The Cornish Retribution : a gripping psychological drama

by Amanda James

Oh for God’s sake. I can’t be doing with this, and I wave at Helena as she’s passing. She comes over, shortly followed, to my dismay, by Alison, glass in hand.

  ‘Hi, Mum, great party.’

  ‘Yes, I’m enjoying it. Where’s Carl?’

  ‘He’s chatting to Jack in the kitchen and I’ve just phoned the babysitter to check on Adam for the fiftieth time!’

  Alison interrupts with a snort. ‘Blimey! Young mums, eh? My two are at their nan’s, thank God. Drive me up the wall. Mind you, if I had a bloody husband at home every night like yours instead of in the army, I might be a bit less frazzled.’

  ‘Carl is normally working, so it’s nice that he can be here with me,’ Helena says sweetly, but I can tell that Alison’s got her back up.

  ‘Your little one is a darling,’ Penny says. ‘I’d be checking on him every few minutes too. It’s only natural.’

  ‘How many have you got then?’ Alison says and grabs a handful of nibbles from a tray as a waiter walks past. ‘Mind you, at your age they’ll be grown up now, eh, Penny?’

  ‘I… we don’t have children.’

  ‘Lucky you! Not only do you bag the hot husband but you’re child free…’ Alison’s laugh falters when she sees that nobody is joining in. ‘Oh, sorry. I was only joking.’

  Helena turns away from Alison and says, ‘I was wondering, Mum, when everyone’s gone shall we try out the new hot tub? I could borrow one of your swim suits.’

  ‘That sounds like a nice idea, love. I–’

  ‘But what would the rest of us wear?’ Alison splutters, a few chewed crisps falling onto her cleavage.

  Helena looks at Alison’s chest and frowns. ‘I was thinking just a few of us… you know, family?’

  Ignoring the obvious rebuff, Alison brushes the crisps to the floor. ‘Birthday suits, I expect. Skinny-dipping? That might be fun!’

  Penny snorts. ‘Yes, sure. Not sure that’d catch on, to be honest.’ She rolls her eyes at me and Helena, and we laugh.

  Alison’s face darkens. She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand and sweeps her eyes over Penny’s midriff. ‘Perhaps not. You have to be skinny to skinny-dip, don’t you?’ Then she excuses herself and heads in the direction of the kitchen.

  Penny looks as if someone’s slapped her across the face and gazes out to sea. Helena mouths Oh my God at her me behind Penny’s back and also makes herself scarce. I put a hand on Penny’s shoulder and say, ‘I’ll have a word with Alison later. I’m not sure she knows how hurtful she can be some–’

  ‘Yes. Yes, she does. And she’s right. I’m a disgrace… I’ve put nearly a stone on since the reunion and that’s because I’m worried about Dan straying again. Stupid really. Because he’s liable to do that more if I’m a bloody whale. I might as well give up. He’s way out of my league and I’m not sure that I have the strength to keep fighting for him any more. I’m a miserable fat cow with a miserable life. What’s the point?’

  My heart sinks. Thanks a lot, Alison. ‘You really aren’t a whale, Penny, and you’ve a lot to be thankful for in your life. Look, let me get you another drink, eh? Cheer you up a bit.’

  ‘Make it a bottle. I’m in the mood to get completely rat-arsed.’

  I wake with a start. My bladder’s full, my head’s throbbing, and my mouth feels like it’s stuffed with sawdust. On the way to the loo, I glance at the clock – 7.30am. Feels more like the middle of the night. The cold toilet seat on my bare skin wakes me up a bit more and I rub my temples, wondering why I feel so lousy. Then last night slams into my memory like a wrecking ball. Bloody Penny was in a right state. I’d tried to cheer her up, but it hadn’t worked, even though she’d monopolised all of my time. I’d barely spoken to any of the other guests, after about eight thirty, and had stayed with Penny in my room. Dan hadn’t helped, bringing us refills every time our glasses were empty. Granted, he was trying to make sure the party was a success by keeping his miserable wife away from the crowd, so I’d taken one for the team. My God, I wish I hadn’t now.

  Splashing water on my face doesn’t help, and I pat my face dry, look in the mirror and wish I hadn’t done that either. Red-rimmed eyes in a snow-white face, framed by a bird’s nest of wild dark hair, isn’t a good look. What time had I gone to bed? Another wrecking ball smashes in, bringing an image of throwing up in the kitchen sink… Helena holding back my hair… yes, Helena had put me to bed. Dear Lord. What time was that? What had happened with Penny, and more importantly to all the guests? Had Dan seen me in that state? Had everyone else? Why can’t I remember? A wave of shame and nausea rolls in my stomach and I lurch for the toilet bowl.

  As I’m cleaning my teeth, there’s an almighty hammering on the door. ‘Mum! Mum, are you in there?’

  ‘Jack? Yeah what’s up?’ I pull my dressing gown on and open the door to my frantic son.

  He shoves his hands through his hair a few times. ‘It’s…’ He stops, shakes his head in bewilderment and looks at me, his face whiter than my own. ‘It’s Penny, Mum. I’ve just found her in the hot tub… She’s dead.’

  11

  I stumble to the bed and sit on the edge. This can’t be happening. Can. Not. It must be a weird dream or something. ‘Dead?’ I hear myself say.

  Jack nods. ‘Looks like suicide. I didn’t go too close but there’s… lots of blood.’

  Nausea rolls again and I have to concentrate hard to keep my stomach contents where they should be. ‘Oh my God…’ I push myself up, force my legs to carry me to the door.

  ‘Mum, where are you going?’

  ‘To see her, of course.’ A dizzy spell has me clutching the door handle. ‘Have you called the police? Does Dan know?’

  ‘No, not yet. I felt a bit hungover, so went outside for some air. That’s when I saw her. Then I just ran to you.’

  ‘Okay. Let me see her and then we need to tell Dan.’ I walk to the back door and steel myself.

  Outside, the sun’s spreading a golden light across a blush sky, and the navy ocean is flat calm. I’m anything but, and want to run back inside, bury my head under a pillow and pretend this isn’t happening. I drag my eyes from the ocean to the far corner of the garden. I can see the back of Penny’s head resting on the edge of the hot tub as if she’s fallen asleep.

  The grass is damp under my bare feet as I step from the path and draw nearer. Then I can see. I can see it all. The water is totally crimson, but Penny’s naked body is deathly white, her round stomach and large breasts rudely protruding from the tub as she floats on a sea of her own blood. Her eyes are closed, her face relaxed as if she is indeed asleep. If only. In shock, I draw a deep breath along with the stench of blood and retch at the bitter coppery taste in my throat. This time I can’t stop my stomach coming up and I kneel on grass, helpless.

  ‘Mum, come on, let’s get you indoors.’ Jack’s by my side and I feel his arm through mine pulling me to my feet.

  ‘Poor Dan… someone has to tell him.’ I wipe my mouth on the back of my dressing gown sleeve and a sob breaks free.

  ‘My God… my God!’ Felicity’s desperate voice from behind us makes me sob harder and then from the retreat, I see Dan emerge in a dressing gown, hair stuck up and rubbing his eyes.

  ‘What’s all the yelling about?’ he says and starts to walk towards us.

  Jack holds his hand up. ‘Stay there, Dan. Let’s go to the house and I’ll explain.’

  But Dan’s looking past him towards the hot tub, open-mouthed, wide-eyed. Then he’s running. ‘Pen? Penny!’

  Jack goes after him and Felicity puts her arm around me. My whole body is shaking, and through my tears, I watch Dan kneel at the side of his wife, take her face in his hands. I can’t bear it and run for the house. I must phone the police, but at the door my legs give way and I slump against the wall. Felicity comes after me, helps me up and makes me sit at the kitchen table. Then she brings a glass of water. ‘Just sit there quietly, I’ll phone the police. You’re in no fit state.’

  What seems like minut
es later, DI Nick Brocklehurst and DS Charlotte Jennings are sitting at the kitchen table with me, Jack, Felicity and Dan. They want to ask a few questions. And it’s not minutes, it’s a few hours. First at the house were uniformed police followed by a private ambulance and a doctor to pronounce life extinct. Then the site was cordoned off while CID were informed, and I felt I was in the middle of an episode of Silent Witness as I watched people in white overalls examining the area and taking photos. My stomach is swollen with tea and water but my brain’s just about functioning as normal. Investigators are still in the garden. I sigh. Why all those people are needed is beyond me. Penny’s dead; slit her wrists with one of my kitchen knives. All I want to do is sleep and when I wake, all this will just have been some awful nightmare.

  ‘Let’s start with you, Dan,’ DI Brocklehurst begins, pen poised over his notebook. ‘Can you tell us the last time you saw your wife?’

  Dan’s ashen. He rubs his stubble and sighs. ‘Must have been about eleven or so when she came in. I’d seen the last of the guests to the door and I was getting ready for bed. Penny was very drunk, argumentative. She said she was going out to the hot tub as she wasn’t in the least tired and she’d been waiting for the young ones to leave the tub for ages. They’d gone inside, so it was her turn. Eventually I talked her out of it.’ Dan shook his head. ‘Or so I thought. I said it wasn’t a good idea to go out there drunk and naked.’

  ‘And then what?’ Jennings says.

  ‘We went to bed. We stayed in the new retreat on just a mattress – no bedrooms yet because it’s not finished. I’d had my share of booze too, but the mattress was comfy enough and I went out like a light. The next thing I heard was Felicity shouting in the garden and Sam crying.’ Dan’s voice cracks and he takes a sip of water.

  ‘She said the young ones had gone inside? Was that you two?’ Brocklehurst looks at Jack and Felicity.

  ‘Yeah,’ Jack says, handing Felicity a tissue. ‘My sister and husband were in there too until about ten thirty, then they went home to relieve the babysitter. Fliss and I stayed in for another half hour, perhaps. Penny came over to chat and said she wanted to come in, but she had no suit. Like Dan, we said it wasn’t a good idea, the state she was in.’

  Felicity nods. ‘We didn’t say it like that, just said she’d be better getting some sleep. She was completely out of it. Her eyes kept closing while she was sitting on the side of the tub. Then she stumbled off in the direction of the retreat.’

  Brocklehurst’s pen moves swiftly across the page. ‘And that was the last time either of you saw her?’ Jack and Felicity nod. He turns his keen blue eyes on me and I feel guilty, even though I’ve not done anything wrong. ‘And when did you last see Penny, Sam?’

  I’ve been dreading this because I can’t remember. More of the evening has come to me in dribs and drabs, but it isn’t as clear as it should be. ‘Um, I’ll be straight with you, DI Brocklehurst, I was very drunk and my daughter Helena had to put me to bed.’

  ‘Right. What time was that?’

  ‘Oh… let me think.’ I look at the kitchen clock for inspiration.

  ‘About nine, or nine thirty,’ Jack says. ‘Just before Helena got in the hot tub with us.’

  Brocklehurst’s expression says it all. I feel my cheeks flame – I must have been drinking for England to get in such a state by that time. I scowl at Dan. It was all his fault with his bloody refills. ‘Yes, about then… I guess,’ I say to the table in a small voice.

  ‘Had any of you spent much time with Penny during the evening?’

  Everyone looks at me. ‘Yes, I had. Me and Penny were in my room for part of it. She was upset, and I was trying to comfort her.’

  ‘Upset about what?’ Jennings asks.

  This makes me feel uncomfortable. But I have to tell them. ‘She was upset about her weight and worried that Dan would leave her for someone else.’

  ‘Was there anyone else?’ Brocklehurst asks.

  A memory of the night of the dinner party comes unbidden and unwelcome. Dan’s erection against my thigh, his mouth on mine. ‘Not as far as I know. You’d better ask Dan.’

  Dan speaks before they have chance, he sounds exasperated. ‘No. There’s no one else, Penny got it into her head that I’d been seeing other women when I hadn’t. She was always accusing me throughout our marriage.’

  DI Brocklehurst considers this, tapping his pen against his chin. ‘What do you think drove your wife to kill herself, Mr Thomas? If indeed it was suicide.’

  A murmur of shock goes around the table.

  Incredulous, Dan asks, ‘What are you suggesting – somebody killed her?’

  ‘Not at all,’ Brocklehurst says, evenly. ‘But I’m ruling nothing out at this stage. Our job isn’t to assume… and we’re treating her death as suspicious for now.’

  ‘What was her state of mind recently?’ DS Jennings asks. ‘You say she was upset tonight? But has she been upset or depressed long-term?’

  Dan raises his arms and lets them fall in a gesture of bewilderment. ‘God, I don’t know.’

  I shrug. ‘If I had to say one way or the other, I’d say yes, she’s been pretty down for as long as I have been reacquainted with her.’ I explain about the reunion in Sheffield.

  ‘But she’s never talked about suicide?’ Brocklehurst directs this to Dan.

  ‘No, never.’ Dan scrubs at the sides of his head with his knuckles.

  ‘How about last night when you were talking together in your bedroom, Sam?’ Jennings asks.

  I wonder what to say. The truth was that no, Penny had never said outright that she wanted to kill herself, but there had been more than one occasion when Penny had said she’d not be able to live without Dan. Was that the same thing? No. But I remember feeling very uncomfortable each time Penny said it. The first time had been in the pub that day when we’d met for lunch and–

  ‘Mrs Lane?’ Jennings breaks into my thoughts.

  ‘I’m not sure… not last night, but a few times over the last few months since we met up again she’s said that she couldn’t live without Dan. I said that she’d get used to it, and that I had to live without my husband, but she was adamant. Penny said something like “I’d die without him and I’m not joking”.’

  Dan clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth. ‘But I wasn’t leaving her, for God’s sake.’

  ‘Perhaps Penny thought you might,’ Brocklehurst says. ‘Has your relationship been stable recently?’

  ‘We had our ups and downs. No different to anyone else who’s been together for years, I expect.’

  I have to bite my tongue. It seems obvious that Dan is trying to come out of this snow-white. But then if I mention Penny saying Dan was going to leave the other week because she wouldn’t let it drop about him still being in love with me, it would look bad.

  ‘So she had no cause at all to suspect you of seeing another woman?’ Jennings asks.

  Dan looks like he’s going to explode. His cheeks flush and a fire ignites behind his eyes, then he says, ‘Okay, I’ll tell you. But it was all in her head! She thought that Sam wanted revenge for what happened back when we were kids. Thought I was in love with her still, too.’

  My insides clench and I feel my colour drain. What the fuck did he have to say that for? I listen dumbstruck as he’s questioned about our teenage years and what happened between us.

  ‘Is there any truth in what she feared? Is there some part of you that wants revenge, Mrs Lane?’ Brocklehurst does the annoying tapping thing with his pen again.

  ‘No.’ My voice is barely a whisper, so I repeat it a bit too forcefully. ‘I told her it was all rubbish and she said she believed me, but not Dan. She said he still loved me. I said it took two to tango and that I wasn’t dancing.’ My face is on fire and I look away from the shocked expression on Jack and Felicity’s faces. I daren’t look at Dan. Why had I kissed him at the dinner party, it all feels so wrong now. It was wrong at the time, but if poor Penny has done this because of me, I’
d never forgive myself…

  ‘I see,’ says Brocklehurst, sharing a knowing glance with his colleague.

  I sigh. Great. He’s taking two and two and come up with fucking twenty.

  ‘And are you in love with Sam, Dan?’

  ‘No.’ Dan folds his arms. I note this classic defensive pose. Marvellous. ‘We told you, it was all in Penny’s head.’

  ‘Right. But if she was convinced you were leaving her for Sam, she could have taken her life because of it…’ Felicity says, as if to herself. When she realises everyone is looking at her she flushes. ‘Sorry, just speaking out loud.’

  Brocklehurst stands up and nods to Jennings. ‘I think we’ll leave it there for now. We have the names and contact numbers of the other guests and they’ll be questioned too – see if they can shed further light.’

  Dan snorts. ‘I doubt that. She didn’t know any of them, well, apart from Naomi I think. And Penny stayed with Sam all evening.’

  ‘It’s surprising what can turn up, Mr Thomas,’ Jennings says.

  Jack sees them out and then he and Felicity go to their room to pack. They’re due back at university tomorrow. They’ve offered to stay on, but I just want to be alone. I want to crawl into my big bed and pretend the world outside it doesn’t exist.

  Dan’s still sitting at the table and reaches his hand across to mine. I snatch my hand away and stand up. ‘What the hell do you think you’re playing at?’

  He frowns at me and shrugs. ‘Trying to offer comfort, that’s all.’

  ‘Yeah, I know the kind of comfort you have on your mind.’

  ‘How can you even suggest that when Penny’s lying in a mortuary somewhere?’ Dan’s bottom lip trembles and his eyes fill.

  I lean forward and hiss, ‘Pity you didn’t think of her the other week when you were all over me, telling me you loved me.’

  Dan clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth again and folds his arms. ‘You didn’t protest too much as I recall.’

  ‘Get the fuck out of my house and don’t ever come back.’ My voice is cold, bitter.