Chapter 19
‘Right,’ Sarah said. ‘Let’s go round the table and say why we don’t think Lady Porter killed herself.’
‘You can say murder, you know,’ the ghost commented. But then she had a great deal more experience of these things than the three women gathered in front of her.
Lara tried to ignore Abby, ‘You go first,’ she insisted, struggling to organise her thoughts into what she could and could not say.
It became apparent that neither Sarah nor Kate had anything concrete to go on but like Lara had known Lady Porter as such a vital, positive person, that they could not imagine her taking her own life.
‘Did either of you ever think she was hiding something… or,’ Lara added, thinking about the possibility of blackmail, ‘had a secret someone had found out about? Or maybe…’ Lara considered some more, thinking of Kate and Lady Porter discussing local gossip, ‘…she had stumbled on something scandalous about somebody else?’
Both Sarah and Kate shrugged, shaking their heads.
‘What makes you ask that?’ Sarah said.
Lara chose her words carefully. She knew she mustn’t mention the money going out of Lady Porter’s bank account.
‘It was something Dr Patil said, about how determined she was. Maybe she’d tackle someone if she thought they were doing something wrong?
’ Lara paused. ‘But he did also say, you can never really tell what’s going on in someone else’s mind,’ she admitted.
‘Oh, I wouldn’t trust what old Dr Patil says,’ Kate declared dismissively. ‘They call him Dr Death on my mum’s estate.’
Kate’s mother, it transpired, lived in one of the housing association flats on the edge of town.
She was suffering from MS and needed a considerable amount of medical attention (and, Lara suspected, Kate’s time).
In the reflection in the shop window, Lara saw Abby lean forward in her chair.
She had her chin in her hands and was looking intently at Kate.
Abby shifted her gaze and catching sight of Lara nodded significantly towards Kate.
Lara got the hint. ‘Why Dr Death?’ she asked.
‘I think he’s missed a couple of things with people and Mrs Hussey at number four made a huge fuss when her husband died. I think the police were even called in. It was some time ago now, but didn’t the neighbours talk about it for months.’
‘But why would he have had anything to do with Lady Porter’s death?’ Sarah queried.
Lara wondered how much she should say about the legacy Lady Porter had left Dr Patil. It wasn’t as if she knew much about it yet. In the end she said tentatively, ‘I think Lady Porter may have left him some paintings,’ and just hoped they didn’t ask her how she knew.
‘Well, I suppose…’ Sarah didn’t sound convinced.
‘Or maybe he wants to cover up something about how she died?’ Kate suggested more enthusiastically.
‘Could you ask Rod about Dr Patil?’ Sarah asked her.
‘Who’s Rod?’ Lara enquired.
Kate suddenly looked self-conscious.
‘Ah,’ Sarah answered for her, ‘that would be PC Rod Doherty. He has a bit of a thing for our Kate. And him a good Irish boy too. Go on, Kate, you know your mammy would love it.’ This was obviously a rich topic for teasing.
‘I thought you might be Irish,’ Lara said shyly to Kate. She also half-wondered what PC Rod Doherty might have said to her if she had plucked up the courage to walk into the police station all those weeks ago.
‘Indeed I am,’ Kate said in an exaggerated brogue, ‘Kaitlin Mary Fidelma Gutierrez.’
‘That doesn’t sound very Irish. Well not all of it.’ Lara was curious.
‘I was brought up believing I was the descendant of a Spanish sailor washed up after the Armada tried sailing round Ireland. But my Auntie May has been researching the family tree and it seems our ancestors were shoe salesmen from Malaga. My mam won’t have her in the house now.’
‘And Rod?’ Lara prompted.
‘Well, he hangs around a bit... I don’t know…’ Kate was vague. ‘I guess I could ask him about Dr Death and whether he thought there was any truth in the rumours,’ Kate agreed.
‘I sort of hope there aren’t,’ Lara confessed, ‘I think he and Lady Porter were good friends.’ Perhaps there was a perfectly innocent reason for him meeting Jason Honeybourne?
‘Although we must remember that Lady Porter did not confide in him about her time in India,’ interjected a voice from behind her.
The image of Dr Patil crying after Lady Porter’s funeral came into Lara’s mind, and she said stubbornly, ‘He seems like a nice, gentle bloke to me.’
‘Oh, don’t you believe it,’ Kate replied.
‘I go round and do his grandchildren’s hair and I once walked in on a massive argument between him and his son.
He’s the other doctor in the practice. It was all about modernising how they did things and Dr Death was having none of it.
They were barking at each other like butcher’s dogs and Dr Patil senior let rip a stream of swear words that my uncle Seamus would have been proud to know. ’
Sarah stood up suddenly, rocking the table slightly. ‘We need to eat something,’ she declared, ‘and in honour of your Spanish blood, Kate, I’m going to make us some tapas.’
While Sarah was busy behind the deli counter, Lara turned to Kate, ‘Has Rod ever said anything about Lady Porter’s death, you know as a police officer?’
Kate shook her head, then looked thoughtful. ‘When it first happened he talked about it, but just said that there weren’t grounds for investigating…’ She paused.
‘But?’ Lara prompted.
‘He did say something the other day about interest from another force. Something he’d heard about.’
‘What, about Lady Porter’s death?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Kate said, frowning, ‘I got the impression it was to do with her, but then he wouldn’t say any more.’ She smiled. ‘However hard I tried to persuade him…’
‘And?’ Lara persisted.
Kate smiled ruefully. ‘Well it kind of went out of my mind after that,’ she admitted, grinning.
Sarah was soon back at the table carrying plates of ham, cheeses, olives, a variety of salads and potato dishes, breads and sun-dried tomatoes. She went back to the counter and returned with a bottle of chilled sherry which she handed to Lara to open for her. ‘Perfect with tapas, she assured her.
Lara got up and collected some small glasses from the shelf at the end of the shop. As she passed her Kindred Spirit, Abby remained uncharacteristically silent. She appeared to be studying Kate carefully. Lara thought Abby looked sad. She turned back to the shelf full of crockery and glasses.
Lara poured four small glasses of sherry and put one in front of Abby. ‘It’s a family tradition that we put a glass of wine on an empty table for absent friends,’ she invented, smiling at Abby. Sarah and Kate nodded their understanding and raised their glasses in salute to the nearby table.
Lara felt that even if they believed they were toasting Lady Porter, the sentiment was right.
She raised her glass to Abby who suddenly appeared to have something in her eye as she pulled out a linen and lace handkerchief from her apron pocket.
It reminded Lara of the one that Mrs M had once handed her.
‘Aren’t you seeing Julian Armstrong?’ Kate asked, turning to Lara.
Lara felt all the joy of the evening drain away. She recalled Kate’s scoffing laughter and tried for a non-committal answer. ‘No, we are having… had,’ she tried to cover, ‘a bit of a something and nothing for a while, but we’re just friends now.’
‘Friends!’ Kate roared. ‘Don’t give me that. That man doesn’t have female friends.’
Abby spotted Sarah trying desperately to signal to Kate over the top of her glass. She felt Kate really should look at her friend.
Eventually Kate caught Sarah’s eye. ‘What?’ she asked looking around. ‘What?’ she repeated. Kate stared at Sarah who now had her head in her hands, shaking her head. ‘Oh,’ said Kate exhaling and looking at Lara. The penny had dropped. ‘Ah,’ she said, looking self-conscious.
‘Yes, ah,’ Abby repeated with some asperity.
Lara wished Kate (and Abby) would just stop. Sarah shot her a sympathetic look.
Kate obviously decided nothing would do but for Lara to know the truth about Mr Armstrong.
‘Got it. Right. Mr Armstrong. What can I say.’ Kate downed her sherry in one.
‘Gorgeous of course, unbelievably sexy. The man has just got it. But unbelievably selfish. Acts all concerned, but I don’t think he’s ever helped a soul in his life.
Met him a few years ago when I was new in town.
He started buzzing around. That’s what the man does.
Spots the newest woman and off he goes like a randy hound. ’
In the reflection in the window, Lara saw Abby place her fingertips on her forehead. This might have been to shield her eyes, but Lara suspected she was laughing.
‘I will say this for the man, he makes it very hard for a girl to say no. I mean that face, those lips, that arse. There’s just something about him…’
‘They said exactly the same of Major Norton, the Margate Strangler, and we know how that ended,’ Abby offered to the room.
‘Oh my God!’ Kate exclaimed, as if remembering something. ‘When I saw you out with him in that restaurant I wasn’t laughing at you.’ Kate leant towards Lara, her anxiety returning. ‘My God, did you think that? No, no,’ Kate shook her head, ‘it’s just the man and I have history.’
Kate continued, more moderately, as if trying to explain something. ‘He finds something you’re into. With me it was bands. Then he pretends he is into the same stuff. Clever really,’ she reflected.
All Lara could think of was freesias. In particular a large and very beautiful bunch that had once been left on her backstep after an argument.
She had thought they were going out but had seen Julian in town with another woman.
He had explained it away… she stood out against him.
But then when the freesias appeared she had weakened.