‘No, we haven’t found any note. But that wouldn’t have been Harry’s way. He didn’t come out with things. He kept it all bottled up inside. The way he died says quite as much as a note would have done.’
‘What do you mean, exactly?’
‘My husband virtually built Harry’s Dream … well, built it up from an empty hull. He installed all the electrics, all the gas-powered stuff. He knew every inch of that boat. There’s no way he would let the space fill with carbon monoxide by accident. No, Harry knew precisely what he was doing. He anchored out at sea, sabotaged the gas supply and drank a bottle of whisky to see him on his way. Harry knew what he was doing,’ she repeated doggedly.
‘If what you say is true—’
‘Of course it’s bloody true! Are you suggesting I didn’t know my own husband?’
‘No. All I’m saying is that, if he did commit suicide, are you sure the reason was the revival of all the allegations about him and Anita Garner?’
‘What other reason could there be? If you’re implying that there was something wrong with our marriage—’
‘No, no, I’m certainly not. It’s just … I only met your husband very briefly … at Fethering Yacht Club last Saturday … and I thought he seemed very depressed.’
‘Oh? And what qualifications do you have to say whether someone’s depressed or not?’
‘I do have some experience of medical conditions. I work as a healer.’
‘Huh.’ Even Carole could hardly have bettered the level of scepticism in that ‘Huh’.
‘Your husband seemed to be depressed by his physical frailty, the fact that he couldn’t go on working like he used to do.’
‘Yes, all right. There were some adjustments he needed to make because of his age, but he’d have managed that all right. Harry wouldn’t have been the first man to find the early stages of retirement difficult.’
‘No, I agree. But he also seemed to be drinking a lot of whisky.’
‘How much Harry drank was his business! He had a strong head for the booze. He was never out of control.’
‘I’m not saying he was. He also talked that morning of not being able to go out in Harry’s Dream for much longer. He talked of taking her out for one last trip.’
‘All right.’ Veronica Lasalle reacted as if her point had been proved. ‘So that means he was already thinking about suicide, doesn’t it?’
‘It could do, yes. But his reasons for thinking about it might have been his increasing infirmity rather than anything to do with Anita Garner.’
‘Well, it wasn’t,’ Veronica Lasalle asserted.
‘He also’ – Jude hazarded – ‘seemed upset at the prospect of handing the business over to your son.’
This suggestion caused considerable annoyance. ‘He wasn’t handing the business over to our son! Roland has his own business. He’s an architect and property developer. Harry was just a builder.’ There was a lot of subtext in the way she said the word. It was clear that Veronica Lasalle had always considered she’d married beneath her.
She went on, ‘Harry had nothing to do with the current development of Footscrow House into holiday flatlets. It’s Roland’s company that’s doing that. Originally, Roly was going to employ Lasalle Build and Design on the project, but he found another builder who offered a better rate.’
‘But wouldn’t having his professional services rejected by his own son be just the kind of thing to turn Harry suicidal?’
‘No. He was very proud of Roland’s success. I made sure Roland had all the advantages his father hadn’t. I never wanted him to be just a builder like Harry. I wanted my Roly to be a professional man – and that’s what he is. Lives up in London and is working on projects all over the world. Footscrow House is small beer, by Roly’s standards. He showed his father what real success looks like.’
Jude recognized in Veronica’s words a whole rat’s nest of potential family conflicts, but it wasn’t the moment to explore them. Instead, she repeated, ‘What we heard at Fethering Yacht Club gave me the impression that your husband was depressed by his increasing infirmity.’
‘“We”? Who’s this “we”?’ the old woman asked sharply. ‘Who were you with?’
‘I was with Pete.’
‘Oh well, you don’t want to believe anything Pete says. He’s a right little troublemaker.’
Strange. It was the first time Jude had heard anyone in Fethering say a word against the decorator. Except, of course, for Roland, who’d unjustly accused him of skiving at Footscrow House. What did the two surviving Lasalles have against Pete?
‘I just think,’ Jude reiterated, ‘that your husband’s reason for taking his own life might have been something other than those old allegations about him and Anita Garner.’
‘You only say that because it lets you and your neighbour off the hook.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean that Harry killed himself because that old accusation about him and Anita had resurfaced.’
‘But—’
‘And I blame you and Carole Seddon for his death!’
TEN
Guilt? Did Jude feel any guilt now? She had, after all, virtually been accused of murder.
But, for some reason, she didn’t feel guilty. She tried to analyse why.
And decided that it was because she’d got such a clear impression of Veronica Lasalle having an agenda. Jude knew that bereavement affected people in different ways but she still found the woman’s behaviour odd. Three days after hearing of the death of her husband of … what … forty years …? Given Roland’s age, it might well be nearer fifty … Three days after hearing the devastating news of his death, Jude could believe the new widow might be full of anger and looking for someone to blame for the tragedy. Marching round to confront and bawl out the person she thought responsible did make a kind of sense.
But there were inconsistencies in how she’d behaved. For a start, though Veronica had demonstrated anger, she had not shown any signs of grief. Her main agenda seemed to have been to persuade Jude that Harry’s death had been suicide. And that the reason why he had taken his own life was because of the return of long-buried allegations about his having had a sexual relationship with Anita Garner.
It could have been true. Veronica Lasalle was certainly determined that that explanation should be the accepted one.
Or had she been acting in that way simply to stop any other explanation being considered?
Jude didn’t have long to mull over these thoughts because Pete soon returned. In fact, he returned so soon after Veronica’s departure that he could have been waiting outside to watch her leave. What’s more, his excuse about having to go to the trade counter didn’t stack up. He had returned without any new paint.
Jude did not pass any comment on this. She just made him another cup of coffee (white with one sugar). But, as she handed it across, Pete raised the subject himself.
‘Sorry I had to leave. Veronica and me, we don’t get on. Never have done.’
‘Oh. Any reason?’
‘Goes back a long way. She’s a suspicious cow. Worked with Harry from way back, did all the paperwork when it was just plain “Lasalle Builders”, long before it became “Lasalle Build and Design”. And she always thought everyone was trying to rip them off.’
‘Everyone including you?’
The decorator nodded. ‘I was working for Brenton Wilkinson back then. Harry subcontracted him to do some decorating work on Footscrow House. And all the time we was there, Veronica kept her beady eyes on us, seeing we wasn’t skiving.’
‘Which, I can safely assume, you weren’t?’
‘No way. Well, I got rather sick of having her constantly on my case, so I played a trick on her. Something old Veronica has never forgiven me for.’