back.'
'What about this business of her uncle's feeble-mindedness? She described him on the video as a drunken brute who raped her when she was thirteen, yet Mrs. Marriott says he was rather pathetic. Explain that.'
'I can't. Mathilda never talked to me about it. All I know is that she was deeply scarred by her inability to love and when I showed her the portrait with the scarring represented by the scold's bridle, she burst into tears and said I was the first person to show her any compassion. I chose to interpret that as meaning that I was the first person to see her as a victim, but I could have been wrong. You'll have to make up your own mind.'
'We wouldn't have to if we could find her diaries,' said Cooper.
Jack didn't say anything and the room fell silent with only the whirr of the tape to disturb the complete bafflement that at least two of those present were experiencing. Jones, who had approached this interview in the confident expectation that Jack Blakeney would spend tonight in a police cell, was falling prey to the same crippling ambivalence that Cooper had always felt towards this man.
'Why did you tell Mrs. Lascelles this morning that you murdered her mother if you already had an alibi for the night Mrs. Gillespie died?' he asked at last, rustling the papers in front of him.
'I didn't.'
'She says in this report that you did.'
'I didn't.'
'She says you did.'
'She said what she believed. That's a different thing entirely.'
Jones pondered for a moment. He had a nasty feeling that he would receive almost as dusty an answer to his next question, but he put it anyway. 'Why did you try to murder Mrs. Lascelles?'
'I didn't.'
'She says, and I'm quoting, 'Jack Blakeney forced me against the wall and started to strangle me. If Violet hadn't interrupted him, he'd have killed me.' Is she lying?'
'No. She's telling you what she believes.'
'But it's not true.'
'No.'
'You weren't trying to strangle her?'
'No.'
'I have to tell you, Mr. Blakeney, that according to this report she had the marks of a stranglehold on her neck when the car that answered the nine-nine-nine call arrived at Cedar House. Therefore someone did try to strangle her, and she says that someone was you.' He paused, inviting Jack to answer. When he didn't, he tried a different approach. 'Were you in Cedar House at approximately ten thirty this morning?'
'Yes.'
'Did you put your hand about Mrs. Joanna Lascelles's throat?'
'Yes.'
'Is she justified in believing that you were trying to strangle her?'
'Yes.'
'Were you trying to strangle her?'
'No.'
'Then explain it to me. What the hell were you doing?'
'Showing you lot where you've been going wrong again. Mind you, it's not the most sensible thing I've done, and I wouldn't have done it at all if I hadn't been so pissed off by that jerk of an Inspector last night.' His eyes narrowed angrily at the memory. 'I don't give a toss about myself, matter of fact I rather hope he decides to prosecute and give me my day in court, but I do care about Sarah and I care very much indeed at the moment about Ruth. He treated them both like shit and I made up my mind then that enough was enough. Joanna's past saving, I suspect, but her daughter isn't, and I want the poor kid free to put this bloody awful mess behind her.' He took a deep angry breath. 'So I sat up last night and did what you should have done, worked out who killed Mathilda and why. And believe me it wasn't difficult.'
Charlie did believe him. Like Cooper, he was beginning to find Jack irresistible. 'Mrs. Lascelles,' he said with conviction. 'She's always been top of the list.'
'No, and I satisfied myself of that this morning. I agree she's quite capable of it. She has an almost identical personality to her mother, and if Mathilda could murder to get what she wanted, then Joanna could, too. You don't grow up in an atmosphere of extreme dysfunction and emerge normal at the end of it. But Joanna's relationship with Mathilda was very ambivalent. Despite everything, I suspect they were actually rather fond of each other. Perhaps, quite simply, their fondness was based on mutual understanding, the devil you know being more acceptable than the devil you don't.'
'All right,' said Charlie patiently. 'Then who did kill Mrs. Gillespie?'
'I can't prove it, that's your job. All I can do is take you through what I worked out last night.' He took a moment to organize his thoughts. 'You've concentrated entirely on Sarah, me, Joanna and Ruth,' he said, 'and all because of the will. Not unreasonable in the circumstances-but if you take us out of the equation then the balance of probability shifts. So let's assume she wasn't killed for money and take it from there. Okay, I don't believe she was killed in anger either. Anger is a violent, hot-blooded emotion and her death was too well planned and too meticulous. Too symbolic. Whoever murdered her may well have been angry with her, but it wasn't done because someone's patience had finally run out.' He glanced at Jones who nodded. 'Which leaves what? Hatred? She was certainly disliked by a lot of people but as none of them had killed her before, why decide to do it then? Jealousy?' He shrugged eloquently. 'What was there to be jealous of? She was a virtual recluse, and I can't believe Jane
