The Sculptress

by Minette Walters

  She flicked Roz a strangely intimate look but didn’t answer.

  ‘I needn’t write this book, you know, not if you don’t want me to.’

  Olive smoothed her thin blonde hair with the back of her thumb. ‘It’ll upset Sister Bridget if we give up now. I know you’ve seen her.’

  ‘Does that matter?’

  Olive shrugged. ‘It might upset you if we give up now. Does that matter?’

  She smiled suddenly and her whole face brightened. How very nice she looked, thought Roz. ‘Maybe, maybe not,’ she said. ‘I’m not convinced myself that I want to write it.’

  ‘Why not?’

  Roz pulled a face. ‘I should hate to turn you into a freak side-show.’

  ‘Aren’t I that already?’

  ‘In here perhaps. Not outside. They’ve forgotten all about you outside. It may be better to leave it that way.’

  ‘What would persuade you to write it?’

  ‘If you tell me why.’

  The silence grew between them. Ominous. ‘Have they found my nephew?’ Olive asked at last.

  ‘I don’t think so.’ Roz frowned. ‘How did you know they were looking for him?’

  Olive gave a hearty chuckle. ‘Cell telegraph. Everyone knows everything in here. There’s bugger-all else to do except mind other people’s business, and we all have solicitors and we all read the newspapers and everyone talks. I could have guessed anyway. My father left a lot of money. He would always leave it to family if he could.’

  ‘I spoke to one of your neighbours, a Mr Hayes. Do you remember him?’ Olive nodded. ‘If I understood him right, Amber’s child was adopted by some people called Brown who’ve since emigrated to Australia. I assume that’s why Mr Crew’s firm is having so much difficulty in tracing him. Big place, common name.’ She waited for a moment but Olive didn’t say anything. ‘Why do you want to know? Does it make a difference to you whether he’s found or not?’

  ‘Maybe,’ she said heavily.

  ‘Why?’

  Olive shook her head.

  ‘Do you want him found?’

  The door crashed open, startling them both. ‘Time’s up, Sculptress. Come on, let’s be having you.’ The officer’s voice boomed about the peaceful room, tearing the fabric of their precarious intimacy. Roz saw her own irritation reflected in Olive’s eyes. But the moment was lost.

  She gave an involuntary wink. ‘It’s true what they say, you know. Time does fly when you’re enjoying yourself. I’ll see you next week.’ The huge woman lumbered awkwardly to her feet.

  ‘My father was a very lazy man, which is why he let my mother rule the roost.’ She rested a hand against the door jamb to balance herself. ‘His other favourite saying, because it annoyed her so much, was: never do today what can always be done tomorrow.’ She smiled faintly. ‘As a result, of course, he was completely contemptible. The only allegiance he recognized was his allegiance to himself, but it was allegiance without responsibility. He should have studied existentialism.’ Her tongue lingered on the word. ‘He would have learnt something about man’s imperative to choose and act wisely. We are all masters of our fate, Roz, including you.’ She nodded briefly then turned away, drawing the prison officer and the metal chair into her laborious, shuffling wake.

  Now what, Roz wondered, watching them, was that supposed to mean?

  ‘Mrs Wright?’

  ‘Yes?’ The young woman held the front door half open, a restraining hand hooked into her growling dog’s collar. She was pretty in a colourless sort of way, pale and fine drawn with large grey eyes and a swinging bob of straw-gold hair.

  Roz offered her card. ‘I’m writing a book about Olive Martin. Sister Bridget at your old convent school suggested you might be prepared to talk to me. She said you were the closest friend Olive had there.’

  Geraldine Wright made a pretence of reading the card then offered it back again. ‘I don’t think so, thank you.’ She said it in the sort of tone she might have used to a Jehovah’s Witness. She prepared to close the door.

  Roz held it open with her hand. ‘May I ask why not?’

  ‘I’d rather not be involved.’

  ‘I don’t need to mention you by name.’ She smiled encouragingly. ‘Please, Mrs Wright. I won’t embarrass you. That’s not the way I work. It’s information I’m after, not exposure. No one will ever know you were connected with her, not through me or my book at least.’ She saw a slight hesitancy in the other woman’s eyes. ‘Ring Sister Bridget,’ she urged. ‘I know she’ll vouch for me.’

  ‘Oh, I suppose it’s all right. But only for half an hour. I have to collect the children at three thirty.’ She opened the door wide and pulled the dog away from it. ‘Come in. The sitting room’s on the left. I’ll have to shut Boomer in the kitchen or he won’t leave us alone.’

  Roz walked through into the sitting room, a pleasant, sunny space with wide patio doors opening out on to a small terrace. Beyond, a neat garden, carefully tended, merged effortlessly into a green field with distant cows. ‘It’s a lovely view,’ she said as Mrs Wright joined her.

  ‘We were lucky to get it,’ said the other woman with some pride. ‘The house was rather out of our price range, but the previous owner took a bridging loan on another property just before the interest rates went through the roof. He was so keen to be shot of this one we got it for twenty-five thousand less than he was asking. We’re very happy here.’

  ‘I’m not surprised,’ said Roz warmly. ‘It’s a beautiful part of the world.’

  ‘Let’s sit down.’ She lowered herself gracefully into an armchair. ‘I’m not ashamed of my friendship with Olive,’ she excused herself. ‘I just don’t like talking about it. People are so persistent. They simply won’t accept that I knew nothing about the murders.’ She examined her painted fingernails. ‘I hadn’t seen her, you know, for at least three years before it happened and I certainly haven’t seen her since. I really can’t think what I can tell you that will be of any use.’

  Roz made no attempt to record the conversation. She was afraid of scaring the woman. ‘Tell me what she was like at school,’ she said, taking out a pencil and notepad. ‘Were you in the same form?’

  ‘Yes, we both stayed on to do A-levels.’

  ‘Did you like her?’

  ‘Not much.’ Geraldine sighed. ‘That does sound unkind, doesn’t it? Look, you really won’t use my name, will you? I mean, if there’s a chance you will, I just won’t say any more. I should hate Olive to know how I really felt about her. It would be so hurtful.’

  Of course it would, thought Roz, but why would you care? She took some headed notepaper from her briefcase, wrote two sentences on it and signed it. ‘ “I, Rosalind Leigh, of the above address, agree to treat all information given to me by Mrs Geraldine Wright of Oaktrees, Wooling, Hants, as confidential. I shall not reveal her as the source of any information, either verbally or in writing, now or at any time in the future.” There. Will that do?’ She forced a smile. ‘You can sue me for a fortune if I break my word.’

  ‘Oh dear, she’ll guess it’s me. I’m the only one she talked to. At school, anyway.’ She took the piece of paper. ‘I don’t know.’

  God, what a ditherer! It occurred to Roz then that Olive may well have found the friendship as unrewarding as Geraldine appeared to have done. ‘Let me give you an idea of how I’ll use what you tell me, then you’ll see there’s nothing to worry about. You’ve just said you didn’t like her much. That will end up in the book as something like: “Olive was never popular at school.” Can you go along with that?’

  The woman brightened. ‘Oh, yes. That’s absolutely true anyway.’

  ‘OK. Why wasn’t she popular?’

  ‘She never really fitted in, I suppose.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Oh dear.’ Geraldine shrugged irritatingly. ‘Because she was fat, perhaps.’

  This was going to be like drawing teeth, slow and extremely painful. ‘Did she try to make friends or didn’t sh
e bother?’

  ‘She didn’t really bother. She hardly ever said anything, you know, just used to sit and stare at everyone else while they talked. People didn’t like that very much. To tell you the truth, I think we were all rather frightened of her. She was very much taller than the rest of us.’

  ‘Was that the only reason she scared you? Her size?’

  Geraldine thought back. ‘It was a sort of over-all thing. I don’t know how to describe it. She was very quiet. You could be talking to someone and you’d turn round to find her standing right behind you, staring at you.’

  ‘Did she bully people?’

  ‘Only if they were nasty to Amber.’

  ‘And did that happen often?’

  ‘No. Everyone liked Amber.’

  ‘OK.’ Roz tapped her pencil against her teeth. ‘You say you were the only one Olive spoke to. What sort of things did you talk about?’

  Geraldine plucked at her skirt. ‘Just things,’ she said unhelpfully. ‘I can’t remember now.’

  ‘The sort of things all girls talk about at school.’

  ‘Well, yes, I suppose so.’

  Roz gritted her teeth. ‘So you discussed sex, and boys, and clothes, and make-up?’

  ‘Well, yes,’ she said again.

  ‘I find that hard to believe, Mrs Wright. Not unless she’s changed a great deal in ten years. I’ve met her, you know. She’s not remotely interested in trivia and she doesn’t like talking about herself. She wants to know about me and what I do.’

  ‘That’s probably because she’s in prison and you’re her only visitor.’

  ‘I’m not, in actual fact. Also, I am told that most prisoners do the exact opposite when someone visits them. They talk about themselves nineteen to the dozen because it’s the only time they get a sympathetic hearing.’ She raised a speculative eyebrow. ‘I think it’s Olive’s nature to quiz the person she’s talking to. I suspect she’s always done it, and that’s why none of you liked her very much. You probably thought she was nosy.’ Pray God, I’m right, she thought, because this one, who’s about as manipulable as putty, will say I am regardless.

  ‘How funny,’ said Geraldine. ‘Now you mention it, she did ask a lot of questions. She was always wanting to know about my parents, whether they held hands and kissed, and whether I’d ever heard them making love.’ She turned her mouth down. ‘Yes, I remember now, that’s why I didn’t like her. She was forever trying to find out how often my parents had sex, and she used to push her face up close when she asked, and stare.’ She gave a small shudder. ‘I used to hate that. She had such greedy eyes.’

  ‘Did you tell her?’

  ‘About my parents?’ Geraldine sniggered. ‘Not the truth, certainly. I didn’t know myself. Whenever she asked, I always said, yes, they’d had sex the night before, just to get away from her. Everyone did. It became a silly sort of game in the end.’

  ‘Why did she want to know?’

  The woman shrugged. ‘I always thought it was because she had a dirty mind. There’s a woman in the village who’s just the same. The first thing she says to anyone is, “Tell me all the gossip,” and her eyes light up. I hate that sort of thing. She’s the last person to hear what’s going on, of course. She puts people’s backs up.’

  Roz thought for a moment. ‘Did Olive’s parents kiss and cuddle?’

  ‘Lord, no!’

  ‘You’re very certain.’

  ‘Well, of course. They loathed each other. My mother said they only stayed together because he was too lazy to move out and she was too mercenary to let him.’

  ‘So Olive was looking for reassurance?’

  ‘I’m sorry?’

  ‘When she asked you about your parents,’ said Roz coolly, ‘she was looking for reassurance. The poor kid was trying to find out if hers were the only ones who didn’t get on.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Geraldine in surprise. ‘Do you think so?’ She made a pretty little moue with her lips. ‘No,’ she said, ‘I’m sure you’re wrong. It was the sex bits she wanted to know about. I told you, her eyes had a greedy look.’

  Roz let this pass. ‘Did she tell lies?’

  ‘Yes, that was another thing.’ Memories chased themselves across her face. ‘She was always lying. How odd, I’d forgotten that. In the end, you know, nobody ever believed anything she said.’

  ‘What did she lie about?’

  ‘Everything.’

  ‘What in particular? Herself? Other people? Her parents?’

  ‘Everything.’ She saw the impatience in Roz’s face. ‘Oh dear, it’s so hard to explain. She told stories. I mean, she couldn’t open her mouth without telling stories. Oh dear, let me see now. All right, she used to talk about boyfriends that didn’t exist, and she said the family had been on holiday to France one summer but it turned out they’d stayed at home, and she kept talking about her dog, but everyone knew she didn’t have a dog.’ She pulled a face. ‘And she used to cheat, of course, all the time. It was really annoying that. She’d steal your homework out of your satchel when you weren’t looking and crib your ideas.’

  ‘She was bright, though, wasn’t she? She got three A-levels.’

  ‘She passed them all but I don’t think her grades were anything to shout home about.’ It was said with a touch of malice. ‘Anyway, if she was so bright, why couldn’t she get herself a decent job? My mother said it was embarrassing going to Pettit’s and being served by Olive.’

  Roz looked away from the colourless face to gaze out over the view from the window. She let some moments pass while common sense battled with the angry reproaches that were clamouring inside her head. After all, she thought, she could be wrong. And yet . . . And yet it seemed so clear to her that Olive must have been a deeply unhappy child. She forced herself to smile. ‘Olive was obviously closer to you than anyone else, except, perhaps, her sister. Why do you think that was?’

  ‘Oh, goodness, I haven’t a clue. My mother says it’s because I reminded her of Amber. I couldn’t see it myself, but it’s true that people who saw the three of us together always assumed Amber was my sister and not Olive’s.’ She thought back. ‘Mother’s probably right. Olive stopped following me around quite so much when Amber joined the school.’

  ‘That must have been a relief.’ There was a certain acidity in her tone, mercifully lost on Geraldine.

  ‘I suppose so. Except’ – she added this as a wistful afterthought – ‘nobody dared tease when Olive was with me.’

  Roz watched her for a moment. ‘Sister Bridget said Olive was devoted to Amber.’

  ‘She was. But then everyone liked Amber.’

  ‘Why?’

  Geraldine shrugged. ‘She was nice.’

  Roz laughed suddenly. ‘To be frank, Amber’s beginning to get up my nose. She sounds too damn good to be true. What was so special about her?’

  ‘Oh dear.’ She frowned in recollection. ‘Mother said it was because she was willing. People put on her, but she never seemed to mind. She smiled a lot, of course.’

  Roz drew her cherub doodle on the notepad and thought about the unwanted pregnancy. ‘How was she put upon?’

  ‘I suppose she just wanted to please. It was only little things, like lending out her pencils and running errands for the nuns. I needed a clean sports shirt once for a netball match, so I borrowed Amber’s. That sort of thing.’

  ‘Without asking?’

  Surprisingly, Geraldine blushed. ‘You didn’t need to, not with Amber. She never minded. It was only Olive who got angry. She was perfectly beastly about that sports shirt.’ She looked at the clock. ‘I shall have to go. It’s getting late.’ She stood up. ‘I haven’t been very helpful, I’m afraid.’

  ‘On the contrary,’ said Roz, pushing herself out of her chair, ‘you’ve been extremely helpful. Thank you very much.’

  They walked into the hall together.

  ‘Did it never seem odd to you,’ Roz asked as Geraldine opened the front door, ‘that Olive should kill her sister?’
/>
  ‘Well, yes, of course it did. I was terribly shocked.’

  ‘Shocked enough to wonder if she actually did it? In view of all you’ve said about their relationship it seems a very unlikely thing for her to do.’

  The wide grey eyes clouded with uncertainty. ‘How strange. That’s just what my mother always said. But if she didn’t do it, then why did she say she did?’

  ‘I don’t know. Perhaps because she makes a habit of protecting people.’ She smiled in a friendly way. ‘Would your mother be prepared to talk to me, do you think?’

  ‘Oh Lord, I shouldn’t think so. She hates anyone even knowing I was at school with Olive.’

  ‘Will you ask her anyway? And if she agrees, phone me at that number on the card.’

  Geraldine shook her head. ‘It would be a waste of time. She won’t agree.’

  ‘Fair enough.’ Roz stepped through the door and on to the gravel. ‘What a lovely house this is,’ she said with enthusiasm, looking up at the clematis over the porch. ‘Where were you living before?’

  The other woman grimaced theatrically. ‘A nasty modern box on the outskirts of Dawlington.’

  Roz laughed. ‘So coming here was by way of a culture shock.’ She opened the car door. ‘Do you ever go back to Dawlington?’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ said the other. ‘My parents still live there. I see them once a week.’

  Roz tossed her bag and briefcase on to the back seat. ‘They must be very proud of you.’ She held out a hand. ‘Thank you for your time, Mrs Wright, and please don’t worry, I shall be very careful how I use the information you’ve given me.’ She lowered herself on to the driver’s seat and pulled the door to. ‘There’s just one last thing,’ she said through the open window, her dark eyes guileless. ‘Can I have your maiden name so I can cross you off the school list Sister Bridget gave me? I don’t want to go troubling you again by mistake.’

  ‘Hopwood,’ said Geraldine helpfully.

  It wasn’t difficult to locate Mrs Hopwood. Roz drove to the library in Dawlington and consulted the local telephone directory. There were three Hopwoods with Dawlington addresses. She made a note of these with their numbers, found a telephone box and rang each in turn, claiming to be an old friend of Geraldine’s and asking to speak to her. The first two denied any knowledge of such a person, the last, a man’s voice, told her that Geraldine had married and was now living in Wooling. He gave her Geraldine’s telephone number and told her, rather sweetly, how nice it had been to talk to her again. Roz smiled as she put down the receiver. Geraldine, she thought, took after her father.