‘Then, the reason for your silence could be that you know who did murder her and are keeping quiet to avoid shopping them.’
‘I understand the logic of that, yes.’
‘There are other possibilities,’ said Jude.
‘Mm. Infinite numbers, I would imagine.’
Jude decided she needed more facts. ‘What has prompted all this speculation over the years is that nobody knows what was the precise nature of your relationship with Anita Garner at the time.’
‘No, they don’t … however much they invent scenarios of romance and loathing. Nobody knows anything. And, for me, that seems a very satisfactory state of affairs. And one whose continuation I see no reason to stop.’
‘Maybe not. You know Vi Benyon?’
‘Do I?’
‘Mother of Kent, who you were at school with.’
‘Oh yes. Then I know who you mean.’
‘According to Vi, Kent said that you “got inside Anita’s knickers”.’
‘Good old Kent. I wonder where he got his information from.’
Glen didn’t seem inclined to continue, so Jude pressed on, ‘Apparently, you had quite a reputation as a Jack-the-Lad back then, working your way through the adoring young women of Fethering.’
He gave a wry smile, not of triumphalism, more of doubt. ‘That reputation was, I suppose, justified at the time. Like most young men, I enjoyed sex and wasn’t too bothered about the emotional side of things.’
‘Are you implying you’ve changed?’
‘Yes. Sex without emotional engagement has lost its lustre for me.’
‘So, your relationship with Lauren—?’
‘We are not here to talk about my relationship with Lauren. We are her to talk about my relationship – if any – with Anita Garner.’
‘Very well. So, what was it?’ asked Jude bluntly.
‘I’m not particularly proud of my behaviour in my late teens and early twenties. My approach to women was very much of the “notches on the bedpost” variety. I have changed considerably since then.’
Jude, ever the investigator of human behaviour, couldn’t restrain herself from asking, ‘What caused the change?’
Glen Porter grinned. ‘My suddenly becoming wealthy. You hear frequently that “money is the root of all evil”.’
‘To be accurate, “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil”,’ Jude pointed out.
‘I stand corrected. Anyway, in my case, the reverse proved to be true. My acquisition of money was the root of all good in me. For the first time, I had the freedom to ask myself what I really wanted from life. I no longer had to scrape a living, working behind bars, stacking shelves, portering in hospitals. I could leave Fethering. I could do things.’
‘So, what “things” did you do?’
‘First thing was to go to university. It had never been an option before. My parents hardly knew what a university was, and the local comprehensive wasn’t exactly grooming its students for academia. So, first I did evening classes to get the requisite A levels, then spent three mind-expanding years doing English and Philosophy at the University of Liverpool.
‘And, perhaps being that much older than most of the undergraduate intake, I didn’t immediately embark on an orgy of wild promiscuity. I had already been through that phase of my life. Instead, I learned to take relationships more seriously, to realize – perhaps for the first time – that the other person involved was a sentient being too.’
‘Quite a breakthrough,’ said Jude drily.
‘Yes, it was. I also spent a lot of time thinking about how I should spend my unexpected fortune.’
‘Fethering thinks you spend it on living the high life abroad. Mention your name and expressions like “splash the cash” and “playboy” will infallibly occur in the next sentence.’
‘If you think I give a shit what Fethering thinks, Jude, then you have seriously misjudged my character.’
‘I haven’t had much of a chance to make a judgement about your character.’
‘No. Nor I yours. You were, however, I should point out, quite recently willing to believe me capable of murdering Harry Lasalle.’
‘Yes,’ said Jude with mock-winsomeness. ‘But I didn’t know you so well then.’
That earned a grin. Though she still didn’t fancy him physically, Jude found herself attracted at an intellectual level.
‘Anyway,’ she went on, ‘I know more about how education transformed your character’ – another grin from him – ‘but I still don’t know the nature of your relationship with Anita Garner.’
‘Very well. I’ll tell you. It’s a disappointing answer … for lovers of the prurient. Nothing happened. I never made love to her.’
‘And was that … for lovers of the accurate … not for want of trying?’
‘You’re right, I’m afraid. I did regard her as a challenge, back in what you would probably call my “Jack-the-Lad” phase. I took her out a couple of times. But I didn’t get anywhere.’
‘Could you be more specific?’
‘God, you ask a lot, Jude. Are you asking for details of my every thwarted fumble?’
‘That’s exactly what I’m asking for.’
‘Very well then. Since you have such a persuasive manner … I will tell you that I came on to her very heavily. I had certain techniques which had proved effective with other girls. None of us had our own places back then. We mostly still lived with our parents, so opportunities for … what? Carnal interaction? Such opportunities were rare. I was a bit ahead of the pack. I had my own van. That was the scene of most of my … what shall I call them?’
‘Conquests?’ Jude suggested.
‘I suppose so. Sounds a bit shabby in these post-MeToo days.’
‘Were probably pretty shabby at the time.’
‘Yes. Thank you, Jude. I’m sure I deserved that.’
‘Anyway, you and Anita …?’
‘Basically, I came up against the brick wall of her religion. Catholicism has a lot to answer for when it comes to sex. If you ban contraception, you’re bound to cause poverty and domestic violence. If you insist on a celibate priesthood, you cannot fail to engender paedophilia. But you don’t want to get me started on all that.’
‘No, I certainly don’t. Let’s just talk about you and Anita.’
‘OK. Well, as I said, I came on to her. I tried to seduce her. She wouldn’t let me. Sex before marriage was against her religion. I think she did genuinely believe that. I think also, though, she was terrified of her father. He was the one who – literally – put the fear of God into her. She said if he found out she’d had sex before marriage – even worse, if she were to get pregnant before she got married – he would turn her out of the house and cut off all communication with her.’
This conformed with everything else Jude had heard about the late Mr Garner. ‘Tell me, Glen,’ she asked, ‘did Anita ever have a boyfriend?’
‘Not that I heard of. Certainly not one she went to bed with, I’m pretty sure of that.’
‘Hm. The name “Pablo” doesn’t mean anything to you?’
‘No. In what context?’
‘He was someone Anita worked with at a pub called the Cat and Fiddle. We heard from the former landlady of the place that they were very close.’
Glen Porter shook his head. ‘Never heard anything about that.’ Then he seemed to feel they’d done enough intellectual skirmishing. ‘Can we get back to this journalist of yours, Jude?’
‘By all means.’
‘For reasons of my own … yes, I’ve said that before – but you’ve got to believe me, they are solid, humanitarian reasons – I don’t want the investigation of Anita Garner’s disappearance restarted. And I certainly don’t want your hotshot journalist sniffing round the case. That could only cause a lot of distress.’