Murder Most Royal

Sir Simon went up to London to try and placate a disgruntled group of Scottish MPs. There were rumblings that when the UK exited the Single Market, the Scots would want to rerun their independence referendum. Ultimately, it would be up to the Scots themselves to decide, but the Queen was keen on the ‘united’ part of the United Kingdom. She would prefer it, to put it mildly, to stay that way.

The circumstances were not ideal, but it made it easier for the Queen and Rozie to catch up without Rozie having to lie to the private secretary about what they had discussed. And since Rozie had described her visit to Vickery, there was a lot to talk about.

‘Katie managed to see Mrs Raspberry in hospital, ma’am,’ Rozie said. ‘She doesn’t know any of the St Cyr family apart from Ned. She also doesn’t know Mr Wallace. It’s hard to see a connection between them.’

The Queen had learned her lesson. ‘Then let’s not try and make one.’

‘There was one piece of good news. Katie worked out who gave her the newspaper article about Mr Wallace. It was a member of her own wild swimming group. They’d somehow found out about her Home Office background and thought she was interested in suspicious accidents because of that. They didn’t connect it to Ned, or me, or you.’

‘That’s very reassuring,’ the Queen agreed. Katie was eager to help, but she didn’t have Rozie’s lightness of touch when required. The Queen wasn’t sure Rozie yet realised how good, and how very dependable, she was. ‘What about Valentine St Cyr? Is there any news?’

‘Yes, ma’am. The police are interested in the fact that Roland Peng’s initials are RLP.’

‘Roland Peng, his business partner?’

‘In part, ma’am. I’ll come to that. It turns out that Valentine had more than one meeting with Ned last year. Interestingly, they hadn’t spotted them before because Ned put them in his diary as “VSC”. Usually he wrote names in full and locations as acronyms. But if VSC was a name, then perhaps RIP was one, too. And perhaps he miswrote it or it was just a feature of his handwriting, but he could have meant RLP. That’s what they’re looking into now.’

‘So Ned might have arranged to meet Roland?’

‘Apparently. Roland claims to have been in business meetings both days, but there were gaps between them. He was, supposedly, with Valentine the night of the fourteenth. They are each other’s alibi.’

‘Are they?’

‘Yes, ma’am. That’s the thing. Flora told me on New Year’s Eve that they’re secretly engaged. She swore me to secrecy, too, but she was obviously very happy for them.’

‘Valentine and Roland?’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘Engaged?’

‘Yes. Roland proposed at Christmas.’ Rozie smiled. The Queen thought she looked very pleased about it.

‘When are they announcing it, do you know?’

Rozie noticed that the Queen was truly startled. She found the Boss generally much more open-minded than most people would suspect, but not this time. Her generation’s prejudices showed through. Rozie was disappointed.

‘In the summer. Flora said something about them getting used to the idea. It could be something to do with Roland’s family in Singapore. The baron’s been told. He took it pretty well, she said. For someone of his . . . You know, ma’am. His generation.’

‘I wonder when they planned on telling me,’ the Queen said, more to herself than anything. ‘Do many other people know this “secret”?’

‘The police don’t. It’s not in any of the reports. I thought they looked very happy together at the visit. I wasn’t completely surprised when Flora told me.’

‘Weren’t you?’ the Queen said, peering at Rozie through her bifocals. ‘I admit, I am. And do the police have any reason to think that Roland would have wanted to kill his partner’s distant cousin? He didn’t park in a specific place, for example?’

‘No, ma’am. It’s just the initials at this stage. But they have a team working on it.’

‘I’m sure they do,’ the Queen agreed. ‘They throw technology at problems. Think of all those phone records and traffic cameras. I’m a great believer in technology. But they haven’t made the connection with Chris Wallace yet.’ She was silent for a while, before adding, ‘You’ll like Ladybridge.’

‘Ma’am?’

‘I have a standing invitation. Call Lord Mundy and let him know I’d be delighted to come to lunch before I go back to London. The sooner the better. You know when the gaps in my diary are.’

After Rozie left, the Queen thought back to Valentine St Cyr and Roland Peng. They would be making history in ways that Rozie clearly didn’t understand. Did their secret have something to do with what had happened to Chris Wallace? She found herself thinking about it again later, when her racing manager was helping her put the finishing touches to the jigsaw in the saloon. They completed the Constable, which was a huge satisfaction. Human puzzles, as always, were much more challenging.

Chapter 23