4 Death at the Happiness Club

by Cecilia Peartree

  'There isn't really anything between Sean and me. We were both lonely and needed a friend. I expect we can just move on now and go our separate ways.'

  She looked searchingly at Amaryllis as if trying to work out whether Amaryllis believed her or not.

  'So what happened that day at the Happiness Club?' said Amaryllis. 'I've heard about it from your husband's point of view - to cut a long story short, Zak and I came across him that same evening in the camper van and he told us you were around at the time of the gun-shot.'

  'Yes,' said Penelope slowly. 'Yes, I was… I saw the Porsche in the yard as I was passing the Happiness Club, and I thought Liam must be in there making some sort of scene - I didn't really think about the gun until later. I was worried he would make a fool of himself - though heaven knows he's done that often enough before; you'd think I would be used to it by now. I saw the car was empty, and I was just standing in the yard, wondering whether it would help if I went inside or if it would make things even worse, when I heard the shot.'

  'What did you do then?' said Amaryllis.

  'I'm afraid I panicked a bit,' Penelope admitted. 'I thought it must have been Liam - I couldn't cope with that idea so I ran away… So childish. I don't know what came over me.'

  'And then what?' said Amaryllis. Something didn't quite add up, but she wasn't sure what it was until Penelope continued her story. She noticed the other woman was blushing. What on earth could be so embarrassing?

  'Then - this is even more childish, I'm afraid - I hadn't gone far down the road when I noticed Mrs MacPherson in the distance, walking in my direction,' said Penelope. 'I couldn't face seeing her - so I jumped over someone's garden wall at the other side of the road, and barged through their rose bushes.'

  Her voice lowered almost to a whisper during this sentence, and she leaned across the table as if hoping nobody else overheard. Amaryllis wanted to laugh. Compared to some of the things she, and indeed some of her friends, had done in the past, this was chickenfeed in the childishness stakes. She thought of the time she, Christopher, Jock and Darren had hidden in someone's shed, of the kitchen window she had climbed out of in the church hall on the day of Jemima’s Homecoming event, and of the expression on the face of the man whose garden she had invaded only the other day.

  'What's so funny about that?' said Penelope, her face now darkening to what seemed a dangerous degree. 'I'd have been mortified if anyone had seen me.'

  'Sorry - it brought back memories, that's all,' said Amaryllis. 'Believe me, you aren't the first to barge through rose bushes. What happened next?'

  She remembered Maisie Sue had said something about bumping into Penelope. But hadn't that been when Maisie Sue was on her way back from the Happiness Club?

  'I waited until I thought Mrs MacPherson had gone past,' said Penelope. 'Then something awful happened.'

  She paused. Amaryllis didn't believe in prompting people unnecessarily. She waited.

  'The front window of the house opened,' said Penelope. 'A man shouted at me.'

  Oh dear, oh dear, thought Amaryllis, resolving to take Penelope out on one of her nocturnal expeditions some time. Her education had been sadly neglected.

  'I climbed back over the wall,' said Penelope. 'Then it suddenly occurred to me that maybe it wasn't Liam who had done the shooting - maybe he was the one who had been shot. I thought I'd better go back and have a look. I was just hurrying back up the road when Mrs MacPherson came rushing down from the direction of the Happiness Club. I may have been a wee bit rude to her. I was getting quite het-up by that time.'

  How could this woman have stayed married to the would-be ultra-cool Liam Johnstone for so long? Amaryllis asked herself. She was more like his mother than his wife, with her outdated vocabulary and low embarrassment threshold. Did anyone else ever get het-up these days? How did he put up with her? How did she put up with him? What was their secret?

  'But when I got back up to the place and went round to the yard again, the Porsche nearly knocked me down, it was coming out so fast. I didn't even manage to see who was inside, except I thought there might have been a woman in the front passenger seat. But I was squeezing myself against the wall at the time, so I'm not sure.' Penelope paused for breath. She had obviously been re-living the panic and fright of that moment as she spoke. After a moment she recovered enough to continue. 'I still didn't know if Liam was involved. He could have been fleeing the scene in the Porsche after doing something terrible. But in that case, who was the woman in the passenger seat? And who was the victim? If there was one.'

  'I think we've all been asking ourselves that,' said Amaryllis.

  Giulia came over and asked Penelope if she was all right.

  'I'll get you more coffee,' she said. 'More panettone? Biscotti? Ice-cream?'

  After Giulia had vanished back into the kitchen, Amaryllis said,

  'What did you do after that?'

  'Nothing. Well - I went into the building by the back door and called to see if there was anybody there. Only there wasn't. Or at least no-one answered.'

  'Did you look in the office or the front room?'

  'No. I just stood in the lobby and called from there. I didn't want to intrude or cause a scene.'

  Amaryllis found her fingers had clenched themselves so firmly that she had trouble separating them from each other. She couldn't believe Penelope's timidity - on the other hand, she believed it utterly. The woman's whole life had been based around fear of causing a scene. It must have been deeply ingrained in her from infancy, if not even before that.

  'Then what?' she said, trying to unclench her teeth at least before speaking.

  'Nothing really. I heard a car engine so I went back out to the yard. I just saw the camper van disappearing towards the main road. I don't know who was driving that either.'

  'It was Liam,' said Amaryllis. 'He was chasing the Porsche.'

  Penelope stared at her in bewilderment. 'But who was driving the Porsche?'

  'It must have been the Frasers,' said Amaryllis. 'One of them, anyway. I don't think anyone knows yet which one… When you spoke to Sean Fraser - before all this happened - did you get any sense of the family dynamics?'

  'Dynamics?'

  'I mean - in a family of three, there's sometimes an odd one out. Do you think that was Sean? Or one of the others? What gave you the idea Sean was lonely?'

  'Did I say that?' said Penelope. 'Oh, I suppose I did. That's how it seemed to me. I was a wee bit puzzled by it. After all, he was almost always with his sisters. I remember thinking when I first met them how close they all were, and almost envying them. Not that I got on all that well with my own sister.' She shuddered. 'Not after the bridesmaid's dress incident… But you don't want to hear the sordid details of my childhood.'

  Giulia brought the coffee refills and biscotti.

  'So,' said Amaryllis. 'Did Sean say anything to you that might indicate he had a serious grudge against one of his sisters? Or that they might have reason to feel the same about him?'

  Penelope flinched away, leaning right back in her chair. 'Amaryllis, dear, this isn't one of your interrogations. You sound just like that nasty Inspector Forrester.'

  'Sorry,' said Amaryllis, but she was getting impatient. Did Penelope have anything important left to tell? Or was she so lonely she would be happy to witter on pointlessly all day, just for the company?

  'They were - are - very protective of him,' said Penelope after a pause. 'Whenever I spoke to him it was only for a few minutes at a time, then Dee or Dilly would come along wanting him to do something. It was almost as if - no, that's silly.'

  'Go on - what were you going to say?'

  'Almost as if they were afraid of what he was going to say to me if they left us alone too long. But that doesn't make sense.' Penelope frowned. 'The only time we got the chance to have a good chat was when we were at that place in North Queensferry - and then you and your crowd came along.'

  'Sorry,' said Amaryllis.

  'No - it's all right.
We weren't really saying anything secret. I just told him about Liam and why I had asked him to leave, and that I wasn't anywhere near being divorced yet.'

  'And what was Sean talking about?'

  'Hmm,' said Penelope. 'He was very complimentary about my asking Liam to leave, said he wished he had more courage himself, but that it must be hard to disentangle yourself from a marriage. Or any other long-term relationship.'

  'That sounds as if he may have had experience of it himself, then,' Amaryllis said thoughtfully. 'Did he say anything about having been married?'

  'Oh, no, he didn't spell anything out. I just thought he was being supportive. He's that kind of man. Unlike some others,' added Penelope darkly as an afterthought.

  'What line of enquiry do you think the police are following?' asked Amaryllis.

  'I really don't know, dear. They did ask me a lot of questions about Liam and whether he knew about Sean - not that there was anything much to know. And whether I knew anything about Sean's background. Whether he had any history of terrorist activities. Terrorist! Sean! That's just so far-fetched.'

  'Oh, I don't know,' said Amaryllis vaguely.

  Penelope glanced at her watch. 'I wonder if I've missed the bus.'

  'You can come back to my place and talk to Zak instead if you like,' said Amaryllis, and immediately wanted to retract this offer. She must have been spending too much time with Christopher again: it was just the kind of compassionate gesture he would make.

  'Thank you, Amaryllis, I think I will,' said Penelope.

  They made their way out of the restaurant, pausing to pay Giulia, which resulted in a bit of a scene when Giulia didn't want to take their money and Amaryllis had to run round the counter and shove it in the till while Penelope created a diversion by asking about Giancarlo.

  Emerging, they found it was still a typical July day with temperatures from Siberia and capricious raindrops cavorting to and fro. The restaurant was quite close to the harbour, and the usual way home to Amaryllis's apartment would have been to go up the hill behind it. But Amaryllis decided they would go through the town instead, because she remembered she needed to replenish her biscuit and fruit cake supplies in case Jemima, Dave, Christopher or indeed any of her friends came round. She didn't realise quite how momentous this small decision would be.

  'Look! - there's the Porsche!' and Penelope broke into a run as they passed the harbour and came to the road that ran along the river front, with only the railway line between it and the beach.

  Maisie Sue was getting into the car, helped by Dee and another woman - was it Dilly? Amaryllis wondered fleetingly if she should get her eyes tested. Were the women helping her or -?

  Amaryllis took to her heels and ran too, overtaking Penelope in a couple of strides, but the Porsche drew away from the kerb as she approached. It swept off in the general direction of the Queen of Scots.

  'Liam's Porsche!' gasped Penelope, catching up with Amaryllis and watching the car disappear round the next corner. 'Was that Dee and Dilly Fraser? And Mrs MacPherson? What were they doing?'

  Amaryllis didn't waste time trying to reply. She took out her mobile phone, keyed in a number and spoke clearly and concisely.

  'Don't you go rushing in now,' said a stern voice at the other end of the line. 'Remember what happened last time.'

  She didn't bother to reply to that either.

  Chapter 24 Plaid Curtains and Pancakes

  Someone got out of the car. Maisie Sue glanced up from her task and saw a woman walking towards her. Looking beyond the woman, she recognised the car. It was the cream Porsche that had swept past her a few times lately in town.

  'Well, hi there, Dilly,' she said in surprise once she recognised the woman.

  'I'm Dee!'

  Oh my God, said Maisie Sue to herself. It's Dee Fraser. She mustn't see her brother lying dead on the mud-flats. She could go hysterical and then what would I do?

  Maisie Sue had a brainwave. If she could get the sisters back to her place and keep them there, the police could come over and talk to them. It would be much nicer for them to hear the news in the comfort of Maisie Sue's home than to find out either by stumbling across the body on the beach - something that didn't bear thinking about - or by having the news broken to them as they stood out in the rain or sat in the cool beige anonymity of the Porsche.

  'I wonder if you might be able to give me a ride?'' she said. 'I just remembered - I left something cooking on the stove. It would be real neighbourly of you to get me home before the kitchen catches light.'

  Dee stared at her. Maisie Sue noticed for the first time how penetrating the woman's blue eyes were. Could she really and truly see into Maisie Sue's mind and know that she was telling lies, or was that just Maisie Sue's own conscience talking?

  'Of course,' said Dee at last. 'We'd be happy to help.'

  She didn't exactly sound happy but she did lead the way to the car and hold the door open so Maisie Sue could get in the back. Dilly half-turned in the front.

  'Hi there, Dilly,' said Maisie Sue, trying to sound as if she hadn't just come across the woman's brother lying dead on the mud-flats. 'How are you today?'

  Maybe she would break the news to them once they were relaxing in her kitchen over pancakes and maple syrup. She hoped there was enough syrup. And a can of cream. And maybe some bananas.

  'What's happening, Dee?' said Dilly nervously. Now that Maisie Sue looked at her properly, she seemed rather pale and fragile. Her hand trembled as she raised it to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear. Dee, by contrast, looked stronger and more capable than ever.

  What if Dee reacted badly to the news?

  Maisie Sue reconsidered her options and decided reluctantly - because she liked to face up to her responsibilities - that she had better let the police tell the sisters about their brother's death. That would take longer, of course, by the time she had contacted them and they had gone to the beach and verified her story, and then driven up to the house… but at least that would make things kind of official, and would rule out the chances of a mistake.

  Not, thought Maisie Sue grimly as she remembered Sean's extremely dead appearance, that anyone could have made much of a mistake there.

  She noticed Dee watching her in the rear-view mirror, and forced herself to smile.

  'Can you give me directions?' Dee requested, starting the engine.

  'I surely can,' said Maisie Sue. 'And I hope you'll come in for pancakes and maple syrup once we get there. If the kitchen's still OK,' she added hastily, remembering.

  'So which way is it, then?' said Dee. She didn't sound all that interested in the pancakes. This might be harder work than Maisie Sue imagined. Oh well, at least she didn't have to spend long in the car with them. She would soon be in her own house where her cell phone and house phone were to hand and where she was familiar with where the knives were, and that sort of thing…

  Knives? What was she thinking of? She wasn't about to use a knife on anyone, and especially not on a pair of defenceless bereaved sisters. And in any case, if she took out a knife or other weapon it would be just as likely they would get hold of it and use it against her.

  'Oh - straight ahead to the corner, then take a right up the hill,' she said, avoiding Dee's eyes in the mirror and trying not to sound guilty about her random thoughts, surely the result of getting too close to Amaryllis. If close was the right word.

  'Then take a left after the funeral parlour,' she added as the powerful car swept effortlessly through town. For a moment she hoped somebody she knew would see her travel in style for once; but she was sitting well back and was probably almost invisible from outside. She sighed a little. It was the story of her life. In some ways she might as well never have existed at all. Even when Pearson was around she had often felt like an invisible woman beside him.

  'It's down here,' she said as they approached her house. 'The house with the plaid curtains.'

  'Plaid?' said Dee, trying to impose a sneer on the words.

&nbs
p; 'Now - what do you think about those pancakes?' said Maisie Sue to distract herself from this rudeness.

  Dilly clapped her hands.

  'Can we have pancakes, Dee?' She was as excitable as a teenager. Up until that moment Maisie Sue hadn't really noticed how strange Dilly's behaviour was. Now the woman's hair was rumpled and her shirt buttons were done up the wrong way, and she just looked - well, weird was the only word that came to mind. Like a child who had gotten dressed in the dark and whose mother hadn't bothered to check her appearance before they went out.

  But then, Dee had never seemed all that motherly either. Or even sisterly, whatever that meant.

  'Better make sure the kitchen's still there first,' said Dee after a moment. She drew up outside the house. 'There isn't any smoke,' she added. 'No sign of a fire engine either.'

  'Good,' said Maisie Sue. 'Maybe the flame blew out. I guess I better have a look. You can park round the back out of sight if you want. But we don't get a whole lot of trouble around here. The car should be quite safe either way.'

  'I'll put it round there anyway,' said Dee. 'You two can get out and put the kettle on.'

  'And start the pancakes.' Maisie Sue got out of the back seat with an effort. She put her hand on Dilly's arm to lead her into the house. Dilly jumped as if the touch were electric.

  'It's OK,' said Maisie Sue, patting Dilly's arm. 'Dee's just putting the car round the back. She'll be right in. Come on, you can help me mix the batter. We'll have to let it sit a while.' She opened the door and went in first to let Dilly see it was all right. She wedged the door open behind them for Dee.

  'We can't stay long,' said Dilly, gazing around wide-eyed as if she had never been in a house before. 'Dee said we have to keep moving on.'

  'Let's get started then.' Maisie Sue took off her padded coat, hung it over a chair and headed for the kitchen. Dilly didn't comment on the fact that there was nothing on the stove, burnt offering or otherwise. They had started in on mixing the batter by the time Dee came in.