Page 62 of A Very Bookish Murder
‘Because I was at university at the same time as she was – I’m sure I mentioned that earlier – and for the first couple of months, we shared a room in some very grotty student accommodation. One day I came in to find her sobbing uncontrollably and, after much probing on my part, out it all came. She’d got herself pregnant at sixteen, banished from the family, had her baby adopted and that particular day was the baby’s first birthday.’
‘How incredible!’ Millie gasped.
‘How sad,’ said Morwenna, sniffing.
‘How come you never told us all this before?’ Laura demanded at the top of her voice.
Several of the other diners, as well as the elderly couple, now looked round, and Ally found herself saying, ‘Keep it down, girls!’
‘It was irrelevant,’ Penelope said in a quieter voice. ‘I promised Jo – her name was Joanne then – that I’d never tell, but I don’t suppose that counts now. She told me the father was a one-night stand who she never saw again. However, after the birth, she went to live with a family who were looking for an au pair and they became very fond of her. They helped her later to get to university, and it was the father of the family who collected her at the end of term.’
‘It stands to reason,’ said Morwenna, ‘that if the child was adopted, he or she might not know who his or her real mother was. Not everyone who’s adopted wants to find out who their birth mother is.’
‘That’s true,’ said Brigitte calmly, ‘but Jodi Jones’s childdidwant to know.’
‘How on earth would you know that?’ Morwenna asked.
‘Because I happen to be married to him.’
TWENTY-THREE
Brigitte looked around calmly at the sea of astonished faces.
Ally felt as if she’d been hit with a sledgehammer. Why on earth had she never suspected?
‘I will explain,’ Brigitte continued, sipping her cognac. She gave a wry smile before adding, ‘I can assure you that I certainly did not come here to kill Jodi! I came to try to talk sense to her.’
‘Whatever do you mean?’ Penelope asked, frowning.
Ally was conscious of silence in the dining room and several heads turning in their direction again.
‘George was adopted by the Atkinses and had a very happy life,’ Brigitte said. ‘But later he was naturally curious about his birth mother and was staggered to find out that she was someone called Joanne Rigby. After much research – I won’t bore you with all the details – he discovered that she was the writer, Jodi Jones, although she wasn’t so successful or well known back then. And when he eventually managed to contact her, she was absolutely ecstatic to find him! No other word for it – she wasover the moon!’
‘So what was the problem?’ Millie asked. ‘I presume there was one?’
‘The problem was that she became extremely possessive of George, obsessive even. She wouldn’t leave him alone and kept appearing on his doorstep with gifts – and advice. Promised him all of her money’ – here she glanced at Laura, who was staring straight ahead – ‘but couldn’t bear the thought of sharing him with anyone else. Between you and me, I think she’d gone a little crazy over the years because her obsession grew and, when he told her that he planned to get married, she went completely over the top!’
‘You’d have thought she’d have been delighted,’ Ally said.
Brigitte sighed. ‘Yes, you would think so. But no, she was absolutely furious. She told George he’d never inherit a penny if he marriedanyone! And when he told her about me, she referred to me as some “French floozy” – those were her very words!’
‘But he married you anyway?’ Morwenna asked.
‘Yes, but we never told her. We’ve been married for ten years now, during which time she helped him to set up his publishing company, but we didn’t ever meet, Jodi and I, because she flatly refused even to see me. She liked to pretend that I didn’t exist. It made George terribly sad – he became awfully depressed, really quite ill.’
Here Brigitte paused, seemingly close to tears. She picked up her cognac and took a large gulp. Then she put the glass back down and took a moment to compose herself before she continued. ‘George tried to avoid her whenever possible, and as far as she was concerned, I was just his “bit of stuff”, necessary only to satisfy his sexual requirements butneverto marry. Don’t forget that George was forty at the time he met me, and I was fifteen years younger.’
‘Unbelievable!’ Millie exclaimed.
‘None of that explains why you came here,’ Penelope said, slurring a little as she drained her brandy.
‘I booked this course under my maiden name, otherwise she would almost certainly have known I was George’s wife.’ Brigitte sighed deeply. ‘I asked if I could have a one-to-one chat with her on the second day, making out that I needed her advice about something. All I wanted to do was to reassure her that I loved George deeply, and that I’d never interfere with her relationship with him but only wanted her approval as his wife. That wasall!’ Brigitte then broke down in tears.
‘Then you and your husband must be very relieved she is dead,’ Millie said.
Brigitte shook her head as she blew her nose but said nothing.
Ally also found herself feeling quite tearful at Brigitte’s plight. It explained why Brigitte had gone into Room 1 and was desperate to get hold of Jodi’s diary, just after she had been killed. And it made sense now; after all, would she have killed Jodi before she’d even had a chance to speak to her? And now she came to think of it, she recalled that, when he first arrived, she had thought that George reminded her of someone, and now she realised that that someone had been Jodi. She wondered if anyone else had noticed, although obviously not.
