Lexie felt agitation swelling in her chest. The questions and logic came together when she was at home. Here, where they could be interrupted at any moment, her brain decided to take a holiday.
‘Are you implying that someone killed Madelaine?’ Spike’s tone remained agreeable, his expression inscrutable.
Lexie gave him a covert glance. He was one of the group, and therefore a suspect.
‘No. Simply a writer with an overactive imagination. You know how it is.’ She tried for a grin, not sure if it was working. ‘I guess, like any Joe Public, you don’t expect someone you know to be murdered. Then with Madelaine’s unexpected death…’
‘You think there’s a link between the two? Interesting.’
‘That’s making it sound as though I’ve put more effort into this than I actually have. The truth is more like idle pondering.’ Damn. How to ask people questions without making them suspicious?
‘It’s a long gap between them for a connection, but I suppose the police will look into all options. That’s if they widen the net beyond Mitch.’
‘Do you think he killed Renelle?’
‘I didn’t mean to infer that specifically. Isn’t the partner or spouse generally a main suspect? The truth is, we were friends years ago but until that weekend at Little Stillford I hadn’t seen Mitch or Renelle for years. I don’t think the Mitch I knew at university would hurt anyone, but with the passage of time, who knows, and especially within a relationship. Laurence saw them more frequently than me, and right on time, here he is.’
Lexie glanced around in the direction of Spike’s nod to where Laurence was making his way past groups of people towards them. He gripped a white plate holding two pieces of sushi, an individual asparagus quiche and several tiny club sandwiches. Lexie shook her head when he proffered the plate towards her, Spike did the same.
‘We were talking about Madelaine,’ said Spike.
‘How freaky is that,’ said Laurence, after swallowing one of the sandwiches. ‘I did some research the other day. Statistically just over one in one hundred people will die before they’re forty. We’re a group of eight and two are dead.’
Lexie didn’t hold statistics in high regard, believing too many people twisted them to show the result they wanted.
‘All this with Renelle brings back Madelaine’s death so clearly,’ said Laurence, not waiting for them to comment on his statistics research.
‘It does,’ agreed Spike. ‘I recall someone saying to me that if you lose a person close to you when you’re young it really defines you, imprints that time in your memory.’ He gave Lexie a fleeting sideways look.
For a moment her heart seemed to stop. The words were hers. She’d used them when talking to Spike at Little Stillford. His glance told her that he remembered, but why did he use them now. Was it a warning?
‘That awful weekend.’ Laurence picked up a piece of sushi. Awful or not, he wasn’t letting it spoil his appetite.
‘I guess neither of the weekends at Little Stillford ended well,’ said Spike. ‘Not for Madelaine or Renelle.’
Laurence’s comments were thoughtless, but in the way of someone expressing their thoughts without considering the potential impact of their words. Spike’s were deliberate, but that didn’t tell her why he’d chosen to use her comments now. Laurence didn’t appear to have heard Spike, or was ignoring his latest observation.
‘I gave Helen a lift back to London after Gareth and Madelaine scarpered and spent the rest of the weekend with friends. Must have been on my way back to Cardiff around the time Madelaine died.’ He paused for a moment before adding. ‘You just never know, do you?’
Lexie guessed his meaning but didn’t say anything, still uncertain of Spike’s intentions. She would like to have asked them both what they were doing the night Renelle was killed, but considering Spike’s earlier comments that was definitely a question too far. It was one thing for Mitch to ask for her help, but she could hardly go around talking to people as if she was the police.
‘It was good to meet you again, Lexie,’ said Spike, ‘but I need to talk to Eden.’ He gave a slight nod, his eyes narrowed as he looked at her before moving away.
Laurence muttered something about still being hungry and wandered off in the direction of the food. The conversation with Spike left Lexie unsettled as she gazed around the room. People surrounded Mitch, but she noticed Renelle’s parents in a corner on their own so she walked over to join them and introduced herself. They thanked her for helping Mitch organise the service and were eager to talk about Renelle, telling their favourite stories of her childhood. Lexie stayed with them until another group came to share their condolences and then went to find Renelle’s friend.
‘Blaise, that was a beautiful tribute to Renelle.’
‘Thank you. It’s lovely to meet you after our phone conversations. A sad occasion, but I’m glad you chose to have the service here. The theatre was special to Renelle.’
Lexie was taller than average but found herself looking up to make eye contact with Blaise. ‘Did you meet Renelle through work?’
‘We first met at college on the make-up for media performance degree. We’d both just come through bad experiences.’ Blaise wrinkled her forehead clearly uncertain how much to say.
‘Bristol University and the letter.’
‘Oh yes…’ Blaise straightened her jacket, fumbling for words. ‘Well, a few weeks before I met Renelle, I found my then boyfriend in bed with my best friend. They were different incidents but meant that neither of us was in a good space. We discovered we had heaps of things in common and became strong friends. That didn’t change even when we both married; fortunately Mitch and my bloke are great mates.’
‘Mitch is so broken up over this. He did well today talking about Renelle.’
‘They are, were, such a love match. It’s all so awful. Renelle loved her job and was about to start working on a big film that’s being made here with Bradley Cooper. I can’t force my head around the police thinking she was murdered.’ Blaise gestured towards the groups of mourners in the theatre. ‘She could be sharp with people at times, but you don’t go murdering someone for that, do you?’
The papers were full of stories about people being killed for mundane reasons, but now wasn’t the time to mention that.
‘We had a weekend away with Mitch and Renelle only a few weeks ago and she mentioned the letter.’ Lexie stretched the truth a little as Renelle appeared to have kept the different elements of her life well segregated, and from her phone conversations with Blaise, Lexie felt certain that Blaise hadn’t met any of the university group.
‘How could anyone do something like that? Write a letter to get someone in trouble. It’s terrible.’
‘I agree. Renelle didn’t like talking about it much, unhappy memories, but she had her suspicions about who wrote it.’ Lexie hoped that the emotion of the day would lead Blaise to say more than she might under more normal circumstances.
Blaise nodded. ‘Oh yes. Right from when we first confided in each other about the things that had happened, Renelle always believed Spike wrote the letter. I’ve never worked with him on a film set, but people who have say how vicious he can be if you make an enemy of him.’
‘I’ve seen him a couple of times socially, but I don’t know much about him. They met at university, didn’t they?’
‘Yes, and that’s where she met Mitch. They were such a wonderful couple. We had a weekend away with them in York last year. Such a great time. We visited the Shambles, and then climbed all the steps up to the top of the cathedral tower. It was steep. I was quite out of puff by the time we made it. There were a few times I thought I might have to go back down again, but then there were all those people behind me.’
This woman could talk for the Olympics as Lexie had discovered during their phone calls about the service. She’d also discovered that Blaise didn’t get upset if you gently got her back on target. She waited until Blaise took a breath and then got in
a few words.
‘I’m friends with Helen, that’s how I first met Renelle.’
‘Oh yes, I met Helen and her husband once when they were staying with Renelle in London. Renelle liked them, but she didn’t like the journalist woman. The one she shared a flat with once in Bristol.’
Lexie tried to steer a line between not giving Blaise too much information and needing to confirm what she already knew or suspected. ‘I know the person you mean. Eden something or other.’
‘Renelle said she could be nasty if she was in a bad mood.’
‘I wondered if she might have written the letter.’
Blaise looked at her sharply, perhaps realising she was being a little indiscreet, but emotion and the need to talk about her friend won the day. ‘Renelle said it might have been her, but mostly she thought it was Spike. Said he was the one more likely to spend time planning something.’
Which confirmed what Helen and Eden had told her about the letter incident. Whether it had anything to do with Madelaine’s or Renelle’s deaths was another matter.
‘Did you and Renelle manage to work on many films together?’
‘Sometimes. When we started out in the business, we were grateful to take whatever came along, but now I get to choose a bit more. The first time Renelle and I worked together was on Sky Palace with Ed Geary. He wasn’t a big name back then.’ Blaise stared off into space. ‘Course that’s when she found out about her friend Madelaine McDonald.’
‘Found out what?’
‘About Madelaine having an affair with Kurt Levy. He was Madelaine’s co-star in the film they were making. It didn’t mean anything to me at the time ’cos none of them were famous, but Madelaine and Renelle were friends.’
So that was how Renelle discovered the affair.
‘Did Renelle tell anyone?’
Blaise pulled in a deep breath, her chest rising at the unintended slur. ‘No. She liked Madeleine. They’d been flatmates and Madelaine helped her to find a course after leaving Bristol. Renelle got mad with Ed when he told us about Madelaine and Kurt sleeping together.’
‘How did Ed Geary know that Madelaine and Kurt were having an affair?’
‘He and Kurt were friends. I guess it’s like most professions, everyone knows someone.’
Lexie’s brain whirled, not so much over the mashed clichés but mostly about how you could never keep a secret. Madelaine and her co-star had been sleeping together while making the film. She knew that from Mitch. He said it wasn’t common knowledge and he only found out from the police after Madelaine died. But how many other people knew?
‘What did Renelle do when she found out about the affair?’
‘First of all she wouldn’t believe it. Then she said he mustn’t talk about it to anyone else ’cos Madelaine was dating another friend of hers and she didn’t want anyone to get hurt.’
‘Did she tell Madelaine that some people knew about her and Kurt?’
‘I think so. She certainly intended to. They were all meeting up for a weekend at that place with the stone circles.’
If Renelle had told Madelaine people knew about her affair, that could be the reason Madelaine had become upset and rushed off. Lexie started to ask another question, but Blaise stared into space.
‘Are you okay?’ Lexie asked.
‘Sorry, yes. I remembered something. You know how things come back to you out of nowhere.’
Lexie nodded.
‘When we were back at work, I told Renelle about my weekend. My boyfriend and I had gone to Paris. It was amazing. He’d booked us into this lovely old hotel, and as we walked along the Seine he said he loved me. That was the first time.’
‘It’s not called the city of love for nothing.’ Lexie waited a beat and then said. ‘But what did you remember about Renelle?’
‘Oh yes, goodness. Sorry, I wander off topic at times. My husband’s always telling me that. What did I say? They went away to a place like Stonehenge. Before she went, Renelle had decided to warn Madelaine that people knew she was sleeping with Kurt, but there was something else. It happened later in the day. Can’t remember exactly what we were doing, but she started talking, more to herself, not me. How you do when you’re working something out, but you need to talk to make sense.’
Lexie was just about keeping up with this conversation, but hoped they’d come to the point soon. ‘So what did she say?’
‘I’m not positive because this is all years ago. When we first talked about our weekends, Renelle mentioned something about a conversation she overheard. Said it shocked her. I didn’t take much notice as I didn’t know the people. Anyway, later in the day she realised the overheard conversation might mean more than she previously thought. She said perhaps the letter wasn’t written simply to get her into trouble.’
Lexie stared at Blaise. ‘That’s what she said?’
‘As far as I remember.’
‘Who did she overhear talking?’
‘Madelaine and her friend Eden.’ Blaise had the type of face that gave everything away. She would never make a good poker player. At the moment, confusion wrestled with regret.
‘It’s a shame we’ll never know what she meant.’ Lexie spoke lightly, trying to lessen Blaise’s distress that she might have spoken too openly. Lexie felt sure the revelations were important, hoped they were, and that she’d be able to figure out what they meant.
Blaise glanced at her watch. Lexie understood the other woman’s expression and waited for the inevitable excuse that would follow: someone was picking her up, or it was later than she thought and she needed to leave. Lexie didn’t mind as her head was full of snippets of conversations, past and present, and she needed to work through everything to find the truth. Blaise had confirmed some information for her and given her some new pointers, if only she could figure out which parts were important.
14
Lexie Wyatt
Nettleford, Dorset
2018
‘You must have had some interesting conversations today,’ said Nathan, holding up a notepad with doodled question marks, a lightning bolt through one of them.
Dinner was over and they were stacking the dishwasher. The twins were asleep and Tilly was reading in bed. Lexie had told him about Eden and Mitch asking for her help and now talked through her conversations at the memorial service. It helped cement them in her head.
Nathan sat at the table with her notepad and a pen. ‘So let’s go through the good old means, motive and opportunity. Pills and alcohol were used in both deaths so I guess that covers everyone in the group. They could all get hold of something. What about motives?’
Lexie considered that as she wiped the counter tops. Money didn’t appear to be involved in either of their deaths. How about jealousy? Renelle must have been jealous of Eden at one point, but Eden was still very much alive, and Renelle and Madelaine had been friends. Helen would no doubt have felt jealous of Madelaine. That took her back to the conundrum of her friend being involved. Perhaps this was a case that proved the exception. If so, why did these two women die?
What about the connections that held this group together, some so tenuous they became almost invisible? Helen had muttered something about things happening when they got together. That appeared true for Little Stillford.
‘The only firm motives seem to be Gareth killing Madelaine because he found out about her affair with Kurt Levy, and Mitch killing Renelle just because they were married and statistically that’s the most likely scenario.’ Lexie pulled a towel off the rail and wiped her hands, playing back the conversation when Helen had remarked on how you couldn’t gauge a relationship from the outside or the shaky ground it was built on. What had she meant? Whose relationship?
‘So, we’re down to opportunity. Let’s separate the two deaths to make it easier for us. Do you know where everyone was when Madelaine died?
‘Gareth was staying at a friend’s house, but the friend was out for the evening.’
‘So not really an alib
i then as he could have gone out.’
‘There was an old lady lived opposite the flats.’ Lexie sat at the table with Nathan. ‘One of those who are always checking on people’s movements. She said she didn’t see Gareth come back that evening. But she must have had some breaks away from the window to make a drink and visit the bathroom. Plus, she didn’t know all the visitors to the flats, only the people who lived there.’
‘And the others?’
‘None of them have a solid alibi. Helen was alone at her flat. Ditto for Mitch. He said Eden came back from seeing Madelaine and then went out again. Spike told me he was drunk as he’d just been dumped. After giving Helen a lift from Little Stillford, Laurence stayed with a friend in London but left there to go back to Cardiff, so he could have been at Madelaine’s.’
‘And we can’t ask Renelle,’ said Nathan. ‘What about the night she died?’
‘The police suspect Mitch because he can’t prove he didn’t leave the hotel. So he hasn’t got an alibi. I guess Helen and Gareth were at home. I don’t know about the others.’
Nathan gave her a rueful smile. ‘A difficult thing to ask without sounding like the police and giving yourself away.’
‘Eden definitely knows more than she told me initially. The others have told me stuff that she must have known, but I can’t figure out why she wouldn’t have mentioned it.’
Nathan added exclamation doodles alongside the question marks Lexie had drawn on the page. ‘The papers never knew about Gareth being suspected of murder so it wasn’t reported, but all the group did. Eden must have known someone would mention it to you, so why leave it out.’
‘When Eden talks about Madelaine, she comes across as very protective of her memory. Always stressing how close they were. If that’s true, then I guess she didn’t tell me about Madelaine’s affair because she doesn’t like to think of her friend as doing anything wrong.’
Nathan straightened, pushing the notepad away. ‘Then she’s being short-sighted if she really wants to find out the truth. If Madelaine was murdered, it had everything to do with her life. Something she did, saw or knew.’
The Worst Lie Page 17