Page 61 of A Very Bookish Murder
‘I was once accused, and arrested, for killing my husband,’ Penelope informed them, her voice beginning to slur ever so slightly.
‘What?’ The others were now staring at her in disbelief.
‘I wasnotfound guilty,’ Penelope snapped. ‘I didn’t kill the old fool; he killed himself, with pills.’
‘Do you know why?’ Millie asked, her eyes wide.
‘Yes, of course I do. He had a mistress for years, of which I was well aware, but she threw him over at almost exactly the same time as I was about to leave him formylover.’ Penelope paused to let this sink in. ‘We’d led separate lives for years, and I have to say that it saved me from a long, messy divorce.’
Sam now appeared with the main courses, which silenced everyone for the moment. Ally noticed with some amusement that the elderly couple sitting at the nearby table had been listening in avidly to the conversation. They’d been chatting when they’d all first arrived, but as the confessions were taking place and the conversation had increased in volume, Ally couldsee that they were listening intently and cocking their heads to hear better when someone spoke in a quieter voice.
‘For some reason,’ Penelope continued as she cut into her steak, ‘Detective Inspector Kandahar has managed to find out about this, although it has no relevance whatsoever to this case.’ She speared a piece of steak and popped it into her mouth.
Everyone was now concentrating on eating, but Ally could sense the atmosphere was becoming more and more uncomfortable. She wondered what was coming next, apart from entertaining the couple at the next table and possibly others in the dining room. Ally concentrated on her lamb curry, ensuring she didn’t drop any on her expensive cream blouse.
It was Laura who broke the awkward silence at the table. ‘If you’ve all finished sneaking looks at me,’ she said as she laid down her knife and fork and dabbed her mouth daintily with the starched white napkin, ‘let me just satisfy your curiosity and assure you, on my life, that I didnotkill Jodi Jones.’
Nobody spoke for a few minutes while they finished their main courses.
Finally, Morwenna said, ‘OK, what about you then, Millie? Have you any dark secrets you’d like to confess? Why did you come on this retreat?’
Millie sat back in her chair and smiled. ‘I’m sorry to be so damn boring, but I honestly came here because I really admired Jodi. I liked her books, and she did a very thorough critique on one of my stories. Also, I’d read up about the Western Highlands of Scotland and how beautiful it was, and I fancied a holiday.’ She paused. ‘I promise you that I had no ulterior motive.’ She turned to Morwenna. ‘What about you, Morwenna? Why are you here?’
At this point, Sam reappeared to remove their plates and hand out dessert menus.
‘I think we’re going to need more wine,’ Penelope bellowed at him, making him jump and causing Sam’s laden tray to rattle as he headed towards the door.
Ally wasn’t sure she could eat another thing but noticed that no one else’s appetites appeared to have been affected by these recent confessions. As they all ordered their choice of dessert, Ally decided to opt for some ice cream, not because she really wanted it, but so that she wouldn’t appear quite so conspicuous as she sat and listened.
Morwenna, now tackling a crème brûlée, happily confessed what she had already told Ally – that Jodi had had an affair with her first husband, causing more gasps. At this point, she had to reassure them that it hadn’t broken her heart because their marriage was on the rocks anyway, and she’d moved on to a happier life, although she still kept in touch with her now ex-husband. ‘I felt sorry for Tom,’ she explained, ‘because he was devastated, and I’d moved to Penzance with our daughter, met my now-husband and was happier than I’d ever been. Then Tom got in touch to tell me he was terminally ill with cancer, and wanted to see both myself and Jodi one last time.’
‘So you actually went to visit him?’ Brigitte asked, frowning.
‘Yes, I did. I felt sorry for him. In a funny kind of way, both he and Jodi had done me a favour. I was also very interested to see her again too, after all these years, and also, of course, to try to persuade her to visit Tom.’
‘Poor Tom!’ exclaimed Penelope, loudly as usual. ‘Well, she won’t be visiting him now!’
Morwenna nodded. ‘No, but he knows, of course, that she’s been killed, and so he wants me to video the funeral on his behalf, and the ceremony or whatever it is they do.’ She looked around. ‘Do you have a ceremony if you bury someone at a natural burial site?’
Nobody seemed very sure about that, other than people might give eulogies or something. There followed much scraping of bowls and plates as everyone finished off their desserts.
‘I think we need some brandies now,’ Penelope announced, having demolished a huge plate of sticky toffee pudding, and looked around for approval.
Ally, glancing at all the empty wine bottles, wondered if that was wise. She could only marvel at their alcohol capacity and wonder if they’d be in a fit state to make the ten-minute uphill walk back to The Auld Malthouse. She herself had had three glasses of wine and was well aware that she’d had enough and so politely declined the offer of a liqueur with her coffee. That, of course, did not deter Penelope, Laura, Morwenna and Brigitte from ordering cognacs, only Millie admitting that she, too, had had quite enough. Brigitte was the only one who hadn’t spoken yet, and Ally hoped she might come up with something interesting, or at least something she hadn’t told Ally before. Ally was trying to think of some way to get her to open up and gently prompted, ‘We still haven’t heard from you, Brigitte.’
Brigitte looked a little uncomfortable. ‘Well, I’m interested in writing and I wanted to meet Jodi Jones…’ She tailed off quietly.
‘I can’t think why,’ Laura said, slurring slightly.
Penelope let out a loud belch and said, ‘Well, there’s one thing Idefinitelywould like to discover.’ Here she dabbed her mouth with her napkin to suppress a further belch and continued, ‘What I really want to know is,where is this so-called love child of hers?’
There was an outburst of incredulous gasps.
‘She had achild?’ Morwenna asked.
‘Shecan’thave had a child!’ Millie said. ‘If she had, he or she would surely be here!’
‘How doyouknow she had a child?’ Laura asked.
