Wrongful Death

by Lynda La Plante

  Dewar stepped forward and put her hand out to Anna.

  ‘Although we’ve had our disagreements, I’d just like to say I’ve enjoyed working with you and learned a lot.’

  Anna shook her hand. ‘I hope the next case we both work on will be more straightforward.’

  ‘Sadly my time with the Met is over. The FBI Academy Director called me to say he wanted me back in the States to help on a serial-killer case. Flight’s booked for Saturday morning, so I best get off and start getting my bits and pieces together.’ Dewar turned to leave when Anna said she wanted to ask her something.

  ‘From a psychological aspect, where did I go wrong with Gloria?’

  ‘You didn’t, we all did. I think all your suspicions are right but we all underestimated her. With hindsight, as you’ll see in my report, we should have played her at her own game.’

  Anna asked Dewar what she meant and the agent explained that a sociopath’s ability to act normally is determined by the information they have available to them.

  ‘Gloria, thanks mostly to Walters and Ian Holme, knew what you knew, so she twisted and used it to her advantage,’ Dewar said.

  ‘How could I have countered that?’ Anna asked.

  ‘By trying to confuse her, and the best way to do that is to feed her false information: if she’s confused and you are not, then you are the one in control.’

  ‘And then?’ Anna wondered.

  ‘You hoist her by her own petard, point out her failures, and tell her she’s a phoney and a shyster.’

  ‘Bit late now, I guess.’

  ‘Sadly, yes, you need to strike while the iron is hot,’ Dewar said. ‘Well, guess I’ll see you in the morning.’

  As she left the room, Anna sat down once more and began to read her report. As she finished it she stood up, slammed both hands on the desk, and let out a yell of pent-up emotion. That iron was still very hot!

  As she drove out to Weybridge, Anna did her best to calm her nerves, knowing it was a dangerous thing to walk into the witch’s lair alone. Needing a viable reason to go to Lynne House she had gathered together the flat keys, and other documents, that could be legitimately restored to Donna Lynne. It didn’t matter to her whether Donna or Aisa were in, the purpose of her visit was much deeper than a polite house call.

  Although Dewar’s advice was thought-provoking, her suggestion to feed Gloria false information and berate her was of no value to the criminal investigation. Lying about the evidence to a suspect or being oppressive in an interview was not allowed and any resulting confession would be rendered worthless.

  Anna realized that Gloria had deliberately used the confines of the police station, and the legal representation of Ian Holme, to suit her purpose. She still had no evidence against Gloria and was only too aware that arresting her was not an option. For Anna this was personal, a need to show Gloria up for the evil bitch that she was. Anna knew that Gloria was not as smart as she thought she was; it was now time for her to be the one in control, and play Gloria at her own game, on her own ground!

  Arriving at Lynne House, Anna wondered if she would even get past the front gates. But as she got out of the car and before she could press the intercom, she was aware of the movement of the security camera, and then the gates slowly opened. Anna had the strangest feeling that it was Gloria who was watching and luring her in. She drove up to the house, her heart beating ten to the dozen, forcing herself to breathe in and exhale slowly to keep calm. As she pulled up at the front door, Gloria appeared, dressed in a white, full-length, toga-style dress and gold sandals. The lights from the interior of the house spilled out into the dark night, illuminating Gloria from behind as if she were an angelic apparition.

  ‘Good evening, Detective Travis, I was expecting you,’ she said with a tight unfriendly smile. Security lights came on, and from the direction of the greenhouse came the frantic sound of Atropa, the Doberman guard dog, barking and pulling at her chain attached to the kennel.

  Anna, thankful that Gloria wasn’t allowing the dog to roam the grounds freely, gathered the box of property from the passenger seat and followed the woman into the house, closing the door behind her. Gloria said nothing as Anna followed her across the large hallway. Gloria suddenly stopped.

  ‘Get to your rooms now!’ she shouted.

  Anna looked up and had a brief glimpse of Donna and Aisa standing at the top of the stairs. As they hurriedly moved out of sight, like two frightened children, Anna noticed they were both wearing the same white togas and gold sandals as their mother. She wondered if they might be about to go to a fancy dress party.

  Entering the library, Gloria closed the door. Anna immediately caught sight of the paintings of the ‘Three Fates’ and recalled Gloria saying she preferred the angelic Mazzoni depiction as it was ‘appealing to the eye and their soft white robes are exquisite’. Numbly, she realized that Gloria and her daughters were dressed exactly like the Fates in the painting. She noticed a small pair of flower shears on the coffee table and remembered Don Blane telling her about shears being used to cut the thread of life. Anna was beginning to think that Gloria’s mental state might finally have spiralled out of control, and wondered if she had made a terrible mistake coming to Lynne House. Gloria went over to the coffee table and picked up the shears, which made Anna’s heart pound with fear as she frantically looked round the room for something to protect herself with.

  Gloria turned, holding the shears towards Anna. ‘I told Katrina to put these back in the greenhouse before she went out for the evening. Are you all right, Detective Travis, you seem nervous?’

  Anna realized Gloria was playing games with her, but now she was angry and there was no way she would be scared off.

  ‘No, not at all, Lady Lynne.’ Anna pointed to the Mazzoni. ‘For a moment there, you reminded me of Atropa, or was it Clotho or Lachesis who cut the thread?’

  Gloria smiled as she complimented Anna on doing her homework and told her that it was indeed Atropa, or Aisa as she liked to call her, who determined when a person’s life ended.

  ‘Tell me, detective, do you believe in fate?’

  ‘We all have a destiny, Lady Lynne, and to an extent we can control what happens to us along the way, but no one has the God-given right to determine when and how we die . . . Not even you.’

  ‘You think so?’ Gloria smirked, then walked over to the drinks cabinet.

  ‘Would you care to join me in a gin and tonic, detective?’

  ‘No, thank you, I’m driving and wouldn’t want to have an accident,’ Anna remarked, knowing it was obvious to Gloria why she had declined the offer.

  ‘Did you know that tonic water contains quinine, which comes from the bark of the cinchona tree and is used to treat malaria?’

  ‘Is it similar to atropine?’ Anna asked, determined to stand her ground against Gloria’s mind games.

  Gloria wagged her finger at Anna. ‘Too much of either will bring on heart failure and kill you.’ Having poured herself a drink Gloria came across to Anna and started to pat-down her jacket pockets and shirt. Anna obligingly raised her arms and told Gloria that she was not wearing a wire and her phone was in the car. Gloria leaned forward and ran her hands up and down the outside of Anna’s skirt, then moved her hand underneath, and slowly ran it up and down the inside of her thighs in a suggestive manner.

  Although it disgusted Anna she knew that Gloria was trying to intimidate her. ‘Satisfied?’ she asked, allowing the double meaning to hang in the air.

  Gloria sat down in an armchair, casually crossed her legs, and took a sip of her drink.

  ‘Let’s not beat about the bush,’ she began. ‘You despise me because you lost and I won, but what really eats away at your pitiful existence is a desire to know whether you were right or wrong about me.’

  Gloria was partially right, but Anna was not going to satisfy her gloating. ‘You may believe your lies, Lady Lynne, but what angers you is that I don’t, and never will. I seek the truth as evidence. You see
k it so that you can manipulate it for your own gain.’

  ‘Then in some ways we are similar, Detective Travis.’

  ‘No, we are not. Unlike you, I don’t have a heart that is incapable of feeling the pain of others. I will be given another case, you will be forgotten and I will move on,’ Anna said firmly.

  Gloria gave a condescending laugh and said it was a valiant but pointless effort to try and defend her own shattered dignity. She paused, sipped her drink again and stared Anna menacingly in the eye.

  ‘Only I can tell you if you were right, Travis, but for that to happen I would need to know exactly what you think I did.’

  Anna knew Gloria was playing with her and there was always the risk that the woman might admit to nothing if she revealed what she suspected was the truth behind a catalogue of murders. Still, it was now or never, so Anna decided to give Gloria a synopsis of what she believed happened, but not the evidence that had led to her conclusions.

  ‘Samuel Peters discovered that Donna was your daughter. He ordered copies of the birth and marriage certificates to blackmail you about your bigamous past, and your daughter Donna’s incestuous relationship with Arum. You paid him fifty thousand, thinking that would be the end of it, but Samuel wanted more and you refused, probably because you had already decided to kill him.’ Anna paused to see if Gloria had anything to say but she just waved her hand for Anna to continue.

  ‘To spite you, Samuel told Josh, who now knowing you were his real mother drove out here and confronted you. You wanted your past buried, but Josh, like his father Samuel, was now a threat. You gave him a drink laced with atropine, hoping he would have a fatal car crash on his way home, a method you had used previously to ensure Lord Henry’s son and wife died in a helicopter crash.’ Anna again paused to watch Gloria’s reaction to what she had said so far.

  ‘Are you sure you wouldn’t like a gin and tonic?’ Gloria scoffed, as she finished hers and poured another. ‘Please do continue, I am so enjoying this, it’s like listening to a detective story on the radio.’ She settled herself back down in the armchair.

  ‘You messed up, the dosage was wrong and Josh made it home, but the atropine meant his brain was not functioning properly and he became suicidal. Josh called Aisa and she went to the flat, tried to stop Josh shooting himself but failed. Wearing a bloodstained dress she ran from the flat and was seen by Samuel—’

  Gloria interrupted, standing up and giving a slow handclap. Anna insisted she hadn’t finished.

  ‘You don’t need to, Travis. I think I know the rest of the story,’ Gloria said arrogantly.

  ‘Then I must assume I was right,’ Anna said.

  Gloria shook her head and sighed. ‘Very well, if you really feel the need to unburden yourself.’ She wafted her hand dismissively.

  ‘Samuel discovered Josh’s body and tried to blackmail you again, this time about Aisa being there. You told Aisa to say nothing; you met with Samuel to pay him off but poisoned him with atropine.’

  ‘And the rest, as they say, is history,’ Gloria said patronizingly. She then came closer to Anna, smiling all while as she unpinned a piece of jewellery from her white gown.

  ‘This is a very special brooch, very old, very precious and it’s gold and pale blue enamel.’ She looked directly into Anna’s eyes. ‘It’s the deadly nightshade flower, and it’s a gift from me to you.’

  Anna gritted her teeth as Gloria pinned the brooch to her jacket, patting it with her hand, inclining her head to one side.

  ‘So pretty yet so deadly, it suits you.’

  Anna responded by saying that she also suspected Xavier and Lord Lynne might have been poisoned with atropine. Gloria, unconcerned, asked why she had not said so earlier.

  Anna smiled and deliberately made light of their deaths. ‘Didn’t happen over here so not my problem.’

  ‘But it angers you to think I killed them,’ Gloria scoffed.

  ‘That depends on how close I was to the truth,’ Anna replied casually.

  ‘If it’s any consolation you didn’t miss anyone out and the ingredients were pretty much all there.’

  Anna had deliberately said nothing about Marisha and suddenly realized that Gloria had never asked about her at the station. She thought it strange that Gloria had not taken the chance to gloat, and wondered why that might be, even as she allowed the woman to carry on with her melodramatic performance. Her raised voice took on an increasingly theatrical tone, her words enunciated carefully, as she enjoyed showing off to an imaginary audience.

  ‘If I were on a jury I’d believe you and want to convict the defendant for such heinous crimes. The only problem is, you’ve not one shred of evidence.’ She giggled.

  ‘You think not?’ Anna replied, stone-faced.

  ‘I don’t think, I know. You have failed in your efforts to implicate me or my beloved daughters in any wrongdoing and I will continue to be respected as a good mother and a pillar of society, whereas your superiors and colleagues will long remember you as a worthless failure,’ Gloria mocked, raising her glass in a victory salute before taking a long drink, then licking her lips.

  ‘Don’t flatter yourself, Lady Lynne, you’re not that special from where I’m standing. A good liar, yes, but as a mother, you’ve failed miserably,’ Anna said, emphasizing the last three words.

  Gloria’s facial expression gave nothing away, but Anna knew she had touched a nerve. It was time to try and confuse her.

  ‘It’s true, isn’t it? Your girls let you down terribly and disgraced your good name. You’ve given them everything they ever wanted, but what happened?’ Anna paused. Gloria opened her mouth to speak but Anna held up her hand, indicating she hadn’t finished.

  ‘Aisa steals money from right under your nose, and you didn’t even know it was happening – how you could let her make such a fool of you is beyond belief!’ Anna noticed Gloria now seemed to need the drink whereas so far it had been a theatrical prop.

  ‘As for Donna, well she betrays you by cavorting naked in front of leering, salivating men with hard-ons. Then she marries Joshua, the very man who hired her and let her display her naked body for his own gain.’

  Gloria gulped down her gin and tonic in one, stood up and marched over to the cabinet to pour a third. Her expression had changed, it was as if she was in another world, confused and angry, trying to make sense of it all. Picking up the ice with her hand she dropped it into her glass as she poured a substantial amount of gin, topping it up with just a fraction of tonic. This time she didn’t bother with a slice of lemon but took a long swig and then rattled the ice cubes round the glass.

  ‘How very intuitive of you, and, yes, that silly bitch Donna started all this, she’s to blame. If she hadn’t walked into that filthy, stinking club she’d never have met Joshua. Because of her Samuel came back into my life. If she’d gone to prison it would have been no more than she deserved for what she’s done to me.’

  Anna was amazed at the sudden change in Gloria’s attitude; it was as if her need to blame revealed her true feelings. She also wondered how many gins Gloria had been through before her arrival as her speech was now beginning to slur.

  ‘How right you are, Lady Lynne – Donna meeting Joshua was a disaster, but at least when Samuel came back into your life it was amicable,’ Anna suggested.

  A look of disgust appeared on Gloria’s face. ‘Amicable? He’s an absolute pig of man; you think I’d willingly let him anywhere near me?’

  ‘So I guess Samuel and Marisha’s, sorry I mean Samuel and Arum’s deaths are really a blessing in disguise?’ Anna asked, hoping a confused Gloria would react to the mention of Marisha’s name.

  Gloria said nothing at first, but Anna could see she was questioning herself about what she thought she had just heard.

  ‘Why did you say Marisha?’

  Anna deliberately looked nervous. ‘Just a slip of the tongue, that’s all.’

  ‘You’re lying, I can tell. What has Marisha got to do with any of this?’
<
br />   It was now clear that Gloria had never suspected Marisha might be involved, let alone that she was dead. Gloria was evidently worried as Marisha had never been part of her script of lies and now posed a threat. She needed answers to be able to manipulate the information, but Anna was not going to provide them and decided to turn the heat up slowly.

  ‘Deputy Commissioner Walters told you Samuel Peters died of a heart attack, but you said that can’t be right because he’d gone back to Jamaica. So thinking about it . . .’

  ‘I demand to know where Marisha is, she’s my sister-in-law and I will offer to pay for Samuel’s funeral and look after her.’

  Gloria was becoming noticeably more agitated, and still Anna avoided answering her.

  ‘Why didn’t you ask us at the station if it was true?’

  ‘Ask what, what should I have asked? Has Marisha said anything?’

  Anna suspected Gloria wasn’t fully aware of what she was saying, or asking, as her brain was working at such a pace to process the new situation.

  Anna remained calm, determined to confuse Gloria further. ‘I think I’ve made a terrible mistake. I just assumed . . .’

  ‘What, what mistake have you made, what did you assume?’ Gloria asked angrily.

  ‘That it was Samuel’s body in the mortuary, but it can’t be as he’s back in Jamaica, just like you told Walters and like Marisha said. I’m sorry that I wrongly accused you, Lady Lynne, and I realize now that you have just been playing silly games to teach me a lesson.’

  Anna was enjoying watching her lies bewilder and anger Gloria, who then raised her voice.

  ‘I don’t play games! I controlled when, where and how Samuel would die. I alone determined his and everyone else’s fate.’

  ‘It’s okay, you don’t have to try and fool me any longer,’ Anna said, smiling, which infuriated Gloria even more.

  ‘I decided how and when Joshua would die . . .’

  ‘That is ridiculous, everyone knows Josh shot himself,’ Anna said, dismissing Gloria’s admission as a joke.

  ‘I poisoned him, just like Samuel, and there’s nothing you can do about it! Now where is Marisha!’ The pupils of her eyes dilated from her anger and increased blood pressure.