‘So how did you kill her?’
‘She was caught off-guard at the foot of the stairs. One whack with the lighthouse and down she went!’ Hetty said cheerfully.
Kate shuddered. ‘So you bludgeoned her to death?’
Kate was staggered beyond belief to think that this tiny woman was capable of such evil. Why? And was she, too, about to be bludgeoned to death? She tried desperately to move her limbs; there was slightly more leeway with her wrists than with her ankles. If she had time she might be able to loosen them eventually, but she doubted time was on her side. In spite of being tied up she realised she was shaking. Terror had replaced pain and curiosity.
‘But,’ Kate said, staring at her and desperately playing for time, ‘that means you must have killed Edina! Your friend, Edina!’ Even if she was about to be bludgeoned to death, she needed to know. She needed to keep her talking too because, when the conversation ended, who knew what could happen?
‘She took everything that was mine,’ Hetty spat. ‘Everything. I spent years trying to find her, you know.’
In spite of her continuing headache Kate was frantically trying to make sense of the conversation. Again, she wondered if she was having some sort of prolonged nightmare. Please, God, let me wake up in a minute!
‘I don’t understand,’ Kate said. That was most definitely an understatement.
‘Why should you? It’s none of your business,’ Hetty snapped.
That much was true, Kate supposed. She stared at Hetty, who seemed to be in some sort of trance.
‘He was so beautiful,’ she said at last.
‘Who was?’ Kate asked quietly. Keep her talking, for goodness’ sake.
‘My son,’ Hetty replied. ‘So beautiful. Perfect.’
Hetty had had a son? Keep her talking. ‘I’m sure he was,’ Kate said.
‘He should have grown up to study medicine, or law,’ Hetty continued. ‘But it wasn’t possible.’
‘What wasn’t possible, Hetty?’ Her mouth was so dry she was having difficulty speaking.
‘For him to grow up with me.’
‘But why not?’
Hetty sighed deeply. ‘It was my first teaching job, and they sacked me. I was a disgrace, they said. You didn’t go having babies back in the sixties if you weren’t married.’
‘Ah,’ said Kate, aware of the scandal this would have caused then.
‘I tried to keep him,’ Hetty said, ‘I tried. But I couldn’t go back home and I couldn’t get a job…’ Her voice tailed off.
Hetty had had to give up her baby, that much was obvious. Perhaps it had affected her mind? Kate needed to know.
‘Hetty,’ she asked, ‘couldn’t the father have helped you?’
‘I loved him, you know,’ Hetty said. ‘I loved Roger. He was my one and only love. Ever.’
‘What happened to Roger, Hetty?’
‘He left me before I had his baby. He’d fallen in love with someone else.’
‘That’s awful!’ Kate said. Keep her talking, for God’s sake!
‘And I couldn’t afford to keep my baby.’
‘So you had him adopted?’ In spite of her situation Kate found herself feeling some sympathy for anyone who had to part with their baby.
‘No, his father wanted him. He’d married the woman he left me for and his new wife couldn’t have children. And they could give him the sort of life that I couldn’t. He persuaded me it was the right thing to do, and I let him. More fool me!’
‘Oh, Hetty, I’m so sorry. Did you ever see your son again?’ She had to empathise with this woman, keep her talking…
‘I waited,’ Hetty replied. ‘I waited and I waited until I heard that Roger had died. Then I went in search of the woman he’d left me for, the stepmother to my son. She was never kind to him, you know.’
Slowly, slowly everything was slotting into place. There was silence for a moment.
‘Does David Courtney know he’s your son?’ Kate asked then.
‘No,’ Hetty replied. ‘He has no idea. He thinks his mother died when he was very small. But, as you can see, I didn’t.’
‘You certainly didn’t,’ Kate muttered.
‘Then Roger left all his money to Edina, with the proviso that it had to go to David after her death. And all David wanted was some of that money earlier when he really needed it.’
‘And she wasn’t parting with it?’
Hetty shook her head. ‘That woman took my lover, and then my son. I’ve waited a long time to get my revenge.’
There was a further silence. Kate tried hard to think how she herself would have felt in those dire circumstances. As a mother, she could only imagine the agony of having to hand over your child. Hetty must have thought it preferable to hand him over to his natural father than the anonymity of a formal adoption. Perhaps, in her youthful innocence, she’d thought he’d keep in touch and let her see her boy from time to time. Plainly he hadn’t.
‘I’m so sorry, Hetty,’ Kate said sincerely. ‘But did you ever tell Edina that you were David’s mother?’
Hetty shook her head. ‘No, I did not. And it took me years to track them down because they’d lived abroad for some time. Australia. But apparently, she wanted to come back to Europe and to her opera. She was a good singer in her day, you know.’
‘So I’ve been told,’ Kate said. Hetty seemed to be still deeply ensconced in the past and Kate wondered what was going to happen when she returned to the present. She couldn’t see anything that could be used as a weapon but who could know what this woman was likely to do next? Kate tried to control her shaking but she continued to feel pure terror permeating every inch of her body.
‘But she was a lousy mother,’ Hetty added. ‘So when I heard she was buying a flat here, I decided to buy a flat here too. Then I had to wait some more for a good
