Chapter 22
They didn’t hear the door open.
‘What are you up to?’ Kate asked from the doorway.
Lara jumped. ‘Hi, sorry!’ Since she couldn’t say she was talking to a ghost who specialised in hunting murderers, she replied, ‘I’m just looking through a clothes blog.’
‘Fab, let’s have a look.’
Kate joined her and started studying the images. As she perused the dresses she said self-consciously, ‘I’m sorry about last night. You know... the rocking... going a bit mad. And I know I was really snotty to start with,’ she rushed in full confession.
Lara laughed. ‘So was I.’
Kate didn’t say anything but nudged Lara very slightly with her elbow, still studying the screen.
After a while Kate decided she rather liked the style.
‘I’m not so keen on the small flowery prints but I love that.
’ She pointed to a bottle-green ball gown with a low neck which was overlaid with black beaded netting.
‘You are quite right,’ Abby said approvingly, ‘that is just the colour for you. You should wear it with emeralds. In fact you should only ever wear emeralds.’
Lara was pleased that her ghost sounded more like herself, less like the wistful Abby who had talked about her husband.
‘Did you need some flowers, Kate?’ Lara asked, getting up from her stool.
‘No, you’re grand. I just popped in with a message from Sarah about tomorrow night.
We need to be at the theatre by six and she says just wear something black and she’ll give us the white aprons.
’ After this she paused and twisted one long curl around her finger, repeating the movement several times.
Eventually she said, ‘Look, about last night and Julian. Sarah said I put my foot in it. Kinda up to my neck. Are you still really keen on him?’
‘No, not at all,’ Lara assured her, blushing.
‘Liar, liar pants on fire.’ Abby rather liked the chant that Doris, the waitress from Betty’s tearoom, had once taught her.
‘No! I’m not!’ Lara blurted.
‘Okay,’ Kate responded, looking puzzled, ‘I believe you.’
‘She doesn’t you know,’ Abby commented.
Lara started talking rapidly about local town news and turned her back on Abby as she walked with Kate to the shop door. As they said goodnight, Lara pressed a bunch of scarlet anemones on her.
‘Don’t worry about it,’ she insisted when Kate protested about having them for free.
Abby commented thoughtfully, ‘There is a young woman who is very proud but I suspect is worried about money.’
For once Lara agreed with her. She thought about Kate’s mum, living with MS, and she wondered how much financial support Kate had to give her. For some reason Mrs M also came to mind. Another proud woman.
Later that evening, curled up in the armchair by the wood burner, Lara started revisiting all they had discovered and wondered aloud who ‘M’ was if it wasn’t Maggie Mopping – plus what ‘M’ might need forgiveness for.
Killing Lady Porter? It hardly seemed likely they would leave a note…
but then if they thought they had got away with it…
? She started to verbalise her speculation and her meandering ramble eventually took in funny tasting gin; old sleeping pills; Jason, and what was hidden at the back of his shop; Dr Patil and his relationship with Lady Porter and Jason Honeybourne; the implications of a fraudulent power of attorney; and Joe and the prospect of another family.
She had just moved on to Julian’s interest in this when she noticed that Abby was unusually quiet.
Lara continued, but more slowly, all the while watching Abby.
She was just considering why large amounts had been drawn from Lady Porter’s account when Abby cut her short with a long audible sigh.
‘What?’ Lara enquired.
Abby turned her eyes away from the clutter she had been studying that was still inhabiting the room. She had taken to sitting with her back to it, but this evening it was in her direct line of sight. Well, that would have to wait, for now there were more important things to think about.
‘I think to untangle this we need to look at it another way,’ she declared.
Lara was more than happy for her to do so, as she felt she had been going around in circles for hours and was getting nowhere.
‘I believe we need to consider why someone would wish to kill Lady Porter.’
Lara thought that was exactly what she had been doing, but said nothing.
‘I have dwelt upon this,’ Abby continued, ‘and based upon my not inconsiderable experience, I believe there are three main motives that we should revisit.
‘Firstly, there is avarice, a particularly dangerous sin I have found.’ Abby paused thoughtfully.
‘Now, this could be to gain an inheritance – either the ones we saw in the will, or the ones we believe Lady Porter was thinking about. Then there is the china that we believe may be very valuable. Someone may have been trying to get their hands on this and felt it would be easier with Lady Porter out of the way. Of course, there is also the artwork that appears to be missing from around Gillmore House and the artwork Dr Patil is to inherit.’
Lara nodded, waiting for Abby to continue.
‘Secondly, there is love. A love that gets twisted in the fire of bitter experience can emerge as a piteous mangled thing much closer to hate than to its former incarnation. Yes, love can be a very dangerous thing,’ Abby said sadly.
‘There are three things I think we need to know more about, as it appears to me that these resonate with some sort of love; the secret room, the flowers being placed on Lady Porter’s grave and the spectre of another family.
’ Abby stroked her nose as she spoke, ‘Which brings us to the third reason that someone might have wanted Lady Porter dead. Fear. We cannot rule out the possibility that her family were frightened about a new will being drawn up or the fraudulent power of attorney being discovered. We also have to consider the fear a blackmailer preys upon. Was Lady Porter being blackmailed because of something in her past, either in Nottingham or in India? Or had she in turn found out something about somebody else?’
Abby sat back and looked at Lara. Lara hoped that she wasn’t expected to answer this.
She had managed to follow Abby’s thought process but she was no closer to providing any solutions.
Instead, she posed a question of her own, ‘We’re going to see most of the people we’re interested in at the theatre tomorrow. Can we tackle any of them there?’
Abby sat up straighter in her chair. ‘Yes, indeed we can,’ she said with alacrity.
‘I think it would be a good opportunity to investigate who “M” is. After all as a florist it would be very natural for you to talk to people about flowers. You can enquire as to who has been leaving flowers on her grave – even possibly about the message. Also I wonder if we might be able to find out who else knows about the room at the top of Lady Porter’s house.
The most obvious person to tell us of course is Mrs Mopping, but I cannot imagine for one moment she would be forthcoming. ’
‘No,’ Lara smiled, ‘she’s still very protective of her Ladyship. She’d throw me out if I dared ask about that. Even though I am pretty certain she must know about it. Even if she didn’t go in there when Lady Porter was alive, at least by now she must have had a look.’
‘Just so,’ Abby agreed. She continued, ‘On consideration I do not think the evening will give us much opportunity to discover more about the will or china,’ she hesitated before saying, ‘but I think you might try and encourage the doctor to talk about Lady Porter and I can’t help feeling that Dr Patil may be the person to ask about blackmail. ’
Lara nodded, but a thought came to her, ‘What about Kate calling him, “Dr Death”. You don’t think he could be dangerous?’
Abby ruminated on this for a moment. ‘I do not sense that the doctor is essentially a dangerous man. Although of course, once cornered, people change. You will just have to be careful not to provoke him.’
‘Oh great!’ Lara said, remembering Kate’s comment about Dr Patil barking like a butcher’s dog.
Abby recommenced detailing their plan of action. ‘So, that is agreed then. You will try and start conversations about the flowers, the secret room and Lady Porter’s past and possibly, if the setting is right, speak to Dr Patil about blackmail?’
‘So, not much then,’ Lara countered, with some asperity.
‘Exactly,’ Abby replied smoothly.
Lara gave up. She had been given her instructions. Something else came to mind and reaching for her iPad she started an online search.
Abby sat quietly (eyes carefully averted from the worst mess in the room) and waited. When Lara paused, she raised enquiring eyebrows.
‘I suddenly remembered that envelope with Miss E Abbott’s name on it. I’ve tried looking for her. But nothing. The address is now part of a shopping centre, it looks like the street was demolished some time ago.’
‘Have you googleyed Lady Porter’s maiden name, Elizabeth Brown?’ Abby asked.
Lara nodded, hiding her smile. ‘Nothing. Well, actually the opposite. Brown is such a common name, as is Elizabeth, so there are hundreds of mentions, probably thousands, but nothing that jumps out at me. I’ll keep looking.’
Lara put down her iPad and added another log to the wood burner, pulling her cardigan more cosily around her. She saw that Abby was studying her. She returned her gaze questioningly.
‘I have to confess,’ Abby mused, ‘I was rather disconcerted when I first discovered you were a florist,’ she crossed her legs neatly at the ankle (she had discarded the apron but was still dressed in pepper red).
‘In my day a woman who worked at Covent Garden as a “florist” often had a very different type of occupation altogether.’
Lara glared at her unable to believe her ears. ‘You thought I was a prostitute?!’
‘I believe they prefer the term “courtesan”. And no, not really. Especially once I had seen the way you dress.’ Abby smoothed her dress, her head inclined to one side. ‘I do like the pink cardigan you are wearing though. It really is a beautiful colour on you.’
Lara would have none of it. ‘What’s wrong with my clothes?
’ she exclaimed, wishing the words un-said as soon as she had uttered them.
She knew very well she had stopped making any sort of effort with her clothes months ago.
Apart from the odd scarf, the dusty pink cardigan was the first thing without holes in that she had worn in ages.
She was about to say that Julian had liked her clothes, but she realised this was not true.
He had just seemed keen to get her out of them as quickly as possible.
Abby raised an eloquent eyebrow, as if she could read Lara’s thoughts.
‘Joe doesn’t seem to mind how I dress,’ Lara said defensively, ‘and anyway, the only thing that matters is if I like my clothes.’
‘I myself hold to that view, absolutely,’ Abby said. ‘But do you like the way you dress?’
Lara all but growled and left the room to get herself a cup of coffee. Or maybe, she thought, she needed to open one of the bottles of wine her dad had sent her.
When she returned carrying a glass of red wine, she remembered an email she had received that morning from her school friend, Fiona, who was now a curator at the V&A museum.
Keen to change the subject she sat down and reached once more for her iPad.
‘I had a response about the paintings that Dr Patil has inherited,’ she told Abby.
‘Fiona showed the list to their art team.’
‘Was there anything of particular value or interest?’ Abby enquired eagerly.
Lara pursed her lips. ‘Not really. Most are Dutch, minor artists, but some nice interior scenes, which Fiona did say always sell well. But for hundreds rather than thousands of pounds.’
Abby nodded.
‘There is only one that she wanted to know more about. It is described in the will as three musicians, a man and two women, around a harpsichord. Early Dutch, estimate 1660s, artist unknown. She did say the team would like to get a look at that one.’
Abby looked thoughtful, but when Lara pressed her, would say no more.
Lara thought, not for the first time, that her Kindred Spirit could be extremely annoying.
She was sure Abby knew something about the painting.
She had been about to share with Abby what she had hidden in the basket that was tucked down beside her chair – for in some ways this related to her friend Fiona too.
Instead, she sat back in her chair nursing her glass of wine in silence.
Abby meanwhile tucked her feet under her and after glancing at the basket she looked with some significance at Lara’s book that was on the floor by her chair.
Lara got the hint, and giving in, she picked up Far from the Madding Crowd and started reading aloud from where they had left off the night before.