The effect of the name instantaneously softened his manner. ‘Oh. You a friend of hers then?’
‘I’ve been treating her for a medical condition.’ She avoided the word ‘healer’, in case he was one of those people who would be put off by it.
‘Oh?’ Alarm wrinkled his face even more. ‘You haven’t come to tell me she’s popped her clogs, have you? I’d heard the old girl was in a bad way, but—’
‘No, no,’ Jude reassured him. ‘She’s still with us, but I’m afraid I don’t think it’ll be long.’
‘I’d heard that, and all.’ He half-rose from the transom box and indicated one of the side benches. ‘Why don’t you come on board?’
As lightly as someone of her bulk could, Jude stepped over the gunwale and sat down.
‘Could I get you a cup of tea or …?’
‘No thanks,’ she said, having caught a glimpse through the hatch of the boat’s chaotically grubby interior.
‘So, what is it you’re doing for Rhona then?’
Now she dared to use the word. ‘I’m a healer. I’m just sort of helping with the palliative care, reducing her pain levels, doing what I can, really.’
‘Oh, right. Bill’s daughter-in-law Shannon, she’s into all that healing stuff, isn’t she?’
‘Yes. It was she who got me in for Rhona.’
‘That would figure. She was always recommending healers for everything. Anyone feeling a bit gippy, Shannon’d be sending them off to a bloody healer.’
‘Anyway, Rhona’s been talking about you.’ Which was true. ‘She told me once how much she misses seeing you.’ Which was also true. ‘Says she’d love it if you came to see her.’ Which was a slight finessing of the truth but, Jude reckoned, justifiable in the circumstances.
‘Yes, I would like to see the old biddy before she … you know. Maybe I’ll give Billy a call and suggest going up to Waggoners.’
‘I’m sure Rhona would appreciate it.’ Preparing to move the subject on, Jude looked across the still water of the marina to where the tidal River Fether rushed towards the English Channel. ‘Lovely spot you’ve got here, haven’t you?’
‘Oh yeah, it looks all right,’ he conceded. ‘Looked a lot better when this was full of boats. When Fethering had a fishing fleet. But that’s all gone now. Bloody EU regulations. Then we get out of the EU and things don’t look any better. And if it’s not the EU harassing us, it’s the bloody council, wanting Fethering to be more developed for holidaymakers. Holidaymakers – huh. More crazy golf and slot machines is what that means. And nobody cares about us lot who’ve worked here all our lives.’
He sighed. ‘I’m the last professional fisherman in Fethering. When I pop my clogs, that’ll be the end of it.’
‘But you still do go out fishing?’
‘Yes, but not so much. I just supply the hut where people buy fresh fish, you know, other side of the yacht club. That’s the only outlet now. Not like it was in the old days. Lorries picking up Fethering fish and supplying the whole bloody country. Exports, and all. Those days are long gone.’
He sighed again, spat the last half-inch of his roll-up out into the water and started the laborious process of assembling another one.
Jude’s perfect opening had arrived. ‘I gather from Rhona that you used to go fishing with Bill Shefford on Sundays …?’
‘Yes. But that all stopped when he married the Chink.’
All too forcibly, Jude realized what Rhona had meant when she said that she and Red thought ‘alike on most things’. She made no comment, however, simply asked, ‘So, it was Malee who put an end to your fishing trips?’
‘She was the cause of it, yes.’
‘You mean she told Bill he couldn’t go out fishing with you?’
‘No, it wasn’t like that so much. When Bill went off to Thailand that New Year, we said cheerio and looked forward to picking up the Sunday fishing when he got back. Then he was away longer than he’d planned but I didn’t think too much about it. Early February I get a text from him. He’s back in England and are we all right for Sunday? I say yes, and he says he’ll pick up the bait.’
This tallied with what Jude had found in the diary.
‘Then, on the Sunday he appears, usual time, pleased as punch – and he’s brought the Chink with him!’
‘What, was he suggesting that she should join you on the fishing trip?’
‘No. He’d just brought her along to introduce her. Well, I was shocked. Beyond shocked, I was. I’d known Valerie – that’s Bill’s first wife – since we was all at school together. And I couldn’t believe that he’d be so disloyal to her.’
‘She had been dead quite a few years,’ said Jude. ‘Seven or eight, wasn’t it?’
‘That’s not the point! I wouldn’t have minded if Bill’d hitched up with some nice English girl, a local from Fethering perhaps. There were plenty of them interested after Valerie died but he didn’t take no notice. That would have been all right, though. But for him to get caught up with a gold-digger … a “Mail Order Bride” … a Chink … I wasn’t standing for that!’
‘So, it was you who called a halt to the fishing trips, not Malee?’
‘Of course it was! What business would it be of hers? You’d have done the same in my position, wouldn’t you?’
Fortunately, the question was rhetorical and Red went straight on, ‘Bill’d betrayed Valerie’s memory – and I didn’t want to have anything more to do with him!’
‘So that was the last time you saw him?’ Carole had reported there had been a more recent encounter, but Jude wanted to see whether Red would volunteer the information again. ‘That Sunday in February?’
‘No, I did see him again. Not a Sunday. Only a few weeks back. He come here to the boat. He was very low, said he didn’t want us to part on bad terms.’
‘Rather a strange thing to say, given you’d parted on bad terms nearly a year ago.’
‘Wasn’t so strange when he told me the reason.’
‘Oh?’
‘That’s why I wasn’t surprised when I heard about his death.’
‘What did he tell you, Red?’
‘Bill said he’d been diagnosed with cancer.’
TWENTY-THREE
When Jude got back to Woodside Cottage, there was a message on the landline from Carole. Everyone else of her acquaintance would have called her mobile. Carole was worried about Gulliver’s cough and had got an appointment for him with the vet in Fedborough. She’d be back some time after five.
Then Jude rang Shannon Shefford, who once again sounded harassed.
‘I just wanted to ask how your mum is.’
‘Weaker still, I’m afraid. She had a bad night.’
‘I’m sorry. Incidentally, I met someone today who was asking after her.’ Another entirely permissible finessing of the truth.
‘Oh? Who?’
‘Red, the fisherman.’
‘Right. Used to be great mates with Bill … until Malee poisoned that relationship.’
Jude now knew that was inaccurate but it wasn’t the moment to take issue. ‘So, sorry, Shannon, you were saying Rhona had a bad night …’
‘Yes. I was up trying to settle her for hours. And her mind’s wandering. She keeps talking about things that happened a long time ago and then getting very angry and shouting about people who’ve never done her any harm.’
It wasn’t the moment to say it, but this news did actually make Jude feel better about the way, at their last meeting, Rhona had ripped into her and the whole healing profession.
‘Shannon, I was just remembering something you said to me, you know, when you first got in touch.’
‘Oh?’
‘When you asked me if I thought healing would help your mum.’