‘The story poured out of Mrs O’Brien. Confusing.’ She opened her notebook, spent a few moments checking over the details. ‘Mrs O’Brien is seventy-three. She was a friend of Edwina’s mother first. I don’t know if this is important, but until recently Edwina lived at number one Edmund Street. Big house on the corner of the main road, next door to Mrs O’Brien. Sold it last year and moved into number eleven.’
‘Must have made a pile of money,’ Alex said.
‘I’ll come to that later.’ Marion cleared her throat. ‘Edwina was an only child, brought up by her mother, Alice, with a lot of help from Mrs O’Brien. The two of them were like sisters. Father ran off before Edwina was born. When the mother was about six months pregnant. Should have heard Mrs O’Brien go on about the father. If he ever showed his face again, I think she’d kill him herself. Her story was very confused at this point. The two women brought Edwina up and then when she was a teenager Edwina’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the same time Edwina got pregnant. Mrs O’Brien didn’t say it outright, about the pregnancy, but Edwina was married at sixteen.’
‘What?’ Alex said. ‘This was when … 1981? Is that legal? Does the law allow you to get married at sixteen?’
Marion shrugged. Jerry swung around to the computer. The others waited while he checked it out. ‘Seems so, with parental consent. Jesus George, that’s young though.’
‘Yes. Well the mother had cancer and I’m surmising Edwina was already pregnant. They’re Catholics, like something out of the Victorian era. They must have panicked. No family, and a life ahead of shame, hell and damnation.’
‘1981 Mar!’
‘To you Jerry, but in a little part of Edmund Street I’m pretty sure it was more like 1881.’ Marion fiddled with her notebook. ‘His name was Jonathon Biggs. He was from number twenty Edmund St. He was eighteen. According to Mrs O’Brien his family was quite happy about it. His father was a carpenter and Jonathon an apprentice. She reckoned they had big plans. The renovation revolution was well underway by then and he and Edwina were going to turn the house into four flats. One for the mother, one for them and two to rent out.
Going to set them up for life. She said Edwina didn’t realise her mother’s cancer was so advanced. Two months after the wedding, she died.’
Alex let out a sigh. Tried to imagine what it must have been like. He was about to ask if the young couple had moved in with the dying mother, but he couldn’t. He didn’t want to know.
‘Then two children were born within two years and one day he was gone.’
‘What do you mean, gone?’ asked Jerry.
‘Gone. Left a note. Said he had been railroaded into marriage, was too young, couldn’t cope.’
‘Wait!’ said Jerry. ‘Are you saying both Edwina’s father and her husband disappeared into thin air?’
‘Well, yes. I hadn’t thought about it that way.’
‘Did Edwina ever hear from her father or her husband again?’ Jerry demanded.
‘I didn’t ask about the father, but I think not. Certainly not from her husband.’
Jerry grinned, ran his hand through his hair. ‘What do you think, Alex? Do we need to check it out?’
‘Let’s hear Marion out first. Go on, Mar.’
‘I don’t know anything more about the husband. As far as Mrs O’Brien is concerned the husband is not worth wasting breath on. Besides, it happened about thirty-five years ago. After he left, she and Edwina became very close. She took on the role of Edwina’s mother and best friend. She helped with the children. According to her the children did well at school. They should both be here tomorrow or the next day.’
‘Hold on,’ said Jerry. ‘Getting back to the men in this family who have a habit of vanishing, don’t you think it needs to be checked out? Make sure they aren’t under the floorboards somewhere?’
The others ignored him. ‘Keep going, Mar. Tell us about the recent stuff.’
‘Now it starts to get interesting. Until recently, the only job Edwina ever had was working in the vegetable shop up the road. Friends from St Joseph’s apparently. The primary school she went to.’
Jerry snorted.
‘Three times a week she went in around five in the morning when the supplies came back from the market, and helped unpack everything. Year after year. She struggled, the kids grew up, started working, moved away and she and Mrs O’Brien saw each other every day. Ate together most nights. Went out together. Church stuff mainly. Inseparable.’
Jerry sat forward in his chair, tapping the floor with one foot. ‘I’m thinking husband and father under the floorboards. Wouldn’t be the first time. Could even be Mrs O’Brien’s floorboards.’
Marion ignored him. ‘About three years ago, something happened. Edwina won a raffle at the church fete—free lessons at the local gym for the year. She started going to a 9.30 am dance class and everything changed.’
‘Aha. I like this, Mar,’ said Jerry. ‘Juicy stuff now.’
‘Apparently, first off she started to lose weight. She’d developed a “generous build”, according to Mrs O’Brien, but she was going to classes every day except Sunday and she lost a lot of weight. Then she did something miraculous with her hair and made a friend, Rose. No surname unfortunately.’
Jerry rubbed his hands together. ‘Maybe I had it wrong. Maybe she was a latent lesbian.’
‘Oh, shut up, Jerry,’ Marion snapped. ‘Hear me out. There was a lot of subtext in what Mrs O’Brien was saying at this point. It was clear she resented this new life Edwina had stumbled into. She was meeting and socialising with the smart new people who were moving into the area. Before that her circle of friends had been restricted to the old timers. Am I making sense?’
Alex nodded. ‘Go on.’
‘Then Edwina started doing a “back-to-work” course at the local community centre. Learned how to use a computer, which
