Thieving Fear Read Online Free Page B

tribunal a glance that was rather more than enquiring, the chairman said 'Is Miss Stiles ready to proceed?'
    Ellen turned further towards Muriel. 'Can I just ask you –'
    Both women on the committee parted their lips – like a ventriloquists' contest, Ellen might have noted – but it was the chairman who said 'Miss Stiles will need to take the oath.'
    'You'd think someone didn't want people telling the truth,' Jack Cremorne suggested to his wife.
    Ellen would have expected the chairman to issue a rebuke, but he only held a Bible out to her. She handed the diminutive book to Muriel, who extracted the card that bore the oath and performed it with such force that Ellen was reminded how she'd often told tales of her days in amateur dramatics. Muriel carried on pressing the Bible to her bosom until the chairman had to ask for the book. 'By all means proceed,' he said.
    'I'm just going to ask you a few questions about things Mr and Mrs Cremorne have been saying about me, Muriel. Did –'
    'We aren't the only ones that say them,' Virginia Cremorne said.
    'They were said to us,' her husband amplified.
    'That will be addressed,' said their lawyer.
    'May I speak now?' When the chairman delivered a weighty nod of his saturnine squarish head, Ellen asked Muriel 'Did you ever see me steal from any of the residents?'
    'I certainly never did.'
    'Did any of the other residents?'
    'Objection,' the lawyer said. 'Hearsay.'
    'Now, Mr Bentley, you know that isn't how it's done,' the heavier and more plainly dressed of the committeewomen said. 'You'll have your turn.'
    'If I may be allowed to finish my question,' Ellen said, starting to feel like a lawyer, 'did any of the other residents say they had?'
    'Had what?' Muriel said and glared at the Cremornes. 'We didn't have much. I didn't get half of what I paid for. Cold in bed and starved at dinner.'
    As Virginia Cremorne opened her outraged mouth, Ellen tried to retrieve her theme. 'I was asking if they said they saw me steal.'
    'She'll be tying her tongue in a knot if she carries on like that, won't she?' Muriel said to the chairman. 'They said they saw me steal,' she repeated and attempted to do so at speed. 'I used to be able to say those,' she conceded at last. 'The things you miss at my age.'
    'Miss Stiles,' the chairman said, 'if you could do your best –'
    'Only trying to cheer the show up. You three look as if you could do with it or you'll be as bad as this pathetic pair.' To Ellen she said 'Nobody saw you because you never did.'
    'Thank you, Muriel. And as far as you know, was I ever drunk on the job?'
    'You had a glass of wine at my eightieth, didn't you? Everyone did except for this pair, who couldn't be bothered to come.'
    'It should be in the records that I wasn't on duty that day,' Ellen said to the tribunal. 'I went in for Muriel's party.'
    'Some of the staff that were on had a lot more to drink. Pam was so squiffy she dropped Hilda in the bath.'
    'The person concerned is no longer employed by us,' Jack Cremorne informed the panel.
    'How about bullying, Muriel? Was I ever guilty of that to your knowledge?'
    'You were not. You were the one who cared for us most and that's why you said what you had to. Standing up to people isn't bullying.'
    Though Virginia Cremorne uttered less than a word, it was enough to provoke Muriel. 'I'll tell you an example,' she declared and turned from the panel to Ellen. 'What was the blackie's name again?'
    Ellen thought it best not to draw attention to the term. 'Daniel, you mean.'
    'That's him. A big black buck, that's what they used to call them,' Muriel said with some defiance. 'Doris kept saying he'd sneak into her room at night and do things to her, but he made out she was imagining it and this pair said she must be. If you ask me they were scared he'd sue them because you can't say anything about anyone these days unless they're white.'
    'I really must point out,' Virginia Cremorne said, 'that the person referred to –'
    'Don't bother telling