‘Prostitutes,’ said Berrow. ‘But only decent ones.’
‘Oh, good.’
‘We couldn’t stick it any more, Terry and me. So we packed his bag one day and left it out on the doorstep - not that he had much stuff of his own, basically just what he had when he came out of the regiment. Will got the message. I mean, he wasn’t paying us rent or anything. And we knew he wasn’t coming into the business by then. The fact is, he’d just become
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a liability. Being an old mate is one thing. Being a right royal pain in the arse is another.’
‘He’d changed from when he was in the army?’
‘Oh, totally.’
‘He didn’t have any problems when he was in the regiment? Like the alcohol, I mean.’
‘We all drank quite a bit, of course,’ said Berrovv. ‘But no drugs. Soldiers have to go through random compulsory drug testing. A positive test means a discharge.’
‘Right, I see.’ Fry looked around the interior of the garage. ‘Are you the one who’s the expert on Samurai swords?’
‘No, that’s Terry.’ Then Berrow looked at Fry more keenly. ‘Are you interested in buying?’
‘I could probably find a use for one, but not just now.’
‘Shame.’
‘Business not good, then?’
Berrow shrugged. ‘We never did find a location for a shop. Without Will, we didn’t have enough money between us for the rent.’
‘So he scuppered your business, in effect?’
‘No, we do mail order. Are you sure you’re not interested?’
Ben Cooper wondered whether he had really learned anything useful from his visit to Rakelow House, except that Jim Thorpe’s name might be one they should add to the ‘at risk’ list.
‘I don’t know much about it, Mr Thorpe,’ he said. ‘But there’s no way the doctors could say conclusively that your wife’s lung cancer was caused by passive smoking, is there? What evidence could there be?’
‘Who needs evidence?’ said Thorpe. ‘It’s what you believe that counts. Fike religion.’
‘I suppose so.’
‘William never had any doubts. He was a pig-headed sort of a lad in a lot of ways. Priggish, too.’
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Cooper picked up the most recent photograph again. ‘How long is it since your wife died, Mr Thorpe?’
‘Twenty years, nearly.’
‘So this photograph was taken … ?’
‘On the day of her funeral.’
‘And that was the last time he came home?’
‘Aye. William got compassionate leave and arrived home a couple of days before the funeral. The night before we buried his mum, we had a blazing row. I was smoking a lot then, as you might imagine - it was a bit of a trying time. But then, I’d alw’ays smoked a lot. Had done since I was a kid. We didn’t know any better then.’
‘And William blamed your smoking for his mother’s lung cancer - that’s what he meant when he said you’d killed her?’
‘Well, yes.’
‘But your son was a smoker himself.’
‘All his life, practically.’
‘So-‘
Mr Thorpe shook his head. ‘Don’t ask me to explain that. Maybe some of it was guilt. But there was something else as well. William was always getting hold of odd ideas, and once they were in his head, they stayed there. Somebody had told him about this gas - radon.’
‘Radon? I know it can be a problem in some areas.’
‘We’re on limestone here, you know,’ said Thorpe. ‘William said radon can be sucked into houses that are built on limestone. He said that two thousand people a year die from it. And he said that breathing tobacco smoke and radon multiply your chances of getting lung cancer.’
‘And that was your fault?’
‘Obviously,’ said Thorpe. ‘If I hadn’t made Sylvia live here, and hadn’t smoked, she might still be alive. So William was right, wasn’t he?’
‘Mr Thorpe, I have no idea.’
‘It was Mansell Quinn that told him, you know.’
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‘About the radon? Well, Quinn was a builder, so I suppose he’d know about the risks.’
‘Just because you know something, it doesn’t mean you have to spread it around. A wise man knows when to keep things to himself.’ Thorpe made small kissing noises at the cat, which gazed up at him with its eyes half- closed. ‘Anyway, on the day of the funeral a lot of things were said on both sides that shouldn’t have been said, and Will was packed and ready to go back to his regiment as soon as the service was over. I’m lucky I got that photo - it was one of the aunties that insisted on taking it. She said Will was just like his mother. I could never see it
