Treated as Murder

by Noreen Wainwright

  “Listen to yourself. You’re talking just like those magazines, the ones the maids read. I’ve seen you buried in them as well. They’re certainly affecting your vocabulary, and probably your judgement as well. You need to grow up a bit, Julia.”

  She looked at him. Who was he? Who was he really, because she didn’t recognise the cold, dismissive voice and expressionless face. Like the stories about changelings. Someone had replaced the warm loving friend with this person. Suddenly she felt sick, truly sick. She stood up and made for the door.

  Giles was saying something about her not being allowed to spoil Bea’s life. Either stay at home and behave like a proper mother, or go…divorce…custody. She made it to the lavatory and threw up. Shaking and cold, covered in a fine film of sweat, she dashed to the car. What was she going to do? Whatever was she going to do?

  She rounded a bend in the narrow Yorkshire dales lane and didn’t see anything. It was as if time slowed into a surreal overlay of the present with the question mocking her, bleeding onto the windscreen and written in the dirt on the road.

  What I am going to do?

  I’m not paying attention.

  What am I going to do?

  She couldn’t focus. She couldn’t think, couldn’t stop the question replaying over and over again, mocking her.

  What am I going to do? I’m going much too fast.

  Then she saw a tractor coming towards her and knew it was going to hit her. She braked hard and turned the steering wheel sharply. And in an instant, clearer than the question she couldn’t answer…I don’t want it to end like this.

  She put up her arms, hands over her eyes, and bent her head to the steering wheel.

  His voice instantly lowered a few octaves. “Are ye all right, Missus?” It’s Mrs. Etherington, isn’t it? Eh, lass you gave me such a fright.”

  “I’m very sorry,” she said. “I was upset about something, should never been driving.” Julia swallowed hard.

  “Yes, don’t mind about that now. We need to get you out o’ the motor, and motor out of this ditch. It’s a hazard on t’road. Are you sure you’re all right, Missis, not hurt?”

  She shook her head. “I’m fine.” She was sure there would be bruises and aches later. But that didn’t matter. No, actually it does matter. I could have died. I’m glad beyond words that I didn’t. Whatever happens with Giles, with the children, with my life, I’ll remember this moment, this thought, and hopefully this sense of gratitude, always, in the back of my mind.

  * * *

  Inspector Greene’s attitude to the Braithwaites had changed. It wasn’t that he was aggressive or threatening, but it was very clear that he meant business.

  From the way she fussed about getting the kettle on, folding the tea towel precisely, before hanging it over the bar of the range, her mother was getting flustered again. She shooed the dog out of her usual armchair and into the yard, for some unknown reason.

  “Sit down, please, Mrs. Braithwaite. We need to talk a bit more about your husband, particularly where he may have gone, and…” he cast a glance at Brown who was, unfortunately, at that exact moment, reaching out his hand for a slice of lardy cake, “…and whether he might have anyone else with him,”

  Hannah shook her head, decisively.

  “He won’t have had anyone with him, Inspector. My husband has a strong idea of being on his own, you see. That saying, “a rolling stone gathers no moss,” could have been written for him. He were always a bit like that, but much more so, since the war.”

  “So, if I tell you that the Kirk woman, Esther, who also worked at Brook House at the same time as your husband had gone AWOL as well, you’d be sure there was no connection?”

  Hannah frowned. “I’d say it was ridiculous. I’m not being funny, inspector, especially not in the circumstances, but I think I know Josh well enough to know that Esther isn’t the sort of woman he would go for, not at all.”

  “Even if they were involved in something together?”

  “How do you mean involved in something Inspector? And Cathy, I’m really not sure if you should be here listening to this.” Hannah had already sent John upstairs.

  “Oh, ma, like I keep telling you, I’m sixteen, not a child. What is the point in trying to keep things from me, especially as I already know plenty?”

  “Well, I wish you didn’t have to know any of it. None of this is the sort of thing you should be mithering about at this stage of your life.”

  Green obviously thought it time to intervene in this on-going debate between mother and daughter. “Whatever the case, Missus I’m going to have to have a look around. In his stuff and so on. I presume he won’t have taken everything with him—not if he took off in short notice, like that. Have you any objection ma’am?”

  Hannah shook her head, looking perplexed. “I don’t mind, but I doubt you will find anything. Josh is a very tidy man, Inspector. There’s his half of the wardrobe in our room and the old chest that he’s been using for his bits and pieces. Apart from the shed, that’s all. Oh dear.” She was upset and searched in her apron pocket for a hankie.

  “Don’t upset yourself mam, it’s just part of their job. It doesn’t mean owt,” Then Cathy stopped short. The envelope. Should she say anything? The question didn’t trouble her long. Whatever her father had done or not done, the police were going to catch up with him and maybe for all their sakes, the sooner that was the better. She rushed in before she could change her mind.

  “There was an envelope in the shed, hidden in the middle of those Hessian sacks, you know where I mean, mam?” She looked at her mother but saw only surprise there as Hannah nodded at her question. “Well, I went in there just to fetch some taters…potatoes, I mean and I found a big brown envelope. It was stuffed with something. I’m not sure, but I think it might have been money. The thing is, me dad caught me with the envelope in my hand—I hadn’t opened, though I was thinking about it. But, he were angry…told me to give it to him and not to say a word about it.”

  “When exactly was this?” The inspector asked.

  She had been expecting this. “It were a Tuesday, not this week, though, last week.”

  “You could’ve said something to me, Cathy.”

  She looked at her mother and shook her head. “I couldn’t. He meant business when he told me not to talk about it. He was dead serious. Besides that…” She hesitated. “Well, it did cross my mind that maybe it might be yours.” Cathy looked from one of the policemen to the other and wondered whether her mother and she should be having this conversation in front of them. She reckoned it was too late to start worrying about that now, though.

  “Mine! Where on earth did you think I’d get an envelope of money, that’s if it even was money?”

  “I don’t know mam, sorry. I wasn’t sure what it was. I thought maybe you were saving up a bit to…I don’t know…maybe leave my dad. You did seem to be acting a bit…”She had been going to add strange, but had again been conscious of the presence of the police, and decided that she’d said enough.

  Her mother gave a short laugh, that didn’t sound amused. “The one thing I’m not going to do, my girl, is leave my own house. That much is for sure. Inspector, Sergeant, if you want to come upstairs with me, you can look through Joshua’s stuff. The shed too, not that I think it’ll do ye much good, like.”

  * * *

  Being at home, properly back in her own room, her own kitchen, felt extraordinary. The only thing it reminded Edith of was when she stopped war work, hospital work, that mixture of relief, sadness and disorientation—a feeling the all-absorbing world she had been occupying didn’t mean anything anymore. Worse of all was the feeling of having no direction. She kept re-hashing Dr. Uxbridge’s words, dredging as many of them as possible up from her memory.

  “Expect to feel a bit anxious, a bit of panic. Don’t try to fight it, look at the feeling, observe it, and put it into its place. Look for a reasonable explanation.” So far, she was trying to do that and to keep p
anic at bay. So far it was working. She had her own little sitting room upstairs she used sporadically, sometimes almost every evening, and then at others, she would spend all her time either in the garden or downstairs chatting with Archie. The occupation of the room had come about by accident.

  They had carried out a gradual piecemeal decoration of the house, changing it in quite slow stages from their parents’ home. This had actually been a nursery, when she and Archie had been children. Her parents had never got around to changing the childish wallpaper and borders and she and Archie had no idea what to do with it. In the back of her mind, she’d thought that maybe one day, maybe Archie would meet someone. But, she wouldn’t have dreamt of saying it. And, it didn’t seem to have occurred to him.

  “What a state, look at that,” he’d said. “Well, this needs transforming for a start. Why don’t you do it, Edie? Be a good project for you. It could become a place of your own. Somewhere to keep your treasures, entertain your friends, that sort of thing?”

  Edith smiled now, remembering the conversation. What sort of future had they envisaged—sharing this house? Was it meant to be a stopgap? But, until what? Until real life started again, presumably. Well, there was absolutely no point in that—real life what was happening during the waiting time and she needed to remember that.

  Chapter 22

  The walk the next day had been Julia’s suggestion. She’d telephoned last night, sounding subdued, unlike herself. Edith had let her spirits lift at the mention of the walk, not held herself in check as she had been doing of late. She would try to let go, try to live in the moment.

  She’d even talked about the police this morning with Archie. She had broached the subject bothering her most since she’d come back home. “Are they still calling round here all the time?”

  Archie had shrugged, but she’d seen something more relaxed, less angry in his face. “No, not that they’ve deigned to tell me, or anything, but I think they’ve moved their focus away from me. I think they have someone else in their sights and what’s more, I have a feeling that it’s something to do with the disappearance of that Kirk woman and Braithwaite.”

  “Surely not.” Edith’s brain was whirring and all sorts of things were resonating against each other. She kept them to herself for now. She needed to keep what she said as much in check as her thoughts. For a long time in the future—forever, perhaps she was going to have to keep a close guard on her tongue.

  * * *

  It was a perfect autumn morning, for a walk. The light already had an old gold tint and the changing hues of the falling leaves turned to world to burnished russets, browns, and gold.

  They soon got into a rhythm, walking at a fair pace. The going was challenging, over bracken and rough ground. “I’m a bit out of condition. I think I’ve been letting things slide, feeling sorry for myself, not doing anything about it.”

  Julia paused and laughed, “You know I think I’ve just heard myself talk there, and I didn’t even move my lips.”

  Edith heard a trace of gaiety, reminding her of the old Julia. “Didn’t we see the funny side of some pretty unfunny things at Tommy’s,” said Edith.

  Julia grimaced. “You had to be there, I suppose. Maybe to anyone else, it would have been rather tasteless, some of the humour. I think nurses always do joke you know, about disgusting things like the sputum, round, or the old chestnut about getting the false teeth mixed up. Did that ever actually happened?”

  “Bound to have done,” said Edith.

  They walked on, matching each other’s pace well. “I think you’ve come to a decision,” Edith said quietly.

  “I think so. But it’s not necessarily the right one. Or even a permanent one. But, I have to jump one way or another, don’t I? I have to tell you something. Don’t panic. But, I had a near miss in the motor, yesterday, Frightened the life out of myself, and I don’t think it did a lot for the nerves of the poor farmer who nearly had the misfortune to mow me down with his tractor.”

  She heard Edith’s sharp inhalation, and saw her shocked expression.

  “Don’t worry. As you see, I had a lucky escape. But it was a sharp lesson. Life is precious, and so on. Also, I can’t go on for very long in my present state of limbo. I’ve been all over the place, angry, indignant, feeling very sorry for myself.”

  “You have good reason,” Edith said.

  “I know. But, the point is I’ve got to get over that, start taking some rational decisions. And the first one is to try and move on from the shock of what has happened, go away for a break, perhaps, but then go back home.

  “What?” Edith couldn’t help the exclamation.

  “I know,” said Julia. “I’m far from sure it’s the right decision, and I’m even less sure that our marriage will last. But, don’t you see, Edith. If Giles and I do part, I need to be more clever in how I deal with it, not just walk away, giving him the advantage. I shouldn’t have to think like this, but look how it would look to an outsider…woman abandons child, husband, and home. As things stand, there’s no way Bea would come with me. I don’t want to put her in that position anyway. My plan is to try and talk to Giles properly. I’ve made all sorts of resolutions to remain calm whatever the provocation. If he wants to try again, ditching the lady-friend then I suppose I owe him…us, that one chance.”

  “You’ve clearly given it a lot of thought,” Edith said. She had serious misgivings, but wasn’t going to say so. It wasn’t necessary, anyway. Julia was a woman without rose-tinted spectacles anywhere near her. Now she confirmed this.

  “I’m prepared to try if he is. But in the back of my mind, and sorry if this sounds cynical, is the thought that if I leave again, it will be properly this time. And that will include getting the advice of a solicitor.”

  An agitated Aunt Alicia telephoned that afternoon. Julia had left after a cup of tea. The relaxed, happy tiredness of the walk was replaced by the tension in her friend’s stance and facial expression.

  “Thanks, for listening, chum,” she’d said in the hallway, giving Edith an unexpected, quick hug.

  “Come and see me again soon.” Edith had the most unsettling feeling of dispatching her friend into the lion’s den, which she told herself was quite stupid. Julia was going home. It was Giles, her husband, who was presumably waiting there, not some strange ogre. Whatever had happened to the old Giles, something must surely remain of the young eager suitor Edith remembered, begging Julia to wangle some time off from the hospital when he was on leave.

  “I wondered if you or Archie could come out to see me? I’ve had that Inspector Greene and the young sergeant out here. They seemed to stay ages and I’m not at all sure they went away satisfied…”

  Edith clicked her tongue. It was too much, upsetting an elderly lady on her own like this. Coming round to question Archie was one thing; Aunt Alicia’s involvement with this business was peripheral. Esther Kirk hadn’t even been with her for long.”

  “Hang on, Aunt Alicia. I’ll come now. I’ll get the motor out and be with you quite soon.”

  “Don’t you think maybe you should bring Archie?”

  Edith made a snap decision. Part of getting better was dealing with things by herself. She’d once been a strong and independent woman. She needed to at least try being one again.”

  “Tell you what, Aunt Alicia. I’ll come on my own for now. Archie is out visiting an elderly patient, a man living on his own, needing the company as much as anything. He’s usually detained there for quite a while and a glass or two is usually imbibed. I’ll stay the night if you like. We’ll see.”

  It felt different driving out to Aunt Alicia’s, on her own, no longer looking for refuge, but being the one to bring, hopefully, some comfort. She drove up the short drive that curved sweetly to the front of the house. She had always loved the solidity of this house; four-square and functional, its beauty composed of simplicity, Georgian symmetry, and lack of adornment. It reminded Edith of the county itself, resilient and sound.

&nbs
p; Aunt Alicia opened the door and for the first time, that Edith could recall, her aunt looked diminished and old. Edith pushed a myriad worries away for now, but couldn’t prevent them rushing into her mind in the first place. It didn’t look like Esther Kirk would be coming back, whatever the reason for her disappearance. Her aunt couldn’t stay here on her own. What did that mean for her and Archie?”

  “Thank you for coming dear, come in.”

  As they went into the hallway, her aunt looked at Edith more closely. “You’re looking well, Edith?”

  “Yes, been for a tramp with Julia over the moors, blew away the cobwebs, for both of us, I’d say.” Edith looked around her. It may be her imagination, but the room they were in was beginning to take on a slightly neglected air. How long had the Esther woman been away anyway?”

  “I’ll make us a cup of tea.”

  “No, Auntie Alicia, let me do it.” Alicia put her hand on Edith’s arm, and she could feel a slight tremor.

  “No, dear, please, let me do it. I’ve been feeling a bit of a useless old woman lately, so don’t make it worse, please.”

  She smiled to take the sting from her words, but Edith fretted at how she seemed to have aged, as she went slowly to get the tea.

  “It isn’t that he bullied me, not at all. He’s quite an old-fashioned, gentle type of man, you know, Edith, however uncouth he tries to appear.” Edith smiled into her cup. “I doubt very much if Archie would agree that view of Inspector Greene, Auntie.”

  “Well, perhaps. Maybe they did concentrate too much on Archie and I can understand that it doesn’t look good for him, having visits from the police. But, one good thing is that they no longer seem in the least concerned about him. They know I’m Archie’s aunt, but they barely mentioned him. They wanted to know about Esther though, everything, every detail. To tell the truth dear, I don’t even know the woman that well. She hasn’t been with me long and apart from that, she is very unforthcoming. I felt a fool. They wanted to know about her friends, about what she did in her time off, whether she mentioned any family. I don’t think they understood that I just didn’t know. They obviously thought I was being obtuse or just downright difficult.”