conversational curiosity, yet it struck her that his dark eyes had become just a little speculative. Saint or sinner? she found herself wondering again.

  'Yes, with my partner.' That was to let him know their acquaintanceship was going to end at Bamford station. But as soon as the words left her mouth she realised, with a jolt, that this was the first time she'd ever referred openly to Alan as her partner. Their relationship had moved on, she thought. They were partners, he wholeheartedly, she as ever ravaged by secret - or not so secret - doubts. Suddenly she felt ashamed at her quibbling attitude. She had either to show equal commitment to the partnership or walk away from it, and she didn't want to walk away from it. She would put her house on the market, she decided. Not for renting out but for sale. Unless she took that necessary first step, there could be no progress along their road. She must phone Juliet and let her know.

  Her travelling companion was still looking thoughtful, pursing his mouth and tapping his fingers on the little shelf under the train window. It surprised her to see that his hands, albeit strong and tanned, were quite small and as well-formed as a woman's.

  'Perhaps I'll visit these other towns.' His tone dismissed the whole lot. He wasn't interested in touristic details. T really want to know about Bamford, you see . . .' Without warning he leaned forward, smiling conspiratorially, and she realised with some alarm that she was about to become the recipient of a confidence. 'I'm not here just as a tourist. I'm here to visit my family.' He sat back and his smile widened, the gold tooth flashing.

  'Oh, right.' Meredith was reluctant to go on with the conversation and did her best to speak in a way which would close it off without being impolite. She wondered afterwards if this was because she'd sensed somehow that she was about to be told something which would disturb her.

  T disengaged mentally,' she explained to Alan when she was telling him all about this later. 'And that was my mistake because I was totally unprepared for what was coming. I thought he meant he had relatives descended from Polish emigres, but it wasn't that at all. I nearly fell off my seat when he asked if I knew the Oakleys.'

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  The Oakleys'?* She'd gaped at him. Cautiously, she began. "I don't know a family. I mean a big family ..."

  He was shaking his head. 'It's not a big family. There are just two ladies, quite old, sisters.'

  The train had drawn into one of the stations along the line and the carriage had largely emptied. When it drew out again. Meredith and the stranger had no one seated near them.

  'We can't,' Meredith said firmly, * be thinking of the same people." It seemed impossible.

  They live at a house called Fourways.' He pronounced the name of the house as if it were written as two words. Four Ways.

  Meredith gasped, still unable to believe it. 'You're talking of Damaris and Florence Oakley.*

  The gold tooth flashed. 'Yes. They're my cousins. You know them? This is wonderful!' He looked her full in the face and she saw the spontaneous pleasure in his dark eyes turn to something very like triumph. 'I'm Jan Oakley,' he said simply, as if this must explain everything. He pronounced his name in Polish fashion, 'Yan'.

  It wasn't often Meredith found herself struck dumb but this was one of those rare occasions. She realised she had her mouth open and closed it. 'Oh,' she managed feebly.

  She still hadn't really recovered her composure when they reached Bamford. Her companion retrieved his rucksack and walked briskly beside her along the platform. Meredith was five foot ten in height and took a perverse pleasure in noting that her companion was slightly shorter. But he had the musculature of a gymnast and strode out with a bounce in his step. To her annoyance, his attitude seemed to suggest they were now old friends. She knew she had to get rid of him sharpish, but at the same time, her mind was buzzing furiously. Was he expected at Fourways? Cautiously, she asked.

  'Oh yes, I've been in correspondence with my cousins. They know I'm coming today.'

  'Are you - is someone meeting you?'

  He frowned. 'No, but I can I find a taxi, can't I? Is the house very far away?'

  'It's on the outskirts of town, near a crossroads. That's how it got its name.' They'd reached the exit at the front of the station. 'It isn't very far,' Meredith told him. The taxi fare shouldn't be very much.'

  Tt has been very nice to meet you,' he said, very politely, and held out a hand. Unthinkingly, Meredith put out her own hand to shake his.

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  but he seized her fingers and raised them gallantly to his lips, accompanying this with a formal bow. 'We shall meet again, I hope?'

  Not if I can avoid it, thought Meredith, makin
g for her car in the busy car park. However, as things turned out, she hadn't seen the last of him that evening. As she drove slowly along the station approach, she saw Jan Oakley making a lonely figure, his rucksack at his feet, by the deserted taxi rank. She slowed.

  He had recognised her and came towards the car, his expression hopeful. 'All the taxis have been taken. I have to wait perhaps twenty minutes until one comes back.'

  'I'll run you out there,' said Meredith resignedly. 'Put your pack on the back seat.'

  He tossed it in immediately and slid into the passenger seat beside her. 'This is very kind of you,' he said, it seemed to her complacently.

  Meredith made no reply to this, but concentrated on weaving her way out of the station car park through the other cars all driven by impatient commuters, anxious to be home.

  As they drove through town, Jan remarked, 'It looks a nice place. Why did you say it wasn't interesting?'

  'Because I live here, I suppose. I mean, yes, it's all right. Are you thinking of staying long?' Meredith tried to suppress the tone in her voice which said, T hope not!'

  'It depends,' he said vaguely. 'Perhaps two weeks, or three?' He was slouched in the seat, his eyes fixed on the windscreen, his hands resting on his knees. A small gold crucifix had escaped from beneath the T-shirt.

  'What sort of work do you do in Poland?' she asked, probing for more information about him. So far, he seemed to be making all the running. She felt as if she'd been caught off-balance and didn't like it. That kiss-hand business, for instance - she'd never liked that. But if he had a regular job, he would have to get back to it eventually. He couldn't prolong his stay indefinitely.

  He raised his hands and spread them out, palms facing. The crucifix wasn't the only jewellery he wore. His wristwatch looked expensive and she wondered if it were a fake - and just how much of a fake its owner was. T look after horses,' he said.

  'Horses?' She hadn't expected that.

  'Yes, thoroughbred horses - on a stud farm. We breed fine horses in Poland. They're a valuable export for our economy.'

  That explained the outdoor appearance and his claim to be a

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  'countryman'. Horse-breeding was big business in Poland. Meredith recalled from an article on international showjumping. Jan's English was good; he obviously fancied himself a bit. He might, despite his casual appearance, have quite an important job on that stud farm, wherever it was.

  For the second time in their brief acquaintance, he spoke as if he'd followed her thoughts. 'I'm what you call a veterinarian.'

  'That's an American term,' she told him. 'In this country we say veterinary surgeon, or vet, for short. Oh, here's Fourways!'

  They'd reached the house almost before she'd realised it. The sun was sinking in the sky, streaking it with cyclamen pink on turquoise. Against the paintbox colours the house looked of a piece, part of the backdrop to a stage production - Lucia di Lammermoor, perhaps. Built at the height of the Victorian Gothic revival, its windows were tall and thin, pointed and filled with arched tracery. Meredith knew from past visits that they didn't let in very much light. There were gargoyles under the eaves masking waterspouts and at one corner of the upper floor was a funny little pepperpot turret sticking out as if it had been a last-minute burst of inspiration on the part of the architect.

  Jan Oakley leaned forward, his hands resting on the dashboard above the glove compartment, staring through the windscreen at the house. There was an extraordinary tension about him; electricity crackled in the air between them. His face held an exalted look as if he gazed on some holy relic. Meredith found herself unable to speak and could only sit and wait.

  After a minute or two he turned to her and said quietly, 'You can't understand what this means to me. I've dreamed of this place. Actually to see it, to be here, not just for myself but for my father and grandfather, who never saw it - even my great-grandfather who left this house to come to Poland.'

  'Your great-grandfather?' It all fell into place. 'You're William Oakley's great-grandson!' she gasped. 'You're Wicked William's descendant!'

  He turned to her and she realised she'd made a bad mistake. Hostility glittered in the dark eyes and something more. It was as if she'd attacked her companion personally. For a second she panicked, thinking he would physically strike back. But then the hostility faded. His tongue flicked across his lower lip as if, for him, this had some calming effect. Certainly, he relaxed. The dark eyes held nothing worse now than a mild reproach.

  'Why do you call him that - Wicked William? Was he a bad man?'

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  Even that softly-phrased question set alarm bells going in Meredith's head. How much should she explain? Should she tell him that she was even now working her way through Geoff's research material? No. She didn't want to cause another upsurge of that anger. 'He left home under a cloud,' she said. In case he didn't know this expression, she added, 'There was an unfortunate incident.'

  Jan was shaking his head. 'I know what you're talking about. He was accused unjustly of having murdered his wife. He didn't do it. She was addicted to laudanum and while under the influence of the drug, suffered a tragic accident. He told my great-grandmother, his second wife, all about it before they married. She told their son, my grandfather, he told my father and my father told me. You see, I know all about it. My grandfather told me when I was a child that his mother had been a woman of great good sense. She would never have married a murderer. She knew her husband was an English gentleman. He wouldn't have lied to her'

  Somehow Meredith found the strength to say, though she knew her voice trembled, 'He stood trial.'

  'He was accused by a servant who had some grudge against him, but a jury - a British jury -' Did she only imagine something mocking in his tone? '- found him Innocent. So, he was.' He spoke the last words as simple fact, a matter of logic, which couldn't be gainsaid.

  Alan would have something to say about the difference between being found Innocent and being innocent. But Meredith was momentarily shaken. Unconsciously, she'd accepted Geoff Painter's claim that Oakley had been 'lucky to get off' and assumed Oakley's guilt. At least she ought to finish working her way through Geoff's notes before coming to a conclusion. In any case, she knew she'd be unwise to trespass further on a forbidden subject.

  She found herself saying weakly, 'Well, this is quite a moment for you, then. I do understand that.'

  Privately, she was thinking, Perhaps he feels that way about it. I wonder how Damaris and Florence feel about him?

  'Well, said Alan Markby, 'that's what you might term a turn-up for the books!'

  'Not half. I still can't take it in.'

  He poured them both another glass of wine. 'No wonder you came in declaring that I'd never guess whom you'd met and where you'd been. I certainly couldn't have guessed. He's genuine, I suppose?'

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  'That's what's worrying me.' Meredith confessed. 'No one has ever mentioned any Polish Oakleys before. I admit I don't know Damaris and Florence all that well, but I've always understood they were the last of the line. On Saturday evening at the Painters' we were talking about them, about the family, for goodness sake! Geoff said then that the sisters would be the last Oakleys at Fourways, and Juliet, who has been seeing them recently, didn't suddenly say. "Hang on, Geoff, there's a Polish horse doctor and he's hotfooting his way over here, about to land on the doorstep." Yet this Jan told me he'd been in correspondence with them. He definitely reckons he's expected. I just don't see how it's possible.'

  'Well, I've known them all my life and I've never heard of a Polish branch of the family,' Alan agreed. 'But that doesn't mean the Oakley sisters have been unaware of it.'

  'And never said a word to anyoneT Meredith sat back in her chair and pushed a hank of dark brown hair out of her eyes. In all these years?'

  'Think about it from their point of view,' Alan said. 'Their father was Wicked William's and Cora's son. As they grew up, William's name would ne
ver have been mentioned; it would've been the family skeleton-in-the-cupboard, a dreadful blot on their honour. Anything they later found out about him would have been veiled in the same secrecy. It was a scandal. Don't underestimate the fear of scandal, especially in someone of that generation.'

  Meredith was mulling it over. T suppose so,' she said unwillingly. 'This Jan's an odd sort of chap. One minute he appears harmless and the next - oh, I don't know! He was so excited when he saw the house, his face lit up, really shone. I found it unnerving. I kept thinking of those paintings of saints with their eyes fixed on glory. And then I thought how Lucifer means "light-bearer", and I didn't know whether I had a saint or a devil with me in the car.' She looked embarrassed. 'Sorry if I sound way over the top. He was just - different. W 7 e like to pigeon-hole new acquaintances, I suppose. But I couldn't slot him under any heading.'

  Alan was looking thoughtful. T think you might be right to feel some concern. The Oakleys are planning to sell up, move to a retirement flat, spend the rest of their days in peace and comfort. It's such a big undertaking for them it must fill their minds every minute of the day. All the planning, even with Juliet's help, must be a nightmare. I doubt they can really be doing with long-lost relatives at this time, even if he is completely harmless despite your fears. In fact, it's the last thing they need. On the other hand, I don't see what we can do about it. It's a family matter, isn't it?'

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  ; What about Interpol?'

  He twitched his eyebrows, startled. 'Isn't that making a big jump in reasoning? We've no reason to believe he's a crook. The Polish authorities could confirm whether or not he's for real or a fake, but there again, we've no excuse for contacting them. Presumably his travel documents are in order or he wouldn't have got through immigration at Heathrow.'