“That’s very kind.”
“If you feel like it, the offer’s there. If you just want to hide away, that’s fine. I won’t feel offended. I’m not the sort of person to be easily offended.” Even Carole herself could recognize that that wasn’t true.
“Well, can we play it by ear? See how Mum feels?”
“Of course. And if there’s anything practical I can do – shopping or whatever – just let me know.”
“Yes, of course we will. Thank you, Carole.”
“Well, I’d better let you get back to your mother.”
“One thing, Gaby…”
“Mm?”
“You know how unhappy you were – and your mother was, come to that – about the idea of an engagement announcement in the paper?”
“Yes?”
“Was it because you were afraid something like this might happen – that it might draw attention to you – stir up old issues for your family?”
“Yes, Carole, that’s exactly what I was afraid of. And,” she added bitterly, “as it turns out, with good reason.”
“Don’t worry, Gaby, I’m sure the police’ll soon find out what happened to Howard.”
“Hrn. Maybe they will.”
Carole could not fail to respond to the optimism in Gaby’s voice. “You mean they’re close to a breakthrough? Have they actually got a suspect?”
“Well, there’s someone they keep talking about. A man who’s just finished a long prison sentence and now apparently vanished off the face of the earth.”
“And he had some connection with your father?”
“I assume so. I assume that’s why the police keep asking about him.”
“What’s he called?”
“Michael Brewer.”
“Have you ever heard of him?”
“No.”
“And have you asked your mother?”
“I’ve tried, but, as I said, Mum is not being very forthcoming at the moment.”
“But how did she react when the police asked her about this man?”
“She fainted.”
“Oh.”
? The Witness at the Wedding ?
Fifteen
“The good thing about it is,” said Jude, “that our geographical problem is partly eased.”
“What do you mean? The location of the crime scene hasn’t changed. Howard Martin was still murdered in Essex.”
“Yes, but now we’ve got his widow and daughter coming down to Fethering, so at least we have a couple of significant figures in the case close by.”
“Maybe close by, but I don’t know that we’re going to get much information out of Marie. Whenever the questions get nasty, she just seems to faint.”
“Convenient.”
“Do you mean psychosomatic?”
“I didn’t say that. On the other hand, Carole – I know you don’t really like the idea – but a lot of illness is psychosomatic. And these things can be hereditary. Gaby reacts to stress by getting a bad back, her mother faints – it could be a similar reaction.”
“Huh,” said Carole, exactly as Jude had known she would.
They were walking along Fethering Beach. The tide was a long way out, and the sand firm beneaththeir feet. In the warm June sunshine, even the sludge-coloured sea was enriched by the reflected blue of the sky. Down by the water’s edge, Gulliver was doing elaborate commando manoeuvres, stalking the bits of seaweed that shuffled on the scummy edges of the waves. For him, Fethering Beach was a canine heaven, full of ambrosial and intriguing smells. Half a day spent on the beach, the other half snuffling sleepily in front of the Aga at High Tor – for Gulliver life could offer nothing more perfect.
“There was something else about heredity I was thinking of,” Jude mused. “Didn’t you say that Howard Martin had had bowel cancer?”
“Yes, but made a complete recovery, I gather. Apparently the scars from the operation were one of the reasons his body was identified so quickly. So they didn’t have to take a DNA sample from Phil.”
“Hm…I was just thinking…I’m not betraying any important confidentiality here, but Gaby did tell me that she had been worried that she might have bowel cancer at one point.”
“But she didn’t have, did she?” asked Carole, alarmed at the threat to her future daughter-in-law’s health.
“No, no, it turned out she just had a mild form of IBS.”
“IBS?”
“Irritable Bowel Syndrome.”
That got another of Carole’s ‘Huhs’. She didn’t believe in illnesses that were called ‘syndromes’. Irritable Bowel Syndrome. False Memory Syndrome.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Restless Legs Syndrome. She thought they were all just excuses for neurotics to hide behind.
“Anyway, there was no problem with Gaby, but presumably she worried about bowel cancer because her father had had it. There’s quite a strong hereditary connection.”
“Yes. Oh well, I’m glad to hear that she hasn’t got anything serious.”
“No…” Jude was still distracted, as though a sequence of thought was escaping her.
They both stopped for a moment. The skin around Carole’s pale blue eyes puckered as she gazed through her rimless glasses towards the horizon. “I just get the feeling that the reasons for Howard Martin’s death go back a long way. I may be wrong, but my instinct is that they have some connection with what my son charmingly referred to as ‘a history of murder in my fiancee’s family’.”
“But I thought Gaby said it wasn’t actually in her family.”
“No. A school friend of her mother’s got murdered. This is years ago. Before Gaby was born, I think. And then the police investigating Howard’s death seem very interested in someone who’s recently been released from prison, where he was serving a sentence for murder.”
“Oh?”
“Someone called Michael Brewer.”
“Do you know anything about him?”
“Absolutely nothing. But I was just wondering, Jude, whether he was the culprit in this murder of Marie’s friend. Because, I mean, Gaby’s thirty, so if he’d served a full thirty-year life sentence.”
“Not many prisoners do serve the full term these days, do they? I mean, apart from a few famous cases.”
“ Some do. Early release is usually related to good behaviour. So if they don’t behave well – if they’re violent, or if they don’t show any remorse for their crime. Come to that, if the sentencing judge recommended a full thirty- year tariff.”
“Mm. Well, it would be interesting if we could find a connection. Where did this murder take place?”
“Worthing.”
A huge beam spread across Jude’s plump face. “I told you our geographical problem was easing.”
“Yes. But how’re we going to find out the details? It could be quite a heavy research job, couldn’t it?”
