Kittens and Killers

by Diana Xarissa

  The café was mostly empty, so it didn’t take Fenella long to spot Jeanne sitting by herself at a table in one corner. As Fenella crossed the room, she noticed Daniel at the table next to Jeanne’s. He was sitting facing the back of the room and wearing a hat. If she hadn’t known him so well, she might not have recognized him. The man across from him was no stranger, either. Fenella nodded at Mark Hammersmith, another Douglas police inspector, as she passed their table.

  “Good morning,” Jeanne said as Fenella slid into the chair next to hers. “I’ve been here for at least twenty minutes. I’m unbelievably anxious about all of this. Is anyone else actually coming, though?”

  “I certainly hope so. Everyone said maybe, at least,” Fenella told her. “I think they all want to come, but I wonder if nerves might stop at least one or two of them.”

  “They nearly…” Jeanne trailed off, her eyes on the door.

  Fenella looked up and then smiled as Donna walked into the café. She waved and Donna nodded and then began to walk toward them.

  “It’s Donna, isn’t it?” Jeanne whispered in Fenella’s ear. “She looks the same, really, just older.”

  “Jeanne,” Donna said when she reached the table. “I wasn’t sure about this, but it is nice to see you.”

  “It’s nice to see you, too,” Jeanne replied politely.

  “Donna, do sit down,” Fenella urged after an awkward silence.

  Donna seemed to hesitate before she pulled out the chair opposite Jeanne and sank into it.

  “You look wonderful,” Jeanne told her friend.

  “I’m old now,” Donna countered. “We both are, of course. Some days I really feel my age. Today is one of those days.”

  The café door swung open and Fenella felt as if the other two women were both holding their breath as Marilyn was wheeled into the room.

  “Marilyn,” Fenella said brightly. She waved again and a moment later caught Marilyn’s eye.

  “She looks terrible,” Donna hissed to Jeanne as Marilyn’s companion pushed her toward them.

  “Living with her mother for all those years must have been difficult,” Jeanne suggested.

  “Good morning,” Marilyn said.

  Fenella got up and moved one of the chairs out of the way so that Marilyn’s wheelchair could be pushed right up to the table.

  “I’ll be back in an hour,” the young woman with Marilyn told her. “You have my mobile number if you need me sooner.”

  Marilyn nodded and then turned and seemed to study Jeanne and Donna. “You look good,” she told Donna eventually, “and you look happy,” she added, nodding at Jeanne.

  “I am happy,” Jeanne replied. “I ended up marrying a truly good man. We’ve had a good life together.”

  “You were lucky,” Marilyn said.

  Jeanne nodded. “I was, at that. I went out with more than my fair share of unsuitable men. Aaron was the first one I actually considered marrying.”

  Marilyn and Donna both laughed. “You forget how well we know you,” Donna said. “You would have married just about any man, given the opportunity.”

  Jeanne flushed. “I don’t think that’s true.”

  “You were almost as bad as I was,” Marilyn interjected. “I was desperate to get married, of course, because I wanted to get away from my mother. You weren’t quite desperate, but we all knew you were really hoping to get married sooner rather than later.”

  “I don’t remember it that way,” Jeanne replied with a shrug. “It was a long time ago, of course.”

  “Fifty years,” Donna said, sounding surprised. “Mabel died nearly fifty years ago. I can’t quite get my head around it. She was only twenty-five, which means she’s been gone for twice as long as she was alive. That doesn’t seem possible.”

  “I still miss her,” Marilyn said. “I’ve missed both of you, as well.”

  Jeanne nodded. “I’ve missed you both, too. It all just felt overwhelming at the time: Mabel’s death, the funeral, your wedding. I felt as if I were just going through the motions and not truly understanding what was happening. It seemed easier to pull away from all of you than to deal with everything.”

  “I think we all felt that way,” Donna said. “Mabel’s death was the most horrible thing that had ever happened in my life. Even now, at seventy-five, I can say that it was the most horrible thing I ever went through. Losing my parents was easier in many ways.”

  “Losing my children was the worst thing I ever lived through,” Marilyn said bitterly, “but losing Mabel was the next worst. Everything about it was awful.”

  Jeanne nodded. “When I close my eyes, I can still see her lying on the kitchen floor. I’ve never managed to get that image out of my head, in spite of the years that have passed.”

  “It wasn’t just Mabel’s death, though, it was the aftermath. She was murdered and for months I kept expecting her killer to come after me next,” Marilyn said. “It would have been a lot easier if the police had discovered her killer.”

  “I always thought I was going to be the next victim,” Jeanne said. “I thought for sure Mabel was killed because of Mr. Neil.”

  “Mr. Neil? Why would she have been killed because of him?” Donna asked.

  Jeanne shrugged and then looked down at the table. “Maybe we should get some tea and cake.”

  Fenella looked around and caught the eye of the waitress.

  “Are you waiting for anyone else?” she asked as she pulled out a small order pad.

  “There may be one more, but we’ll order now anyway, if we can,” Fenella told her.

  “Whatever you want,” the girl shrugged.

  She was back a few minutes later with four slices of Victoria sponge and four cups of tea. “Let me know if you need anything else,” she told them after she’d unloaded her tray.

  Fenella took a large bite of cake to stop herself from asking Jeanne to explain further. If one of the others didn’t ask, though, she would.

  “I still want to know why you thought Mabel was killed because of Mr. Neil,” Donna said after she’d swallowed her first bite.

  Jeanne sipped her tea and then sighed. “We all know Mabel was no angel. None of us were, really, were we? When I first started working for Mr. Neil, Mabel was having an affair with him.”

  Donna nearly choked on her tea, coughing violently for several seconds.

  “Are you okay?” Fenella asked as Donna’s breathing returned to normal.

  “I think so,” Donna told her. “I was just taken by surprise, that’s all.”

  “I knew about it,” Marilyn said, a touch smugly.

  “Mabel knew you wouldn’t approve,” Jeanne told Donna. “She insisted that I not tell anyone. I didn’t even know that Marilyn knew.”

  “Mabel was terrible at keeping secrets from me,” Marilyn said. “We used to talk on the phone every night because my mother wouldn’t let me visit Mabel all that often. Mabel would tell me all manner of things during those chats, things she’d then swear me to secrecy about.”

  “What else did she tell you?” Donna demanded. “I’m starting to feel as if I barely knew her.”

  “Mostly she talked about Mr. Neil. The affair didn’t last long, but she was able to use it to get more money out of the man for less work. It wasn’t exactly blackmail, but it was close,” Marilyn said.

  Donna shook her head. “I didn’t know Mabel at all,” she said sadly.

  “She didn’t see it as doing anything wrong,” Jeanne said quickly. “She was just having fun. If Mr. Neil had called her bluff, she would have found another job rather than tell his wife about the affair. She wasn’t interested in him. She just thought it was exciting to be involved with a married man.”

  “How long did the affair last?” Fenella asked.

  Jeanne shrugged. “Not long. I know they were together when I started working there.” She stopped and flushed. “That was how Mabel got me the job, actually. Mr. Neil didn’t really need three secretaries, but he hired me anyway to keep Mabel hap
py.”

  “You started working there at least a year before Mabel died,” Donna said. “Was she still seeing him for that entire year?”

  “Oh, no. I don’t think the affair lasted more than a month or two after I was hired,” Jeanne said. “It wasn’t much more than a month after I started when Mr. Neil asked me to have dinner with him, anyway. We went out a few times, but I wasn’t willing to sleep with him, so he moved on to Helen fairly quickly.”

  “Helen was the woman he was with the night Mabel died?” Donna asked.

  Jeanne nodded. “That’s right. She and Mr. Neil started their affair at least six months before Mabel died. They left the island together once everyone found out about it.”

  “If you thought you’d be a target because of Mr. Neil, did you think it was his wife who’d killed Mabel?” Fenella wondered.

  “I didn’t have any idea who killed her, but I couldn’t think of any reason why anyone wanted her dead. Thinking that it was something to do with her work seemed better, somehow, than thinking it was just something random,” Jeanne replied.

  Fenella opened her mouth to ask another question but stopped when she saw the color drain from Donna’s face. Donna was staring at the door and Fenella looked over to see Clyde making his way toward them.

  15

  “Hello,” Fenella said when he reached the table. “Have a seat.”

  He looked around the table and then nodded slowly. “Thank you.” There were empty seats between Jeanne and Donna and between Marilyn and Fenella. After a moment’s hesitation, he sat down next to Fenella.

  “I’m sorry I’m late,” he said slowly. “I wasn’t sure I was going to come, then I thought you all would probably appreciate some time to talk without me around.”

  “We were just talking about Mabel,” Marilyn told him.

  “Some of us didn’t know her as well as we thought we did,” Donna added, sounding angry.

  Clyde looked at her for a minute and then nodded. “She had secrets. I didn’t find that out until it was too late.”

  “You knew she was having an affair with a married man?” Donna asked.

  Clyde frowned. “I’ve done everything I can for the last fifty years to keep that quiet,” he said tightly. “My sister’s reputation matters.”

  “She was the one who chose to have the affair,” Marilyn replied. “I don’t think she was as concerned with her reputation as you were.”

  “I won’t have you talk about her in this way,” Clyde said, getting to his feet. “I’ve kept Mabel’s secret for fifty years, in spite of everything, to protect her reputation and her memory. I don’t know how you found out about her and Howard, but I won’t sit here and listen to you discuss it.”

  “Howard?” Donna echoed. “Mabel was having an affair with Howard?”

  The three women exchanged glances. “Not that I knew of,” Marilyn said after a minute.

  “She never told me anything about Howard,” Jeanne added.

  Clyde flushed. “You didn’t know,” he said angrily.

  “She had an affair with Mr. Neil,” Jeanne told him. “That’s what we were talking about.”

  For a minute Fenella thought the man was going to storm out of the room, and she was sure Clyde thought the same thing. After several deep breaths, though, he sank back down into his seat. “She had an affair with Mr. Neil?” he asked, sounding defeated.

  “Just a short one,” Jeanne told him, clearly trying to make it sound less significant.

  “And you all knew about it?” was his next question.

  “I didn’t,” Donna said sharply.

  He stared at her for a minute and then nodded slowly “She wasn’t who I thought she was,” he said sadly. “I thought losing her was the worst thing that ever happened to me, but this feels like a betrayal.”

  “What about Howard?” Jeanne demanded. “She was having an affair with him?”

  “I thought he’d forced her into it or something,” Clyde said, sounding confused. “I thought he’d taken her innocence. She was so upset, sobbing even, when she told him about the baby. He didn’t believe her. He said she was trying to trick him into giving her money.” He stopped and then put his head in his hands.

  Fenella patted him on the back with one hand while she dug into her bag for a tissue with the other. After what felt like an hour, he looked up.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m going to have to go to the police and tell them everything I know.”

  “Tell us first,” Jeanne demanded.

  Fenella glanced over at Mark and Daniel. It was clear that they were hanging on every word Clyde was saying. Fenella was worried they were going to interrupt, but neither man moved as Clyde spoke again.

  “I went over to see her that night, the night of the engagement party. I wanted to ask her about…” he stopped and glanced over at Donna. Blushing brightly, he shook his head and then continued. “That part doesn’t matter. When I got to the house, the windows were all open. It was a hot day for June. I walked around to the back, to let myself in through the kitchen, and then I heard voices.”

  Daniel was on his feet now, but he still didn’t interrupt.

  “What happened next?” Jeanne demanded when Clyde stopped speaking.

  “Mabel was arguing with Howard. It took me a while to work out what they were fighting about, and once I did, I didn’t want to believe it.”

  “They were having an affair,” Jeanne said softly.

  “Mabel wanted Howard to leave Patricia and run away with her,” Clyde said. “She told him she was pregnant.”

  Fenella felt a tear trickle down her cheek. What a shock for poor Clyde, who’d been so devoted to his sister.

  “And Howard wasn’t interested?” Donna asked.

  “He told her he didn’t believe her,” Clyde replied. “He told her that he couldn’t have children. He’d had mumps as a child and it had left him unable to father children. Apparently, Patricia didn’t know and he didn’t want her to find out, but he told Mabel to get her to stop pretending.”

  “Was she pretending?” Marilyn wondered.

  “I don’t know. I never saw the autopsy report. My parents did, and they never said anything about it, but they wouldn’t have told me if she had been pregnant. They would have wanted to protect Mabel’s reputation as much as I did.”

  “What happened next?” Donna asked.

  Clyde shrugged. “I ran away. I was shocked and confused and I couldn’t quite believe what I’d heard.”

  “Howard must have killed her,” Donna said. “You should have told the police what you’d heard. They could have arrested Howard fifty years ago.”

  “Just because he and Mabel had a fight that night doesn’t mean that he killed her,” Clyde said. “I’ve spent the last fifty years wondering if I’d almost been a witness to Mabel’s murder. Obviously, I never expected anything bad to happen to her or I never would have run away.”

  “Why didn’t you tell the police?” Marilyn asked.

  “A lot of people said that nice girls didn’t live on their own. Mabel was a nice girl and I hated it when people suggested otherwise. I would have done anything to protect her reputation. I’ve kept quiet for fifty years to protect her good name and her memory.”

  “And let her murderer go free,” Jeanne added.

  Clyde shrugged. “If I’d known for certain that Howard killed her, I would have told the police, but what if he left right after I did and someone else came and killed her? If I told the police the whole story, Mabel’s reputation would have been ruined and Howard’s marriage would have been destroyed. I saw what happened to Mr. Neil. It was horrible.”

  “If Howard didn’t kill her, Patricia did,” Jeanne said. “Maybe she paid one of her unannounced visits and found Howard and Mabel in a clinch.”

  Clyde winced. “Or maybe it was a random intruder,” he suggested. “The police have never really considered that, as far as I can tell.”

  “We have, actually,” Daniel interjecte
d. “We’ve considered many different things, but having had a great deal of information withheld from us, we’ve never been able to find the solution. Perhaps, in light of everything I now know, I’ll be able to get closer to working out what really happened to your sister.”

  Clyde had tears in his eyes as he followed Daniel out of the room a short while later. Mark stayed behind to organize getting all thee of the women down to the station to make their own statements.

  “We’ll need a statement from you, too,” he told Fenella. “Daniel said to tell you that he’ll visit you later at home.”

  Fenella nodded and then watched silently as Mark escorted the three women out of the café. She paid the bill for everyone’s tea and cake, including paying for the two police inspectors, who’d clearly forgotten to do so in all of the excitement. She was back at her apartment before noon, feeling very much at loose ends.

  “Patricia killed her,” Mona said a short while later, after Fenella had told her the whole story. “She must have arrived a short time after Clyde left and found Mabel and Howard together.”

  “I’m pretty sure one of them killed her,” Fenella replied. “I’m not certain which one, though.”

  “I hope you can get Daniel to give you a peek at the autopsy. It would be interesting to know if Mabel truly was pregnant.”

  “If she was, I wonder who the father was,” Fenella added. “If Howard couldn’t make babies, who did?”

  After thoroughly discussing the case with Mona and then visiting Katie, Fenella went back to Poppy Drive feeling slightly better. When she spotted Daniel’s car in his driveway, she hoped that meant he’d be over to talk to her soon.

  She’d only just finished giving the cats their dinner when he knocked on her door.

  “How about dinner at the pub?” he suggested when she answered.

  “Can we talk about the case over dinner?”

  He sighed. “I’ll tell you everything I can now, before we go.”

  Fenella nodded and then led him into the living room. He sat down and then leaned back and shut his eyes. “I haven’t been sleeping well,” he told her. “Or rather, I haven’t been spending enough hours in bed.”