by Anne Morice
‘I’ll try my best.’
‘I have a nasty feeling it is Charlie who has given his heart to another.’
‘Indeed? What makes you think so?’
‘I ran across him in London not long ago. That’s how he knew I was over here. It was in one of those restaurants in Jermyn Street. I went there with my parents and there was Charlie, lunching with a very sexy number indeed. At any rate, he evidently found her so. I don’t know whether you’ve ever tried to eat your filet mignon while sitting opposite a man who is devouring you with his eyes, but if so you’ll know what I’m talking about. Anyway, when he telephoned a few days later and requested me to be best man at his wedding, I was not so terribly bowled over.’
‘The bowling over part was the discovery that Marcia was not the girl he’d been devouring in the restaurant?’
‘Just so! Can the marriage last, one asks oneself? Can one even be certain that it will begin?’
‘Oh yes, I think one can,’ I assured him. ‘I happen to know quite a lot about these Henshaws and I can tell you that this kind of thing runs in the family. Charlie’s father is a great devourer, practically insatiable, I shouldn’t wonder, but his marriage has survived in spite of it and here they are, thirty years on and still together.’
‘How do you account for it? Her ladyship doesn’t strike one as a particularly shrinking violet; not one who would hesitate to scream the roof off if anything displeased her.’
‘No, and something tells me that Marcia wouldn’t either, but perhaps what they also have in common is the capacity to buckle down to the job, so long as the money’s right.’
‘Ah yes, but that only raises another snag, I fear. When we were in this restaurant, you see, and I had explained to my parents about Charlie, my dear old dad, who, as you’ll no doubt remember, is fairly well informed on the seamy side of commercial life, was telling me that . . .’
‘Oh, so here you are at last!’ a curt voice said at my elbow. ‘I managed to look in, after all, and I’ve been wondering where you’d got to.’
It was Len and, to add to my annoyance, I saw that his hair was brushed down flat and that he was nattily attired in a dark suit and tie. So he had not only torn himself away from the piled up plate to come to the party, but had obviously put in at least half an hour dolling himself up for it.
It spelt the end of my tête-à-tête with Simon, of course, and he soon drifted away, saying that now was the time for all best men to chat up a bridesmaid or two, and the worst of it was that the most important question of all had been left unanswered.
Having successfully gummed up these works, Len proceeded to unendear himself still further by looking round the room and announcing disgustedly:
‘God, what a collection of over-fed, over-dressed morons! Could anything be more vulgar?’
The fact that my own initial reaction, although less violent, had been somewhat similar for some reason only increased my irritation and I said:
‘How can you call them moronic when you don’t even know them?’
‘I don’t want to know them and I don’t intend to. I can tell at a glance that they don’t speak the same language. They represent every rotten thing in our society that I despise.’
‘Rather masochistic of you to come then. You might have guessed what you’d be in for.’
‘It’s seeing them en masse like this which I find so depressing. It would take a hell of a lot of new brooms to sweep this lot away. Shall we go now, or are you enjoying yourself?’
‘No, not particularly, but you’ve only just arrived.’
‘On the contrary, I’ve been here for at least ten minutes, most of it spent looking for you. Still, I’ll put up with it for a bit longer, if this is your idea of fun.’
Since he had a car outside and I hadn’t, it was not for me to tell him to go and boil himself, but my inner resentment was not appeased by his continuing to lecture me on the decadence of the wealthy middle classes all the way to Viola’s house.
I should have realised, I suppose, that such an outburst sprang from a much deeper unhappiness than could have been aroused by the sight of a lot of provincial people wearing their best clothes, but by the time we drew up at the gate I had reached such a pitch of annoyance that I decided to retaliate:
‘By the way, Len,’ I asked him, ‘is it true what they tell me, that you and Melanie had been planning to get married?’
To my horror, the tears started to his eyes and his face turned scarlet. Then, instead of answering, he folded his arms over the steering wheel, lowered his head on to them and started to sob.
I had never felt more miserable or ashamed in my life.
NINETEEN
‘I can’t tell you what I meant by it,’ I confessed to Viola the next morning. ‘It was a shocking way to behave. Not only to have dealt such a mean blow at Len, but also in breaking my word to you and Kyril. My only excuse is that he’d been so patronising and priggish ever since he turned up at the party that I finally lost all control. That’s why I’ve told you about it. I knew it would haunt me unless I got it out of my system.’
‘Now, listen to me for a minute, please!’ Viola said, carefully replacing her coffee cup on its saucer, ‘because for once in my life I am going to read the riot act.’
Her governessy tone was just the antidote to remorse I needed and, with a touch of defiance, I said:
‘Well, before you begin, I’d just like to point out that disgraceful I may have been, but there must be some truth in what I said, otherwise he wouldn’t have gone to pieces like that.’
‘That is the crux of what I am about to explain. Personally, I can see now that we were foolish not to put you in the picture as soon as you arrived, but by then all the signs were that Melanie had vanished for good and we could hardly have foreseen that only a few days later she would turn up dead, not a hundred yards from where we’re sitting, still less that you would be the one to find her.’
‘Forgive me, Viola, but I don’t understand you. Surely, her turning up dead on the beach is the only part of the picture that matters. What else could you have told me which had any significance compared to that?’
‘And that’s another thing. None of us realised what a right little terrier had arrived in our midst; how you’d go ferreting around all over the place, digging out information which would have been better left buried and rabbiting on about your theories to anyone who would listen.’
‘Not only a terrier,’ I thought to myself, ‘a whole blinking menagerie.’
‘Don’t misunderstand me,’ Viola went on. ‘There was no sinister conspiracy or anything approaching it; simply a tacit agreement on all our parts. You, after all, were a complete outsider, in that sense, and by the time you joined us the whole tiresome episode appeared to be over. What point would there have been in dragging it all out again? I can see now how mistaken we were, though. If we’d taken you into our confidence and explained things, you might now be working for us, instead of against.’
‘I’m not working against you, I resent that. And, even if I were, it wouldn’t make any difference. You can’t hush up a murder.’
‘I realise that. I’m not a complete ostrich, Tessa, but you can avoid bringing suspicion on your own camp.’
‘Have I done that?’
‘No, not really, I was exaggerating, but that charming little scene between you and Len last night is typical of what I mean. You keep trying to strengthen the links between us and Melanie and it could be so dangerous.’
‘So you’re implying that there was not only truth in what I said, but that the rest of you have known it all along and are terrified that if the police get to hear about it they will arrest Len on the spot? I don’t follow your reasoning. People don’t normally go about clobbering other people to death just because they’re in love with them.’
Viola shook her head reprovingly:
‘You know damn well that it’s far more complicated than that. No man-woman relationship could ever be
quite straightforward with Len. Emotionally, he’s a bagful of contradictions and in this particular affair there were all sorts of additional undercurrents to pull him in different directions.’
‘Such as?’
‘Jamie’s attitude, for one. Why do you imagine he was so shattered by the news that Melanie was to be offered the part of the schoolgirl?’
‘For the reason he gave, presumably. That she’d had no experience and would be quite unsuitable. I don’t altogether agree with him, but that’s beside the point.’
‘Oh, come on, Tessa, you’re not even trying! Elfrieda may have lost some of her judgement, where Melanie was concerned, but the theatre always came first with her and the theatre, in this context, meant Jamie and his new play. In the normal way, the two of them would have sorted out a disagreement of that kind in no time at all.’
‘So what stopped them?’
‘Obviously, he refused even to discuss it, putting the onus firmly on Len to keep Melanie out of the cast because what really frightened him was that it probably wasn’t Elfrieda, all by herself, who had dreamt up this idea, but that Len, his own protege, had put it into her head and was actively encouraging her to stick to it.’
‘Oh, I see! And you think that if this were brought into the open the police might begin to regard it as some kind of quirky, three-cornered crime passionelle! I doubt if there’d be much danger of that, you know. Something tells me that the Dearehaven constabulary are not accustomed to reasoning quite on those lines.’
‘I wouldn’t bank on it, but the real point is that we don’t want them to start asking awkward questions. They might even get the urge to probe a little deeper into Jamie’s story of the couple he saw walking on the cliffs. How he must now regret ever having mentioned that! In fact, I think he probably regretted it the moment it was out, which is perhaps why he then . . .’
‘Was unable to give any description at all of the young man, except that he was fair haired and wearing jeans, which could apply to several million people and might or might not have been true? Looking back on it, it did strike me as odd, I must confess. He has such a gimlet eye for human idiosyncrasies that it was strange that he had not picked out a single feature; narrow shoulders or rolling walk, or something on those lines. So what you’re hinting is that he’d recognised Len and then deliberately set about misleading us, realising rather late in the day that there was a stranger in our midst, in the person of myself?’
‘I daresay that’s the answer, although perhaps I’m only making matters worse by admitting it. Can one assume that you will now go trotting off to the police station and repeat every word?’
‘Don’t worry,’ I told her. ‘If Robin had been in charge, there might have been some danger of that, but, as it is, your secret is safe.’
Not that there was any big secret about it, anyway, I could have added, for she was a great weigher up of pros and cons in her lifelong fight to ward off unpleasantness and I felt sure that these so-called indiscretions had been carefully self-edited. She had told me just enough to draw me into the gang, with the consequent obligation of loyalty to its other members, but probably not half of what she knew or suspected. So I tried a last throw:
‘By the way, Viola; you know all that money Melanie had stashed away in Jill’s name? She didn’t get any of it from you, did she?’
‘From me? Certainly not. What on earth gave you that idea?’
‘I thought you might have tried to buy her off. You know, peace at any price?’
‘So I might, if I’d thought of it. Not that I could really have afforded to in these hard times, which may be just as well, as things have turned out.’
She made these observations in a thoughtful, rather amused voice and, unfortunately, she was a much better, or at any rate more experienced, actor than Jamie, so I was still no further forward.
TWENTY
‘Have you recovered from the shock yet, Jill?’ I asked her, carrying my bread and cheese and glass of cider over to the scrubbed wooden bench and table, where she was eating an egg salad, which looked sadly inadequate for her large bony frame.
The custom of lunching in Elfrieda’s office had naturally been discontinued after her death and most of us had gravitated to a small and ancient pub by the harbour. It was not popular with the holiday makers, having no garden, no juke box and no carpet on the floor and, although patronised by the fishing community in the evenings, was relatively empty at lunch time.
‘Shock?’ she repeated in her growly, defensive voice.
‘Of being told that everything you said would be taken down and used in evidence?’
‘Oh, that! Yes, quite recovered, thanks. They were fairly decent about it when they realised I was the innocent party.’
‘I wonder how she got hold of your driving licence?’
‘Nothing easier,’ Jill replied, pointing to a shabby brown leather bag on a nearby table and I saw what she meant. It must have been months since she had cleared it out and it was so stuffed with papers and possessions that several of the compartments were gaping open.
‘I leave it around all over the place too,’ she added. ‘I suppose I can count myself lucky that she didn’t pinch my cheque book and credit card as well.’
‘Somehow I don’t see her doing that, or even being tempted to. I’ve learnt a lot about Melanie during these last few weeks and I’m coming to the conclusion that although hers may have been a curious kind of morality, she had her code, all the same. She took things which were absolutely essential to her, but nothing over or beyond.’
‘Isn’t that what they call splitting hairs?’
‘Well, for instance, she put your driving licence back, didn’t she?’
‘When she had no further use for it.’
‘Yes, but it would have been simpler to have chucked it in the harbour, or a public litter bin; and there must have been as much risk in putting it back as in taking it out. And I’ve always believed there was an even chance that Elfrieda was telling the truth when she said the petty cash cheque was never presented. Everyone assumed that she was covering up for her darling girl, but, after all, Elfrieda had very high principles and I doubt if she’d have condoned a thing like that. Besides, since the darling girl had walked out, there was really no more point in covering up for her. It wouldn’t alter the fact that Melanie had taken all she wanted and moved on to a more amusing scene. That must have been the real blow, but I can see that, even when she was reeling under it, her sense of fair play would balk at Melanie being condemned for the one crime she hadn’t committed. Oh dear, I do wish she was still alive. There are so many questions I’d like to ask her.’
‘Who? Elfrieda or Melanie?’
‘Both. Still, no use wasting regrets over that.’
‘Quite so, although there’s one thing I can tell you which you’d never have heard from Elfrieda if she’d lived to be ninety. Melanie was murdered in her turn, but it was no more than she deserved. In her own sweet fashion she’d already killed Elfrieda.’
‘Jill! What are you saying? How do you know?’
‘No need to get excited. She was probably miles away when it happened, but I still hold her responsible and I always shall. No amount of sentimental whitewashing on your part will change that, because you don’t know the half of it.’
‘The half of what?’
‘How Melanie used Elfrieda for her own selfish ends, got her all steamed up and jumping about, when she should have been resting and conserving what energy she had left to her. I daresay no one else has told you this. Perhaps they thought there’d be no sense in dragging it all out again, or perhaps they only cared about the things which affected them personally. I don’t claim to be any more caring or observant, but it was thrust under my nose. I was always being called in to help arrange things.’
‘What kind of things?’
‘Well, for instance, when they were going to see a film, which they did about three evenings a week, I sometimes had to telephone the cinem
a in advance and make sure they had proper facilities for the wheelchair. So there she’d be, poor old love, dragged off to sit through some awful noisy rubbish, when she ought to have been resting in bed, and all because dear little Melanie got so bored whenever she had to spend an evening at home.’
‘What else did they do, when they’d worked through all the films?’
‘It makes me sick to think of it. Melanie was supposed to be crazy about acting, you know. Showing off was what she was really crazy about. She was forever rigging up silly theatricals for Elfrieda’s benefit. She even used to take things home from the wardrobe, borrowing she called it. One evening when Elfrieda got back there was this fool of a girl laid out on the sofa, wrapped in a sheet, with that wet-white stuff all over her face. Honestly, it’s a wonder Elfrieda didn’t have a heart attack then.’
‘Although I suppose the shock can’t have been so terrible if she could tell you about it afterwards?’
‘She didn’t; it was her housekeeper who passed that one on and she did say that after a moment the corpse went into such heaving giggles that no one could have been fooled for long. Long enough for a woman in Elfrieda’s condition, though. And then there was the driving; did you hear about that?’
‘I knew Elfrieda was paying for her to have lessons.’
‘You’d think that would have been enough, wouldn’t you? But oh dear, no. She said she’d never get through her test if she didn’t have extra practice, so what does Elfrieda do? Only has an L plate stuck on her own car and tells Taylor, her own chauffeur, that he’s got to sit in front while Melanie crashes through the gears and stamps her great foot down on the accelerator before she lets the handbrake off.’
‘Be fair, Jill! She may have been a very good driver.’
‘Not according to Taylor, she wasn’t. He was very fed up about what she was doing to his precious car. But Melanie treated the whole thing as a huge joke, didn’t care how many scrapes she got into; but that wasn’t the worst of it. What really made him angry was the way she insisted on Elfrieda going with them. So there she was, jolting around on the back seat, never knowing from one minute to the next when they were going to knock down a pedestrian or slam into the back of a bus. Hardly the best treatment for an elderly invalid with a dicky heart.’