Murder by Suggestion Page 6

  She smiled, a hurting smile. But a smile, nevertheless. And rubbed her jaw.

  Barbie said, ‘Good for you!’

  Russet clapped her hands.

  The pudding-shaped one put her hand over her mouth and said, ‘You didn’t!’

  ‘I did,’ said Trish, tears standing out in her eyes, but pleased with herself. ‘Only then, of course, I felt awful. For two pins I’d have joined him on the floor and given him a cuddle and apologized, but then I remembered Barbie saying that once he’d started, he’d do it again and again unless he agreed to see a therapist. And, Russet, you said that if I let him hit me again, it would be because I’d let him. So I held on to the counter and managed to get myself out into the hall.’

  Russet said, ‘Great. So that’s when he threw you out?’

  ‘Not exactly, no. I saw one of the strange women – there were two of them, never seen them before in my life! – bringing my winter coats down the stairs. I wasn’t sure I could climb the stairs, but I made it. Slowly. The women had cleared out my walk-in wardrobe and cupboards. I tried to think. I love Terry so much! He’s really a lost little boy and he needs me. I just have to give him time, and he’ll apologize. I do know you said he’s got to learn to respect me. It’s just that when he gets in a state, he doesn’t think straight. He says I’m always laughing too much and that it shows I’m a slut at heart. If I so much as speak to or smile at another man, he asks me where I met him and … Oh, it’s all so stupid! So unnecessary!

  ‘I stood there on the landing and told myself that this was a crisis. I had to do something to stop him hitting me. He’d said he wanted me out and I decided to be brave and take him at his word. I would go and not return till he’d promised to see a therapist. So I helped the women take my stuff from the bathroom, which they’d forgotten to do. Then I went back downstairs and he was sitting up and taking notice again. I said I didn’t know what bee he had in his bonnet, but he was quite wrong about me wanting him dead, because we did have a good thing going, didn’t we? He’d even got tickets for the Orient Express for our fourth wedding anniversary next month. I said I was going to leave him to stay with my parents for a few days to think things over and he could phone me on my mobile when he wanted to talk. I got those two women to help me pack up the car with everything and was just fitting the last bundle into my car when Russet rang to say she and Barbie had been thrown out, too, and that they were at Diana’s mother’s house and would I like to join them, because it’s a long drive to my parents and it’s true, I didn’t feel like facing the motorway. So I came here instead. Did I do the right thing? I shouldn’t have left him, should I? I’m in such a muddle!’

  So the cars outside were Trish’s and Russet’s?

  ‘You did the right thing,’ said Barbie. ‘If you’ll take my advice, you’ll not answer his calls for a few days. Give him time to calm down. Don’t agree to meet him on your own, either. Perhaps have your solicitor with you? Get him to agree to see a therapist before you’ll even think of returning to him. That is, if you think he’s worth it.’

  ‘Of course he’s worth it,’ said Trish.

  The others looked unconvinced that Terry was worth a cough or a sneeze but nodded to show solidarity.

  Russet said, ‘Trish, I’m thrilled you got out from under, but can you keep it up if he refuses to see a therapist and comes crawling back to you tomorrow, weeping salt tears and declaring eternal love?’

  A wriggle of the shoulders. A moment of doubt. ‘I don’t know. It shook me when he swiped at me like that. I didn’t recognize him for a moment. He’d gone all red and horrible. It crossed my mind that he ought to have a check on his blood pressure, but … Oh, I don’t know. If he can learn to curb his temper, but …’ She braced herself. ‘I’m not going to be anybody’s victim. If we divorce, not that I want to, but if we do then I’m young enough to start again. Thank the Lord we never had any children. But let me make it quite clear: I was not plotting to kill him.’

  Barbie said, ‘I’m sure you’re right. Give it time. Your family has money. They won’t let you starve.’

  Trish managed her painful smile again. ‘I’ll be all right. What about you lot?’

  There was a new sharp note in Russet’s voice. ‘I’m not going to put up with being thrown on the rubbish heap at my time of life.’

  Ellie raised her hands. ‘Girls, girls! Now,’ she turned to the pudding-shaped one, ‘what’s your name, and who is your husband?’

  The last one of the four had been sobbing her heart out when Ellie arrived, and hadn’t stopped for long since. Or repaired her make-up. Correction: she didn’t wear make-up. She’d washed her face and had stopped crying but looked as if she might start again at any minute.

  ‘I’m Kat, short for Katarina.’ A whispery voice. She was not like the others, who all showed evidence of careful and expensive grooming. Kat’s figure was sinking into middle-aged spread without being checked by diet or corsetry. Her hair was naturally fair, almost ash-blonde though turning grey. She had not visited the hairdressers recently and her dense mop was tied back in a scrunchy at the nape of her neck. She was so unlike the others in presentation that it was almost laughable, and it seemed she was the only one who’d cried that day. Also, that thick quality in the voice wasn’t catarrh, it was the trace of a mid-European accent.

  Kat blew her nose. ‘Is it possible, my hankie is finished. A tissue?’ She was helplessness itself.

  Ellie said, ‘There’s a box on the table by the window.’

  It didn’t surprise Ellie that Trish went to get it for her friend, but it was surprising that Russet put her arm around Kat and gave her a hug. ‘You’ll be all right.’

  Barbie said, ‘Yes, buck up, Kat. We’ll sort this and find somewhere for you to go.’

  So those three well-groomed, expensive women were rallying around Kat? Perhaps because she was so helpless and they were so obviously not? There was a certain irritation in their care for her, but Ellie thought all the better of them for troubling themselves to look after Kat when they were in such a difficult position themselves.

  Ellie had seen women using their weakness to get their own way before but, observing Kat now trying to smile and to thank her friends, Ellie acquitted her of doing so with intent. The woman was just what she seemed: a nice enough creature without much gumption. If she’d been the one to muddle up her husband’s pills and cause him to meet an untimely death, no one would have been surprised. But it wasn’t her husband who’d died, was it?

  ‘So, which is your husband, Kat?’

  ‘Rupert. Oh, dear, I always cut his toenails on Monday evenings. Who’s going to look after him now? It is not possible for him to get down to his feet.’

  ‘He’ll manage,’ said Barbie, with a bracing air and the tiniest roll of her eyes. ‘He managed before you came, didn’t he?’

  Barbie had no illusions about Rupert, did she? She probably didn’t have an optimistic view of the human race as a whole, either.

  Ellie said, ‘I must ask, Kat. Was it your laptop which revealed the emails?’

  ‘It was Rupert’s old one. When I came to this country I knew nothing, but my friends teach me to use Internet and Rupert gave me his old laptop that he did not use any more.’ She beamed at her friends, and they all smiled and nodded back.

  Kat said, ‘I have skills now. I can get another job to look after house. I can search online for a gardener. I know about electric meter, and gas and everything. Barbie and Russet are so kind, and Trish, too. They help me learn first on laptop and only one month ago they gave me smartphone. Now I text just like other people, and I Skype my family in Bosnia every Sunday. My brother and sister, they wish to visit, but my husband says “No”, so I tell them, “Not this year, but maybe next”.’

  ‘Maybe.’ Russet patted Kat’s shoulder and explained what had happened to Ellie. ‘Rupert’s first wife went off with the milkman or the insurance agent or some such. Kat was his housekeeper while he dillied and dallied semi-romantic
ally with a couple of expensive young women. When he realized how much they would cost to keep, he decided to save himself a packet by marrying Kat and saving her wages.’

  ‘No, no!’ Kat sobbed again. ‘He is good man and much worried with his health. What will he do if I am not there to make his special diet?’

  ‘He should have thought of that,’ said Russet with a grim smile. ‘I’ll bet mine won’t remember his chiropody appointment, either.’

  Ellie said, ‘What happened to you today, Kat?’

  ‘The same. Like the others. He sent me to the shops for some special laces for his new boots and when I got back, my bag that I brought from home was in the drive, with another I do not know. He say, I am bad wife, and he has packed up my bag and he lends me another on wheels to take all that I have in the world. I cry, and he give me fifty pounds to go away. Then Diana ring and say to come here to this address. So I come by bus, and then I ask where is it, and I walk and walk and I get here.’

  Russet patted Kat’s knee. ‘I don’t know why you put up with Rupert for so long. He paws everything in sight after he’s had a couple.’

  Barbie exchanged glances with Russet. ‘You, too?’

  Russet pulled a face. ‘Hands everywhere. Ugh.’

  Trish said, ‘If you don’t smile as if you like it, he pinches you.’

  Barbie tapped the table. ‘I don’t believe in coincidences. Someone with a good brain masterminded today’s little coup. Knowing our beloved husbands, I can’t imagine any of them being responsible. What do you think, girls?’

  ‘What!’ Trish’s mouth fell open. ‘Oh. But … what do you mean?’

  Barbie’s fingers, dark red-tipped, drummed a rhythm on the table. ‘It was like a military operation. We were all absent from the house for a while this morning. It’s no secret that I always go to the gym on a Monday morning, or that Trish walks the dogs at that time of day. Russet and Kat went shopping. My husband’s first wife and his son arrived to clear out my stuff when I was out, at the same time as a team of cleaners do the same to you, Russet, and to Trish and to Kat. What I want to know is who contacted my husband’s ex, and who arranged for the women to pack up our things in our absence? Which of the men do you think hated us all so much to do that? And how did they know we’d been exchanging emails? I mean, we haven’t used laptops to keep in touch for a while now.’

  Ellie gave a little cough. ‘Actually, I may know part of the answer to that. Diana’s husband, Evan, told me what happened. Rupert found the emails on his old laptop and took it to Evan. I don’t know why he looked there, but he did.’

  ‘Oh, that’s easy,’ said Trish. ‘He knew she was Skyping her family every week, and he was dead scared some of them might come over to visit and he’d have to put them up or – horrors! – actually feed them for a couple of nights. So every now and then he used to check what she’d been up to on his old laptop. Isn’t that right, Kat?’

  ‘Yes, yes. That is true. My family think I am very rich now, living in London. They do not understand I have no money except for housekeeping. I say to Rupert, maybe when my brother come he pay for his food and service the car, because he is very good mechanic, but Rupert, he say, “No way”. Yes, Rupert take laptop and I say, “Where is it?” and he say, “It is gone for repair”.’

  Ellie said, ‘He took it to Evan when he found those silly emails suggesting how to kill someone.’

  Barbie was doubtful. ‘You think Evan has the brains to plan all this? I wouldn’t have thought so.’

  Russet shook her head. ‘I don’t think Walt has, either. He’s a brilliant businessman in many ways, but he’s not that good with detail.’

  Trish said, ‘Terry might, I suppose. He was, like, crazy mad this morning.’ She shivered. ‘Do you know, I wasn’t frightened at the time because it came out of the blue, but now I …’ She had seated herself at one end of the settee. Now she put her head down on her knees and folded her arms above her head. Gasping. Shuddering.

  Delayed shock.

  Barbie shifted to sit close to Trish and put her arm around her. Russet hastened to the other side of Trish and did the same, the two of them enclosing her in their arms.

  ‘There, there. There, there.’

  Russet said, ‘You’ve been so brave …!’

  Kat hauled herself to her feet. Her face was blotchy with crying, but her practical nature was beginning to reassert itself. ‘Have we blanket to keep her warm? Or strong drink, maybe?’

  ‘No, no.’ Trish tried to sit upright. Attempted a smile. ‘I’m all right, really.’ She was still shaking.

  Ellie found the throw which was kept behind Thomas’s reclining chair and swathed Trish in it.

  ‘Thank you,’ said Trish. There were tears in her eyes. ‘You are very kind.’

  And you are a good girl.

  Ellie returned to her chair. ‘Well, ladies; I think I can answer your question as to who was responsible for today’s events – in part, anyway. My daughter Diana is Evan’s fourth wife. His second wife is dead, and his third has gone on to have a successful modelling career for underwear and is no longer in touch with him. His first wife, however, is another matter. She was older than him when they met and a lot brighter. They had a one-night stand, during which she got pregnant. They married and produced a child. They had nothing else in common and eventually divorced. The child is out of it, but Evan and his first wife have stayed in touch over the years. Her name is Monique, she has a first-class brain and retains some fondness for him.

  ‘I went to see Evan at his house this morning and she was there. When Rupert took the laptop to Evan, he learned that Diana had suggested a way to kill someone. He panicked and asked Monique to advise him what to do. You’ve seen the result. Monique admitted it was she who masterminded the expulsion of the wives.’

  Russet stared at Ellie. ‘It’s a lot of codswallop! We’re not trying to kill them. None of us.’

  Ellie nodded. ‘I believe you, but the men have chosen to think otherwise.’

  ‘It’s not true, so we can fight this,’ said Russet. ‘Can’t we?’

  Ellie said, ‘If you can get hold of good solicitors. If you have enough money to pay them well and if those emails are not produced in evidence. If they are, the judge might think they showed intent. That might make it tough.’

  ‘We didn’t mean it, any of it!’

  ‘Be realistic,’ said Ellie. ‘The fact is that Bunny died in the way that Diana suggested. That slants the evidence a different way.’

  Barbie fidgeted with her rings. ‘I didn’t kill him.’

  ‘No, but according to your own words, you were not madly in love with him, either.’ Ellie looked around at the women. ‘Look, I’ve been married twice, and I cried when my first husband died, and I’d be devastated if anything were to happen to my dear Thomas. I know that, over the years, the first wild flush of love can change into affection and tolerance. Apart from Trish, you were all moving into that state. You were not unhappy, but you were not wearing rose-coloured spectacles, either. I don’t think any of you would have chosen to break-up, but now that it has happened, are you clear in your minds that you want to go back to men who have taken such drastic action to get rid of you?’

  ‘There is that.’ Russet bit her lip. ‘But …’

  Trish huddled into the folds of the throw. Her colour was poor. She said, ‘I believe in marriage, too. I’d go back if only …’ She rubbed jaw and said, ‘Ow! If only if I can be sure he’d tackle his temper.’

  ‘If he doesn’t?’

  Trish was exhausted. Deep shadows were forming around her eyes. Even her voice faded. ‘Surely, we can talk it through? You’re right, of course. Now he’s hit me so hard, I’m afraid that he might do it again. I’m trying to think positively, but where do we go from here?’

  Kat’s eyes were huge. ‘You are thinking Rupert will take me back? I’d like that. I mean, yes, he is not always kind, but I do not marry thinking to divorce. No. That I do not believe in. It was regist
ry office wedding, but I am still a Catholic.’

  Russet pushed her hands back through her hair. ‘The thing is, if we go to law, it’s going to take ages—’

  ‘And what are we going to live on in the meantime?’ That was Barbie. But her eyes flickered here and there. ‘I admit, I do have a little nest egg but without the diamonds and the miniatures I’d put in the safe, I don’t have enough to buy another place in London.’

  Russet held her head in her hands. ‘Suppose we say we’ll accept being divorced, but that we’ll make one hell of a stink if they don’t give us a proper division of property? They won’t go to the press with what they’ve got. Will they?’

  ‘I’d be happy with a decent pay-off from Bunny’s estate,’ said Barbie. ‘I’m not risking another venture into matrimony at my time of life.’

  There was a general looking-at-watches and settling of hair, except for Trish, who had closed her eyes. Russet took out her phone, frowned at it and sat with it in her hand, considering what to do next.

  In a minute they’d all be trying to make plans for the next phase of their lives.

  Ellie debated with herself. She had not learned anything to feed the suspicion that Barbie had killed off her husband. In fact, the reverse. She could definitely say, hand on heart, that Barbie had not done so.

  Ellie could now see the whole picture of who had done what, to whom, and by what means. Could criminal charges be brought against any of the women on the evidence of the emails? Unlikely. The only crime committed, as far as Ellie could see, was that Terry had hit Trish. But then, she’d given him what for in return …

  Ellie could wave them on their way and wipe the whole episode from her mind, except that she’d still have to help Diana … and Diana was still missing.

  And the whole thing was wrong!

  Every feeling revolted, and so on.

  There was no real villain. There really wasn’t. A lack of romantic love was not a notifiable offence in legal terms. What would Lesley say if Ellie let the women go? What could she say? There was nothing for the police to work on.