Mrs Dunkley-Brown said, ‘Just who are you?’
‘I said – Ada Shaftsbury. We’d also like a word with you in a moment.’
Rose decided to soften the approach. Ada’s tone was becoming abrasive. ‘It’s for my sake, actually. It’s true you haven’t met Ada before, but you may recognise me.’
The Dunkley-Browns looked at her fully and she was certain there was a moment of recognition. To her astonishment the husband said immediately in a hard, clipped tone, 77
‘No, my dear. Never once clapped eyes on you. Obviously you’re mistaken.’
Ada, braced for battle, said, ‘Mistaken about your motor, are we?’
‘Anyone could have told you about my car…’ Dunkley-Brown started to say. Then he interrupted himself and said, ‘All right, you’re obviously mistaken, but for the sake of some peace, I’ll talk to you outside. Fair enough?’
‘Do you want me to come, Ned?’ his wife asked.
Ada spoke up as if the offer were addressed to her. ‘Thanks, but we’d rather talk to you later.’
She said, ‘You sound like the police. What are we supposed to have done? Robbed a bank?’
‘Gordon Bennett, we’re nothing to do with the police,’ said Ada, speaking from the heart.
Dunkley-Brown stood up. ‘Let’s sort this out, whatever it is. I’ll step outside with you, but I’m not having my wife’s evening disturbed.’
Ada led the way and they stood in the sparse evening light in the Market Place while Rose explained the connection. She set out the facts without guile, admitting that she had her information second-hand from an elderly woman, fully expecting her frankness to be matched by Dunkley-Brown’s. He heard it all in silence, his eyes giving no hint of involvement.
Finally Rose asked him, ‘Well, was it your car she saw? Did you bring me to the Hinton Clinic that evening?’
Dunkley-Brown overrode the last word. ‘Absolutely not. You’re mistaken. I was nowhere near Bath last Monday night and neither was my car. We spent the evening in Westbury. I can’t help you.’
Ada couldn’t contain herself. ‘But the car was seen, a big white car with a fish on the bonnet. How many cars like that are there in these parts? Have you ever seen another one?’
He would not yield. ‘There’s no reason why someone else shouldn’t have one.’
‘The driver was a bald bloke.’
Ada spoke this as a statement of fact without regard to any sensitivity Dunkley-Brown may have had about his appearance. He didn’t care for it at all. ‘I’ve heard more than enough of this. I’ve made myself clear. I can’t help you. Now allow me to get back to my friends.’
Ada was blocking his route to the bar door.
She remained where she was. However, she said with more tact, ‘If you took the trouble to drive her to hospital, you must have been concerned.’
He said, ‘Will you stand out of my way?’
‘Please. We’re not blaming you for anything,’ said Rose. ‘I just want to know what happened to me that night. You’re the best chance I have – the only chance.’
‘No, he isn’t,’ said Ada. ‘There’s his wife.’
Dunkley-Brown said through clenched teeth, ‘You are not speaking to my wife.’
‘She offered to come outside,’ said Ada.
‘There’s no reason. She can’t tell you a damned thing.’
‘Then you have nothing to fear.’
‘I’ve nothing to fear anyway. My conscience is perfectly clear.’
Ada turned to Rose. ‘Why don’t I stay out here with Mr Dunkley-Brown while you go and ask his good lady to join us?’
‘This is outrageous,’ said Dunkley-Brown. ‘You can’t detain me against my will. I’ll complain to the police.’
Ada beamed at him. ‘I bet you won’t, buster. I bet my next dinner you won’t.’
Rose went back inside and found that the bonhomie had been fully restored at the table. There was some ribald comment when they saw who had come from outside.
‘Hullo, what’s happened to Ned?’ one of them said. ‘Still at it?’
The other man said, ‘With the big one.’
‘Showing her his Bentley,’ shrieked one of the women.
Ignoring them, Rose walked around the chairs and up to Mrs Dunkley-Brown. ‘If you don’t mind, we’d like you to help us after all.’
‘Watch out, Pippa,’ said the woman to her right. ‘They might want you for a threesome.’
Pippa Dunkley-Brown glared at Rose. ‘My husband said he could handle it. What do you want me for?’
‘To support what he’s saying.’
‘He doesn’t need me. He’s well used to speaking for himself and being believed.’
‘You were there. We want to know what happened.’
‘Where? What
‘The Hinton Clinic last Monday night.’
After a pause, she said, ‘I don’t know a damned thing about the Hinton Clinic. I’ve never set foot inside the place.’
In her exasperation, Rose found herself pouring out words. ‘Oh, come on, I don’t mean inside. Just in the grounds. The car park, where I was found. I need your help. I’m not accusing you of anything. You probably saved my life, you and your husband. If you want to keep quiet about what you did, that’s up to you, but please have some understanding for my position.’
The man across the table, the most vocal of the group, said, ‘What’s this about saving her life, Pippa? Have you and Ned been performing acts of heroism and keeping it from your old chums?’
She said tight-lipped, ‘She’s confused.’
‘Yes, I am confused,’ Rose said. ‘I admit it. That’s why I’m appealing to you for help.’
Pippa Dunkley-Brown drew herself up. ‘Young woman, I’m becoming more than a little angry.’
The man opposite, well soused, seized the chance to goad her. ‘Come clean, Pippa. What were you and Ned up to in this hospital car park that you don’t want us to know about? Naughties in the back of the Bentley?’
She snapped, ‘Don’t be so bloody ridiculous.’
‘Well, if it wasn’t you with Ned,’ he said with a grin at the other women, ‘who was it?”
Pippa reddened.
One of the women, probably the man’s wife, said, ‘Knock it off, Keith, you stupid jerk.’
The rebuke had the effect of stinging Pippa rather than Keith, for it showed that these friends of hers were taking the suggestion seriously. The idea that her ageing husband might dally with another woman was more damaging than any threat represented by Rose and Ada. She couldn’t allow it to pass unchallenged. she said in a low, measured voice, ‘What are you on about, Keith?’
‘Ignore him. You know what he’s like,’ said Keith’s wife.
‘No, I’m not having Ned smeared. If you’ve got something to tell us, Keith, you’d better say it, or apologise.’
Keith was grinning to cover his unease. ‘Calm down, love,’ he said. ‘I was only pulling your leg.’
The other man tried clumsily to assist. ‘Let’s face it. Old Ned’s a bit of a lad.’
‘That’s what you think, is it?’ said Pippa, at the limit of her self-control. ‘Right.’ She made a fist with her right hand and thumped the table. ‘I’m going to tell you all exactly what happened. I was with Ned all of last Monday, all of it. We were coming back from Bristol early in the evening, about six-thirty. We’d been to a garden centre to look at some ornaments and left a bit late to miss the worst of the traffic. We were on the motorway, the M4, as far as that junction that leads down into Bath.’
‘Eighteen,’ said the other man at the table to ease the tension. ‘She means Junction Eighteen.’
‘I suggested we got something from a Chinese takeaway. That’s why we headed for Bath. We drove along there for about a mile.’
‘The A46,’ said the same man. ‘You were on the A46.’
‘Shut up, Frank,’ said his wife.
Pippa continued, ‘It was that difficult light between day and evening. Ned was driving. It’s that stretch before
