Bess, distracted again by the sound of a vehicle’s door slamming, looked back at the black car from the lane. A tall man in a belted mackintosh leapt out of the passenger door and started running towards the girl. She must have seen him because she stopped, turned on her heels, and ran back in the direction of the wood. Suddenly lights from a second vehicle were visible through the leafless trees and the girl stopped and turned again.
The wind was whipping up and the snow was heavy. Bess strained to see which way the girl was going to run next. She put her hand up to her mouth and gasped in horror. ‘She’s running in the direction of the lake. What is she doing? Katherine, stop!’ Bess shouted. ‘Katherine?’ Bess and Margot lumbered across the snow-covered field following in what Bess thought were Sutherland’s and the girl’s footprints and almost collided with the tall man in the raincoat.
‘Mitch? What are you doing here?’
‘Bess! Margot!’ Where’s Claire? Where’s my wife?’
‘She isn’t here, and nor should you be.’
‘But that woman--’ Mitch shook his head as if he was trying to clear his mind, ‘I thought she was Claire.’ Bess looked at Margot. She lifted and dropped her shoulders as if to say, I’ve no idea what he’s on about. ‘It looked like the guy with her was beating her. There she is!’
Bess caught the sleeve of Mitch’s coat, as he made to run to the woman’s defence. ‘Mitch? That isn’t Claire. It’s a local girl and she’s with a well-known fascist.’
‘A Blackshirt,’ Margot said.
‘You mustn’t get involved in this,’ Bess shouted into the wind. ‘Think about it. You and Claire were in occupied France during the war, and he’s a Nazi sympathiser.’ His gaze still fixed on the girl, Mitch nodded that Bess was right. ‘Go up to the hotel and Claire will fill you in with what’s been happening. And tell Frank and Bill that Margot and I won’t be long.’
Mitch ambled off reluctantly, and Bess and Margot made their way across the thick carpet of snow to the sparse wood, where they saw the shape of a large light coloured motorcar. Its headlights were at half-beam and its engine was idling. Suddenly, the sound of a door slamming echoed through the trees and the car roared into life. A second later it sped off down Shaft Hill.
‘That’s it, then!’ Bess said, as she and Margot trudged back across the field in a snow storm that was fast turning into a blizzard. ‘After all that, she went off with Sutherland.’
‘And her father. That was her father’s car we saw through the trees, wasn’t it?’
Bess nodded. ‘I think so. At least it looked like the silver Bentley that stopped on the drive earlier.’
Bess and Margot’s friends, Natalie and Anton Goldman were waiting for them when they got back to the hotel. ‘Frank and Bill not with you?’ Anton asked. He looked concerned.
‘No. We haven’t seen them,’ Margot said.
Bess looked back at the lake and exhaled loudly. ‘I specifically asked Frank to stay in the hotel.’
‘He and Bill were worried about the two of you,’ Anton said.
‘They went out to look for you some time ago,’ Natalie added.
As the last of the cars taking New Year’s revellers home left, a police car arrived.
CHAPTER TWO
Lowarth’s Sergeant McGann and Constable Peg were out of their black Wolseley by the time Bess and Margot had walked up the steps to the hotel. Bess elected to wait for them, ushering them through the door and into the foyer ahead of her.
Bill followed Margot into the hotel, but Frank hung back. ‘Thank God you’re safe,’ he said in a hushed voice. ‘We couldn’t see you anywhere.’
‘You shouldn’t have been out looking,’ Bess whispered. Unable to stay angry with her husband, she added, ‘If the police want to know where you’ve been say nowhere, that you and Bill only came out as far as the steps and waited for us.’
Sergeant McGann asked if there was somewhere private where he could talk to Bess and Margot about the events of the evening; the threatening behaviour towards the young woman and the argument between the two men.
Bess showed the policemen into the office, but before entering herself turned to Claire, who was talking to Mr Potts the night porter in reception. ‘Where’s Mitch?’
‘Upstairs checking on Aimee.’
‘Good. There’s nothing more you can do tonight, so you might as well call it a day. Find Ena, will you, tell her the same. I’ll let you know what action the police intend to take, if any, in the morning.’
Entering the office, Bess hung her coat on a hook behind the door and took off her boots. Replacing them with her shoes, she joined Margot by the fire. Adding two logs to what would have soon been ashes, she knelt down beside her sister and warmed her hands.
Unable to delay the proceedings further, the two sisters stood up and turned to face Sergeant McGann. With their backs to the fire they told the policeman what they had seen and heard earlier that night.
Omitting the personal threats Sutherland had made to her, Bess recounted everything she had heard Sutherland say in the hotel’s public bar to the girl called Katherine and her father, Sir Gerald.
‘So,’ McGann said, reading the notes he’d made, ‘Sutherland and Sir Gerald were already arguing when you arrived?’ He looked up at Bess. ‘Is that correct?’ Bess nodded. ‘And you don’t know who started the argument, or what it was about?’
‘No, but our barman, Simon, would know. He was on duty all night. The photographer from the Lowarth Advertiser might know something too. I
