Page 40 of A Very Bookish Murder
‘Not if I can help it,’ Desdemona replied. ‘I’m very busy in my garden at the moment. What did you want to know?’
‘I’m just trying to piece together some information about Jodi,’ Ally said, ‘because she fascinates me.’ Ally realised that sounded a bit lame and wondered if Desdemona would believe her excuse.
‘I can’t think why,’ Desdemona replied sharply, ‘since she’s no longer with us. I’ve told you already that we were quite friendly at university.’
‘I just wondered if you knew anything about her background?’ Ally asked, feeling she might as well get straight to the point.
‘Can’t remember,’ Desdemona said. ‘Don’t think she spoke about it much. I only saw her at classes, never in the holidays. She was called Jo in those days, but I don’t remember what her surname was then.’
‘Did she seem to struggle moneywise?’ Ally asked.
‘We wereallstruggling moneywise!’ said Desdemona. ‘Even though university was free back then and we got grants to live on if we needed them. Still, we had to eat and drink, and she certainly liked a drink!’
‘But can you remember where she lived or anything?’ Ally persisted.
‘Can’t think why you’re so interested.’ There was a pause. ‘I think she lived in Somerset or Dorset or somewhere like that, not in London. Hang on, I can remember something now. She told me she’d once been homeless for some reason but had been living with some older man, supposedly “doing his housekeeping” so that she could sit her A levels and get to university. She was desperate to be a writer.’
‘Did you ever see the man?’ Ally asked.
‘Don’t know if it was him but some guy with a big car used to pick her up at the end of term.’
‘What did he look like?’
‘I was never introduced to him, and I assumed he was the guy she lived with. Or whatever.’
Ally was becoming increasingly interested. ‘But she couldn’t still be working for him if she was at university, could she?’
‘No idea. But they always embraced,’ Desdemona said.
‘A lover’s embrace? A fatherly embrace?’
‘Ally, I’ve no bloody idea! I was never that close to them. Now I’ve got to go because I’m in the middle of planting my beans. Got to get going while the weather’s so good.’
‘Oh, sorry if I’ve—’ Ally realised that she’d hung up.
She pondered over what little Desdemona had told her. Jodi had gone to ‘keep house’ for some man so that she could study and go to university. Hmm, Ally doubted the ‘housekeeping’ bit. Had that man, whoever he was, become a lover perhaps? In which case did he sponsor her education? Was it the same man who picked her up in his big car and embraced her? He certainly didn’t sound like Owen Jones, whoever he was. And if she’d been pregnant, was he the father, and where was the baby?
Jodi had plainly been a survivor, whatever else she was. Until she came to Locharran…
Later, before the women, including Millie, now back from Inverness, set off for their dinner at the Craigmonie, Ally asked her, ‘Did you have a good day’s shopping?’
‘Yes, I got exactly what I wanted,’ said Millie. ‘Very scenic journey.’
The others all looked at her with interest, but Millie was saying no more.
SIXTEEN
Ally hadn’t had much time to herself over the past couple of days, and she’d become aware of the fact that she should really have been doing some research into Jodi Jones. There just might be some clue in there, somewhere, regarding her past life. Something that she could relay to Rigby at the very least.
She googled ‘Jodi Jones’ and then clicked meticulously on each website listed under her name. She was English; she wrote bestselling novels; she’d always wanted to write. She was a university graduate, specialising in Creative Writing, and she edited people’s manuscripts. She had been married once, had lived in a commune in Wales for a few years, but was now single again, although rumour had it that there had never been a divorce and she was still in a relationship with her agent, Harry Harper, who, years ago, had left his wife and baby for her, creating much negative publicity.
But at the very foot of the page of search results was an online magazine calledCelebrity Confessions. The very title indicated that it was bound to be full of lightweight rubbish, but why then, Ally wondered, was it listed under Jodi Jones? Worth a look, she thought.
After some clicking and re-clicking, Ally was finally able to bring the magazine up on the screen. Predictably, there were pages devoted to media personalities who’d had their love lives blighted one way or the other, their busts enlarged/reduced, and their Botox wonderful/gone wrong. Ally waded through the pages and then, there in the very centre wasAN INTERVIEW WITH THE FAMOUS WRITER OF WOMEN’S FICTION – JODI JONES. HER HEARTBREAKING STORY! EXCLUSIVE!
Agog, Ally continued to read:
Jodi Jones confided to us that, back in August 1975 she gave birth to a baby. ‘I wasn’t yet seventeen,’ she told us, ‘and I’ve never told anyone this before.’ At this point, Jodi had to dry her eyes. ‘My family were somewhat strait-laced, right was right, wrong was wrong, and I most definitely was wrong. Abandoned by my family, I found a hostel for unmarried mothers and, immediately after the birth, they arranged adoption. So, that’s what I did.’ Jodi wiped her tears away again. ‘I had my beautiful baby adopted.’ She then described the heartbreak, and at a time when she was barely more than a child herself. ‘It was a disgrace back then, but since then I’ve got married, lived in a commune and now I’m independent again. I admit that I’ve used men to get where I am today, top of the bestsellers’ list. But do you know what? There was not a single day when I didn’t think about my child. And then, one day, my child got in touch! Can you imagine? I got my motherhood back! And I don’t intend to ever lose it again!
