Murder in House by Veronica Heley

out of reach of a landline. She was dearly tempted to send her clever box of tricks to Ursula . . . except that, sigh, Diana had given it to her, and it had doubtless cost more than was reasonable for her daughter to spend. And so . . . what we do for our children! . . . Ellie must learn to master at least the basic functions on it. She’d send her old one to Ursula tomorrow, which would force her to come to terms with the new.
    This settled, Ellie sat in her big chair by the fire, and patted her knee so that Midge understood he could leap on to her lap and spread himself out. Rubbing his head to make him purr, Ellie listened to the sounds every old house makes. A whisper in the central heating, the faintest of murmurs from the television in Rose’s sitting room, the wind gusting around the conservatory. The rumbling purr of the cat.
    No sound from upstairs, where Thomas would no doubt have rolled up the carpet she’d laid down for him, and seated himself in that hard chair to pray. In another age, perhaps he’d have spent his life in a monastery, except – Ellie grinned to herself – that he was satisfactorily enthusiastic in bed, had two grown-up children living in the North to show for it, plus two grandchildren on the way.
    Midge pushed his chin at her hand to remind her to continue rubbing. Midge only came to sit on her nowadays if he couldn’t get at Thomas, but the room she’d chosen for Thomas’s retreat had a doorknob and not a handle. Midge could handle handles, so to speak, but doorknobs were, so far, beyond him.
    The room was dim and quiet around her until Thomas stole in to sit beside her and reach out for her hand. As usual when he’d been praying, he brought serenity into the room with him.
    â€˜All right?’
    She nodded. ‘And you?’
    â€˜I’m good.’
    She grinned, knowing he hadn’t meant it literally. ‘So you are.’ Teasing him.
    He laughed; slapped her hand lightly. ‘You know what I mean. You’ve talked to the girl?’
    â€˜She wants me to find her friend Mia, who’s gone missing.’ She told him what Ursula had said.
    He stirred, sighing, shaking his head. ‘Smashing her phone was vindictive. The man’s a bully.’
    Ellie discovered that her own doubts about the girl’s story had dissolved. ‘Her mother, Dan’s mother, and your friend the Rev, all accepted that boys will be boys and that girls do go astray. Ursula didn’t. She spoke up, and got clobbered. And now she’s scared.’
    â€˜Whistle-blowers do get hurt.’
    â€˜She’s safe enough now she’s back at university, but she’s worried about her mother, who’s had flu. I think I might drop in to see how Mrs Belton’s getting on tomorrow. Am I being naive, Thomas? Ursula said the Prior boys had threatened to throw her mother out of her job, because Mr P sits on the right committees. Can he really do that? I hate to think that he can.’
    Thomas stroked her hand. ‘It happens. I hear tales, sometimes. What would you like me to do to help?’
    She wanted to say that she hadn’t a clue, and that she had never understood why he thought she could tackle problems of this magnitude when she was really only just able to cope with being a housewife. Oh, and grandmother. And a part-time business woman. But deal with crime? Everything she’d achieved in that direction had been done by chance, by asking around in the neighbourhood and occasionally being able to put two and two together.
    Thomas had moved on. ‘Silly of me. Of course you’ll want to find out if the tales about the Priors have any truth in them. And I suppose you’ll want to check with the police that they have definitely closed the case.’
    It was the last thing she wanted to do. Her relationship with Detective Inspector Willis had started with mutual mistrust and gone downhill from