she was turning away and added, 'Like some coffee? I was just about to make some for myself.'
Gemma and Kincaid took advantage of the opportunity to look around the room. It was neat and scrupulously clean, as Gemma could testify after she surreptitiously ran a finger along the edge of a bookshelf-it came away without a smudge of dust. The furniture was of good quality but not new, and the ornaments more likely to be family hand-me-downs, it seemed to Gemma, than chosen with a particular decorating scheme in mind. A
Kincaid moved to the windows at the rear of the room and stood looking into the brambly garden that lay at eye level. 'She lives alone?' Gemma asked softly as she joined him.
'Looks that way, doesn't it?'
Felicity returned, carrying coffee pot and china cups on a tray. Setting the tray down on the coffee table, she scooped the offending newspaper from the sofa and tucked it out of sight beneath an end table. She seemed to have regained authority along with clean face and hands, directing Gemma and Kincaid to sit on the sofa while she poured for them, then pulling up a straight-backed chair for herself. The sofa was squashy in the center and Gemma found herself sinking, trying to keep her thigh from brushing against Kincaid's, and looking up at Felicity perched commandingly on her hard chair. She saw the corner of Kincaid's mouth twitch with amusement at her predicament. Felicity had performed a clever and practiced maneuver, thought Gemma, and was not a bit surprised when she took charge of the interview.
'You've had your post mortem results, then?' Felicity said to Kincaid, crossing her legs and balancing her cup on her knee.
'The pathologist found considerably more morphine than her prescribed pain dosage would have allowed. Could she-'
'Look,' Felicity interrupted, leaning toward him, 'I know how you must be feeling about this. You're shocked because you weren't expecting it, but I see this all the time. It's not unusual.'
'Margaret believed-'
'You and I both know, Mr. Kincaid, that assisted suicide is a felony offense. I'm sure Jasmine decided she couldn't risk implicating Margaret, and credited Margaret with enough sense to keep her mouth shut about their previous agreement. Jasmine didn't really need any help, not with access to liquid morphine.'
Kincaid sat back and sipped his coffee, temporarily giving up the offensive and taking another tack. 'Why liquid morphine rather than tablets?'
'Difficulty swallowing. The tumor pressed against the esophagus as it grew. Jasmine was managing very little soft food as it was, and if she'd gone on much longer a feeding tube would have become necessary.' Felicity sighed and relaxed a little in her chair. 'Her pain would have increased considerably, too, perhaps beyond manageability with drugs. I've seen similar tumors crack the patient's ribs.'
'Did Jasmine know this?' Gemma asked, horrified by the description.
'I imagine so. Jasmine was an informed patient, she kept up with things.' Felicity smiled and fell silent, and Gemma saw weariness beneath the crisp exterior.
'How can you bear to do what you do, to watch people suffer so?'
This time Felicity's shrug was almost Gallic in its eloquence. 'Somebody has to. And I'm good at it. I make them comfortable, and I reassure them.'
Kincaid finished his coffee, leaned forward and set his empty cup down deliberately on the table. 'Felicity, how could Jasmine have accumulated enough morphine to kill herself? Didn't you supply the prescription for her?'
'She requested a dosage increase weeks ago. We don't make an effort to limit terminal patients' opiate consumption, we simply try to keep them comfortable. It's quite possible that she told me she needed more morphine and then maintained the same dosage.' Felicity studied Kincaid. 'That's all I can tell you, I'm afraid.'
Felicity obviously intended this as a dismissal, but Kincaid crossed his ankle over his knee and smiled at her. 'You say you met Margaret a few times. Did her boyfriend ever come around? His name's Roger-I'm sure you'd remember him.'
'No, Margaret always came alone when I was there, and Jasmine never mentioned meeting any friend.'
'Did Jasmine say anything to you about making arrangements to see her brother?'
Felicity shook her head and began stacking their coffee cups on the tray. 'We never talked about personal matters. Some patients like to tell you their life story, but not Jasmine.'
'Did anyone visit her at all? Or did you see anyone unfamiliar in the building recently?'
'No. I'm sorry.'
Kincaid gave in gracefully. He stood up and shook Felicity's hand. 'Thank you. You've been very helpful.'
Gemma quickly followed suit. 'Thanks for your time.'
'It may be necessary for you to appear at the inquest,' Kincaid added as an afterthought as they moved toward the door.
'All right. You'll notify me?'
Kincaid nodded and held the door open for Gemma. 'Good-bye.'
Gemma, turning back as the door closed to echo his farewell, had a last glimpse of Felicity Howarth standing alone in her sitting room.
They had joined the A24 toward Surrey before either of them spoke. Gemma glanced at Kincaid. He drove easily, hand resting lightly on the gear shift, his expression obscured by the sunglasses he'd pulled from the door pocket. 'You're still not convinced, are you?' she asked.
He answered without taking his eyes from the road. 'No. Perhaps I'm just being stubborn.'
'You think she would have left a note for Margaret or Theo,' said Gemma, and added 'or you,' silently. She found herself increasingly curious about this woman who had occupied such a large portion of Kincaid's life, and of whom she had known nothing. He'd made some passing references to visiting a neighbor, but she had somehow assumed the neighbor to be male-a going-down-to-the-pub sort of thing. Just what had been his relationship with Jasmine Dent? Were they lovers, with Jasmine so ill with cancer?
Stealing a glance at Kincaid's abstracted face, Gemma was shocked to realize how little she knew of his personal life. It had seemed to her that he moved through life with a graceful ease which she both admired and resented. But perhaps not everything came as easily to him as she'd supposed-he was obviously suffering both grief and guilt over Jasmine's death.
Now that she thought about it, when had she ever given him much chance to talk about what he did away from work? She had nattered on about Toby, and Kincaid had listened as if the activities of a two-year-old were absolutely fascinating. That she would have to attribute to natural good manners, and resolved to be less obtuse in the future.
'Gemma?'
She focused on Kincaid and flushed, feeling transparent. 'Sorry?'
'You looked a bit glazed. I thought maybe my driving terrified you.'
'No,' Gemma answered, smiling. 'I was just thinking,' she scrambled for the first thing that popped into her head, 'um, about Felicity. Wouldn't you think that if you spent your life caring for the dying, trying to offer some comfort, that you would need a very strong faith?'
'Possibly. Go on.'
Gemma heard the frown she couldn't see behind Kincaid's sunglasses. 'Eleven o'clock on a Sunday morning and Felicity was working in the garden-she hadn't been to church.'
'Maybe she's R.C. and goes to early mass,' Kincaid said, amused.
'No makeup,' Gemma countered, 'not even a trace of lipstick. Don't tell me a good-looking woman like Felicity gets up and goes to church on Sunday morning without a stitch of make-up.'
'Very observant.' Kincaid grinned at that, then sobered. 'Maybe whatever faith sustains Felicity isn't the visible sort.'
They were entering the outskirts of Dorking. Kincaid pulled a map from his door pocket and handed it to Gemma. 'Make sure it's the A25 we want to Abinger Hammer, would you?' As Gemma rustled the map, he continued, 'Meg comes from here. Says her father owns a garage. It's not far from London for her family to have cut her off so completely. You'd think-'
'Junction coming up,' Gemma interrupted. 'A25 west toward Guildford.' After Kincaid navigated the roundabout
