“No.” Philly spoke firmly, closing down that particular topic of conversation, and brought the coffee over to them. She and Carole had black. Jude took milk. Seeming to assume that the question about her work and the discussion of Gray Czesky had just been small talk, Philly Rose got straight down to business. “Jude, you said on the phone you had some information for me.”
“Yes. It’s something Carole was told.”
She looked across at her neighbour, who began by recapping, “It was the beginning of May when Mark walked out?”
“May the third.” Philly had thought about the date so often that there was a dull ritual quality to her words.
“And you haven’t seen him since?”
“No. I told you.”
“Or had any contact from him?”
“No.”
There was in her answer a hint of hesitation, on to which Carole pounced. “Is that true, Philly?” A silence. “Look, I’m sorry, I’m not badgering you – or at least I’m not meaning to – but the significance of what I was told does depend on whether you were telling the truth about having no contact with Mark.”
This prompted an even longer silence before Philly Rose admitted, “We have exchanged a few texts.”
“But you haven’t seen him?” The young woman shook her head. “And you have no idea where he is or what he’s doing?” The head shake this time was not so definite. “Are you sure about that?”
“Look, what is this?” Philly demanded petulantly. “You say you want to see me because you’ve got some information, so you come here and then start giving me the third degree.”
Jude was instantly in there, good cop to her neighbour’s bad cop. “Philly, it’s all right. Carole just wanted to know the background because what she has to tell you concerns Mark.”
“Really?” The girl looked frightened now. It was with a sense of foreboding that she turned to Carole and asked, “Have you seen him? Do you know where he is?”
“I haven’t seen him myself, but he has been seen. Here in Smalting.”
“Oh my God.” The words came out quiet and dead. “When?”
“About one o’clock last Tuesday morning. The day before I found out there’d been a fire at
Philly Rose’s pallor increased. “Who saw him?”
Carole passed on what she had been told by Curt Holderness. The shock when Philly heard that Mark had been in the company of a woman made her gasp and start to tremble uncontrollably. Jude was instantly at her side, cradling the girl, stroking her shoulders.
It took some minutes for the hysterics to subside. Carole drank her coffee, feeling rather guilty for precipitating this reaction. But Philly had wanted the information.
When she was calmer, Jude said, “There’s clearly quite a lot you’re not telling us, isn’t there, Philly?” This prompted a feeble nod. “And if you don’t want to tell us any more, that’s fine. But what you know is clearly troubling you, and if you think sharing it might help…?”
The suggestion dangled in the air for what seemed like a long time before Philly tore off a sheet of kitchen roll and wiped her nose firmly before saying, “All right, I’ll tell you. It’ll be useful practice for me, because no doubt I’ll have to repeat it all for the police sometime soon.”
? Bones Under The Beach Hut ?
Sixteen
Neither woman responded, unwilling to break the confessional atmosphere. Philly took a deep breath and started. “Mark’s life has always been complicated. Basically he’s married. He was married when we first met – and he didn’t make any secret of the fact. He wasn’t one of those men who passes himself off as a bachelor and only reveals his real status when the woman’s too involved to back out. No, he told me early on that he was married, but he told me things had been difficult with his wife for a long time. She’s Irish, very temperamental, called Nuala. Drank a lot, and encouraged him to drink a lot too. Very much part of that City drinking culture. Obviously I was only hearing Mark’s side of things, but she did sound an absolute nightmare, a real emotional vampire.
“So when we first started seeing each other, he was having a terrible time. He kept telling her he was leaving and every time she’d overreact.”
“In what way?” asked Jude.
“She’d get ill – or pretend to get ill.”
“Any suicide attempts?”
“Yes, but those were no more real than the illnesses. She’d take enough pills to make her woozy, but not enough to do any permanent harm. She’d announce on the phone to Mark that she’d slashed her wrists, but when it came to it, she just got a little scratch, something that would heal up without even leaving a scar.”
“Was she ever hospitalised after these attempts?”
“No way. She didn’t want a doctor to see how far she’d been from doing herself any real damage. It was all just for Mark’s benefit.”
“And did he respond to these ‘cries for help’?” asked Carole.
“He did at first, yes. After a while, he came to recognize them for what they were – just straightforward emotional blackmail. And then things got better.”
“How?”
“Two things. One, Mark settled some money on her.”
“Bought her off?”
“You could call it that. Anyway, Mark could afford it. He’d saved a lot from his bonuses while he’d been in the City and he’d made what seemed at the time to be some pretty shrewd investments. So Nuala got a monthly payment for keeping out of his hair, and she seemed quite happy with that.”
“If she was reconciled to the ending of their relationship, why didn’t they get a divorce?” asked Carole.
“Nuala refused that. She said it was because of her Catholic upbringing, though she had no faith at all. I think it was just a way of keeping an element of control for the moment when she might need it.”
“You said there were two things that improved the situation,” Jude reminded her.
“Yes. The money was the first. The second was even better. Nuala met someone else. She got into a new relationship. Suddenly she didn’t care anything about Mark…though actually I don’t reckon she ever did. Anyway, it left him and me free to make our move down here. Everything seemed fine.”
“So what went wrong?” asked Carole.
Philly’s face screwed up into an expression of wry despair. “What didn’t? The company in which Mark had most of his investments suddenly went belly up. You know how volatile the stock market’s been recently and his were pretty high-risk companies. He lost a packet. Keeping our lifestyle going down here
“Illness, suicide attempts?”
“All that, Jude. And Mark…well, he’s a decent bloke. She could still get to him. I kept saying he should ignore her. Call her bluff. Let the spoilt bitch go ahead with one of her threats. I knew she’d never really top herself. But Mark didn’t see it that way.”
“And is that why he walked out?” Jude asked gently.
“Yes. He was under so much pressure – from the money, from everything else – that he said he just needed a bit of time to sort things out.”
“So do you actually know where he is?” Carole’s question was less delicately put than Jude’s.
Philly shook her head. “If I did, I’d go and find him, tell him he doesn’t owe that crazy bitch anything. Tell him that he should be with me, not with her.” The tears, which she had been controlling very well, threatened once
