The Picture House by the Sea

by Holly Hepburn

  ‘So charming to meet you all,’ he said, shaking Ben’s hand. ‘It’s a shame it’s in such terrible circumstances.’

  He chatted away as their starters were served, taking great care to establish his own alibi while confiding that Lord Finch was Grace’s third husband. Her third Lord, in fact.

  ‘To lose one peer is unfortunate,’ he intoned, glancing around the carriage. ‘But to lose two looks like carelessness and a third –’ He paused and made the sign of the cross. ‘Well, I’m sure I don’t need to spell it out. Lady Finch seems to be making a career out of losing her husbands.’

  Ben smiled. ‘I thought she was quite nice.’

  Reverend Cooper fixed him with a severe look. ‘Then you need to take care, young man. Although you look rather too American to be in possession of a peerage so perhaps you’re safe.’

  Carrie snorted into her prawns, causing Reverend Cooper to enquire after her health and offer up his handkerchief. He made his excuses as the plates were being cleared, and vanished into the next carriage. Basil Hunterton-Smythe swaggered in and took great care to kiss the hand of every woman there, lingering particularly over Gina. He slid into the empty seat and let out a long-suffering sigh.

  ‘This is a total bore, isn’t it? Trust my insufferable old fart of a great-uncle to ruin a perfectly lovely dinner.’

  Basil was at great pains to establish his alibi too, claiming he was resting in his room before dinner when the murder had been committed. He also had a secret to share; he’d seen Lord Finch and Nancy the maid together in the birdwatching hide near the marshes at the farthest end of the estate.

  He raised one rakish eyebrow and winked at Ben. ‘Great tits all over the place, if you know what I mean. And rumour has it there’s an egg in her nest.’

  One of the guests at the next table asked him about his gambling debts. ‘Oh, they’re hardly worth mentioning,’ Basil said dismissively. ‘Certainly nothing like as much as Grace owes.’

  Basil was followed by Nancy, who confessed that Claude was not really a chef, but a conman intent on swindling Lord Finch out of his fortune. When questioned, she tearfully admitted she was pregnant with her employer’s child, then dropped the bombshell that Basil and Grace had been having an illicit affair and she suspected they’d plotted together to kill Lord Finch before his heir was born to solve their respective money problems.

  ‘That’s a thought,’ Ben whispered to Gina. ‘Does Gorran have any rich relatives we can bump off?’

  Gina whacked him on the arm. ‘Sssshh! And no, I don’t suppose he does.’

  Grace herself denied the affair with Basil and claimed he was trying to blackmail her into paying off his debts. She also suggested that Reverend Cooper was secretly in love with Basil and would do anything for him.

  ‘And I mean anything,’ she said, arching a delicate eyebrow.

  Claude the chef arrived just as coffee was being served. He was outraged by the diners’ suggestion that he was anything but a talented chef who had worked for the finest restaurants in the land.

  ‘If you had tasted my filet mignon, you would know that,’ he declared. ‘But I will tell you who is not all that she seems – Nancy. If she is so innocent, why did I see her sneaking out of that scoundrel Basil’s room in the early hours of this morning?’

  ‘Well,’ Carrie said once he’d gone, peering at the sheet they were supposed to write the name of the murderer and the motive on. ‘I haven’t got the foggiest idea who did it. Have you?’

  Ben shrugged. ‘Everyone seems to be sleeping with everyone else, except Claude and Reverend Cooper. They all have alibis except for Nancy and Basil, who both claim they were alone at the time of the murder. But I still don’t know who the killer is.’

  A shadow fell across the table. Gina looked up to see Rose standing there, a faintly superior expression on her face. ‘Obviously, it’s Nancy,’ she drawled. ‘Mummy and I had worked it out by the end of the entrees.’

  Gina summoned up her sunniest smile. ‘Maybe you watch more Midsomer Murders than we do.’

  Rose didn’t smile back. ‘I had dinner with Max last time I was in London – I can’t tell you how sorry I was to hear that he’s broken off your engagement.’ She sent a malicious glance Ben’s way. ‘How does it feel to be a relationship-wrecker?’

  But Ben was staring at Gina. ‘You were engaged to Max? When did that happen?’

  Gina cleared her throat. ‘Briefly. He proposed when I went up to London to see him last month. After you and I had that argument.’

  Rose let out a delighted little laugh. ‘I didn’t realise it was a secret. Didn’t she tell you, Ben? Max broke it off after he found out she’d spent the night with you.’

  Gina stood up abruptly. ‘There’s no need to make it sound so grubby, Rose. Ben slept on the sofa. Nothing happened and Max knows that.’

  ‘Of course he does,’ Rose replied. ‘That’s why he gave you that ultimatum, right? To choose him or Ben? It looks like you’ve made your choice – I’ll be sure to let Max know.’

  She swept away before Gina could say another word.

  ‘Is that true?’ Ben asked, as she sank back into her seat. ‘Did Max really ask you to choose between us?’

  Gina ran a hand over her face and sighed. ‘Yes. Obviously, I refused.’

  Carrie glanced down at Gina’s left hand. ‘And the engagement is definitely off?’

  ‘Right now, I don’t think either of us is sure whether we’ll make it to the end of the month, let alone spend the rest of our lives together. So yes, the engagement is definitely off.’ Taking a deep breath, Gina pointed at the sheet in front of Carrie. ‘So are we going to write our answers down or not?’

  They began to discuss their suspicions once more, although Rose’s appearance had dampened their enthusiasm.

  ‘I’m confused,’ the man at the next table said, staring at Gina and Ben. ‘Was that part of the murder enquiry or not?’

  His wife threw them an embarrassed look. ‘Shut up, Malcolm. Of course it wasn’t. Now why do you think that strumpet Nancy did it, eh?’

  Chapter Six

  ‘Is that cough still bothering you?’

  Elena waited until she’d caught her breath to answer Gina’s question. ‘A bit. The doctor thinks it’s some kind of virus.’

  Gina frowned across her grandmother’s kitchen table. It was Sunday morning, almost two weeks since the yoga class on the beach when she’d first noticed Nonna’s cough, and it showed no signs of improvement. ‘But you’ve had it for ages – surely it would have cleared up by now if it was a virus?’

  ‘Don’t fuss, mia bella,’ Elena admonished her. ‘I’ll be fine in a day or two, you’ll see. Now, have you thought any more about your grandfather’s offer?’

  Gina bit back a sigh; she had and she’d come to the conclusion that to do the job properly, she’d need to stay in Cornwall, which would almost certainly be the final nail in the coffin for her relationship with Max. And if Ben took the job he’d been offered with the National Trust, she might end up staying in Polwhipple while he was in London, and she’d have lost her best friend as well as her boyfriend. She just couldn’t win; no matter which way she looked at it, she was going to disappoint someone.

  ‘I don’t know what to do, Nonna,’ she said at last. ‘Of course I’m tempted to stay and join the family business – I know it would make Mum and Dad happy too. But I can’t see how I can – it would be the end of me and Max.’

  Elena said nothing.

  ‘And if I leave Polwhipple, it feels like I’m turning my back on everything I’ve achieved here,’ Gina went on. ‘Gorran needs me more than ever, it feels like I’ve only just got the Ferrelli’s stock control system working the way I want it to and Nonno has finally accepted the idea that adding more gelato flavours to our menu won’t cause the apocalypse. If I leave now, what will happen here?’

  Her grandmother shrugged. ‘The world will still turn. We will get by, the way we did before you came. We’ll miss yo
u, of course, but don’t feel you have to stay here for our benefit. Even that fool Gorran will survive without you.’

  Gina thought of the pile of threatening letters she’d unearthed in his office and cringed. Gorran might survive but she wasn’t at all sure the Palace would. And if the Palace went down, it would take Ben’s station with it. ‘Maybe,’ she said.

  ‘And as for what your parents want,’ Elena continued with a sniff, ‘if the family business mattered so much to them they would have some part in it, instead of hiding away in California.’

  ‘Come on, you know it’s not as easy as that,’ Gina said, feeling obliged to defend her mother and father. ‘Mum and Nonno are both so stubborn – neither of them will ever admit they were wrong long enough to resolve their differences. I bet they don’t even remember what they fought over now, it was so long ago, and still they won’t talk to each other.’

  ‘Nonno remembers,’ Elena said softly. ‘But he’s too proud to make the first move.’

  Gina shook her head. ‘Mum’s like that too – they’re so similar it’s not funny.’

  Elena gave her a sideways look. ‘What we need is a reason for them to come back here,’ she said. ‘A good reason they can’t refuse. Like a wedding.’

  The loaded suggestion made Gina even more conflicted. ‘I don’t think you should rely on me and Max getting married to bring the family back together,’ she said gloomily.

  ‘Max?’ Elena said, lifting her eyebrows. ‘Who said anything about Max? My money is on Ben Pascoe.’

  ‘Not you too?’ Gina cried, giving her grandmother an incredulous look. ‘You’re as bad as Rose. For the last time, Nonna, there is nothing going on between me and Ben. We are friends, that’s all.’

  Her grandmother looked unconvinced. ‘I know there is a lot to think about, but look into your heart and decide what you truly want before you go rushing back to London next month. Max might have been right for you in the past but is he right for your future?’

  Gina thought about those words later that night, as she listened to Max’s phone ring and ring. Was he avoiding her because Rose had got to him after their conversation on Friday night? Or was she simply being paranoid? It was possible that Max hadn’t been able to take her call on the three separate occasions she’d tried to ring him. Possible, she told herself dully, but not likely. And it was very unlike him not to ring her back after a missed call. In fact, it was unheard of.

  By Tuesday night, she was starting to worry that something had happened to him. She rang her friend, Sarah, who told her Max had been fine when she’d seen him on Saturday night.

  ‘And he didn’t mention going away anywhere?’ Gina pressed her.

  ‘Actually, I think he did,’ Sarah said, after a few seconds of thought. ‘I didn’t talk to him much – you know what these nights out are like – but I’m sure I overheard him say he was going on a business trip at the start of this week. What’s this about, Gina? Is everything okay?’

  ‘Everything is fine,’ Gina said as breezily as she could, hoping Sarah wouldn’t pick up on the lie. ‘We just keep missing each other’s calls, that’s all. Sorry, I’ve got to go – there’s someone at the door.’

  It wasn’t a lie; the doorbell had buzzed.

  ‘Ben,’ Gina said in surprise when the visitor announced himself over the intercom. ‘Come on up.’

  ‘I won’t stay long,’ he said, once she’d settled down beside him on the sofa. ‘I just thought we should have a quick chat about the Some Like it Hot screening. Gorran mentioned something about you wanting to turn the place into a speakeasy?’

  ‘I do,’ Gina said, feeling her spirits rise for the first time that day. ‘I want to serve cocktails in cups and saucers, just like in the film, and maybe even for the foyer to be set up like a funeral parlour.’

  Ben shook his head in amusement. ‘You get more and more ambitious every single time.’

  ‘That’s what brings people back in,’ Gina said. ‘It would be no fun if every event was the same.’

  He tilted his head. ‘True. Speaking of events, I heard from the Preservation Society today. They’ve completed work on the track between Boscarne Junction and Polwhipple and should be in a position to run some test trains later this week.’

  Gina beamed at him. ‘That’s brilliant news, Ben. You must be so pleased.’

  ‘I am. I thought it would never happen and, to be honest, it probably wouldn’t have if you hadn’t come to Polwhipple and helped me to show the town council what a good idea it could be.’ He ran a hand through his hair and gave her a nervous look. ‘So I know being here has caused you problems – I know I’ve caused you problems – but I just wanted to say that I’m really glad you came. You have no idea just how glad I am.’

  She met his intense blue-eyed gaze full on and an all-too-familiar stab of desire cut through her. ‘Thank you,’ she said in a low voice. ‘You’re right, it hasn’t been easy but right now, I’m really happy I came too.’

  He studied her in silence for a moment, then reached across to brush a strand of hair from her cheek. The gesture was so intimate that it made Gina shiver.

  ‘We’ve come a long way from that moment on Platform 2, haven’t we?’ he asked.

  She smiled, remembering how he’d stopped to help when she’d got some coal dust caught in her eye. ‘We have. I didn’t expect to ever see you again.’

  ‘But here we are,’ he replied, returning her smile.

  ‘Here we are,’ she agreed, her heart speeding up. He was close enough to kiss – all she had to do was lean forwards and she knew he’d meet her halfway. But he was leaving it up to her; if she wanted him, she’d have to make the first move.

  She lowered her gaze from his eyes to his mouth, remembering how it had felt to kiss him before the Brief Encounter screening. What would have happened if Gorran hadn’t appeared and forced them to spring apart? Gina wondered. Would she have chosen Ben then instead of persevering with Max? She had no idea; what she did know was that she was tired of fighting her attraction to Ben. He was kind and generous and he made her laugh. More than that, he soothed her, as though he was a favourite book she returned to again and again when she needed to feel comforted. All she had to do was lean forwards . . .

  Their lips were almost touching when Gina’s phone rang. She jerked back, wide-eyed and confused. ‘Who could that be?’ she muttered, picking up the handset and praying it wasn’t Max’s name on the screen. It wasn’t. It was Sarah’s.

  ‘You got me wondering about Max,’ her friend said, the moment Gina had said hello. ‘So I asked around a bit to see if I could find out where he’d gone.’

  ‘And?’ Gina said, glancing guiltily at Ben.

  ‘And he’s gone to Cornwall,’ Sarah said, her voice flat. ‘Max is in Polwhipple, Gina.’

  Chapter Seven

  It was a strange feeling, knowing Max was in Polwhipple but not knowing exactly where, Gina thought as she crossed the car park next door to the Palace on Wednesday morning. She’d called him again as soon as she’d got off the phone with Sarah the night before; this time it hadn’t even rung.

  ‘Maybe he wants to surprise you,’ Ben had said, when she’d explained the reason for Sarah’s call.

  Gina had let out a little laugh. ‘He’s certainly managed that.’

  Ben had eyed her uneasily. ‘Do you think he’s come to sort things out between you?’

  Gina considered the possibility; grand romantic gestures weren’t beyond Max. ‘I don’t know. Maybe.’

  ‘And how would that make you feel?’ Ben asked, in a tone that seemed carefully neutral.

  ‘Honestly?’ Gina had let out a long, unhappy sigh. ‘I don’t have the faintest idea.’

  The last place she expected to see Max was outside the doors of the Palace. She stopped dead in her tracks and gasped. ‘What are you doing here?’

  For a heartbeat, he looked almost pleased to see her, making her wonder if Ben had been right; Max had come to win her back. But then his
expression clanged shut and he gave a stiff nod. ‘Hello, Gina. How are you?’

  Her heart sank. ‘How am I?’ she echoed. ‘Surprised to see you here, especially since you seem to be ignoring my calls. What’s going on, Max? Why are you in Polwhipple? You’re obviously not here for me.’

  ‘No, it’s business,’ he said. He hesitated and his expression softened. ‘But it is good to see you.’

  She stared at him as though he was a stranger; there was something about his manner that made her wary. ‘Don’t try to distract me. What business could you possibly have all the way down here?’ she demanded. ‘There are no riverside skyscrapers to buy and sell in Polwhipple. Or do you know something I don’t?’

  Max said nothing.

  Gina’s eyes narrowed as she detected a trace of guilt in his eyes. ‘What are you doing coming out of the Palace?’

  ‘Like I said, it’s business. Ask Gorran – I’m sure he’ll tell you.’

  A cold, unpleasant feeling settled in the pit of Gina’s stomach. ‘I’m asking you, Max. What’s going on?’

  This time, he sighed. ‘The Palace is drowning under the weight of Gorran’s debts. I’ve made him a very generous offer to buy the building, with a view to turning it into luxury sea-view apartments.’

  Gina felt as though her head might explode. ‘What?’

  ‘Don’t worry about Ferrelli’s,’ Max went on, glancing sideways at the concession window. ‘That can stay. Your grandfather will simply lease it from the management company instead of Gorran. I’m sure we can come to some agreement over a fair rent.’

  ‘You – you utter snake!’ Gina cried in disbelief, her hands balling into furious fists. ‘You planned this all along, didn’t you? I could practically see the pound signs in your eyes the first time I showed you the Palace, and now you can see a way to get your grubby little hands on it. Well, it won’t work, Max. Gorran won’t be selling the building to you.’

  Max put a hand on her arm. ‘You’re angry and I suppose I can see why. I should have told you what I was planning. But I knew you’d try to talk me out of it.’