Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
The conversation with Wendy had unsettled Ally greatly.
Wendy badly needed expert advice or she was likely to have a breakdown.
Ally couldn’t begin to imagine how it must feel to find out that your husband, your late husband, had been having an affair with your sister-in-law.
And that the latter had probably killed her own husband, Wendy’s brother. What a hellish mess!
Joel arrived about half an hour later and thumped on the kitchen door.
Startled, Ally looked up from her coffee and her newspaper.
‘Joel!’ she exclaimed as she opened the door.
‘I need to have a word with you, Ally,’ he said. ‘You know how upset my mom is?’
‘I do, and I’m not surprised,’ Ally said.
‘I cannot believe this “affair” business. I cannot think that my father would have an affair with anyone, far less Patti Armstrong! I do believe Patti was quite capable of killing Uncle Archie for her own selfish desires, but who then killed my father? One thing’s for sure, we can’t face taking the girls to Inverness today to see their mother. ’
‘I can understand that, but the girls are entitled to see their mother, and I’m happy to take them to Inverness,’ Ally said, already thinking that this would give her an opportunity to have a word with Patti on her own.
‘That would be wonderful because neither Mom nor I want to face Patti at the moment.’
‘Please be very careful what you say within earshot of the girls,’ Ally reminded him. ‘Whatever you think of their mother, these girls are innocent, missing their mum and must be worried sick.’
‘She’s never been much of a mother,’ Joel snapped and turned back into the hallway at the exact moment that Wendy got to the foot of the stairs. ‘She’s always been far too obsessed with herself.’
Mother and son disappeared out of the door, and shortly afterwards, Ally heard the sound of Joel’s Jeep driving away.
She wondered where they might be going and how was she supposed to tell the girls that it was she herself who would be taking them to visit their mother?
And how was she to explain how their aunt and cousin couldn’t – or wouldn’t?
Ross had taken Ebony down to the surgery for some medicine because the dog had eaten something which had caused her to be sick during the night. Ally sat down with a cup of tea and tried to work out how to tell the girls, and she’d just drained her cup when there was a timid knock on the door.
‘Ally, we wondered if you might know where Auntie Wendy and Joel have gone?’ Julie asked. ‘You see the inspector said we could visit Mom today, and we’re booked for two o’clock this afternoon, so it seems strange that—’
‘I’m taking you,’ Ally interrupted quickly. ‘They’ve probably forgotten.’
‘How could they forget?’ Janey wailed from where she was standing just behind her sister.
Julie pulled a face. ‘I’ve got a feeling Auntie Wendy’s avoiding us for some reason because it seems weird that she didn’t knock on our door before she left with Joel, knowing that we have this appointment.’
‘Well, never mind,’ Ally said. ‘I’m not doing anything today, and I’m happy to take you.’
‘You’re so kind!’ Julie exclaimed, giving Ally a big hug.
Ally was close to tears. ‘Could you be ready to leave in half an hour or so?’ she asked them. ‘I have to wait for Ross to get back and look after the dogs while we’re away.’
‘Thank you! Thank you!’ they both chorused. ‘We’ll go right now and get ready.’
Ross and Ebony got back about fifteen minutes later. He’d given Ebony her medicine, and she seemed a little better, if a little more sad-eyed than usual.
‘I should be taking them there,’ he said when Ally had relayed the earlier conversations, ‘but I’m still a teeny bit worried about Ebony. Would you like to take my car?’
‘No,’ Ally said firmly. ‘I’ve got a full tank of fuel in the Golf, and it could do with a nice, long run. And I’d be so relieved to know that you were here with the dogs.’
She could see that Ross wasn’t altogether convinced, so she added, ‘And it might give me an opportunity to have a word with Patti on her own, which you probably wouldn’t be allowed to do.’
Thirty minutes later, Ally brought her car round to the front where Julie and Janey were ready and waiting. Julie bagged the front passenger seat, while Janey sprawled in the back. Off they went with Ross waving from the door.
‘Your Ross is a really nice guy,’ Julie informed her, waving back.
‘Yes, he is,’ Ally agreed.
‘And he loves dogs,’ Janey piped up from the rear. ‘Daddy didn’t much care for dogs and wouldn’t let us have one.’
‘Maybe Mom will let us have one when we get home,’ Julie said as she gazed out of the car window at the golds and bronzes of the autumn leaves on the trees mirrored in the lochs with the mountains behind.
‘This is quite a spectacular drive, isn’t it?
Reminds me a little of a trip we did to BC and Alberta a few years back, which was fantastic. ’
‘We’re not quite in the same league as the Rockies,’ Ally agreed, ‘but it is beautiful.’
She was relieved that the girls seemed relaxed and quite chatty, and wondered how long that would last.
It lasted until they got to Loch Ness. Ally could almost feel the tension rising as both girls became quiet, chewing their gum more lustily than usual.
‘Little chance of seeing any monster today,’ Ally said, looking at the rough surface of the temperamental loch.
‘I guess there are more monsters roaming around Locharran than Loch Ness,’ Janey remarked. ‘Like the one who killed our dad and uncle.’
They lapsed into silence again.
‘I’ve brought her perfume,’ Julie said, holding up a bottle of J’adore. ‘Mum loves her perfume, and I guess she wouldn’t have had time to bring it when they arrested her.’
‘Will they let us bring it in?’ Janey asked anxiously.
‘I guess we’ll find out,’ said Julie.
They arrived at the detention centre at twenty minutes to two and left as much as possible locked in the car because Ally was aware that there would be a great deal of security.
There was a visitors’ area with some chairs and machines which dispensed hot and cold drinks and all manner of chocolate bars.
Everyone, including Ally, was now feeling understandably nervous. This was a new experience for her too.
Then, at precisely five minutes to two, a uniformed policewoman appeared and asked, ‘Are you the Armstrong family?’
‘Yes!’ the girls replied in unison, while Ally explained that she was accompanying them in the absence of any relatives.
The policewoman nodded. ‘OK, you may accompany them to see their mother,’ she said, leading them along a corridor to a security point, similar to an airport, where she checked their bodies and their bags. ‘What’s this?’ she asked, withdrawing J’adore from Julie’s pocket.
‘Oh, please!’ Julie begged. ‘I want to take it to Mom because she loves perfume.’
‘And I’ve got her some chocolate,’ Janey added, removing a large bar from her pocket.
The policewoman tested the spray in the air, wrinkling her nose.
‘OK, OK, I’ll overlook the rules this time.
’ She gave a faint smile before leading them to the cell, which she opened up with much clicking and clunking and ushered them in with many reminders that she’d be back in half an hour – not one minute later – to let them out.
The cell was probably about ten feet square, with an inbuilt narrow bed, on which a pale, wan Patti was sitting, legs outstretched, staring at the stainless-steel toilet on the wall opposite.
She was wearing a regulation sweatshirt and jogging bottoms provided by her current accommodation, her hair was lank and her face was make-up-free.
‘Oh, thank God!’ she muttered as she jumped up to embrace her two daughters, all three of them now in tears.
Ally stood back close to the door, feeling very aware that she shouldn’t really be there. ‘I’m sorry, Patti,’ she said, ‘but I had to accompany them.’
‘No need to apologise, and thanks for getting them here.’ Patti sat down with a girl on each side of her, arms entwined.
‘Auntie Wendy and Joel were supposed to bring us, but they disappeared,’ Janey explained.
‘Oh, did they indeed?’ Patti raised an eyebrow.
Ally remained by the door, relieved that the three of them were now chatting normally, the words tumbling out as they remembered things to tell each other, oblivious to her presence.
No, Patti told them, the bed was not particularly comfortable, but then this wasn’t exactly The Ritz and, furthermore, she did not intend to be in this place for much longer.
‘Just believe me, I did not kill your daddy,’ she must have said half a dozen times during the visit. The half hour flew by.
‘I’m going to be out of here real soon,’ she said, ‘but, for now, I’d like five minutes with Ally if that’s OK, girls, because our time is nearly up.
’ She pressed a switch, and the policewoman was back at the door.
Ally wondered if she’d been there all the time.
The door was opened sufficiently to let the girls out after a good few minutes of goodbyes, hugs and tears.
‘I’ll be with you in five minutes,’ Ally assured them, glancing at her watch.
Patti sighed as the door clunked shut behind them. ‘Has Kandahar spoken to Wendy?’ she asked.
Ally nodded.
‘So she knows about Greg and me?’
‘I’m afraid so,’ Ally replied. ‘She was very upset. That’s the reason she couldn’t face bringing the girls here today.’
‘I’m only sorry you’re having to take the brunt of all this,’ Patti said.
‘I just want you to know that I did not kill Archie. That was Greg, along with the caber, of course.’ Her voice wobbled.
‘I loved him, you know. Archie and I hadn’t really got on for years, and when Greg suggested this as a way for us to be together, well…
’ She paused. ‘But I never thought he’d really do it. ’