by Faith Martin
Was it possible that Duncan had been right after all?
‘I see. Well, thank you for your help Miss Calver,’ Trudy said abruptly. The curt dismissal made Angela look both surprised and a little chagrined.
Clement thought that, given the chance, she’d have liked to dish out far more dirt on her former boss, but he agreed with Trudy. They had more than enough now to be going on with.
Back in the Rover, Clement popped another breath mint into his mouth and said, ‘I think we need to talk to Alice, don’t you?’
Trudy shot him a quick glance. ‘Alice? Not Kenneth?’
Clement shrugged. ‘No point, really is there? He’ll only deny it. And if pushed, he can always say he had a fling with Angela, and that she’s just spreading lies about him now because she’s bitter. A woman scorned, and all that. No, it’s been my experience that wives often know more about their husbands than their husbands like to think.’
Trudy slowly nodded. ‘And if you think about it, Alice had almost as much to lose as Kenneth if there was a scandal,’ she agreed. ‘She wouldn’t be the first wife willing to put up with her husband’s wandering eye, so long as he was discreet. Or have to clean up after her husband’s mess when he wasn’t.’
Clement grunted in acknowledgement, turned the ignition and pulled out into the traffic.
Behind him, Duncan climbed out of his car and headed for the record shop.
Chapter 32
Caroline Benham watched her sister slump back wearily in her chair and frowned slightly. She’d been surprised when Alice had called and asked her to come up to Headington in her lunch hour, and she didn’t like having to ask her boss for the extra half-hour or so to make it feasible, but she was glad now that she had. Alice looked to have aged about ten years in as many days, and something was clearly bothering her.
‘You look terrible,’ Caroline said, with her usual lack of tact.
Alice heaved a massive sigh. ‘Oh, Caro, it’s that wretched newspaper!’ she blurted out. ‘Did you read the latest assault on us? They all but outright accused either Godfrey or Kenneth of killing Father!’ She looked at her sister with big, indignant and worried eyes.
‘So? Do you think one of them did?’ Caroline asked bluntly, watching her sister’s face twitch in shock. She’d never had much patience with Alice’s slavish devotion to convention, but she was curious to see what her sister made of it all. For, in spite of everything, Alice had quite a good brain inside her head. When she chose to use it.
‘Oh Caroline, don’t start,’ Alice wailed. ‘I can’t cope with you right now when you’re in one of these moods.’
‘What moods?’ her younger sibling asked, genuinely unaware what she meant by the remark.
‘You know … saying outrageous things. I always said you did it just to show off.’
‘Oh, you mean being honest,’ Caroline interpreted bluntly, then seeing her sister wince, sighed heavily. ‘All right, all right, I’ll go along with it, and keep on pretending that everything’s just fine,’ she promised.
Alice passed a hand across her forehead, wondering somewhat belatedly, what on earth had possessed her to reach out to her sister of all people for some succour and support. She should have known it would be like this. Only the morning had been dragging on so, and it had been so quiet in the house with the children at school and Kenneth at work, and her nerves had been stretching out like piano wires being tuned. She’d simply had to talk to somebody or go mad.
And Kenneth was no use as a sounding board. Last night, he’d just read the paper in grim silence and then, when she’d become indignant on his behalf, had told her to ignore it. Ignore it! As if it would all just go away if they pretended it wasn’t happening.
‘I dare say Godfrey’s in a tizzy right about now,’ Caroline couldn’t help but say, and smiled a smile that would have impressed the Cheshire Cat. Catching it, Alice almost felt like smiling too.
Then she shook her head, unwilling to be made to feel better. ‘Oh Godfrey,’ she said carelessly, dismissing her brother with a vague wave of her hand. ‘What I’m worried about is Kenneth. Oh, I know he’s just shrugging it all off, but the neighbours are beginning to talk. And it can’t be good for the business either. You mark my words, soon the customers will stop coming into the shop. You know what people say – “there’s no smoke without fire” and all that. Pretty soon that bloody reporter will have everyone thinking there was something … you know … wrong, about what happened that night.’
Caroline opened her mouth to say ‘well, wasn’t there?’ but then – in a rare moment of finer feeling – closed it again before she could state the obvious. Nevertheless, she eyed her sister like a curious robin. Was it really possible, Caroline wondered, that Alice really didn’t have any idea of what had happened that night the monster had got his just desserts?
She supposed, after a moment’s thought, that it might just be so. After all, Alice seemed to have no idea about her husband’s tom-catting around all these years, an activity he’d taken up almost since the night of their honeymoon. And just how she managed that, Caroline had no idea. Everyone in the family knew about it, and once or twice, lover-boy Kenneth had sailed very close to the wind indeed …
Then again, Caroline thought practically, Alice might well know all about it, but had chosen to pretend that she didn’t. Her older sister had always been very good at seeing only what she wanted to see and ignoring everything else. Like the hell their mother had gone through, for instance.
‘I’m thinking of selling this place and moving away,’ Alice said abruptly, breaking into Caroline’s bitter thoughts, and making Caroline look at her even more carefully.
‘And what does Kenneth think about that?’ she asked.
‘Oh, I haven’t mentioned it to him yet,’ Alice floored her by saying. Catching the astonishment in her sister’s expression, she added crossly ‘Well, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t move, is there? The house is mine, in my name, I mean. I can sell it if I want to.’
Caroline, surprised though she was by this sudden flash of independent spirit in her doormat of a sister, thoroughly approved.
‘Where were you thinking of going?’ she asked curiously. ‘Staying local, you know in this area or—’
‘Oh no,’ Alice interrupted. ‘Going right away somewhere new. Dorset maybe, or Devon. I’ve always liked the West Country. Ever since we were children and used to go to Torquay for our holidays. Remember?’
Caroline did. But since those far-off days brought back memories of their mother, when she was still alive and healthy, she deliberately ignored the pull of the past.
‘Speaking of holidays, I ran into Joan the day before yesterday,’ Caroline said instead, deliberately changing the subject. ‘They’re off to America the day after tomorrow. I hope things go well over there for them,’ she added pensively.
A shadow of anxiety flitted briefly across Alice’s face, but just then the doorbell sounded. ‘Oh bother! Who can that be now?’ she grumbled, getting up and leaving the room. After a few moments, Caroline heard voices and then glanced up when the living room door opened again as Alice came back with their visitors.
The first thing she noticed was her sister, whose face had gone pale and blank, though her eyes were definitely frightened. Then Dr Clement Ryder and the pretty policewoman she’d met before followed on behind, and Alice was saying nervously, ‘I think you’ve must have met my sister Caroline, Dr Ryder and … er …’
‘WPC Loveday, Mrs Wilcox,’ Trudy said with a smile. ‘Yes, we have met. Hello Mrs Benham.’
Caroline nodded, then glanced at Alice. Did she want her to go? But the appeal in her sister’s eyes when they looked at her told her that she was very much needed, so she made no move to rise.
‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ Alice asked, and was patently relieved when both Clement and Trudy accepted with thanks.
Alice all but ran out to the kitchen, leaving the other three alone.
‘Well, d
on’t stand on ceremony,’ Caroline said robustly. ‘Have a seat. Are you still going on about that man’s death then?’ she demanded flatly.
‘Yes, I’m afraid we are. The more we look into things, the more things we seem to find that worry us,’ Trudy said.
When she and Clement had arrived at the house, they’d agreed that Trudy should take the lead, but that Clement would come in if he heard or saw anything that he thought needed clarification. They had not expected to find two sisters for the price of one, but Trudy wasn’t that dismayed. There was something very blunt and defiant about Caroline Benham that might work to their advantage. She’d met people like Caroline before – they seemed to have no sense of discretion or the ability to dissemble. They simply said the first thing that came into their heads, which could often be hideously embarrassing in a social situation, but which was manna from heaven for investigators like herself.
‘Oh? Like what?’ Caroline challenged fearlessly.
‘Well, Mr Hughes seemed to be at loggerheads with almost everyone at the bonfire party that night for instance,’ Trudy said. ‘We know your grievance with him, of course, because you were kind enough to tell us, but we now have reason to believe that he’d quarrelled with, or upset, almost everyone else there – perhaps with the exception of the children.’
‘Oh, I could have told you that,’ Caroline said disparagingly. ‘And don’t think he hadn’t quarrelled with the children either, because he probably had. The older ones, anyway. Make no mistake, nobody liked him.’
‘Caroline!’ This came from Alice, who had just entered with a tea tray, which she set down on the coffee table in front of the sofa. ‘I can assure you, er, Constable, that my children had no quarrel with their grandfather!’
She shot her sister a furious look, then smiled and set about ‘being mother.’ And for a few moments, milk and sugar were added and cups passed around.
When she was finally seated and had had a chance to get some of her decorum back, Alice sighed gently. ‘I was just telling Caroline how upsetting the Tribune articles have been,’ she offered as an opening gambit. ‘I was even wondering if Kenneth and I should sue. That awful man, Mr Gillingham, is all but accusing him of … well, I’m not quite sure what, exactly,’ Alice said hotly. ‘Do you think we’d have a libel case, Dr Ryder?’ she appealed to him.
‘Oh, I’m not a solicitor,’ Clement said with a vague smile. ‘But I expect the newspaper would employ legal men on their staff whose job it is to make sure that nothing actually actionable is printed.’
Alice sighed angrily. ‘Yes, I suppose that’s true. It’s all sly hints about this and nasty digs about that, but never actually having the courage to say things outright. But it’s not nice – they still make it clear that we’re all suspected of doing something ghastly. As I was just saying to Caroline, the neighbours are beginning to talk.’
‘Yes, we’ve had to interview your husband a number of times now,’ Trudy said, not missing the way Alice jerked nervously in her seat, almost spilling some tea into her saucer.
‘Oh? Kenneth never said anything about that to me,’ she quavered.
Caroline snorted. ‘He wouldn’t,’ she muttered, causing all eyes to turn to her. She met her sister’s pleading gaze first, and added, ‘He’s the quiet type,’ rather unconvincingly.
Trudy could have sworn she’d wanted to say something else though, and would have bet a fair amount of her week’s wages that her brother-in-law’s affairs were no secret to Caroline. And that made her wonder. Did the rest of Alice’s family know about his wandering ways too?
‘Did your father get on well with Kenneth?’ Trudy asked blandly.
‘Oh yes,’ Alice said, at the same time as Caroline gave another inelegant, but telling snort.
‘Oh, come off it, Alice,’ Caroline couldn’t help but say, goaded beyond endurance by her sister’s latest and colossal hypocrisy. ‘That man argued with everyone, and you and Kenneth were no different. He treated Godfrey like something to be scraped off his shoe, and he loathed the sight of me almost as much as I loathed the sight of him. The only one he had any time for was Matthew, but even then, just lately …’ She suddenly went a shade pale and broke off abruptly, before turning sharply to look angrily at Trudy. ‘Don’t you think it’s time all this was decently laid to rest?’ she challenged. ‘If there was any evidence of foul play that night, you’d have found it by now, wouldn’t you?’
Trudy, who was very aware that their lack of any forensic evidence whatsoever, due to the destroying nature of fire, was their weakest link, did her best to look casually away. ‘There is still the question of motive, Mrs Benham,’ she said instead. But she kept her eyes fixed on Alice, who began to squirm a little under the observation. ‘It seems to me that your father was a very clever man, in many ways, and was the kind of man that kept his eyes and ears open. And he seemed very interested in the doings of his immediate family members. His sister, for instance.’
With this, the two sisters cast each other a quick glance, and Trudy knew she wasn’t imagining it when she sensed a sudden lessening of the tension in the room. Whatever was worrying them, the cause of their anxiety didn’t lie in that direction.
‘Aunt Mary?’ Alice said, sounding surprised.
‘But she wasn’t the only one, was she?’ Trudy said, quickly abandoning that line, since it was clearly going to lead to a dead end. ‘Your brother Godfrey did very badly out of the will, didn’t he?’
Again, the two sisters seemed to communicate silently, but again it was clear to her that neither of the two women took Godfrey seriously. It was, she rather suspected, the story of the man’s life.
‘And then there’s your husband, Mrs Wilcox,’ Trudy said carefully, but was surprised, when, yet again, the two sisters showed no signs of increased strain. Especially when Trudy had expected the exact opposite to happen.
‘Oh, Kenneth was used to Father’s ways,’ Alice said flatly, and without any apparent unease. ‘We put him up with him because he was so generous with this place,’ she added, glancing around at her spacious home. ‘And with providing for Lucas, of course.’
‘But your father didn’t like the way your husband ran his private life, did he Mrs Wilcox?’ Trudy asked, deciding there was no use tip-toeing around things any further. They’d come here to find out if this woman knew about her husband’s many and ugly infidelities, and if she did, whether they’d provided either herself or her husband with a motive for murder.
Trudy tensed, waiting for and expecting fireworks. She didn’t have any preconceived ideas, exactly, on how she expected Alice Wilcox to behave. Would she go down the scandalised route, and demand to know how she, Trudy, dared to cast aspersions? Or would she become all sophisticated and nonchalant, and explain to her condescendingly how marriages had to be conducted with a bit of give-and-take on both sides? What she hadn’t expected was for Alice Wilcox to look at her with blank, slightly bewildered eyes.
‘His private life? What on earth do you mean?’ Alice asked.
Suddenly Caroline started coughing violently, and when Trudy glanced at her, under cover of putting her hand to her mouth and leaning forward to catch her breath, Caroline shook her head in a definite signal intended to convey that her sister was ignorant of her husband’s conduct.
Trudy, unsure of what to do next, looked questioningly at Clement.
He caught his cue instantly and leaned forward a little in his chair. ‘Your husband confided to us that his father-in-law had been badgering him quite ruthlessly about investing some money from a bequest into one of Thomas’s business enterprises. And that he, your husband, had had to be … shall we say, quite robust, in turning him down. It made for bad blood between them, I think?’
‘Oh, that,’ Alice said, her brow clearing. ‘Yes, Father wasn’t very happy about that, but he understood.’
Caroline snorted again, but said nothing, and was clearly relieved that near-disaster had been diverted. ‘That man was never happy about anyth
ing,’ she said darkly. ‘And I told you before, he died because he deserved to. You can’t go around causing misery and destruction like he did and expect to get away with it forever,’ she rushed on, her anger levels rising. ‘He killed mother, and instead of being sorry or trying to make amends, he was willing to do the sa—’
‘Caroline, don’t!’ Alice all but shouted, and her sister’s eyes, which had become a little glazed, suddenly flickered, and she paused and took a deep breath.
‘Yes, what was he willing to do?’ Clement asked smoothly, but he already knew it was too late.
Caroline had got a hold on her runaway tongue and simply shrugged. ‘I was going to say, he was willing to do far worse, so long as it meant he got his way. But that night, his sins found him out and he was required to pay for them. That’s all. You know, you’re just wasting your time,’ she added, glancing at her watch at getting up. ‘Your investigation will never come to anything, because it can’t. Now, I have to get back to work. Alice, thanks for the lunch. Dr Ryder, Constable Loveday.’ She nodded at them both briefly and marched out, her colour still dangerously high.
When the door shut noisily behind her, Alice let out a sigh. ‘I’m sorry about my sister’s behaviour. She still really hasn’t come to terms with losing mother the way she did,’ she explained weakly.
‘That’s all right,’ Trudy said, glancing at Clement to see if he wanted to add anything. But when he got to his feet, indicating that he hadn’t, they both took their leave of a very relieved Alice and headed back towards the city.
Chapter 33
Duncan Gillingham was typing furiously. He was, at that moment in time, a very happy man indeed.
When he’d gone into that record shop in Little Clarendon Street he’d had no idea what he might find, but a quick look around had told him that the most likely candidate to have crossed Dr Ryder and Trudy’s radar was the rather good-looking shop assistant.