by Paul Kelly
“And you got what you wanted too Maya, did you not; a young fresh boy to play with and to amuse you?”
Maya sighed and her eyes looked glazed. Whatever Billy-Boy meant to her, or however she tried to explain their relationship, he seemed to be having some sort of effect on his lady at that moment. She wet her lips and a slow smile crossed her face.
“He was quite a young stallion at times,” she said, as if she was talking to herself and there was no one else around to hear what she said. “My favourite lollipop,” she moaned.
“So there was more than one, then?”
“What? More than one what?” she demanded as she threw her hair back from her forehead.
`“Lollipops . . . “Reggie repeated, “You did say favourite lollipop didn’t you Maya …so I presumed you had more than one …”
Maya lay back in her chair, obviously immune to anything else around her. She did not answer and Reggie Gardner knew there was nothing more he could ask Maya Broomfield about her loves which now seemed certainly to be in the ‘plural’ and particularly about her young lover boy as she appeared to swoon at the very mention of his name. He already knew how they met and all there was to do with the association apart from the actual love-making and he was sure Maya would avoid talking about that, at all costs and besides, it would lead nowhere. Anyone could have guessed what type of woman this dentist lady was, apart from her work on peoples’ dentures and he decided to call it a day and let her sweat about the news of her other lover until she contacted the police or the hospital. Whatever happened, Reggie knew she would not accept any responsibility for this man David Bingham being at her flat. It didn’t seem to worry Maya very much that David Bingham was dead ... She was more concerned about the publicity it might cause to ruin her reputation as a Dental Surgeon. There was more work in dentistry and there were other assets that suited Maya Broomfield, that she didn’t want to talk about. Reggie knew what kind of man he was dealing with in this Bingham chap and he felt sure that Maya knew more than she would say about him too. The more he thought about the situation; the more the young lover-boy ... or Billy-Boy stepped away from the scene and he was sorry that William had ever gone that day to Southend-on-Sea.
He was about to tell her that he had finished his enquiries for the time being, but Maya anticipated his departure, throwing her head about in a nervous fashion and telling Gardner that she wanted to get dressed and it would be better if he ‘slung his hook’ and made sure the door was closed behind him when he left.
Chapter Eight
FIONA MUNROE-SMITH was the daughter of Maya Broomfield and her first husband, Major Nigel Munroe-Smith of the Scots Guards. Fiona was only two years of age when Major Munroe-Smith married Maya Broomfield. She had adored her father and felt that her mother had treated him shabbily when the divorce came through seven years after the marriage and therefore she had always maintained a certain degree of ‘reserve’ ... even distrust and dislike of her mother.
The doorbell rang and Fiona answered only to discover a tall, elegant, middle-aged man standing on her doorstep.
“Miss Broomfield?” the gentleman asked and she guessed straight away it was something to do with her mother.
“Munroe-Smith,” she explained, “Fiona Munroe-Smith, but I think I know what you want, so will you please come in.”
James Lederer followed her into her small bed-sit and she invited him to sit down after she removed some clothing from a nearby chair. It seemed obvious to Lederer that the lady he was about to question was a single girl with no apparent partner. The room looked like a bachelor pad of the female variety, as the clothesline above the fireplace was filled entirely with ladies underwear.
“Please excuse the room,” she said apologizing profusely and tried to move some of the contents of the washing line. A pink lace bra fell to the floor and she hurriedly picked it up, but Lederer put out his hand and touched her arm.
“Please don’t go to any trouble on my behalf Miss ... Miss Munroe-Smith and I hope I am not keeping you from anything important ... like your work for example. My name is Lederer, James Lederer and I am the solicitor assigned to Mr. Bright on this recent unfortunate affair at ... at your mother’s flat. Incidentally, if I may say so, I thought you would be much younger than you are and please forgive me if I seem to be impertinent.”
Fiona threw her head back and laughed.
“I am employed as a veterinary nurse with a local vet. Have always loved animals and I find this the most satisfying job to do.... apart from my music, that is. Of course, I need hardly say that I love the work and as for my mother ... well . . . she tells everyone I am seventeen and I suppose you thought I was if you have already spoken to her ... but that’s because it makes her sound younger than she is. She is not thirty-nine as she would have you believe. She is forty-four, very nearly forty-five in fact ... and I am nearly twenty-two and if you want to ask me if she is a genuine blonde ... the answer is definitely NO ... She is rich mouse. Besides, she is not...“
Lederer put his hand to his mouth to stifle his laughter. How much was Miss Monroe-Smith like so many other ladies he knew ...
“Not what?” he asked, but Fiona looked away and declined to answer and Lederer repeated the question with the same response.
“It is nothing of importance,” she said solemnly.
“So you too are a musician, Miss ... er may I call you Fiona,”
“Please do ... everyone else does and I don’t particularly like double barreled names anyway ... it’s just that I did love my father and ...I suppose you already know that I was born two years before my father married my mother, but Major Munroe Smith is definitely my father. I went into that matter when my mother got her divorce.”
Lederer smiled benevolently. He liked Fiona with the double-barreled name. She seemed very open and frank in her approach and he felt easy talking to her.
“What instrument do you play, Fiona?”
“I play the piano, she said very shyly,” but I‘ve also dabbled in the flute. Quite a stark difference, wouldn‘t you say?”
Lederer laughed.
“Extremes, I would say, but very talented nevertheless. I‘ve never heard of anyone being proficient at both ends.”
“Oh! I don‘t want you to think that I am that good at either. It‘s just that I love music and these two instruments help me to express how I feel,” said Fiona and Lederer could see that she felt a little embarrassed at seemingly giving the impression that she was in any way proficient and he decided to change the subject.
“I understand from having seen Mr. Bright at the police station that he went to visit your mother on the Friday evening of the incident and that it was because of some information you gave him, suggesting that your mother wanted to see him again. Is that correct?”
“Yes, that is so and I regret that now” Fiona said but she was hesitant as she continued, “Not that William had gone to see my mother. I don’t regret that at all because I wanted that all along, but because of what happened afterwards. You see, Mr. Lederer ... I have never been happy with the situation of my mother and this very much younger man, but he was obsessed with and by her and nobody but she could have told him that the situation was an unhealthy one.”
“So this was the reason you asked him to go back to her? That seems a strange request to make of Mr. Bright if you disagreed with the relationship with your mother, surely.” said Lederer with a raised eyebrow and Fiona sighed deeply.
“No no ... You haven’t understood me, Mr. Lederer, or perhaps I haven’t explained my reason sufficiently. You see, I knew that my mother had ‘visitors’ all over the weekend and she would never see William in that time, because of this fact. Even when William lived with her in more recent times, she always reserved the weekends for private reasons of her own, saying she would be away at conferences or meetings of some kind or other. She is a v
ery devious and calculating woman, is my mother ... and I thought if William went back to the flat and found her with another man, he would learn about the situation and walk out of her life forever ... It was with very deep regret that I did that now, I may add.””
“I see ... very diplomatic of you, I must say,“ added Lederer, “Friday seems to be a red letter day for young William does it not? It was on a Friday evening that William first met your mother on her return from Southend, I understand.”
“Yes, but that occasion was really a conference as I remember.”
“So your mother doesn’t go to Southend to be with any of her other . . . ‘friends’ . . . does she?”
Fiona grinned ... It was a very unlikely situation for her to consider. Maya Broomfield always liked the comfort of her own flat when she was entertaining her ‘friends’ but she preferred to entertain or be entertained at the weekends.
“No, she doesn’t have any associates at Southend as far as I know and I really think that was a genuine conference that she had to attend there.” added Fiona as she smiled.
“How does she manage her practice during that time? Your mother, I mean ... I thought all dentist worked all through the week and at least one day at the weekend; very often on a Saturday,” said Lederer and Fiona was quick to answer his question.
“Mother has another dentist who takes over her practice as well as his own at weekends, because as you have just said, the practice is also operative on a Saturday and this other gentleman, Mr. Rochford, Stanley Rochford only has a very small dental practice of his own. He is very obliging in helping mother. I think a lot has to do with the fact that mother has a lot of private patients whereas Mr. Rochford’s work is mostly with the National Health and I think mother is going to America sometime soon on some conference or other ... to Chicago if my memory serves me right and then she will get Stan to fill in for her at that time too, I’m sure.”
Lederer nodded as he went on,
“And so . . . when William went back to the flat on that Friday evening when you told him to visit your mother, he found this man, Mr … Mr …” Lederer waited until Fiona would assist him with his question . . .
“David Bingham.” she replied very conveniently . . . “He visited mother regularly, well in the last few months, I think and was one of her most ardent paramours, but since my mother met William she cut off most of her admirers who would normally come to see her at weekends. This weekend business was because she had met young Bright. Before that she had visitors any night of the week and would have had them during the day also if she hadn’t to go to her surgery. It was regretful that when William went into the flat, David had already started an argument with mother and things went on from there that you already know about.”
Lederer stroked his chin and screwed his face up as he always did when he was in doubt about anything.
“But how did you know that William still had a key to your mother’s flat and how did you know he would get into the flat when David Bingham was there?” he asked and Fiona looked around the room before she replied.
“Well,” she said hesitatingly, “William kept the key on a chain around his neck. He was proud of that and I didn’t care who was with mother at that time which was the same time as William always went to the flat. After all she was working all day as a dental surgeon . . . and you must realize that.”
“I see ... and when William arrived there, there was an argument going on and Bingham was strangling your mother.”
Fiona interrupted before Lederer could say any more.
“I always felt that David Bingham was or could be a violent man. I didn’t like him at all. He appeared to me to be a most uncouth person although . . . I understand he went to public school and would therefore have been someone of the upper crust.” she said and Lederer made a mental note of what she said.
“Was Bingham a drug addict?” he asked and Fiona shook her head, with a look of surprise on her face.
“As far as I know he was not, but it seems now as though he was.”
“And your mother . . . was she addicted?”
“No. I am sure ... Oh wait a minute ... She kept cocaine at the flat but I thought that was to do with her practice. Cocaine is used regularly for extractions, you understand. She had easy access to the stuff, but I have never ever thought she used it for recreational purposes.”
“Do you know the names of other men who visited your mother ... at the weekends, Fiona?”
“Many of them . . . There were many,” she replied.
“Tens ... Hundreds?” asked Lederer as he raised his eyebrows . . .and his remark made Fiona smile . . .
“No ... More like thirty or forty I would say,” she said, making Lederer look to the ceiling and whistle. “But, I only know some of them by their Christian names. Mother kept some sort of diary or other with their names in it, but I‘m sure you would never find that. Mother was too careful when it came to matters in her private life and I only found about this diary when I was staying with mother overnight on one occasion and I needed something ...well I needed a fresh pair of knickers and she always kept a ‘knickers’ drawer,”
Lederer pretended not to hear that matter of the diary that Fiona found in the knickers drawer, but he made a mental note to write it down at a later date.
“Would young William be one of your admirers, may I ask, Miss?” Lederer diverted and Fiona laughed again.
“Not possible, even if I wanted to have an interest there. Mother was envious of all she had and possessed and she certainly possessed William, or Billy-Boy Bright as she had him christened.”
“Was William happy with that name? It sounds a bit silly, don’t you think?”
“My mother had her own way of doing things and made a world of her own imagination with most things. Do you know that one of her lovers was called ‘Bingo’ and another ‘Fatso’ . . . and they all accepted her ultimatum, so that they could get what they wanted . . . She was a very liberal lady with her assets, was my dear mother.”
“You mentioned your father, Major Munroe-Smith and that you were very fond of him. Was the divorce acrimonious?”
“Yes, it was a very unpleasant affair at that time. I was only nine, so I don’t remember all the details but I know that daddy was very unhappy. I was born a few years before my father married Maya, as I have already told you, but it was always a love match with him. He wouldn’t have looked at another woman and wanted to marry mother when he thought she was pregnant, but mother wouldn’t have that. She would marry him in HER time and she told him that. I don’t really think she ever wanted to marry him at all, but he was persistent. Mother was the very opposite in character to my father. She couldn’t keep her hands off the many men who came to the house at that time. Daddy had a lot of friends and business partners. Anything in trousers for mother and a kilt would have sent her round the bend. Her second husband was a Scot too ... well, I don’t think they ever got round to getting married, but she called him her husband. His name was John Barton and mother wanted to change my name to Barton at that time. Thank God she didn’t, as he was a strange character if ever there was one and she had a child by him; a little girl, but she died soon after she was born, I understand. She was only with Barton for a couple of years and she never talks about the little girl who died. You see . . . Mother tires easily of the men in her life, that is why I thought by this time, William Bright would have been well out of the scene, but I was wrong.”
“Perhaps William’s tender youth has something to do with it. Has your mother ever been with anyone as young as Billy-Boy before this, do you know?”
“No, I don’t think so and that was actually a surprise to me as she usually goes for men who are giants in more ways than one. William is very nice. He’s tall and lean and handsome and I’m surprised he is attracted to a woman as old as my mother.”
“You don’t fancy him yourself, do you Fiona.” asked Lederer with a particular ‘glint’ in his eye and Fiona blushed visibly as she lowered her head.
“Does it show that much?” she asked before she suggested they change the subject, but Lederer had other appointments he intended to keep.
“Now I will have to leave you as I have another appointment this afternoon ... With your mother actually, but I’d rather you didn’t mention anything to her about my visit here and I won‘t tell her that I saw you blush when I mentioned young William‘s name… unless you want me to … do you?”
“No worries there. I only speak to her now when it is absolutely necessary, but before you go, do you think William is in serious trouble over this? After all David Bingham nearly throttled my mother and probably the drugs, if he was using them, didn’t help that either. Surely William will be O.K. now that old Bingham is still alive and kicking.”
“Well . . . William can’t accuse himself of murder any more. That’s one thing and I think the law will be clement in dealing with him, but he is guilty of assault. You know that, don’t you?”
“Well that’s my entire fault isn’t it . . .? If I hadn’t sent him to mother’s flat that evening, this would never have happened, would it?”
“No, I don’t suppose it would, but who knows, old Bingham as you call him could have been had up for killing your dear mother, if someone hadn‘t arrived there in the nick of time”
“Oh! Dear … that would have been a terrible disaster, wouldn’t it now,” said Fiona with a large grin on her face.
Chapter Nine
“Oh! Gawd,” Maya drawled as she opened the flat door to Lederer . . . “Not another one with a load of bloody questions. Can’t you give it a rest?”