Page 24 of A Very Bookish Murder
‘Oh yes,’ Ally said, ‘and they’ve been completely honest about it, particularly Della Moran.’
Amir nodded. ‘Interesting character, that. I really just wanted to remind you that one of your guests could well be the killer, and so, if you see or hear anything about them that might be relevant, I’d be grateful if you could let me know.’ He looked at Ally a little anxiously. ‘I’m not suggesting you snoop or anything…’
‘I get what you’re saying,’ Ally said, and then a thought struck her. ‘I had a chat with the earl the other evening and he knew Penelope Fortescue-Rawlins from years ago. She’s a bit of an aristocrat too, you know.’
He frowned and shuffled his papers some more. ‘She’s the woman who speaks very loudly?’
‘That’s her,’ Ally confirmed. ‘And Hamish – the earl – said that she was once suspected of killing her husband.’
Amir stopped shuffling and looked at Ally long and hard. ‘What?’
‘Apparently, she’d been having an affair with Lord Somebody-or-other, and her husband supposedly took his own life, but there was some suggestion that he’d been murdered. She was actually arrested but later released, due to lack of evidence. However, the earl seemed to think that she would be quite capable of murder.’
‘Hmm,’ said Amir. ‘I may have to speak to the earl, but I haven’t met him yet. Is he a nice man?’
‘He’s a charming man,’ Ally replied.
‘His information would be reliable?’
‘Without a doubt.’
Amir took out his phone. ‘Remind me where this woman lives?’
‘In the Cotswolds, somewhere in Gloucestershire, I believe. But I do have all their addresses in my visitors’ book if you need them.’
Amir smiled in thanks. ‘I do have a list of their addresses, and now I will be contacting their local police departments.’ He drained his cup and stood up.
‘Where are you based?’ Ally asked.
‘Well, Glasgow really, but temporarily with the Inverness police. I believe Detective Inspector Rigby had a bungalow orsomething converted into a temporary police station while he was here?’
Ally nodded. ‘He did.’
‘Depending on how long this case goes on for, I might find it helpful to continue using that, so I’ll look into it.’ He handed her a card. ‘Please get in touch if you should discover anything at all that might be relevant.’
‘I will,’ Ally promised. ‘I honestly don’t know if this is important or not, but Brigitte Atkins was extremely keen to occupy Room One, mainly because her husband was about to join her. But when I went upstairs a few days ago, before he arrived, I found Brigitte in there, looking at Jodi’s diary, and after she left I looked at the diary and noticed that a page – this week’s page – had been torn out, but I could decipher, from the indented section on the previous page, something about her having a chat with Brigitte.’ Ally opened a drawer. ‘I do have the diary here. It had fallen down the back of the chest of drawers so Owen Jones didn’t see it when he came for Jodi’s things, but I thought it could be relevant.’ She handed it to him.
Amir examined the diary. ‘Rigby was right – you really are quite a sleuth.’
Ally felt ridiculously pleased.
‘Perhaps Jodi Jones knew her from before?’ Amir suggested.
‘Possibly. I just wondered.’
‘I’ll have a word with her. You will let me know if any similar incident occurs?’
‘Yes, of course,’ Ally replied, glancing guiltily at her still-life on the wall.I wonder what he’d think of that, she mused,if he turned it over? She accompanied him to the door and waved him off.
After he’d gone, she realised that she should have asked him if the women would be allowed to leave when the week was up. And, if they weren’t, who’d be paying?
Callum Dalrymple arrived on the malthouse doorstep just before midday, settled himself in the sunny kitchen next to the biscuit tin and, fixing his Paul-Newman-type blue eyes on Ally, said, ‘One of these damned women, Ally, is the killer – has to be, so let’s just hope that this Kandahar fellow is more clued up than Rigby was.’
‘Rigby wasn’t so bad,’ Ally murmured in his defence, handing him a mug of coffee.
Callum ignored her remark. ‘Now,’ he said, ‘the five women who did not visit the ladies’ room that afternoon have been excluded as suspects and are all leaving tomorrow, as originally planned. And I must emphasise that none of my other guests were anywhere near there at the time. Most were out for the day, and the couple who remained were sitting down by the river. There was a man chatting up Miss Jones at the bar, and we’re trying to locate him.’ He paused for a moment. ‘I can’t for the life of me think why anyone would want to kill the woman! I mean, so what if she did steal the Irishwoman’s story? Is that worth a life sentence?’
‘Unlikely,’ Ally agreed. ‘I’m coming to the conclusion that there’s more to it than that. Possibly something connected with their personal lives?’
