Chapter 29
Over the last twenty-four hours or so, Lavender’s managed to compartmentalise her mind. It’s been a struggle, but every time thoughts of Morvoren, the fire and the whole situation demand her attention, she forces them back into a strongbox, slams it shut and secures the padlock. It had been tough telling her parents about everything, but it had to be done because Mum was asking what had gone on between her and Morvoren. Morvoren wouldn’t answer her questions, and Lavender had only divulged they’d had a big row and didn’t want to say what it was about. After the fire, however, she needed to let them know the truth.
She’d told them about her part in Matt’s downfall and about the fire. Mum had been horrified and sympathetic, but Dad was a bit distant. He told her he was always there for her, and he was sorry she’d been hurt, but Lavender did wonder if he totally believed what his mother was capable of. Dad wanted to go round and challenge Morvoren, but Lavender had sworn them to secrecy, impressed upon them they couldn’t mention what they knew to Morvoren until investigations were over. God knows what she might do if she knew Lavender was accusing her, spreading it round the family.
Too much thinking and puzzling over death and destruction makes her despair as well. So today the only thoughts she’s allowing to flourish are the ones about how happy Matt makes her. He’s stayed in her house since the night of the fire – her bed too. Who would have thought it? There were times she wondered if it would ever happen. It has though, and she is over the moon, on cloud nine, head over heels and all the other little clichés in the world used to describe joy and happiness.
Lavender steps out of the shower, wipes steam from the mirror and smiles at her reflection. She knows it’s daft, but as well as feeling different inside, she looks different too. Calmer, more in tune with who she is. This must be the power of love. Matt would probably run a mile if she dropped the ‘L’ word out loud. But he must have an idea. She’s hinted at her feelings for him and she did say he’d won her heart the other day when they were talking about the fire and Morvoren. Matt had hinted at his feelings for her too on more than one occasion. No. She won’t allow those thoughts. Bang. Slam. Click. The mirror has steamed over again, so she draws a little heart in it. Then, slipping on her dressing gown, she decides to cook a full English and take him breakfast in bed.
In the kitchen, she finds Matt at the table, his long hair wild and uncombed, his eyes red-rimmed and a thick dark shadow of stubble across his jaw. ‘Hi, Matt. Thought you were still sleeping.’ Lavender drops a kiss on his head and takes the frying pan off a hook on the wall.
‘Chance would be a fine thing. I was just resting my eyes when I heard you get up and have a shower. Not slept a wink.’
This isn’t what she wants to hear. She can feel the strongbox rattling at the back of her mind. ‘Why’s that?’ Eggs, bacon, bread. She’d look in the fridge and the breadbin for those items, hum a cheerful tune and hopefully Matt would just say his insomnia was due to a stomach ache. Nothing at all to do with the thoughts in the strongbox.
‘Because when I checked my phone late last night, I saw I had a text and a missed call from PC Cross asking me to come into the station today. Didn’t look at my phone much yesterday as we were busy walking along the cliff path and doing other interesting things.’ He gives her a cheeky smile.
No matter how much Lavender tries to disguise it with vigorous egg cracking and grill banging, the rattling grows louder and then the lid flies off the box. A dark swarm of worries strangles the happy, light feeling she’s had since waking and brings her back from cloud nine to ground zero. ‘They want to interview you again?’
‘Possibly. Or they’ve found something on the CCTV? Or someone. Morvoren with any luck.’
‘Hope so. Morvoren’s not one for technology, so it wouldn’t have crossed her mind to even be wary of being caught on camera.’ Lavender turns the bacon and is a little surprised to realise all she feels for her grandmother is contempt. But then she supposes that the old woman’s despicable actions have killed any affection that might be lurking in the recesses of her heart.
Matt nods. ‘I’ll text back and ask what time he wants me in. I need a shower and to make myself look presentable.’
As Lavender sets the plates down on the table and pours the tea, she knows she has to let the strongbox stay open. There’s no going back to the pretence of the two of them living in their carefree happy bubble. The sooner they get to grips with the bad stuff, the sooner they can move on. ‘I’ll come to the station with you and tell them how you came to be found naked and drugged in your car.’ She sighs. ‘Well, our version anyway. Tell about the bracelet too.’
Through a mouthful of bacon, Matt says, ‘To help them get more evidence on Morvoren?’
‘Yes. And to clear your name. If by some chance they haven’t got her on camera, I’m buggered if she’s getting away with it. It had to be her, Matt. She’s the only one who had my bracelet.’
He nods and wipes his mouth. ‘Are you one hundred per cent on that one?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘It would be good if we could mention the bracelet, but I said I’d never seen it before.’
‘That doesn’t matter, because you might not have. I don’t wear it all of the time. I’ll tell them I lost it, where and how.’
Matt pushes his plate aside and takes a swig of tea. ‘I just hope they don’t try to suggest you had anything to do with it.’
‘How could I have? I was in the pub at the time, with at least ten witnesses to prove it.’
‘I know.’ He places his hand over hers. ‘But why can’t all this be over? All I want is for me and you to carry on getting to know each other and be happy. Is that too much to ask?’
Lavender doesn’t know. Her gut tells her they have a way to go before happy endings are on the horizon. She gives him what she hopes is an encouraging smile. ‘It will all be over, Matt. Not sure when… but it’ll have to be after Morvoren is dealt with, one way or another.’
* * *
They arrive at Truro Police Station a little after 2pm and are shown into an interview room. A young female officer explained PC Cross wouldn’t be present, but DI Karen Price and a DC Steve Vincent would be along shortly, and asked if they wanted tea.
Nursing two cardboard cups of ‘dishwater’ as Matt calls it – he always makes her laugh – they hold each other’s hands under the table to calm their nerves. Lavender remembers that when Matt contacted Cross about what time to come into the station, he’d asked if the CCTV had shown anything. Cross said it had, but wouldn’t reveal what. Then the door opens and in walks Price and presumably DC Vincent. Price has a laptop under her arm.
She extends her hand to them both. ‘Nice to meet you again, Matt. This is DC Steve Vincent. In murder investigations, it’s usual to have CID personnel involved. PC Cross extends his good wishes, however.’
Vincent, a tall, dark-haired, brown-eyed officer in his thirties, shakes their hands.
‘And this must be Miss Nancarrow,’ Price says, giving a broad smile. ‘Can I call you Lavender?’
Lavender feels like saying, no call me Gertrude. But says, ‘Yes, that’s my name.’
‘Now, as you know, you’re here for a voluntary interview, and we do want to tape it. To be clear, just because the tapes go on, you’re not under arrest and you’re free to leave at any time.’ Both of them nod their understanding. And then Price turns to Lavender.
‘Lavender, I understand you have something to tell us about Matt’s incident of last month?’
Matt answers for her. ‘Yes, but we’d like to hear what you have to say about the fire and the CCTV first, if that’s okay?’
‘Certainly.’ Price starts up the laptop, folds her arms and sits opposite, next to Vincent.
Vincent smiles at Matt and says, ‘Your story – that you were at the shop at the time of the fire with Betty Lawson – checks out was said the other day. Also, Betty can provide CCTV footage of you in the shop at the ti
me, should we need it, which I can’t see being necessary.’
‘Glad to hear it. Though why I’d be a suspect at all is beyond me.’
‘You knew the victim, Matt,’ Price says. ‘What was the nature of your relationship with Jessica Blake. Friends or…?’
Lavender doesn’t like the way she leaves the question hanging and neither, apparently, does Matt, because he says, ‘Yes, we were friends. Why is this important?’
‘It’s a murder investigation. We need as much information as we can get.’
Before she can stop herself, Lavender asks, ‘Are you no nearer to finding out who the arsonist is?’
Price ignores her, directing her answer instead to Matt. ‘We have one or two extra pieces of information since last we spoke, but nothing concrete yet.’
Lavender’s heart plummets. Does this mean the CCTV hasn’t caught Morvoren?
Vincent asks, ‘Can you think of why Miss Blake would be at your place, Matt? Anything at all, no matter how inconsequential, could help us.’
Matt sighs. ‘I might as well tell you. Jessica and I had a one-night stand just over a week ago. I can’t see what difference it makes, but I want to be open about everything, given the circumstances. Jessica was disappointed there’d be nothing further. But I have no idea why she was there at the cottage the other night. We hadn’t arranged to meet… doesn’t make sense. Unless she was the one who set the fire. A colleague once told me her marriage broke down because she was so jealous of her husband’s female friends. Perhaps she was angry I’d rejected her, and she wanted revenge?’
‘No. We’re sure she didn’t, which will become apparent from the CCTV… But as you were saying, Matt, you had arranged to meet Lavender?’ Price says.
Matt nods.
‘Did Jessica know? Could she have been there to try to persuade you to reconsider your relationship?’
‘I can’t see how she’d possibly know about me and Lavender. We have only recently become romantically involved.’
Lavender sees the slight rise of Price’s eyebrow and decides to say her piece. ‘What I have to say might help.’
Matt shoots her a frown, but she ignores him.
‘Matt and I have been friends for a while, but my witch of a grandma, Morvoren Penhallow, tried to scupper it. Matt and I fell out because of what she’d done… but now we are, as he says, romantically involved.’ She and Matt share a quick smile and they squeeze each other’s hands under the table.
Price nods. ‘Go on, please, Lavender.’
‘Okay. Jessica came to my house the night of the fire, not long before I went out to meet Matt. She told me she was Matt’s girlfriend and to come clean about what I’d done to him. I told her I’d not done anything, because I haven’t. As I said, it was Morvoren. I also told her I didn’t believe that Matt would ask his supposed girlfriend to do his dirty work for him. Perhaps that’s why she went to the cottage – so she could talk to Matt about her visit to me, before I had the chance to.’
Price’s eyes light up. She looks very interested now. ‘I see. You think she might have wanted to tell Matt her story before you gave him your version?’
‘I think it makes sense.’
‘And what were you supposed to have done to him? According to Ms Blake?’ Price asks. ‘You say it was your grandmother, Morvoren?’
Matt says, ‘Can we see the footage first please? It will make more sense to talk about Morvoren’s part afterwards.’
Price nods and turns her attention to the laptop for a few moments. Then she turns it round to face Matt and Lavender, and both she and Vincent stand and move round so they can see the screen too. The picture is very difficult to decipher because it’s obviously night and there’s quite a bit of smoke. Then Jessica’s there, feeling her way down the side of the house. She’s coughing into a scarf and wobbling along on high heels. Lavender puts her hand over her mouth as bile rises in her throat. They are watching the last few minutes of a woman’s life… it’s unbearably sad. Then suddenly Jessica is no longer visible.
Lavender feels Matt tense by her side. He says, ‘Where the hell did she go?’
Price says, ‘She must have gone round the back of the house… She’s gone for a few minutes. As you can see, the fire was well under way at the back of the house when she arrived, so she couldn’t have started it.’ Price runs the recording on and pauses. ‘Here she is coming back now. I will warn you, it’s not an easy watch, so if you’d rather not, I won’t force you.’
Matt and Lavender agree to watch and the recording is started again. Jessica’s dragging herself along the ground and her lower half is burning. Lavender covers her face and peeps through her fingers. Her heart’s thudding in her chest and she feels like she’s going to faint. There’s no sound, but they can see Jessica’s mouth is open in a scream and she’s trying to beat the flames with her hands. Then she stops and renews her effort to escape. One of her legs is lifeless and the other is thrashing in pain. Moments later, she’s screaming again – or is she saying something?’
Price pauses again and says, ‘We’ve had a lip-reader in and she says there’s no doubt she’s calling for you, Matt. Asking for your help.’
Matt shakes his head and Lavender sees his bottom lip tremble. Then Price presses play, so Lavender squeezes Matt’s leg and looks back to the screen. Jessica’s not thrashing or trying to pull herself along now. She’s talking again and, through the smoke, a hooded figure appears in front of her like some ghostly spectre in a play. Lavender looks more closely and can see it’s a man of stocky build – broad shoulders in a long coat with his hood pulled up tightly. He’s got his back to the camera, so they can’t see his face. Even if he was facing the camera, it would be hard to see his features clearly because of the hood and the smoke.
Jessica tips her head back, looks up at the man who’s crouching down in front of her. She says something. She’s reaching out her hand to him and smiling. Smiling? This woman must be in unimaginable pain. Lavender wants to cry out, because dear God, that smile is so loving and beatific.
Price presses pause again. ‘Apparently she said, “Matt! Matt, is it you? Yes… Thank God.”’
Matt looks up at Price, aghast. ‘It wasn’t me! You know it wasn’t.’
‘Calm down, Matt,’ Vincent says. ‘Of course we know. But do you recognise the man, either of you?’
Matt shakes his head. ‘No… but then it’s so hard to make him out.’
Lavender purses her lips. ‘No… but there’s something… He looks faintly familiar.’ She can’t quite put her finger on what it is.
‘I’ll play the last little bit. See if anyone comes to mind,’ Price says.
Jessica’s eyes shut and the crouching figure pulls something out of his pocket with a gloved hand. He puts it in Jessica’s and closes her fingers around it. Then the smoke rolls across once more. When it clears, he’s gone.
Something about the way the figure holds his head when looking at Jessica pushes a memory button in Lavender’s mind. Jamie… Jamie tends to put his head on one side when he’s talking. Maybe he said something to Jessica, but of course his face isn’t visible on camera. She turns to Price and Vincent. ‘I think it’s Jamie Penhale! And he just put my bracelet in her hand.’
‘Your bracelet?’ Vincent asks, looking at Price in surprise. ‘And who’s Jamie Penhale?’
Lavender thinks it’s probably time to tell her story. ‘He’s a man I know who’s been involved in persecuting Matt.’ She nods at the laptop. ‘Is that the end? Nobody else appears?’
‘No, that’s it. And you said your bracelet?’ Price says, shutting the laptop and returning to her seat. Vincent follows suit.
Lavender sighs. ‘Yes. Matt told me yesterday that a bracelet was found in Jessica’s hand. He had no idea whose it was, but he said it had a mermaid on it. As soon as he said that, I knew it was mine. I’d lost it … or it had come off the last time I saw Morvoren. She grabbed my wrist at one point. Since then, I’ve been puzzling about wha
t to do. I couldn’t really believe it… but I have been slowly coming to terms with the fact that Morvoren has killed a person and tried to kill another… with Jamie’s help, I know now, obviously.’
‘Morvoren’s your grandma?’ Vincent says.
‘Yes, unfortunately.’ Then she tells them all about the feud, about Terry and Elowen, about all the lies she’d been fed about Matt by Morvoren, and their version of what happened the night Matt was drugged. Matt chips in now and again, but mainly leaves it to Lavender.
‘Hang on, let me get this straight.’ Price looks at the notes she’s been making. ‘You actually thought you were giving Matt a love potion? You really believe in that stuff?’
Lavender shrugs. ‘I know it sounds pretty outlandish in this day and age, but Morvoren passed lots of herbal lore knowledge on to me. I’ve been used to picking plants and roots since I was about four years old. Making potions. I’ve used successful herbal remedies for colds, arthritis, heart problems, gut problems, depression, headaches, you name it. Love potions are just a normal part of life to me.’
‘And love potions work?’ Vincent asks, a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.
‘If they’re made right.’ Lavender gives him a level stare.
‘You also said that Morvoren substituted the love potion with a sleeping potion instead, unbeknownst to you,’ Price says.
‘Yes, that’s correct. I would never have gone along with something like that. I told you – Morvoren tricked me into the whole thing. I was about to call an ambulance when he passed out, but then she came in and got Jamie to help her. She said that if I told anyone what they were doing she’d–’
‘Tell the police it was you and they’d got a manufactured alibi… Yes, you explained that.’ Price shoves her glasses further up the bridge of her nose and rests her chin on her interlinked fingers. ‘No, what I don’t understand is how you didn’t pass out too. You were drinking the same wine the potion was in, presumably?’
The Feud Page 18