Page 20 of A Very Bookish Murder
‘Oh, stop it – you’re embarrassing me,’ Ally said.
But she was already planning her next move: the board.
NINE
The board was actually the back of a still-life painting positioned on the wall behind the kitchen table. The painting was on a large square piece of wood, and featured an attractive mix of oranges, lemons and grapes, which Ally’s grandmother had, many years before, brought back from Italy, presumably from a holiday.
In her previous life as a researcher for a TV company in Edinburgh, Ally had found it very helpful to have a board on the wall on which to stick her findings, and eliminate the ones she no longer wanted or needed, using Post-its. She’d found this method helpful in many ways since, and now, when the painting was removed from the wall and placed face down on the table, the plain wood back provided a good flat surface on which to mount Ally’s suspects. To do this it was necessary to tack on a piece of paper, draw a large circle and treat it as a clock, in the middle of which was the victim’s name. The chief suspect would then feature at the very top, at twelve o’clock, and the next most likely would be placed at eleven o’clock and one o’clock, whereas the least likely would be at the bottom, at six o’clock. She didn’t actually write the numbers down but could visualise them.
So, after Morag had departed the following morning, Ally took the painting down from the wall, turned it over, laid it onthe table, and got out the paper and the Post-its. Having drawn the circle – tracing round a dinner plate – and secured it to the board, she then had to think about who her suspects were.
Firstly, she wrote Jodi’s name in the centre. Without a doubt, the main suspect had to be Della Moran, so Ally wrote ‘Della’ on her first Post-it and placed it at the top, at the imaginary twelve o’clock.
Since Hamish’s revelations about Penelope, Ally could hardly ignore the possibility of her ability to get rid of someone in her way, butshe’dinvited Jodi along to feature in the writers’ retreat so what on earth would be her motive? Unless it was specifically to get the opportunity to murder Jodi? They’d been at university at the same time as each other, so who knew what may have happened between them then, or what hatred or resentment may have lingered?
And what about Joyce? Joyce had admitted openly that she didn’t much like Jodi and that Jodi might have stolen one of her ideas too. It made Ally wonder why Joyce had come on the course at all if that was how she felt about Jodi – was it possible that Joyce could have had an ulterior motive? So maybe she should add Joyce to the board, at eleven o’clock perhaps? And pop Penelope on at one o’clock? She had to beginsomewhere.
Then there was Brigitte. Why had Brigitte been poking around in Jodi’s room? Was she just checking it out for her husband’s arrival, or was she specifically looking for that diary? Had she torn out that page of the diary which noted her meeting with Jodi, and, if so, why? And what could the meeting possibly have been about that Brigitte felt the need to destroy any evidence of it? Brigitte was certainly a suspect, so perhaps she should be placed at three o’clock? Or should she be placed nearer the top? No, she’d put her at three o’clock, though she’d need to study her closely.
The beauty of this method was that she could then hang the painting back up on the wall and no one – especially her suspects – would know what lurked on the back!
However, there were seven suspects in all, all of whom admitted to visiting the ladies’ room in the period before Jodi’s death, and she really had to get to know them better if she was going to be any help at all to Detective Inspector Amir Kandahar.
The opportunity came when her four guests got back that evening. Brigitte was very excited because her husband was due to arrive the next afternoon.
It was Penelope, as usual, who, when they all congregated in the hall, said to Ally, ‘We have all been having a chat and we’ve decided to go ahead with our writing until Saturday, as planned. Not that we’d probably be able to leave anyway since we’re all under suspicion,’ she added. ‘We’ll need to find out about that. But,’ she continued, ‘we hear that the funeral is likely to be around here somewhere, and I think, out of respect, we should attend that.’
‘We’ve all paid good money for this week,’ Joyce put in, ‘so why should we waste a couple of days?’
‘And so we wondered if you’d like to come down and give us a little talk tomorrow afternoon?’ said Millie.
‘Me?’ Ally was astounded. ‘I don’t know anything about writing!’
‘Perhaps not, but you must have had some interesting experiences in your life,’ Penelope said firmly, ‘which could give us inspiration for our stories.’
‘But I’m not at all interesting…’ Ally began.
‘Yes, youare!’ Penelope boomed. ‘You left Edinburgh to come up here to open a guest house, and you weren’t in your first flush of youth, were you?’
‘No, but?—’
‘No buts!’ ordered Joyce. ‘Just a chat about how you came here and what you had to do to get this place up and running.’
‘Maybe I should wait here tomorrow until after my husband will arrive,’ Brigitte said.
‘Just phone him and tell him to come to the Craigmonie,’ Millie suggested.
‘But—’ Brigitte began, interrupted by a forceful Penelope.
‘That’s settled then,’ Penelope roared. ‘You’ll give us a little talk tomorrow afternoon, Ally. Three o’clock in the Garden Room at the Craigmonie!’
No one argued.
‘What did you talk about today?’ Ally asked as they all fussed Flora, who had come bounding out of the kitchen.
‘It was Joyce’s turn today,’ Brigitte said, ‘and ask us what we don’t know aboutlibraries!’
‘Libraries?’ Ally asked.
