Chapter 28
I woke at six-thirty to a tapping noise outside the bedroom window. I’d not slept well, with the storm raging all night and my dreams had been a mangled mix of art, fire and death. The thunder had finally rolled away in the early hours and now the sun was shining through the gap in the curtains. I pushed the covers back and then pulled the curtains open. The tapping was the last of the rain dripping from the roof and onto the windowsill.
I wasn’t sure what they were going to do today. Nothing had really been decided. Sandra had been suitably contrite, but what would happen to her once the police arrived? Surely they would phone the police. Leonard had to be found and would need to answer for his part in all this, not to mention the stolen items in his home. But he’d be long gone. He had money and if he’d thought to take his passport he could be anywhere by now.
Most importantly I needed to check on Dorothy. She’d had a huge shock last night and I hoped she’d managed to get some sleep. I wrapped my dressing gown around myself and walked to Dorothy’s bedroom.
I tapped lightly on the door, not wanting to wake her if she was asleep, but her voice came out clearly and very much awake.
‘Come in.’
‘Good morning,’ I said, closing the door behind me. ‘How are you feeling this morning?’
Dorothy was sitting up in bed with her pillows pushed up behind her back. She had a book in her hands, open at the first page. I guessed she didn’t really have the headspace to concentrate on a story. Not when she had her own going on.
‘I did sleep quite well, surprisingly. Now I feel both relieved and sad and that won’t change. How could it possibly?’
I sat down on the end of the bed and folded my arms across my chest.
‘How do you see things playing out today? How would you like things to be resolved?’
‘I’d like Leonard to turn up and accept responsibility for everything and I’d like to go back to that time yesterday evening before I found out that Sandra was actually the person responsible for the death of my husband, even if it was an accident. I do see it was an accident; I always have. I was so fixated on Leonard that I took my eyes off the thief themselves. Sandra is clearly incredibly sorry and it’s obvious she didn’t want to do it, but she still did. She chose to do Leonard’s bidding to save the reputation of her son. A mother’s love should only go so far.’
‘But you do have the painting and evidence that Leonard had it in his possession. That was what this was all about, so don’t lose sight of that victory in all of this other mess,’ I said.
‘You’re right, and I’m so grateful to you for that.’
‘Well, it was Harry who found it in the end – don’t forget.’
‘Yes, but he wouldn’t have even looked if you hadn’t approached him and explained the situation. This is all because of you, Gina.’
I wasn’t sure how I felt about upending a happy family on what should have been such a joyous occasion.
‘Can I get you a cup of tea?’ I asked her.
I wanted to be practical and helpful, but not give over my own opinion in what was going to be a very tricky situation to resolve.
‘I would love one, thank you. Miles said we’d all meet and talk at breakfast when everyone had had a chance to think about what was best to do, but I doubt that will be for a while and I’d love a drink.’
Dorothy had given up the pretence of reading the book and as I got up and left the room she closed it and rested her head back against the pillows.
The house was silent. All the wedding paraphernalia had been cleared up and removed yesterday afternoon. Harry was gone and all the family were asleep, or certainly in their rooms. I took a moment to wander the downstairs rooms alone, to soak up the beauty of the house on what was going to be my last day in it. I’d checked the train times and had a taxi booked for early afternoon. Dorothy and her family had more to deal with, but I was going home.
In the kitchen I boiled the kettle and pulled some cups down from the cupboard. I found a pot and a tray, some sugar and a couple of biscuits that I put on a plate. Then I stood with my back against the counter and waited for the kettle to boil.
I thought again about Dorothy’s offer of her boathouse. It was actually a very appealing offer and if I was going to rent a flat somewhere then could it be there? I’d talk to Alice and Chris and see what they thought about it. I needed to talk to Douglas and discuss this disappointing offer too. I sighed thinking about all I had ahead of me.
I thought it was the noise of a boiler groaning for a moment and looked around me to see where the boiler was, but couldn’t find one anywhere. I opened the dishwasher to see if someone had been up and put it on, but it was empty. I walked towards the window in case the noise was coming from outside. Perhaps an animal had wandered into the kitchen garden to eat the vegetables. Not my problem, I thought as I glanced out of the window.
There was a body at the bottom of the steps. I could see a body in a crumpled heap with limbs in positions they had no business being in. I yanked open the kitchen door and rushed to where they lay. It was Leonard. His clothes were soaking wet. There was dried blood in his hair and on the concrete steps. His right leg looked broken, the angle it was in. He was a pitiful sight.
‘Leonard,’ I said, crouching down next to him. ‘Can you hear me?’
He groaned again and I put my hand out to touch him, but then took it back. I had no idea what I was doing, but I’d seen enough medical TV programmes to know that trying to move a person after an accident like this wasn’t a good idea. If he’d fallen down all these steps, which it looked as if he had, he might have damaged his spine. I didn’t want to make his injuries worse.
‘I’m going to get you some help,’ I said, and brushing aside the thought that there was some kind of twisted justice in Leonard lying broken on the steps, I rushed back into the house to phone for an ambulance.
Leonard was carried out on a stretcher and into the waiting ambulance a couple of hours later with the whole party there to watch it happen. Paul climbed in beside him and then turned to Sandra.
‘Someone needs to go with him, if only to make sure he doesn’t try and do another runner. Will you be okay?’ he asked his wife.
He said this with a note of concern, but I was sure the concern was about whether she would try and run.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I have things I want to say to everyone. I’m not going anywhere.’
Dorothy seemed delighted when the paramedic closed the door. Not so much in Leonard’s injuries, I assumed, but more that he was found and could face the justice he deserved.
‘He’d fallen while trying to make his escape last night,’ I said. ‘It isn’t nice to think of him there all night, injured and with the storm going on around him. He was soaked through.’
I glanced around at the gathered group as the ambulance drove away, but I didn’t detect much sympathy.
‘He’s lucky to be going away in an ambulance for treatment. I’d like to break his bloody neck!’ Miles said.
‘This is the best way, though,’ said Lavinia. ‘A dead man can’t be brought to justice.’
All eyes turned to Sandra.
‘I know you’d probably all like me dead too and I do understand. I’ve thought about it myself over the last year. Can we all go in and I’ll tell you what I’m planning on doing?’
We all filed back inside the house and decided to go down to the kitchen to make coffee and sit around the table there. In an unsaid understanding we all seemed to realise a glamorous backdrop for this conversation was not needed.
I made the coffee again and rounds of toast, which got picked at by a few. Then I hung back.
‘Do you want me to go?’ I asked. ‘I shouldn’t really be here.’
‘You absolutely should,’ said Dorothy, motioning for me to sit down beside her.
‘So,’ Sandra started. ‘I know you all must really hate me, but please let me tell you what I’m planning to do and I hope that might go some way to gaining your forgiveness.’
Dorothy grunted, but then she sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest.
‘I’m going to call the police and tell them what I did. I’ll tell them that Leonard pressurised me into it so that will link to him having the painting, but I’m not going to drop you in it, Rufus. I’ll have to make something else up.’
‘No!’ Rufus said. ‘No more lies. If you’re going to tell the truth then let it be the whole truth, otherwise it undermines what you did. I will confess to my cheating. To be honest it will be a weight off my head. I know I’ll lose my position at the firm, but I’ll just have to live with that as it was my own fault and I had no business pretending to practise there anyway. We’ll do it together, Mum.’
Rufus reached for his mother’s hand across the table and held on tight to it.
‘For what it’s worth,’ Dorothy said, ‘I don’t wish ill on you. All of my venom is for Leonard. I know you didn’t mean for Philip to be hurt and I’m grateful that you used his phone to call for help while he could still speak. But, I am glad you’re going to confess to what you did, Sandra, because you could have said no. All this confessing now could have been done before that awful event. I think your punishment is how you’ve been suffering since that night and I hope whatever is dished out to you by the law is slight.’
‘Thank you, Dorothy. I am truly sorry.’
They finished their coffee and Sandra got up from the table.
‘I’m going to phone the police,’ she said.
Out in the hallway I caught up with her as she reached for her mobile phone.
‘Sandra, can I have a quick word before you make that call, please?’
‘Sure,’ she said with a weary voice.
‘I believe you and Rufus have a memory stick containing a movie of Leonard with Peter,’ I said, and Sandra turned to me in surprise. ‘Someone overheard you talking.’
‘I do. Rufus gave it to me. Leonard had it and was telling him how he was keeping Peter on a short leash because of it. Rufus found it in his study the other day. He was looking for anything incriminating to use against him when the time came and he found the stick. I was going to give it to Peter. It was so awful of him to use something like that and I wanted to break the cycle.’
‘That’s good of you, but can you give it to me? You might not be in a position to give it back once the police arrive and I’d hate to see it fall into other hands.’
‘Okay,’ she said. ‘I’ll get it quickly now.’
‘I’ll come up with you. I need to pack,’ I said and followed Sandra up the stairs. Even though I believed she would phone the police and not run off, I still felt some kind of responsibility to make sure it happened. Once she had handed over the memory stick, I hovered while she made the call. Then I went to pack up my things ready to go.