‘We’ve just been talking to Ronnie Dewberry,’ Trudy began, not missing the quick glance Janet threw at them. As Janet flushed slightly and refused to meet her eyes, Trudy wondered, not for the first time, if there might not be something going on between this pretty young girl and the farmer’s son.
‘Oh? Is he all right?’ Janet asked casually.
‘Well, he misses his best friend,’ Trudy said lightly, ‘but yes, he’s fine. We wanted to ask him something about David.’
Since she was sitting so close to her on the bench, Trudy was able to feel the way Janet stiffened slightly. Perhaps aware of that, she raised a hand to her face and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and tried to shift a little further along the bench. Unfortunately, it was a snug fit, and she didn’t quite manage it. ‘Oh?’ she finally managed.
‘Did Iris ever mention David keeping a diary?’ Trudy asked mildly. As the other girl had tried to shift away, she had moved very slightly closer, so that the tops of their arms were pressed tightly together, and there was no mistaking the shock the question had given her. Trudy felt it like a quick electrical quiver run through her that came and went in a flash. When she turned to look sharply at Janet’s profile, however, her expression gave nothing away.
But Trudy knew what she’d felt.
‘Iris didn’t really talk about David much,’ Janet heard herself lie, and was almost impressed with the casual honesty of her tone. She hadn’t realised, until now, just how well she could act a part. It had always been her best friend who had been so skilled at subterfuge.
Aware that they were still waiting for an answer, she shrugged lightly. ‘Iris liked to talk about herself and her plans for the future, and what she was doing, and what she wanted, and things like that. Other people didn’t really interest her – unless they could be useful to her, I suppose.’
Which was all true enough, Janet mused, with an inner smile.
‘She sounds like she was a bit full of herself,’ Trudy commented.
Janet sighed. ‘I suppose she was, in a way. But you didn’t really mind. It’s hard to explain, but she made you feel so alive. You could never be bored with Iris. She was so cheerful and … I don’t know … like a force of nature. You could believe somehow that she really could take on the world and win, somehow. Being with her was exciting … I suppose that’s why all the boys wanted to date her,’ she finished with a wry smile.
‘David was beating them off with a stick, was he?’ Trudy teased lightly.
‘I suppose he was, yes. And Iris loved it when he got jealous.’
‘And she gave him a lot of reasons to be jealous, or so we keep hearing. And it wasn’t just the young, single, unattached men either, was it?’ Trudy carried on, again careful to keep her tone light.
‘Oh you mean the older men … that wasn’t anything serious, it was just silly flirting. The men in this village …’ Janet sighed and gave a brief bark of laughter. ‘Well, men can be so silly about girls who like to josh them along a bit, can’t they? Some of them might have taken it a bit too seriously, but Iris would always put them in their place if they did.’
‘I don’t suppose their wives liked it much though,’ Trudy said with another light laugh.
‘No, but Iris didn’t care about them,’ Janet said off-handedly. ‘She called them boring old housewives. She always said she’d never get married or have a brood of children … and now she won’t, will she?’
Trudy glanced at her profile, a little surprised by the lack of sympathy in her tone, but again Janet’s face was bland and unhelpful.
‘So you don’t know anything about a diary or a journal that David might have kept?’ Trudy returned to the attack, aware that she had allowed the conversation to get slightly off track.
‘First I’ve heard of it,’ Janet lied blithely. Inside, she felt proud of herself. There really was nothing to this acting lark, she thought, almost scornfully. Anybody could do it, if they tried. You just had to pretend that things were different, that was all. And to think of all the fuss Iris made about how hard it was to be a great actress!
‘And you’ve no idea where he might have kept it, if he had been keeping a record of his life?’
‘Sorry?’ Janet said, only having caught the tail end of the question, so caught up had she been in her own personal reverie.
‘It’s just that David might not have wanted to keep a private journal at home, say, where his mother might find it. We were wondering if you knew where he might have hidden it where it would be safe?’ Trudy elaborated.
Janet’s heart gave another little leap, but her shoulders gave a nonchalant shrug. ‘Sorry, but I’d have no idea. Although we all went to school together, I wasn’t close to David,’ she murmured, turning her face away to glance at a robin, peering down at the lawn for anything six-legged that might be moving through the stems of grass. Although she was gaining in confidence, she thought it wise not to look either of her two visitors in the face. The girl seemed rather nice and blissfully clueless, but the quiet, thoughtful Dr Ryder had alarmingly penetrating eyes.
‘All right. Well thanks for your time,’ Trudy said, sounding a little disappointed.
‘That’s all right,’ Janet said, with rather more obvious relief than she would have liked. She got up with them and walked them around the side of the house and back to the front garden. At the gate to the lane she gave them a brief smile then turned and made her
