Page 19 of A Very Bookish Murder
‘Well,’ said Ally, ‘I get the impression that none of them were particularly keen on the victim, and, to be honest, I wasn’t too struck on her myself.’
‘She wasn’t nice?’ Magda asked as she popped two chocolate mints into her mouth.
‘She was rather overimpressed with herself,’ Ally said.
‘In what way?’ Linda asked.
‘I got the impression that she thought her writing was up there with Jilly Cooper and Jackie Collins, and, although I’ve enjoyed her books, she wasn’t in their league,’ Ally replied. ‘Andwhen I sat in on their writing class on the day she was murdered, shewasaccused of plagiarism.’
‘Accused by whom?’ Hamish asked.
‘By an Irish woman called Della Moran, who’d only just joined the group, and who is now, of course, the main suspect.’
‘And is she the only suspect?’ Linda asked.
Ally considered for a moment. ‘No, there are a number of women suspects, although I can’t imagine what motives they might have had. Now that I come to think of it, Joyce, one of my ladies, said more or less the same thing as Della. She, too, reckoned Jodi had nicked one of her ideas.’
‘Hmm, interesting. Has the husband appeared yet?’ Hamish asked.
‘Oh yes,’ Ally replied, ‘yesterday evening. Bit of a hippy and living in his camper van?—’
‘Onmy land!’ interrupted Ross. ‘Scruffy bugger,’ he added, ‘but he’s paid the rent and says he’ll be staying until the funeral.’
‘So she’s going to be buried uphere?’ Hamish asked. ‘Why? It’s not as if she came from this area?’ He looked a little affronted, and Ally wondered if he thought he should have been asked for permission.
‘He said that Jodi wanted a funeral that made as little impact on the environment as possible, cardboard coffins and all that sort of thing,’ Ross replied. ‘He’s found a natural burial ground up near Brodale somewhere. I had no idea there was one there, but I daresay people like him are into that sort of thing.’ He shrugged. ‘He seemed keen to talk about it all for some reason.’
Ally shuddered. ‘There was definitely something a bit creepy about him.’
‘He told me he lives off-grid in the wilds of Wales, is completely self-sufficient and is not particularly thrilled at being up here. He didn’t strike me as being the grieving widower,’ Ross commented.
‘Me neither,’ agreed Ally. ‘Then again, I believe they parted company years ago.’
‘So who else do you have staying with you?’ Hamish asked.
‘A mousy little Englishwoman and a sexy little French lady,’ Ally replied with a grin. ‘And a very loud, aristocratic lady called Penelope Fortescue-Something from the Cotswolds.’
‘Penelope!’ Hamish exclaimed. ‘Not Penelope Fortescue-Rawlins, perchance?’
‘That sounds like her,’ Ally said. ‘I know it’s a bit of a mouthful, and she mentioned that she knew you.’
Hamish leaned forward. ‘Penelope had a roaring affair with Lord Arthur Marsh some years back,’ he said gleefully, dabbing his lips with a napkin. ‘Then her husband, poor old Herbert, died inverymysterious circumstances, supposedly from an overdose. Penelope was accused of crushing tablets and putting them in his whisky. She was actually charged with murder but later released, due to lack of evidence. I’d say that Penelope would be perfectly capable of murder though.’
Ally was quite shocked, particularly as Hamish was so cheerful about the whole thing. She couldn’t believe that Penelope could have done something like that. If, of course, shehaddone something like that. ‘I wonder if I should tell Amir about this?’ Ally realised that she’d unintentionally spoken out loud.
‘Who’s Amir?’ Magda asked.
‘Ally has fallen head over heels for the new detective,’ Ross said, nudging Ally with a grin.
‘I havenot!’ Ally protested. ‘But he is very nice.’
‘Poor old Rigby had a cardiac arrest when he saw the body,’ said Ross. ‘But at least he’s survived.’
Hamish nodded. ‘Well, I hope the man makes a full recovery because, if he doesn’t come back, he’ll be missed.’
‘Oh, I’m not so sure!’ Ross exclaimed. ‘It didn’t strike me that he was that brilliant at doing his job.’
‘Now you mention it, I think I agree with you. It seems to me that our dear Alison has been doing most of the detective work in the past year or so.’
