Poison

by Charlot King

  Elizabeth has reached King’s gatehouse, having locked her cycle by the shop, and crosses the street to walk through the lodge, blocked temporarily by a porter, who has the gates still closed to visitors for the day due to interest over Mr Wiley’s death and now dealing with a group of Chinese tourists asking him what time evensong is, only to be told that they are welcome to come back tomorrow at so and so o’clock. Broken hearted, they will have to wait before they can glimpse the Xu Zhimo stone nestled in the grass on The Backs. Finally, through the hubbub Elizabeth spots Susan disappearing inside the Chapel and so decides to follow. Gargoyles above catching the last rays on the roof of this iconic building.

  Susan, now pallid, is finding it hard to continue down the aisle. Light streams in through the door behind her, and sparkles like a kaleidoscope through stained glass. The choir reaches a crescendo. Susan has now made it to the imposing but completely silent organ and within touching distance of the choir master only to collapse at his feet, unable to make that last important part of her journey, Rebecca, not twenty feet away, out of her grasp. The choir continues for not more than a few notes when someone screams.

  Elizabeth walks up the steps as the singing ceases and reaches the first line of pews as a few people cluster around in a panic. She rushes towards the commotion and sees Susan, the choir master kneeling beside her. Still conscious, Susan looks with horror at Elizabeth, and tries to say something, but nothing will come out. She grabs Elizabeth’s arm and points at Rebecca. She breathes a sharp intake of air and starts convulsing against the stone floor. Susan slips from Elizabeth’s arm, the pain in her stomach excruciating, her neck and head twisting in agony. Beads of sweat on her forehead cover a lobster hue in her cheeks. Her face contorts into an horrific ugly shape, and she grabs Elizabeth’s jaw with a claw like hand. She won’t let go and draws Elizabeth closer to her. She tries to whisper one more time but again nothing comes out. Elizabeth counterintuitively leans into Susan’s ear and finally hears a whisper.

  “Becca.” Susan manages to puff out the sound, “Becca.”

  Elizabeth looks up at Rebecca, who is looking back in horror.

  “Has Rebecca done this to you?” Elizabeth looks back down to Susan, but Susan is dead. Petrified, her face shows extreme pain, her eyes pleading for it to stop. Elizabeth covers Susan’s eyes. She spots Godric next to Rebecca and wishes he wouldn’t get so close.

  30. Whose Baby?

  Police tape off a section of Chapel and usher people away from where Susan’s dead body has already been covered in a white sheet by a SOCO. Outside, choir members form a line tailing into a hastily erected statement tent on the front court. Inspector Abley walks over to Elizabeth, still in the Chapel.

  “Bit of a habit, you being at the scene of a crime, isn’t it? Was she alive as well?”

  Elizabeth nods, aware of the irony.

  “Perfect timing, what are you doing here?”

  Elizabeth stares appreciatively at the perpendicular architecture and fan vault ceiling, knowing it took over a century to build.

  “At last, I hear you admit these deaths are not accidental. I’m here because Godric sings in the choir.” Elizabeth is not willing to share information about Susan’s call with Abley while he’s in this mood.

  “I’ll hazard a guess there are no stab wounds.” Abley is of the opinion that these deaths are both related and he now has a serious murder inquiry on his hands. One that doesn’t come around every day, thankfully. Elizabeth spots Dr Eruna in a pew. She points him out to the Inspector.

  “Do you know who that is?”

  “Should I?”

  “Dr Eruna.”

  “Dr Eruna?”

  “Labzuu. Knew Edward. I did tell you. There’s something not right there. He’s not in the choir, not at this college currently. So you should be more interested in what he’s doing here, sitting there.”

  Elizabeth thinks it very odd. Dr Eruna isn’t even in the queue to give a statement, but seems lost in his own thoughts, fiddling with a prayer book.

  “Let’s arrest him too then.” Inspector Abley sarcastically retorts.

  “I’m just saying, I think he’s always in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “Bit like you, you mean? Look Elizabeth, please stay out of this.”

  Elizabeth can’t articulate her frustration with Inspector Abley right now, as she can’t bring herself to share her concerns over what Susan was going to tell her, but instead is letting her mind try to connect Susan to Dr Eruna. Could it be King’s, were they both students together? What vendetta does Dr Eruna possibly have over Edward and now Susan? She ends her conversation with Inspector Abley.

  “Haven’t you got people you should be questioning? I think you should just add him to the list. That’s all I’m saying. No need to get your knickers in a twist.”

  Abley can’t believe Elizabeth’s last comment. He’s anything but, he just knows she’s not telling him everything and he doesn’t like it. Godric joins Elizabeth after having been one of the first ushered through police questioning.

  “Are you okay Bunny? I didn’t know you were coming.”

  “Ahem, she was watching you sing, apparently.” Abley looks at Elizabeth, so she hasn’t told him what she was really doing here. He’ll deal with her later. Unconvincingly, Elizabeth tries to cover her tracks.

  “Yes, you know how I like to listen to you, Goddy.” Godric’s reaction gives her away to the Inspector.

  “Just mind you go home safely now. Excuse me.” Abley walks back to his pathologist, who has arrived to join the existing SOCO investigations. Elizabeth looks over to Susan’s dead body and confesses to Godric, her new assistant.

  “She called me. Just before this. She was hurried, rushed, not finishing her sentences, but adamant that I must meet her here.”

  “Crumbs, that’s awful. Why did she want to meet you?”

  “I don’t know. She didn’t say. She was going to tell Rebecca something as well, she said. And she suggested here at King’s. Maybe she thought it would be easy for Rebecca to meet here?”

  “But Susan and Rebecca hated each other, you said.”

  “Apparently they did. As Susan was dying, she pointed at Rebecca and whispered her name. Did you see Rebecca’s face? Terrified. Like someone about to be found out.”

  “What?”

  Godric tries to process Rebecca being guilty of anything. She’s such a wimp, he thinks. The opposite of a sassy woman, like Madonna or Lady Gaga. Godric then spots Dr Eruna and pulls at his nanna’s cuff.

  “Look, there’s that man from Labzuu.”

  Elizabeth and Godric head for Dr Eruna, but spot the Dean looking flustered walking towards him too. Elizabeth pulls Godric into a pew to get closer to Dr Eruna, to see if she can hear what they say. Godric is bemused.

  “Ooh, cloak and dagger, I like it. Are we going to jump him?”

  “Shh. Just pretend to talk to me, quietly.”

  Professor Flint is not pleased to see Dr Eruna here.

  “When are you going to give me the space to write this thing?”

  Dr Eruna smiles and stares at the stained windows.

  “I heard the singing and popped in. You were unavailable, even though I could hear you behind your door. Isn’t the light pouring in from these windows just magnificent?”

  Flint won’t be drawn by Eruna’s false pleasantries.

  “You should go.”

  “You have to get the report out now. Before there are any more deaths. Now Susan? I kissed her once you know, after a common room bash. Something about her poetic melancholy. Made me feel sorry for her. Not afterwards though. She was a terrible kisser, and like a lost puppy always following me everywhere, until she started seeing old Eddie boy. Why do you think she died? Murder?”

  Professor Flint’s vein throbs in his forehead as the pressure is too much.
>
  “How the hell do I know?”

  “I’m paying you a fortune, and you’re dragging your heels. We had an agreement, and I don’t want to be disappointed.”

  Elizabeth gets up, encouraging Godric to leave with her, but Godric is still too interested and won’t budge. Out the corner of his eye Dr Eruna is thrown as he sees Elizabeth Green pulling at a young man, clearly both having been eavesdropping. Elizabeth just shrugs, acknowledging she heard everything. Godric gets up and then stops to talk to some of his friends in the choir, while keeping one eye still on Dr Eruna, as Elizabeth heads for the door.

  Outside people are still milling. The queue has gone down by the incident tent; two police cars are parked on the front court. Jonathan stands on the middle of the lawn, stroking Rebecca’s hair and hugging her closely as she clings to his arms.

  “I’m glad she’s dead.” Rebecca confesses to her brother.

  “Rebecca darling. It’s ok. Oh God, what now?”

  Jonathan has seen Elizabeth appear from the Chapel door and head in their direction. Rebecca looks around and smiles a little as Elizabeth approaches across the path.

  “Hello Rebecca.”

  “Hello.”

  Jonathan tries to stop the conversation.

  “Whatever it is, we don’t want to talk. Thank you.”

  But Elizabeth is undeterred.

  “I just wanted to ask you, Rebecca, did Susan call you earlier by any chance?” Jonathan answers for his sister.

  “Of course not. What are you thinking? She was a hateful woman. And now she’s dead. Good riddance I say. She gave Rebecca nothing but grief.”

  Elizabeth thinks this is a bit strong, wishing someone dead. Surely he doesn’t mean to have gone so far. What is he hiding? Is it that he’s just protecting his sister? And how does that relate to Dr Eruna? Elizabeth is sure he has something to do with all of this. Kara comes to join Rebecca and Jonathan.

  “Where have you been?” Jonathan fusses

  “Just parking the car, darling.”

  Elizabeth ignores Jonathan and continues.

  “Rebecca, Susan telephoned me and told me she wanted to meet us both here - to tell us something.”

  Jonathan’s hackles are up.

  “Will you -”

  But Rebecca interrupts her brother.

  “No, I didn’t hear from her. She didn’t call me.” Rebecca genuinely looks surprised at Elizabeth. Then nodding towards her brother and Kara.

  “They wanted to take me back to their house. But I heard the music and simply had to sing. Godric held my hand, Elizabeth. I had no idea he was your grandson. We have been singing together now for two whole terms. He’s very talented.”

  “He shares your opinion, Rebecca. I’m just wondering why she told me that she wanted to catch you and have me here too?”

  Elizabeth searches Rebecca’s face. Either she is a very good actress, or Rebecca really doesn’t know what Susan wanted to talk about. This reminds her of someone else she doubted, and she is now dead. Jonathan steps in again to protect his sister.

  “Can’t you see she’s in shock? Do you have to hound us all the time?”

  Elizabeth is curious. How come Jonathan is here now, just after the death? He doesn’t sing, and had left Rebecca in college.

  “Odd coincidence that you are here straight after Susan dies. I didn’t see you in the Chapel.”

  “What are you insinuating? We came back for my sister. I told you. That woman was nothing but trouble and nothing to do with my sister, or Edward.”

  “No. It’s all right Jonathan. Why lie about it anymore?” Rebecca is keen to unburden herself

  “Lie?” Asks Elizabeth.

  “I know what she was going to say. That he was going to leave me. I knew that already.”

  Jonathan turns to his sister and holds her hand.

  “Rebecca.”

  “No, it’s okay. Why keep it a secret anymore. He’s dead and now so is she. Susan sent me Edward’s love letters to her. I got them from Carter. She’d hand delivered them.”

  “When?”

  “Earlier today I think. He swore undying love to her in them, that it had always been her, that,” Rebecca pauses, “that he never loved me, but married me when she had rejected him. That, that, he’d always wanted children and so he thought he was doing the right thing marrying me.”

  Elizabeth looks at the anguish on Rebecca’s face, at the sympathy and shock in both Kara’s and Jonathan’s, but can’t help herself and pushes a little for more facts.

  “And they definitely came after he died?”

  “Yes, wrapped up in a box. Not sure when they had been delivered though, they might have been at the porter’s lodge for a bit I guess. He’d written to her on every trip he’d taken... even his last. But there was one missing, number thirteen.”

  Elizabeth ponders. “Perhaps he was superstitious. You really didn’t know before, about the two of them?”

  “No. He seemed okay in the morning. Kissed me, told me he loved me. I didn’t have a clue.” Rebecca’s face creases. “Probably for the best, or I would have killed them both.”

  The comment lingers in all their minds. Kara interrupts.

  “Come on. Let’s get you home, to rest. Out of this dreadful college.”

  “The police want me to make a statement.” Rebecca resists Kara’s arm.

  “They can come to us at the house. You need to lie down. You’re shivering.”

  Kara continues to coax Rebecca to move. Jonathan agrees, looking earnestly at Rebecca.

  “I will be back tonight, I promise. Kat will be with you until then.” He kisses his sister and looks at Kara to take control. The three of them watch Jonathan leave the court as Godric, walks up to them and smiles at Rebecca. “I’m so sorry, Rebecca.”

  “I’m not, I hated her.”

  “I’m sure you didn’t actually hate her.”

  “I’m really sure, and I’m really pleased she’s dead.”

  Even Godric, who isn’t easily phased is shocked by Rebecca’s words.

  “Will you drive me to Kat’s? She’s driving me crazy with her sympathy.”

  Godric looks at his nanna, and she nods. He smiles awkwardly at Kara who is still standing next to Rebecca. Elizabeth spots an opportunity.

  “You can pop back for the Talbot, if Rebecca doesn’t mind waiting here with me for a few minutes?”

  “Don’t you have your bike?” Then Godric realises that Elizabeth wants to come to Kara’s “Oh, yes good idea.” And then to Kara, “Shall we see you there, Kara? Or do you need a lift too?”

  Kara smiles.

  “That’s okay. I’d better take the car back. But thank you. And just call me Kat, everyone else does.”

  “We’ll take good care of Rebecca, Kat. Pleased to meet you. I’m Godric.”

  Kara smiles and heads off as Godric looks at his nanna.

  “What are you waiting for, Godric?”

  “Oh, yes right. Back in a tick.”

  ✧

  “Just try to keep my name out of the papers, if they call. She may well have been an ex-lover, but what has that got to do with my sister? And tell the Chief Whip, yes, I’ll be able to keep a lid on it. It won’t get any bigger. How can it? No, don’t tell him that.” Jonathan Smythe-Jones kills the call to his assistant at Westminster. Now at Cambridge railway station, sitting on a London King’s Cross direct train, in the first class carriage. It will get him into his office quicker than the car, and for once he is grateful for the time to shut his eyes. A strong coffee and a flapjack perch on the carriage table. He faces an elderly woman, who smiles at him and says that his flapjack looks nice. What is it about women? Why can’t they keep their thoughts to themselves? He has a nightmarish thought where there is just him and millions of Elizabeths in the world, all interfering and
bickering, poking and prodding him. He opens his eyes and looks out the window as the train starts to move. He wonders, if Kara knows about the money from Edward what else might she know? It was hard to keep everything from her and he worried now that this marriage might be spoiled from the start. Jonathan decides to make another call.

  “Hello, Katie?” Jonathan listens for some time, then replies, “I need some fun back in my life. It’s all work, work, work. Yes, let’s meet later. I can’t wait to see everything you’ve got to show me. Ha, ha. yes. Bring the expensive champagne, let’s have some fun. Don’t tell my fiancée. Ta, ta for now.”

  The elderly lady now glares at Jonathan, disapproving of his liberal ways.

  31. The Garden

  Everything was lush in the hedgerows on the drive to Ely and to Kara’s house. Having back seat driven Godric all the way in Gerald’s Talbot Lago T150C Cabriolet, Elizabeth has now left him to stretch his legs with Rebecca down the bottom of Kara’s orchard. Elizabeth is observing the pretty borders packed with hollyhocks, foxgloves, roses and daisies. Swifts are on the wing and bees still out searching for an evening drink.

  Rebecca and Godric share glances at each other over the shock of what has just happened at choir practice.