by Simon Brett
Geographical proximity alone dictated that it was used a lot by members of the Lockleigh House tennis court. And it was there that Jude was joined by Piers at the end of what felt like a very long morning since they had discovered the corpse on the court.
‘“Resigned” is the word I’d use,’ said Piers Targett wearily. ‘Oenone is resigned to Reggie’s death.’
‘Did she cry when you told her?’
‘No, she’s made of sterner stuff than that. Oenone may be weeping her little heart out now she’s on her own, but she’d never let anyone else see how much she was suffering.’
They were sitting in the bar of the Lockleigh Arms. Jude had been going to order a glass of Chilean Chardonnay, but Piers, being a red wine man, had persuaded her to share a bottle of Argentinian Malbec with him. As ever, he had chosen well. Drinking the fine wine in front of the Lockleigh Arms’ blazing fire was warming both physically and spiritually. They were both feeling rather battered by the events of the morning.
And hungry. Jude’s fruit and yogurt before the taxi collected her was a long time ago and Piers said he hadn’t had any breakfast. From the Lockleigh Arms’ limited but carefully chosen menu they had both ordered the day’s special, venison casserole. That promised to continue the physical and spiritual thawing process.
‘How did you first meet the Playfairs?’ asked Jude.
‘Can’t remember exactly. It was through tennis. You know, Reggie and I had a few friendly games, played in the odd tournament. . went out for the odd drink. . We were friends. Then started meeting up with Oenone as well and. . you know how it is.’
Jude picked up the nuance. ‘You mean that you used to meet up as two couples. . while you were still married?’
‘You’re very sharp, Jude. Yes, that’s what I meant.’
‘You’ve never told me much about. .’
He raised his hands to stop her in mid-flow. ‘No, I haven’t. I will in time, I promise. But after the morning I’ve just been through, the last thing I want to do is to talk about my ex-wife.’
‘Fair enough,’ said Jude. And she meant it. If their relationship was going to survive, then unpacking the baggage of their pasts was going to take a long, long time. ‘I’m still intrigued to know why Reggie Playfair was on the court anyway.’
‘I’m sure we’ll find out in time.’
‘And indeed when he got there. Does Lockleigh House have security cameras, because if it does, then there’d be a record of-’
‘It doesn’t have security cameras.’
‘Isn’t that rather unusual? For a big place like that?’
‘It doesn’t have security cameras because, being an old people’s home, there’s someone on duty all the time. Also a lot of the residents suffer from insomnia. Only an extremely stupid burglar is going to break into a place like that.’
‘But if there’s someone on duty all the time, then they might have seen when Reggie’s car arrived and-’
Again the hands were raised. ‘Jude, Jude. I really don’t want to talk about this either. I’ve just lost a very close friend. I need a bit of time to get used to that idea.’
For a moment, to her surprise, Jude wished Carole was with her. Her neighbour would have had no inhibitions about picking through the details of an unexplained death.
But then she looked across at Piers and was overcome by a wave of sympathy. She could see from his face that he really was suffering. Though he erected defences of humour, referring to the ‘poor old bugger’, asking which chase Reggie had died on, the death had affected him profoundly. Jude reached across and placed her plump hand on his thin one. ‘Sorry,’ she murmured.
‘Don’t worry about it,’ he said. ‘How was the Old Boys’ doubles?’
‘Fascinating. I really did get more of a feeling of the game from watching them. They don’t move about much, but they hit the ball beautifully.’
‘They were all pretty good players in their time.’
‘And how old are they?’
‘Oh, I’m not sure that it’s polite to ask that. Still, you reckon you’ve now got an idea of the rules now?’
‘I get some of it. The bit that still doesn’t make any sense is why they change ends.’
‘But I told you about that. It’s to do with the chases. When two chases are laid, or only one if the score has reached-’
It was Jude’s turn to raise her hands. ‘Please, Piers, please. We’ve established there are subjects you don’t want to talk about at the moment. Well, I’ve got one too — and it’s the rules of real tennis.’
He grinned. ‘Very well.’ He looked up towards the pub door to see the entrance of four elderly gentlemen. ‘Ah, here come the Old Boys themselves. Maybe you’ll take being taught the rules better from them. .?’
‘I doubt it,’ said Jude.
She knew the other three elderly gentlemen who entered because Wally Edgington-Bewley had introduced them with punctilious politeness in the dedans before they had started playing. Their names were Rod Farrar, Jonty Westmacott and Tom Ruthven. They all wore a kind of uniform of variegated cardigans and brightly-coloured corduroys.
‘My turn to buy the drinks,’ said Tom Ruthven.
‘I’ll have-’ Jonty Westmacott began.
‘I know what you’ll have. . unless you’ve changed the habits of eleven years. I know what you’ll all have.’
‘Do you mind if we join you?’ asked Wally Edgington-Bewley, edging towards the table near the fire.
Piers flicked a quick look at Jude, but she nodded assent. She was rather fascinated by the geriatric foursome and was pleased to see them draw comfortable chairs up to the table.
‘Oh, incidentally, you left this,’ said Wally Edgington-Bewley, holding out a fat envelope towards her.
‘Sorry?’
‘Copy of my book. I said I’d leave it for you in the club room.’
‘Oh, I’m so sorry. I forgot, what with. .’ Seeing a negative head-shake from Piers, she didn’t mention Reggie Playfair, just concluded: ‘One thing and another.’
‘Well, I do hope you’ll enjoy it. Labour of love on my part. It’s about all the real tennis courts I’ve played on.’
‘Which is virtually all the real tennis courts in the world,’ said Piers.
‘Virtually,’ Wally agreed with a modest smile.
‘As I know well,’ said Piers.
‘Oh yes, we’ve had some jolly jaunts in foreign climes, haven’t we?’ The old man recollected with a nostalgic smile.
‘Well, thanks. I’m sure I’ll really like it,’ asserted Jude, with possibly more tact than truth, as she took the book. Then she went on, ‘I enjoyed watching you play this morning.’
‘You didn’t see me at my best, I’m afraid,’ said Jonty Westmacott. ‘Just wasn’t seeing the ball today. Tweaked a tendon in my knee a couple of months back and it hasn’t really settled down yet.’
‘Well, you saw me at my best,’ said Rod Farrar. ‘Sadly, that’s as good as I get these days. Not that I ever was that great. And the new hips and knees, wonderful though they are, never quite match the originals.’
‘Have you had them done recently?’ asked Jude.
‘Most recent knee a couple of years ago. But I have got to second time round on both hips and knees. So what you see before you is a bionic man. All parts in more or less perfect order. . though not all the original parts I started out with.’ He looked at Jude piercingly. ‘Are all your joints your own?’
It was not a question that she had ever been asked before, but she was able to reassure Rod Farrar that her body had not yet been enhanced in any way by the surgeon’s knife.
‘Lucky you.’ Then realizing that actually asking the question might be seen as some lapse from gallantry, he said, ‘But of course you are far too young to worry about that sort of stuff. Anyway — ’ he grinned at her — ‘are you hooked yet? Are you going to become obsessed with real tennis like the rest of us?’
‘Early days,’ she replied cautiously.
‘I do hope you’ll take to it,’ said Rod. ‘And it would be really good if you could join us one day for a Wednesday morning doubles.’
‘Oh? Why?’
‘Because,’ he replied, ‘you would lower our total age to under three hundred!’
Quickly she did the calculation and realized that, even if Rod Farrar was being rather gallant about her age, all of the men must be in their eighties.
By now Tom Ruthven had returned to the table with the drinks. A red wine for Jonty and for the others halves of bitter (Jude got the feeling that a few years earlier, when their prostates had been in better condition, they would have been ordering pints.)
‘Incidentally,’ Wally Edgington-Bewley announced, ‘George did tell us about Reggie, so if you were delicately skirting round the subject. .’
‘Thanks for telling us,’ said Piers.
‘You two found him, I gather?’
‘Yes.’
‘We should raise a glass to him.’ Wally raised his half and said, ‘Reggie Playfair.’
All the others around the table did the same and together, as somehow Jude knew they would, they all solemnly intoned, ‘Poor old bugger.’
NINE
‘Hello, it’s Oenone Playfair.’
Jude was taken aback by the unexpected phone call and hastened to assemble some appropriate words of condolence but Oenone briskly cut through them. ‘Yes, well, it was bound to happen one day.’ As Piers had said, she wasn’t the type to let anyone see her suffering.
‘Listen, Jude, the reason I’m calling you is that a great friend of mine is Suzy Longthorne. . you know, who runs the Hopwicke Country House Hotel.’
‘Oh yes?’ Jude knew exactly who was being referred to. Suzy, a former model, had been a friend for a long time.
‘Well, Suzy told me that you were very helpful to her when she had an awkward situation of a young man being found hanged in her hotel.’ Jude remembered the circumstances vividly. What had looked like a suicide had been proved to be murder.
‘She said you and your friend — Carole, is it? — found out the truth of what had really happened.’
‘Well, yes, I suppose we did.’
‘And I wondered if I could enlist your help. . ideally yours and Carole’s?’
‘Of course. But can I ask what for?’
‘To find out what actually happened to Reggie.’
Jude was very relieved that Carole had been included in Oenone Playfair’s request for a meeting. She was aware of her neighbour’s continuing unspoken resentment of the new relationship with Piers Targett. The fact that he had stayed over at Woodside Cottage on the Wednesday night would not have lessened that resentment.
Anyway, Piers had set off after breakfast in the E-Type on his way to Ebbsfleet where he would take the Eurostar to Paris.
So Jude had the perfect opportunity to do a little fence-mending. No peace offering to Carole Seddon could have been more seductive than an invitation to join in another murder investigation.
‘I think you should be careful about the words you use,’ said Carole when the situation had been explained to her.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, Oenone Playfair didn’t use the word “murder”, did she?’
‘No, she just said she wanted to find out what had happened to Reggie, but surely that must mean. .?’
‘Not necessarily. I don’t think we should mention the possibility that he was murdered until she does.’
It was a wise caution, because as soon as Carole and Jude started talking to Oenone Playfair, it was clear that the recent widow had no suspicions of foul play.
They had agreed to go to her house, Winnows. Though reacting with apparent stoicism to her husband’s death, Oenone confessed that she didn’t really feel up to going out yet. On the way over in Carole’s immaculate Renault, Jude brought her neighbour up to date with the events of the previous day at Lockleigh House tennis court.
Winnows was a large detached dwelling about midway between Lockleigh and Fedborough. Flint-faced like many West Sussex buildings, its size suggested that it had probably once been a farmhouse, which over the years had been expensively refurbished. The whole place breathed money. The garden was immaculately maintained. On the gravel in front of a flint-faced outhouse converted into a double garage stood two BMWs, including the one Jude had last seen outside the Lockleigh House tennis court.
The interior of the house was equally perfect, not flashy in any way but with the kind of antique furniture, upholstery and curtains that didn’t come cheap. Like the garden, everything was irreproachably tidy, suggesting perhaps that the Playfairs had live-in staff.
While Oenone went through to the kitchen to make coffee, the two visitors were seated on the large cushions of a sofa whose box-like back and sides were tied at the top with silken ropes. They looked round at the effortless elegance of the recessed fireplace and the grand piano. Jude noted that the only photographs on display, except for some black and white ones of presumably deceased relatives, were of Oenone and Reggie. It confirmed the impression she had somehow received on the Sunday, that the Playfairs didn’t have children.
Over the fireplace hung a portrait of a young woman in a green ball dress. The fashion of the gown and a residual likeness declared it to be of Oenone in her twenties.
Entering with the coffee, she saw that they were looking at the painting and grimaced. ‘A lot to be said for putting that in the attic,’ she commented. ‘A bit masochistic to have such a constant reminder of the ravages of age.’
‘Did Reggie commission it for you?’ asked Jude.
‘No, my parents had it done. Before Reggie and I had met. Part of being a debutante.’ She shuddered at the memory. ‘It was a vital ingredient in my parents’ sales pitch to entrap a suitable husband for me.’
‘And was Reggie that suitable husband?’
‘Good heavens, no. Not in their eyes. My father was an earl, I’m afraid. When I started going round with Reggie, they very definitely thought I was slumming.’
‘Was he of very humble origins?’ asked Carole.
‘By their standards, not by anybody else’s. No title, you see. And only from a minor public school. Then he was very successful in the City, which they thought was a bit infra dig.’
‘What did he do?’
‘Stockbroker.’
‘Was he still. .?’ asked Jude. ‘I mean, had he retired?’
‘Oh yes, in theory he retired about seven years ago. The company was sold off back then. But Reggie still spent a lot of the time studying the markets and dealing. It was his hobby, really. Though he was doing it with our money rather than other people’s.’ As if anticipating a question they were too tactful to ask, she continued. ‘Very successfully. I have no reason to complain.’ She looked around at her beautiful surroundings with some satisfaction.
Carole and Jude were both struck by how composed she seemed for a woman whose husband had died the previous day. But then British aristocrats were not renowned for wearing their hearts on their sleeves.
‘Anyway. .’ Oenone’s tone changed to a more businesslike one, ‘I told Jude on the phone about the recommendation Suzy Longthorne gave for your investigative skills. I gather up at the Hopwicke you solved a murder for her. Obviously this case is nothing like that — ’ Carole and Jude exchanged almost imperceptible looks — ‘but Reggie’s death has left me with some unanswered questions.’
‘Including, no doubt,’ said Jude, ‘the one that’s been puzzling me. What was he doing at the tennis court at that time of day?’
‘Precisely.’
‘I mean, that seems to me to be the most obvious thing anyone would have asked. And yet all the time I was there yesterday morning nobody asked it. And I had lunch with some of the members yesterday. .’
‘Really? Who?’
‘Wally, who you introduced me to on Sunday, and three others.’
‘Oh, the Old Boys. Of course, yes, they do their doubles on
a Wednesday morning. So you were at the Lockleigh Arms?’
‘Mm. And I kept trying to get on to the subject of what Reggie was doing there, but they kind of avoided answering it, almost as if I was asking something distasteful. Even Piers wasn’t very helpful when I asked him last night.’
Carole pounced on the little detail. ‘Did Piers stay with you last night?’
‘Yes,’ Jude replied wearily.
‘Oh,’ said Carole, as only Carole could say ‘Oh’.
‘That in a way,’ said Oenone Playfair, ‘is what worries me about the situation.’
‘Sorry? What do you mean?’ asked Jude.
‘The way the men are all clamming up. It suggests to me that they probably do know what Reggie was up to, and it’s something he shouldn’t have been up to.’
‘Isn’t it also possible,’ suggested Carole, ‘that they don’t know what he was up to, but they’re clamming up because they think he might have been up to something he shouldn’t have been up to?’
Oenone conceded the possibility. ‘Yes, men do that, don’t they?’
‘Let’s work back from when you last saw him,’ said Jude. ‘Did you see him before he left the house yesterday morning?’
‘No.’
‘Oh?’ Carole was instantly alert.
‘No, but I wasn’t expecting to. We’d said our goodbyes, such as they were, the previous day.’ Catching sight of the expression on Carole’s face, she explained, ‘There’s nothing sinister about it. We have a flat in town. On Tuesday evening Reggie was going to a dinner at his livery company. When he does that he leaves the car at Pulborough and takes the train up to London. So he went off after lunch on Tuesday.’ For a brief moment there was a slight tremor in her voice as she said, ‘That was the last time I saw him.’