“Old friends who shared the same bed last night?”
Adrian coughed and Leonard felt his cheeks getting hot.
“Don’t mind me,” said PC Morgan, grinning. “I’m not judging. I had a peek around upstairs and couldn’t help but notice only one bed had been slept in. But I’m also just trying to figure out motives, and why somebody would want to try to burn the house down in the middle of the night with the two of you still inside. Of course, that’s assuming anyone knew you were inside. Your car is completely concealed by the tree outside and there’d otherwise have been no signs of life. Do you keep any lights on inside the house?”
“None. I’m a bit of an energy freak about lights, about leaving them on.”
“Fair enough. Although sometimes a couple of lights in a house can be a good deterrent. But what I’m getting at is that somebody could have assumed the place was empty. Of course, that still doesn’t excuse them or explain why they would want to burn the place to the ground.”
Leonard volunteered how his late father had left him the property and how his aunt had decided to challenge the will. Leonard also told him about the intruder.
“And you didn’t think to report this?”
“With hindsight, I should have done. Adrian thought I should, but no harm was done. And to my knowledge, the only other person with a set of keys is my cousin. So we got the locks changed and assumed that would be that.”
PC Morgan jotted down a few notes on his notepad as Leonard gave him the details.
“I see. And the full names of your aunt and cousin?”
“Millicent and Matthew Darlington,” said Leonard as PC Morgan stopped writing and looked up from his pad. “I don’t know if they have other names.”
“Millicent Darlington? Now there’s a name I didn’t think I’d ever hear again.”
“You know her?”
“I knowofher. Let’s just say I’ve been here before. In this house. Long time ago, mind. Suicide. Dreadful affair.”
“Luke Darlington?”
PC Morgan had been looking about the room as he spoke but brought his gaze back to scrutinise Leonard.
“She told you about him, did she?”
“Not her. My mother told me. Luke was my cousin."
“Was he now? First suicide I’d ever dealt with. Terrible affair. I think it pretty much broke his father.”
“So I heard.”
“Three years after I first joined the force. Twenty-five, I was. Still really doing my apprenticeship with my old gaffer, PC Rhys Schofield. He passed on some ten years back. But I remember the day well.”
“You found him?”
“His father found him. Story is he’d gone missing and been reported locally to the Clifton police. Mike, his father, sent the younger son, Matthew, to look in all Luke’s regular haunts around Clifton, while he drove here. We got the call at lunchtime, from the Manor Inn. They didn’t have a landline in the house back then. Was in a proper state, was poor Mr Darlington. He’d had the sense not to touch anything. Something I’ve learnt in my career is that in emotional cases like that, people often touch things at the scene, try to cut down the body, and in doing so ruin what could be decent evidence. When we arrived here, the lad was still hanging there, the ladder tipped over on the floor.”
“Anything suspicious?” asked Adrian. Leonard could almost have predicted the question from him.
PC Morgan laughed at that.
“My old gaffer was scrupulous. Wanted everything checked and double-checked. He treated someone taking their own life on his patch as a personal affront. But Luke had written a suicide note, penned by his own hand, neither forced nor forged. Only Luke’s prints were in the room. Everything had been carefully arranged by him. No doubt about it, he took his own life. Mrs Darlington was the only one who didn’t come down, but she insisted we record the fatality as accidental death, fairly screamed at my old gaffer down the phone, she did, when he refused. Seemed more upset about that than the actual death of her son. But there was no mistaking. He’d taken his own life.”
“What was the motive?” said Adrian. “From what we’ve heard, he had everything to live for.”
“I’m afraid that’s something he took with him. Although I have my suspicions.”
“And what were they? Just out of interest?”
“From what I could tell, Luke got on with his dad, but his mother wore the trousers in the family. Luke fought against the current but I reckon he got to a point where he couldn’t take any more of her. My gaffer thought he may have also had certain inclinations and proclivities—and I’m sure you of all people know exactly what I’m alluding to here—that went against the mother’s strict religious ideology.”
