‘What happened?’
‘She ran out into the street. It was getting dark. I heard a screech of brakes. Some fool driving too quickly up Cotter’s Row. I thought she’d killed herself. But she was only frightened.’
‘You went after her?’
‘Of course. I was worried. We both were.’
‘Were you?’ Ramsay’s voice remained polite but faintly sceptical.
‘Yes! We didn’t want to hurt her. That’s the last thing we would have wanted. That’s why we’d kept our friendship secret.’
‘Not because you were afraid Kath would want it to stop? That she’d cause a scene?’
‘Not exactly.’ He paused. ‘ When we’d made sure she hadn’t been run over we thought it would be better to give her some time alone. That was what she wanted. I was booked to do a magic show. I took Claire with me. I thought by the time I got back Kath would have calmed down.’
And none of you considered Marilyn, Ramsay thought, coming home and finding no one here.
‘Had she calmed down?’
‘In a way. It was horrible. She cried. I’d never seen her cry before. She wasn’t angry. She blamed herself. When we got in Marilyn was in bed and Kath was sitting in her chair in the kitchen with tears running down her cheeks. I’d have done anything to make her stop.’
‘So you and Claire promised to break off your relationship?’
‘No!’ He seemed astounded by the notion. ‘We couldn’t do that. We love each other.’
‘I don’t quite understand, then, what happened.’
‘When we’d had time to think about it we realized that nothing need happen. That things could go on just as before.’
That’s not how Marilyn tells it, Ramsay thought. She told Sal that Claire and Bernard stopped being ‘ friendly’ when her mother found out. Was she deluding herself? Or is Bernard lying again?
Bernard was continuing. ‘ Kath didn’t want to leave. We were quite happy for her to stay. If we were discreet there shouldn’t be any upset or disruption.’
Hunter couldn’t contain himself. ‘And she was ready to go along with that? To share your bed at night knowing you were screwing her little sister on your afternoons off.’
Bernard seemed horrified. He looked to Ramsay for support. No one had ever spoken to him like that before. Ramsay said nothing.
‘We worked things out in a civilized way,’ he said, very much on his dignity.
‘Wasn’t your wife jealous?’ Hunter demanded. When he went out with a lass he expected undivided attention. Any flirting or funny business and she’d be out on her ear.
There was a brief silence.
‘If she was, she was too proud to show it,’ Bernard said. ‘She was a little withdrawn for a while, but things soon settled back to normal. Kath was frightened of being on her own. That’s why she agreed to the arrangement.’ Deliberately ignoring Hunter he sat up straight and turned to Ramsay. ‘And that, Inspector Ramsay, is why I had no need to murder her.’
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Claire sat very straight with her hands in her lap and her ankles crossed. Her dark hair was pulled away from her face. She wore no make-up. She hadn’t been given the opportunity to talk to Bernard about his interview but she didn’t seem curious. She waited for the questions like an earnest schoolgirl before an oral language exam.
Hunter had been sent into the back room to watch television with Bernard. It was Sally’s turn to sit in on the conversation. But it was Ramsay’s show. He was the examiner.
‘Let me take you back to the day your sister was killed,’ he said.
She said nothing. If there was any reaction it was a faint amusement.
‘You came home for lunch?’
‘Yes.’
‘And to see Mr Howe?’
She raised her thick, dark eyebrows. ‘You know about Bernard and me,’ she said. ‘I suppose Marilyn told you. I thought she’d guessed more than she was letting on but Bernard couldn’t see it. It’s probably for the best. There was no need to drag us away from Kim’s, though. We’d have told you if you’d asked.’
‘That’s why you came home that lunchtime? You knew Marilyn would be out?
She nodded.
‘You must have thought Mrs Howe would be out too. That was part of the deal, I presume, that you’d wait until you had the house to yourselves before…’
‘Making love?’ she finished impassively. ‘Yes. There was no formal arrangement. No rules. But it wouldn’t have been kind, would it, to do that while Kath was in the house?’
‘Was it kind to have an affair with her husband?’
She didn’t answer but he didn’t think that the question had disturbed her. He left it and moved on.
‘What made you think Kath would be away from home that lunchtime?’
‘I thought she’d planned to go into Otterbridge with Marilyn on the bus.’
‘She told you that?’
For the first time Claire seemed unsure of herself. ‘ I don’t remember. I suppose she must have done. Otherwise I’d have stayed at the Coastguard House for lunch.’
They stared at each other, then Ramsay asked again, more slowly.
‘Well, was it kind to have an affair with your sister’s husband?’
She put one elbow on her knees and leant forward, eager to make him understand.
‘Kath was a strange woman, Inspector. She didn’t feel emotion. I don’t think she was upset even when our mother died…’
‘You were too young to remember that, surely?’
‘I remember that I was upset. And that Kath was never around to comfort me. There were no cuddles at bedtime. I don’t think she ever read me a story. As soon as she could she left to marry Bernard.’ She paused. ‘I don’t blame her. I don’t think she was capable of emotion.’
‘She cried when she found out about you and Bernard.’
‘Yes,’ Claire agreed. ‘But that was because her pride was hurt. She never loved Bernard. Not truly. Not like me.’
The self-justification, Ramsay thought, of mistresses everywhere.
‘Did she love Marilyn?’ he asked. ‘ I presume she cuddled Marilyn and read her bedtime stories?’
‘Oh yes,’ her voice remained light and cool but somewhere under the amusement he thought he detected a note of jealousy. ‘Kath surprised them all when the baby was born. For the first time in her life there was something she cared for. She wasn’t much good at the practical side. So clumsy apparently that they thought she might drop the baby. But there was plenty of affection. Perhaps too much.’ She stared up into Ramsay’s face. ‘It’s not the same, though, as love between adults.’
‘Is that really what you and Bernard have?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘When the relationship started you were seventeen. Only just an adult.’
‘Age has never mattered to us.’ She paused. ‘Bernie didn’t corrupt me if that’s what you’re saying.’
‘No. I’m sure he didn’t.’
From the room next door came a swelling soprano singing the backing to a deodorant advertisement.
‘What I don’t understand,’ Ramsay said, ‘is why Kath didn’t ask you to leave. You claim there was no great bond between you. And it’s not as if you would have been homeless. You were just about to start work for the Coulthards. It’s normal, isn’t it, for nannies to live in? They would have had the space to put you up.’
He paused, then continued as if the idea had just come to him. ‘Or perhaps she did ask you to leave, but not then. She waited until she was sure you were settled at the Coastguard House, and you had somewhere suitable to go. She would take her responsibility for you very seriously. I have the impression of a very principled woman. Is that why she didn’t throw you out immediately? I wonder if that’s what provoked her death. She couldn’t go along with the pretence any longer. She wanted you out.’