Out Comes the Evil Page 15

Harriet had been into the kitchen and returned with a steaming kettle from which she added water to the china coffee pot. Retracing her steps, she came back without the kettle but carrying a platter of steaming cottage rolls, a bowl filled with small pots of jam and with a butter dish balanced beside the rolls. ‘It’s too early for today’s fresh delivery but you’ll enjoy these.’

  While Harriet dealt with putting rolls, butter and pots of jam on plates, Tony squished in by Alex’s feet, lifting them onto his thighs where they felt very comfortable.

  ‘Harriet?’ Mary said. ‘What about … you know?’

  ‘Oh, my, yes.’ Producing a package from behind a cushion like a conjurer whipping a rabbit from a hat, Harriet presented it to Alex. ‘Don’t open it too quickly. Do you know who Sarah Chauncey Woolsey was?’

  Alex squinched up her eyes. ‘This is a book. It must be a children’s book.’ She collected them. ‘I’ve been too distracted to think of them this year.’

  ‘We’ll talk about what all this is doing to you later,’ Tony said.

  His feelings for her showed. He wanted her to be happy … and he just wanted her. Her body tightened and turned warm. She smiled at him. ‘Perhaps we will,’ she murmured.

  ‘And from what I hear you’ve been too distracted to paint, too, Alex.’ Mary looked disapproving. ‘You shouldn’t squander so much talent. Now Sarah Woolsey …’

  Alex tipped her head back and grinned. ‘It’s Susan Coolidge, of course. She was American but I read all the Katy books when I was a child.’ She couldn’t wait any longer to tear the paper away. ‘Crikey! What Katy Did and it’s really old. It’s … no, it can’t be a first edition. It is!’ The book had a gold-colored board cover with a little band of ants, or crickets – she wasn’t sure – scampering across the front. But the publication date was 1872. A first edition. ‘You can’t give it to me, ladies. Whew, how much do I owe you. I know you must have bought it.’

  The ladies exchanged a glance. ‘Shall we tell her?’ Mary said and when Harriet nodded, added, ‘We found it in a box of things from when we were children. I hardly remembered it.’

  ‘You should keep it,’ Alex said. ‘It must have a special meaning for both of you.’

  ‘There are just the two of us. No family to pass things to. And if the book can bring out that smile, my girl, it’s in the right hands now. Anyway, it’s ours so we can give it to you. End of subject.’

  ‘Thank you both,’ Alex whispered.

  ‘OK,’ Tony said. ‘I hate to change the subject but Katie went to the Dog and Lily took her in, right? Didn’t anyone go to find out if Radhika was all right?’

  ‘Juste Vidal called her. She said Katie got away from her and she was glad the dog was OK. Lily offered to keep the dog and Radhika didn’t argue. She hung up on Juste.’

  Muscles in Tony’s thighs had flexed beneath Alex’s ankles. ‘How did you find out Radhika had been hurt?’ she asked.

  ‘Your mum told us when she came this morning. We need to find out when Radhika was attacked. Juste told us she only gave one-word answers. So what was the timeline?’

  Alex suppressed a smile at Harriet’s ease with detection.

  ‘After your mum left, we knew to watch for you because you would probably walk back to the Dog from the parish hall,’ Mary said. ‘Doc James dropped you there, correct?’

  ‘Mm,’ Alex said.

  Mary suddenly pushed up from her chair and stood, holding the walker with one hand. She faced Tony and Alex with an air that suggested something momentous to come. ‘Harriet and I are going to take Radhika in here, aren’t we?’

  ‘When she’s discharged from the hospital,’ Harriet said. ‘I’m going up to visit as soon as they’ll let me. I want to tell her we won’t hear of her going home to that cottage alone. We’re hiring Prue Wally to come and help out. With Pamela Gibbon gone, Prue needs the extra.’

  Alex feared the idea of Radhika being alone but she wondered how it would work for her to be here. Would it put Harriet and Mary in danger, too?

  ‘She’s going to have my room,’ Harriet said. ‘It’s got an en suite bathroom. I’ll move in with Mary. She’s got twin beds in there. We may have to ask you to help us get her settled.’

  There didn’t seem anything to argue about and with plenty of people around at the Burke’s, Radhika should be safe.

  ‘That’s good of you,’ Tony said. ‘Alex can also help persuade Radhika – she’s very fond of Alex. And I’ll help out with everything. But we’ll have to clear this with the police and make sure the three of you will be OK.’

  ‘I hope that lovely Dan O’Reilly comes to see us. I’ve got a few questions for him.’

  Hiding a smile behind her coffee cup, Harriet said, ‘Mary always had a soft spot for a good-looking Irishman. What I want to know is why they’re taking their time the way they are. Young Jay Gibbon was in yesterday and he said as much, too. We hadn’t seen him since … well, I suppose it was when he was coming to see his father years ago. He’s changed a lot. Looks a bit down at heel.’

  ‘You knew Jay?’ Alex said slowly. ‘I didn’t remember him at all.’

  ‘It would have been when you were away,’ Harriet told her. ‘You weren’t around much for some years after you went up to town for school.’

  Alex didn’t want to talk about all that. ‘But Jay came by yesterday? Just for tea?’

  Mary turned the full effect of her ice-cube thick glasses on them. ‘He had tea but we asked him up at closing time. After all, he’s been through a lot, too. He seems a bit shocked. I was surprised he’s staying at Pamela’s though, even if it was once his father’s, too.’

  The scent of lilacs wafted from a bowl of potpourri near the fire. Alex let her eyelids close a little while silence slipped softly around her. When she opened her eyes again, Maxwell stretched, arched his back and edged close to Katie. The cat settled in, back to back with the dog and closed his one eye. Evidently a bond remained from Katie’s nursing efforts when Maxwell was injured.

  ‘So what exactly did Jay have to say?’ Tony asked at last.

  ‘According to Jay, the solicitor hasn’t sent out the will yet. Apparently the man’s been on vacation.’ Harriet set down her cup. She got up and opened the window, let in the scent of loamy soil and thick grass recently mown beneath the trees. ‘He still thinks there’s something funny going on but he doesn’t know what. Apparently his father always said there would be a provision for Jay when he was forty, even if Charles Gibbon was dead and Pamela had inherited. He looks older but he turned forty a week or so ago and he didn’t hear a thing.’

  ‘He hated Pamela,’ Mary said. She was looking at her roll from all sides as if it were something she’d never seen before. ‘She had everything and he could never get a break.’

  ‘Mary,’ Harriet said gently, ‘he never said he hated Pamela.’

  ‘You could tell he did,’ Mary said, a stubborn purse to her pale lips. She turned to Tony and Alex again. ‘Haven’t the police talked to the solicitor yet? You’d think they’d do that right away.’

  ‘They don’t tell us what they’re up to,’ Tony said mildly, although his eyes were steely when they met Alex’s. ‘Hang on. Let me just look something up.’ He took out his mobile and whipped his thumbs over the touch screen.

  ‘Venetia Stroud was the one I was surprised to see,’ Harriet said. ‘She joined Jay when he was at a table downstairs. It was strange, almost like she’d been waiting to follow him in.’

  Absently, Tony patted Alex’s ankles. She’d stiffened automatically at the mention of Venetia.

  ‘What time was that?’ Alex asked. The little room felt too warm and closed in.

  ‘Just before closing time,’ Mary told her promptly. ‘That’s why it wasn’t awkward to ask Jay up to our flat. Venetia went out first and I told Jay I’d saved something for him.’

  Tony smiled at Alex and frowned afterward. ‘You OK?’ Her anxiety must show. She nodded at him, yes. Surely he had worked out that Venetia came to Lea
ves of Comfort while Alex was locked in Harry’s flat. ‘Found what I wanted in Bourton-on-the-Water. The name on the whiteboard at the parish hall. It’s a solicitor.’

  Which meant the police were very aware of needing details of Pamela’s will. Why hadn’t she and Tony thought about that?

  Bright as ever, Mary said, ‘Do you mean you’ve found Pamela’s solicitor? Couldn’t we think of an excuse to call his office just to see if he’s really away?’

  ‘No,’ Alex said flatly. ‘Your lovely Dan O’Reilly would have our heads.’

  ‘Did Jay say anything about Venetia?’ Tony asked the sisters. ‘I wouldn’t have thought they knew one another.’

  ‘Venetia and the major met Jay on his first trip to Folly. He was looking for his father’s house and stopped at the Strouds’ to see if they could give him directions. He was only a little way off. Cedric Chase is very close.’

  ‘So Venetia supposedly saw Jay coming into the tea rooms and followed just to say hello?’ Tony looked skeptical.

  ‘We decided she followed him here, didn’t we, Mary?’ said Harriet. ‘It might have been a chance that she saw him, but she’s never been here before so why now unless she was looking for Jay? And she was all dressed up. I’ve never really had more than a word or two with her but she was always quietly turned out. A lot of make-up yesterday, too. She was excitable as if she was on the verge of something momentous.’

  Just as Alex had seen her and the times probably meshed. Venetia must have left the Stroud house, seen Jay, and watched to find out where he went.

  ‘She wanted to know if he had met you yet, Alex,’ Harriet said, ‘and whether you had said anything about Harry. He got the feeling Venetia didn’t like you, or trust you and she warned Jay to be careful what he said around you about Pamela and what might have happened to her.’

  Tony whistled, long and low. ‘That’s preposterous. Why is she singling out Alex?’

  ‘I’m not sure, but Jay wonders if Venetia thinks her son has done something he shouldn’t have and she’s trying to cover for him. She said Alex is a woman twice scorned.’

  Alex only stared at Harriet and forced a swallow to calm her thunderous heartbeat.

  ‘You are not to get upset by this,’ Harriet said.

  Mary shook her head emphatically. ‘Absolutely not.’

  ‘She said you’d been scorned by your husband, and now she thinks you’ve been scorned by Harry and you’ve got plans to punish him. She told Jay not to take anything you say seriously.’

  TWENTY-SIX

  I’m getting closer and it would be too easy to rush things.

  They fall for every crumb I throw them – fucking incompetents and amateurs. But I can’t let down until I’ve got what I need. If my little Sherlock Holmes clones had stayed out of it, this could all have been over by now. You’d think they would have learned from that last near mess that they shouldn’t meddle. Alex almost died. Too bad she didn’t.

  Success has a taste, not sweet, not spicy – it’s exciting! It’s like the tang of a lover’s body when she’s surrendered and you’ve won. I’ve known that taste well and I can swallow it again in my mind. This could all have been so different if Pamela had only admitted how much she loved me. We would have had everything together. Love and hate are such close companions.

  This is no time for dreams, or regrets.

  This one is dangerous to me now, but she isn’t afraid often enough – and that makes her the perfect victim.

  I’m walking behind you, Alex.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  At home with Alex.

  In the middle of the day.

  In the middle of all the chaos, and he felt peace. This was right.

  ‘Do you still feel like that brandy?’ he asked, assessing her pale, tired face, the withdrawn expression, and that other thing he sometimes saw in her – insecurity?

  She nodded, yes, and rested her forehead on the back of her hand atop the kitchen table. ‘I should go home and check out the house,’ she said, her voice muffled.

  ‘Lily thought about that. She checked already. All fine there, and Prue Wally will go in and freshen things up.’

  ‘Prue is going to be a very busy woman,’ Alex said, straightening up as Tony put a glass of brandy beside her. ‘I can’t get over the gift from Harriet and Mary. The book is a little gem.’

  He ran a hand over her curly hair. ‘You’re special to them.’ A glance from those almond-shaped green eyes and he was sucked in. And he was glad of it.

  ‘Why would Venetia make a crack about my being twice scorned? She knows there’s never been anything between Harry and me.’

  ‘Do you think Jay’s got a point and the woman’s afraid Harry’s done something criminal? You said she was an odd one. She could be half out of her mind worrying about her baby boy and trying to cover for him.’ Bogie rose from beneath the table and stood beside Alex, staring into her face with what looked like a deeply worried frown. ‘Your boy needs reassurance,’ Tony added.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said reaching for his hand and lacing her fingers with his. ‘This is a strain on you, too. We’ll come through it.’

  The wall clock ticked loudly several times before he squeezed her hand. ‘I meant Bogie, but I’m glad to be your boy, too.’

  She turned slightly pink and laughed. ‘Poor Bogie.’ At the sound of his name on his beloved mistress’s lips, the dog pushed his head on her lap.

  The house phone rang and Tony picked it up. ‘Harrison.’

  ‘This is Lily. Are you two OK? I want to see Alex as soon as I can. Would she be better at Corner Cottage, do you think? We could make sure she rests and have someone there all the time, at least when you and I have to work at the same time.’

  ‘Just a moment.’ Tony put his hand over the mouthpiece. A better man wouldn’t have thoughts of refusing the offer and making an excuse to Alex. ‘Your mother wants to know if you’d be better at Corner Cottage. It’s up to you.’

  He made what felt like a good hangdog expression. Being a better man was a pain in the ass sometimes.

  Alex took the phone from him. ‘Hi, Mum. I’m doing better.’ She listened quietly, then said, ‘I think I’m good here. But I reserve the right to change my mind.’

  Her smile suggested she’d amused her mother. ‘I know,’ Alex said. ‘As soon as they say we can, we’ll go to the hospital. We’ve been told to wait until Radhika is strong enough. Mm. Later. Love you.’ She handed him the phone and he hung up.

  ‘Drink the brandy,’ Tony said. ‘Then I’m taking you to bed.’

  Wearing one of Tony’s shirts and propped against a pile of pillows in his bed, Alex watched him move about the room. Sun still poured through open curtains and a maple tree waved gently outside the window.

  ‘Tony, may I take—’

  ‘Nope, you can’t take a shower yet. Not without me in there to help you. That would take a long time and you’re too weak.’

  Did he think having him help her out of her clothes and into his shirt had made her feel less wobbly-legged?

  ‘I feel filthy. I am filthy.’

  ‘You’re not.’ He advanced on her with several damp flannels and a towel. Ignoring her protests, he wiped her face and neck, and gave her ears a wipe.

  ‘Ew, Tony!’

  He snickered.

  Another washcloth went under the shirt and made an unspeakable, if gentle, passage over her body and he followed up with a towel rub. ‘Don’t tell me that doesn’t feel better.’ He pulled the sheet up from her feet and gave them a good washing.

  ‘That’s it, thank you,’ she wailed, clamping the sheet tightly around her body. ‘You’ll be punished. I’m going to wait till you’re asleep one night and do that to you.’

  Smug – that covered the look he gave her. ‘Really? That’s wonderful. Hurry up and get well enough to do it.’

  He piled the flannels on top of the towel, rolled the whole mess together – and set it aside.

  His own clothes more or less
hit a plaid-covered easy chair in the corner of the mostly shades-of-green room until he stood before her, unselfconsciously naked. She snapped her open mouth shut but couldn’t do a thing about her flipping heart. It ought to be a sin to hide that body under baggy, country clothes.

  ‘Don’t want to tease you,’ he said, ‘but I’m for a quick shower.’

  Just like that. She heard the shower come on and saw steam creep past the edge of the bathroom door where he hadn’t quite closed it.

  And she let her eyelids droop, floated, cocooned in Tony’s lovely, comfy bed.

  Tony slid carefully under the covers with Alex. He had closed the curtains, careful to make very little noise. Propped on an elbow, his head braced on his hand, he studied her. Asleep she looked ridiculously young.

  Was he wrong to encourage their lives to become locked together? It was happening, if it hadn’t already become close to complete.

  They were slipping into depending on each other. He liked it that way. But was he any good at relationships? Did he have what it took to give her what she needed? He hadn’t kept Penny happy.

  And Penny was a whole other issue – a thorny one.

  He moved cautiously closer. She was already more comfortable with the immobilized foot. Her clavicle would do its own thing and that could be a long or short recovery depending on the crack and her ability to heal. The image of putting her into his shirt was nice.

  She had been straight-faced and stoic and he’d managed to put on a pseudo clinical attitude.

  There hadn’t been an instant when he’d felt remotely clinical and he didn’t now. The hand he placed softly on her stomach on top of the shirt, automatically inched gently to her hip and then her waist. That should be the stopping point. His brain and body made no secret of where they wanted to go.

  With not enough guilt, he covered her soft breast and felt her react.

  Her eyes flickered open and still he didn’t feel any guilt. When her back arched away from the mattress he inwardly cursed the damn sling.

  His mobile rang. It was a conspiracy to get in their way! After five rings, it stopped, but Alex was wide awake and blinking.