Page 17 of A Very Bookish Murder
Take him under my wing for a bit! Ally was immensely flattered that Rigby would suggest such a thing. And it was making her feel quite tearful for both Rigby and Amir Kandahar.
‘I really hope you’ll be back soon though,’ she said truthfully.
He smiled. ‘We’ve had a few arguments, but I want you to know that I’ve always appreciated your thoughts. And we always got there in the end.’
‘We did,’ Ally agreed, giving her eyes a wipe. ‘And I hope we will again in the future.’
‘All thanks to you for getting me on that helicopter!’ he said. He paused for a moment then added, ‘We’ve always been so formal, but I wonder if I may call you Ally now? And please call me Bob.’
‘Of course you can, Bob,’ Ally replied.
‘I really appreciate you coming,’ Rigby continued, ‘because I know you’re very busy, but this could be important. Are you here on your own?’
Ally nodded. ‘Yes, I am.’
Rigby gazed out of the window for a moment, then cleared his throat. ‘This Jodi Jones,’ he said, ‘the woman who got strangled?’
Ally nodded again.
‘I think there’s a very good chance she could be my sister,’ said Rigby.
Ally could scarcely believe what she was hearing. ‘What?’
‘I got a massive shock when I saw her body, which I think triggered this.’ He patted his heart.
Ally was confused. ‘Yoursister? Surely you’d have known for certain?’
‘I haven’t seen her for nearly fifty years,’ said Rigby sadly. ‘When she was sixteen, my sister left home and vanished. Vanished completely. She was never heard of again. I was only five or six at the time, but it broke my mother’s heart. She went to her grave not knowing. In fact, it’s one of the reasons I wanted to join the police, become a detective, but of course I never did come across anyone who could be her – until now.’
‘Oh, Bob, how awful! Your poor mother! But what on earth makes you think she might be your sister?’
‘Several things. She’s the spitting image of my mother and…’ He paused for a moment. ‘The thing that convinced me was the birthmark. She had a birthmark on her neck.’
‘Yes, I saw it.’ Ally hesitated. ‘I saw it when I loosened her scarf.’
‘She was always very self-conscious about it, and she nearly always wore high-necked sweaters or scarves to hide it. I was only very little, but the scarves were one of the things I remember about her. I think I could only have seen her birthmark once or twice. But it fascinated me. The reason I remember it quite clearly is because I thought it was shaped like a goldfish!’ He gazed into space again. ‘You see, I’d been to thefair and won a goldfish, and I took him home, put him in a bowl and called him Cedric.’
‘Cedric?’ Ally smiled.
‘Don’t ask me why! I’d seen or heard the name somewhere and obviously fancied it. And I remember thinking that Joanne’s strawberry birthmark was very similar in shape to Cedric. It could have been construed as a goldfish, I suppose, bearing in mind how young I was at the time.’
‘Do you have any idea why she might have left home?’ Ally asked, intrigued.
‘Not then, because I was so young, but now I think she’d most probably got herself pregnant. And my mother had always said stuff like, “If a daughter of mine ever got herself pregnant out of wedlock, she needn’t ever bother coming backhere!” My sister’s name was Joanne, but she obviously changed that.’ He leaned forward. ‘I want you to try to find out, Ally. Maybe she has a husband, a child, someone who may now appear out of the blue, and who might be able to tell you something about her.’ He lay back and smiled. ‘I know you’ve become something of a super sleuth.’
Ally smiled. ‘I’ve already met your brother-in-law. Jodi’s husband turned up to collect her things last night,’ she said.
Rigby looked somewhat taken aback. ‘So, I have a brother-in-law, do I? What’s he like?’
‘He’s a scruffy, rather unpleasant man by the name of Owen Jones, who she left years ago, but he’s still legally her husband I believe. He went up to her room, picked up her things and squashed them all into a big canvas bag, showing no emotion whatsoever.’
Rigby sighed. ‘Do you know anything else about Joanne?’
‘Well, I’ve enjoyed her books and, from what I’ve read, so have lots of other people. She was quite well known in popular fiction circles.’ Ally didn’t think it was a good idea to tell Rigbyabout Jodi’s torrid love life, not in his current condition. Then she remembered Desdemona’s reaction. ‘Desdemona Morton said she’d been at university with her.’
‘University?’ Rigby looked surprised. ‘I remember she was clever, but university? How the hell would she have got there without any money?’
‘I think I need to talk to Desdemona again and see if I can find out. I had no idea at the time of our conversation that it was going to be of major importance,’ Ally said.
