A Visit from WingCo

Brenda lay down on the bed and tried to rest. It was a relief not to be in a hospital ward with lights shining throughout the night and the constant bustle during the day of nurses checking temperature charts and issuing drugs. Through the window she heard a blackbird singing. Despite everything, it was a relief to be home. The sudden change in the blackbird's tones from song to alarm call broke into her reverie. A loud rapping on the front door made her start up in panic. She crossed to the window and peeped through the net curtain. Before she had a chance to move back, the figure at the door looked up and caught sight of her. He waved. It was WingCo Jackson, one of the last people who she wanted to see.

Opening the window, she called out:
"What do you want? I've only just come home and I'm feeling rather tired."

"Brenda!" He waved a small bunch of flowers in the air. "Judy insisted I must come round to see you. I'll give you these then leave if I can't do anything to help."

She knew it would be difficult to tell him to go. He would only be back later, she was convinced of that. Besides, she could not afford to show her distrust of him, McBride or Redbourne. Gritting her teeth and forcing herself to smile, she nodded then went to open the door. He thrust the flowers towards her then quickly stepped inside the entrance and closed the door behind him before she could say a word.

"I'll make us a pot of tea," she muttered, as he went up the stairs two at a time.

"No need for tea, Brenda. Unless that is, you want one." She shook her head. "I've just come round to see how you're getting on. Judy was most insistent. Dr McBride told us that you seemed to have discharged yourself... Unfortunately, Judy is busy as hell at the hotel."

All the while he talked, Brenda noticed his eyes roving round the kitchen and onto the landing. He never once looked at her. She knew he had some other agenda on his mind. Suddenly his eyes switched to her, a look of what she would later describe to Temple as apprehension on his face.

"Sorry to hear about Ben's accident. Dreadful thing, old girl, dreadful. Such a clever chap."

"Who says it was an accident?" She heard herself saying, instantly wishing she hadn't.

"Well, Brenda, what else could it have been?. You surely don't think ..."

Trying to redeem the situation and push back his suspicions, she said quickly:
"Ben didn't do away with himself. In truth, I don't know what happened but I do know that he had everything to live for. We had plans .."

"It was an accident, Brenda. Easily done. Bloody slippery on the riverbank."

"How do you know it was the riverbank?" Once again she spoke without thinking. "His body was found out at sea."

"Wherever, Brenda, riverbank, rocks - he must have slipped."

"That creep, that thing of Redbourne's came here." She stared into his face to watch his reaction. "He came looking for pills. Did you know that, WingCo?"

"How on earth would I know that! I don't know what you're talking about, Brenda." He tapped the kitchen table with the signet ring on his little finger. "You know what I think, I think you're still in shock."

"You introduced Redbourne to Ben, didn't you? That's when Ben changed too. Until then, he told me everything. After that he became secretive. I think you know exactly what I'm talking about." Brenda's vow of caution had now been blown to the wind and surprisingly, she felt better for it.

"I think you need time to rest, Brenda, you're over-wrought. I saw it in the war, you know. Young chaps said things they didn't mean after too many sorties."

"What was he looking for, this creep of Redbourne's? Ben never kept pharmacy pills here! What sort of pills were they? He ransacked the flat and beat me up. If the police hadn't come when they did, I might well be as dead as Ben!"

WingCo continued looking round the room. The marks where the furniture had hit the wallpaper were clearly visible and though the glass had been swept up, the bookcase panes were still clearly shattered.

"So, whatever it was he was looking for, he didn't find?" he asked.

"I don't know."

"Anyone else been here since then?"

"Thank God, the police have put everything back in place and tidied up the mess. They didn't say they found anything untoward."

For a few moments, WingCo pondered the situation. Redbourne had told him to find out exactly what Brenda did or did not know about Ben's involvement in their business. Redbourne was convinced that Ben must have told her. After listening to her, WingCo was not sure. It was just like Ellacott to play his cards close to his chest. Too clever by half, that one. But they would miss his involvement.

"Perhaps, I will have that cup of tea, Brenda, shall I make it?"

"No, I'll do it."

"I'll just pop to the bathroom then, Brenda. Back in a jiffy. Once inside, he locked the door and climbed onto the toilet seat. Pulling the chain, he put his arm into the cistern. The search revealed nothing. So, Redbourne had been wrong again. He was certain Ellacott had collected their next supply of pills for the dogs and that they would be in the cistern, as usual. Either Ellacott had never got them, or someone else had found them. WingCo broke out in a sweat, things were not going as planned.

When she brought in the tray, she noticed the cuff on his right shirt sleeve was wet. WingCo looked acutely agitated as she poured the tea and handed him the cup. He took it and put it down on the table almost immediately.

"Tell me, did the police search the flat?"

"How would I know! I was unconscious and this is my first day back home."

"Did they ask you any questions?"

"What the hell is it to you? Why do you want to know? I thought you said you'd come here to find out how I was! Yet, you're obviously more interested in finding out about who's been here and what they were looking for!" Brenda was furious now, caution had gone completely. "Just what were you, Ben and Redbourne up to? Was it so bad that Ben had to be got rid of?" By now she was shouting.

WingCo suddenly jumped up knocking over the small table and spilling the tea. He stood in front of her, his face flushed and angry:
"Now you look here, Brenda." His tone had changed his posh accent replaced by a snarling Devon burr. "If you know what's good for you, you'll keep ideas like that out of your head. Keep your mouth buttoned! Understand?" He took a step closer and prodded her in the chest. "Understand?"

Nothing, if not canny, Brenda forced herself to give a weak smile:
"I understand alright, WingCo. I don't aim to rock any boats. But I want in - do you understand that? If you, Ben and Redbourne were linked into something, there must have been money involved. I'm not so stupid as not to understand that." She paused and took in a deep breath. "Ben's gone but I'm still here. I need to be looked after. You tell Redbourne. Just you tell him that.

Miss Beaumont again

Miss Beaumont was behind the counter, she had just finished serving a customer. She looked up to see Brenda Ellacott and instantly flushed:
“Mrs Ellacott! How are you? I heard about what had happened to you and I heard this morning ...” she looked down at her hands. “I heard about Mr Ellacott. It’s so dreadful, dreadful. I am so sorry for your loss.”

Brenda felt faint, trembling she had to hold onto the counter to stop herself from falling. Miss Beaumont rushed round the counter and steadied her.

“I’ll put the ‘closed’ sign on the door, Mrs Ellacott. It is half day closing today anyway. Only ten minutes to go. Go and sit down in the back office and I’ll come through.”

Brenda took in a deep breath and went into the office, as she had done so many times before. Everything looked the same and smelled the same - polish and chemicals as usual. But, things were not as usual, there was no Ben and there never would be ever again.

Miss Beaumont bustled into the office, she filled an electric kettle with water from the small sink and got a teapot and two cups from a cupboard: “We’ll have a cup of tea and some biscuits, Mrs Ellacott. You’ll feel better for that.”

Brenda smiled, “Just what the doctor ordered?”

They sat quietly drinking the tea. Brenda wanted to ask various questions but did not know where to start. She and Miss Beaumont had at one time been quite friendly but in recent months the relationship had deteriorated. It was as if, in recent months, Ben had not wanted them to be friendly. Now, Brenda guessed, he wanted to keep her away from the pharmacy. She might have found out how things were.

“Have the police spoken to you, Mrs Ellacott? That Inspector Temple and Sergeant Cantwell? They spent such a long time here and they asked so many questions about the pharmacy.”

“What was it they wanted to know? I have spoken to them but, quite honestly, there was nothing I could tell them. I don’t know what was going on here."

“I don’t know how much I can tell you, Mrs Ellacott. I just know that once Mr Jackson from the Blandford Hotel and that dreadful man in the loud check suit started coming here regularly, things were never the same again.”

“Did they come here a lot?” Brenda was surprised. She knew that Ben had become friendly with the Jacksons but had no idea that WingCo actually came to see Ben at work. And as for Redbourne, she frowned, why on earth would he want to go to the pharmacy on a regular basis? “Do you know why they came here?”

“They hid themselves away inside the pharmacy and,” Miss Beaumont paused, “your husband used to lock the door. I never went in when they were there. To tell you the truth, I was rather frightened of the man in the check suit. He had something not quite nice about him.”

“Did you tell the police all this?”

“Yes, I did. Was it wrong? Should I have kept quiet?”

“No! By no means! You did the right thing. Something rather odd was going on here and I need to know what it was.”

She finished her cup of tea. Though she was less shaky, she did not feel up to going to the police station. She decided to go back to the flat.

“Miss Beaumont, I think you need to be careful. Someone came to my flat shouting out that he wanted to know where the pills were. I had no idea what he was talking about. However, he beat me senseless and I think that unless the police had arrived, he might have killed me.” Miss Beaumont gave an involuntary gasp. “I don’t want to frighten you but I don’t think you should let anyone into your house unless you know exactly who they are and what they want. I also think that the sooner a new pharmacist is appointed here, the better and safer it will be for you. You should not really work here alone.”

“There’s no need to worry about me, my dear," Miss Beaumont said. I did a course, during the war, I learned quite a bit about self-defence.” To Brenda’s surprise, Miss Beaumont winked at her. “On the other hand, you must be careful. The shock of the attack and the loss of Mr Ellacott have left you very weak. I’ll walk up the hill with you.”

Despite Brenda’s protests, that was just what she did. They returned back up Albion Hill and Miss Beaumont left her outside the front door. Watching Miss Beaumont walking back down the hill, Brenda felt stronger in her resolve to find out just what had been going on. Ben had told her nothing.

Brenda Ellacott goes home

Brenda Ellacott arrived back home by taxi. She could not face a day longer in hospital. Dr McBride's visits alarmed her. At home, at least, she could refuse to open the door. Before going direct to the flat, she went to the police station to collect her new keys. Neither Temple nor Cantwell were available but the Desk Sergeant found a packet marked with her name and address.

So, it was with both relief and a degree of trepidation that she stood outside the new front door that Temple had arranged to be installed in place of the one they had wrecked to gain entry. At first, the key did not turn but after two attempts the lock opened. Dreading finding disarray, she climbed the stairs slowly before making her way to the front bedroom. The sun was streaming into the room, its rays falling across the bed.

A moment of panic gave her palpitations, recalling that her last memories of the bedroom were being held up against the wardrobe by one of Redbourne's henchmen with a razor against her cheek.

"Where's the bloody pills? That was the question he kept repeating. "Where's the bloody pills?"

"What pills?" She asked. This had made him mad and he pressed the razor so that he cut her. She felt the blood dripping down her cheek and neck. Then, he slapped her and threw her to the floor. After ransacking the bedroom, he dragged her down the corridor to the front room. He trashed their possessions in an almost demonic rage.

"What have you done to Ben?" This was the last thing she remembered saying before being punched unconscious.

She sighed deeply. Now she knew exactly what had happened to Ben. Their hopes, plans, dreams would now never come to anything. And hadn't they had dreams! Ben told her he had the chance of making some real money. He never told her how this would be done.

A shudder brought Brenda back to reality. There was no one, no one at all, who she could confide in. Her own family had been wiped out in a bombing raid in Plymouth. It had been Ben and her against the world and they had made quite a team. Now Ben was gone, the one thought that kept her sane was that she would have revenge on Redbourne. For it was Redbourne, she was sure, who lay at the root of all this disaster.

Revenge would have to wait. She wondered into the kitchen and to her amazement saw everything clean. New crockery in the china cupboard and a large cardboard box on the table. A note was pinned to it.

'Mrs Ellacott -
We guessed you would be home today or tomorrow. Some cleaners have put the flat in order. We have replaced some items that were broken.

There is a bottle of milk in a bowl of water in the larder. There is a block of butter and some cheese also in the larder. Also, a small loaf, a packet of tea, a jar of jam are in the box together with some biscuits. Hope they are all still fresh when you get this!

We hope you don't think this is an impertinence. Please contact us so that we can discuss things further.

Det. Insp J. Temple
Det. Serg T. Cantwell

Brenda was amazed, she had never had much truck with the police. This unexpected gesture of thoughtfulness was totally unexpected. She filled the kettle and lit the gas with matches from the drawer. After making a pot of tea, eating some bread and jam, she felt much better. She decided she would go to the pharmacy and see Miss Beaumont. Never a great communicator, she was a wily old bird and nothing much escaped her beady little eyes. 'Yes', she thought, 'that's what I'll do.'