‘Yes it did, it was always kept well-greased against the elements but it was never locked. I mean, who’s going to walk a mile from the road to steal some carrots and walk a mile back? No need ever to lock the kitchen garden.’
‘So anyone could enter?’
‘Yes.’
‘Who would know it was there?’
‘All the estate workers. . whether gardeners or domestics. . they collected the vegetables.’
‘The domestics dug them up?’ Yellich was surprised at the notion.
‘No, we planted them, we dug them up when they were ready and stored them, the domestics collected them from the vegetable cold store.’
‘I see.’
‘It wasn’t a secret garden like in a children’s storybook.’
‘Could it be overlooked from the house?’
‘Not fully if I remember. If you stood by the door of the garden you could see the upper windows of Bromyards just above the far wall of the garden. So I would say that about two-thirds of the garden, that is the two-thirds nearest the house, could not be overlooked from the house.’
‘Got you.’
‘But I took up the last vegetables just before I left and then closed the door behind me. The old garden just got overgrown I suppose. . well, it would have done.’
‘Did you ever return to the house?’
‘Bromyards? Yes, I did. I used to walk up there to look at the gardens. I put my life into those acres, there’s a whole lot of me in that soil. So, yes, I used to walk up there, not so often now, but newly left I went up each week to walk the grounds. A lot of folk went to poach and I’d often meet someone I knew with a pair of hares slung over his shoulder. .’
‘Yes, Penny Merryweather told me that the estate became a good source of food for the village. She’s worried now, new owners will be moving in.’
‘Yes, we all see the end of a good time coming. I didn’t poach myself but I had a bit of cheap meat over the years, a good bit.’
‘So there were plenty of visitors to the estate?’
‘Yes. . dog walkers too. . it was a good place to take a dog and let him off the lead. . let him go exploring the grounds. More fun than letting him run on a playing field. Mind you, they were lucky not to snag a snare, but if they did, the owner was on hand to free them.’
‘Did you ever see anybody you didn’t recognize on the estate, anyone acting suspiciously?’
‘Just once.’
‘What. . who did you see?’
‘Tall bloke. . very tall. . just looking about the grounds but he was nowhere near the kitchen garden though.’
‘No matter,’ Yellich reached into his pocket for his notebook, ‘tall man you say?’
‘Yes. Six feet tall, probably more. . heavy set. . he caught my eye because he was a stranger and he wasn’t walking a dog and he wasn’t poaching.’
‘No?’
‘No, sir, no dog, and he was too brightly dressed for poaching. . and he crashed through the shrubs. No poacher would make that sort of racket; he’d have sent every pheasant and duck for miles around into the air, and every rabbit or hare down into their burrows. He was interested in the grounds, though he didn’t seem interested in the house. He wasn’t a burglar.’
‘That is very interesting, very interesting indeed.’ Yellich made notes.
‘Yes, I thought it was a bit funny. . you know “curious”. . if that’s the word. It certainly sank into my mind and it has stayed there these ten years.’
‘Ten years?’
‘About that. . I was newly laid off and visiting Bromyards quite frequently, couldn’t separate from the estate very easily, had to keep returning in the early days. . of retirement that is.’
‘I see.’
‘He probably didn’t know he was being watched, townies never do. Moving about. . no attempt to camouflage himself. . no green jacket. . but I saw him and watched him close.’
‘The fields have eyes and the woods have ears?’
‘Yes, that was it. Only a townie would think he wasn’t being watched if he didn’t see anybody around him. A countryman would assume eyes are on him all the time. There is great truth in the expression you just used, sir.’
‘Did you see a car?’
‘No, no I didn’t. . but he would have needed one. There isn’t a bus service to speak of. . isn’t now and there wasn’t then. Two buses a day into York and two back again, it’s the York to Driffield service, they run about once an hour but four times a day, a bus takes a detour into Milking Nook. . two going to York, two going from York. . and they alternate, in-out in-out. . but that man was a car owner, he had the look of money about him, he wasn’t worried about the time.’
‘The time?’
‘Missing the last bus. If you miss the last bus you are stranded in Milking Nook or York until the next day, unless you miss the last bus in or out on Saturday, in which case you are stranded in either place until Monday morning, depending which way you are travelling.’ Jeff Sparrow paused. ‘You know, I think there is something else as well. He must have known about the estate. I mean about Mr Housecarl abandoning the grounds and the garden. He seemed to be on a recce mission.’
‘That’s a good point, a very useful observation,’ Yellich smiled. ‘That could help a lot.’
‘It could?’
‘Yes, I would think so. . a stranger who knew that the grounds and garden of Bromyards had been recently abandoned but not the house itself. Yet all the employees of the estate, the gardeners and the domestics, all live in the village. And no sign of a car?’
‘None, but he could have left it in the village and walked to the estate. He seemed a fit man.’
‘Age. . about?’
‘Middle-aged. . possibly fifties.’
Yellich tapped his notepad. ‘You say that the driveway to the house from the public highway is a mile long?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Was he near the driveway?’
‘Yes, he was, as I recall, not on the driveway itself but only a few yards from it. . about fifty yards when I saw him.’
‘How far along the drive?’
‘About halfway.’
‘So he was well inside the estate grounds?’
‘Yes, well inside, a definite trespasser.’
‘I see. . and appreciate it’s going back ten years now. . but was there any direction to his interest?’
‘Seemed to me that he was going towards the house, he was in no hurry but he was making for the house.’
‘All right,’ again Yellich paused, ‘and you know of no employee of Mr Housecarl who lives in York. . Driffield?’
‘No, but we all know people outside the village. I know my son who lives in York, like I just told you, and also another elderly couple, but just on Christmas card terms, that would most likely be the case for all the villagers. One would tell someone about Bromyards and he would tell someone else, the news would get out. . not just to York or Driffield but to all the neighbouring villages as well.’
‘Yes, it’s the sort of news that would travel.’
‘And it did travel. We got boys coming to try their hand at poaching the grounds, till our village boys put them right about just who owns Bromyards. . from a poaching point of view that is.’
‘So, a tall man in his fifties knew about the abandoning of the grounds but also about there not being an imminent sale of the property,’ Yellich pondered aloud.
‘Possibly. . just the ideal sort of place to hide a few bodies, but that is for you to say, I’m a retired gardener not a retired copper. . but if I were to hide a body or a couple of bodies, I would go as near the house as possible and the kitchen garden would be ideal.’
‘Oh?’
‘Yes, the poachers didn’t go near the house out of respect for Mr Housecarl, they didn’t want to alarm him by firing shotguns under his window. It seemed like there was an agreed “no man’s land”, a zone round the house about a quarter of a mile wide, no one poached inside that zone.’
‘So no poacher would go near the house, let alone into the kitchen gardens?’
‘That’s right. Ideal place to hide a body or two, but they’d be found eventually. . had to be. . once Mr Housecarl died, they’d be found.’