Page 60 of A Very Bookish Murder
‘What?’
‘Isthatwhere you disappear to?’
‘Are you serious?’
Laura nodded.
‘So you knew her before you came here?’ Penelope asked, pushing back her empty soup bowl.
‘No,’ Laura said, ‘I didn’t. Jodi left Owen years ago, but she wouldn’t divorce him. And do you want to know why?’
The others, except for Ally, who could guess what was coming, nodded mutely.
‘Because she’s so bloodycontrolling!’
‘Why do you say that?’ Brigitte asked, her eyes wide.
Laura laid down her knife and fork. ‘Owen and I run a commune in Wales. We’re completely off-grid, we’ve paid for our couple of acres of forest, but, as you know, everything’s going up in price and some of our residents are thinking of moving on. The fact is, we need money.’
‘So, what’s Jodi got to do with it?’ Morwenna asked.
‘She told Owen she’d left him money in her will,’ Laura replied, ‘but when Owen asked her if he could have some ofit now that we’re going through hard times, she didn’t want to know. She said, “You’ll have to kill me first.”’
‘So you came up here to kill her,’ Penelope stated, ‘to get your money?’
There was a horrified silence as everyone stared at Laura.
‘Correct, actually,’ confirmed Laura, nonchalantly spreading pâté on a piece of toast. ‘That is exactly why I came.’ She took a bite before adding, ‘But when it came to it, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Anyway, someone else got in first.’
‘Rubbish!’ Penelope blustered. ‘Who else would have a motive like that?’
‘Maybe you should ask around,’ said Laura quietly.
It was Morwenna who broke the shocked silence. ‘OK, we may not know if Laura’s telling the truth or not, but I think we four should all give our real reasons, our motives or whatever, for coming on this trip. Let’s have some honesty here.’
Ally was now on the alert, wondering if anything new might emerge now they’d had so much alcohol.In vino veritasand all that.
‘Why don’t you start, Penelope?’ Morwenna asked. ‘After all, you are the organiser of this group.’
Penelope sniffed loudly and took a large gulp of wine. ‘The fact is I didn’t care for Jodi much. In the past, I’ve sent manuscripts to her for editing and critiques which, I might tell you, cost me a bloody fortune because the woman certainly knew how to charge. I thought she might give me some sort of discount because we were actually in university at the same time.’ Here she paused for a further intake of wine. ‘I did get a couple of things published in magazines, but they didn’t make me nearly enough money to cover the costs of her editing.’
‘You didn’t like her, but you still came on this retreat? Why?’ Brigitte asked.
‘I hadn’t seen her in forty years and I fancied seeing her again. And this retreat wasn’t much more expensive than having her do a critique, and I could have a holiday at the same time.’
‘So you weren’t planning to kill her then?’
‘No, I wasn’t.’
‘In which case, why have the police been questioning you more than the rest of us?’ Millie asked, narrowing her eyes.
‘The police have their reasons,’ Penelope snapped, draining her glass.
‘Which are…?’ Morwenna asked.
‘Because I have a police record,’ Penelope boomed, reaching for the nearest wine bottle to refill her glass.
Predictably, this caused a few gasps, and Ally wondered if she’d tell them her story. She didn’t have to wait long.
