‘What time’s your train?’ she asked without turning.
‘Three thirty. I’d better stop this and get my bag packed. It’s a pain having to take a DJ on such a short trip.’
‘When will you be back?’
‘Around lunchtime, I should think. It’ll be a boozy do, so no doubt I’ll sleep late. I’ll buzz you at Lindsey’s when I get to Thames Link.’ He paused. ‘Will you be going straight there after dropping me at the station?’
‘No, I’ll go and see Pops first.’
‘Well, if you’re not coming back here, we’ll take Gus to Bob before we leave.’ Another pause. ‘You’re quite sure you don’t mind my going? I could still ring up and cancel, you know.’
‘Of course you must go. Let your hair down and forget all about this mess till you get back.’
‘How about coming with me? If joining a party of rowdy artists doesn’t appeal, you could go to the flicks or a show.’
‘Stop worrying, love. I’ll be fine.’
‘Well, don’t say I didn’t offer.’ And he went clattering down the stairs to the bedroom. Outside, there was a crash, a shocked silence, and then an outbreak of yells. She glanced down and saw the bicycle lying on its side and the child being comforted by his father. Lessons in life start early, she mused, and with that philosophical thought, followed Max down the stairs.
Lindsey was already at the hospital when Rona arrived, but it had been arranged that, to stagger visits, Avril would look in during the evening.
‘I was just telling Pops that Hugh’s been on the phone,’ Lindsey said. ‘All up to high doh about the murder, though why he should think it involves me, I don’t know.’ She glanced at Rona. ‘Sorry about yesterday, Ro. I was hardly reassuring, was I?’
‘Hardly,’ Rona agreed dryly.
‘No one with half a brain could think you had anything to do with it. What happened this morning?’
‘I just signed the statement and left.’
‘There you are, then.’ She sounded relieved.
‘How’s Gus?’ Tom asked, tactfully changing the subject. ‘I didn’t know he’d been ill till Lindsey mentioned it.’
Rona, glancing at her twin, caught the almost imperceptible shake of her head, and gathered that poison had not been mentioned.
‘Much better, thanks. Not up to Lindsey’s stairs, though, so he’s over-nighting at the vet’s. He’ll be as right as rain in a few days – just like you!’
‘Too right; I’ve been out of bed today.’
‘Playing deck quoits?’
‘As good as. Walking to the bathroom, at any rate.’
A trolley was wheeled down the ward, from which tea and biscuits were dispensed to patients and visitors alike. The ward was busy this Saturday afternoon; several families had come en masse to visit relatives, and the level of noise was such that Rona hoped no one on the ward was seriously ill.
By the time they’d had their tea, people were starting to leave and Tom was looking tired.
‘I think we should make a move, too,’ Rona said, ‘and let you regain your strength before Mum arrives.’
‘Thanks for coming,’ Tom told them. ‘I’ve seen more of my daughters in the last few days than I have in months.’
‘Why are you in Max’s car?’ Lindsey asked as they separated in the car park.
‘Mine’s in dock. It won’t be ready till next week.’
They arranged to meet at the out-of-town Sainsbury’s on the way back, and consequently by the time they reached the flat the sun was low in the sky and a cool breeze had sprung up.
‘Not quite spring after all,’ Lindsey commented, as Rona helped her unload the boot. ‘Never mind, there’s a good, warming supper waiting – corned beef hotpot. Remember, it was the first thing we ever cooked?’
‘And probably the last, as far as I’m concerned,’ Rona rejoined.
‘I made it in advance, so it only needs warming up. I got a couple of videos in, too, since there’s nothing on the box. They’re over there, if you’d like to look at them.’
‘Did Rob mind not seeing you this evening?’ Rona asked, as she unpacked the groceries on to the kitchen table.
‘No, he quite understood when I explained Max was away. He was staggered to hear about Meriel, though – really shocked.’
Was he indeed? Rona thought caustically. ‘Did you – say I’d been there?’
Lindsey turned to look at her. ‘Well, of course I did. That’s what made it all so personal.’
Rona’s heart started a dull thudding at the base of her throat. ‘I thought we were trying not to advertise the fact,’ she said mildly.
‘Telling Rob is hardly advertising it.’ Lindsey took the hotpot out of the fridge and put it in the oven. ‘OK if we eat early? I skipped lunch today.’
Rona, who had eaten virtually nothing since breakfast the previous day, nodded.
‘What’ll happen about the book now?’ Lindsey asked curiously.
‘I intend to go on with it.’
Her twin stared at her. ‘Are you out of your mind?’
‘No, but I’ll be out of pocket if I abandon it. Relax, Linz; the police will soon catch up with whoever it was, and then there’s nothing to stop me. There’ll be a scoop or two in it, I can promise you.’
‘And Meriel’s death won’t hurt, either, commercially speaking.’
Rona shook her head violently. ‘That’s – sick, Lindsey. God, if you’d seen her—’
‘Agreed, it was in bad taste. Forget I said it. I think we could both do with a drink.’
Rona watched her prepare them, wishing disloyally that she was at home with Max, where she didn’t have to monitor everything she said. Here, there were so many subjects she mustn’t mention: her suspicions of Rob, the truth about Theo’s books, his affair. It was a new experience, having secrets from Lindsey, and she hated it.
As she took her glass, her mobile rang. ‘Blast!’ she exclaimed. ‘I meant to turn it off!’
‘Don’t answer it, then,’ Lindsey said calmly. ‘It might be the press.’
The ringing stopped as voice mail took over.
The caller was Justin Grant, his voice staccato and out of breath. Here was someone who really would mourn Meriel, Rona thought. He sounded desperate to speak to her, wanting to know exactly what had happened, but Lindsey took the phone from her and switched it off.
‘Who is he, anyway?’
‘Meriel’s cousin. He wasn’t too keen on the bio in the first place.’
‘Let him cool his heels; you’re entitled to a bit of peace on a Saturday evening, specially after what you’ve been through. How did he get hold of your number?’
‘I gave it to his receptionist. She must have kept a note of it.’
‘Well, you’re incommunicado now,’ Lindsey said with satisfaction.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping their drinks. Outside the window it was nearly dark, but neither of them made a move to switch on the lamps. Rona leaned her head back against the sofa, feeling herself start to relax, the tension easing in neck and shoulders. She hoped she’d be able to sleep tonight, without the benefit of pills.
‘Choose which video you’d like,’ Lindsey invited, tossing them over.
‘Whichever requires the least concentration. Preferably a musical.’
‘Can’t help you there, but this one’s supposed to be a comedy.’
‘That’ll do; some light relief would be very welcome.’
‘We’ll watch it after supper, then.’
An appetizing smell was beginning to waft through the flat, and Rona realized that, for the first time since leaving Theo’s study, she was hungry.
‘You know, it’s odd,’ she said suddenly. ‘I keep forgetting Meriel’s dead, and thinking of things I must ask her.’
‘Only natural, when you’ve been working closely together.’
‘But it’s horrible, Linz. God, if I hadn’t agreed to do the bio—’
Lindsey put a hand quickly
over hers. ‘You’ve no way of knowing that; it could be something entirely unconnected with you, something to do with her own past. She was married before, you said.’
‘Yes, and her husband’s now happily remarried.’
‘Whatever. The main thing to get through your head is you’re not to blame. You’ll feel better with some food inside you. I’ll go and see if it’s ready.’
They ate at the little dining table, with the curtains drawn between them and the darkness outside. Lindsey, aware of her sister’s ambivalence, kept up a stream of anecdotes and shared memories. The wine and food and the companionable warmth of the flat combined to dull some of Rona’s brittleness, and she decided with relief that she probably would sleep after all.
They stacked the plates in the dishwasher, switched it on, and settled down with the video, glasses of port to hand. The film was amusing, and Rona, almost to her shame, found herself joining in the laughter. As their mother had foreseen, it was good for the two of them to spend time alone together. There hadn’t been many opportunities lately.
They were laughing over the antics of one of the characters when a voice behind them said blandly, ‘What a cosy domestic scene!’
They both spun round, staring in shock at the man standing in the doorway. Rona saw, with total incomprehension, that it was Scott Mackintosh.
Sixteen
Lindsey stumbled to her feet.
‘Who the hell are you, and what are you doing in my house?’
Scott’s eyes went from one stunned face to the other. ‘Like as two peas,’ he commented, ‘just as Rick said.’
‘Rick?’
He looked sardonically at Rona. ‘I hear we almost met yesterday.’
A rattle of inanity came from the television. Lindsey reached for the remote control, and in the ensuing silence the humming of the dishwasher reached them from the adjacent kitchen.
Lindsey said haltingly, ‘Rona – do you know this man?’
Rona swallowed past the obstruction in her throat. ‘He’s – a friend of Theo’s. Scott Mackintosh.’
‘Ex-friend,’ Scott corrected, coming into the room.
Lindsey’s anger was growing. ‘How did you get in? I checked that the door was shut. Whoever you are, you’ve no right—’
‘Rick lent me his key.’
‘Rick who? I don’t know—’
‘Sorry, I keep forgetting. You know him as Rob, but his name is really Richard Sinclair. He’s my brother-in-law.’
Lindsey stared at him for a moment, then dropped back on to the sofa. Rona said ridiculously, ‘I thought you were in the States.’
‘I should have been, but you interfered with my plans.’
‘I did?’
‘Unfortunately you know more than is good for you, and you’re on the verge of learning more. I’m sorry, but I can’t allow that to happen.’
He came into the room and seated himself on an upright chair just inside the door, looking as suave and handsome as she remembered, but with an added quality about him that was infinitely dangerous.
‘What do you want?’ Lindsey whispered.
He ignored her, his eyes on Rona. ‘I tried to warn you off,’ he said, ‘but you were too stubborn to take the hint. A pity.’
Anger flared, overriding her fear. ‘You poisoned Gus!’
‘The dog? Not personally; I owe that to Rick. He was on the spot, you see; I was up in Edinburgh. We worked as a team, until he got cold feet and went squeamish on me.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Lindsey said faintly.
‘Then let me elucidate. We heard in a roundabout way that Meriel was commissioning a biography of Theo, which, for various reasons, I was unhappy about. Rick had some leave owing to him, and we decided he should come down and scout out the land. Convenient, the way it’s worked out; his leave expires this weekend.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘In fact, he’ll be flying back to Edinburgh as we speak.’
‘It can’t be the same person,’ Lindsey interrupted. ‘Rob is a conference organizer. And he wasn’t on leave, he’s been working all the time.’
‘Correction: he’s an electrical engineer. The conference business doesn’t exist – it was simply a cover to explain his presence.’
He turned back to Rona. ‘To continue: he kept a watch on Meriel’s house for a day or two, and sure enough, you turned up. And as luck would have it, there’d been a picture of you only the day before in the local paper, so he’d no trouble recognizing you. He hung around till you left, and followed you. Fortuitously enough, you drove straight here.’
He regarded their still faces quizzically. ‘So – he parked farther down the road and waited till he heard your door open and voices outside, whereupon he jumped out of the car and concealed himself behind the bush at the gate. You were talking about going to the theatre the following Tuesday, and – well, you can guess the rest. Then, when you met, your sister here referred to her ex-husband, which seemed to give him a clear field and he took advantage of it. It proved an ideal way to keep tabs on you.’
His eyes flicked briefly to Lindsey, noting the tears sliding silently down her cheeks. ‘Incidentally, he has three children and a loving wife.’
‘Your sister?’ Rona asked aridly, reaching for Lindsey’s hand and finding no comfort in the confirmation of her suspicions.
‘No, the relationship is through my late wife; he’s her brother.’
There was a silence, which neither of the sisters dared break. When Scott resumed speaking his voice had changed, become flat and unemotional, which made the words he spoke somehow more disturbing.
‘I’d had any woman I wanted all my life. It was a game; I never imagined for a moment that I should fall in love, but I was proved wrong. My wife meant the entire world to me. It’s not an overstatement to say I worshipped her, and since she was eighteen years younger than I, there was a strong element of protection involved. I would have killed anyone who hurt her without a second thought.’
His eyes focused on the bottle of port on the coffee table. ‘Is there another glass?’ he asked abruptly. Lindsey nodded towards the cabinet where they were kept. He got up, took out a glass and poured himself a measure. Then he returned to his chair. Neither of them had moved.
‘We had a child,’ he went on, ‘a boy. The birth nearly killed her, and we were told there must be no more. Sheena was unable, for medical reasons, to take the pill, and in any case she was a Catholic and disliked being responsible for birth control. So I had a vasectomy, and we thought we were safe.’
He was silent, staring down into his glass. Then, with a sigh, he continued. ‘A year or so later, I was offered a sabbatical at Johnson Chemicals in Chilswood. And since it wasn’t too far from my old friend Theo Harvey, I contacted him, God help me, to tell him we were coming. His wife invited us to dinner.’
He sipped his port. ‘And that, as far as I was concerned, was that. For the rest of our stay, Theo was closeted during the week at his country cottage, I was working, and Sheena was tied up with the child. Then one day, in floods of tears, she told me she was pregnant. I was dumbstruck; we’d taken all the precautions we could, and I sent off a strongly worded letter to my surgeon, threatening legal action.’ He smiled bitterly. ‘I was informed that the operation’s not a hundred per cent foolproof, and since I’d been warned of this at the time, he could not be held responsible.
‘The devil of it was that if she’d had an abortion straight away it might have saved her life, albeit at the baby’s expense, and she wouldn’t hear of it. I wanted to go straight back to Edinburgh, to the doctor who’d attended her before, and who I hoped would be able to persuade her. However, she refused point-blank, insisting I see out my sabbatical. In the end, we returned three weeks earlier than scheduled, and ten days later Sheena lost the baby and her own life into the bargain.’
There was a gasp from Lindsey, who hadn’t known the story.
‘For a while, I didn’t think I’d survive, either. Without her, nothing seemed to
have any purpose, but I managed somehow to keep going and gradually, with a nanny for Dougal and so on, a new routine was established.’
He finished his port, refilled his glass, and sat down again. ‘But I continued to blame myself for Sheena’s death until about six months ago.’
‘Then what happened?’ Rona asked, caught up in the story.
‘Rick was out one night with the husband of the woman who’d been Sheena’s best friend. They both had a fair bit to drink, Sheena’s name came up, and this man blurted out that just before she died, she’d told his wife that she’d had an affair while we were in Chilswood, and the child she was carrying was her lover’s.’ He paused and added sardonically, ‘I didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to work out who that must have been.’
‘So you killed him,’ Rona said flatly, and heard Lindsey’s sharp intake of breath.
‘Of course I killed him. He’d killed my wife.’ He sipped his port unhurriedly, aware of their riveted attention. ‘I remembered that he went home at weekends, so the next Saturday I flew down, hired a car, and drove to Spindlebury to check out the lie of the land. There was a pub not far from the cottage, and knowing Theo, I reckoned he’d have been a regular patron. There was also a convenient stream running alongside the road. If I played my cards right, it would be assumed he’d stumbled into it on his way home, the worse for drink.
‘So, a few days later, I came down again.’ He gave a short laugh, remembering. ‘By a lucky chance he was actually standing there on the pavement when I drove into the village. Stranded without transport, seemingly – so it was only natural I should give him a lift. He couldn’t get over the coincidence of my being there, but I spun a yarn about being in the area and it seemed to satisfy him. He’d obviously no inkling that I knew about him and Sheena.
‘Back at the cottage, I produced a bottle of malt and we drank steadily. Or Theo did; I was careful to pace myself. When he could barely stand, I suggested we could do with some air, and he came out all unsuspecting, too befuddled even to pull the door to behind him. But as we reached the spot I’d selected, I decided he had the right to know why he was dying; so I told him I knew the truth, and that the time had come to pay. The shock went a long way towards sobering him. I’ll never forget the look on his face as he went into the water, knocking his head on the rock I’d placed in exactly the right position. I waited until I was sure he wasn’t coming out, then I went back to the cottage – it was late by this time – rinsed out my glass, wiped everything I’d touched, and left.’
Brought to Book Page 26
