Chapter Seventeen #2
‘I had to be in London anyway,’ Matthew said.
‘It helps to talk to people close to an investigation. You must know the family well.’ She had the attitude of someone who’d worked there for a long time.
Besides, it seemed to him that she might not be easily employable elsewhere, with her eccentric looks and rudeness. Not these days.
‘I’ve been with Elaine since the beginning. Before she hooked up with Keith.’
‘Her ex-husband? Lottie’s father? Yes, I’ve spoken to him.’
She nodded. Now that she’d verified Venn’s credentials it seemed she was willing to help, even to gossip, because she continued. ‘I knew that relationship wouldn’t last. He never understood Elaine.’
‘Oh?’
‘I’ve just made some coffee,’ she said. ‘Want some?’
‘Please.’
She disappeared and returned with a tray. Two rather grubby mugs and a filter jug. No milk. No sugar. A half-eaten packet of chocolate digestives. ‘You might as well take a seat.’
He did as he was told. He suspected that would always be wise with this woman. ‘And you are?’
‘Kitty Westwood. Elaine’s PA and right-hand woman.’
‘You didn’t think the marriage would last?’ He poured coffee into the mug. It was sufficiently strong, he thought, to kill any germs, and it smelled very good.
‘Elaine’s brilliant at what she does,’ Kitty said.
‘She can spot talent from a mile away. And not just talent, but a look. A lot of our work is mundane. Adverts, walk-ons, one-liners. You don’t need to be a great actor for that, but you need a look, something to grab the attention of the viewer.
Keith always had ambition. He considered himself an artist. He could never take Elaine’s work very seriously.
But when he was starting out, she was the one who kept the show on the road, paid the mortgage and the nursery fees when Lottie came along.
Then, as soon as he got a bit of success, he bailed.
Elaine couldn’t believe it. She’d supported him all that time, and had pictured herself in LA, with all the glamour and the fame, and he made it clear that she wasn’t part of the deal.
She did okay financially out of the divorce, and this place ticks along very nicely, thank you, but she felt betrayed. ’
‘He’d found another woman?’ Because that, Matthew suspected, was often the way of it.
‘Yeah. Younger than Elaine of course, but not nearly so beautiful. A bit mousy to be honest, a script editor. That must have hurt too.’
‘It would have been hard for Lottie.’
‘I suppose so.’ Kitty snapped her mouth shut.
‘Oh?’ Matthew said again. He sipped the powerful coffee and felt the caffeine rush through his system.
The desire to speak overcame any sense of loyalty.
‘That girl was always spoiled rotten. A minx and a madam.’ A pause, then she continued, choosing her words more carefully.
‘You can see how it’d happen. Both parents wanting her to feel loved.
Desperate to be the favourite. And Elaine has her demons, that’s for sure. ’
‘What kind of demons?’
‘She’s always had bouts of depression,’ Kitty said. ‘It comes of being so highly strung. Her parents were both in the theatre. More bothered about their careers than their daughter. Elaine got a good therapist, I think, but they fell out and she took to self-medicating.’
‘Booze?’
Kitty nodded. ‘Not that she’s always on the tipple. She can go weeks without touching the stuff. But then something will knock her confidence, and she goes on a bender.’
‘Just as well she has you to keep things running smoothly here.’ Matthew paused for a moment, while Kitty flushed with pleasure at the compliment.
‘Did her daughter have similar problems? Depression, I mean. I understand she was a very talented swimmer, so she wasn’t a great drinker.
’ After all, he thought, Lottie’s drinking before her death could have been a one-off.
‘Not so much these days,’ Kitty said. ‘Lottie had great potential as a junior, but she didn’t keep up with the training. Don’t believe that nonsense about her being in the next Olympic team. That was all talk. The girl showing off. Neither Elaine nor Lottie really believed it.’
‘So, Lottie did like to party?’
‘Not all the time. A binge drinker, a bit like Elaine. She was serious about schoolwork, and she knuckled down to exams. She’d always fancied Oxford. The idea of it. And she was bright. It came easily to her. But once she’d finished A levels, I can imagine her going a bit wild.’
‘Any boyfriends?’
‘Oh, loads, I suspect. But I wasn’t aware of any serious attachments.’ Kitty paused. ‘She was like her mother. She needed admiration, adoration. Her young men soon got bored of her demands.’
There was a moment of silence broken by footsteps on the stairs. Venn waited for the agency office door to open, but they continued to the next floor.
‘I understand that Elaine was in North Devon the week before her daughter died.’ Venn spoke as if he was certain that the woman was there. ‘Do you know what that was about?’
Kitty looked up sharply. ‘What day was that?’
‘Tuesday. She was there on Tuesday evening.’
‘I knew she was out of the office on Tuesday, and she was back in on Wednesday lunchtime. She didn’t tell me where she’d been.’
‘Was that unusual?’
Kitty paused for a moment. ‘I tried to keep on top of her diary, but it wasn’t always possible.’
‘Did you meet Lottie’s friend Hannah?’
‘The politician’s daughter? Yes, she came here with Lottie a couple of times.’
‘What did you make of her?’ Venn thought this woman was astute. He was interested in her opinion.
Kitty shrugged. ‘She was pleasant enough. Very different from Lottie. I suspect Lottie stuck with her because of the famous father rather than any real affection. I doubt the friendship would have lasted after they both went off to university.’ She frowned.
‘I suspect they were both rather lonely, you know. Hannah was shy and awkward, and Lottie put off a lot of people with her brashness and arrogance. It was probably a friendship of convenience.’
Venn thought that sounded very sad, but perhaps it was better than no friendship at all. Especially if all their contemporaries at school seemed happy and close.
‘What about Elizabeth Kinzalow? Did you meet her?’
Kitty shrugged. ‘American? I think she came in once with Lottie. Two of a kind, I thought.’
‘Oh?’
‘You know the sort. A bit showy. A bit loud.’ A pause. ‘But she was American.’ As if that was explanation enough.
‘You told my colleagues that Elaine was here on Monday morning, the day that the girls were killed.’
The response was immediate. ‘She was!’
Kitty glared at him over the coffee mug.
‘At the start of play?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘When would that be? Nine o’clock?’
There was a moment’s silence so profound that Venn could hear birdsong from the square outside.
‘Theatrical types aren’t early starters, Inspector,’ the woman said. ‘The office doesn’t open until ten-thirty. But Elaine was here soon after I arrived.’
Matthew didn’t think that gave Elaine any kind of alibi. He thanked the woman for her help and made his way down the stairs and into the square.
He hoped that Ross had tracked down the Kinzalows. If Elaine Cauldwell had been with them in the pub before the murders, he was very interested to find out what the meeting had been about.
After looking at his watch and his A–Z, he decided that he’d take a little detour and check out the Kinzalows’ London home. Just in case they’d come back to the city.