There had been a sudden change in the two men’s demeanour. She had struck a chord. Both looked uneasy, almost paranoid.
‘It’s all,’ said Jude, ‘in Bill Shefford’s diary.’
‘I think,’ said Dr Rawley, rising silkily to his feet, ‘that that’s even more reason why you should hand the diary over to us.’
‘Yes,’ said Jeremiah, also rising. ‘Where is it?’
‘Somewhere safe,’ said Jude.
She was amazed by the speed with which they moved. Suddenly, Jeremiah had grabbed her from behind, his large arms immobilizing hers, and Dr Rawley stood in front of her, with a medical scalpel in his hand.
‘Where is it?’ he hissed.
‘It’s … it’s not here.’
‘Oh, I think it is.’ He raised the scalpel till she felt its touch against the soft flesh beneath her jaw. Not yet a pinprick but capable of being so much more.
‘Hand it over, Jude!’ Jeremiah’s voice was rough now, featuring no finesse, no seduction, just cruelty.
‘It’s not here. Really. I’m telling the truth.’
‘Then where is it?’
‘I gave it to my neighbour for safe-keeping.’
Rawley looked at Jeremiah. ‘Is that likely?’
‘Yes. The pair of them work together all the time.’
‘Shall we go next door and get it?’ asked Jeremiah.
‘No,’ said Jude. ‘Carole won’t let you in.’
‘Then how do we get it? I’m sure you know the answer.’ The scalpel made a tiny jab. Jude felt it pierce her skin.
‘If I ring Carole, she’ll bring it round.’
‘Oh yes? More likely you’ll say something to warn her and she’ll run off with it.’
‘Would you feel happier if I texted her instead?’
‘All right. So long as you let us see what you put in the text.’
At least they had to release her so that she could use her mobile. But Dr Rawley still had his scalpel out. And a tiny droplet of red showed at its end.
‘ALL FINE HERE. COULD YOU BRING THE DIARY ROUND?’
The two men approved the content and Jude sent the text. To Carole’s old mobile.
It seemed to take forever for Carole to arrive. The two men allowed Jude to sit, but they were restive, moving threateningly around her sitting room. The doctor had not put away the scalpel.
And when the doorbell finally rang, he grabbed her arms behind her back and once again held the weapon to her throat while Jeremiah opened the door.
Which was just as well, because the police whom Carole had summoned when she got the prearranged text signal were able to see the precise nature of the threat being made to Jude.
And, even if they hadn’t seen it live, they would have seen it later in the recording that Carole’s new mobile had been making from the mantelpiece from the moment Jeremiah and Dr Rawley had arrived at Woodside Cottage.
She’d certainly cracked making the video work.
TWENTY-SEVEN
A couple of days later, Carole was walking with Gulliver on Fethering Beach when she heard heavy footsteps running up behind her. She turned to see a breathless Adrian Greenford.
‘What do you want?’ she asked, without enthusiasm.
‘I … Gwyneth said I’ve got to say something to you.’
‘I don’t think I really want to hear anything from you.’
‘No, please, Carole. She’ll really make me suffer if I don’t say it.’
‘“Make you suffer”?’
‘That’s what she does, Gwyneth. She makes me suffer. She makes me do things for her. It’s because … you know, with the woman in Ilkley … I hurt Gwyneth so much. That’s why she’s confined to the wheelchair. She’s making me suffer for what I did. And then I fell in love with you and—’
‘Oh, for God’s sake!’ said Carole, now really angry.
‘No, I did. From the first moment I saw you, I just knew. But Gwyneth knew too, and she made me do the things …’
‘What things?’
‘The unpleasant things.’ Carole still looked puzzled. ‘Like leaving the notes … going along the alley behind our house, going into your garden and …’ He swallowed uncomfortably. ‘And smashing the glass on your car.’
‘You did all that?’
‘Yes. Gwyneth made me.’
She looked at him, this pathetic man, locked into a marriage whose psychological depths she did not wish to plumb, and thought that, often, there was a lot to be said for divorce. Not, of course, that Gwyneth Greenford would ever allow her husband such an easy way out.
And what made the whole scenario even more ghastly was that Adrian Greenford clearly got some kind of charge out of the situation.
‘Goodbye,’ said Carole. ‘Come along, Gulliver.’
Woman and dog strode over the sand in the direction of High Tor.
Rhona Hampton died soon afterwards. Shannon, who’d always ‘loved her Mum to bits’, was devastated. Jude went to the funeral. So did Red, who had reacquainted himself with the old woman in her final weeks. A month or so later, he started taking Billy Shefford with him on Sunday fishing trips.
Malee, cheated of her husband’s real revised will, spent a lot of money with solicitors, reinstating its provisions. It took a long time, but Shefford’s Garage finally became the property of Billy Shefford. He began trying to negotiate with Nissan about the possibly of making it into a dealership for them. They weren’t very interested.
His wife Shannon, meanwhile, kept saying it was all pointless because soon people wouldn’t be allowed to use cars, thus giving the planet a chance of survival. She thought it very unlikely that either of their sons would want to go into the garage business when they grew up.
Until the change to a dealership came – and there was a strong suspicion it never would come – Shefford’s continued as it always had. The elderly residents of Fethering appreciated that Billy Shefford would pick up their cars and return them when they required servicing. And that they could get filled up with fuel without getting out of their cars.
Frankie continued working at Shefford’s as she always had. And continued changing her hair colour every month, accumulating new perforations and different unsuitable men.
Once the business of the garage had been sorted, Malee returned to Thailand. Carole heard the news some months later on the village grapevine. She felt a moment of guilt for not having been back in touch with the woman, but it soon passed. Carole Seddon wasn’t any more racist than any other middle-class Englishwoman of her age and background.
Fethering could be very cruel to people who didn’t fit its templates.
Tom Kendrick continued, subsidized by his mother, to do very little.
Karen and Chrissie did actually move to Hebden Bridge, where they continued to be blissfully happy.
The court proceedings against Jeremiah and Dr Rawley, in the way of the English law, took a long time to reach fruition.
The threatening behaviour towards Jude was the unequivocal charge that could be brought against them. The police had witnessed it and there was confirmatory video footage of the attack.
But the false cancer cure they were peddling through VADJ Trading on the Internet came into a grey area of international law which is still not adequately policed. They were made to take down their web presence but it was very difficult to find proof of the actual harm that they had done.
And, of course, their main crime, the misleading diagnosis and treatment which had led Bill Shefford to take his own life … well, that could never be proved.
It was a very unsatisfactory outcome, particularly for Carole and Jude. Dr Rawley was given a three-year sentence and Jeremiah, who had not actually used a weapon, eighteen months. There was a move to have the doctor struck off by the General Medical Council, but it was discovered that he had been many years before. Since then he’d been operating illegally under a variety of names, in the USA and Australia as well as the UK. When suspicions built up in one locality, he just moved on to another under a new identity. And presumably Jeremiah moved at the same time. Their cynical scams had been going on for a long time.